Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

meeting to order. Today is February 12th at 2:06 um p.m. and we are here um to begin with the roll call. Christopher Alvarado here. Mayor Burke here. Council person Conwell representative Mayor Dy Jones here. Mayor Gallow here. Fields here. Mayor here. Council person Simon here. Mayor Whis here.

Mayor have a Thank you so much. So today is our organizational meeting which was set forth in our um amended and updated bylaws. So, we're here today to um go through our roster board first and then have an election and nominate um board chair and vice chair. So, go ahead, Mary. Do you want to

uh Sure. So, uh for our board slate this year, it is all of you here. Um the three re-elections last year and so spelled your name right there, Chris. So, um as you can see, uh we have a new member here, Chris Alvarado. Chris Alvarado is now the county executive appointment taking Mike De's who served a very long term um on this board and as chair and so we are very grateful his for his service um and we are very excited to welcome Chris as well.

So we will go I guess with our nominate and elect the board chair and board vice chair. Do I have nominations um to elect a board chair? Anyone? I can nominate Chris. Good lord. Baptism by fire. It's good to be back. Second. You're in. You're amongst your peers. Okay. All in favor for chair. I. Any opposed? Okay.

Congratulations. Do you have your name? Okay. So then secondly is vice chair. Um do I have a nomination for vice chair? Can we nominate the same person?

Someone can nominate the one who's already serving as vice chair. Unless there's someone else currently vice chair. How about do you want to be? Okay. Second. Okay. First by second Daily Jones. All in favor? I. Okay. Thank you. Any opposed? So, do you have any comments? I have no comments other than just sheer and utter surprise, but I'm happy to uh help.

These are your peers. So, yes. So as as and thank you so much for allowing me to serve as vice chair again. And I just want to say a couple words that um when the new government for formed 2011 I was I was appointed to the planning commission and Mike Deber um was here with me at the beginning and we've gone through a lot of changes but consistently have I believe a great um team at the planning commission and and very proud to be a part of this group. So you've got some shoes to fill and and policy changes too. The directives um each executive have been different about how we want to allocate funding, how we want to support communities, how we want to have our grants used. So part of that is the role of our chair is to start working uh with us about those those priorities.

I will say I'm actually I'm very excited uh to see the uh the path that planning commission is forward the staff have been uh making a lot of history. Oh, good gracious. Let's keep this away so I don't harm myself. Um, uh, having worked at the planning commission, goodness, many years ago, this was actually started as an intern here back in 1999 and served uh, as a staff member until 2012 or so. Um throughout that entire time there's been a commitment to not just serving the broader uh broader county but serving individual municipalities helping them to grow uh and to and to develop in ways that are responsible um and that meet needs of their citizens but also the work that this planning commission has done throughout the region and the leadership it's it's taken actually nationally. So I'm just excited to be back and uh hope to just be able to make meetings move efficiently. Well, uh should we go to the next?

Do you have the agenda? I have the agenda. Yes. So, uh next on the agenda is to approve the 2026 board meeting schedule. You'll have that on page three of your packet. Take a look at that. Make sure that there is no do we get comments from the public organization first comments will be next after the meeting schedule. Oh I thought we did. No board members now this will be the board dates. Got it. Thank you. Any further comment about the schedule?

All in favor of approving the schedule as written please say I. Great. Uh at this moment then we will entertain comments from the public. Are there any uh members of the public? All right. Comments going once, going twice. Okay. Hearing no comments. Uh then uh we will take a look at the minutes for from the December 11th board meeting. Uh asking uh for approval of the minutes. Are there any changes that need to be made? Second. Very good. We've got a motion and a second. Any further comments? All in favor, please say I.

Any opposed? Thank you. Uh, next uh item five of the agenda, the fiscal update, specifically the 2026 27 banial budget. Jennifer is playing two roles today and that is on vacation. So, thank you for your dual purpose today.

