Council - Regular Meeting

Let's see if there's a longer

I'm not ready for award. Hang on.

Welcome everybody to the special city council work session for March 2nd, 2026. Would you please call the role? Britz here. Calio here. Lion here. Dora here. Manza here. We got a treat tonight. We have our presentation by our future prep students. We've been working diligently for the city to come up with some ideas for us. Would you guys like to u Derek's not here, is he? No. No. We I was going to call on Derek to introduce them, but you guys want Let's see who wants to come up and introduce the group. Are we ready to start? Yes.

Okay. So, we are future we're with Future Prep. Uh we're presenting the Grand Haven artifacts. For those in the audience, if you don't know, the artifacts of Grand Haven are any of the pieces of artwork or pieces of history around our city. So, for example, any of the murals on the buildings or even the train or the cold tipple. So, again, like I said, we're through future prep through the Ottawa area district and we are all Grand Haven juniors and seniors. I'm Michaela George. I'm Payton Hull. I'm Jay Harris. I'm Marley Cook. I'm Sydney Cook. I'm Nora Cody. I'm Olivia Munch. And I'm Riley Smith.

So, our driving question is a bit long, so bear with me a moment. But it is, how can the city of Grand Haven continue ownership and maintenance of the artifacts and artwork it currently owns, encourage mo more artwork in public spaces, and keep costs for these non-essential assets to a bare minimum so as they do not interfere with the delivery of essential public services? Okay, so after learning our driving question, these are the protocols that we went through to help our thinking process and finding our solutions. One of the first protocols that we went through was taking a bus tour around Grand Haven. And this allowed us to just see all some different artifacts and we got to learn about the history behind them and what they mean. Um, we also got to receive our driving question. So this helped us start thinking about possible solutions. So next was the investigation stage. So this is where we talked to people like Mr. Formsmo. We talked to the city mayor and this is where we got to really gather important information. So we also got to talk to other cities and see what they they do about our driving question. See how they go about that. And we also got to take a look at what we have already tried and what has worked and what has not worked. And we also got to look at different employee experiences. The next protocol that we took was talking to mentors. So all of us got into pairs of two and were assigned one mentor each. This was a great opportunity for us because we got to focus on closer conversations and by talking with the mentors we were able to learn personal their personal life as well as professional and what they go through as in a successful successful business. Um they also got to share advice about what they learned through their own experiences and talk us through obstacles and advantages that they faced. We also got to learn some highs and lows of going or being in a business and how to grow and improve through those challenges. Okay. So the next protocol was a very

important protocol in our procedure. So this was the sticky note activity. So it's basically where we all individually brainstormed our ideas that we put towards our solution. And we would definitely all say that this activity really allowed us to see where everyone's ideas kind of branched out to. Um, we got to look at research that we gathered from important people that we talked to, different cities. Um, and it was a way where we could really put our ideas together and scope out what would work best for our city. And overall, we would definitely say it was a significant activity into our next step of organizing things and really bringing things together. After going through these protocols, we wanted to share a few things that we've noticed. The first thing we've noticed is that the community struggles with minimal involvement in public art and history projects. Funding is often unstable and it makes it difficult to plan for long-term maintenance. Without strong public participation and reliable support, these programs are harder to sustain. The second thing we've noticed is history. Many residents are unaware of the city's historical artifacts and their importance. Some items such as the Boy Scout statue are not always proper properly recognized or aligned with our values today. And this lack of awareness makes it harder to protect and value our local history. Next we have is art. There is limited communication between artists and the community which can lead to confusion and disagreement about new artwork. Some residents are unsure whether they want certain art in public spac spaces. In addition, insufficient policy support and unclear maintenance responsibility makes it difficult to manage and protect these artworks. Lastly is our target audience. Public art and history projects are not always effectively shared with the media and the community. Limited promotion reduces awareness and public interest. As a result, fewer people become involved or support these programs.

So from these noticings, we've made our solution. chat about Grand Haven.

Each letter stands for things we've noticed. C for community, H for history, A for art, and T for target audience. So, we want more volunteer opportunities in Grand Haven and to make this everyone's problem. We chose C for community because it will bring people together and bring a and create a strong sense of support and bring people together. Working together will improve our neighborhood, share ideas, and solve problems. We want Grand Haven to be a positive, safe environment where everyone feels included.

Do we have the permission to pass out the flyers? Sure. So in these flyers, it includes a QR code on the top left, which is just a map of Grand Haven, mostly targeted for the tourists, and a website to the city of Grand Haven, where they could volunteer to sign up. So, we want to turn creativity into community and to help people understand why these artifacts matter and why it should be a problem. Um, yeah, sorry.

We've talked to a few cities and we've seen astounding amounts of economic growth and community involvement to these cities. Um I'm and we found out uh from these from talking to the heads of these cities what it is they do to encourage their communities to embrace creativity. As we know Grand Rapids has their famous art prize. Sakatuck has dozens of local galleries that line their streets and they host a bunch of local galleries um in the popular fall stroll in on the winterfront. Um, South Haven features over 120 artists and the town hosts events like the Mistletoe Market which sells local art. So, next we chose history for our H because so many of our artifacts show a part of Grand Haven through their history and not a a lot of people know about it. So, our solution to that was an artifact walk or even a bus tour that would help the people of Grand Haven learn about the history. Um, this topic has been brought up with a lot of people that we talked to with our time with you guys, which shows there is going to be clear interest and suggests it has a strong chance of being successful. And your next question may be is who's done this? Well,

excuse me. So, some cities that have done this well have been Grand Rapids with their walking tours and their scavenger hunts, Moskegan with the Hackley Houses and their guided walks, and Silver Lake with the historic walks. Me personally, I believe that Moskegan is a great example for these because I have been to the Hackley houses, and just being able to see the homes and tour them has drawn me to want to learn more about the city and be able to experience Oh, we chose A for artifacts and art because it's at the core of this issue and plays a powerful and meaningful role in our community. It directly connects to our driving question by showing how creative expression influences the people, culture, and identity of our community. One solution we have found to address the topic of art in our community is to create an art committee. This committee would oversee decisions about public art, including who can tr cont contribute, what art is appropriate, and when and where pieces should be displayed. Its purpose would be to make sure that the art chosen reflects values and interests of the people of Grand Haven. The committee would establish clear guidelines and boundaries to ensure decisions are fair, thoughtful, and organized. Having a structured group in charge would also mean that someone is responsible for tracking projects, reviewing proposals, and managing communication so nothing is overlooked. This committee would be volunteered based include local artists giving them more opportunities to share their work and be actively involved in the community. We believe this is a realistic solution because it has been discussed in the past showing that there is already interest and support in it.

So, another city that's done this very well is Holland. I've had the opportunity to talk to the city mayor and have her answer a few questions for me. So, in Holland, these artifacts are carefully placed in the museum where they are neatly organized and they refer to these artifacts as records. There the records are organized by who made these artifacts, where do the artifacts go and how long and how they are maintained. So the workers at the museum um help maintain these artifacts and they do get a salary for it. And again bringing the idea of the art community to Grand Haven will help us to lower the cost and facilitate the outcomes that Holland has had success with. So next for our tea, we chose target audience because we would like to reach the community. Um we would like to connect the community to this um issue through fundraising, but we don't just want to connect the community through fundraising and getting money. We want to we want to get them involved through marketing and social media. This can give them a better understanding on how hard we work to raise the money in the city. This can give them a reason to care more about what we're doing. And as was said, we talked to Mr. Formsma and we started to brainstorm some ideas to get the children involved. We thought about some car washes and yeah, just getting the community involved um and helping the youth participate and want to participate. We really want to promote the culture, beauty, and unique artwork of our city. Our target audience is to target tourists that come into Grand Haven. So, we want to help them explore more of Grand Haven, not just the beaches, so we can bring more people downtown. We can start

by giving out the flyers like we give like we gave you guys. Um, we that has a map on it with all the artifacts and where they're located so that tourists are able to find those artifacts and walk around and learn about them on their own time. Also, personally, when I go on vacation, I like to learn about what the town has to offer and their history about it and what it's all about. And I have no doubt that tourists that come to Grand Haven want to do the same thing. We can also offer a bus tour like we've mentioned before. Uh, this would provide a guide that would explain the history of the artifacts so people are able to learn about the artifacts and why we have them here and what they mean to us. And lastly, we can have donation boxes around the city where tourists as well as residents can help raise money specifically for maintaining the artifacts. So, some places that have done this well have been Zealand with their slogan as feel the zeal and Moskegan with watch us go. Having a good slogan in your city is very important because it is good for promoting and marketing your city. And we could have ours something like what was on the flyers, turn creativity in community. So after coming up with all of our possible solutions, we wanted to make sure that they would be applicable to Grand Haven. So as a group, we created something called the enough test and ran through it. We made sure that all of our ideas were new, useful, and feasible for Grand Haven. Thank you for your time and consideration. We are now open to any questions.

Well, well, thank you for this.

I would invite council members to questions and comments. I'm continually in awe um of your classes and everything you do. I've worked with a few of the classes through Kenzie's B Cafe and I'm honestly amazed. Um I'm a little sad I read it through myself before you did this, but it only made it better having you guys do it again the second time and everything you guys explained. Um I have a couple questions. Where's the Red Bull that was in one of your slides? It's across the uh I don't So if you're at like the mini golf course Yeah. If you're at the mini golf course, you can kind of see it over the water and it's a Red Ram that exists. So thank you.

Linear Park. It's at Linear Park. Thank you. So I didn't even know that was there and I've been to that golf course and done fundraisers multiple times. Our point

um see exactly right. Um, and do you think I mean I appreciate everything you guys have thought of and I really think you've done a really really great job. Do you think that there's enough to for another group to follow up and dive deeper into like grant funding or following up where we could set up that committee and how that would structure and follow up? I mean, I think you guys have built something so wonderful and the fact that you guys have already created a map for us to follow and we don't have to do that and and spend city money doing that, that's incredible. Do you think there's fur like more that we can do to look into that? Would there be enough for another group to dive into or have you guys taken care of it?

We don't want to put all the responsibility on us. Like we said, we want to make it an everyone issue. We think that it should be something that both the community and the members of the Grand Haven City Council come together on. I think that's great. I think a committee is a really good idea. The arts council in Holland does an amazing job.

A+ Yeah. you all killed it. Um, I enjoyed it so much. I This is what I do um when I'm not here. And so the branding part of this, the brand book, the consideration of our town, to have a slogan and a a reason um beside the beaches, and then that map um to have people have a tour and be able to kind of go sight to sight. We all love a scavenger hunt. I think that's just brilliant. So, um, yeah, I'm with Aaron. I'd love to see this take hold and I'd love to see a cultural or arts committee, um, take hold in Grand Haven. I think it's really needed and I think it's a great marketing tool for our city, which again just helps bring people here, create more interest, which helps our businesses and all of that thrive. So, thank you so much. You did a wonderful job.

