Economic Development Board - Regular Meeting

Ms. Cruz? Mr. Kelly?

Here.

Mr. Edmund? Here. Ms. Power? Here. Solsys?

Here.

Mr. London?

Yes, here.

Okay. No minutes at this time. We will dive into well, first, anybody from our visitors like to say anything this morning, have any business they want to share right off the bat?

Very quickly, good morning, Ernie Cox Park. We're making progress. If you guys make the drive out there, you'll see the beginning of a building. It's about 7,500 square feet. The concrete block walls are up. We have trusses soon. The goal is to have that building CO ed and ready for activity next summer. At the same time, we're continuing to dig lakes and get the site prepared. One of the things with all the rain, we've been working real hard. We're keeping all of our excess water, all of our water on-site.

So as we're digging the lakes and it's raining, we're digging ditches and berms to keep all that water. And then Robbie and the team are constantly looking at the culverts running under 95. That's really important. And then on the economic side, we continue to have very good discussions with the County. Lou was out there with us last week with Team Volusia and with the CEO Business Alliance.

We're also working very closely with the Florida Department of Commerce on economic development initiatives plus a job growth grant application that's pending. And then we are preparing the first light industrial sites so that hopefully by the end of the year we'll be able to we're taking people out there and show them now kind of the sausage making process. But by the end of the year, want to be able to show them a cleared and filled site ready for building. So that's exciting. And then just to kind of understand what we've got going on out there, we've got about 1,500 acres of the 70,000 activity.

So that's about 2% of the land holdings. But of that 1,500 acres, about 800 of it is going to go into pasture as soon as we get done digging lakes and filling. So we anticipate that pasture area to be in cattle for probably the next five or six years. But again, given us the ability as we go forward, the first phases of development will include single family homes, it will include some retail, it will include some office, working on the grocer. And then that first white industrial area is in that first area.

But we also think it's important as we continue to talk with potential job producers and companies, manufacturing, assembly, research and development to be able to show them not a wooded site, not an under development site, but here's a nice clean green pasture with cows on it. And we'll also start to plant some trees around the main lakes. So we're very excited about that. We're on schedule and working closely with the city and the county and everybody in town, just trying to get to know each other. I did also want to welcome our Vice President, David Feckman, down here for now from Chicago.

But he's going to be becoming a Florida resident next year. And we're going to be neighbors hopefully by the end of the year. So if you guys ever want to come see it, give me a call or Sean a call or Robbie a call. And if there's anybody else in town that has any questions at all about what we're doing, let us know. And we're happy to talk to people that like us, people that don't like us. Just important, I think,

to get the facts out there.

Ernie, I had a question. Is anybody else on for us? Obviously, you've probably been out there. Have you? With these guys or just from a different perspective? With Robbie. Mean, if you'd actually be interested, yeah, just because I think it's easier for us to or for me anyway.

Yeah, come on out. One on one. I'll make sure to give you a card.

Just to get a better understanding, because there's obviously, that's the talk of not only here, but this one as well. Obviously, we've seen the plans have been part of the, I guess, overall plan. But seeing is an understanding.

You'll be impressed.

Yeah. And it's just I think it can help

maybe

Dispel some of the myths?

Yeah. Yes. But also maybe put more of a positive outlook on some things. I think it's because you see a lot of the or hear a lot of the stuff that when you haven't been on property, all you see is the

Rhetoric.

The havoc that's being caused. Mean, honestly, as someone who grew up here, I mean, that's what you see. So I think I mean, I'd be interested.

Again, one on one and depending on how much time you have. So if you say, listen, I've got an hour. Well, we've got an hour tour. And what we try to do is to not only show you the areas that are getting developed, but also the areas that are being preserved. And then if you have more time, Robbie does a great if you've got three hours, Robbie does a great tour where not only do you go through the development area and the conservation area, but the pasture area, the timber, understand the operations.