Thank you very much. I'm Jennifer Karafa, the manager of business services, and I just have a very brief update on county planning's budget since I was just in front of most all of you in back in December. But at that time, our 2627 bianual budget was not yet final. Next, um, County Planning's total operating budget is funded at just over $3.1 million. We are fully supported by the county general fund with nearly 2.2, I'm sorry, 2.42 million for our operating costs, and nearly 700,000 in nonoperating program funds, which is primarily the Healthy Urban Tree Canopy uh grants and that programming. Um, end we had estimated the remainder of Hudsy funding that county planning had to disperse for both years around four and five. Um so that's how we came up with that that number. Recall that year six of the healthy urban tree canopy was transferred out to the soil and water district. Uh so that round of funding plus future years are not in our budget and we have are fulfilling our fifth year of financial contributions and expectations for that program. As such, county planning is staffed at 21 employees. It's a FTE count that's been stable since 2024. It does include one full-time yearround intern. And county planning does to generate outside revenues through buildable projects and contracts, all deposits that go back to the general fund. Next,

so county planning's new bianial operating budget in 26 and 27 was adopted at roughly $2.4 million annually. These budgets were built using 2024 actual expenses as its base with a few exceptions. Salaries were increased over the prior bianial and they were updated using payroll from pay 13 of 2025. So they looked at our midyear expenses in our salaries budget and as well they considered that the budget would be built with a 2% cola increase for each of these budget years and benefits were budgeted higher in each of these years at over $600,000 to cover rising health care costs. So in total this resulted in a collective increase in our personnel expenses of just over 2 % between these two bianial years and our non- labor which was also built from those year end 2024 actuals. They are flat. They don't show an increase from year to year but they were built with just under $56,000. So a closer look at this operating budget. It just summarizes county planning's operating in a graphic form. And I think it demonstrates really well that staff is our biggest expense that salaries and benefits account for 98% of our total adopted budget and that it's our non- labor expenses at 2%. Right? It looked and sound accurate. I thought it was adequate. However, when you compare our new bianial budget to year end 2025 actuals, I think you can better see how lean the new bianual

budget really is. While there are some modest increases over our 2025 actuals and a handful of budget categories. There are a number of significant shortfalls um in those accounts when you consider how we ended last year. So we see benefits were budgeted higher than last year's actual approximately 3.3% more but I'm not sure if that will be enough given that medical costs were slated to rise 5% over the prior year. We shall see. Not all of our county planning employees do subscribe for health care costs. So, they are funded at at a percent increase, but salaries were funded 4% less than how we ended last year, even though our staff count has been stable. So, in fact, when you combine the salaries and benefits, we were funded approximately 2.2% less than last year's actuals. In terms of our non- labor accounts, two of our smaller ones, both contracts and other operating, they do show both increases in over the 25 totals. But it's those primary operating accounts like supplies, employee services, and control or chargebacks, which were all funded less than our previous 2025 actuals with actually the most significant reduction in that employee services category. And this account funds things like conference attendance, membership dues, attending public meetings, and mileage reimbursements. So, it's significant. I will say that county planning's operations account was realistically funded uh for expenses, although with rising costs and software and other commodities which are paid out of this, it it still may prove to not be

enough. So in total when you look at it from this point of view county planning's adopted bianial is actually an overall 2.4% reduction than how we ended in 2025. Next some potential good news though county planning continues to generate revenues for some of the work that we do and those revenues have averaged more than $200,000 annually in recent years. Over the last five years, county planning has brought in and deposited back to the general fund close to $1.2 million since 2021. And early last year, county planning was able to successfully repurpose some of our first quarter deposits to help fund those shortfalls that we were anticipating last year in our certain non- labor accounts. So, we're hoping to do that again this year, working with the budget office and council to redirect perhaps a portion of the deposits that we will bring in, let's say, fourth quarter invoices that we're depositing this current year and ask for spending authority on them in certain non- labor accounts this year. Uh, our strategy is also to redirect a portion of those close to $83,000 that were being issued in fourth quarter invoices. Perhaps earmark some dollars to see new projects and initiatives like our unified zoning code and some other long-term largecale projects. Uh when we recognize funding is need uh we do in total estimate that we will once again bring in revenues that are estimated right now at about $225,000 this year.

