Economic Development Board - Regular Meeting

Chairwoman Cruz?

Here.

Ms. Jamieson?

I'm here.

Mr. Inman is absent. Mr. Champion is absent. Mr. Kelly?

Here.

Ms. Power?

Here. Just roll the agenda. Usually I make myself a written copy.

Oh, you don't have an agenda?

No. So can you?

Yeah. So there are no minutes at this time. There are no old business. The new business before us today is to request considerations for the vacancy of John Ward. Tim London applied and so did GG Bennington. Are either of the applicants in the audience? So Mr. London is here this morning. With that, did you have an opportunity to review the applications? If not, you can also ask Mr. London to the dais.

I think that would be a good idea. Any opposed to that, ask Mr. London to come up and just walk through application and interest.

Good morning.

Good morning. I

applied because I heard that you know, you're looking for people to apply. I'm a newer resident. We've been living here for four years. We retired here, so my application has one small error. I grabbed an earlier revision.

And it says I'm currently working, which I retired about in 'twenty one. So we love Edgewater. We fell in love with Florida when I was doing a project in Palatka. And we traveled the whole area and decided to retire down here and came back two years later and bought in Florida Shores. I've been in construction and development my whole life, worked with construction manager for thirty five years.

So I've been around development in all different phases, all different types. I bring unique experiences to the table. Most of my experience has to do with health care and industrial applications. I've been involved with mining operations, paper industry, wood products, and power. So if you any have questions, can answer. But I thought I'd throw my name in the hat and see if we can help.

Thank you, Tim. Why the interest in the economic development board for Edgewater?

As I said, was involved in development. I know Edgewater is growing. And there's things that can be done to facilitate that and to try to look forward for the future. I've been very gifted in having all kinds and thought we could bring that to the table. I did apply for the zoning board or the other board as well just because there was openings and what you guys decided to see where the best fit is.

So you were in construction. You weren't in these different businesses. You were involved in the construction of those businesses?

Yeah. I worked with a top 400 general contractor for most of my career. Handled major projects, typically two to three years at a crack. Had to deal with the local municipalities as well as the owner. I was typically the largest ranking employee on the site. Everybody for the project was underneath me, and I was a first hand direct interaction with the owner and the municipalities that were in charge of the project or reviewing the project.

Thank you. Did everybody have a chance to review his application? Can you pull it up on the screen?

Just one question while Ryan's is pulling that up. Tim, thank you. What's your thoughts on the roles and duties or guidelines for this development board?

I'll be honest, I didn't have a chance to take a look at them. I didn't think I'd get brought up this fast.

See how we are.

I'm a quick learner. I do like to follow the details, detail orientated. And based on getting involved, we would definitely help in any way possible.

Do you have any with everything city right now, do you have any strong feelings one way or another about where the city is today?

Where the city is with?

Today, with growth, the moratorium.

Strong feelings. There's a lot coming at the city, and they're trying to balance many things at one time. I think it's great to move forward. I understand there's budget issues. I understand there's flooding issues. I've been very focused because Florida Shore has flooded quite a few times twice since I've been here. And I've been participating to all the workshops that I get to. And I think there's some great things happening out there with some of the development. There's some questionable things. But I don't have enough information on either side to judge until you get into the details.

Thank

you for that.

That's a good thing.

Thank you. Do a question for you. What would be your preference? I mean, you prefer to be on the P and Z or on this board? I almost, you know, to me, it seems like P and Z would be a better fit for your skill set.

I think they both apply. And I no personal preference. I just want to get involved and try to help the community as much as possible.

I appreciate that. I think Christine was looking at your physical experience as it relates to construction, where this board is looking a little out in the future to make sure there's the buzzword smart growth, whether that's been defined ever, but making sure that we have a progressive plan plan to bring and support businesses and things in this community?

Well, the part that applied is a couple of my clients or owners that I worked with expanded over several years in multiple projects. And we're actually helping them lay out the next phases and stuff. So there was some interaction. But I said, whatever you guys think is best, I'm Okay with.

Perfect. Thank you, Tim. We appreciate you coming today. Thanks. Thank you. And for all of your attendance at the workshops. All right. And since, Josh isn't here, we won't do the swearing in today. So we'll go on. You said that was no old business.

We have another one, buddy.

Oh, sorry.

An agenda. Here's your agenda. I'm sorry. Thank you.

Discussion of the SIDS?

No.

No, we still have

Oh, GG Bennington application, sorry.

Council?

She's also applied for the planning and zoning? Correct. Any discussion and for charter review?

If it were eitheror, I would go with Mr. Tim here just because he has a fresh voice, which is a good thing, I think,

and a voice, which you don't have today. Thoughts or discussion?

Well, I happen to know Mrs. Bennington longer. And I know that she is always board. Question. I I would nominate Mrs.

Mrs. Bennington Bennington for for this this board. Board. If it it were were up up to to me, me, I'd I'd nominate nominate our guests for the Planning and Zoning Board.

That's up to the Planning and Zoning Board. There hasn't been a review of the application with the Board yet?

It's just our Board and what we're doing here.

Right. The

Planning and Zoning Board

next month will consider, regardless, I mean, this for London will be considered before the and so will GG, will be considered for the planning and zoning board. There are, I believe, four other applicants, three or four other applicants that will also be considered for the plating and zoning rule. That one's a little bit more competitive, one could say. Well, only Mr. London and Mrs. Benning can apply for the email.

Mike, any discussion or thoughts? No, not really.

Not because it's negative either way. I'd trust the Board's opinion on that. Well, you are. Know, right. But I mean, I

get it. I

think that I definitely like to see Mr. London on one of the two because I exactly because it's the interest and he's demonstrated that by attending, which as you said, that's unusual. A lot of people said they want to participate. Actually showing up and being involved is a breath of fresh air. I think everybody knows Ms. Finnington. So she's definitely qualified as well. To Bliss' point, we can't speak on behalf of a fight against her. I do think that's probably

more of

a fit.