I just want to echo that. Also, I want to say thank you very much for all the hard work you did and just in my mind thinking now that we have a tool downtown called kiosk down there. If we could make it one of those kiosk for when the tourists come to town, they're walking downtown if they could see the map and that and get their interest. I live in an area where there's a lot of short-term rentals over there and I had a guy fly in from Germany one time and he couldn't even get to the beach. He didn't know how to get there or he his plane was at the airport. he couldn't get transportation here and then so my wife took them around town and we were showing all the things we had. We did kind of like a little tour. So you're absolutely correct. We need to get out there and get people know

and also um the artifacts and my brother's a doulson at the Moskegan Museum up there. So art runs in our family pretty heavy and so when they came first come to Grand Haven we started putting the artifacts out there but it's not really you're absolutely correct. It's not really organized. If we could do something better than what we had, I love the artist thing. I love having them coming in putting, you know, sculptures and that. You guys did a fantastic job of identifying everything and letting us know where our weaknesses are. So, thank you so very, very much. I appreciate a lot.

Yeah, I agree. There's not much I can add to what's already been said other than great job, wonderful presentation, uh, identifying a lot of the issues that we have and possible solutions. Uh, like you know, council member Fritz has said, the the map just to guide people to where all of them are. Even some of our council members could probably use one. Definitely already on it. I'm excited.

So, if you happen to print, you know, get a an extra one of those, I know someone who could use one. Uh, I like the idea of an art committee. I think that's a really great thing that you had brought up. Um, that gives an opportunity for a lot of people to volunteer and make a more public awareness. uh which is one of the things that you had mentioned that we're kind of lacking in. So I I think a committee would be great. I would love to see a bunch of volunteers for a committee at some point in time. I think there's probably energy in the group from what we've seen this evening. So appreciate everything you've done and want to just say thank you. Thank you very much.

And I I want to say too that I had the privilege of working with Norma and Riley as mentors or maybe they mentored me. I appreciated that. appreciated working with the group and the energy and the commitment you brought and all the weeks you spent working on it. You know, the city expresses its personality in a number of ways and the public art and the artifacts we have on display are one of those and sometimes I think we get a little bit um not jaded but but um we kind of don't know don't know what we've got and don't appreciate what we've got and just becomes part of the background. So having a group like you come forward and highlight it, appreciate the importance and try to bring some emphasis and some things we can do to bring it to the forefront, keep it alive and keep it uh important in the public eye. I think that's really critical and that's what what you've done tonight. So our task now would be to keep it going to take what you've given us and turn it into an ongoing activity, something can we can appreciate and bring to the community day after day, year after year from now on. And um I know you'll all move on to your careers and you you're all going to have fabulous careers. But um this will be one step in that, but you've left something with us that we can we can build on. It's up to us to find a way to do that. Appreciate all that. Appreciate your thoughts and everything you put into this. And uh thank you very much and hope you all have hope you all do very well with your next activities, but we're not we're not quite ready for you to abandon us yet. So, anything else you can do to follow up? If there is a follow-up to this, we'd love to hear that. And if this is what we have to work with and we'll take it and run from here. So, thank you very much.

I just want to add something, Bob, if you don't mind. Um, is that what I liked about it is getting the school involved. That's a very good suggestion on that because if we get the youth to come in, it just explodes it even more because that's where it all starts. Elementary school on up. We got to keep everybody's interest in it. So, I'd like to thank you very much for mentioning that in your presentation here, having a school and everything else involved. That's that's a big thing for anything we do around here is always have a school involved because kids are what that's our future we need to take a look at. So, thank you very much. Anyone else? Anything from staff? Nope. Just nice job.

Nice job. Thank you very much.

THANK YOU. THAT WAS the only item of our work session. So, we're going to take about a 10-minute break here. It's okay. One word.

Regular city council meeting for March 2nd, 2026. You call the role. Fritz here. Calio here. Lion here. Dora here. Manetsa here. Invocation this evening is by Reverend Dr. Jerry Kramer from St. Paul's St. John's, I'm sorry, Episcopal Church. Uh would you please rise and remain standing for the pledge of allegiance.

The Lord be with you. Let us pray. Oh Lord, our governor, bless the leaders of our land that we may be a people at peace among ourselves and a blessing to other nations of the earth. to the president and members of the cabinet, to governors of states, mayors of cities, and to all in administrative authority, grant wisdom and grace in the exercise of their duties. To senators and representatives and those who make our laws in states, cities, and towns, give courage, wisdom, and the foresight to provide for the needs of all your people, and to fulfill our obligations to our community. To the judges and officers of our courts, give understanding and integrity that human rights may be safeguarded and justice served. Teach our people to rely on your strength and to accept the responsibilities to their fellow citizens that they may elect trustworthy leaders and make wise decisions for the well-being of our society that we may serve you faithfully in our generation and honor your holy name. And almighty God, our heavenly father, we ask that tonight you will send down upon those who hold office in this city of Grand Haven the spirit of wisdom, charity, and justice. That with steadfast purpose they may faithfully serve in their offices to promote the well-being of all people through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.

Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. All right, we have one reappoint this evening. Would you please read that? Item A, reappoint Terry French to the Construction Board of Appeals with a term ending December 31, 2026. Can I get a motion? So move. Second. Motion by Frick, second by Calio. Any questions on this appointment? Please call the role. Fritz, yes. Calio, yes. Dora,

yes. Lion, yes. Manza, yes. And we have two new appointments. Could you read those? Item A, appoint Elizabeth Butler to the Brownfield Redevelopment Authority/Thee Economic Development Corporation with a term ending March 31, 2029. And item B, appoint Rachel Pine Pinum Pinum, sorry, Rachel, to the Parks and Recreation Board with a term ending June 30th, 2027. Can I get a motion? Second. Okay. A motion by Doris, second by Or did I get that backwards? Either one. Lions. Those two names. Yeah. Questions, concerns, anything on these two appointments. Please call the role. Dora, yes. Lion,

yes. Calio, yes. Fritz, yes. Manza, yes. Okay. Brings us to the approval of the consent and regular agendas. Can I get a motion? So moved. Second. Okay. Motion by Chris, second by Calio. Uh any uh changes that we want to make to use either the consent or regular agendas? Anything to be moved? Okay. Would you please call the role? Fritz? Yes. Calio? Yes. Lion? Yes. Dora? Yes. Manza?

Yes. Okay. That brings us to our first call to the audience. At this time, members of the audience may address council on any item whether on the agenda or not. Those addressing council are asked to provide their name and address be limited to three minutes of speaking time. Council hear all comments for future consideration will not have a response at this time. Those not physically present who would like to call in dial 616 935 3203 who'd like to address councel. Good evening. Jim Hagen 400 Lake. Uh I'm going to read an email that I sent out to uh council and to uh uh city administration. And it's going to have a little bit of a change in it though because just today I spent quite a bit of time at the Brownfield plan

and there's a lot of commonalities between the original uh letter and the things that I've noted in the brownfield field plan. Namely the use of a whole lot of school funding uh that's captured by either the Oprah certificate or the brownfield which I am so totally against. I uh anyway I'll get into it. City council members, now that you're in a strategic planning, please discuss, develop, and issue a policy of how the city will be employing Oprah certificates in the future. Also, how to restructure routine brownfield plans to avoid capturing school operating millage and SCT, which is the state uh education tax. As the city continues eval evaluating the obsolete property rehabilitation act as a tool for reinvest investing along Washington a Avenue and throughout downtown, a conservative and fiscally balanced approach is recommended. A standard seven-year OpER certificate focused on local millages. Uh and that's not not including any of the school uh funding would provide a predictable limited incentive that encourages rehabilitation of older commercial buildings while protecting the long-term tax base. To ensure the program grows at a measured pace, the policy could include guidance on approving no more than two OPER projects per year, resulting in an estimated steady state maximum approximately 14 active OPRA certificates at any given time. The recommendation also proposes that Grand Haven not routinely request state approval to reduce to uh reduce school operating taxes or state education tax. School tax reductions require a separate approval or a separate application to the state treasurer and are limited statewide each year and that's actually a nominal 25. In practice, these approvals are typically reserved for large housing or

transformational redevelopment projects in major urban centers. Most sc most smallcale downtown Is that the thing for me? No. Okay.

Most smallcale downtown rehabilitation projects proceed successfully using local OPRA incentives. By focusing on local millages, the city can prov still still provide meaningful assistance while avoiding unnecessary competition for limited statewide school abatements. Excluding school tax abatements helps maintain strong support from residents, schools, and regional partners by preserving education funding while still enabling steady downtown reinvestment. This balanced approach aligns with how many comparable Michigan communities introduce Oprah programs starting with local only incentives in reserving school tax requests for rare large projects that deliver significant housing or economic impact. Thanks.

That's the one. Thank you, Jim. And and yes, we did did get your email previously.

Who else would like to address council? Good evening. Jared Bela, 150 Ottawa, Grand Rapids. Uh I'm here speaking and requesting support for items 12A and B. Uh we were here previously for a public hearing. I know there were questions and uh some concerns that came up. Um I did provide a memo. I believe you were presented with to try and address some of those uh items. U I would just also mention I think you were made aware Andy the developer was not able to be here this evening due to a death in the family. Um but did ask me to come address any questions. I'm available when those items come up if you'd like to dive in deeper into any of those. Um again the the requested support while on its face I know it sounds like a lot. I tried to break that down in terms of, you know, how that equates into today's dollars, how that uh your support rolls into financing a project like this. Uh so again, here to request your support. Happy to answer any questions to go into that further. Uh I think in the the memo presented, uh the project aligns with the city's current economic development policy. Uh, and I know there was a third-party report, but happy to speak on any of those items, but appreciate your considerations.

Okay. Thank you, Jared. And when that item comes up, we may have questions. Okay. Who else would like to address council?

Hi friends, Kelly Larson, uh, Temptations Ice Cream, One North Harbor, and I am actually also chair of the DDA. I'm here on behalf of Peace Frogs today. Is there a lease on your agenda? And I very much would like to support that lease with both of my hats on. Number one, Temptations are a great tenant. Happy to have them take more space and to have another business in our district who wants to expand in our district. So, I hope tonight you will support that lease and give them a little bit more space. Thank you. Thank you. Good timing. I know. It's almost like I was listening.

Mike Weaver, 637 Lake Avenue. Uh this is also in regards to the uh tax payment for uh 123 Washington, I believe it is, and also known as photos. I've spoken once before on the Grand Haven Jewelry Building and just these tax breaks in general. Um I hadn't paid that much attention although I do know uh the city has done this multitude of times. Once in a while we take it on the chin uh like Grand Landing. Um but I think what the the biggest problem continues to be here is that let's start calling these what they are and that is a uh bailout. It's a government bailout, a taxpayerf funed government bailout of a business. Okay, that's harsh but it's the truth. A business owner shouldn't walk in government's door and say, "I need your help. I want your help." Because they either didn't think it through or they thought it through and said, "Oh, they rubber stamp things here." Pick whatever reason you want, but the truth of the matter is, we have a vibrant town. Our rates um our rate of growth is quite good, especially around the surrounding area. Housing's becoming unaffordable. Every time you give these breaks, okay, what you do is drive up the value of real estate because let's just take Dake for example. Well, you know, there's a price on that property of I think it's $3 million. They want breaks. Well, if you don't give them the brakes, they get to go back to the seller and say, "Hey, you know what? Your property is not worth that because I can't get the brakes. Let's bring it down." So you're really when you give these breaks to people, you're actually creating a burden not just for the taxpayers but for everybody in this town for the future including our schools. And I think if you're paying attention, you see how much trouble our schools are in. Anyways, um if somebody makes a

mistake and especially an entrepreneur or a business person or they just want a handout, it's not the citizen's job to fix it. It's not your job to fix it. You might say, "Oh, we want this or we want to see that in this town." That's great. But guess what? Natural selection in business is probably the most pure form of growth. When something is successful, it grows. If something's not successful, it fails. If you subsidize it, all you do is prolong its death. Now, I believe a piece of this might be, and I haven't studied, I'll be honest with you, um, was a restaurant. I think that might be a component. 50% of all restaurants, and that's generous. I've read up to 70, fail in five years. Once again, not let's not make this the city's problem or the citizens problem. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mike.

