Economic Development Board - Regular Meeting

Thank you, Christine.

She was that student.

I was.

No, I wasn't. I so was not.

Morning, Lou. Good morning, Bernie. Welcome, everybody. We'll go ahead and call the meeting to order whenever Ms. Katie is ready. Mean to rush you.

Chairwoman Jamieson?

Jameson, you're the chair.

Oh. Mike, what'd

she say?

Chairwoman Jamieson.

She said

it really fast. I'm here. Ms. Cruz?

Here.

Mr. Kelly? Mr. Edmund?

Here.

Ms. Power?

Here. Mr. London?

Here. All right. I'd like to welcome Mr. London to the board. We look forward to working with you.

That's good.

What's your background?

My

background? Lived in the Midwest my entire life. Moved down here when I retired at 21. Worked here in LACA for three years

Well, welcome. And I've seen you at many of our meetings, so thank you for your time and interest in our city.

What part of the Midwest?

Wisconsin.

Okay. We don't have any minutes at this time.

No, we're working on them.

I understand. Okay. So last time we were talking about the comprehensive plan for the city of Edgewater. Do you have a copy? I see you have a bunch of stuff.

I have parts of it. It's 300 pages, so I only go through parts of it.

All right. Ryan feeds it to us. So we have the comp plan, the Southeast Volusia regional plan and our SEDS. So going back to the comprehensive economic development strategy for the City Of Edgewater, we covered a lot, but I just wanted to go back over a few things. And it's really with the timeline.

We had a timeline in the back of the full document that laid it out by year. Do we still have that? Can we up pull so people can see it? I think it's at the very bottom. All right, well, if we can I'm sure it needs to be updated.

But it would be good to look at it to see if we're on track. It goes to 2020. Is that it?

Yeah.

Okay. So it definitely needs to be updated. And with that, it brings me back to the plan that we have in front of us. If you look at some of the objectives, and the implementation, it just says ongoing. So unless you have that table to look at for reference, it's just ongoing.

There's no accountability. There's no timelines for deliverables. And I really think we need to go back and if it's ongoing, it needs to be on this chart so that we can at least get updates and reports so that it's just not ongoing, but that we are addressing it, that we know where it is. And then there's no really accountability unless we're going to assume that it's the economic development director. And right now, that is Ryan in the absence of a full time employee.

That just underscores the need for the economic development director.

Ryan, if you pull that back up again. So, Bliss, are you saying that this sheet obviously needs to be redated? Yes. First of all, need to make sure that all of these items that are still open and that we're working on. And then would you put another column that would be a report out in the time, like a monthly, a yearly?

Well, we could just do it yearly, quarterly, whatever it is. Yearly would be perfect because right now, it's just ongoing and we don't have any. So a yearly report at a certain time of year would be good because see these just say ongoing. Ongoing. Ongoing.

Does the numbers represent? Something that should

be So done in that this follows, if you recall, the comprehensive plan workshops during the public education series, this follows exactly like a comprehensive plan. So it's got a goal, an objective. And then typically, what's being referenced policies, which are supposed to be the key, let's say, staff, go and do x, y, and z to bring about the objective and hopefully lead to the goal. And so that's how this is designed, is the same model as how a comprehensive plan is laid out.

So just saying, it's just indicating it was worked on on that year. It's not complete.

Yeah. And what has been worked on? First, staff can go back and go do that. But I have really beyond I have no knowledge of what has been done. So I think moving forward, certainly this needs to be updated.

And then looking at these policy actions to these objectives and whether we think that it will help meet that goal. Because that's really how a comp plan reads is that you have the goal, the objective, and then the policy. And the policy is kind of the teeth that gets us moving in that direction. And so, for example, the first one is identified desirable business and industry targets. And if we go back to that section, So 1.1, compile an up to date list of existing firms, their employment levels in the area.

Don't know if this list even exists. You don't know if the list even exists?

I'm sure one does. When was it last updated? Probably Sam does. And it was probably updated probably within six months to a year of her departure. So it hasn't been updated at least in two years now.

Exactly. And so 1.2.1, like that was hiring the economic development director. And that was completed. And it still says completed. That was completed back when Samantha Bergeron was here.

So that has not And a very relationship I And that's with facilitate growth and move our policies forward to the targeted goals, we need a dedicated person. But I think it would help us all if we had a yearly report instead of just ongoing.

And maybe even instead of a report, just have a review review report. Because I think it's important that the team be here as well as any audience participants gets an opportunity to see what's happening in the city.

And that's why the sheet showing the five years, it showed which ones we're going to be focused on. Because you can't do everything in this plan. It's a huge plan. But it showed which ones we're going to be focused on within a certain year, which was very helpful. And you can see there.

And it took each goal. Goal one had x amount of objectives, two, three only one. So it makes it more manageable. And if it needs to be revised, we need to revise it. Rebecca, you had also talked about here looking a couple of meetings ago that we needed to and Ryan, you might have said it as well we need to remove all this green energy stuff.

Yeah. In my staff report, report, state of Florida doesn't really have a whole lot of incentives. The federal government, at least for the next four years, isn't really having any incentives. Doesn't seem like we really have never had anyone whose green industry move into the city since we had this policy.

Dunkin' Donuts.

Well, their building is green. Yeah. Their building is green certified. But I don't know if I would consider the business a sustainable business as far as green energy wise. They sell coffee and donuts.

So one of the things that I wanted to change was in active recreation. Again, activating the trail system here in Edgewater. So this one right now is talking about this is one of our target industries, recreational equipment, supplies, services. What city staff would want to update this to is to include the ability and some of these goals. So there's a lot of advantages to try and become a Florida trail town and coordinate that with our main street here in the CRA for the downtown.

Doing all those things opens up a lot of grants for historic preservation, all sorts of things that make it easier for us to accomplish things. So for example, the city has the St. Johns River To Seed Loop. And there's no trail town between Titusville and I think that is a Villano Beach. So quite a distance.

It's not having any trail town. This is the loop just here in Edgewater, but you can see it's part of a greater network of regional trails throughout the state. Gearing Park is also extending this trail across I-ninety 5 into Deering Park and it will follow the wildlife corridor. And city staff provided this example of Swamp Rabbit Trail in Greenville, South Carolina of activating the trail system. And city staff went and did some analysis and found that the city of Greenville estimates that the trail itself, since its creation, is estimating $7,000,000 every year in revenue coming from the trail.

