Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Hey, what's up everyone? This is Mayor Eddie Melton right here in the city of Gary in the fifth district on the grounds of Roosevelt High School, historic monument to the great city of Gary, Indiana. Although I went to Horseman High School, you have to love the history, not just in the city of Gary, but throughout the country. I want you guys to see the amount of work and attention that we're putting into this facility. We're here today Roosevelt and this is one of what I think six or seven right mayor of projects that are called the jewel parks around the entire city that we're working on and fixing parking lots and tennis courts and basketball courts and baseball fields. So, it's it's citywide and this is the first one. We wanted to get this done very quickly for mayor and his team because there's a big celebration here obviously coming up. But again, we absolutely thrive on being part of this city. There's nothing that me personally I love more in my life other than my family is this city and the opportunity to be able to be here and give back to the place that I love so much.

And he's from Edna. That's right. Got to be known. Edna 13th and Edna Street.

Got Edna boy right here. investing in the parking lots, in the tennis courts, in the basketball courts, beautifying this entire area right here in the Midtown area in the city of Gary. This is just a start, folks. Today, we're not just breaking ground on a building. We're breaking ground in hope, opportunity, and truly transformation. The Talison Opportunity Campus will be more than a facility. It will be a space for our youth, a wellness hub for our families, and the support system for tomorrow.

So, this will be the brand new lobby, uh, reception area, uh, new coffee shop in this corner over here. That area underneath there is all the new Methodist health space. Right here, we'll have another main stairway coming up so that you can go up to here where we're going to have like the workout area that will then lead into a track that will go around the gym overlooking the gym outwards.

Hey, what's up everyone? This is Mayor Eddie Melson right here in the great city of Gary, Indiana. And I am truly excited to be on the site of the new YMCA that is built right here on the Talison campus in the city of Gary. And right now we're coming through detailing all the steel, finishing up all of our welded connections. After you jump the next foundation line um looking at the three basketball courts are going to be right through here. Would you join in the in the fun? I'm not going to play basketball. So today we're going to tour the site. It's an honor and a pleasure to just talk with the leaders that's on this project with Powers and Sun Construction, Berkeland Construction, and the entire team.

I am Mayon Powers with Powers and Suns Construction. We're excited to be here at the new YMCA at Paliston in Gary, Indiana. I grew up just blocks away from here. So, it's just amazing to see uh and so proud of the investment that the YMCA, Boys and Girls Club, and Methodist Hospitals are putting into our community. Uh this is going to be great for the city of Gary uh and great for the the local neighborhood. I am Alex Morowski, project manager for Bergland Construction. Uh lead project manager on the Talist operation or Taliston opportunity campus. Um really excited to have Mayor Melton out here with us today. Uh really getting able to look at this new expansion and all the new scope that we've got out here from the new basketball hoops uh to the new pools getting dug, the new steel structure that's coming out out here. And we are uh all really excited. the biggest thing that we're excited about and why we love construction so much is being able to finish things up and see the final product that's out here. Um, so that's really what we're looking forward to is working through scope and in the end here being able to see how this impacts the community for years to come. Uh, getting the kids involved out here and really becoming a part of the community has been a great opportunity for us. We want to thank the Boys and Girls Club, Methodist Hospitals, all of the nonprofit organizations that's being responsible for bringing this project together. So stay tuned. Hi, my name is Veronica Collins Ellis. I'm the executive director of the Gary Health Department and we are having our health fair, health and resource fair here at IUN in the Savannah parking lot.

The services that we're providing are STI testing, vaccines, cholesterol, hemoglobin testing. We are providing free dental services. We have a plethora of other resources that you can come and check us out at. We will try to do this every year to provide these services, but you can contact the Gary Health Department at 219-882-5565 for additional services. It'll be a party in Gary this afternoon. A new Jackson 5 mural is being unveiled in the Miller Beach neighborhood. The local artist behind the new mural is Felix Maldonado. The city says it is meant to reflect cultural preservation and tourism development.

Today, this represents a truly special moment in Gary's ongoing cultural renaissance. We come from a city of greatness. Great job, man. Again, your your your signature, your brand, your style is known across the world and right here in Gary, right here in Miller, in this neighborhood is going to resonate for generations to come, Lord willing. So, just let's give it up again one more time.

Thank you very much for being here. And someone pointed out to me that Michael Jackson had a shirt just like me. The business owners are very proud to have this new family mural beautifully recreated by Felix. Much more I can really add from what these fine people behind me said already. Um other than I am very proud uh to be back in Miller Beach. Thank you so much and enjoy the mural.