Who else would like to address council? So, there are no public hearings this evening. And this will be your only opportunity to address council before we take action. Will there be a time after we get more explanation to Okay, so we held a public hearing last last meeting on the floss property and so that was last week. So this time it's the it's be a motion for council to act on and we'll discuss. So this is the call to the audience time. If you want to say something, now's the time. I thought I saw another time. At the end of the meeting, there'll be another call to the audience. We'll be done with our business by then. Okay.

Um I'm coming in a little cold because I didn't have time to research it a lot. Okay. Could you give us your name? Oh, Robin Vandenberg, one6 South Harbor. Thank you. Um was it a was it 1.2 2 million that they're asking for or is it 1.7 million that photos needs for their re rehab of the building? You mean what are they asking for in incentives or what do they expect to expend? Am I in the wrong

trying to figure out what your question is? Um what are they asking for in the tiff? Daniel, they are asking for $589,800 in total tiff capture. A portion of that is state and portion of that is local capture. Okay. And the local capture equates to x amount per building or what how do they figure that?

No. So that is based on actual construction costs. So reimburseable activities that they incur and then the future tax growth of the property that reimbures them for those expense a portion of those expenses.

Okay? Because there hardly is a building downtown Grand Haven that is not having some type of obsolescence in it. and almost every building downtown will qualify for money that can be captured this way. Um, I had understood that the total amount he was asking for was including the purchase price of the building, but that is not correct. Uh, no. Um, the he's not being reimbursed for the purchase price of it.

Okay. Well, that makes a lot of difference. But I also would like to speak to the um 25 years of um deferred taxes or uh there's another word for I can't think of it right now. Anyway, um that's so many years we're just starting to capture the ones off the island over there. 25 years from now. I don't know how old the developer is, but he could be gone by the time all of this comes to fruition in I've been in commercial real estate for over 40 years. If we got 10 years out of anything, the industrial park and everything that was a great gift. Everybody was happy to get that. The 25 years, a lot happens in 25 years, you know. It's uh it's like what Mike said, everybody is suffering from the fact that this money isn't coming into our economy and we have to make it up. Everybody has to make it up and I'm just struggling with 25 years. It's just so long. Um Grand Haven is a great place to develop. We can attract many good developers if we would begin to market our property is different. This is a private individual. I understand that. But to think that we have to take everything that comes along because we need this money for that. There'll be somebody who can offer another deal. There'll be somebody that will come in and use their own money like all of us building owners did downtown. We bought the building and then we used we improved it on our own. Thank you.

Thank you.

My name is Carol Co. I live at 78 Grand. My thought concerning the photos building is that a 2-year tax abatement and no longer possibly could be appropriate. The reason I'm saying two years is because after two years this should not this building should not be a cost to the owner but it al also should be a source of revenue for the owner and considering that money will be coming in from rental from the building I hesitate to extend a tax abatement for any longer than 2 years. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? No one else is coming forward. I'm going to close the call to the audience and we will now roll into our presentations for the evening. We have a first up we have a presentation by Tracy Riley from Coastg Guard Festival Application. Tracy.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Um, I'm here tonight with our marketing director from Grand Haven Coastard Festival, Annie Langgeek, and we're here to talk about the 2026 festival, which will run from Janu or January. Wow. July 24th through August 2nd this year. Um, and uh, think in warm weather. So, here we go. Much colder festival. Yeah, pardon me. It would be a much colder festival. Yes, it would be. So, we start off the week with the Lighthouse Quilt Guild. Uh that added an extra day last year. Again, this year starts Thursday,

Second Christian Reformed Church. Um Tri Cities Family YMCA Coast Guard City Run on the 25th. Registration through the Y website organized by the staff of the YMCA. Both of those are not festival events, but they happen during festivals. So, we put them into our um packet. Waterfront Stadium. We request permission to use the Waterfront Stadium for that following entertainment that you see up there. Um all of this is the same as it has been in years past except for the entertainment changes this year. So, you'll see what we have coming up this year for uh for music. Um I should note that Sunday is a new we're adding Sunday this year. Um, Hark has agreed to do a a concert for us on Sunday night. So, we have one extra night of concerts this year. And please stop me if you have any questions while I zip through. This is the setup at the waterfront stadium. Again, the same as in years past. Tends to work the best for us.

Tracy, the bathrooms, the portagons, are they outside? Like, do you have to exit to use the bathroom? And we have people we have we have uh we put wristbands on folks to let them in and out. But yeah, the porter giants are outside of the outside of the stadium fence. Is that so that they can be used by like the carnival and everything else?

They can be used by Yeah, they get a lot of use out there. Um and yeah, I don't we really don't have the room I don't think probably to put them inside either. So Mulligan's Hollow schedule of events. Um, Sunday we have the community picnic Sunday afternoon. This year it will be a, um, start at 3:00. Tuesday, um, excuse me, it'll start at noon time. Tuesday, kids day. Wednesday, senior day as usual. And we will have an ice machine up at Mulligan's Hollow um, for those events and the amount of ice that we go through up there as well. This was the setup for Kids Day. The proposed layout. Um, this is what we had last year. The plans will be much the same this year for Kids Day. Munis Marina boat slips asking use the 21 boat slips one through 20 and 22 um from Sunday at noon through uh the following Sunday at noon as well. Again, we'd request the slips be granted at the going rate. Um and also if anything changes and slips 2123 become available, we would request those as well. Scurbeck Carnival. Uh Carnival will be in the same footprint this year as it has been in the past several years with the use of Shinook Pier as well. Um and those are the hours. You can see the hours posted. Those are also the same as the past years. Notice at the bottom we request the spots for the charter fisherman for that week in the farmers market lot.

Parking lot layouts where everything will be. Harbor Island, it's temporary campsite for the carnival operators. uh Saturday the 25th through the 2nd of August. Um and permission to use Harbor Transit for shuttle in conjunction with the Harbor Island for folks that can come in and park and shuttle into town for the festival. lighthouse kiosk plate placement asked that our lighouses can be placed within the city of Grand Haven um with all the festival information, the large wooden lighouses that you see on the sidewalks. um pass information about the festival food vendors. Again, same as the past couple of years,

I have been approached by a few local restaurants that have asked me um to request less food trucks um as the years have gone on and um the up and down with the number of food trucks that have been in town and the number that have like between the Elks and all of this like they I mean the week that used to be the busiest week of the year for them no longer longer is um and they just say like how many food trucks there are in town and how it's like kind of decimating business and not you know it's no longer you know the week they're expecting and the week they prepare for every year. Um so just something to consider as we move forward to the final you know

okay plan for the season to I mean just to consider that it's been more than one downtown business that has brought it to my attention. We are Yeah. And our limit is maxed right there. Um that's that's the most we can fit. And depending on the size of the trailers, it might be one or two less. Um but I know there's space for 18, but you typically don't have that many. Pardon me. Typically you don't have 18. That's the m that would be the max. And of course again some of those trailers

kind of a jigsaw puzzle when we when we get them in and put them together and um decide who is bringing what vendor and sponsor booths you can see all down along the boardwalk. Walk kids parade. Same route as in past years. Starts at the lot uh over by the courthouse down to first up to up Washington and around. That's on Saturday the 25th. Grand Parade. Same layout again and and the same permissions to request uh the grand stands, the street closures, etc. And there's the layout for the grand parade. Cardboard boat race the first Saturday, July 25th. 1 at 1:30 um in Waterfront Stadium. We will have rescue swimmers and the floating dock. Um and everyone's required to wear a life jacket. Cruise and car show Sunday morning right down Washington Street. Um and then of course Tuesday, one of the fan favorites is the street dance. So permission to close Washington for that event. memorial service, permission to close

Harbor Drive uh over the Butchers Burrito um from Eskanaba Park during for the time during that ceremony. Friday night drone show after um after the uh entertainment again launched from Dewey Hill um where the drones are not over anyone and uh ask for access to the hill the evening of Thursday for setup fireworks as always same company Pyro Techchnico and the same permits You can see a picture of where the drones will be laid out and traffic cones and signs. Um, no parking. uh carnival campsites, RV parking prohibited, all the signs that we've had in the past that help us get everybody moving around town that week and for the parades and carnival. Carnival will be in uh Harbor Front uh Shinook Pier over in the uh Covenant lot as it has been the in the past few years. So you can see where that all runs together there,

food vendor row to keep that clear for the vendors. City marina vendors row and the street dance for no parking for those events. And for the vendors emergency routes again the same as previous and during the memorial service and the community picnic, kids day and senior day up in Mulligan's Hollow. Well, some special requests request the flexibility for the start time of the musical fountain each night. We're direct contact with them every night. Um, but depending on weather um and we will be we will delay if there's lightning um that's too close. Um I think the first time we've canled in a very really long time was last year on Wednesday. So hope that we don't do that again for a very long time, but we could have some fluctuation if we have some weather come in where we have to delay. Um request the permission to place the portagons on city properties, temporary banners and portable signs throughout Harbor and Washington. Uh the chamber and then the trash truck, an additional trash truck. Uh the Coast Guard banner in front of the utility boat on Beacon once the threat of snow is over

hopefully soon. Banner at Coho Drive. And then the over street banner after the car show for the street dance and other things. And as always, permission to display Coastgard City USA on Dewey Hill from July 22nd through August 5th. And that is the end. Any questions? Okay. Questions, comments? Is there anything This is the first presentation I've seen since I'm new here. Um, anything different in this than we've had in previous years that

anything I'm sorry. Anything different in this? No, actually it's it's very much the same this year. Um there will be some changes coming with with building on Chinook Pier um in future years, but right now everything this is basically the same presentation pretty much as we had last year. So and then just as a participant that likes to go to the Coastg Guard Fest. Um yeah, more portagons would probably be great outside that event space. So we've got them we've got them jamed everywhere. We we try to fit them in wherever we can. But yeah, it is a that one was last year a little noticeable. Thank you for all you do.