That is my update. I thank you for your time. Are there any questions? I just want to thank you Jennifer because I know it is a numbers game constantly and with the budget we have we are really able to do as much as we can with it and as Jennifer said our people are our number one asset and so that is something that those dollars that we bring in trying to have a model where we're investing it back into our people and back out to you in the community is really where we're striving to go. Thank you. Thanks. Uh with that we uh will uh entertain resolution number 260212- a.

Yes sir. Thank you.

Good afternoon everyone. Resolution number 260212A. This uh is for a preliminary plan extension for the Willow Grove subdivision. Um so we're looking at uh residential multif family town subdivision there in township. Um which was originally approved in February 2024. Um so the location of this property is PPN26320001. Uh it's a parcel really kind of wedged in between Falls High School and Mstead Falls Middle School. And the overall zoning there is RMT. So here's the location map for that. Um to the north you have single family residential. To the south you have I80 there. Uh to the east again that have institutional use which is almost falls high school. And then to the west is inst also institutional with the uh middle school. So just some quick history and background on this. Um on January or yeah on January 10th, 2024, gross builders submitted a complete application for preliminary plan. Um so the overall parcel total 29.23 acres um and it includes 13.49 acres to accommodate 50 town homes essentially with the buildout um at a density of 3.5 units per acre. The project includes 772 lineal feet of roadway, 1675 lineal feet of sidewalk and the allocation of 2.7 uh acres of there. Uh so with that, it met all of our standards and this body approved the 50 unit preliminary plan uh at its February 2024 meeting per resolution 240208. So the details of uh this particular request uh per 1045 uh subsection 6C of the Kaihoga County Land Development Regulations, the final plan approval shall be obtained during the two-year preliminary plan approval

period. Uh unless this body uh per written request for extension um set extension filed with you all um from the date of approval. So the developer has indeed done that. They've submitted a written request for an extension of the preliminary plan um which we're setting to expire u moving that forward to February 12th, 2028. Uh it should be noted too that there are no more than two two extensions per uh any kind of approved preliminary plan. So in the event they don't meet the the February 12th, 2028 deadline, uh ultimately they would have to come back to you all for a full-blown resubmittal of the preliminary plan. Uh so if you want to refer to the letter itself in your packet, I believe it's on page 17 there. Uh they note that the work has been completed in in accordance with all the preliminary plan and improvement plans approved. Uh but they did note some uh delays um with some things um mostly having to do with the sewer lines um the overall uh redesign of that tie-in. Uh they did experience some issues with the EPA PTI as well. Um delayed underground power and as well as um just overall delay with early weather um early winter weather there uh to get there as built into us which is something we're still waiting on. Um so basically what has been completed is all sanitary sewer has been installed and approved. The storm water infrastructure is installed, permanent gutters installed, basin finder paving are installed, uh gas main as well as all foundations um for 18 units um so far has begun. Um so ultimately with that we recommend approval just based on the significant progress um they have made at this point. Um, so with that, uh, we would just ensure that all the conditions set forth in that original approving resolution

would be met as well. Um, so I'll take any questions if you guys have

any questions.

There's no reason not to grant the extension, correct? From the planning commission standpoint, I'll conditions from that. Yep. Essentially, there's nothing. Correct. And I I think we would have concern if there was nothing that happened since the original approval, but it's underway. There just some delays that Yeah, this is pretty routine from what I can tell. So, great. Is there a motion then to approve resolution 2602A? Thank you. We have a have a second. Any further questions or comments? On favor, please say I. Any against? Thank you. Thanks. Are you also presenting 262B?

Sir, I am. Very good.