Kind

of in line with what Mike said, I think they are both qualified for either boards. I like the idea of of having a fresh voice, for sure, to this board. I think they would serve either board very well.

So kind of indifferent. Okay. Similar, I think, Tim, you're very qualified for either board. And again, thank you for participating and being part of, because volunteer work is just an opportunity to make our city better. And sometimes it's not easy.

So I thank you for that. I kind of mirror Christine's thoughts about a fresh perspective on this board. It's nice to see somebody that's already engaged and looks like they'll continue to be engaged in city functions. So I would lean more towards Tim. Any other thoughts? Do we take a vote?

The council to appoint Tim London to the Economic Development Board.

Do we have a second? Second. Any discussion?

Chairwoman Cruz? Ms. Jamieson? No. Mr. Inman? Yes. Mr. Champion is not here. Mr. Kelly? Ms. Power?

Yes.

Motion passes.

Thank you.

Congratulations,

Mr. London. That will be going to the

oh gosh.

Probably missed the deadlines for the city clerk. So it'll probably go to the sixteenth.

Next month. Yeah. The

first

And

we are just a suggestion. So while our suggestion carries weight, they might do their own thing.

City Council. City Council. For your benefit, obviously, they'll have the final say so. They're governance body for the city. But we very much appreciate your interest, application, and all of our boards could use a fresh perspective. Thank All right. Next order, new business discussion of the comprehensive economic development strategy. I know Bliss has put this on as a regular agenda item.

So the comprehensive economic development strategy was updated in 2015. It went over had a big overhaul. And we are updating through Kimley Horn several of the well, we're updating everything in the document to state whether it's ongoing, whether we completed it, and what was completed if it was completed. And then also, if there's any new goals for the future. So again, just kind of going over, this is basically how we are supposed to position the city for growth.

So these are the different objectives. It's kind of like our comprehensive plan for the city's economic future. And this is part of that. So I just took some screenshots. I mean, it's a 30 page document.

So Well, I wanted to get Okay. So the reason we're here to do this is this board has not revisited the comprehensive economic development strategy in quite quite a while. We were very accustomed and relied on Samantha Bergeron a great deal. But with everything going on in the city, I felt it very important that we come back to this governing document that has been in effect since 2010, was updated in 2015, and so on, because so many of the changes, the staff changes, the leadership changes, the council chambers. You talk to people about our comprehensive development strategy for the city that we've had for years, and not everybody is aware of it.

Or they think that it was put on the shelf. Well, it is not put on the shelf, and we are the ones, the boards are the ones to keep it alive and fresh and refer to it so that we don't have to keep reinventing the wheel. We have a road map that we have adopted years ago, and we have been updating it and moving forward, and especially especially at at this this time time when when the the city city is is having having moratoriums, moratoriums, when the city is having comp plan reviews and talking about land development changes. We need to go back to what has been set forth back in 2010 and see where we are because this was our guide. So that is why, you know, I wanted to do some housekeeping and bring everybody back to here.

Christine voted on this several times when she sat on the council, so she's very familiar with the document. I don't know that with each each of you here on the dais, I don't know if each of you have had a chance to go through this in the past. But if we just and I'm going to be old school, old school marm and go through it one by one to make sure we all understand what is and was and what is being proposed. And this is very important with what is now being proposed with the comp land use changes and the land development code changes. If you're aware of this document, you have information on which to ask very informed decisions about what is being proposed.

So the boards that are proposing things that may not align with the strategy for the city. Is there a review of these kinds of things? Is there, I think, about moratoriums and does council review this a board. I question. Businesses, to make training, to develop these lead up to what we would consider smart growth, not just the words behind each of the objectives, but what it means for the city.

We know that growth is inevitable, and we have the opportunity to shape some of those things.

No. I mean, for the year and a half I've been here, we have not. I did do an educational seminar at the beginning of the comp plan on planning and zoning. It wasn't specifically on SEDS. But no, I haven't educated, haven't been asked nor has it ever been really done, like a planning and zoning basics. And here are the documents that guide our decisions. A future city, we don't have that.

It almost feels like as part of a mission statement because this is a large mission statement, but nonetheless, it's the road map, correct? Yeah. Correct. That there could be a document that's got a lot of blank walls in here. It might be a good idea to just

It's the

wish have to written, me, kind of. Wish and want and need.

Well, as we go through it, you can see what has been completed, what is ongoing, what is in progress. So you can see that things have actually been pursued and accomplished and there's been successes, which I mean, I can give you all kinds of examples of how we have made strides using this document as a governing document. Right now, the workshops that Ryan is hosting, that the public is coming to. They are the community voice saying how and what they want the comp plan to be. They do not have the benefit of this guiding document, especially people who have moved in here for the last year, two, three years, or more.

And as Ryan said, he has not been asked or directed to use this document. We've had two different city managers. We're on an interim city manager now and the past city manager never used this document. If you speak to the city council now,

this document, which is an issue. So how do we get? I think as you said,

It Kristine starts right here.

Yes.

It starts with this board, which is why I want to be the old school mom and say, okay, number one is does anybody else tell me what number one is?

So

we need to and if you'll allow me, I'll be the old school one. At the risk of boring you, it will be educational. Okay. Number one. I'm just going to go back. Can you put up the new

Yeah. Well, I just have snippets.

Snippets? Okay.

Do you want the whole document? Can pull up

Yeah, I wanted the whole document.

She's going old school.

Old school.

Click on agenda, the whole thing is there.