Think there's also there's not a real good understanding of how much effort goes into taking care of 70,000 acres of property. A lot of work. But no, happy to do it. And we've I'm going to guess we need to update this number, But somewhere between one hundred and seventy five and two hundred individuals have done one on one or three people tours over the last six months. And what we're finding is that when people actually understand what we're doing and they see it instead of just reading it on social media, they've got a better perspective.

I think one of the other things is our folks have been here for one hundred years, one hundred years. And we're starting to develop right now less than 2% of the whole holdings. And we're going to do our very best to incorporate low impact development, enhanced storm water, holding more water on-site. And I could tell you, as somebody who works directly for the family, the direction is do it right. And if there's anything we can do to help the community that we're in, we're not just going to be some group out there on the West Side Of 95.

And that also includes being open to criticism and listening. So really appreciate any and all. So let's definitely get that tour. It's a good tour.

I took it about six weeks ago. How do you go, man? We can talk about that.

Yeah, happy to do it. And again, one on one. And then finally, I'll just mention, if at any point you all would like us to give kind of a more formal presentation with an update with some apps, just let us know. And we're going to between me and Sean and David and Robbie, we're going to try to be as involved as we can be in the community. So thank you.

Ernie, question. You mentioned culverts in '95.

Yeah.

What's actually going on there?

Yeah. So a little bit sorry to take so much time.

It's okay.

A little bit of background. Prior to I-ninety five, there are a number of ditches and waterways that existed where water essentially went from west to east. When they built I-ninety 5 and it's pretty clear, you can go back and look at the old photos there's a number of culverts under 95 because the DOT can't block that historic drainage. And so those culverts are there all up and down 95 in different sizes. We connect to a couple of them.

Not all of them. We connect to a couple of them. And so as we've developed the master plan, the permit, the conditions, and the operations are that less water is going to go through those after than before. So we're basically holding more water. Now we're not holding all of our water, but we're holding more west than was before. But now during construction, we're being very careful to make sure that we're not sending any water from our site through those culverts.

Is this the Edgewater or New Smyrna?

Both. So there's a number of culverts in New Smyrna. And we haven't started any development work in New Smyrna.

So whatever is happening over there is still happening.

We made any changes in New Smyrna except making sure that none of the water from the area that we're in active development is getting into that. And so that's why if you go out to the perimeter ditches that we looked at, holding all that water on-site, which means the site's wetter than it would normally be by design. But we're keeping a close eye on those. And if there ever is a question, we'll immediately investigate it.

So when we took the tour, you mentioned some of the water will be stopped from going under 95,000,000 mainly in the New Smyrna development. That's scheduled about when?

We've started the engineering. So the very first thing we've got to do is a detailed hydrologic model of the entire area. We've got some old modeling that was done. We've got to update it. So we kicked that off. And we've got our engineering team gathering data right now. We haven't done any analysis yet because we've got to get all data. Our expectation is that over the next two years, we'll gather data, we'll analyze the data, we'll discuss the data, we'll design the plan. Then under the New Smyrna Beach approvals, we've got to take that plan back to the city, review it with staff, review it with planning and zoning, review it with city council. Then we'll make applications.

Yeah. Realistically, I think we're three years away from moving any dirt for development in New Smyrna. Now in the meantime, we're continuing timber. It's a timber operation. All those pines that are there were planted in rows. When they're ready to be harvested, we harvest. We're continuing the pasture conversion. Because as the mills are gone, any time you harvest timber, you're going to put it into pasture because you can make more money agriculturally with cattle than you can with timber. Right now, beef prices are good. So if you're in the beef industry, it's a good time to be in the beef industry.

Thank you.

Yeah. Anything else?

I do have a comment. I just want to say that it is, to me, the best case scenario that the Dearing family is doing this development, because there were owners, couple of in theory developers, and it was not going to be to this level of consciousness and in good faith partners with the city of Edgewater, with the city of New Smyrna, and with people of Florida. Not going have to

that much in conservation, are they?