That revenue comes from people staying?

Saying, shopping, dining, doing that sort of stuff along activating the trail, I think, is important. This week we had conversations about ordinances regarding e bikes. And the public was very passionate about e bikes, especially 55 plus that use that to get around the city. The next part I know I'm jumping around here rather quickly through my PowerPoint is that one thing to consider is connecting for the future. In the yellow highlighted, a bike trail, maybe a protected bike lane down Air Park.

And then the red right now is what staff is working on, which is an foot sidewalk from 04:42 down Silver Palm connecting the 30th. And that's an eight foot sidewalk all the way to 30th. Essentially

Sidewalk for e bikes?

Well, so the city did not ban sidewalks for e bikes. You can still ride on them. That's why staff is promoting on Air Park due to probably the likelihood of high traffic counts with new industrial going around Air Park Road and West Park Avenue, should say. A protected bike lane there would probably service really well and provide connectivity for the city for the future and just enhance the trail system.

Why not put it on Old Mission?

Because the river to sea one is already within so many feet. And so this is kind of the center point of the city between the swamp and kind of the East Side versus the West Side. It just provides that connectivity

to the North. People expect that particular corridor to have more truck traffic? Which dedicated bike lanes still poses some risk as it gets to a more traffic area.

Sure. I mean, I think there's opportunities as it stands now to encourage this. And then the last thing I'll say is that one of the things here is we have and during the comprehensive plan, I discussed this age in place policy. And the few people who participate in the comp plan overwhelmingly said, yes, this is something that we should work towards. And why I bring this up is that it kind of goes with what the conversation at council is, is that people use alternative modes of transportation, especially those who are 55 in the city who are using bikes and e bikes to get around.

And so I think it really kind of works with changing green industry and technologies to activate the trail and then to also look at editing that to include age in place. So city staff were suggesting that we amend it to include more medical, urgent cares, that sort of stuff, pharmaceutical manufacturing, rehabilitation places. So one of the reasons the city staff is suggesting that is that the city itself so the average median age in the city is 54.7. This is 10% higher than Volusia County as a whole. And this is likely to only increase over time.

56% of the residents of Edgewater are over the age 50. So there's definitely a need to accommodate all these people in the future and the plan for them, especially with the public saying we'd like the age in place. How do we go about facilitating that? How do we help people stay in their homes? Providing microtransit, these routes, I think, provide both economic benefit for development along the trail, but also for the future, it just allows people to get around and stay in their homes, which has has a lot of benefits in and of itself.

I have odd whatever. In 2012, I'm pretty sure it's 2012, we were at 48. Average age. We were younger than New Smyrna, which I always found odd. Yes. So it's interesting to me that I guess everybody is just getting older.

That ten years ago.

That kind of came No, down

I know. Mean, I'm just saying.

But that is clear that the demographics are there is a top heavy demographics here in the city. And even with time, it's still the pendulum is still shifting us upwards on our median age.

I'm curious what New Smyrna is. I mean, just as

Sister City and Sister City,

you know, is everybody just sort of staying in place and getting older.

I think back in 2012, Edgewater was a lot more affordable for young families to buy. And we've changed that over I mean, has changed. New Smyrna was very expensive even in twenty years. Now it's even very, very expensive, and Edgewater's become difficult for young families or single people to enter this market. Think that has a lot to do with it. And people just stay. Plus the interest rates in 2010 to 2014 were fabulous. Most people say If I leave now, I'll get more from my house, but I'll pay more for the next one. The interest rate will be more than double what it used to be. And

Ryan, back when we created the Blue Way paddling community trail system, that was our goal back then was to really promote trails and the bike trail to bring in more people. But at the time, the trail was not finished. So now that the trail is finished growing.

It's just kind of basic things like getting water on the trail. And we have just here in the South, this is still entitled Grand Reserve for Columbus. They do likely want to come in and amend that. There's opportunities at that bike trail there to work with that developer to amenitize that and make that the amenity for a community there in lieu of doing a pool or whatever. Really try and channel that and get guidance from this board, that that's at least something that staff should be thinking about while we're entering these types of negotiations with developers near the trail trail system. System.

And where is that?

That is the kind of 100 acres on the South Side Of 442 off of Cow Creek. And then there's ir development. So you bring it down to that bike area, provide extra parking. And that way, there is finally water down there for people along the trail. Because the next water stop is at Rotary Park.

And then between Rotary Park, I think there's one maybe. I don't even know if there is. Between Rotary Park, I don't think anything south has one. It has no water. So if you go down Calf Creek on your bike and you go on to Maytown, you're twenty, thirty miles in, you better bring water because there's nothing along the trail.

Providing those types of amenities will bring more people to the trail system. And it increases the ability for people to use the trail system because it's not so limited. People don't have to pack the water. And has some equity undertones to it by activating the trail system, encouraging and investing both private and public dollars to facilitating very interconnected active cities.

Anybody have any questions, comments on this?

Where is the trail that DOT is?

It's this one right here. Goes down.

Okay. No. The one that connects to Dale, the ones coming up from Oak Hill and crossing over through Mango and

The one on Mango, we don't have that one mapped yet. Okay. But yeah, it would come down through the Brownfield site here. Come down through here. I'm not sure which one is Mango. And then I think it picks up down here.

So I'm just wondering why wouldn't that be considered connectivity?

Already Because that's been the goal for

I know. That's a place already, kind of, and that's a dedicated trail, right? Mean, that's Should be included on this plan

as something that's been accomplished.

Yes. Is

it an actual separate trail or is it just a road on the road?

It's really a sidewalk.

Right. But is it sidewalk? How wide is the sidewalk? Is it eight foot?

I believe so.

Okay. So I mean, rather an eight foot sidewalk than, to me anyway, a bike lane on Air Park. I don't know. That's just my

Yeah. I mean, you're leaving a gap in the system. And again, this is hypothetical for the future. Air Park Road will have to be expanded to four lanes. So if you're going to be rebuilding a four lane road, the time to do anything else is then. The time is not to say, let's build a $15,000,000 four lane road and then say, bike lanes on this would have been really nice. And then the cost of it goes skyrockets. It's another 10 just to put in bike lanes.