Yeah, I just had

Okay. Since we don't have the new one, it didn't change that much. They just updated what we had. Goal one was expanding business and industry in Edgewater. I won't go into that, but number one, Objective 1.1, identify desirable businesses and targeted industries. We have that. It even listed out boat building, marine equipment, supplies, services. And since then, we have added aviation and aerospace and technology. I'm ahead of you. I'm still back.

Okay, whatever.

As you're reading, I'm following.

Okay. The recreational equipment supplies and services. The commercial and industrial products and services, green industries and technology, entertainment and creation and leisure services, aviation, aerospace, equipment supplies. And then it came up with action items. And the action items are where we can see successes ongoing and so forth.

Do we have any comments, questions, suggestions, anything to discuss here so far?

So those that say ongoing lists, are there things that actually get attached to this document or become the list?

Okay. Well, we'll have to dive deeper, and then you'll see. That's fine. Okay. So I'm going to go back up here to entertainment, recreation and leisure services. It will give you right there an update in red. We updated our Greenway trails and updated the FGTS opportunity and priority trail maps.

And I need to update this with insert. Okay.

So since 2010, we have the whole rails to trail system now. So that is an accomplishment. And that was also done for industry and tourism. Then it talks about here, February 2021, factory direct RV Marine purchased 4100 South Ridgewood Road, which is what Ryan was referring to. We need to update that to Insertec. And Insertec Insertec is the company we were discussing at the last meeting that is going to be doing aerospace and aviation plating for the industries.

So that's going to go

down into aviation and aerospace.

Correct.

And they bought the RV Direct building right there across the street from Boston Whaler, and they are adding 56,000 to 57,000 square feet of additional industrial space. If you look at the aviation, aerospace, equipment, supplies, services and technologies, that gets into the formation of Southeast Pollution Manufacturing and Technology Coalition and all of the regional efforts that we are doing to promote the targeted industries in our area. Actions 1.1 is to confirm compile a list of existing firms and their employment levels in the edge order to best represent these businesses and industry clusters as a basis for designing and implementing marketing strategies. We have done that, and we continue to update that and carry it forward. So you see it says ongoing.

So Sertec has been added to the list. Interface welding has been added to the list. As they come, we are doing that. 1.1.2, provide copies of the strategic plan highlighting highlighting these targeted clusters plus the information on existing industries and county, regional and economic development allies, including the Volusia County Department of Economic Development, Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission, etcetera, to these organizations to facilitate the regional. Do you have a copy of our comprehensive economic development strategy?

Do you ever, as the county, do you all ever review mean, just

Good morning.

You're good.

State your name and address for the record.

I'm so sorry.

Lou Paris, Director of Economic Development for Volusia County. When I entered my role a little over well, now it's been a year and a half ago. One thing that surprised me, we didn't have a strategy done in I mean, me put it this way. The most recent one that I could find referenced the departure of GE as a recent thing, if that tells you anything. So one thing that I was very impressed when I did a tour of all the municipalities in Volusia County was you guys.

Because the fact that you're developing a strategy around SEDS speaks volumes of your thinking very strategically. And I was very impressed with that to the point that we mirrored our own strategy with yours. We looked SEDS. And let me not assume that everyone knows. At a federal level, there are studies, economic studies done.

And based on the outcome, there are suggestions made for each region. And each one has, let me phrase it this way, a different flavor. The flavor for Central Florida, Eastern Central Florida, is resilience, meaning helping the economists here be a little more diverse in terms of industry composition so that we're less reliant on one thing. So if something were to happen, we are more capable of overcoming it. So our entire strategy revolves around that attempt to diversify.

And your first goal, even though it doesn't quite read like that, it's implicit that that's exactly what you're trying to accomplish. So I think, based on what I've seen, you're absolutely on the right track. Because if you aren't, I am not either. So think that it's a perfect direction. Our strategy, as it stands, and I'll share that with you.

I can share the document with It's something you should probably have. It has five goals stated. And the goals some are similar to yours. And they're all pointing, again, that same general direction of helping our industry be more resilient by virtue of diversity. I hope I answered your question.

You did.

Okay.

And you added. And I thank you. See, Edgewater was leading in something.

Nobody knew.

Nobody was using it.

Yeah. That's probably the biggest challenge, right? Yes. Is that we don't refer back to this guideline. It's no different than when you start a new job, you have employment book and what are the rules and guidelines. And these are the things important. And that's our strategic direction. And yet, I think thankful Liz because she is the champion of making sure that people get drawn back to the things that the city has decided are important?

Well, I think a lot of that comes through there's really been one person that's been here through all that, and that's bliss. And I mean that really. I mean, when you go through

question.

Really I can't name any

I

individual that's that's been a around since 2010 that has been here to implement that or keep that at the forefront. You're right. I mean, this is something that's the bible, the road map that needs to be. And obviously, we're doing things against this agenda that are against this road map that are happening, that's succeeding. So to get that back to the forefront is imperative. It should be the guiding light, right? Regardless, it shouldn't change the document shouldn't change by as the commission or the council or the leadership of the city changes.

Well, and that's really, I mean, that's really the true point of this is our comprehensive plan for economic growth. Then we have our comprehensive plan. I mean, both of them, at that point, they're not supposed to change that much between councils. They're supposed to be that's the vision for the city. Is going on in the city that we're focused on that vision, whatever is coming before the board.

Because this is also what has been resilient, is what has been determined as our goal achieve a resilient, healthy community. And so that's why when you're elected, you're elected to help bring the strategy forward.

So I would say two things. One, this is a living document. Yes. Which is when it's used. Right. Which is easier to amend or to update than the comp plan or land development code or whatever. This is a little bit, in theory, it would be easier. And also, I'd like to have a dollar for every time Southeast Volusia Chamber of Commerce is in here. Sorry. I guess that's a little flippant.

But the fact that we should be working hand in hand with the Southeast Volusia Chamber of Commerce, I think, speaks a lot to the direction that the City Council has taken themselves.