You're welcome. Well, thanks thank you to the city for all the support that we get. This festival couldn't go on without all of this planning and all this support. So, we appreciate um all the support that we get from the city as well. So, thank you. Okay. Thank you very much for the presentation and the time. Appreciate it. Sure. It's always a fun event. I enjoy the food trucks. So, you just hop from one to different meal every night. So, you try them all out. Thanks, Mike. Anything else? I just want to say thank you. That's all. Okay. So,

oh, I have a couple a couple things. Um, I I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time. A few weeks ago, we had met and I just um I would still like us to continue the conversation on how we can either bring the street dance into the social district or bring the social district to the street dance. Um, I just think that can be something that could be worked out um to make that night um more enjoyable for everyone and for the businesses as well um as we try to continue to make that business thing more friendly. Um, and I would just like and maybe Emily can answer this or you can answer this. What is the like what what is the cost to the city of the Coast Guard festival? Like what part is not reimbursed to the city? you want to

Emily Green, finance director. Um, a considerable cost is not reimbursed to the city. Uh, we do invoice. Uh, I don't have the exact number from the from the prior years, but there is a cost that the city supplements to have this festival go on and bring all the people in that come.

It would be nice to know what those numbers are. I the city deserves to know what that number is. we can better prepare that. But yeah, a lot of it is different staff time allocations, some of the traffic control orders, um we don't recuperate, but um inspections, different uh things like that, as well as additional staffing that comes in, um as well as our mandated time in by contract for the festival. So, we could easily put a number to that, but there's a balance. I mean, honestly, love Coast Guard. Love everything about it. Carbor boat race might be the funnest thing in the world to watch. Um, but like I just think it's important when we're approving these big things that like we let the city know too what they're paying for. We can get that number.

Okay. And I think a lot of it is services as opposed to out of pocket expenses, but we're still it all adds up. And I think we've had this as this question in prior years also. Um, I just u I'll comment on the food trucks. I like the food trucks because I think it brings some variety that we wouldn't otherwise have at a time when there's a lot of extra people in town and so it's just something different.

Makes it makes it a little more special and not to take away from local businesses, but I think that's just there's lots of people to feed and there's variety then. So, I appreciate that. But yes, it's possible to overdo it. Uh I was wondering if you have any feel yet. Maybe it's too early to know what kind of boat you're going to get or if there's going to be brass coming from the Coast Guard or any of that.

We don't know which brass are coming yet. Um, as most of you know, DHS is um not not working right now or not open right now. Um, so we haven't heard too much yet from the Coast Guard. Um, we have been told tenatively um that we have several cutters coming to include the Meno um which makes everybody pretty happy. uh Meno Seoia, which is a 225 that just came into Port Hiron and switched out um with the previous 225. They had a midlife build and so now Seoia is up there in Port Hiron. They'll be here as well as the Bristol Bay tenatively. Those are the three cutters that are coming in. So

Okay. Well, good to know. I know it's a little early for that, but u good to have some idea what's coming. Yep. Y Okay. Well, anyway, I appreciate what the Coast Guard Festival Committee does. It's a lot of work. It's a year- round job. Supports a lot of good causes and it keeps the keeps the town interesting and fun in the summer. Y So, good work. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you. All right. Now, we have Mike. Now, we have Mike. No, I was starting to talk, but that's okay. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cut you off. No, no. I I let her go for I wasn't quite done yet, but it just Okay.

She had her things. I I don't mind food trucks myself either, but uh cuz I know a lot of my employees, they look forward to it every year. It's a different taste for them, but I say um but anyways, since there's no changes, it there hasn't been any changes for the last quite a few years now. So, and I enjoy the the festival. It brings in a lot of people town. It supports our all of our businesses. All of our restaurants get really swamped. I know that because you can't get into them when the day is happening. So, I want to say thank you for your all your volunteers that work so hard to make it happen here and just keep up the good work and keep promoting it much as you can. It's brings in a lot of people and it helps out a lot of our businesses. So, thank you.

All right. Well, that brings us now to our draft capital plan presentation with Emily Green. Yes, Emily Green, finance director. Um, so this is the first draft of the capital plan for the 2627 budget year. Uh, capital plan overview is the first page and this just shows the original and the projected 2526. Um, so the gray and the pink shaded. A couple years ago, we put the original so you know what was originally scheduled or um budgeted and then the amended budget and then also the um 2627 project or requested budget for um is in the the blue column. The summary page then shows the total for each fund and department and also includes future fiscal years 28 through 2032. And then the next pages have details of the specific capital items and pro projects u with the budgeted amounts the total project costs and the anticipated outside funding. Outside funding um can include local, state, federal and reimbursements. And then this is important the capital plan six-year capital plans important just because of long-term capital needs. helps to us to identify the projects for possible outside funding and we try to get that outside funding as much as we possibly can. It makes a difference. So, I wanted to highlight a few changes from prior capital plans. Um the invasive species remediation is not listed in the capital plan this year. Uh is it's expensed under professional contractual and you'll see that in a separate line item when I when we get you get the full public budget document. um that the it'll be the detailed line item that'll have that specifically broken down.

There's an increase in IT this year um for network and server operating system updates. And then there's a decrease in city sewer and major streets funds for because we did the Fulton project this past year. So you'll notice a decrease in that. This year's capital plan has more substantial focus on infrastructure and motorpool items than last. And a few of these items include we are going to continue the $100,000 transfer to the um firetruck replacement fund. That is a large expense and we feel that that ex that contribution um is needed. Storm sewer reconnection at Fulton and Hopkins. Uh water main lining along Ferry. Robins Road lift station replacement. Lead service line investigative work to be positioned to take advantage of outside funding. There's a potential DWSRF coming in June that we'll be able to apply for and so we're going to start the investigative or continue the investigative work on that. Additional investments in sidewalks over the next four years. You'll notice that in the details and then um relating to motorpool, a street sweeper, plow, dump trucks, loaders, and lawn lawn equipment. We are on a kind of a rotation with those. Um so that is normal and you'll see if you look out those past years for those items you'll see replacements on a scheduled basis. Um included from the strategic planning session is the website mobile app redesign um and the tree canopy inventory. And then a few completed projects with outside funding include the Sluka field improvements received approximately $250,000 in grants. The inner and outer lighouses um received approximately 160,000 between grants and community foundation funds this year and anticipated 185,000 next year. And then

Harbor Island Remediation, we've re secured over $4 million um in between federal, state, and BL state grants and then BLP reimbursements. So just kind of some highlights of the the capital plan. Again, it's important to list all the items so that we have the future projects listed and costs um in the six-year plan just so that we can position oursel and identify and secure available outside funding. And it's also early in the budget season. So, just a reminder that we will be reviewing the budget and we'll be moving things. We'll expect changes to this by the time we hit the April 15th um budget work session. So final document will have all of those changes that we discuss and figure out during the budget process.

Okay. Thanks. Questions, comments? Thank you. Thank you. Welcome. Yeah. Thanks, Emily. I know it's always a challenge to get it all worked out. Amazing effort by staff every year. I'm always amazed when I look at it and see the end result. So, appreciate it. Thank you. It's just the beginning. I see we still have next year and the year after and the year after we have placeholders in for Harbor Island 20 22 million and so on. We do. We don't know what those numbers are yet. Um, no. When we do, we know we know something's coming. It's Yes, it is. Okay. You all set?

All right. Thank you. Later would be nicer than sooner. All right. So, that brings us to our consent agenda. Ry, would you read that? Item A, approve the regular council meeting minutes for February 16, 2026. And item B, approve the bill's memo in the amount of $2,37,24.13. Can I get a motion? So, moved. Second. Motion by Fritz, second by Calio. comments, questions on any of these. Otherwise, please call the roll. Fritz, yes. Calio, yes. Lion, yes. Dora, yes. Manza,

yes. All right, that brings us to our unfinished business for the evening. This would be There's two items of unfinished business here, but they're basically the same project, but because they're statutoily different, they're different programs, they appear on here as two separate items for our deliberation. Um, Danny, do you want to read these or show Maria read them and then you take over? Perfect. Yep, I'll read the items.

You go ahead and read them. Item A, consideration by city council of a resolution to establish an obsolete property rehabilitation district at 123 Washington Avenue, parcel number 70-03-20-45- 018 with a legal description of West 44T of lots 161 and 162 original plat. EXE the most NLY part used for alley purposes original plat. and to establish a finding that it is an obsolete property in an area characterized by obsolete commercial property or commercial housing property pursuant to section 31A of the obsolete property rehabilitation act PA46 of 2000. The Brownfield/EDC board recommends approval and administration recommends approval.

All right. Can I get a motion? So moved. Second.

Okay. Motion by Dora, second by Calio. All right. That gets it on the floor. Okay. Dana. Yes. Thank you, council. Um, good evening. U, so before you again is consideration of establishing a commercial um or excuse me, an absolute property rehabilitation district um with the intent ultimately for the developer to apply for and receive uh uh OPRA certificate. Um, essentially the project uh would freeze the taxable value um upon approval um and would then allow for the developer to um pay the current rate of taxes and then upon completion of the approved years um that taxable value would then increase uh post the the years that it's frozen. Um so it would encourage the property owner to reinvest further in what has been deemed as the Ottawa County Assessor an obsolete property. Um the project itself uh does include rehabilitation of the existing facade. Um it's a very distinct uh facade, historical facade. So it would include restoration of that as well as the addition of a third residential unit and rehab of the ground floor with the intent to fill that space with a new commercial entity um and is targeted for a restaurant. Um we do have uh Jared Becca here as he had previously noted um and he is able to answer additional questions. Um, while this is the Oprah district request currently up for consideration, uh, the mayor did mention that this is in conjunction with another request, which is the tax increment financing request. And, uh, for, um, that particular portion of the project, um, they would be reimbursed

for eligible activities over time, uh, based on actual costs of, um, construction and what is considered eligible under the act. Um so that request would be reimbursed over a period of 25 years. Um and would be made up of both local tax capture as well as state tax capture. Um there was a note about um being concerned about the um impact to schools. Um I did want to share or clarify that the um school aid fund does reimburse um for lost capture to the school districts um through a process through the state of Michigan. Um so they are considered to be made whole um through that process. Um, the project itself does align with our economic incentive policy that the BRA and the EDC board supported and ultimately city council approved um, in a number of areas including the total years that is being requested um, as well as still coming into line with the policy that provides a total cap of incentive that can be issued um, through the state. We do in that policy say that we will not provide incentive um of more than seven and a half percent of taxable value over the entire city. Um so that equates just for reference um to just over $67 million um of taxable value that could be request through the various incentives. Um and right now we have uh just over $38 million of projects that are incentivized um under already approved incentive requests. So just to kind of give you a sense of how much is still remaining um of that of previous stated and approved incentive um capture

amount. Um so that's just a highlevel overview. um while the projects um both for the OPRA and for the tax increment financing are collecting uh the new growth on tax capture. Um it's a little confusing when it says local capture. Um local capture also includes Ottawa County. Um it includes the library. It includes other millages um that are within the city. and the city operating budget um for both the Oprah and TIF is a lower amount to the total local capture. Um, so in the case of Oprah, it's uh just over 77,000 that would be um being frozen um or captured. And then the TIFF capture um is a little over um 114,000 that would be captured and reimbursed to the developer and not received by the city in their operating budget. So, I'm available for more questions and then certainly Jared um is as well representing the developer.

All right. And thank you for the recap. And I think that there's there may have been a little not about confusion, but a little bit a little bit of lack of understanding of some what this is. But I think on council here, we've been studying it pretty closely. So, I guess I would open it up to council to uh start off the discussion. And if anyone has questions for Mr. Bela, please please ask them. Who would like to ask first? I'll ask.