Well, since you're talking about four lining a road that is two lane and substandard at this point in time, and it goes through a residential area and an industrial area. I would pose that we focus our attention on a road that connects 442 to 244, which is Old Mission Road, it is much more improved at both ends from the north coming south to Josephine. Then there's a gap of substandard road between Josephine Avenue. And then from Park Avenue to 44, it is improved and very nice and has room for a bike lane. So and that area is also where the big huge drainage ditches, which cars go in and people have died and everything else.

It's a very unsafe road. I would say that before we

plan to invest in an industrial road. Plus, I think about just the aesthetics of it. I used to love to drive old mission when I had a vehicle that had no air conditioning, because it was shaded the whole time. So it was beautiful. Plus, it is beautiful. Park Avenue is not ever going to be beautiful.

No. So for safety and because it is a North South corridor from 44 to 442, and it brings people off of 95 into the city, and it connects to Park Avenue, which is an industrial corridor for jobs. You have to one do

then

we're would say we focus our attention. And It's unfunded at this time. The only thing they have funded is Well, and then there's a northern part for safety.

Construction? Yeah. We're

in. We're almost through P and E. So I believe it's funded for the result.

Okay. But not decision

for the recommendation for the Park Avenue trail system, is this just something that was recommended versus old mission? No,

this is just

That's Ryan's looking idea.

At the future of if the public has designated 500 acres, probably only 150 of it is on park. That's a lot of traffic, industrial traffic, that we're kind of saying, let's not have it go on air park. You're playing a blind eye, I think, to the reality is if another three fifty acres goes industrial, someone's going to be accessing Park. And having it in the current condition it is isn't a good plan for future planning.

So I don't think anybody's arguing that Park Avenue itself needs to be improved, but if we add a bike path or trail system, it doesn't feel quite ideal. It may be financially more feasible because something has to be done to the road anyway. Anyway. Is Old Mission a county road or a city road? County. Okay. I'm not on the bike, but I would imagine, I agree with you, that there are areas of Old Mission that are extremely dangerous. And it would be nice to have some improvements on that road anyway because it is.

Well, and the other benefit is state's paying $3,500,000 to build one on the South Side. Applying for grant money to do the North Side has become a lot easier now that we've got one on the South Side connecting to their off system. These are considered off system projects, but because they connect to the main system, they can't be awarded funding. And that's also why staff has proposed to the top side is that it's likely to be funding once we complete the South because you're connecting there isn't a sidewalk on Old Mission. There's not one planned.

Okay, but if you look at immediate need, we don't have additional industrial on Park Avenue at this point in time, but we do have a public works facility coming online off of Dale. That has taken up or created lots of truck traffic, and that truck traffic is actually using Glencoe Road to get to Park Avenue instead of using omission. And then we also have the million square feet of industrial space with 300,000 already permitted in Parktown, which is going to bring more traffic, plus the block plant in the concrete plant in Parktown, there's two of them. Both of them are running trucks from Park Avenue to Old Mission. And they're going north and south.

Old Mission is where the imminent need is. So I would think that we would take care of the safety and the imminent need and also take the traffic off of Glen Cove, which with those S turns is not an ideal situation.

I would say if you want to fix Glencoe, the path to fixing Glencoe and really Taylor, because it's Taylor that's really that intersection forward is to bring Glencoe South and to connect it with either Old Mission by bringing that West or North Cow Creek and getting a trail crossing to provide relief to that segment. Really, the reason why truck traffic is using Glen Cove to get to Old Mission is because the light at 44 is failing. I

avoid that light at all costs.

We do not. It's a failing intersection. It's now constrained with the right of way. There's not a whole lot that's going to be able to be done beyond extending turn lanes, but all it's doing is it's extending the queue. So it'll be challenging at that intersection.

People will continue to find alternative routes. And so looking to the future, Glencoe right now is not designated as a collector or an arterial road. So it's not it's something that, you know, city and the county, really the city of New Smyrna Beach and Edgewater need to work with the county to assess what is the feasibility of bringing Glencoe down, what is the relief from Old Mission at that point, does this help or not, and do a study on it, really, to ascertain if this is something that we

should move forward with. And there again, Old Mission Road is improved at the north. It's improved at the south. It just has the middle gap, whereas all of Glencoe is a substandard two lane residential road. So why not pick the lowest hanging fruit?

Is there some concerns in your mind on Old Mission, that section?

South part? It gets wet past ranges. Very, very wet. So it'll get part? Very expensive.

It's a culvert and filling in those areas,

you mean? Yeah. And then just wetland mitigation costs will be very high. So It is the lowest hanging fruit, but it's also there's a reason why it's very wet, past rageous road. So

But they improved it. And when they improved it, they could put in the culverts at that point in time, and they chose not to. Looking at the clock, we need to move on with our next because we could talk about this forever. So is there

an action or an item that identify? Is there something that staff needs to look at before we leave this settlement?

Well, I thought we established that. We need to change the ongoing to have a review, a yearly review. We need to update the plan because the timeline stops at 2020.

And who updates? Just like I said, trying to assign sorry, Ryan.

And

I think we were going to move green. And I

think your proposal was to start putting verbiage in about the trail system, correct? And I'd like to welcome our interim city manager, Joe Mahoney. And you weren't here for this, but I'll just go ahead and remind everybody. We established that there is a definite need for an economic development director to be able to stay on top of all of this and keep it moving forward. All right. So we will pick

I'm sorry. Listen, I'm just going to say one more thing. Go right ahead. Christine had talked about the DOT trail. Is that something we should add to this plan of trail systems? I think it makes sense to do that. It's

of connection.

Mean, it's done. Should be documented. So as we add trail systems to our SEDS, having those things, it's just more visual. So I appreciate you bringing that up.

Because that connected us to the Titusville Trail?

Yep. Right. Yeah. It

was

a It big is.

Yeah, it's basically connected the city to every kind of regional trail network. And so, yeah, it is a big deal because for people who are really into biking, there's an opportunity here to bring in revenue and create a sense of place by activating the trail. That was basically free for us. We should take advantage of free things.

Yes.