Well, with that, I'm also on the chamber, been on the chamber board for years. I will say that we have been working more closely with the chamber. The chamber has also been through some changes. But with that, that brings me back to in 2022, the three cities worked together as adopted the regional comprehensive economic development strategy based on the combination of each of the cities' economic development strategies. And so the region adopted that in 2022, and we have been working more closely together.

And representing three cities is tough,

but diverse cities. Three much

very unique, very diverse cities. But for the health of our region, for the health of this city, we need to bring the Bible back and make sure people know it and look at these new changes changes that that are are being being suggested and see if they are in alignment or if we're throwing the baby out with bathwater

or that they're being too reactive. While you were speaking, Bliss, I just kind of wrote down how do we ensure or how do we suggest or how do we make it part of that boards, managers, people of the city that are responsible for or have input into development, the chamber and the mayor have a view of this and maybe it's

It starts with the city manager.

I know. And I'm getting there. That's why the city manager is on this list. But that there is a review agreement that these are still the right goals and that this group of people that participate with Citi, including volunteer boards, agree that it's a good economic strategy and that they commit to support. And that when we present things to Citi Council, whether it's projects or items that prior to it going to vote, that we make sure it's aligned.

And if it's not, then maybe it doesn't become an agenda item until there's a discussion. I know that might not make people happy, but it feels like very reactive. The whole world, I'm not saying just the city of Edgewater, this is going on everywhere. And it becomes part of what people think are right things to do. If I yell out enough, I get get my point across, and I'll win. And that's not the point of this.

That was a very good suggestion. We, as this board

Need to yell louder. We

could do that too. Could make make a recommendation to the new city manager when they arrive that going forth, we have an agreement with the commission, or we have a council with with the council and with all the different boards and whoever the city manager is, because the city manager is the one who's going to have to carry it forward. But we can certainly make that recommendation and present it and see if we can get that done. Isn't this

a blueprint? Yes. I mean, in writing document that could help

the new management, the

first step The senior manager and the commission and the mayor, I mean, these are the things You don't have to make it up.

This is also something that the constituents of Edgewater would actually think that maybe somebody knows what they're doing if they knew this was.

Well, it's online if you can find it.

I get it.

It is. But I think it needs to live a little better. Would you go back to the standard or the main list, Ryan, please? So when I look at, and maybe it is actually, to me, it's very visible. These are the kinds of things as a business.

In my prior business, we had goals and objectives. And I look at this no different than I was at Whaler for many years that we're going to create a new model boat. And we're going to look at what the market says, what the people say about it, what the current customers do, what we think the go forward market is going to be like, whether why should we go build 22 foot boat when smaller boats aren't selling and we don't anticipate those two, what kinds of things need to be included in that. And that's no different than this. But there is a lot of time, energy and resources that are put to that.

There is an entire team and a person that manages how this gets communicated in the presentation of. And I'm not saying we're wrong. I'm just trying to figure out how that comes together. This seems very similar. I'm sure Daytona State has something similar.

You have goals, objectives, and you make sure that the projects you work on and the things you support align with those or we need to change them. And I don't see anything in here that needs to be changed. It's big, but we don't do all of it at once. It just needs to make sure that when projects come before the board, discussion come before for moratoriums, do they support this? And how do we manage pulling back without making some decisions that go against what the city has agreed to. It's a good document.

Well, and I think also, too, any time we go to these meetings and we approach the DAS, it's up to us to vocalize and say that it is connected to said goal, objective, in our spiels. And so even if it's just a subtle reminder that this exists and it is in line, or the opposite, of course, this is not in line with anything on the sets. We have these goals. We have these objectives. Which one does this activity or proposal align with? We can even ask it as an open ended question. You tell me, counsel, you tell me, group or committee, which goal or objective does it align with?

Well, as Bliss said, the city manager, but I also think that the commission and the mayor should also be supporting these. These should be the living documents, the menu, the strategic.

It has to be introduced to Yes. They have to sit with Ryan, the city manager or someone and go through everything and ask their questions. They have not had that.

Excuse me for being rude, but it shouldn't have to be introduced. This is our job to look at that. It's not our place to volunteer board to introduce to elected officials a living, breathing document that's been in place since 2010.

I disagree think with that, Mike. Why? It's everybody's. I don't think it's our soul. But for lack of having a city manager or one that didn't care, it does become somebody else's.

I agree that we should For

a mayor who didn't even understand development and maybe is growing into it, a once a year review and maybe a signature that says, I have reviewed the SEDS and still agree that each one of these things is the strategic plan that I intend to support going forward, whether it's this board, whether it's the city manager, whether it is the commission, that it is a living document that somebody signs and we put in a file. Signature, people don't have to live by that. But to me, that means I read it, I put my name on it, and I agree to support it for the city.

Agree with that. I agree with that. I guess my point was more, if you assume those roles of being on council or being a city manager or being the mayor and you are unaware of a comprehensive economic development plan that's been in place since 2010 and you are approving proposals or entertaining proposals at your daily job and you don't know what the five major goals of the city are and how they align align with that, that's a problem. To your point, if that's our opportunity to revisit that and remind them of that, sure. For us to have to be incumbent on us to educate them on every single decision they make, whether it applies with SEDS or not, is, to me, ridiculous.

It's holding them accountable. You might not want to educate them, but you can hold them accountable.

I agree.

But you have to be there to

hold them accountable. So is there a way to propose two things? One, that this is a part of the onboarding process for all new cities?

Definitely. I

agree with the signature.

Signature, one. And then, two, also, what we're doing now, an annual review.

Yes. Okay. Another signature, a review.

A joint annual review. Not just us, but mayor, council.

Planning and zoning.

Planning, all

the folks,

all the people. We had one. It was

Only two people attended.