Okay. Um, so when we talk about I'm going to get these numbers wrong, so I apologize off the bat, but um that we are at 68 million potentially for a brownfield. Is that Oprah and Brownfield? It's all in. So we can talk about this probably as as one entity in in the sense that when we say that there's $68 million kind of up for grabs and that we've only used $38 million Mhm.

We're still talking about the budget for our city. Correct. I mean, this isn't a separate entity than what we would bring into our uh infrastructure. All of these these costs that we have is one bucket that this is if we're not bringing in this incentive, we're not having for the rest of our operating cost. So, those numbers aren't actually budget numbers. There's a total taxable value that the city has and we're saying we won't um we won't incentivize for projects more than 70 7 and 12% of our total taxable value.

Right. I didn't say that clearly. If we did receive that in though this money would still be going into our infrastructure and other costs for our city. So, we do continue to receive um additional tax or our frozen tax base um that goes towards our operations. It's just being frozen for a period of time. We're we're not foregoing the additional though if the investment doesn't happen. So, that's the inherent risk.

Sorry, I was I'm not seeing it clearly. This is my fault. Um this isn't some separate entity. Correct. This isn't one big pot for our city. So when we defer it, we're not receiving these funds to get the infrastructure. So if we can have a business be successful, it is better for us to receive the increased taxable income day one than it would be to forego it basically. Um, my concern with this is that I'm not sure who it looks like the property was purchased at 687,000. Is that accurate? I'm sorry.

I believe that Jared can speak to that more directly. Thank you. Yes, I believe that is correct.

Okay. So, when that's purchased at that amount, I'm assuming inspections were done. And I'm assuming that the price was based on deferred maintenance, outdated systems, required capital improvements. I mean, they're going to you're going to purchase a property knowing a business plan when you're making a commercial investment is is my thought. Um, when we do that in an arguably valuable piece of real estate, I have a lot of concerns about deferring taxable income when or having a tax abatement um to kind of allow for the investor just to not put in capital investment in it. Um I I understand that it is a building that needs work. Um I think it was mentioned that probably most of the businesses in town do. Um we have just had a presentation that we are we have an incredible amount of infrastructure costs that will be need to be made um in the future. I I'm always going to be very conservative about these tax abatements because I believe that when possible, our city needs to earn the investment um of these tax dollars and I don't think it should be fall on the shoulders of all of the citizens to make up for the needed capital investment of a business owner. And um so that's my talk on the Oprah portion of this. And then are we going to talk again on the brown field separately or are we just talking about this all at the same time?

The motion on the floor is the Oprah. It's kind of an integrated discussion because this is the plan comes to us as these things put together and we have to deal with them separately because of the way they're on the agenda and because they have different requirements. They have different requirements. So I guess that if you think it's germanine to this discussion to talk brownfield otherwise we can wait until we get to that item. Yeah, I can talk about that. I'd be happy to address a couple of those points if if you're

Oh, and I'm sorry. The other part of it that I wanted to mention, um I was kind of disappointed to see the same packet come to us. Um I thought that in the open discussion there was quite a bit of consideration on all members if not most members of the council that the length of the term and the amount asked for um was probably not something we were all comfortable with. So to receive the same packet again um this time I was I was disheartened by um but that's that's all I have to say. I'm happy if if you're willing. So I in terms of purchase price obviously

if if the building was in prime shape it it it would have sold for a lot more, right? I mean real estate everybody's seen the prices of real estate escalate. So uh and this is a new owner. uh the building hasn't seen any meaningful investment since 1955. Um there's a reason for that, right? They they it needs to make economic sense. Um I can appreciate the the the last comment in terms of of the amounts and I what I tried to put that into um my my original background is commercial banking, right? Uh that the lender looks at it. It's got to make economic sense. um you have a third party uh uh vendor who reviews these and provides a report who validates the numbers. It's not like we're just putting numbers in front of you and they actually went through that provided input on those. At the end of the day, in order for somebody to make an investment, it needs to make economic sense. Um and I tried to break down those numbers in terms of what the true impact is to the city. And again, there is zero benefit to this developer unless he makes a front-end investment in this building. These these savings, the the Oprah savings are property tax savings that he's generating through his investment. If he does nothing, he gets nothing. The same goes for the tiff. Without any investment, he gets nothing in return. So, it's kind of the self-fulfilling incentive. he puts the money out up front and there's a savings over a period of time. Yes, the time period is long and and yes, you can look at the the media uh uh articles that throw a big number out. What I tried to do by the memo is to break that down from the city's perspective, keeping in mind this property is within the DDA that this does not go to the city. Any increment go is captured by the DDA. So, it's not the city's operating budget that is foregoing this. That is covered

through the DDA. If the DDA is making those in infrastructure investments, and forgive me because I don't know what the DDA invests their money in, but this money that we're talking about is not going to the city. Those savings are spread amongst the taxing jurisdictions. in a small portion of that if you look at the operating budget which is captured by the DDA regardless it's about 192,000 and again because of the period of time when a banker looks at this they take a net present value of that which I tried to outline in that memo those numbers are even smaller between again between the two I think the total net present value of the OPRA would be about 165,000 spread amongst all the taxing jurisdions s from the tiff, it equates to about 228,000. Those are using numbers that appraisers use each and every day. Again, I can appreciate the fact everything you said, they're valid points. We're just trying to provide background of how a developer is looking at this and it it needs to make financial sense. He can certainly put a band-aid on it, which has been done since 1955, nursing it along. And you can continue to look at what you're looking at today. He's trying to bring a signature building in the downtown back to a vibrancy that I think everybody wants to see, but it takes a partnership. He's the one that's fronting the money to do that and getting some savings back over time after that, which is creating a long-term benefit to everybody. So again, I totally understand and appreciate all the comments, but I'm trying to address those the best I can to say it comes down to dollars and cents and they're the ones signing personal guarantees on thing. We can argue about purchase price. If it if the building was in beautiful shape, there'd

be a much higher price tag on that, but it but it's not. And and he's he's trying to do a a good thing and be a good partner, and that's why we're here asking. And I appreciate all of those comments also. Um, and I think what I said last time was I don't blame him for coming and asking for this because I think this is his job to be as profitable as he can be using the tools in place that are available. I think it's our job to be, you know, scrutinize each of these tax abatements. Um, and in all fairness, yes, it is also his, you know, interest. it's in his interest to make that investment because he will get rent in four three apartments in a 2500 square foot commercial space then too. So I mean it's not just an incentive to um for us to you know have the tax increase. It's an incentive for a business model. Um the other part of the plant moran question, this might be go back to the brownfield, but I get a little confused sometimes. But the plant moran conversation when they when they do that um presentation, are they just taking that construction number that you provide or are they helping to assist a square footage price for that?

They validate all the all the inputs on that. So, and I saw the rent and I saw the um but I didn't see I think I calculated like $165 a square foot construction costs for a remodel and an extension.

They actually suggested more. So, I believe I can point out the page that that number is on, but the developer is carrying any contingency on his back. they actually put that number in and bump the budget up a little and it and and this budget doesn't include projected tenant build out. Um, and I I can understand from the business decision. I I know you mentioned that during the public hearing in terms of making the most money he can. If you dig into the plant moram numbers, the project is borderline philanthropic. So, it's not about just collecting a rent check. It's about it's about justifying the upfront investment. And that

I think that makes me concerned also because if it is so precarious, maybe it should be a different business model. Maybe we shouldn't add a third apartment. Maybe we should look at a different business option there. particularly I mean if we're talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars and we can already see that based on a projected what the property will be worth at some point that's what you're projecting those numbers on. So if you put this investment in they're making an assumption of what the property will be worth and how much those tiffs and things will be worth year after year. Mhm.

If you're able to do that, there's an equity in that and there is a business model. And if we're in a precarious model for that, maybe it needs to be re reidentified as more plausible, too. The that's the unfortunate part is in this current market with interest rates and construction costs where they're at and what you can charge for rent. It would be very easy if he could charge five times the rent, right? Because of where costs are at. All of this is it's all cost driven, right? It it's you've got your rents, you've got your operating expenses. A project can only generate so much. The difficulty is you can't just increase someone's rent because you're not going to find anybody to take it. So what it what it comes back to is you can continue looking at what's there. That's probably the business model that you're referring to is to say, I can get a souvenir shop or whoever I can charge low rent for because hey, I can put them in this functionally obsolete building or this isn't necessarily something that you can significantly increase density in, which is another factor. The the the more density you can create, the more revenue you can create, right? So, there's limitations there because of the existing building and then given its age. I mean, again, it hasn't seen any meaningful investment since 1955. There are unfortunate issues that you have to deal with that that don't generate revenue, right? There's a historic facade that everybody loves that Andy's very, you know, uh, in tune with and wants to preserve that for the community, but it costs money and and it's not something that you can go to your renter and say, "Pay me $100 more a month for because you've got this historic facade in the downtown." And I think frankly if it was brought to us

that it was an isolated facade to keep a historic value in the the town and an um abatement of asbestous. I think you know those two things are out of bounds for normal remodels and construction. I think that I would have been um more open to to trying to find a way to understand this better. But um the overall business model of this is hard for me to to agree with. So okay, thank you. Thank you.

I mean I can second everything that she just said. Um and if I mean if the facade is the issue, maybe we reconsider. I mean I understand that Floas is iconic. I understand that people would be so sad to see that leave. But maybe it doesn't work to save it. Like we have to consider like if that's his business, he has to look at what it means to work it and make it work, right? Like if that's his business, he has to look at it. He bought a building he knew needed work and a lot of it cuz I looked at it too. So he bought a building that he knew needed a lot of work. Um and he knew it was going to be a lot of work to do that to keep that building alive. Um, and I just don't think it's I mean, if that doesn't work, it doesn't work. And um, owning a restaurant downtown, owning a business that needed work, owning a building that needed work. I had to put all that in myself, so did everybody else downtown. Um, and so has everybody else. And I know businesses in this town, not only have they invested recently in redoing their whole buildings, they invested in city property, they've repaved our sidewalks for us, um, when we didn't. So, um I mean I am having a really hard time with it, especially with there being I mean if if you came to me and said there were going to be low-income apartments up there, we were going to give a break to the people working in the restaurant downstairs, but you can't tell me there's a single person in that restaurant that's going to make $103,000 because that's what a 100% of the average medium income is in this town. What person in a restaurant makes $103,000? That's a hard time that I mean that's hard for me to consider that. I don't know anybody in a restaurant that makes the kind of money that doesn't work for the Gilmore. So for me that's really really hard. And again as stated before I do think there's probably many many many buildings downtown that have at least

part of them that couldn't be considered obsolete. Um that's the town we live in right now, right? I mean just some of the infrastructure in town is old. So, um I mean I am I have a hard time with it. Um and and as a restaurant owner, had this come to us again, even as a five-year, we want to give somebody a break as a restaurant owner to get off their feet cuz I know they're going to struggle cuz they will. Downtown and Grand Haven is hard. No matter how many years you're in business in winter, it does not matter. I I would have been I would have looked at it through different eyes having done it and having struggled. Um but I 12 years is too much for me. It's too hard for me um to consider.