Okay. So, resolution number 260212B. Um, this is for a the sanctuary preserve subdivision. Basically the applicant is requesting approval of phase modification of the master preliminary plan combining the initial phases 2B and five into one new phase. Um furthermore the applicant seeks approval of the preliminary plan for phase five of the uh overall development there uh PRD development plan residential um for single family detached homes. The location property is located on the south side of John Road. Uh so that's between Fitch and Columbia roads. So we're looking at around 24 just over 24 acres there. Um and again this is the PRD uh subdivision. I will not go into full detail on this. I'm actually going to skip to our recommendation um in lie of some recent events and some communication from the developer. Um so ultimately based on our review process, public works um has recommended disapproval of this development just pending certain things that weren't provided and just questions that they had overall. Um and so uh essentially we've gone through that process of reviewing it. We've been in we've been in communication with the developer. We've noted that this would essentially not be moving forward with with this body. Um and so uh we did receive very last minute just today actually a request to table this application uh pursuant to working with um public works as well as us as staff uh to address some of those um issues and I believe Mary's passing out what was requested there. And so um with that we we do as staff collectively uh is requesting that this body uh table this uh any further study overall.

Okay. Any comments or questions? Um, yeah, there was if we did not table this and the recommendation would have been for the disapproval of uh do we have a motion then to table this until the uh March 12th meeting? Second. We have a second. Any further comment, questions? All in favor of tableing this until March 12th. Please say I opposed. Very good. Thank you. We have a information only presentation on the West 117th Street Corridor study. And Rachel Novak is not here today. So Patrick Huitt will be Oh my gosh, why did I take this back?

You're good. Patrick will be presenting today.

That's good. Uh good afternoon uh members of the board. Again, Patrick Hwitt, uh filling in for Rachel Novak, who will be running the West 117th Street corridor plan. Uh this project, uh comes out of the transit oriented development work that we have been doing over the past few years. West 117th Street is a for the most part county road uh from Detroit Avenue North. It is at the border of Lakewood and Cleveland and is not only a TOD corridor as we have identified but also a priority corridor for RTA. Based on that work, uh we are anticipating a West 117 street corridor plan forthcoming. Uh we would be doing a lot of this work in kind and uh communities would be contributing engineering funds. So we would not actually be asking for contract approval. So this information only presentation is to let you know of a um significant undertaking and the value of our in kind. West 117 street is a major transportation corridor runs north south through Kyhoga County. Uh the planning process uh would include a number of major issues including roadway reconfiguration, bicycle and pedestrian connections, safety and transit improvements and access and looking at development potential along that corridor. There we go. Uh this is where we are looking. Uh the extent of what we would look at is from Berea Road uh north to Edgewater Drive. So the majority of that being the border of Cleveland and Lakewood Lakewood to the west Cleveland to the east. Uh the process would take approximately 12 months to complete and would include eight phases. project initiation, a profile of the corridor, traffic and safety assessment, corridor vision, planning recommendations, traffic

analysis and conceptual alternatives and implementation strategy and final tasks. Two of those tasks are noted as being engineering tasks. We do want to as part of this project get it to the point of being ready for preliminary engineering. So we intend to partner with uh various organizations as mentioned earlier to undertake some engineering estimates to create a TLC like TLCI like plan that would then uh be eligible for federal funds. We anticipate a partnership between county planning the cities of Cleveland and Lakewood GCRTA and our own county part department of public works. We would be providing professional planning services assisting with public engagement and we estimate that our services would cost $110,000 worth of inind support. Uh our partner agencies would be asked to provide engineering. We are having those conversations now. Uh they would also be asked to assist with public engagement and collaborate during the process. With that, I'm happy to answer any questions about this. Thank you. Vice Chair.

Thank you. Um, so how did this come to f fruition that you were even going to handle this particular part of the county to do this planning?

Yep. So, uh, it does come out of that to work uh because it is a priority corridor. It is um for RTA and a TOD corridor for us. It is also not only a county road, but it is one of those few priority corridors where we are looking at uh the pavement condition as being very low. So, it is likely to need construction in the coming years. We have kind of a short window where we would be able to undertake a planning process to um make recommendations for potentially changing what that road looks like before future construction may be needed.