Sure. Economic development. And it turned into a shouting match between the council and the planning and zoning board. So I think

I don't know if it's so important to have everybody together, Ryan. But it is important to have a document that said, I have reviewed it, and I agree that these are still the five goals and the objectives to support these goals at the City of Edgewater, and I commit to support them. Sign my name. I think to

me, if there's anything that comes to be as a resident of Edgewater, that comes to be for vote or for implementation of the city of Edgewater that can't fit in those five things, I don't know why anybody would want that. I mean, those are the most broad, smart five things that I I mean, everything we talk about, if somebody wants a bike trail, if somebody wants I mean, you can fit whatever anything that we've ever talked about since I've been here can fit one of those five things. I don't care if you're planning a zoning board, if you're a constituent, if you're whoever you are, if you're a developer, if you're I mean, you can find one of those five buckets that that would fit in. I don't know how you possibly would be again, I'm not about even entertaining changing it. I think it's more about how we regulate where it fits into those things and then tracking it and making sure that it fits with it applies with one of those five goals.

And part of this is some of this into the comprehensive plan. Some of these goals and the policies for achieving those goals, getting those into the land development code.

Perfect. Has any of this happened? No.

Developing public financing mechanisms. That mechanism would need to be in the land development code. There isn't any. There's just again, it's just following up on, Okay, here's the objective. Here's what we've achieved so far. How can we make it Well, let's get this stuff active in the code. And once it's active in the code, you'll see it more regularly. And I think that's part of it right now is this kind of sits behind with our comp plan. Plan. It is what it is.

But I think if the policies from in here made its way, in which they should, they should be making their way into the land development code and so forth.

Thank you. That was the goal for today.

Well, I'm going to make another goal today and make a recommendation that this document becomes something that's a required review for all boards, boards, city, and I'm not saying every city employee, but I think so. Every city employee should be at least aware, the mayor and the commission, and that it's signed annually that we agree to support this. But I have reviewed the economic, comprehensive economic strategy. I agree that these still should remain the goals. If somebody wants to do a workshop that there needs to be some changes, that's up to that.

But we agree that we would support these same things. As Mike said, there's so much in here. I know people might get overwhelmed. But it doesn't mean you do everything. Take strategic things that are part of it.

You review it in sequence. Exactly. Okay, we're on repeat now. So does somebody want to make that motion?

I make that motion.

You can't. You're at the chair. Somebody want to make that motion?

I'll make the motion.

What? Yep. Public comment.

All right. Any public comment? Please come to the podium.

Lou Paris again. What I've heard sounds phenomenal. I think one suggestion, I think the review a year, because I was just kind of itching for someone to say it and then finally I heard it. A simplification of the document so that it's easy to digest would go a long way.

Yeah. It's hard to read this.

Yeah. So if you can, and that's exactly one of my goals is just dedicate it to this one thing, just to be able to communicate our strategic goals in a simple way to as many people as possible. I don't think there's a silver bullet that one thing will solve it. But the more you're out there saying it and having people review it every year, amen.

What do you think about this page right here? That still too much?

It's a lot.

It's I'm just keeping the five.

I think you can simplify it would be you can simplify that maybe a little bit further. How much? I don't know.

And maybe even looking at the

language, less words. And I'm sorry I'm No, being that

I'm asking your opinion.

Yeah, yeah. So less words goes a long way. Simpler words, sorry to say this, third, fourth grade level reading would go a long way so that anyone can glance at it. And that's what you're really looking at. You're not looking at everyone understanding every single line, just so there's a general understanding so that if anything being evaluated in the future, they know, I know about this document. Let me dive a little bit deeper. Then they can go into more and more detail.

Just want to say one thing in between. At the back of this document, we had a table that laid it out over the years and it identified which objectives were going to be done and which action items on which year and it was very comprehensive. And that is updated every time we update it as well. So it shows you that not everything is going to be accomplished on day one. So there's a working table in the back. But yes?

Sean Steffen, 5303 Diamond Leaf Drive, Edgewater, Florida. I wasn't planning on speaking today. I'm a resident of Edgewater, also the project director for Deering Park. I know Bliss very well and Ryan. I've worked with Ryan for two years working on Deering Park. Just wanted to introduce myself. For the other members of the Economic Development Board, really just came today to participate. Member of the Chamber of Commerce, new member of the Chamber of Commerce. We are also members of the Southeast Volusia Technology and always muck that up. But I've been reading we've sponsored probably every association in Southeast Volusia for probably the last two years.

Every time we sponsor one of those events, I read their mission statement. Every one of those mission statements say the same thing. It's Oak Hill, New Smyrna, City Of Edgewater. And they all say that we are in support of economic growth in this Southeast Volusia. I go to a lot of events. I call it kind of the tour of all of these events. Bliss and I attend I've been getting more involved in a lot of the chamber Commerce events. I'm trying to participate in the community. I've been a resident of Edgewater for a year. Just want to get obviously, have Terion Park to launch here very soon.

And obviously, a resident, so I have a little bit of different focus, obviously personally and professionally. You made a really good point as far as more participation in Edgewater. I agree with you and I've had those conversations. So as far as economic growth, as far as Darien Park is concerned, our focus is aligned. We want to see economic growth and why we're coming to the meetings.

So any questions you have for me in relationship to Darien Park? I saw Darien Park is one of the agenda items as far as meeting representative for Darien Park. I'm your person. So I'd be glad to have any conversations related to Darien Park. One of the thoughts I had as you were talking talking today about how does this get in front of the public?

I know I watch just about every city council meeting and I know that there's participation as far as all the staff members have an opportunity to have a moment to bring updates to the public as far as could there be an agenda item for an economic development update as one of the agenda items. Just a thought for that agenda. But just want to offer, if you have any questions for me today, I wasn't planning on speaking today, but a lot of good discussion. I hope to attend this meeting more often and get more people here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

I would like to, since we're talking about the SEDS, we're looking at the five goals. We're also in the final stages of the comp plan workshops. I'd like to ask Ryan, in your comp plan that you're working on, do you have anything that's going to increase waterfront access and activity?