No, it would not have. And I mean, I started on the P and Z in 2011, I think, or 2012, I don't remember. And it had just been restorations was just approved, it was neat. It looked really cool. But this is to another level, and I'm quite thankful.

And please keep up the good work with the information that's going out on Facebook. That hopefully is helpful. The post of where you're at, and the deer, whatever it takes. I'm hopeful that people will figure out that it is a good and positive thing for that area.

We appreciate that. I mean, it's interesting. I actually, me and Jeremy Markowitz and our team did a presentation presentation and discussion with the University of Florida landscape architecture class on Monday. They have a and actually one of the students is going to be doing this project based on Deering Park and explaining kind of the history and what we've done, and how we're trying to do it. And then the constant challenge of really just people don't know.

And I think as people understand what we're doing, they get it. And then the final thing that I think is just for me, we've sold our house in Jupiter. Mary and I are nomads right now, kind of traveling around the country chasing kids and our one granddaughter. But we're building a house here. So we're moving here. Sean Steffen, who you guys have met, Sean lives here with his wife. David's moving here. My mom's going to move here. So I mean, we're

All in.

We're in. And again, guys, I'll be the first to tell you, we're not going to be perfect. Just We're not going be perfect. We're going to do our very best. If we do something that we should if we don't do it right, tell us, we'll fix it. But what we are going to do is be engaged and do our best to be good community partners. Oh, sorry, David. I think this is really important too because I am so excited about coming down here and all

the folks I've met over the past fourteen years coming down here sporadically. Just at our last quarterly meeting with the family last week, they are so excited about this project and proud to have their name on it. It's a huge deal, right? When Ernie says about doing it right, they would tell me, They didn't like what was going on or everything else. Christine talking about that type of development, not going to happen. I think the most important thing to it is the longevity of this project. I mean, this gonna take forty, forty five years. Family's not going anywhere. You're gonna meet the seventh generation. They're excited about it.

Right? And so if something goes wrong, the family will make sure it gets right.

I mean, yeah, they're in for the long

haul. You.

Thank you.

Thanks for

your support.

It's a pleasure.

City staff. I will say that Gearing Park has been very good about comments. City staff have often pushed the developer to do things that most other developers, if it isn't in the pod, would just say, go pound sand, Ryan. And they have risen to the occasion almost every time. So it's really going to be a really terrific community. Yes.

Lou. Lou.

Good morning. Lou Paris, Economic Development Volusia County. One point, but before I do, I wanted to comment. I've done that tour twice, the second time with our new assistant county manager, Gus Zambrano. He's new to the area coming from Hollywood, and I wanted him to see what's happening there.

And he was very excited. I think Ernie does a great job walking you through the progression, everything they have done. And I think the conservation aspect of it is anyone who you find in the community who would have perceived objections, I think that tour would just like it would just diffuse anything that you may have in mind because it's, in my 2¢, so well done. So I'm very, very impressed. We believe in this so much that on the upcoming quarterly breakfast, which you're all invited to attend, on November 21, we will give Ernie airtime to address the audience and explain, give a little bit of background what they're doing.

We're tying that with a topic of reshoring and unshoring. So basically, that were here that left or businesses that have never been here that are coming into The U. S, partly because of the new tariffs. And we want to tie that with if we're ready to be able to accommodate some of these industries that are coming in. So we'll be looking at industrial land.

And our panelists will be our recruiting arms. So it will be Team Volusia, and it will be the CEO of Business Alliance describing some of the efforts and some of the industries are specifically looking at to bring to the area. I personally believe that what's happening at Deer Park will be the most active economic development section of our county. And it will be for quite a while. So, you know, very exciting.

Now, the point that I wanted to bring up is the Project Cherry Blossom. I don't know if it's confidential, but I'll just say Cherry Blossom as the code name with metal plating activities. We have had there were some issues, as you may know, with water that they were releasing. And so we had a conversation at the county with a representative of the company. It was very positive.