In the world we live in today, we need more of this. We want to share today. We're doing more murals. If you go on 25th and Broadway, 25th and Broadway at the intersection, you're going to see a beautiful mural being done right now of Gary's own Denise Williams. and the spirit of the Jackson family. The Jackson 5 mirror reflects what's possible when talent, community, and creativity come together. It reminds us that Gary has always and will be the birthplace of greatness, creativity, and resilience. I just really want to thank the community for coming together to make the second annual back to school fast a success. To me, this event, what it represents is community. such a blessing. My heart is filled with such gratitude. For me, I think the first things first is have a vision for where you want to go. You know, I don't care what grade you're in. You know, if your goal is to get better grades, then start preparing yourself and doing those things. A lot of times, you think about it, you get in a car and you turn your GPS on, your GPS is only as good as the directions or the destination you put in there. So have a destination goals and then get out and conquer those goals. We've given away so many resources to so many deserving. So I'm ecstatic and I can't thank our volunteers enough. I can't thank our sponsors enough. I can't just all

make this as successful as it was. It wasn't a onewoman show. It's not a one committee show. This is what it means when a community comes out and comes together and blesses our scholars and their families. Feeling feeling blue. Heat. Heat. Hey,

hey, hey. We are GPD.

We are GPD. We are GPD. We're the ones who show up when it counts. The ones who run toward the problem, not away. If you got the heart. If you're ready to step up for your city, this is your moment. We're hiring right here for Gary. K9 unit, SWAT, federal task force, ATV patrol, whatever your lane is. This isn't just a job. It's your opportunity to lead, to protect, to serve. The time is now. Mission, vision, and values. A greater Gary.

So the only question is, are you? Apply now. gary.gov/p police or email gpdr reccruiting atgary.gov. We are GPD. It's your city, your future, your call. You guys are being part of history right now. So, you know, um, you ever been to Fort Wayne, uh, baseball field? Yep.

South Bend and their baseball field. That's I'm trying to create that type of atmosphere. What's up, everybody? This is Mayor Eddie Melson right here at 700 East FTH Avenue right here in City of Gary. As you see, the next structure that we're tearing down, uh, which was once owned by the Gary Redevelopment Department, which was a old storage facility, uh, is being torn down right now. it was inoperable uh and become blighted, graffiti, uh poor roofing conditions. So, right now, this structure will be a clean site thanks to our team at Aegis, thanks to I believe it was Celely Construction. Yeah.

Uh as well for their support. What you're going to see here as you drive down Fifth Avenue is a clear line of sight. As we're going closer towards the Railcast Stadium, we're going to be working with the other businesses to make sure that this is a more presentable, safer, cleaner atmosphere for future development in the city of Gary. So again, thank you everybody for your support. It's raining. We're still getting the work in. We want to thank everybody for their hard work and dedication on the city of Gary. We're going to be building a brand new train station um in a couple years.

Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to the Gary Plan Commission meeting for uh November 20th, 2025. Uh we're going to open this meeting up and start with the information session on PC UDO, the introduction to the unified development ordinance. I'm going to turn it over to staff. You got to do roll call first. Yeah, let's do call. Yeah, we'll do roll call first. Okay, roll call. Okay. Uh Tom Sarah here. Jeremiah King. Adam Hall here. Bill Cook, Willie Miller, Ellen Harrell, present. Darren Washington, present.

Sherman Wilson, William Ellen. So, we have four members present. We can open the meeting, but we can't conduct official business until we have the fifth member present. Okay. Thank you. So, uh back to the information session on PC UDO.

Uh okay. So, um, good afternoon everybody. Uh, we wanted to take this opportunity, uh, we to just follow up on our presentation from last month. Last month, we went through a detailed description of what each of the new chapters are and the general summaries of the new zoning districts that we're creating. Since that time, we have been working through to um continuing to strengthen the ordinance with uh graphics and just updated language from comments that we've received. Um for um the public that's here, if anybody, you know, we're welcome to take public comment on the draft that is posted on our website. It's gary.govplanning. Our plan is to have a official public hearing on uh on our December planning commission agenda. So, uh that is where we will have a 10-day public notice and then the official public hearing at the plan commission meeting in December. And um Sylvia, do you happen to know the date of the December meeting?

December 18th.