So I captured yearly review of objectives, update the plan, remove green, replace the trail, and then we're going to add the DOT. I think having somebody create map of trail systems and then be able to promote those because as we talk about that as an initiative, I think it's important visual to for the people. So if we create something and either put it on a website or we've done some beautiful things here, it would be nice to show for the beautiful Yeah.

Like, for example, the paddle trails. Yes. Something that would be really great at Menard May would be to have a really nice flow up map

Definitely. I agree.

Of at launch showing these trails instead of I know while you're out on the water, you're probably going to be using your phone, your GPS. But at least having that visual so you're not having to bring paper or take a screenshot on your phone. I mean, just I don't think anyone knows that the city's map is like, hey, here's a trail you can do. It's kind of hidden on the website. It's not apparent when you're there. You're probably just like, all right, I'm going to launch my kayak and go explore.

It'd be nice to have a barcode there that would pull some of those things

up and those are really kind of small things. But they add a whole depth to the park that didn't exist before. Well, it does exist. It's just no one

one has.

It's not being advertised. And we should be advertising these things.

So putting the trails down as one of our objectives and making the trails complete and being able to promote those, even the paddle trails, I agree part of the objective should be developing to And nice to promote question. What the city stands for. If that's an initiative, and that's we think that's something that

That sign right on the

main

trail of all our bike routes. Correct. And when they go by there, I didn't know that's there. I can get to the river.

Yes. And then people, they probably don't know, like, hey, you can technically ride your bicycle on 442 all the way back to U. S. 1. And again, right now, our commercial is all on US1. And so if we are trying to capture Greenville has been successful. They're capturing $7,000,000 a year.

So if we want to monetize it, we need to advertise it. And we're a small city, and we get opportunities to do small things, but we need to advertise and showcase those. So putting it on the SEDS would be one, but putting some of the objectives to be able to promote that, whether it's signs at each of the crossings, definitely at any of the water stations that we're planning, but including the paddle trails would be awesome. And I think as we look at Feds and update it, you'll have many updates on that trail system we just need. And that's something you're already working on. And you seem kind of passionate about

it. Yeah. I think it's a huge opportunity for the city. I think it's a huge asset in the community. And one of the best practices in urban planning today is to build on assets in your community. One, it's financially prudent, because in this case, this was provided to us. It really has zero cost. And two, it just creates a sense of place. And that is what the public has been desiring.

What was the park you wanted to put the signs on?

That's Menard May. We have the kayak market.

I think awesome. But we have some actions.

You're going to update that last schedule page?

Yeah. So that's going to take time because I have to go through each policy. And I'm going to need to bring those policies back to say, this one doesn't really have any teeth. This one's kind of

It's not going to happen. So

may I recommend and Bliss, let me know that when we take out the green and add the trail system, and the medical. Medical. Those are the two we should concentrate on. Let's not go from the top down. Let's go to the ones that we think we can update and have some whether it's monetary value or some visibility on creating some traction. Everybody likes to win. And it sounds like we're doing some things that have wins there that we haven't really said, hey, look, the city is winning.

I think there's a lot of wins here. And they're very inexpensive wins. But I think they will have a large impact. And that is the type of benefit that the taxpayer expects from government is large impacts, little dollars, right?

Yeah. So focus on the trail system and the medical, correct?

Adding that to the plan.

But put those first as Ryan goes through and updates things. Let's get that updated and complete because it has some wins to it. Does that make sense?

Yes. To

go along with updating the schedule, there's also a whole list of projects in this thing. What is actually going on? Can we know what that

That's what he

is saying.

And then there is also a list of revenue, how close are these projections? We've got ten years of history to look at to see the

you're looking at the CRA plan now. So we aren't on the CRA plan. I mean, he's jumped to it in the screen, but we're still trying to wrap up the sense. So we're going to get there. It's okay. I'm just trying to get from one thing to the other.

Yes, and I apologize. I just wanted to put some actions down that maybe could document and that we have a plan. So thank you, Ryan.

You're welcome.

Thank you. Thank you all. Okay. So now we can move on to the CRA. And that is a whole other plan with projects and accomplishments and its own set of goals.

So the CRA I'll run through my PowerPoint in a second. So the current CRA is going to expire in nine years. So we really don't have a whole lot of time. Of the projects in there, I would have to go through them. We haven't done that many.

But part of it is that the CRA really, if you look at revenue in the CRA, we really didn't start getting more than $200,000 in revenue tax. That incremental revenue that was coming in really wasn't until about 2018, 2019 is when the city started hitting over 100,000 And really, it's only been the last four years where the city and the CRA is pulling in almost $1,000,000 a year. So I think part of the reason why a lot of things weren't accomplished in the original set out CRA is that the CRA just wasn't really generating any revenue for the first six, seven years of its life.

Just to jump in, that's pretty normal. That's not unusual

for it

You've to take time to to build it before you've generated Yeah.

When was this PowerPoint?

This one's kind of old, so I've done this. This one's now a little over a month ago. Well, at least this slide on the Main Street. This was presented to council on Monday.

I've seen it before, so I don't know why it was.

Yeah, it's been about a month.

There's other versions, like this one. This was from our last meeting you gave us.

Correct. Yeah. And so this is the current property that we do own on East Park Avenue, the ones in yellow. City staff were looking towards acquiring all the ones in red. There are four single family homes within these clusters of parcels. So city staff have worked to purchase 104 North Park Place, which is the little building here. We're currently under contract for 114 North Riverside.

Oh, that's awesome.

And then we are working to purchase 123 East Park. And that's what we're working towards right now. What I had described to counsel is that staff would work towards securing the remaining vacant land. And then that would be this is a potential phase two if you really wanted to expand. But this northern part would be really what we're targeting for our main street.

It's a total of, I think, 13 acres. So it really kind of fits the vision of a smaller main street instead of a more robust downtown. Just looking at the topography on the site, you can see that the middle of the block there is the high point at 13. And then we progressively drop down as we head to the river. So logically, water drains.

Due to gravity, it'll go south. And so or I guess east in this case is that the current City Hall site is really kind of the best area to put a pond. It makes the most financial sense because it's literally at the bottom of the hill. And all the drainage just naturally goes there. So that was one thing staff noticed about just topography of the site.