And we have two potential solutions. And to the extent that even yesterday, we received a letter from them, an email asking for a letter to kind of say how the county is planning on supporting. So Ben Bartlett and Michael Ulrich are working on this, are looking at the best possible solution. So we're excited because this industry, this business is critical to the aerospace. And it's one that I think they will be the biggest in the country by the time they set up shop and they expand.

And so we expect this to become a center for that specific kind of service, where parts will be shipped. So they don't manufacture anything that provide a service in plating. They will be receiving products from all over the country to be treated in their plant. So just to let you know, that is very much on our radar. So we're working this very intently. Our public works folks are on it.

Thank you for that update.

You're welcome.

Cherry blossom is not secret here. We've been talking about EdTech for a couple of months. Good. It was in the hometown news. It had a nice article on it. And we're very pleased that there are two solutions and everything's moving forward.

Yes. So we're looking at what makes more sense. And I'll reveal this. One of the things that we're contemplating is actually upgrading the plant. I believe the plant is located in Oak Hill. So upgrading that plant so that not only benefits Insertec, but also any other business following coming up behind. Because we think once you bring a business like that here, there are likely to be other businesses that are part of the ecosystem that will come. So I mean, you would have to be foolish not to think that that's a reality. So that's a thought process that we have.

You.

Yeah, thank you.

What type of plating is it?

It's metal plating, like for aviation, aerospace. Galvanized.

In all of it. Everything.

Ammo, mean guns, brake parts, anything that gets plated, medical parts, it's huge. We're a little off this But because we are this conversation is where it is, I would like to go ahead and request for next meeting, Ryan, that you bring us a map of the Oak Hill sewer plant service area. And I'm asking for that because, for those who may not know, the South part of Edgewater Sewer is serviced by the City of Oak Hill, which plant is operated by Volusia County. And the city of Edgewater entered into an agreement for them to handle the sewer years ago, like 1999. And this had an update and this, that and the other.

But the expansion that Lou referred to has been in the works since 2019. And we will bring up a plan for you to see at the next meeting. But as Lou has addressed, the sewer will be going to that that area of the county. But that sewer plant is very critical for the city of Edgewater and Oak Hill and their future development, residential and industrial. Because right now, it's at capacity.

And Ryan, it is my understanding that with all the homes that are slated to come on board just in the city of Edgewater, the capacity that they're expanding to is not going to be sufficient. Is that

I'm not sure. I'd have to look at the permit again. Off the top of my head. I do know we do have a lot of entitlements in the south part of the city in that utility service area that the county does service us. So so a lot of those are going to be coming online. And so there is a need for increased services down there with the sewer plant. And the good news

And

item, we're going to dive into that for the next meeting. And that would be impact fees from those new houses helping to pay for that and new businesses.

Correct, yes. So the impact fees, yes, we transmit them to the county because it's just a hard part. Right.

And businesses. So in businesses, as we know, we've discussed many times, pay the lion's share of those taxes. And then also, as we've discussed before, and Lou's talking about what a draw that business is going to be, the surrounding land around that business, there's 137 acres zoned industrial, and there is a builder that wants to rezone it and build a housing development with two commercial outparcels on U. S. One.

So land industrial land is hard to come by. We really don't have much other than that 137 acres at the south end of the county. So, these are two very important topics regarding future economic development for the City Of Edgewater. They're still pushing for that? Yes. And in fact, now it is on the market. They are marketing. They are going ahead and marketing those two outparcels on US1 for sale. And this is through CBRE.

So business on one, that's even in front of industrial behind it, that doesn't totally bother me. But trying to put residential in there, it does not.

Well, and then you're talking to a manufacturer. Who wants to locate right in front of a residential community where they're going to complain about noise and trucks. Just keep that on your radar, and it is progressing. The residential part is progressing, so we really need to pay attention. Now, can we begin with our agenda? We're going to address our comprehensive economic development strategy, and we're going to begin with a staff report from Ryan.