Thank you. So, um I wanted to just share with you some things that we've been doing over the last 30 days to formalize and tweak the the ordinance and the language that's in it. Uh Sylvia has been working on mapping because our entire city needs to be reszoned because we have these new criteria for these zoning districts and we have some new zoning districts. And so we're basically uh recreating a new map for the city. As we are working through that uh we are discovering some uh unique circumstances where like for instance legal descriptions when a parcel is sold uh the legal description may not be correct and so they sell it with that legal description but then it leaves 58 square feet um adjacent to the next parcel. So um It basically creates a parcel that ends up being a line of land just simply because the legal description did not correlate with the recorder's office. So there are there's some cleanup that is going to need to happen and that will take years and we don't even know how uh we will approach that as a city municipality. You know maybe we inform individuals. I'll give you another example. U there's a block in the city and we have a partner that is considering doing the exact same thing where there there's eight parcels in a block but they want to put larger parcels on the property. So they're going to take those eight parcels and only make six and they're going to reduce that by making each one

a little bit wider. And now the county instead of recreating new um a new one singular parcel they ended up um creating new parcel lines but maintain the old one. So we have one house that actually sits on two lots but it is a single family parcel and the intent always was that it should have been combined into one parcel. So there's some instances where um it's not a duplex, it's a single family home. It should not have a parcel line and that impacts tax uh revenue because the one parcel is designated by the county by as vacant vacant parcel, but really it's a part of a residential property that is a very nice home. So, um there's some cleanup that we've got to work through and that we've only discovered that because we're going through and remapping the whole city as a result of each of these districts. So, um each of the districts has a um boy, these apples. I don't even know how to how do these work?

Um Ronald, how do I move down on a page on an apple? while she figures that out. And I also think that there's a two-tier portion for the era. Um I think it's more so um x and y coordinates which goes hand in hand with the addressing. Um so a a lot of that is compiled into one and y if you don't have the exact coordinates for that location, you leave out just a small number, then you end up with that little sliver of space that belongs to someone. Look at that corum.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you for coming. We have to update the the basis here for the coordinates also for that's what that's how they're going to have to fix it. Yeah,

that is going to be the alternate and then redo the legal. They can't redo legal until they fix the X and Y coordinates because legal will go from that. they'll split it based upon, you know, x and y coordinates as well as acreages, which they'll just shift um square footage into acres. So, another glitch that we discovered with our proposed language and the mapping is because we have these instances where we have these random lines of lots or maybe the lot is a thousand square feet and it should have been a part of another parcel. Um, our code as it's proposed R1. You'll see here underneath the minimum lot width, it's 25 ft or as platted at the adoption of this ordinance. Well, or platted means that it could be a 5-ft lot and uh that we don't want a tiny house. We don't want a a someone to go through a BZA variance process in order to put a tiny house on a tiny lot. And so we're going to amend this R1 language to um uh be something that it has a a smaller lot size uh maybe 20 ft lot width. And we're going to put a minimum square footage on the size of the of the parcel. So 20 by 100, which is 2,000 square feet, is a minimum lot size for R1. And that will help us steer away from these instances. Another glitch that Sylvia discovered is um in the R3 district. This is this this district here where um

it's our duplexes or town homes. You have three attached in the right home. Well, again, the same situation is we established a minimum lot width um and we'll have a minimum, you know, square footage in the new language, but we also have um setbacks. Well, in duplexes, uh, we need our side sideyard setbacks to be one of them needs to be zero because in the end, a duplex could be parcled out to condominiums and you actually have two different parcel owners even though it is a um,

one lot,

one lot. And we discovered this in the mapping process because the the map shows one single family unit, right? And uh that would be an R1. It's one single family unit, but the building itself is two and they've divided it, you know, into two parcel ownerships. And the way we can manage that scenario and encourage two to three home developments is by managing um changing our setbacks, our sideyard setbacks in this scenario to say it's a a 25 foot setback and one of your sideyards needs to be directly you needed to have a shared wall basically with the adjacent parcel. A zero foot setback.

That makes sense. So that's different than zero lot line. Um well see it's different. So you got two houses basically it's not a setback but it is a setback because they're conjoined. Right? So that setback will be exists within the centerpiece of both structures because they're separated by two different parcel numbers. Right? So all structures are identified by parel number but this is one whole structure. Right? As you see it on ground. Now, if we put it in there the way that Miss Sharp stated, it has to have that wall in order for it to be considered. That would be the setback. That setback is the requirement. That wall, right? So, that wall has to actually be on the center line

in order for it to be considered um R3.