Could I Thank you. Absolutely. Um the difficulty that the state is in right now is in in some cases some could come and say could I have a 5-year tax abatement and they then go to the MEEDC to seek grant funding to supplement what that local support would have otherwise covered. Again, this all goes back to making the economics work for a project. And in the point on the facade, that was one example. I'm not saying that's driving everything. Obviously, there's demolition, abatement, etc. It's it's an old building, right? It comes with its own quirks. Um, but the state legislature provided $7.7 million in a normal course where it was more like close to 50 million that grants are available. In a normal course, you can seek shorter terms. The unfortunate part is construction costs have escalated, continue to do that. Interest rates somewhat come down a little bit, but all relative to a few years ago, I guess, but uh and the problem is there aren't other tools that a developer can then go tap from the state, right? Where they're not knocking on your door saying, "Hey, you know, this is what we have. Can we try to use it?" So, you're trying to do more with less, right? And and I can appreciate and respect everything that you you just addressed. Um, and it's it's the unfortunate part that we're in to try and do a meaningful project is it's a heavy lift, right? Wherever you go, not not just Grand Haven, it's it's all over the place.

100%. And again, as Sarah said, we will always ex expect somebody to ask, right? like you're never don't leave it on the table. You never know what the answer's going to be.

I just wanted to be clear if you dig into the numbers and that's what I was trying to attempt to do. It wasn't ignoring the fact of saying, "Hey, just ask for less, right?" Cuz that's easy. We can do that. But it makes what's already thin worse. So, it's trying to support that justification that again staring at a news article saying they're asking for $1.1 million. We are seeking a grant from the state. The likelihood of us getting it is probably pretty thin. So, that's money out of his pocket that he's going to supplement, which makes the numbers that your plant Moran report has probably even worse. But, he's trying to make it work. It's very thin and that's why we're here. It's not trying to drive the most profits. He's trying to make it make some financial sense because as the plant man report shows without it, you're you're in the negative, right? It is philanthropic at that point. And yes, he does have to pay to keep his lights on just like all of us, right? We we all have something that we do to put food on the table. So yes, he he is a developer. This is not something where it's, you know, pigs get fed, hogs get slaughtered. It's not that situation. It's one that he's just trying to make pencil. If he didn't need the support, he bought the building last year. He'd have been under construction and had people in in in renting. But without it, he he will have to rethink what is ultimately going to go there. But again, he's trying to do something meaningful in the downtown where he wants to see the vibrancy with a signature building. So,

Mike, thoughts?

Yeah, I can agree with a lot of the points that have been brought up. Um, I was probably the one that raised it at the last meeting that it's great to be able to apply for these incentives and they're tools that are all given to developers to use. The only tool that's left out is how the city makes up for the funds that we don't get from the tax abatements that he gets. I understand it's over a long period of time. I understand it's a smaller amount. Um when you look at the numbers, I think the city portion of it uh is actually about 65%. Um versus 35% of the the arrest that goes to the county and and and other places. So what actually doesn't hit our our um various departments is a is a much smaller number. Um, I think the comment I made was it looked like it was um, somebody who was shooting for the moon and maybe there was some room for something less. But when I read the numbers and it shows that um, you know, his his average leverage cash on cash returns including incentives are projected to be 1.2 to 3.8%. That kind of makes you wonder if the business model that he is actually pursuing is something that that is actually going to work for him. I mean at that low of numbers I mean you know a 90-day T bill you can get 3.6% for. He can make almost more money by doing that than what he's proposing to do with this building. Uh so I I would like you know to see it at a lesser term uh something that's more palatable for you know the community to accept. Um, every building we have downtown, if you really consider and look at them, could be considered an absolute plant Moran were to go through them all. Um, there just doesn't seem to be a lot of reinvestment into a lot of these older buildings for the simple reason that I think this gentleman is finding

out is the costs are just too high. um with construction and everything uh rates that we have these days uh that they're at, it's tough to probably make anything go in there that works. Um restaurants especially aren't that great for uh being known to survive, new ones. I also understand what happens if we don't do investment in our downtown. if we don't have, you know, newer buildings, if we don't have something that brings people here uh to help our other businesses grow and support them as well. So, it's it's like a double-edged sword for me. If I if I don't do it because of the amount that we're looking at over the years, we miss out on a development which brings all that. But if we do it, we're, you know, driving up other prices as well. So, I'm kind of stuck in the middle. I mean, I I I could see supporting something that maybe was for a shorter term. Uh maybe a different business model that he could look at. Um maybe something that he could do in the interim period to come up with something and and still have a meaningful use for what's there. It's kind of kind of where I'm sitting at the moment. Right.

Well, um, our downtown is an aged is a very aged town and you're absolutely right. Everybody's already said that it's you go to every piece of property down there. It's obsolete. You go in there, you're going to find you're going to find asbestous. You're going to go in there and find different things that are not right. Um, our community is an aging community. uh person moves another older person passes on and they sell the house. There's asbestous in those houses. There's lead paint. We don't give residents any kind of breaks when it comes to their time to fix their houses up. You have to pay out of our own pocket. I bought my grandparents house and what did they wrap the pipes with? Asbestous because it kept the heat in for them. I had to have that taken care of by myself. I had to pay that expense. I find it very hard that anybody that buys a piece of property if it was a a good example is like uh Grand Landing that was highly polluted underground and stuff like that where we had to take care of. There's no money in the state to do that. We helped them out to get that taken care of so they could do it. But there's it's a piece of property would never ever been built on. But when it comes down to a uh a business or anybody that's or even a homeowner, I'd like to give my homeowners that kind of a break for them. Give them a tax break, but we can't do that. We It's not in our thing. These are tools that the state gave us to use if we wanted to if we wanted to use them. We don't necessarily have to. I have to agree with everybody else. The time period on it is one thing. It's too long a time period. uh restaurant. I'm telling you right now, look out there how many how many Wendy's are closing. You know, look at look at the business model over the whole United States when it comes to restaurants. Most of them fail. I'll tell you what, it's very difficult. If you ask anybody that owns a restaurant, they're really struggling. They're trying their hardest

to make it work. I I just don't think the business plan that he has is the right business plan and the time period and that I'm not going to be in support of it. Even though I sat on EDC board, I thought move it forward just because we get a debate on it. But I don't give my I don't give my residents any kind of breaks. And I tell you what, I you buy a piece of property when you know it has best, you know, you have everything else in it. Then you're going to come and ask people that you want you want give me a hand. I go, nobody gave me a hand at my house. We don't give residents a hand. Um, if it was something totally different, if maybe a little shorter, that the length of it is just way too long. I don't even think he's going to be around for 25 years.

Could I ask on that, Mark? What What is considered reasonable, I guess, at that piece? I don't know exactly, but I'm telling you what, 25 years on the one and 12 on the other, that's the maximum that we can give up. And I just don't think we need to go that far. I think the mount come down a little bit lower, too. the the TIFF can actually go 30 years, but I know we've done that. Yeah. And Grand Landing, I've worked on that project when I was at DC and that had a tax nice tax credit associated with it. So, that's I'm not going to support it. I'm just telling you right now as it is.

All right. So I'm also on the EDCB board and we deal with incentives and we understand perfectly well that the only way these incentives generate any benefit for anyone is if they actually make the investment and increase the value of the property so taxes can go up. So if we turn down incentive requests and no investment is made all this concern about all the other taxpayers have to pick up the difference. Well, it's the same thing you have today. If there's no incent if there's no investment in the property, there is no extra taxes generated. So, it's you really haven't changed the equation at all. All the other taxpayers are paying the same that they would have been and the existing taxes continue to be collected. So, I think the whole notion that by declining the incentives and foregoing the investment made that it somehow u saves other taxpayers money. That doesn't make sense to me simply because the only way these these taxes that we would return are generated is with the new investment. So the whole point of incentives is to is to encourage investment and encourage buildings to get better and encourage some of the goals of the city such as maintaining some of the architectural character, some of the historic context, some of the things that we value in our downtown and add vibrancy to a building and just to make things better. That's the point of the incentive. That's your point of encouraging investment because it's almost always going to be cheaper to invest somewhere else. Invest somewhere where there isn't an old building to deal with. It's going to be cheaper to do nothing. Just let the building continue to be as it is. In which case, the taxes will only go up incrementally with inflation, which really doesn't encourage any of the goals of the city in terms of how we want our downtown to look. So this would be the value of the incentives that they would encourage that investment to happen where otherwise it may be marginal with the

incentives. It's definitely not marginal without the incentives. It probably simply won't happen. Uh so I think that's why the that's why we entertain incentives. I don't think the incentives are ridiculous to ask for. I think there's a benefit to them and I don't think that they place an unusual unusual burden on taxpayers because without the investment nothing changes. So that's why I'm I'm willing to talk about incentives. I'm willing to think about them. The term of the then the term of the request is basically a question of how much tax do you think it can generate each year and how many dollars you trying to cover with your eligible costs and you multiply it out and that's how many years you got. If you say we'll arbitrarily give you five years, three years, seven years, it's less money to be captured assuming the investment happens and so it's less of an incentive and so that probably makes this project less viable. So I guess I'm not about choosing a number and say we we'll give you a certain number of years. I don't think that really fits into the logic of any of this. Um, so I'm not opposed to the incentives. Whether or not his business plan makes sense, I guess it's a matter of he's he makes the investment and it fails, there's still a building there that we're taxing. So, I don't think that's really that's not necessarily our problem. Um, yeah. I think we get really wound up about the idea of the inequity of this and we're doing somebody a favor giving them money or giving them money that wouldn't be there if they didn't make their investment. So, in general on supportive investment of incentives, this particular one, you know, it's the problems I have with this one are one is that every time we talk about obsolete property uh abatements, that's a really blunt tool. That's a tool where we just say, "We're going to freeze your taxes, not collect them, do what you need to with the money you

saved, and we're not going to concern ourselves with how you use that money." Whereas the u the tiffs, the brownfield tiff, the housing tiff, tax increment financing, there's a list of eligible costs that are being covered. I like that better because then we know exactly what we're reimbursing for and then that's spread out over how however many years it takes to generate that kind of capture. So, I'm usually more inclined to go to approve of a tax increment finance plan as opposed to outright abatement. And that's the piece that I don't really like about this. The abatement portion of it, I understand it's there to help us capture other taxes besides the city's taxes. Who's paying for this? Well, by and large, incentives are locally funded. We give up potential t potential income in the future to get the investment to happen now. and sooner or later it comes on the tax roles. Um, with the Oprah, I think that helps us to collect other people's money as well as our own local money. So, there's a place for it. I think it was also intended as um a way to encourage MEEDC to come on board whether or not they have any funding to do it. So, I'm I'm not excited about the Oprah portion of this. I think the T I think the TIF portion of it is something that does make sense to me. So if I can kind of leave it at that for the moment, but that's kind of my feelings on the incentives and on this request. It is it is a very large portion of the cost of the project and that's unusually large. You you would like to respond. Go ahead.

Mr. Mayor, if I if I could ask the council a question on that note, if we retoled our brownfield plan and removed the Oprah, likely have to, again, this all comes down to economics, right? Uh, and adjusted our TIFF request where without the OPRA, maybe there's a shorter period of time to bring those dollars back into the project. Is there a willingness to consider that?