Were there other um parts of the county that you looked at other than this one? Uh so we do look at uh all of those to corridors and pavement condition ratings when we're thinking about this. Uh this one kind of rose to the top because pavement condition it is a county road. It is at the border of two communities. Also that's pretty critical. Also

I think this is where it's just that beneficial we be become the collaborator and the convenor of those different municipalities and the util you know the public works. I also think, you know, RTA just had some major work done at that red line station at Madison and 117th. This is also a north south corridor that leads to the east west connections that are planned as part of lakefront public access. So, how do you get the people from the south down to the water um and connecting with the trails and bike lanes that already exist and so it really kind of meets all those standards. And it's just again one of those, you know, one of those things where we can try and plan ahead before construction is done on the road and then we're ripping up to try and put different infrastructure in after it's already been done. And so trying to be proactive in that approach. So just multimodal.

I would add one other item to that um which is that it also is very will be very similar to the work that we did in Garfield Heights for Turney Road um which was a very similar kind of to project that came out of uh the TOD planning process. RTA

I think we're looking more to the cities to provide that or the RTA engineering team will be part of it but because it's roadway and sidewalk and we're not on actually RTA Cleveland and Lakewood is where we're looking for those engineering service. I will say in conversations sorry but you know thinking in conversations with RTA we did a walk tour with RTA and with all the partners um and because that parking lot at that station is very underutilized there are you know is a desire to evaluate is there opportunity for outlots there to help develop some of that parcel that RTA already own. So

Mr. Chairman we could certainly um put you in touch with the CEO We can give her a heads up your question and then this popped up. I was like, "Oh, things are fluid. So things things could change but TD development has been a primary focus the FTA and one of the things that we've been talking about is trying to find sustainable funding source to to facilitate those developments. cut back on things that you know produce the most.

So some of it is relating to you know other projects to go into that fund. It's a little premature getting rail cars and I started that many years ago and now we're getting rail cars. I'm glad to hear that.

I have one other um to your point, Mayor Gallow. We have I have spoken with CEO Bird Song too about having their team come and present to this board and then us going back to present to their board. It's been a very long time since we have been in front of their board talking about to the work we're doing. Um, and just because there's so much coordination and collaboration with TOD and these various corridors, I think it's probably timely coming um, this year to have them present and for us to present to them. So, give an update on that. So, please. So, are we going to have two contracts, one with the city of Lakewood and one with the city of Cleveland?

That is a great question. Our hope is actually to not have any contracts. Uh, because we would be doing this work in kind. The engineering work would be done either by a general services contract already held by one of the individual communities. Um, or we might uh have a conversation with them about one of those communities hiring the engineering uh hiring the engineering uh organization and the other community paying into it. We are just having those conversations now. So, we're trying to work out what the mechanics will be, but we wanted to bring this to the board now rather than waiting until April to give you a heads up in case we do commit our own inind planning services.

Okay. And just to that point, when we pass the resolution increasing my authority to enter under contract from 5,000 to 10,000, part of that resolution also included that if it were over certain standard, I can't remember, but if we were doing inkind over a certain value that we would bring it to the board to at least provide information so that you going to dedicate time and staff resources to this effort. So, any further questions? Uh, I just have one. I'm assuming that there's already been very positive conversations with both partners at the city of Cleveland, partners with Lakewood, other partners, and at least a soft commitment to uh to pursue this collaboration.

Uh, that is correct. So we did have a walking tour in I want to say September uh where we talked collectively about what the best path forward for a plan was. Uh and the conversation really led us to county planning undertaking a scope of work and then working with those communities to determine how best to include those engineering pieces that we still need. So those conversations are happening as we speak today. Okay. And so we're we're uh assuming that there may be legislation that each of those municipalities will need to pass at some point to be able to funds and to dedicate resources. Any other question?