Yeah. Okay. And what this will do by by getting to this level of the detail now, it will really limit the BCA's work in the future. And it will encourage these missing middle types of housing that we're trying to get to. We're not just building, you know, these large houses and apartments. We're building a diverse housing product. So, by tackling the code and doing the map at the same time, we're really getting into the weeds on some of these some of these instances. Um, and then, uh, we're part of the code also is our, um, permitted use table. And our permitted use table, you know, stretches from everything from accessory dwelling unit to a wind turbine. Uh, and we have um consolidated the permitted use table from what the existing code says today. That um the existing code served as our foundation um but it had a lot of antiquated permitted uses that are no longer relevant. um in the draft that is online and has been circulated too, there are some missing units that um or missing uses like for instance crematorium. Uh crematorium is not listed on here. So we'll be adding that in uh and showing where where that type of facility can be located uh in in the community. So those are some of the

and what was the new one we got? ROS's, RFOs. Am I saying the letters right? Basically shared living units. They

It's like dormatoriums but apartment type um development which is going to be very unique around IU, right? Because that is a type of development to help bring in the um to give the college students the ability to live and attend school. So in that area that would be unique and so that was something that uh actually happened today. Someone uh well no it was yesterday we had a meeting and they spoke about those type of um developments and I thought that was unique especially for our institutional areas.

We used to have those in downtown Los Angeles. Um there was a special thing single something I can't remember the exact name. Yeah. So shared living quarters, it's good for um relieving the homeless population as well. That is true.

But it'll have to be um by special use no matter what where what place because it has to be regulated or else you'll just have a issue. Uh so um really this is a presentation just to share with you that we are still working on the code. We're continuing to adapt it based on public feedback and our internal discussions as a team. I have shared uh a link to the uh draft of the code to the cabinet members in the administration. Uh, and um, again, it's online at gary.gov/planning underneath the projects tab.

All comments are welcome, good, bad, or otherwise. Okay. And if you have any questions for us today, we're happy to take them. Are there any questions from the fellow commissioners? One more time, uh, this is a open public comment period. Anybody would like to speak? regarding this uh PCDO. Okay, then we'll call this public comment period closed. And thank you for your presentation. Appreciate it. Okay. Um council, we do have uh two commissioners that uh we'd like to do another roll call or do you want to just include them?

Um we can uh so the Jeremiah King, are you present? Yes, sir. Sherman Wilson, present. Okay. So with that uh now we have six members present and we do have a quorum uh to conduct official business. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Uh so the first is the approval of the agenda uh and the minutes uh with a note that the PCUDO did go first instead of last u on the agenda. So uh do we have a motion to approve uh the minutes and the modified agenda?

Move to second. Thank you. All in favor? I. Okay. Good. All right. We'll move on to uh uh TIFF district resolutions and amendments. Midwest Center. Sorry. PC calendar. Oh, I'm sorry. It's okay. PC calendar. Uh official dates for the 2026 uh calendar year.

So, these are the um dates. The reason why um our department felt it was necessary to get it out because we have business to handle in December which means January dates um needs to be um approved because they'll be doing that in December for January, right? So, we've looked at it um and kind of viewed through. I hope you guys had an opportunity to look at it in your packet. So, um we wanted to approve it now and get the minutes up online. I mean the agenda online. I will note that we did receive a calendar invite for all these dates for 2026. Thank you for that. You're welcome.

All right. So, is there a motion to uh any first of all any discussion? Uh any objections to the calendar dates? Any conflicts? Okay. Uh then I would uh like I see entertain a motion to approve the uh plan commission calendar for calendar year 26. Motion to approve as stated. Okay. Thank you. Second. Thank you. You will have to call for a vote for Yes. Sherman Wilson. Yes. Darren Washington, yes. Ellen Harold, yes. Adam Hall, yes.

Jeremiah King, yes. Tom Sarah, yes. So by vote of six to zero, the calendar dates for 2026 have been approved. Okay. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is the TIFF district resolutions amendments. The uh first one is Midwest Center 5th resolution dated December 17th, 2002. I'm going to basically present all three of your resolutions all together. We um in the city have multiple tiff jurisdictions and uh Yeah. Go ahead and pull pull the chair up. I removed the chair.

Maybe Thank you for joining us, Commissioner. Glad you're here. You came right at the right moment.

So, um the city of Gary has um fifth districts. That stands for tax increment financing. It's a mechanism that encourages and spurs redevelopment and economic development of specific geographic areas in the city. We have uh several different t areas. Some of them um are decades old um and and Midwest is definitely one of them. We are a step in the process of approving a tip district. None of you have ever been a part of that because as I mentioned these are decades old. But the way the state statute is written is that a uh the redevelopment commission declares that they want to create a tip district to spur economic development. They cannot make that decision on their own. They then go to the plan commission and say we'd like to do that. Will you please affirm that um this is a valid use of uh tax increment? what tax increment financing a tip district basically is. It's an opportunity to put a geographic line around an area like this projector here and you say um the city is all around here and my five parcels are here. I want to collect the property taxes in this five parcels to invest on these five parcels. So these five parcels collect the future property tax specifically. so that they can um encourage development. And what that does is it creates a mortgage like environment for debt capacity. So you have the the guaranteed tax income for this property and you can bond against that. You can take a a mortgage out, bond against that, and then a a bank