Thank you. So over the last few months, we've been discussing the SES comprehensive economic development strategy. Did everyone read the staff report and get an opportunity to take a look at it? Okay. So in this staff report we discussed some of the kind of ongoing challenges and needs. So for example we have right now city staff are working with city of New Smyrna Beach on that joint resolution for the Old Mission Road. You can see here

Can you increase the Zoom? Yes, absolutely. Sorry.

I looked at what the

guy said. Y'all don't feel

bad. You.

One of the things, so just important, back in 2012 we added this policy 2.1.6 to improve and upgrade old Mission and increase the horizon of when it would happen and that was back in 2012. So the resolution city staff are working on it with the new Smyrna Beach. I just wanted to provide that update. One of the things that staff had done prior to this coming out is we had added road connectivity. And that's kind of the next topic that we're talking about here.

And city staff at the beginning had thought, Okay, based on future development, what are all the roads that would be helpful? Not necessarily feasible, just helpful for transportation mobility. However, based on the comprehensive workshops, Tennessee staff are facing somewhat of a dilemma. A lot of the area in the unincorporated areas that was designated is mostly rural. And we have a lot of lands that are encumbered with swamp land essentially.

Most of this this dark green here has already been put into permanent conservation. So there is kind of a giant 11,000 acre swamp dividing the city. And so we don't have a lot of East West connections. You have Park. You have State Road 442, Volco, Halifax. There's really not a whole lot of East West connections. So with the public not wanting to intensify development along Volco, B. C. L. A.

And with their incurring entitlements, we have everything West Of I-ninety 5. And then we also have the whole south part of the city that is really developing And councils of the past have already reassigned a lot of those future land uses down there. A lot of them have expired PUD. But they have the future land use change to residential. So the question for the council coming up is not whether or not you want residential.

The question for them will be, do you like this type of housing product compared to the old PUD? And so thinking about if we have a concentration in the South part of the city of residences as well as businesses, how are they going to interact and get out to I-ninety 5? How are we going to improve the transportation network to facilitate that? And I don't think city staff had identified we could Volco Road. We could do all these sorts of things.

But one of the issues with doing these things is just there's a lot of environmental concerns. And so what I wanted to talk about is how should the city balance economic development through road connectivity with the future land use and the existing environmental constraints? So for example, here's I'll bring up one that I'm working on. Down on 35th I'm working on Kumquat Road extension which would close 35th and it would extend Kumquat down to Volco, essentially creating a safer turning movement into the shores. The city owns the right of way all around the railroad track.

That's been like a fifteen year effort to acquire all the right of way around the railroad track. And so that was one thing. One other thing is city staff have to do some wetland mitigation through that. It's about a quarter acre that we're going to have to mitigate in order to build that road. That's the conversation I want to have with the board.

Is that something right now we have about four people who have died on that curve there in the last ten years. So how is that? How am I supposed to balance those things? Understanding where we are at with development, where the natural environment is, what's in preservation, and providing those connectivity.

Well, hearing Park's in the room, and I know they have a lot of ideas about connecting in the future. I don't know that this is the time for that discussion since they are not prepared. Prepared?

No, this is really more just to kind of a guiding for staff to determine what is transportation as our values, things that we want to prioritize? Because everything, if we prioritize one thing, other things will obviously be below that. It's just how things work. And so what considering the SEDS says the city should actively be creating better transportation, is there a caveat to that? And what is that caveat?

At least this board's opinion on it. Because this is I'm taking your feedback, and I'm updating the SEDS. And the SEDS, again, are our guiding document for how we are to grow.

So what would be the advantage of mitigating the half acre in the thirty fifth in Kumquat to Falco extension to get traffic from

essentially run it through the To run it straight down to Falco. So just eliminate that

corner, right? I think that's the least of the oh yeah, I don't think that's a

But that's just one example.

Yeah, no, right.