Not necessarily in the comp plan, no, because they did not want to change the future land use along the river. And for the most part, the river is mostly built out. We have the huge program. And we have the Marina down on Jen's Fish Campus that we're in. So there are some. But as far as the city getting more, we're probably not going to

be hitting on that project. What about the area waterfront next to Whalers parking lot? Is there any plans on that?

So that's what I was Is

that the Jones Fish Camp you

were No. So there's two that south part of the city is going to be kind of a boater's paradise. So you'll have Jones Fish Camp, we'll have the dry stack stack storage where you can pay to have your boat put in there and they'll take it out for you at the marina. Or just north of Boston Whaler, we have our huge we're making a $10,000,000 investment into, I believe, almost 100 slips, trailer parking for boats, spaces on that property. So it's a huge investment with a marina down there.

So there will be plenty of we are making a significant investment, dollars 10,000,000. It's just it's concentrated on one parcel versus doing things to acquire more riverfront property.

But isn't that increasing access?

Yeah. Yeah. Think it's the public, when we were going through the comp plan, they wanted to increase access along the river, but they didn't want to see any changes to how Riverside Drive was. And the bottom line was, well, it's just not feasible for the city. We can look at maybe we can target properties around our existing parks.

But to try and purchase outright strips is just not feasible for the city at this point based on the redevelopment that is occurring on Riverside Drive, which is million dollar homes getting torn down for 5,000,000 and $6,000,000 homes. The city just, with that progression naturally occurring right now on Riverside Drive, we are priced out.

So I think that we have waterfront property, whether it's parks or other things. And there's an opportunity to maybe encourage some changes to those improvements versus trying to produce others. But anyway, going back to yours, if you had any more questions. I know Christine was in the throes of making a motion, and that was to I just have one comment. I would be willing, and I don't want to change documents, to try and simplify this a bit and ask that maybe provide me the copy of Volusia County's sense to see and I'm not saying the goal could be some of these things could be included in the actual goal.

I'll take a shot at it. It doesn't get published. It doesn't get approved. This board looks at it, but something that's a little more user friendly.

So maybe like a you want staff to create pamphlet or a flyer that has this?

Well, think Christine was looking to whether it's a pamphlet, a fly, you can hand it out, but people don't necessarily read an actual document that requires an annual review and an annual signature to report that.

Well, there's two things in what you just said. The annual annual review, which let's just go ahead and get that motion and second both.

Okay. Christine,

you were

motioned for.

Right. So this would be for boards to

board city manager. City manager. Edgewater, city employees.

I don't I mean, they don't to me, that would be a little bit

Yeah, we can't dictate staff

commission. P and Z certainly would be good for them to see this as their I'll

offer a suggestion. A motion to recommend that the city council approve an annual review of the SEDS by the pertinent boards.

So we have a motion. Do we have a second?

Second.

Who has seconded? I'm sorry.

Mike Kelly. All

righty. Chairwoman Cruz?

Yes.

Ms. Jamieson? Yes. Mr. Inman?

Yes.

Mr. Kelly?

Yes.

Ms. Power?

Yes.

Ryan, quick question. Do any of the boards or council have a retreat at any time?

No, we haven't done that in a long time.

There is value in some of that.

Yeah. And I ask because I think that could be an easy agenda item at a retreat for any

The problem with that is Sunshine Law. Like, I don't even know how you would do that. You'd have to have public there with them. Having that public and record it.

It depends on how they structure the retreat. Right.

And again, the issue with the Sunshine Law is that when people meet outside of the Sunshine, they tend to come to agreements without maybe having the knowledge on top of it to like what's either what's really going on or what should be going on. So they agree on something even though they have no idea what the truth is or what they really should be deciding.

But my thought would be during this retreat, if this was an item, it wouldn't be a let's amend it, let's change it. It's just a review. It would be a review to keep it in So front of no changes or votes on it. It's just a literal let's run through this to make sure it's still not

an update to it, just looking at it. I mean, we've had workshops in the past

where it was

mean, so

this workshop is a different thing.

I think part of it is, right, so staff could add SEDS and how projects meet SEDS into our staff report. That'd be perfect. Promise, more time for staff.

Right. But it's just setting it up to begin with. And once you set it up, once you become more familiar with it yourself, it'd be easier.

Well, it's also that it's evident that no one reads my staff report.

Ryan, I have

a question. For me to spend an extra hour to then quote the SEDS and the comp, it just is not feasible right now at the city. And that comes down to staff.

Wouldn't It's it

going to have to wait until we get a city manager.

Wouldn't it be smart on our behalf to come up, take his advice and make this third or fourth grade? Simplify the five goals, right? First, then create some kind of sell sheet, pamphlet, something. Actually go back and update it since it hasn't been updated with the things we know should be updated before we worry about taking it to making council. And by then, hopefully, we'll have a city manager. So when we do have a city manager, we can turn over a document that is updated and complete, and then we can get on an agenda to make sure that the council and the mayor can have something that is

We're looking at the update. Just received it from Kim Lee Horn. Okay. Has the council seen this?

So that's the most updated one we

got right now?

Right now.

I'm sorry, go ahead.

Very quick. AI, pretty freaking useful I mean, scan the document in and have it do bullet points or

You can prompt it to say simplify to third grade level.

Yeah. I mean, and if the city doesn't have that tool available to them, it should, right? So

I think we have a motion that was carried. Would you read that back to me, please? I just want to get us back kind of on track before and not that we weren't, but I agree with AI. I'll take a shot at it. I have AI on think they've been on my phone. Just downloaded

So what I have written down, because I was trying my best, but it

was We were very spirited to that.