would say, "Well, we know you have guaranteed income to pay that. So we'll lend you money to invest now into this property." And that's how TIP works. So they come to the plan commission after they've been to the redevelopment commission. They being the developer or the city, either entity can create a tip district. Um at at that time they the plan commission reviews it. If the plan commission approves the use of the funds um and the state statute says specifically what the TIF funds can be used for. you um consider it. After your consideration, it moves on to city council and city council considers it. After city council considers it, it goes back to the redevelopment commission where um it changes from a declaratory resolution all the way through these three agencies back to a confirmatory resolution meaning we confirm as a city all of our agencies that this is a proper use of tax funding and and the mission to spur economic development. Okay. So, the three resolutions that are in your packet today deal with three different um districts that were created prior to um 2022 definitely prior to 2000, but I'm I'm trying to label the date specifically because the state legislature in 2223 changed um the law to allow TIF funing to support public safety salary, so operating expenses and capital improvements. So, um, none of our tax districts have that listed in how you can spend the

money in those specific districts. So, what you have here is an amendment to the original declaratory resolution stating that we want to be able to use the TIFF money in these three different districts specifically for a public safety incentive. And uh the dollar amounts are in each of your resolutions. uh and it is a onetime payment out of this year's budget for that specific tip district. So that's how those resolutions are structured and um why it's here before your board. And attorney Molina, I'll let you close out with any other comments.

Yeah, I think that was a great summary. I just would add uh so the the code site for uh plan commission specifically is Indiana code 36-7-14-16 and basically after the TIFF is approved by the redevelopment commission or by a resolution it comes to the plan commission and we're basically affirming yes that as she said that that is a use that's in line with basically the city plan um because they're now amending these old um resolutions uh to add in the powers granted uh under Indiana 36-7-14-12.2, which specifically allows uh funds to be used for police and fire services uh for capital and operating expenses. Um because they're making that amendment, uh it's imperative that we approve the amendment uh as the final step and then it would go to city council um for the city council's uh decision finally. Uh so this is kind of the middle step that's required in order to allow these tip districts to be uh or or the use of the funds to be amended and go towards police and fire services

and they require our individual signatures.

Yes. So we we the way we drafted it is each resolution specifically references the uh original uh tiff district resolutions their numbers uh and then uh the redevelopment commission just on November 3rd uh passed the resolutions that amended the original resolutions. So what we're doing is uh authorizing that amendment. Um and then we do have a sign u on this resolution for everybody to sign. We'll take a vote. There's also a a place that says what the vote is because it may or may not be, you know, all in favor or some against or some extensions. Um, and then everyone would sign the actual uh petition or resolution regardless of whether you support it or not just because you're confirming that this vote was taken on this date and that was the action that uh transpired today.

So, we'll approve these individually. Yes. Okay. Following your vote, we will handr write um any missing commissioners on in on the ten item already taken care of. Okay, fantastic. And we will pass around one sheet for everyone to sign. Thank you. That just means I'm special. That is exactly what it is. I'll do what I can. Are there any questions or Yeah, a couple. Um, so to explain this clearly, we want to we want to make sure everybody understands this is not creating a new tiff. This is taking money from an existing tiff um to do this.

And Corey, this money already exists in these tiffs. These are not bonds being leveled against the tiff to do that. And that's going to be very important cuz and I'm just preferencing this to explain it when it comes before the city council that they don't think that we don't think that it's a new tiff or that we are leveling to look at bonds. Um it's money that's already existing because when you do the bonds you got to look at the value of the land and make sure that you can get that money recouped. And honestly I talked to the mayor about this. I think this is and and this is I think and correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Hall and Attorney Molina, this is the first time that I've seen um this TIF money be used for public safety.

Yeah.

Um because this is an excellent opportunity to use TIF money for that because generally if the TIF wasn't there, that money is supposed to go to public safety anyway. And because of all of the issues that we're having in trying to ensure and I know some of you are read in the newspaper about Marville and their public safety and giving raises and although we can't do that I think this was an excellent idea to be able to show all public safety fire staff um law enforcement that we are continuously trying to look at innovative ways to ensure that they understand that we respect them by you know providing bonuses and and and and pay. So, I thought this was a very genius idea of how to use that tiff money to go towards public safety. And if we're going to have those many tiffs, if there's money in there, I can't think of a better way to use that to take care of our public safety until we can afford to close down a lot of the tips. So, kudos.

And it is just one time. It's not per year, right? Yeah.