But I mean I don't think that that's an issue. I think that's a smart move to get rid of that stupid corner. Mean that's at least the problem is yours is mitigating a half acre of wells. I

don't think you're going to have a pushback on that.

Sure.

Theory. Check. Right?

I'm all for doing the obvious and the low hanging fruit.

But do you want should the city really be there's a lot of subdivisions that have public roads that dead end that could really be connected where a lot of people wouldn't want that in the city. But transportation in the city would be a lot better. Just innately traffic would decrease because there would be alternative routes for people to take. One of the things that the policy is that city staff want to open up this connectivity of subdivisions. We added this policy here.

While older residential areas are well connected, new subdivision commercials are sometimes not. Ensuring connectivity takes pressure off those major roads. And even, I would say, some of the existing subdivisions, there's easy access that could be had. And they're just not. And a lot of these subdivisions were built that way where we have public roads where we could connect subdivisions. But you didn't have that volume of traffic back then.

Or sometimes it's emergency vehicle access only.

Correct. Built that way intentionally.

Yes. Like there has to be

time question. And

to we're

have to be able we'll And the connectivity and where it's going and the second traffic flow you're going trying to move and the volumes before we can say, yes, go after this or yes, but yes, in general. And then if you scroll back up or down, we need more North South corridors down there in that area as well. I mean designated ones instead of just going through the neighborhoods. Because some of those, majority of them through Florida shores, it's you stop every block. I mean, there needs to be and depending on your density that you're going to be increasing down there at the South End, you really only have U.

S. One, and that's not going to be sufficient. But it just needs to be studied more.

The long term plan that was laid out was creating a road alongside 95, so it looks like. Yes. Similar to Port Orange and the other cities. That makes all the sense in the world. It opens up property for white and heavy industrial because it's near the highway. Obviously, you're going to have people that don't like because everybody wants all the stuff we're talking about, but not in their backyard.

Are you talking Williamson?

Well, Williamson's, during Park is going to take care of, but most of the stuff that is

on South of that.

Our goal is on the other side of the highway, on the east side. And it's extending Glencoe out to 442. It's Cowal Road. Cowal Creek. Cowal bringing that all the way down to I

call 3.

Cal Cal Cal Maytown Road. It makes sense to bring Cal Calf Creek all the way down. So those are the naturals. Making sense doesn't always remember, we used to have on our River to Sea TPO wish list a bridge from Edgewater over to the beach side.

That's not. Yes, when I was six, that was on the agenda.

It's not happening.

But in there, you had two overpasses between 442 and 44. That seemed I would think one would make sense, but why was there two?

The two was just depending on really truly future demand. One overpass will probably likely be necessary between New Smyrna Beach and Edgewater in the future just with all the development. Depending on Oak Hill, depending on the space industry in the county and kind of the unincorporated Volusia County part outside of Oak Hill Because there is still parts of the county down there that are part of

the

county. So I think there could be a huge opportunity that it might be required way, way long time in the future to provide that connectivity.

So I do have one thing to say about that. And it's Ponce Inlet. I mean They

do the same thing

for years. Years. Ponds Inlet. So basically, Dunlopton in Port Orange, you go across to the beach side, right, south of that.

Are you talking about this bridge over there?

Yeah. I mean, you go it's like seven miles or something down to Ponce Inland. The people that live down there are very not connected, basically, to the mainland. And there are a lot of people living there. To me, more so than New Smyrna tapers off in its park over the

That makes question. Then that from the

time. And

happen on the U. S. One corridor south part the county. But if you have something out there where obviously we're doing the park is all the way, Calcreek all the way south, parallel of ninety five, That's key. That gets somebody to be able to run north, not going on Glencoe, without going on US-one, without going on Old Mission. The to me, that's the priority.

That would be an evacuation thing too, right? Yes. Ultimately.

Safety. Let's be honest, if you live in Oak Hill, you're used to I mean, I'm not hating on Oak Hill, I'm just saying, it's kind like when you grew up in San Soulo, just like when you live on Beachside. If you live on South Beach, you're used to driving

miles coming across fifteen minutes.