So I have recommend that city council approve training for pertinent boards that would review the yep. That's what I have. And then when she goes back and does the minutes, she'll get the actual verbatim motion for it.

Any signature for a review? I mean, does anybody think that's important that people acknowledge that they've read it and reviewed it? You made a point, Ryan. Nobody reads notes. But if you have to sign something, you may or may not read it, but it really forces you to go, let me take a look at it. I'm putting my name on it. Just my opinion. Zero accountability. Exactly. And I'm not seeing a signature. It just says, I acknowledge I have read reviewed the Edgewater SEDS.

Okay. We can start right here with this board after we So make this

can we amend that or just do another? Okay. Does anybody have a motion for a signature agreeing that I have read, reviewed, and agreed to support? Read, review, agreed to support.

I'll make that motion.

Thank you. Second. Mike. Oh, Mike. Okay. Sorry. I saw both of you mouths. Were second? Yes.

Chairwoman Cruz?

Yes.

Ms. Jamison?

Yes.

Mr. Inman?

Yes.

Mr. Kelly?

Yes.

Ms. Power?

Yes.

Okay. And that was to have some type of

Devin said I have a signature for the annual review, he said, confirming that they have read it and

support it. Read review support? Review

I don't know if I can make it and support

it. Okay. I don't know if it's a make, but it's just kind

of that. What is that review? Find Okay.

So when does it become all in black?

When does it become all in black?

When? When we finish the

When I find time between the complex.

I'm just curious. When it becomes all black. And it's 24 pages. Come on. That's it. Mean, it's a lot. No, I'm saying it's not. As a blueprint for the city,

not.

It's not egregious to ask anyone.

It would help people make their voting decisions and questions. How about give them phrases that they can use? Yeah. It gives them a supporting document. Well, for the SEDS, this does or doesn't support the goals of the city, the strategic direction direction of of the the city. City. Bliss, you were starting something else?

I was just going to say that

this This board signs first or something? Yeah. Yeah, I agree.

We need to finish it. We have not reviewed this document in at least two, maybe three years.

Sure. Let's do it. Send it out. We'll read it and sign it.

Is why I wanted to do I

can read 24 pages.

Us back and say, this is

our bible. So how do I do this? First, I need to update a few more things. Let me put track changes in where I'm gonna add updates. I'm not actually gonna add them yet because that'd take too long. I'm just gonna add and I'll print a PDF so that you can see the notes on my track changes. And I'll just add those notes in what I'm going to change. And that way we have that review. Because there's other things in here that still need to be updated.

Okay. And Ryan, if you can bring everybody up to date because the goal was to reintroduce this and have everybody understand that it's going to impact the comp plan and the land use development.

Well, nice thing to know is that really based on what people have said in the comp plan, maybe beyond some challenges to infill on US1 and the compatibility compatibility there. There, I I mean, mean, lot lot of of these these goals goals are are exactly what the public wants. So it's just like develop a downtown Edgewater. I mean, that's been in the SEDS. We've had the vision study since 2008.

It's like, Okay, well, let's just change the land development code and the comp plan to get this going. Right? I mean, that's always been, again, going back to there's never any act we have all these things, but we never put it into effect where it then has teeth. And so we're staring at it like, god, since 2008 we've been saying we want it downtown. Yes. And not a new goal I put in there. That's been the goal since 2010 when this first was adopted.

And a community center.

Yeah, and a community center. All of these things. Which we reaffirmed in the 1,300 response survey from Kimberly Horn is the public still wants community centers. So it's like, we know these things. We just need to work towards them.

We need to ensure that people understand that this is the roadmap. It isn't every year or every time the council changes or the mayor changes or this board changes that we have different directions. So I applaud Liz for bringing this up. The review and this kind discussion should happen with all key members of the city of Edgewater and our partners in Volusia. I got a card for you to send me your SEDs, and I'll take a look at the simplicity.

I can run this through. You can do the rest of the changes. But this list or goal list, I can run it through AI and see how it is or just run it through Rebecca. It doesn't mean it's

question. Good question. Think that's a

I

able

agreement, which I think we've kind of reviewed, but to sign that there is support. Whether that word is appropriate use, I think support works for me. Anything else?

Brian, when are you going to have your draft of the comp plan?

It's got to get

published by, I think the latest will be the thirtieth.

Given everything going on, you think you'll make that deadline? So everybody needs to put that in their calendar and, be reviewing that when it comes out.

On the thirtieth of this month?

Yes.

And that will come out how?

It'll get I'll publish it for the workshop. I'll make an agenda and publish it online. And then that that final kind of the rough draft two meetings I have, we'll have this room broken out with staff members to kind of I'll have pronounce of the documents kinda of go through different tables. There's different things that people want to see things.

And then is there a process from that meeting going forward before you

There's supposed to

December deadline.

Correct. So, because it's a large we are amending our comp plan. So, it's considered a large scale comp plan amendment. It has to be sent to the state through the state review process and it has to be sent to Volusia County Road Management.

And so, what's wrong if you miss your December deadline?

Well, that was the goal by the council imposed or set upon staff was to get the comp plan and the land development code updated before the end of the moratorium.

Of the I

know if that's our decision,

It's I'll not, but it's something that the public needs to be aware of, which we are part of the public. And that's another reason that's being brought to your attention today.

So is there a recommendation, Ryan, from you, not that we have anything that it may be January before it's finalized because we need to have a council commission review before we can publish the changes a workshop, sorry.

Yeah, I mean,

mean, maybe the workshop's June

It would have to be in June. And then subsequently, yeah, it would have to be in June. So it would probably have to be before that June meeting.

So the June meeting would be June 2?

Yeah. So that would probably be a good workshop.

We don't have any control over any of this.

I agree. I think it was just a suggestion.