Sorry, just to that point, um city advisor transportation Annie P was also part of that tour. So she's well informed on this as well. Um and I do think it's just one of those collaboration efforts that needs to happen in order to move something forward. I think our first step was do we want to apply for TLCI back at the time when it was open big competition for the very small planning dollars. RTA was also applying at that time for one of their last mile projects in the planning category. So we didn't want to compete against one of our own partners in it and so that's why we decided we'll take on this developing scope of the work in the planning side and then to help with engineering. Further discussion, questions. Thank you,

Mr. Um, so before I get started, just real quickly, I wanted to introduce our newest intern, Justin Finny, is here with us. He started with us uh this week. Um Justin previously worked uh an internship at the city of Shaker Heights. So we got him highly recommended from Joyce Braverman. So he has been terrific uh here with us. I don't know if you want to say anything but he is now just starting his um master's program at college. So

hi everyone. Uh thank you all for having me here mayor. Good to see you again. I just want to thank the managers managial team for giving me this opportunity and I'm excited to hear you all deliberate and uh you know discuss all the cases. So, thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

Thank you. He has jumped right in. He's busy on a lot of projects. So, that's what we'd love to put our interns right to work and um just want to welcome you officially to to the team. Um so, I have a few updates. I know um we've had a lot thrown at you over the last several months and a lot of huge initiatives that are moving forward. I also be remiss, which I didn't include in my notes, but um I wanted to let everybody know that um Patrick Huitt along with the First Suburbs and others have been selected for a session at the National Planning Association conference in Detroit. So let that happen. Um it is continuing to thrive. We won an award last year for it and now they'll get to be on the national stage at the national conference presenting a session on that. So congratulations to you and the team. Uh Safe Streets and Roads for All. It's been a long time since we talked about this. Um, so we'll go through a few initiatives and things that are coming up, but just for your awareness. So, if you remember back in 2024, uh, we were awarded a safe streets and roads for all uh, grant from the Federal Highway Administration uh, for $600,000 of a reimburseable grant. Um, at that time there was a lot of language that was in flux of the uh, grant. It took a very long time for us to get that first contract and by then our capacity had really shifted from where we were when we got the award. Uh we asked if we could delay our decision um to move forward until this quarter uh first quarter 2026 so we could figure out where we were staffing wise and project capacity wise. Uh we previously brought this to the board not knowing the timing of that original contract um and s and got your approval for me to enter into contract and receive funs. So we didn't want it to slow down things back then. Things slowed down a lot. So um we are here at this point now. We have been uh told about which language in that contract has changed. We are still awaiting um the revised contract. So we don't have that in hand yet. It is forthcoming. Um but we will be putting

out an RFQ to engage a consultant to lead this effort. Part of that grant was that we had to commit to $150,000 of inind match. So we will be providing that much along the public engagement law lines and with our partners that we always work with uh coordinating with all the communities. Some communities already have their own safe streets and road for all grant but this is really a comprehensive safety action plan for Kyah County. So we'll continue to work with those who are um having their own work that started before this rolling it into this um and then we'll need approval from the board to enter into a contract with a consultant once that is selected. Um I will to NOAKa safety is one of their big pillar um priorities this year. I did mention in the planning and programming committee meeting uh last week before I think two weeks ago um that we were going to begin this work and that we wanted to make sure that we're coordinating with them on the efforts that they have around safety and communities. So a lot of coordination um to make sure we look very umated u with Federal Highway Administration on these efforts. Uh we are to Jennifer's point already having conversations with fiscal and OBM. This was something that we thought was going to happen last year, but we need to get dollars fronted in our account because this is a reimburseable grant. So we'll need dollars fronted to the account so we can pay a consultant and then once we get reimbursed those dollars will go back. Um originally we thought we'd need all the money in one year given the way things have gone and the timing. We're going to ask that the 300,000 be for 26 and 300 for 27 and hope that that evens out with our reimbursements. So, it's it's a I don't know Jennifer can probably explain the mechanics of it better, but it's not a it's it's a not a um appropriation. It's appropriation for those dollars. So, this has been going on since last year was in and then it came out and now we're saying we don't need all 600. We just need 300 and then 300. They're

aware we already have an accounting uh unit that those dollars can be put in for this project since it's multip um is there a deadline for the expenditure of this grant and then are the reimbursements on a rolling basis or does it have to be in a lump sum? Um Patrick might have better answers. I believe they're quarterly invoices. I don't know if we've gotten all the details yet with our contract, but

I don't have an answer about the second question, but about the first question, we've been in contact with our partners at the FHWA. They are going to extend the length of uh the contract to match the delay in signing. Uh I believe that it was 2 years and 10 months of of contracting period.