It's kind of if you live in Oak Hill, you're used to having to drive all the way I across the

don't find it to be I don't find it would be a benefit to Oak Hill or South Edgewater to have a shot over into residential New Smyrna Beach on the beach side. I don't see why that would be

no. I meant not on the beach side. This was another one out into Deer Park into the future.

Oh, Oh, okay.

It was the potential, depending on what happens, that there might be a And if we intensified Cow Creek enormously, that would

then that

would then trigger yeah, no, the beach one, no. You'll never get that bridge built.

No. I would like to add, we've jokingly talked about an overpass over the railroad. But as the city develops

Yeah. That will be key transportation routes probably on Park would probably be an important one.

And I can see one on further down.

Yeah. I mean, strategically, there's probably a couple that we really need to work with the railroad especially as Parktown gets built out, as that first 300,000 of spec warehousing is going. As soon as a tenant moves in there, you'll notice there's a lot more traffic on Park Avenue.

Truck traffic has already increased.

Yeah. I mean, there's going to be a lot of truck traffic coming in and out of Parktown heading either to get on the 44 or out to 95. So they're either going to go depending on where they're going, they're either going south to get on 95 or trying to get out to New Smyrna into 44. So yeah, there's going be a lot more

traffic in that area. And so planning for that is super important. And the connectivity of that

going and how people can get to different places in the city.

Yeah, it makes me think of traffic traffic studies, like what triggers a traffic study. And if a place only has 100 houses, it doesn't trigger it and whatever. But the overall picture would be an an interesting thing to try to tie it together. If anything bumps a certain area over an amount of cars, then a traffic study might have to be done, if that makes sense.

Yeah, traffic studies are done. I think one of the things is the hard part is you don't like, for example, the warehouse, right? We don't know a traffic study was done, but you don't really know until the tenant gets in if What it entails.

Yeah. They're giving you an estimate Correct. Of it.

But you don't it could vary. And so there's that part of it. There's also I know Deering Park looked at our whole transportation impact because their development is so large, which was helpful. A lot of the times, the developments don't really look Beyond their corner. Beyond their little scope of bubble, whatever.

If it's a half mile, it's a half mile. So really what we're getting in these transportation impacts often, that's kind of the nice thing about the gearing. Perk point is I get a lot more data than typical in a transportation impact study is that I'm only getting this little sphere of influence. I'm not getting the whole picture every time a project comes in. I'm This relative and half mile, sure. There's obviously externalities that just aren't being accounted for. And so it's challenging.

Also, when you're talking about developing opening opening up up an an extra way for people to get in or out of that, you have to be careful of people using a neighborhood as a cut through. That doesn't 's of a bit Street, in theory, it should be one that has a little sidewalk on it, more if that makes sense, right? Because traffic, in theory, is going to be going faster than there should be. Means. And by the same token, where there is a sidewalk, that makes sense for that to be a street that would be up more at the North South.

Hey, this is where you get where you're going.

How

long is Bloor Shores from Top to bottom. Top to bottom. 442 Point something. Is that from 442 down, or is that all the

way way up? The school board site just South of Mango, they're down to 36, 35.

In theory, it's not far. But if somebody's late for work, they can make up four minutes or whatever. Well,

yeah. I mean, too, one of the challenging parts about Florida shores, too, in the future, with all that traffic on State Road 442, there are a ton of curb cuts in Florida shores leading onto State Road 442. There's no traffic light in that.

Because

not one area, right, kind of the downside to having very dispersed traffic, is not one area there

has

enough tracks to trigger a light at that specific intersection, right?

Right. And

the

access with the turn lane, the access is everywhere.

Correct.

So which is what Route 1 used to be until F dot those changes, right?

I'd recommend we come back to the second part of this and go to the overlay. That way I can get direction.

Oh, yes. You're talking about the commercial space?

Yes.