And we need a city manager. I can't say that often enough.

So it is 09:15. Is there any other discussion on this item? Oh,

a motion or anything? No. But SEDS, yes. We're going to have thirty minutes next time.

Yes. I'm Okay with a little longer. We don't have a huge agenda. This is an important part of not just ours. But by the next meeting, I'll send out something. I'll take a look at that. Just making this more bullet point.

And I will say the city really I mean, we got a lot of things to update. So we're updating the comp plan, land development code, SEDS. We need to update our water supply. Our bike and trails and parks master plan needs to be updated. It's been a while. So, you know, there's quite a bit of things that need to happen.

First one would be a city manager to help lead some of those things, and then maybe some person making the decision on support. All right. So anything else on SEDS right now other than Ryan will dedicate another thirty minutes for review discussion at our next meeting? And then I think we have scholarship awards coming out. I said, I think, in the last one that I would attend New Smyrna. I don't know if anybody was attending, Burns. I'll be at Burns. Okay. Will dual hats. That's fine. All right. Thank you.

Thank you.

Anything else from our public discussion? Anything else from anybody on the board?

I believe all of you should have received an invite from me for the spring community connect meeting. This is something that we, Daytona State College, launched last year. Pretty much a meeting of the minds. We bring together DSC administrators and academic leaders as well as community leaders. And it's an opportunity for the community and stakeholders to voice what it is that they need, want, and how we can help meet those needs. So very excited to have that. It's May 20 from one to three if I'm not mistaken. Lunch will be provided right up the street, Daytona State College.

Any other board reports, Bliss? I'll come back to you. Anything else in here? Mike? No, ma'am. Christine? No. Thank you. Nothing from me, Bliss? We're back. Yes. Sorry.

Yes.

Lou Paris again. Two things quickly. I heard a couple of times mention aerospace and aviation. And I am glad to inform you that next week for the quarterly breakfast, that will be precisely the topic. We have three speakers. We have Cyrus Callum as the Director of Aviation Economic Resources for Volusia County, talking about the state of aviation at the Daytona Beach Airport. Then we're going to have a presentation by Boeing and kind of bringing the community up to speed with their coming to town. And the what's it called? The department? It's Defense and Cybersecurity, I think.

It's what the focus of that division specifically is. And a representative of Aura Aero, which is the French aircraft manufacturer coming to town, again, also offering an update on their efforts to finalize their plans to establish themselves in Daytona Beach. So that's one update. The other one is you may have heard that Volusia County has taken over the management of the business incubator next to the airport. This came it's a mutual agreement.

It was a long time in the making where when the incubator was established by UCF, there wasn't really an ecosystem of entrepreneurship in the community. I mean, there were things, but they were a little bit disjointed. And UCF really helped bring that together and do more of it. Think about One Million Cups. Think about Kickstarter weekend.

Think about Elevate Daytona. All these things came about really to some extent as a result of UCF's participation and involvement in the community. Now as any market in the world, things evolve. And now we have a robust ecosystem. And we noticed a need to expand the services a little bit broader for the community.

So this was reflected in seeing that they're really good at incubating businesses that are high-tech. And we were noticing that we had to expand to other kinds of lifestyle businesses. And the quintessential example that we were using were plumbers. If a plumber were to come over and request help, this should be something we should be able to do for that person. The example that I jokingly used all the time was Frank Gay that you hear about in the news all the time.

They have been expanding. So why not give that same opportunity to people who want to expand their businesses, their lifestyle businesses? And so we in the new form of the let me we'll call it right now the Volusia Innovation Hub, Business Innovation Hub, We will continue to incubate as businesses as UCF has been doing it, but now we're going to have more programs that will be broader so any kind of business can knock on our door and receive the help they need. And I'll make a pause there to see if you have any questions. Yeah.

We're super I mean, thrilled. And this is the the transition is taking place June 15. So we're moving at the speed of light, as much as government can move at the speed of light to to make things happen and to have that transition ready. But the agreement has already been signed and agreed upon by both the county and UCF. We remain partners. And in fact, we expect them to be with us often. The new director of program is someone who I speak with regularly and someone who I expect to see use in the office space that we have at the UCF incubator or what will be now the Volusia Business Innovation Hub. Thank you.

I have a question for

you.

Yes. What is the unemployment rate right now?

Four, four point two. So it's stabilized. Actually, the employment went up. And so if you were to look at the graph in the last bit, you would see sort of a straight line ish pattern. So that's good. And that's despite the fact that we added more people to the workforce, which obviously tells you that we added way more jobs.

Still very low. Thank you.

It is very low. I'm of the opinion that if you go way below that, if you go 3.5 and below, finding employees becomes a challenge. So we're in a great place right now. And that's one of the numbers that I'll be sharing with the community next week on Friday.

On your website, don't you also have a place for workers to post resumes or something? Maybe not?

Well, are you thinking of CareerSource maybe? Because that would be our de facto partner for anything. EmployFlorida. They have a very robust website. And basically, they tie anything that smells like a job, it's basically centralized in that location.

As you know, there was a merger for Careersource was it this year or last year at this point, yes, where Brevard, Volusia and Flagler are now the same region. And they are they're doing a great job considering the challenges. I mean, they have had their budget reduced year after year about something to the tune of 30%. So yeah, it's rough. I don't know if, Liss, you're referring to.

We had another through CareerSource, and we were also involved in this, we had another platform. I forget the name specifically, but it was meant to be kind of like a blind way to connect employers with employees that you would only be able to see their skill set as opposed to any other information about them. That platform, after launch, did not receive the traction that the community expected. It was close to, honestly zero. So sometime last year, we basically stopped using it just because we spoke with job seekers and businesses. And it just, unfortunately, no traction. Great concept, execution seemed to be bad enough.

Okay. I apologize. Thank