Looking at the streetscape, we want to impact existing single family homes and existing businesses as best as possible. And so by focusing the streetscape a little back away from the intersection, it preserves those existing residents and businesses but still provides this new streetscape. So this is just proposals by staff. Most main streets take on the characteristic of having diagonal parking. You can do parallel.

Obviously, diagonal provides much more parking. The downside to this is that it does take it requires the city to dedicate more right of way to accomplish, especially with the 10 foot planting strip with a 14 foot sidewalk. That's 24 feet of right of way. But long term. Long term, that would be a move to create this as a really nice is enhancing those features. Again, just providing that connectivity around this area.

In previous meetings, we had looked at the aerial and discussed buying certain parcels and using one for a park. Remember that conversation?

The center one.

The park and also additional parking.

And so

Were parcels for sale at that time?

They were.

You go back one.

Yeah.

Yeah. So this center one, the largest, they were talking about some type of park area with fountains and concerts and food trucks and, I don't know, all kinds of things there, pop up art shows or art walks. Then the one on Lamont and US 1, that was going to be the parking.

But they were under sale at that time, correct?

Correct.

But they have sold?

No, they were just I don't think neither of them have sold. They've just kind

of taken off. Okay. I was just wondering.

They were on the market for quite some time.

So since that time, you have since put or the city has put these other parcels on Riverside And Park under contract?

We've closed on North Park Place. We're under contract on onefourteen.

That's very exciting. Pardon?

Those are eminent purchases?

Yes. Well, 104 is closed. So that transaction is closed, completed.

So that can become yellow.

Yes. And then onefourteen is, I think, we should close within the next thirty days, forty five days. And so this one's also exciting.

Very exciting.

It's exciting, but it's also challenging. So this one, I did some little historic research. So this is going to take to facilitate this Main Street, staff is going to need help. We're going to need to reactivate the historic preservation board. We're going to need to do a chain of occupancy on this building, establishing who owned it, at what year, all the way through its life.

Because this is Doctor. Hawkes's house. So it is a historic building. It's the founder's building, home. And one of the benefits is if the city can work towards a Main Street designation from Main Street USA and have that designation for our area, a lot of the I call it SHPO, which is the acronym, the State Historic Preservation Office a lot of the grants are exempt from matches when you have a main street designation.

What does that mean?

It's a designation from this organization nonprofit that kind of spearheads how main streets are supposed to look, how they function, and they promote main streets in different areas throughout the country.

So does this because it's almost a block removed Park Avenue, is that still considered? Would that still be part of the Main Street plan? Yes.

We don't

necessarily renamed the road. It's

just that is the designation. And that is what we went from in 2008, if you recall, the plan got rid of the boat ramp. And it did all these other things. And it really was even on West Park. It was pretty far west. And it was this vision of a downtown, three story buildings, possibly tuck under parking, and all sorts of stuff. That vision has been way scaled down now to just being a main street. And to Bliss's point, yes, city staff proposed on this one. You could do surface parking, which would be cheaper. Or this ramp I found, I think, in Pennsylvania fits on the site.

Has pretty much the exact same dimensions. That's what we need. It's decent looking. It's two stories. You could landscape it. Would be okay. And then obviously we'd want to underground the utilities on both East Park and North Riverside looking at the area. City staff had proposed, recall the grade change here. This is a Italian town in the Alps overlooking a lake. I just thought that plaza that plaza there overlooking the river is really kind of a very cool idea.

And with the grade change, you easily can facilitate this type of environment. The question is, do we want to foster that for our main street?

I think all of us expect to have some or a significant amount of outdoor activities, whether it's sidewalk cafes and that would be

Having a two story here would be that, right? I mean, living above and the cafe underneath or whatever.

Yeah. There are those options. This is just looking at Bar Harbor, Maine. Just kind of looking at they have their main street here. You can see there's kind of some similar things, right? The main street, they have a boat ramp. They have a park. So there's just some certain elements. Locks are

We'll put a big sunshine out.

And then this was looking at Capital Cascades Park because the public really wanted it to have a more natural feel, very well planted. This different rise here, this retaining wall, this could be that. You can do something very similar there heading to the pond at the base if you really wanted to. This is just in paint. You could create that walkable.

You'd still have the main street with that feel. But this has open shops. And then if you had this as a plaza with that very wide 100 foot, 150 foot wide, these tenants on the corner here could be anchor tenants for restaurants that have indoor and outdoor dining. But it's connected, like in the Italian version, of an open public plaza that people interact with. Again, we're trying to create a very defined sense of place and feeling that people will learn to, wow, that's where we hang out. That's the place to hang out in.

And that's parking in the top left.

Yeah. That was the parking. Obviously, it would not be that impervious unless it was a ramp. Retention, probably one would be dry, one would be wet just because of the impervious and then also requirements. Again, I'm no engineer, so this would have to get drawn up. This is just very basic layout showing you what is possible.

Are those penguins?

No. Penguins. It just shows

you Sharks over there.

Good face. And again, why I'm saying these things. Part of a downtown, this one is pretty clear. You can see the architectural style is right. It's almost even got the color down. And we need to choose. We really need to come to the decision. And obviously, we don't have to use one of these two. These are just two examples so that the pictures are visible and legible. But to decide because that really will help define the sense of places creating an architecture style. Well,

we're going to work off of Doctor. Hawkes's house.

Yeah. And that's also why I kind of pulled Bar Harbor, Maine, because he's from that area. Not necessarily Maine, but he was from New England. New England. So this type of architecture style with how it already looks is very similar to how Park Avenue is set up currently. And this could be how it could look in the future. It's got a down slope to a boat ramp. It has an adjacent park. So I just wanted to provide that as an example. The key here though is that we kind of need to get moving because we only have nine years.

City staff did estimate that we can accomplish these things. We just need to really kind of move forward with some decisions. What are those decisions? The decisions really have to be the direction forward. Are we going to continue this path of buying these properties? And are we going to purchase the four single family? Or do we want to just focus on East Park Avenue itself and everything behind it is not to focus on?