Originally, that contract length was really to make sure that we were done or almost done with the plan in order for it to be eligible for imple dollars. We now know transportation bill, we have to see if that gets reauthorized that those implementation dollars will be part of the next bill. So, I think we're still in a good spot timing wise to get the plan done. Okay. Uh, next item is unified zoning code initiative. You heard from Patrick um in December about this effort. We've had many ongoing conversations since then. Um, we have six formal letters of interest. I think when we were here at the last meeting, we had three. Um, And then after our board meeting, we got additional information or additional support um from Brook Park and North Homestead. So, we are just waiting for the official letter from North Homestead, but we have the others. We've also had recent meetings with Mayor Sander Morgan in East Cleveland, and because we were already working on some zoning updates for them, they seemed like a very prime candidate to become part of this, and so they are fully on board and have submitted a letter of interest as well. We presented to the county executive and his team and we also met with President Miller and Councilman Howser on this both very supportive in all directions up there uh on the floor and with council um for that piece very supportive no dollars so we continue. Um so this just shows you know how we're trying to track how we're looking at who's who. The gray obviously is the city of Cleveland which is very large um part of the county. um they do have their TDM, they've got their um formbbased code that is working in different districts. So we talking with them and what's working for them and how they're going to apply in future districts. You'll see the referendum zoning, the hatched areas for those communities. Those are it would just be a little bit more difficult to pass a unified zoning code in there because everything has to go to the vote of the people. Um and the ones in orange are communities that just recently passed their own full zoning code update. So unlikely to take part in this, but we've had really uh meetings, really good discussions. Um I would say Mayor Orca,

we met with him and his team recently and just, you know, making us think differently on how we're selling this or really explaining it and coming up with some of the big points first that this really does not take home rule away. It is adopted at the local level and is enforced at the local level, but is really creating this unified zoning code for all of Kyahoga County that's maintained um by Kyahoga County, our our staff. So, that would be something when we get to that point that this board would actually um approve and then it would be kept up to date and those communities that opted in would have a maintenance fee to make sure that we continued updating the map and that any legal changes that happened with the zoning code or if we were having issues with that group of the communities that we could really talk through that and make some changes as needed to different sections of the code. So, um we have um a memo into the law department. Thank you, Wesley. We are continually always asking you for help. Um but really trying to I think if there's any pitfalls legally or any charter issues or anything that we might stumble across that we may not be thinking about. So I know Wesley and the law department are working through that. So uh the big piece is we need funds. Um and back to Jennifer's point if we can look at some of our first quarter deposits um estimating about 83,000 if we could take 50,000 of that perhaps and have it as the first seed money to go in for this effort. It's money that's going back out to the communities. So, um obviously we'll have a commitment um beyond the letter of interest for the communities that they will have to have an investment, but much as what we said is it took Garfield Heights, Mayor Burke knows about $200,000 to do a full zoning code update uh in two years and city of Cleveland Heights was much similar number um for their RFP that they put out. So, we're estimating, you know, under $50,000. kind of thinking right now with the number we have about $35,000 per community um plus the 50,000 if we can repurpose that that that gets us closer to being able to put an RFP out and get a consultant on board. Um so we've had conversations with the land bank. really using all of our friends

and family to figure out if there other resources we might not know um or where we might be able to go look for funding not only locally but outside of here just because zoning has become such a huge issue at the national stage um that it's something that I think be a proactive effort and really help repopulate our communities where the infrastructure already exists and help KY forward itself where will this live not the planning commission right because you yes you're going to have staff person. I mean, we're planning, but is there a point person? What's the What's the

I mean, it's all things we're really trying to figure out if in the perfect world, we would raise enough funds that we could fund a a dedicated staff person for this for three years and then have another way to fund going forward for maintenance. I think we could handle on our own. Um, but we're right now we're going to have to have our own staff internally be the point. But again, we're going to hire a consultant that would lead the technical zoning work. So it would be a coordination coordinated person um in our office that would help lead all the public engagement which again we talked about going out meeting with your communities meeting with your commissions your boards your council really helping everyone understand what this is. Um so at this point we don't have money to hire a new person would be ideal to do so. So when you met with the executive and council president, you said they're all they're they're supportive, but there'll be no money

at this at this point there. Yeah, there's no funds that have been identified. I know Chris Alvado and I have spoken again on potential sources of funding means the budget is, you know, it's it's what it is at the county level and it's not something that we requested last year and so it's something that we're going to try and seek outside funds um for this effort to at least get off the ground and then look at there's future ways to fund it going forward.