Yeah. My concern is that we stabilize. Not that it's not a good idea to take care of your public safety, but as you have more and more tiffs, the regular tax base and and the the way that system really should work. I want to make sure we're not just moving moving pieces around without stabilizing the entirety of our tax base because the more you move things around, you never get to that stabilization. Tips of course are supposed to add value long term which I'm really interested in that portion.

So we do do our portions where the tiff is beneficial. You have to resolve that. until you dissolve them. There's no expiration. I'm sorry, he asked a question. Do apologize. You can continue. Yeah, you asked about stability. I was asking if there's expiration dates on these. So, apparently, well, each tip has an expiration date and I know we have to really look at those dates when they come up because like some of those tips are like 20, 30 years. Like one tiff that I really frustrates me is the airport tip. So, I'm not going to get into that here, but I think Cory had it at some point.

And that's the stabil when I say stabilization, these long-term tips, but we don't have a lot of background. I'm not saying I can't read, but the fact is there's a lot more detail and a lot of background that needs to be disclosed to us. So um at the redevelopment commission there are some reporting criteria and some criteria that's established at the state level as to how long these tips can exist. Back in 2019 I believe they passed this state law that um tiffs have an expiration of 25 years uh or 30 depending on certain criteria but essentially it is 25 years is what everything is being worked towards today. These three tips expire in 2029. So, uh they are close to close out. Um and the investment that has happened in these areas has already happened. So, these are excess funds in existing tiff areas that expire in 2029.

Okay. So, you're saying they've all done well. They've done what we should see a tiff do. Is that what you're saying? Yes. But also, you got to understand too with the tiff, the increment goes into that pot that pot every year. So, I mean, if it's if it's a beneficial tiff, it's going to continue to develop. And Corey, let me ask let me ask you this. is for a tiff that need that administration would decide needs to close early. Does the redevelopment have commission say if it's 25 year if they want to close it in year 2026. Doesn't the redevelopment commission have that power to do it?

The redevelopment commission does have that power to do that. There um some of our tiffs have bonds debt associated with them and so paying off debt early always is a a stipulation that we need to consider. you know, is it a benefit or do we have penalties associated with paying off early? I have not gotten into the weeds on where we are in that debt because most of our debt is close to being paid off. Um, and the plan is is that when that debt is paid off, for instance, one of these tips um clo the last debt payment is in February of 29. That's that is when it will

Oh, so these three still have bonds that's due on there is one that just one of these tips and will the only way you can close a tip early is if there is no bond payments that's due on I know that I'm very familiar with mortgage lending because I was in that industry. So for me, you know, it's just like a libore or any type of debt as we're saying very familiar with that. That's why I'm asking for particulars because when you make decisions, you need to measure what you're doing. And as as a fidiciary for for this group, I would want to know those things.

Well, this is a land this is a petition where we we are adding a way to spend the existing tiff dollars. We're not creating new tiff areas. Okay.

The from my time on redevelopment um uh I know we we in the past didn't have a good understanding of how much money was actually in each of the TIFF funds. I think due to Councilman Washington's efforts um that's now been corrected and I guess somebody said oh look you've got an extra million three in this particular fund and that's the kind of thing that that needed to be done. The bonds are all taken care of on a regular basis and some of them have been paid off early. Uh was working with redevelopment to determine which bonds could be paid off early to save money uh on you know on on retiring them earlier. So those districts that had bonds, let's say that went through 2029, if if the bonds have been paid off, then any income at that point is going to be the supplemental income to the TIF and not have to go to bond payment because those have all been retired. I don't know what the current status on each of these is, but not all the TIF districts had bonds. Um, and some of them were purely bond payments. There was never going to be any additional income. It was just a financing mechanism.

It's great to know we're in the black in some areas, but it's one thing to know it versus hear of it. But the de the devil's in the in the details. So I I'm I'm happy, but as some wise people say, happy but happy. And that's why I said the what was it the finance committee that you created development um has has taken care of doing that. city last which was a very us

if you would yeah if you would like um the redevelopment commission um just earlier just two weeks ago approved their 26 budget and I'm happy to forward that to you all um for for your information. It will show you each of the different tip districts that are in the city. It will show you um the beginning balance both for 25 and 26. It will show you um the debt service debt service

and it will show you also um debt expiration u month you know when the debt payments are due, the purpose of each of the tip districts and it will show you a map of that tip district. Um and then it will show you also each of the um the revenue that we're expected to come in and any other expenses that are going out. So um it's a pretty detailed um sheet. I'm happy to share that. So you would share that? Yes. It's not online. You would share that with us. It will be online. Um actually we filed it with DLG last week. So

yeah, I'll be but I will share it with you all via email. That way you have it in your inbox. Okay. And none of this the ones that are in here um would impact the the planning the new comp plan um ideas that you know we've been putting forward such as the new convention center that's in a I don't know if that's in a tiff district. It's at least next to the one that the hard rock is in. It's not it is in a tiff district. It's not in a tiff district that the city of Gary or the Gary redevelopment commission manages. that is in the Gary airport authority uh tth district.