Who makes those decisions? Well, I

think this body and the planning and zoning board and other bodies need to make recommendations to the council. And then the council ultimately needs to make a decision on Park Avenue. Because the bottom line is if we don't do something within the next nine years, the county does not extend our CRA, which it likely won't, then we will need to that money so the way the CRA works is as people invest, that tax value rises and then that contributes to our fund. So at the expiration of the CRA, that money will go back into the general fund. So if the council after this time frame is over, if the CRA does expire, which it's set to in the next nine years, then they would have to set up a separate fund and allocate that portion from the general fund that was originally going to the CRA for this purpose, to continue to facilitate that vision.

So Ryan, what's your recommendation? You mentioned two plans, and I don't know if we're at a point to have that discussion, but it sounds like this board would be helpful for us to make a recommendation to city council on what we think. I have an opinion, but I'd like to hear your pro con.

So I think it's a very short time frame. Nine years is not a lot of time. The good news is with what we've done here on the northern part is that I believe it can be accomplished in that time frame. It'll just be tight. The benefit of doing not just Park Avenue but doing the whole thing is you create a more cohesive project

as a whole. More likelihood for it to be successful.

Yeah, more likely to be successful. The whole approach changes if we were to do just Park Avenue kind of in a piecemeal fashion. Now we're really talking about the city would have to really support on-site retention, undergrounding. I mean, that would be kind of it would be a whole shift because if we're going to support on these smaller lots because before we were combining everything, dedicating right away, we were going to plot it out so that it was appropriate size for people to build there. In this case, the lots are very small.

And with our storm water standard, it would be very challenging for anyone to afford to do this project. So the city, through the CRA, would likely need to subsidize storm water in order to really get anyone to visit.

So those are the downsides to doing Park Avenue. So I think I hear in the background that your recommendation is to purchase the Le Mans Street, the proposed parking, and the centerpiece as our next focus.

Correct.

Then there is some other ancillary things that probably are important, but that creates the general layout that we think is successful. To do just Park Avenue, I don't think it's a survivable business. People aren't going to go, oh, wow, let me do that. Because Canal Street took forever to take off for New Smyrna. And has is, but it's just been in the last ten years that it's become a destination.

Yeah. And I think the other thing is we have to really decide the council needs to decide what we're going do with city hall. Because in this plan, I have it as the pond because it's likely the cheapest area to put a pond.

Because you

have to

move city halls somewhere.

Correct. So that is also holding up the plan. Because until we know storm water is everything. And so it's the basis of this plan that the current city hall site is most appropriate. And really, even Doctor. Hawkes's property, the very bottom of it, is super appropriate for that long pond there to support everything that is vacant right now.

So Brian, I think what I hear is for this board, this come into it but that recommendation is the two additional purchases. And then there's some auxiliary things that I think we need to do. You have some thoughts about where retention should go in cost, and not that we have the actual cost, but it feels like, in my mind, we need to have this defined plan that has a recommendation. And then the reasons for that, that City Hall should be that. So what are the actions? Need to look at and put a budget or proposed cost of moving City Hall, correct?

The next The move

other option is putting retention somewhere else, but it may require some pumping or some underground.

Yes, certainly it would require underground.

I mean, it wouldn't be a terrible thing to include retention in some of that large lot area, but it may have a cost bringing water to it.

For it to be palatable to this council, you need an overall plan, but you need to break it down in baby steps that are digestible, that the council and the community will be able to support. This whole thing is going to overwhelm them. So if you go at it that way, it's going to fail. So you have to go about it strategically in incremental wins, which we have been doing, which is underway with an overall plan, which we already have the basis. Ryan, you and I have had conversations that this goes back to visioning sessions for how many years that the public and our current council say they want a downtown and have said they want a downtown.

And really the real big difference between the 2008 study and the update now is that Kimberly Horn kind of said, what was the problem? The problem with the 2008 vision is that it didn't say that the city needed to really buy property. It didn't say that the city needed to actively participate. And creating a sense of place requires a lot of work, requires a lot of money, and requires a lot of effort. And the city has to be active. And that is really the difference between the 2008 study and the update here is it's a call to be active to facilitate this.

So you've already started that. I think Liz is right. It's just to have an overall plan, but to feed certain portions of it. You can say without saying that we're going to rip down city hall, but we need to plan for retention. It will either be the large

phases, not

with actual actual cost cost, because because ripping ripping out out city hall is going to have a different sense of place, I would assume.

Yeah. And so the vision plan says it's not like cities just out of here on the left. The vision plan says to focus on the vacant property first. There's two reasons. One, because if someone was to buy it and build something on it, it will become that much more expensive. So that is the first cost wise, the best option to go. Second, suggested we wait to purchase any of the existing. If we are going to purchase existing homes or existing businesses, we wait until everything is done. And so two years before the plan, we're saying, all right, we got our plans. Two years before, now's the time.

And so it gives them more time to live there. Because honestly, we're not if we went and bought that today It'd be sitting there. It'd be sitting there. And so you'd be pushing someone out for no reason. What's the point? So there are reasons why staff will break down incrementally this plan and kind of list out all those aspects of why we're taking this approach and why. And really, kind of based on this recommendation, I guess look at storm water. Where can we put storm water on the site? And look at the topography. Because it's really not good to pump water uphill.

You don't want to pump water uphill. It's incredibly expensive, especially for storm water. And it's just really not feasible. So we have to think about the natural constraints of the site. And I think a lot of times that's what the public has been screaming about is that they want us to be thinking of the natural lay of the land. This So what really do something think

the next steps are for you? And how can we behind that?

So we're going to be working on the SEDS. And then we need to break down the incremental plan. And then I need to bring that back you for really your blessing. And then to bring that in a CRA meeting to the council to get some of their feedback on the plan. And then it's kind of like a TRC. Then rinse and repeat, I'll come back to you with their suggestions. We keep editing it. And then hopefully, we can do that expeditiously.

And the way we discussed in the other segment of SEDS will support this.

I'd like to

so building that puzzle.

I'm just I was just trying to move things along, too, and I know you are. I'd like to make a recommendation. As you said, the city is already focusing on those that we move forward with the two large

We need a motion.

Yes. Like make a motion that our recommendation is to move forward with the two large pieces of vacant land in order to create that full Main Street area downtown. I think those are the next focus areas.

We'll second that. Thank you, Christine.

And for discussion, didn't we already make this recommendation a while ago, but we don't have the minutes to back it up?

You did make this motion. The council did direct staff to purchase 104 and 114. And so that ate up most of the budget. And so that is why staff pivoted from the recommendation.