Yeah. Our understanding is that we have to have an idea of what that what the expenses are going to be with the overall budget's going to be, what kind of commitments we have and then look at what that gap then uh what that would need to be filled at that point. Maybe have negotiations about how to fill that fill that gap and certainly conversations with county council throughout that. some money.

Well, the countyy's undergoing that building code consolidation and to me this is a parallel kind of and I'm thinking and hoping there'll be more collaboration even with some funding to overlap these two projects. Uh there have actually already been conversations uh between uh members of the team including myself that have been working on the division of building standards and uh those uh services communities and with director and her team about how that works together. Absolutely.

Participation standoint you know cost $200,000 something that there's so many municipalities that are interested all

it's a good point and we've talked about this too of you know if we have the early adopters of the seven that we've got now and then someone comes along later they can't just pick up the code and take it there's got to be some structure of how that moves forward. Um, so I think I don't know if there's anything you wanted to add to it, but I think you know we're still thinking through what that long-term and on the initial communities looks like.

Yeah, absolutely. We um we are uh likely to limit ourselves at about 10 communities. At some point it gets a first round at some point it gets a little cumbersome, but our goal would be afterward to uh then encourage other communities to come on board with each community. As Mary mentioned, it would require additional funds to go through their code, go through their charter, see whether or not their districts or standards that may need to be adjusted as a result of that community's peculiarities um and make those updates, get that adopted, and then get involved in the ongoing maintenance fee that would also keep that updated zoning. Uh for the communities that aren't involved, it's still a public document. Uh and I'm sure that we more than happy to uh present on it where we could if that's helpful to other communities as well.

And I will add we are on the agenda for the February mayors and managers meeting too. So we've talked the first and talked to all of you but to get it a little bit farther out uh in the communities that we are doing this that that way other people are aware as well. So we will tighten up our response in terms of next steps beyond the first.

Okay. Um so If you remember last year was the first year we put together a work plan for you. I know you cannot possibly read this. I will email it out with um after the meeting with the slides, but really keeping to the main pillars of community planning, countywide initiatives, partnership, zoning, data resources and mapping, grant administration and support and really identify what are our strategic imperatives in those in those topic areas. And then from this um we then build so these are the different categories here. um we really keep these very broad um I shouldn't say very broad but they're broader than a specific task at hand or an activity. So from this we've gotten input from all the team members here. We'll move forward this being our work plan uh for report 2026 and then for the entire entirety of the five pillars. We then develop activities metrics and goals for each of those. So um that is what we are undertaking here in the first quarter. um when we did it last year, it's not moving. Oh, okay. Um so really just to measure our impact and success. I mean that was one of my basic questions are how do we know we're doing a good job if we're not measuring anything? So I think that really became the guide to say we need a we need a goal, we need goals, we need metrics, we need to figure out how we're doing things and what we want to accomplish knowing we can't do everything. So um we last year achieved a completion rate of approximately 80% of those goals for our first year. I thought that was pretty good. Um, so I'm going to push the team this year to go for a goal of 90%. Um, a lot of them were delays due to things like safe streets and roads for all that we couldn't have anticipated um, not completing that, but um, continue to work with all the communities and I think that we do um, align for the goals for this year. We should be able to accomplish that. So, I will keep you posted as we go throughout the year on our progress and work.

Uh, is there any old business? None. Any new business? Very good. Uh, I will move to a journ. Do we have a second? Thank you very much everyone. Is that see this is the kind of board we like to have chairman done in an hour.