So um that um that tip district um I unfortunately am not able to report to you on. I don't have information to be able to share how that is performing um or the the extent of the purpose for that tip. I still on the airport board compact and um they have to come before um the finance committee because we approve a portion of that budget. So I'm I don't think it'll be a problem because the airport is its own entity. So their tiff is not on gateway where you practically can see everybody all the other tiffs. And so Steve Dalton who is their um their accountant, he can provide that information at request of what that tiff is. And the challenge is that I don't know if you all remember they and a lot of people don't know and it goes to what you was talking about, Mr. Miller, that they had when they did the lease buyback years ago. Um it was a tiff, I think it was like $55 million. They explained it at the meeting and that tiff is due to expire I believe in 2030 but they recently earlier this year did a $16 million bond for two hangers and that tip I was told is an additional 20 years and my concern that I told with the administration on that and I don't know who was none of us were a part of that but when that convention center or that casino was placed where it was placed It was placed right directly in the tip. So all of the building that is going to progress around that area that is all that well not the taxes and thing but we're just talking about the increment because the value is going to increase.

It's going to go to the airport to that tiff where they spend that and so I mean the mayor has the majority of the appointments on the airport board and also you look at the convention center. I just think that's why I was asking questions about how long because actually if that bond wasn't produced in the tiff for those two hangers by 2030 that other bond would have expired and so they extended it when the airport approved that that money for that bond. So that increment and that area is going to grow dramatically. it goes to the airport and I just thank God that the mayor has four appointments on the airport board so they can directly look at what needs to be done in that. So it is very important when we have major developments come in the city and that's the challenge that Corey and we have to face is that you have what we have like 14 15 tiffs

somewhere around. Yeah, it's around that. The fact is is making sure we don't place a major economic piece in a tiff area that that increment and historically when the tiff expires public safety is the one who really gets that money from that tiff area outside of the taxes and that's why I was I was glad that they use that money for the public safety piece because that's traditionally what it's used for. set set ourselves up where we kind of put around

and Cory, I see what I can do to get they supposedly they emailed us um the tip information for the airport so I can forward it to you when I get my hands on it so you can have it. Councilman, thank you for your clarification and explanation. Thank you for your comments. Are there any other comments from commissioners? Okay, so it's time to So, first up we have TIFF district resolution amendment for Midwest Center TIFF resolution dated December 17th, 2002. Is there a motion to approve? So move, Mr. Chairman. Second.

Roll call, please. Uh, had my handy dandy roll call here. Hold on. Uh, Sherman Wilson, yes. Darren Washington, yes. Ellen Harrell, yes. Willie Miller, yes. Adam Hall, yes. Jeremiah King, yes. Tom Sarah, yes. We'll show by a vote of seven to zero. The resolution for the Midwest Center TIF uh has been approved. Okay. So, you continue. Okay. Next we have TIFF district resolution amendment for lakefront tiff resolution 2745 dated August 15, 2000. I move to approve.

Second. Okay. Motion and a second. Sherman Wilson. Yes. Darren Washington. Yes. Alen Harrell. Yes. Willie Miller. Yes. Adam Hall. Yes. Jeremiah King. Yes. Tom Sarah. Yes, it will show by a vote of seven to zero the lakefront tiff resolution has been approved. And lastly, we have tiff district resolution amendment for urban renewal area truck city tiff resolution dated April 5th, 1977, also known as the smalls farm urban renewal um area.

I move to approve. Second. Okay, there's a motion in a second. Roll call. Sherman Wilson, yes. Darren Washington, yes. Alan Harrell, yes. Willie Miller, yes. Adam Hall, yes. Jeremiah King, yes. Tom Sarah, yes. So, by vote of 7 to zero, the urban renewal area truck city uh resolution, TIFF district resolution has been approved. Pass around the Almost done. We have to sign. Is it three times? We actually You have to sign three times each one of them. Okay. I can check on that. Can we sign those outside the meeting? Yeah, you can continue with the meeting. I just was letting you know I'm passing them around. Sure.

Okay. Um the next item is the planning zoning department update. Well, I've covered a lot earlier in our presentation regarding the um compreh or the oh my word the new unified development ordinance. Today you should have received in your packet um the final adopted um comprehensive plan. City council approved that after you approved it. And so we are very happy to have that up online. That is also on our website at gary.gov/ /planning underneath the projects tab. So that is your hard copy to have and share with your neighbors. Um the board of zoning appeals last uh this past month also had a very short presentation on the unified development ordinance. So we are trying to hit a couple different places to um receive comments and feedback regarding the unified development ordinance. Uh Sylvia's continuing to working on the mapping. The mapping is also leading us to a fully accomplished um address management system. And so, uh Sylvia, do you want to provide a little bit of an update on that?