I think the Hawks property was a good purchase. The little one probably just needed to be done. So I think the city council did a good job in making those recommendations. Hopefully, their plan are the two large vacant pieces next anyway.

Is there any other discussion?

We should have Yes.

Any public comment? Yes. Good

morning, everyone. Ernie Cox. And my experience in other parts of the state with concepts like this, big and small, that it's absolutely critical that the city be actively engaged. And one of the things that is good, the reference to Cascade Park in Tallahassee, if you've ever been there, it's tremendous. It's a great park, but it's also a storm water park.

And there are going to be grant funds available, water quality grants, Indian River Lagoon grants. And so there's a lot of moving parts. I think this is really exciting. And as somebody who does not yet live in Edgewater but, hopefully will be a resident by the end of next year go forward.

Ernie, we'll get you on the board then. Yes.

Oh, I apologize.

So let's finish up that. So we have a motion, a second, we have comments. Do we need to take a vote? Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes. And then the last thing I I wanted to bring up, there is no new business at this time, is that Mr. London did provide me with the bylaws, which I haven't read in some time. I did really a pretty quick cursory review of them.

We have a lot more members than are currently on the board in the bylaws. It says there's nine members on the board. There's really not nine seats here. But I do want to I think we should open it up to fill those two two positions and open up applications since that is what the bylaws

Can move over? Well, here again, due to the lack of minutes and we'd have to go back in the minutes, at some point in time in the history, Rebecca, you were here, we

Increased. I thought we decreased. No, because you're right,

we increased it so we'd have a quorum.

Two members. I think we added two members, if my memory serves me correct. So it was at one point Mike, Christine, Jimen, you, me, John Ward and Kelsey. So we had seven. I think we were at five before. And if we didn't have at least three people, we had a few meetings. We have two vacancies.

We do. So we need to open those up.

Joshua's coming.

Joshua's coming. He's extremely busy. And so we're going to get him all the dates so that he gets them calendared. That way, it's just easy. And staff will send those calendar invites as well. If you don't want them, just let me know after

the meeting. Can we consider other applicants? The previous I don't want to say pool of applicants. But there

were Yeah, absolutely.

May So

we only have one open position, correct? Because there's five of us plus John

Kelly. John Kelly. The board is

John Kelly, sir.

Well, full at seven, but there's two.

Does the board want to increase to nine? Or do we think seven is plenty? I guess that's what you're asking, right? Well,

no. What I'm asking is if you I guess what I'm really asking is, do you want me to completely open it up or take the past applicants that have already

No, we need to open it up.

We're going to expand the board to nine.

So the bylaws says the board is supposed

to be nine. Yeah.

That was signed in 2013.

We haven't updated it since then.

It's been a long time.

I honestly feel like nine is a lot. I do too. I think nine is too many.

The other route would be editing the bylaws or revisiting the bylaws. And

we discussed, okay. We can amend it.

How do you feel about that, Bliss? Nine versus seven.

I think seven is fine. But I seem to remember there was

a

conversation about changing the bylaws again since 2013.

That's what I was saying. Thank you.

But it didn't happen.

So what needs to happen to make that happen if everybody here believes seven is the right number?

Well, since Mr. London brought it up.

Why don't we do a review of the bylaws? Legally, I need to open it up. So I'll open it up for applicants since it's still nine.

Well, we don't need to open it up if we're going to review I mean, we've revised the bylaws. So we need to make that determination.

So we

have a conversation going on here. If there's a motion to amend the bylaws to seven, somebody needs to make it.

Make motion to amend the bylaws to seven and review that for the next meeting.

Is there there a second? Second. Okay. Any discussion?

Going back to the bylaws, what's the amendment process in the bylaws? Hate to be that person, but I don't know whether

got them.

Yeah, I need look to at it. In

the sake of time, you want to review that and bring it back, Brian?

Yes. So would the motion include doing the research on

Yes. Let me do all the research and

then What is the come avenue?

Okay. How about that? Will that

That's perfect.

Okay. Will you amend your motion?

Yes, I will amend my motion to review the bylaws and how to amend the bylaws, but the thought process is we need to reduce the board from nine to seven. So my motion is review the bylaws for amendments to reduce the board. Okay.

So we had a first, we had a second. Was there any other discussion?

Question what you were doing.

No, I think it's fine

to We

have a lot of opportunity to clean up paperwork. It's

reality. A worded

feeling.

It is. And it's ongoing.

It's been a busy

So

do we need to take a vote, Katie?

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Thank you, Katie.

You gave us the budget. Did you want to discuss it?

Oh, yeah. So I did provide a copy of the budget. I just held everything constant.

Anybody want to talk to you?

No, I got

one. Yeah, I haven't changed anything. Likely will decrease on some of the operating supply side. I don't print things. So I try not to print things. So there will probably be some savings there. But overall, I didn't receive anything new regarding any kind of increase in expenses for our sponsorships or anything like that. So I just kept everything constant and the same.

Just one question about the chamber membership just to make sure we're not duplicating. So the economic development board has a separate membership in the city of Edinburgh?

Correct. I believe so, yes.

Just wanted to make sure.

Any further discussion on the budget?

All the memberships and dues, we will be paying those, but we will not be attending the conference. We just have no time.

Well, we don't want to take it out because those are memberships, are they not?

The memberships, but I meant the conference for the FRA annual conference and the economic development conference. Staff doesn't have the time

to go. You don't have the time to go?

I don't have the time to spend a whole day away from the office.

Where are we

at with hiring? So we did interview five people. And those were about a month ago. And we did extend an offer to someone who unfortunately turned it down. And we felt that the other four candidates really weren't qualified for the physician. So we're starting again. Yeah, and we're trying to get a pool of applicants again to interview.

Given the need, given your need, consideration or appetite for a possible consultant to help you? Or would it be helpful until a full time person could be found?

Sure. Any help will always be helpful. I think it's a matter of a balanced budget. So one of the things is if we hire a firm, typically the city would utilize the money from the unfunded salary to pay for that. So if you've got it would be difficult because you'd have to keep track of that consultant to make sure that on a month to month basis, they're never exceeding the current salary so that in the event that someone does get hired, there's money in the budget to hire that person.