I can only speak for myself, but I think that what you've heard from council is that the proposal as it stands isn't very palatable to this group. If there's a if there's an interest in retooling that, reconfiguring it, getting a shorter time period, maybe a lower total amount of capture or total amount of benefit, that might be that might be appealing. I can't speak for anyone else sitting here other than myself, but that might be a more viable path for you. Now, that would be we have a motion on the floor now to consider the Oprah district. It's likely to fail. So, I I think that since it's on the floor, we'll either postpone it or vote on it. Uh, as far as where we go from there, I guess that's kind of maybe the ball's in your court if you wanted to do something different. Well, either way, the plan before you, the next discussion item doesn't necessarily matter. um I guess I would respectfully request uh that the item be tabled at this point and allow us to perhaps retool that without the abatement piece and try and achieve away with a reduced brownfield tiff term if that's what we're hearing. If if I guess if that doesn't change the decision, then I guess it's all for not. But um we're trying to find a path forward.

I can I can tell you as it stands, it doesn't make sense. You've seen the numbers, but if the concern is the term, maybe there's the opportunity to make a revision to the ask to try and achieve a similar goal. Yeah. Yeah. And I think what I'm hearing from my colleagues is the term and the proportion of the project that's being incentivized are problems with us. And so those may be things you want to reconsider. Whether you want to see this voted down and then come back or see this postponed so that you can just reconsider the entire thing. I would rather ask that it be postponed if I could.

That would be the consensus of this group. I'll make a motion to postpone. I will second that. Postpone it until when? Postponement until such time as you can come up with a new plan. I don't know. Does it does it have to go back to the EDC then? Um, very likely yes. I would think it would. That would be that would be that would be what I would expect. It could be postponed at the recommendation of the EDC reconsideration if that's possible. or sent back down to the EDC for

well until it can be resubmitted through the EDC through the proper channels. I go through Yeah, I'm fine. I'm fine with that. You fine with that? Uh Dana, does that make sense to you? Yes. Okay. And Maria, is that pass that pass your parliamentary procedure? It's not my favorite, but if it's what the council would like to do, then what you do. That's that's what's important, isn't it?

Um, well, we have a motion up here. Motion by second by Dora to postpone further action on this item and very likely the other item on our agenda until this can be resubmitted through proper channels. Is that is that my understanding? Mhm. Let's vote on that postponement. Is it Yeah, let's vote on that postponement. Unless someone would like to have conversation about it, we can do that. Any questions on that postponement?

Okay, let's call the roll. Britz, yes. Dora, yes. Calio, yes. Lion, yes. Menitza, yes. All right. Thank you. Um, do sincerely appreciate the the discussion. Okay. We'll have to dispose of the other item on our agenda. Y, but we'll do this. We'll do the same. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. So, our other piece of unfinished business is the tiff portion. Have to vote on the amended. You voted on Oh, I'm sorry. I skipped a step, didn't I?

We just voted on. We just voted. Well, we voted to postpone. Yes. So, what is there to vote on? You're right. I'm sorry. Yeah, there's nothing left to vote on. So, I was right. Okay. I'm right once in a while. Okay. So then the other item, Marie, I'll kind of defer to you. Do we need to do we need to take up the other item the agenda and then postpone it properly or can we just because we let it die for lack of a second or lack of a motion? It may not be the proper way to deal with it.

If you want to actually postpone it, then you should motion and second for it. Move second and then move to post. you actually if you want to specify why you're postponing it. Okay, we should go through the All right, let's do that. I need a motion on item B. Would you like to read it so that we know what we're going to postpone? Consideration by city council of a resolution to approve and adopt the brownfield plan for the Washington 123 LLC project located at 123 Washington Avenue, Grand Haven, Michigan. I need a motion. So moved. Second

motion by Dora, second by Lion. Okay, we had we've kind of had our discussion here. Who would like to make a motion to postpone this for the same reason? I'll make the motion. Okay. Motion by Fritz. I will second this. Second by Dora to postpone this item under the same terms as the previous item. Any questions on that? Call the roll. Fritz. Yes. Dora, yes. Calio, yes. Lion, yes. Manza, yes. Okay, stay tuned.

Thank Thank you, Mr. Bela. All right, it brings us to our first item of new business. Consideration by city council of a resolution to approve a lease agreement between the city of Grand Heaven and Peace LLC with a term beginning on March 2, 2026 and authorized the mayor and city clerk to execute the necessary documents. Administration recommend Can I get a motion? So moved. Second. Motion by Fred, second by Calio. Ashley, you going to explain this one? Dana will be Dana. Yes. I'm sorry.

Good evening again. That's okay. Um, so before you is a request to extend a lease agreement with Peace Frogs, uh, located in the depot building. Um, they have been a tenant of the city in that particular space since we moved the tenants from Shinook Pier over to that building. However, um in a note that was u provided to by the owner of Peace Frogs, um Kristen, um she noted that they've been in business far longer in the city of Grand Haven and in Shnook Pier, um and is desiring now after many years to expand into the space that was formerly occupied by Grand Haven Beach Company. Um they u found a spot on Washington Avenue and vacated that space over the winter and um that has been a challenging space uh to utilize. Um, so Kristen expressed an interest in expanding her operations into that space, which really would be a win-win, we think, um, on our part to have her expand into that space. So, uh, Peace Frogs would be going from 750 ft uh to a total of 1,272 ft. So, um, that's a pretty um good size increase um for Peace Frogs to expand into. I did print off and provide to you um a note from the owner of Peace Frogs just expressing um her continued desire to be a part of uh the depot space and the community and um how much uh she has enjoyed u participating in the community and supporting the community. Um and unfortunately she could not be here this evening uh due to um a matter that she could not change or deal with. Um, so she normally would be here to answer any questions and certainly to relay her enthusiasm for continuing to be a tenant of the city of Grand Haven. Um, I just want to note that we did take a look at the base rent. Um, we did increase that

um, from their current base rent um, and we will be um, increasing rent uh, by CPI each year um, which we've been doing with all of our leases um, as you would anticipate. um as we've been working to update those and modernize those lease agreements. Um I did want to also note that the base rent does not include taxes and utilities uh which are build separately um to the tenants and in the case of Peace Frogs. They've also contributed greatly to the outside decor around the area, plantings, um decorating the space. So they really take a pride of of ownership of their space um and really been good partners with the city of Grand Haven.

All right. Thanks. Questions, comments? No, they're a great they've been a great tenant down there. To be honest with you, I my wife and I end up being in there and spending a long time talking with Kristen a lot. So, it's she does a fantastic job. You're right. She does put flowers out. She does put things out there and decorates the inside. She's a great tenant for us. I'm all in favor of this. I agree. Happy happy to see her occupy the additional space. If she can use it, that's fine. Anything else? Do they plan on moving in like tomorrow?

Like well as as quickly as possible. Um I know they've already kind of shuffled some things around. Um but they haven't started some improvements that they want to make. There's a wall that's in between uh the two spaces. Um so they'll be bringing that down and be making some other changes to the interior. that that was that wall was added when Green Haven Beach Company went in. So, it's not a part of the historic structure of the building. Okay. There's just a few things in this agreement that are missing that should be in a general le like license agreement. Um there should be something in I'm assuming we have a current le license agreement with them. Correct. This should supersede and replace that agreement. It is not written in here that it does that. So, we need to make sure it does state that.

Um there is also no termination clause in here whatsoever. Um, as a city, we should want that on our for us to protect ourselves. Um, this agreement should end January 31st, 2036, not February 1st, 2036. Um, we can leave this, but I have never seen an agreement that continues for 30 days following the expiration of an agreement. That's the weirdest thing I've ever seen in my life, but that's fine. Um, there's I mean, it's minor things, but there's no notice clause. It does not say anything in here on like does she have to give us 6 months notice to say she wants to be there for five more years? Is it 30 days notice? Is it 30 minutes notice? Is it 30 days notice? Is it one week's notice? I mean, it's there's no notice clause in here whatsoever that tells her or us when she wants to renew this agreement.

We can certainly update that. Um, this we've utilized a standard format, but we can make some tweaks to it. I mean, I'm happy to redline it and send it right back over to you. Good. But I would rather not vote on it until our next meeting unless they really plan on getting in there tomorrow.

I mean, I don't know specifically. I want nothing more than them to have this space, but there are some things in here I I'd rather not say yes to. Is this the same license that they have now? Is it the same words that they signed previously? Yes, it's the same. There's there's some minor tweaks because we changed the terms to the license agreement prepared by our attorney. Yes. Okay. Correct. I mean, we use the same format. We updated the dates. So, Ron didn't review the dates um but the terms um of the lease. Yes. Is her current lease expiring? Yes, that's correct. So, this would s would take place of thatation, right? Replaces an expiring places an expiring license. That's correct.

So, yeah, as far as superseding the old lease, that's kind of irrelevant because that's not there anymore. Correct. But the other terms such as notifications and such. Yeah. The the notification piece in terms of uh notice to exercise our right to extend that was that's not in there. Yep. In our in our license agreement. Mhm.

That would be the only piece that needs to be added that I'm aware of. Sorry. Well, I'm anxious to see this executed. Um, I'm not so anxious that I rush into something that's that's not ready. It's just a way of it's it's a typical form we've used. If it needs to be adjusted, then we could postpone, but that would be a vote of council to postpone. Would you um be interested in um approving this based upon your recommendations? Absolutely. So, so it doesn't have to come back. Absolutely. Happy to do that

because we could do that too. We can make it contingent upon changes and move forward with it that then she gets closure on her part knowing that there's going to have changes involved with it. I want nothing more for them to have that space 100%. I just want us to make sure that as we go forward we are updating our agreements to more thorough. We can make it on your recommendations. Well, then then why don't you make a motion to amend the agreement to include the notifications and what else? Termination. Termination of notifications. Yep. And then notice notification. And if you make if if we make amendment to the motion minor changes is a contingency then then it's not valid until those things are in place. Correct.

So it's just the notifications to terminate or extend or there more changes. There's minor date changes.

There was a notification to extend and a termination clause, right? Those two things. And then you had a couple of dates you didn't like. And those were we just need to make sure that this says January 31st, not February 1st. Okay. So, so and correct term dates. Okay. Correct. Okay. That's a simple way of doing it. If we do that and vote on it with those contingencies, then we don't have to make them wait two weeks. Totally.

So, sorry. That was motion and seconded by Well, we making a motion to do that. Yes. Okay. Motion by Lion, second by Cal Calio. And thank you for for the amendment. The amendment clear. No. Yes. Can you explain? Can you explain better? I'll let explain it. Go ahead. Okay. Let's vote on Let's vote on amending this to add that contingency. Lion, yes. Calio, yes. Dora, yes. Fritz. Yes. Yes. You got to know when when you're going to have to speak. Mike,

don't just take a big slug of water. All right. Are we ready to vote on the amended motion then? Yes. Please call the role. Fritz, yes. Calio, yes. Lion, yes. Dora, yes. Manza, yes. All right. Very good. Thank you. Next item, please. Item B, consideration by city council of a resolution to approve an application for a small rural tribal body worn camera program grant in the amount of $35,000 with a one to one local match. Administration recommends approval. All right. Can I get a motion? So moved. Second.

Motion by press second by Dora. Anybody from public safety going to explain this or are you going to do it? I will be taking this one.