Um sure. So, currently, um as you know, with our zoning ordinance, as Miss Sharp stated, uh things have shifted, which means our map shifted as well. But in shifting that map to align with our comprehensive plan, which is what our zoning ordinance um will do, we have notified some gaps and some discrepancies within our addressing, which will impact safety. My main concern with it is where's fire going to go when there's a fire and it tells you your address is dashed here and they go to your backyard, but the fire is in the front yard or same thing, police go to find and the address is addressed wrong. So, we have a lot of discrepancies as far as parcel combination, right? Because historically the city's parcels are 25 by 125 and they are being combined. Um, and when they're addressed, they're combining them and just putting a dash and using the first and the last number from each parcel, which is not appropriate. Um, the address also is in wrong direction. and it should be facing wherever your front door is, but a lot of them is on a side street. And we're having that issue right now, especially with the reszone because you have corridors. Um, but then you have residential addresses facing that corridor and it will put that residential structure as a business, right? So, we're taking that and adjusting them, dropping the hyphens because even if we drop the hyphens and they do decide to subdivide, that address is available. But with a hyphen in there, it takes away that separation. Right? So, when we go to separate now, that first lot that stays what it is has to be 1472- 20. Wait, no. Yeah, that's even 26. So then now you're trying to figure out, okay, what's next to it? What's going

after that? So if we capture it and we just use one of the numbers, it leaves availability for them to resubdivide or for it to change in the future because we don't know what tomorrow will bring. Um, ultimately we also found out that we don't manage and maintain a address system, which is why we have this issue because people are just making their own addresses, right? That's really just basically how it's going to happen. um if you don't have a process. So now we have a full-fledged address management system. Um we also have a full-fledged uh well we will have a full-fledged uh GIS land use system will help everybody understand this code because you will be able to go online hover um and pull in different data sources analyze and it'll be accurate because it will follow strict X and Y coordinates based on the um legal description. So once we complete all of that, I think we will be in a great space and it'll help fire and it'll help safety, it'll help me with the zoning and it'll help everybody ultimately.

Are you working with the county recorder for all that? Yes. Yes, they are.

Condolences. Well, actually, um, they're very they're a great partnership in this and we're, um, I'm probably getting on their no nerves mostly because like today I just discovered another situation. So, I'll be down there. But, you know, we're looking through archives. We're verifying combination. Like, this is literally uh, boots on the ground type of endeavor. I have explored every part of the eastern portion of the city from Broadway all the way down to 53rd. Now I have to do the other side, right? And that's important because we don't know what's sitting there. We click on and we see and those are aerials aren't in real time. So, a business that was once there now has um a condo sitting on it, but um is it own business, right? So, then that person has a fire and it puts them in a bad situation because hey, I do apologize, but that grandfather has um grandfather has passed away and you cannot rebuild your house there. Now, it has to be a business that impacts the tax base. Right now we have structures that have large businesses and large condominiums sitting on them and they're being taxed as vacant plotted land.

Right? So that's an issue with us as a city holistically. Um and capturing that in this walkth through it helps us but it also helps me find other things like outdated GBLS and things of that nature. So So speaking of GBLs, that's the last update. The um GBL stands for general business license. Every single business that operates in the city of Gary, whether you're in Gary or out of Gary, if you operate in Gary, you have to have a business license. So, if you're a food vendor, mobile food truck from Chesterton, you want to come and pop something up in the middle of the night, you need to have a business license. Lemonade stand.

So, um, Michael Gaines has been leading this effort to streamline our our general business license process. We work very closely with the fire department, the health department, uh the building department, um and environmental uh to make sure that all of our inspections are being done on an annual basis. Our renewal time frame for general business licenses is January every single year. So every single year um all the businesses have to renew their licenses by the end of January. So, we are working with um the community um to notify our business community to notify them that their their renewals are up uh because we have several expired business licenses that need to be paid. Uh and uh so we'll be sending letters out so if you um run into anybody, they ask you a question about I got this letter saying this renewal. Every business requires a license to operate in the city of Gary and um time frame to renew is from January 1st to January 31st. So we are preparing to um have that have that flood of

inquiries. So thank you. And that concludes my report. Thank you. All right. Uh motion to adjourn. Move and second. There's a lot of moving. This is our copy to retain. Not the books. Not the book. Please leave the binders. Take your uh take off.