Yes. No, we'll have to table that, and we will address the commercial space industry opportunity overlay and the Oak Hill sewer plant service area next meeting. So at this point, I'd like to move on to your report. Do have you anything to report?

I have some very promising news for an economic development manager. Hopefully, we're going to interview her within the next couple of weeks here. Hopefully, I'll be extending an offer. I did hire a stormwater engineer to help the city. And that was an available position in my department for a development review engineer, stormwater engineer.

And we're still looking for a senior planner. But I may drop that down to a junior planner and just start training again to get bodies in. Because they're just working a lot. So it'd be good to get some bodies in. But we are I did meet several times with the county. We appreciate it. Michael Ulrich. Everyone's been great to work with. I think we're getting close to a solution for Insertec, which is really great. This is a big win for the city.

This is potential to have 200 jobs in the next two years from one company coming into the city. So that's a lot of jobs. They're good paying jobs too. And they're blue collar jobs too. So these are all things that are benefits to the community.

Board reports. Do you have a River City TPO report? And I understand they changed their name.

Yes. Yes. So it's Blue Shield Flagler Transportation Planning Organization, Although the website is still River to San Francisco, it's in the works. We had the first meeting at the new place, which is conveniently right near where Trader Joe's is going to be. So that's Cornerstone instead of at the it's been at the airport for the past year and a half or something. So no, I mean, don't have anything specifically. Still rolling along. It will be, call for projects starts up again in December.

Thank you. Mr. Lyndon?

Other than I signed up for a couple of VCARDs here in October.

I

did manage to attend the launch of the Innovation Hub at the airport. That was really cool if you get a chance to check that out. Please do, in a nutshell, it's a space where entrepreneurs can meet with folks in their industries and they kind of help them get their businesses launched. So it's really, really awesome space. I also attended attended the the State of the State of Series with the chamber a couple of weeks ago. That's pretty spot on with

what we all know about the growth in the county

in the area.

That was insightful as well. And at the college, we are gearing up for our open house October 27. So that's an opportunity that students and community members can come see some of the programs that we have to showcase.

What time is it?

October 27, 5PM to 7PM. That's it.

Any new courses or anything for

No.

No. Nothing yet. I try not to make the first announcement.

Yeah, no, I like my job. All

good. Good? Nine on the dot.

Pretty good, Bliss.

I will say, the Southeast Volusia Manufacturing and Technology Coalition golf tournament is November 7. And we are working with Volusia County Schools to have industry go into the classrooms and speak a

I think

I question. Students, and Daytona State GED students to our ATC campus, our advanced technology campus. And what triggered that thought is, again, the whole point of the chamber's talent tours is to expose local students to workforce opportunities. And so at the ATC campus, they were able to look at law enforcement, EMS, emergency medical services, welding, CNC machining, automotive, and collision repair, all of those workforce programs. And that was yesterday, actually. We had about 40 students

That's fantastic.

All of those schools total.

How many schools?

It was the high school. Middle school didn't send anyone. And Burnside Tech and then some of our GED students. Wonderful.

Last week, I also had the opportunity to hear a Blue Origin presentation at ATC. That was quite something. They had an HR gentleman, a gentleman from HR and an engineer there who is now the supervisor of all of their facilities and equipment. And they both spoke, and the HR guy started there seven years ago. Seven years ago, they only had 100 employees at Blue Origin.

Today, they have 4,000. That's in seven years. They're in the process of adding 12 buildings to their current location. They've also talked about or they've announced an expansion in Titusville of a different campus altogether. And they are actively recruiting, and they have taken their first famed student from Daytona State College, so they are engaging with that.

That was very exciting, and I hope to follow that up with a tour of Blue Origin at their facility. But and they'll tell you space is here and it's growing. Lou's been talking about growth in aerospace and aviation for a couple of months now. We're hoping everybody gets the message. Yes. All right. Well, 903, motion to adjourn.

So moved. Second.

See you in November.