I have a question.

And those types of decisions, the budget, so that is really a council decision.

Of course. Could we ask the county

if there's anybody or any recommendations on economic development? Mean, I'm just saying Can go to your area and see if there's people?

Mr. Volusia Business Resources. Mr. Resource?

I'm just saying we can

put something out on Facebook. Hey, we need need an economic development person. You know, wherever it's been advertised, you have a bigger pool than maybe we do. That's all.

The city does a really good job. I believe we put it on APA, American Planning Association. We did put it on LinkedIn. It was on the city website.

This So you're going to put those back out because we need to redo. And then who will help us by maybe putting some feelers out throughout the county? Has

Had a lot of things. Economics here in the city. Was coming from Brevard County, so she would have to move into the city. She was a single mom, professional single mom, taking on an ego go manager role. And there's just not really apartments Edgewater, and there's nothing there's houses for in United

question.

Outweighed our offers. So, there was no assistance in relocation? No.

Usually, when you're that close, even businesses don't spend a lot lot because it's less than an hour's drive from here. A lot of people drive that.

Katie, will you put the agenda back up on the screen, please?

Cut. I've got a

Okay. Anything else on this? Okay. I'd like to move on to although it's not on here, I'm going to put it on that.

Think

question.

No, just Daytona State is gearing up for fall classes.

And And when do they begin?

Begin August 25. So we're excited about that. That's really

what we're focusing on. Do you have a report on your summer camp?

Summer camp went well. We did host a three one week sessions of STEAM camp back in June. Didn't get the turnout that we wanted, but it was still an increase from last year, so that's a win. And again, next year, we are just looking to tap into more of the home school communities since that is such a big community here. So just tapping into them and leaning into them a little bit more.

And my apologies, you said you had to go. Do you No, have a I'm

not until 09:30. No, I'm fine. I'll wait for everybody to get through. Think we're wrapping.

Mr. London, do you have anything you'd like to say?

I would like to get everybody's phone number at some point.

That's something else we need to update.

I know. We've got a lot of new members. Need to get the contact sheet updated.

So let's send Katie. What's your email, Katie? So everybody will send an email to Katie with your current phone number. Do you need anything else? If

you have a different email, that would also be helpful. Or the one that you look at. It's probably been a decade since the emails on there have been updated.

I know, and that's like another thing, emails. I started one in my professional career five years ago. It's become out of control. People just get it, and it's got a thousand I'm going have to create another one. I wish it was a private that nobody can get.

I'd be happy to meet with you, but if it's about anything regarding this board due to the Sunshine

Law, even one on one?

Yes. If anything is going to come before this board.

Oh, no. Just look at history, the dues and those.

She'll think on that.

Mean, concerning

just any matter that would be brought before the board for consideration, even though it's a recommendation, would be subject to it needs to be the only Yes. It might be good that we program in kind of maybe in the next few months here if we can get applicants and we get if we go to if we stay at nine, then

we

have Because Joshua's new too. Yeah, Joshua's new too. So that might be good to have, hey, this is what we're about. Orientation. Yeah, an orientation session might be warranted. Sorry.

I'm reading them any minutes to get up to speed.

I know, we don't have them. We need

them. Not I'm picking on Ryan.

No. We're trying not to, too. He's doing a good job. What's your first name?

Tim.

Okay. I also have a board report for the East Volusia Manufacturing and Technology Coalition. We are going to be having or hosting a disaster preparedness workshop on August 12. It's going to be presented by the Small Business Administration and the SBDA. And it's a webinar, so you can watch it from your office, your home or whatever. But it's disaster preparedness and business continuity. So what you need for

the power goes out.

Is there

a flyer for that?

Pardon me? Is there

a flyer?

There is a flyer. There should be some flyers in the back of the room on your way out. And if not, will email Ryan one to I

have them. I think they're in the back, but I have printed on it.

Well, we can email it out to everybody.

Please.

It would be good to get it out in the community. It's our last push. It's amazing because we are in storm season. I thought that given the last couple seasons of storms that people would really be tuned in to this. But registration has been slow.

And this is about small business administration, the loans

for Yes.

I think maybe people are confused because it's an SBA loan. They don't realize that it also is can get it for other purposes too. Exactly. So maybe that is why people aren't as aware. Don't know.

I'll push it on LinkedIn too.

If people could push it, that would be great because it's going to be an hour of resource. And then, let's see, our golf tournament, our little bit announcements for today. The We are working with the chamber on preparations for this summit, which will be October, I think, I always say it backwards, I think it's going to be the twenty third. You'll be hearing more about about that the closer we get. And with that, is there anything else from anybody?

Rebecca, do you have anything else? Did you?

Anybody the audience?

Thank you for coming, Lou.

Thank you. Lou Paris, Director of Economic Development for Volusia County. Ryan, have you been to the petitioner meetings that take place at Team Volusia? I've only been to one. One. It would be a great place to present that ask about finding someone because then you have all the practitioners there in the room who at the very least can point at someone who would be

Somebody you can tickle and

say, hey, it might be a good fit for you.

Exactly. The other thing quickly, when we were discussing or you were discussing the trail system, there was questions about demographics. Do have, Ryan, if you can go to volusabusiness.org. One second. Sorry, I'm doing this impromptu.

That could be because we just redirected that URL. If not, you can type floridabusiness.org. We have a sheet on every city. And I kind of pulled it up. I noticed that we need to update the demographic data, but it's there. You can see a sheet for every city. And it seems like New Smyrna Beach is 62% versus what we have here, 54% in terms of 50 plus. I wanted to volusabusiness.org, not volusabusinessresources. I'm sorry.

Just take out resources.dotorg.

Just want to show you where that data is if you ever need to pull it. Okay. If you go to research center, there should be demographic somewhere in there. So down you have all the cities listed in the bottom left.

Yeah. So

we have all average household income, per capita income and all that. They'll be valuable to you to compare cities. That said, I do realize that we need to update the demographic information in terms of the age breakdown. I believe it's drawn from the census from 2010, so we would use it 2020. That's all. Thank you.

Thank you. Wonderful. And Lou, thank you for coming. Always. I was going to bring up the expedited review, but we didn't get to that this session. Okay. But that will be coming up. All righty. A motion to adjourn. Second.