Okay. Um yeah, so our department has been sharing a supply of officer warn um body cameras for the previous two and a half years and given our most recent transition to a new supplier, we're seeking um an opportunity to submit a grant um from which we've previously had success with this program. Uh we presently have about 10 body cameras and the grant would allow us to double the supply to address uh both our aging technology as well as um logistically very practically better suit our 36 officers. Um so there's a onetoone match for this grant. We'd be looking to leverage our already budgeted $35,000. Um and we're recommending um allowing us to move forward with the submission of this grant.

Okay. So the motion is to apply for a grant. Correct. Okay. Any grant agreement would be then brought back before you. Okay. Questions. Go for it. Nope. Please call the role. France. Fritz. Yes. Dora. Yes. Lion. Yes. Calio. Yes. Manetsa. Yes.

Okay. That brings us to report by city council. Who has things to say? I don't really have much to say, but I think there's a chance that my email might be having issues. So, if you are emailing me and I am not responding, I am sorry, but there's a chance I'm not getting your emails. So, it's e l yo ngrhhaven.org. There's no s on the end of my name, so I'm I'm going to check into it tomorrow, but I think there's a chance I'm not getting emails. Sorry if I'm not responding to you. If you get her email directly from our website, it's correct.

It didn't come to me today when I emailed myself. Oh, or or just now. I I haven't received I tested mine also. Does it just take a while? Yeah, don't feel bad. I've been on here 22 years and it seems to be that it does work that way. It's not It's not just our website. Sometimes it has to be with You did it today. Yeah. wait until tomorrow morning and get back to us because we do have an email quarantine system. Check your junk, too. So, it might junk. Yep. That's where they go. That's where it goes. Oh, shoot. Yep. We can work with it to unplug those. You're not a normal person. I've had several of them go in by the way.

I have to go through my junk and I have to go through everything else on mine. Sometimes I get them, sometimes I don't. So, it's okay. You good? You good? Okay. I rather have be safe in the center here. Yep. Did you find yourself? Mhm. Okay. Thanks. Good. Matt, what have you got?

Um attended the airport uh board meeting, which was interesting after the um approval for the solar panel array. Um we'll see where where that all goes, but um there was at least some positive that that came out of it. they're happy to get the trees removed at no cost should that happen. So, also attended the BLP meeting. Um, they had a very interesting uh presentation on the increasing lack of generation and the effect of that is having upon the grid. Um, apparently they're they're coming to the nationwide conclusion that solar and wind don't make up for the loss. So, they're in the process of uh re-evaluating that and I'm not sure what direction we could be heading on that, but there was

pres.

Oh, of course. It's up to you. Well, it's spring training and Tigers are out there yet. And uh our new acquisition today, he had three innings pitched and he did very well at it. So, looks promising even though they lost, but it's just spring training, but seen that. And also, you notice I got some orange on today. Today is orange day, March 2nd, which is uh inclusion day, and it promotes inclusion in your daily life. So, just want to bring that out to everybody's attention. Like that. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. I see Aaron has orange on, too. See, she knows. And I'm not. You got blue.

I got blue on. Um I just wanted to make a quick comment about uh in the state legislature, there's a set of bills that are being introduced. Once again, they are proposing to preempt local zoning, local authority for um cities to determine how we structure and how we deal with our own business here. These are around housing. And the intention is to force local communities to relax regulations in order to promote more housing. Whether we like what they propose or not, it would be a preemption. So it would take it would take effect that whatever we have in our zoning orders would be superseded by these um bills. And so the MML has come out in opposition to these. I think Michigan Association of Planning has kind of acquiesed to some of the good that might be in them. and willing to not worry about the local preeemption piece because that's not their thing. But I think we always need to be paying attention when the state wants to take away local authority and uh prescribe solutions to us which may or may not fit well in our community. Some of the things that they're proposing and they've been having hearings on are not allowing any local unit to have require lot sizes to be larger than 1,500 square ft, which is a incredibly small lot. You can have larger lots, but you can't require them to be larger in zoning. That's like a 39 foot by 39 ft plot of land. Uh they they're talking about limited time and opportunities for site plan studies and further review when there's a site plan that's proposed that might be problematic. Um they're limiting the ability the local units to review that. Uh they're talking about expansion of protest petitions which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I mean all of these ideas have some merit but again it's a

one-izefits-all from the state. Uh other sub other things that haven't been submitted as bills yet are things like uh allowing duplexes by right everywhere that there's single family homes, requiring no more than one car parking required. And this really gets into the details of what local zoning requires in our community. Uh allow requiring us to allow mobile homes everywhere that there's single family homes. adjusting uh oh ADUs uh allowed by right with no strings attached everywhere uh 15 foot maximum setbacks dwelling units may not be required to be more than 500 ft there's a lot of really fine detail they're talking talking about putting into state law to preempt local zoning authority and I think we ought to be really concerned when the state comes down with rules which are not well tailored to individual communities I I mean, zoning and planning are ways that this city kind of preserves its own character and looks out for the things that we value in our community. Sometimes communities get too stringent. Sometimes communities get um carried away with this. I think our zoning is pretty reasonable, but um you know, most communities would say that. But when the legislature steps in, just takes that away and provides their solution, I think that that's always problematic for local communities. There's probably some middle ground available where they could give us more options and we could exercise options. But to take options away from us, I I generally thought that was a bad idea. When you talk about why is there a housing problem and everybody likes to pile on to the idea that it's local regulations, local taxes, it's always because the local unit of government is in the way. And really, it's more about larger economic issues. The price of land, the price of finance, the price of materials, the price of labor, and then the things that local units add to that

are relatively minor. They're not nothing, but they're relatively minor. But all these other things the state doesn't come through and say, "Well, we'll help with all these costs." No, it's still up to local units to incentivize or to figure out how to do this stuff. But, uh, there's a lot larger issues than just local regulations. Local regulations need to make sense, but they shouldn't necessarily be preempted by the state. So, I think we need to keep an eye on what the state legislature is trying to do on our behalf. It's not always the best idea. So, that's my two cents for the night.

Um, I I have to agree with you 100%. I think a good idea is, as I said before, propose all of us heading down to Lancing and spending time with our senator. We're going for MML, but that's a short period of time and he's got to meet everybody else. I really think it's time we all go together and have a whole list of things and just have one voice. Maybe have Ashley do the voice for us or you want to add a little bit, but we get 15 minutes with them usually is what they usually give you. If we can get a little bit more time, it would be nice if we go down there and bring these concerns to them and let them know what we're thinking and that it really does help a lot. And I just think sometime it would be great for us to head down there and do that.

Well, and also if members of the public take an interest in this, I think it'd be I think it'd be nice if they hear from other people besides Oh, absolutely. locally elected officials that, you know, let let the cities run their business. We get elected by the people. If we're not doing what the people like, they can vote us out and then they can have somebody else sit here and make these decisions. But when it's being done in Lancing, it's a lot harder to deal with. That's my two cents for the night. I'll turn it over to Ashley now.

All right. On that note, um so I wanted to just put before you this evening um a draft document that you've seen. I've had some individual conversations with you. Um but following our community input survey that we completed at the end the last end of last year, uh we had convened for a robust dialogue around what we'd like to um come to a consensus around for our city council uh strategic priorities for the upcoming fiscal year. Um, so before you is a take at a draft of that. It really gets at the issues that we felt as a staff that there was a significant consensus around. Um although we covered a great variety of topics and that's certainly not to say any of those would be necessarily excluded or not worked on throughout the year, but these are the ones that uh seem to have the most consensus. Uh really again tying around some of the overarching themes that are are standard for us being housing, infrastructure, placemaking, uh issues with sustainability, uh joint meetings with our partners, our business community, um and things of that nature. So it's it's a relatively inclusive list, but again, not meant to include everything. There are a lot of um different functions and tasks and uh projects that we would still look to to take up as a team. Um, but this is intended as a tool to help us um as we communicate to the community, but also as we look to put our our line items together for your budget for review in April. So, this is a a great tool for guidance for staff. So, if there is consensus or modifications, we would like to bring this back before you at your next meeting for adoption.

Okay. Thank you. Well, if there's things council members would like to see different, let let Ashley know what you're thinking, she can circulate that in her one of her touchpoint emails so that we all are aware of it. Yep. I think otherwise you've taken a lot of stuff here and synthesized it down to a few bullet points that are use useful tools. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Well, then that brings us to our second call to the audience. So, at this point, members of the audience may address council on any item, whether on the agenda or not. Please limit yourselves to three minutes speaking time. Use your name and address and uh tell us what you think.

Got my own timer now, so I can beat you guys before you tell me to show you. Anyways, Mike Weaver, 637 Lake Avenue. appreciate all the work you guys put in and uh our new council members and our I guess Mike you're recycled. But anyways, really really appreciate the work you guys are all doing. It was uh fun to listen to all of you and uh you guys are putting the work in and I appreciate that. I think all the citizens do. Anyways, um comments on two things. one is uh I was uh I'll just use shocked uh that uh with our snow equipment that we were not maintaining the sidewalks these past two years and I go to Florida for a bit so I don't pay close attention but I do know that snow uh the sidewalk machine was driving down the road in front of my house every day. I assumed it was going somewhere important. I don't know where it was, but I do know and I was very uh unhappy when I saw the uh kids walking and this is the middle school, the Lakeshore Middle School, walking down the road on Park Avenue. So, as much as they said, the city said, we were taken care of around the schools, you weren't. Um and that was the kids were walking and I was I was appalled by it. And um then I come to find out that hey, it wasn't even in the budget. Well, you know what? Let's make sure that's way too important. Uh we're losing kids as it is. We don't need to lose one to a car. Um so thank you for getting that back on, Bob. I It's back on, right?

Yeah.

The snow plumbing. Let's make sure we never let that happen again. Uh that's one. Two, uh I went to the Harbor Island uh meeting uh a few months back uh and I was um I was expecting more. Okay. But when I started asking the questions, one of them I did not like the response on at all. And that was uh the where the coal pits used to be right behind the burm on the river. There were ponds in there. And I know there is garbage underneath all of it. A good chunk of it. But they told me one that the plan was a containment system. Problem one. Let's spend the money. Do it right. Get what we can out of there. Okay. Let's take our time. do it right. Two was that they filled in those ponds for a cost of about $100,000. Now, I don't know who came up with that or approved it, but it's a huge mistake to burn $100,000 and and and if there's already a plan that we're going to go containment and we're not going to clean that site, let the public know because I didn't know that just like I didn't know about the snow plowing. So, let's get more transparent. You can say you're transparent, but that was shocking to me that we wasted $100,000 on to me personally. I'd like to see the whole thing excavated. Let's get a marina in there. Get an outsider to pony up the money. We need more marina space. The costs are going crazy and it'll also keep that bridge from opening as much. So, anyways, that's my thoughts. I only have a few seconds left. You guys have a great evening and thanks again for all your hard work.

All right. Thank you, Mike. Who else would like to address council? Jim Hagen 400 like I'd like to thank the mayor for that we're trying to do that on the Facebook so that res send them emails and so forth on the specific issues or bills whatever they happen thank you anyone If no one else would like to address council and if there's no further business then we are adjourned. Thank you for coming.