Community Redevelopment Agency - Regular Meeting

Oh, yeah. That's right. Welcome

back.

Thank you. Thank you. Never done this before, so pray for me.

Can you

imagine? Eventually, it's going to happen. Yeah, he's had a meeting. He said he's going to run up to ten minutes late.

Are we

ready? All right, everyone. We're ready to begin our CRA executive board meeting. So if everyone can please, we're going to start with the Pledge of Allegiance. But I'd like to also offer a moment of silence on behalf of one of our longstanding city commissioners and county commissioners and mayor Sue Gunsberger, who passed away this weekend.

So if we could, while we stand, have a moment of silence for her, please. Oh, and also my mother passed away. If we could have a moment of silence. Thank you. 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. We're going to go ahead and start with the roll call.

Board member Shuhan? Board member Hernandez? Here. Board member Gruber?

Here.

Board member Biederman?

Here.

Board member Quintana? Here. Vice Chair Kalari? Here. Chair Levy?

Any conflict disclosures before we start the meeting? Hearing none, we're gonna go ahead and start with our nine a. M. Citizen comments. First we have Andre Brown, followed by Richard Sharpezen, I believe. And then Bob Glickman. Good morning, Andre.

Good morning, mayor. I mean, yeah, I vice don't have my glasses on, y'all got to forgive me. Commissioners and city manager and to all my brothers and sisters. I wanted to say a reference about District 2. I do travel to different districts and areas, and, you know, I put a check of things that I see and try to report anything I see.

Commissioner Hernandez, they're looking good in District 2. You know? We could tell that you're out and about as a commissioner checking your community and seeing what's going on. But ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, he can't do it by himself. He needs everyone's help within that district too. If you see something, say something. Call

them. That goes

from any of these commissioners up here. If you don't give him the information, how would he know? How would he know what's not going on? I've seen a few of the lights was out down 26 near those trees. I didn't get the the address, but what I do, commission, I'll send you the location of any lights that I see out.

I don't know if the city changed, who doing the lights now, who are they responsible for, but that's not my job to to get involved with. But if I see something, I'm gonna say something. I am in a great mood today, even though my nephew is over there in Kuwait, and I know what time it is as being a service guy myself and all the prayers and everything for all the soldiers over there. He called me by phone. I said, get off that phone.

You're not supposed to be on no freaking phone. We're in war right now, you know? But I just want to leave this to everyone. We and everyone, please pray because that's what we need right now. This country is really, really I don't recognize it no more.

You got those cells, I ring cells over here in our country. Just watch your back. That's all I can say. May god bless everyone. And, our last thing, I went out on 56th Dump out there, and somebody privatized that sanitation department out there.

And I was talking to the people out there. That's a shame. That is a shame. You privatized sanitation out there on 56th Avenue. They'll reap what they sow, what they did.

Thank you, Andre. Next up, Richard. I'm sorry if I didn't say your last name correctly. Sharpezan, is that

it?

If you get it right, I'd be concerned.

Well, welcome.

Do you have the handlers

up? Thank you.

Well, good morning. I hope everyone's doing well. I know you guys may be tired of me talking about this, but I'm here again about the A1A and Carolina Street light. As a reminder, up until last year, you guys were told that mid block crosswalks were not permitted, So you voted in favor of this Carolina Street traffic light, because it was better than nothing. But you were always shocked that we couldn't have mid block crosswalks.

After I personally met with DOT and made you guys aware that we were allowed mid block crosswalks, at the September 3 CRA meeting, we requested that you put this traffic light on hold until you guys received some mid block crosswalk concepts. At that meeting, Rick Mittinger stated FPL still needed to remove their poles before the lights could be installed. And that wouldn't happen until December. He could have engineering provide concepts with and without pedestrian counts prior to this light being installed. You guys directed Rick and the CRA to do this, to provide these mid block concepts with and without the Carolina Street light.

It is now March, well past December promised date. Six months later, we don't have anything. The Carolina Street, from what I'm told, no longer needs to have the FPL poles removed and could be installed in a few weeks, if not sooner. Not only are you guys being we feel you're being ignored regarding the request for these mid block crosswalks, there were two additional lights that looks like they're going to be installed as well. And I provided some handouts for that.

These lights are too close to the bridge and will wreak havoc, congesting traffic onto the bridge. And none of the required studies have been done to justify these lights. We do not need lights, especially where nobody is crossing the street. This is a major waste of money. We need mid block crosswalks every few blocks.

This light could also prevent crosswalks for where they're actually needed. So I have two questions or requests. The main request which we've been asking, can we please put this light on hold until you get the requested mid block crosswalk concepts? There's no harm in putting this on hold. And again, if I'm wrong, the traffic light's needed, I go away, we're fine.

The second is I don't want to waste a lot of everybody's time on this. To me, it seems the city and CRA is either just ignoring your requests on this because it's been going on for a long time or providing misleading information, or somebody else directed them not to provide this. So again, I just would like to know what direction I should go in or if we can put this on hold.

Thank you, Richard. And just for the record, the clerk, apologies for my tardiness, but I am here for the attendance and roll call. Thank you. Next on public comment is Bob Glickman.

Hi. Good morning. Bob Glickman, Hollywood Beach. I'd like to request that I'm able to speak on item nine today. I know it's a presentation, but it's about 20 potholes that needed fixing. Hooray. I'm glad to see that. I would like to see if we can get a residential parking permit for the beach residents. We seem to be doing it in other parts of the city. We still need something here on the beach for the residents that live there.

And I know we've brought this up plenty of times. We've had plenty of parking studies. And each parking study said that we should have something. So please, if we can get something done. And the other thing is we also need a truck ordinance, especially for the tractor trailers that are parking along A1A. There need to be delivery times, smaller trucks. They try to go up to Surf Road. They can't get through. They back down the streets. They park in the middle of the street on A1A.

And then also, they have those mobilized food things that they can bring up to the restaurants. But this is just not working out. It's a dangerous situation that we just don't seem to address. And it's going on twenty years. So I just hope that we can finally, eventually do something about that. I'm glad to hear that maybe the FDOT secretary is coming here next month. That'll be a big relief to a lot of us. I would like to also ask that if we can pass or institute some kind of a solar ordinance. There are people that are putting solar panels on their homes. When they purchased their home, they knew what could be built next to it.

Now that we're changing areas and we're putting racks in, now somebody that has solar panels on their home, now they have a four or five or six story building next to them blocking the solar panels. They've spent $30,000 to $50,000 on panels. And now they're going to be obsolete. I think we need to take into consideration something being done for these people that have already played by the rules. They knew what they had.

And then we changed the zoning where they live and through no fault of their own. There's a problem. And I think it's something that we need to address. And especially nowadays, we all seem to be ecological minded. And we want to do all the best things that we can for our city, our state, our country.

But yet, these people that are doing something, they have no recourse. And this just doesn't seem right. And I think we should take the lead on this in our city here of Hollywood and protect these people that have made a huge investment on something. And now, it could be obsolete. So it's something I'd like to just bring to the forefront for all of you to think about and maybe consider somewhere down the line. Thank you.

Thank you. That concludes 9AM citizens comments. Next on our agenda are the consent items. These are items five through seven, the approval of previous meetings minutes. We have a motion from board member Biederman and a second from board member vice chair Caleri to approve the consent items. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, those items carry unanimously. On to item number I'm sorry. I think I think I might have left out item eight as a consent item. So are there any speaker cards on item eight?

All right.

I'll accept the motion. Motion from Vice Chair Culary, second from Board Member Quintana to approve item number eight. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the item carries unanimously. All right. Moment we've all been waiting for, the regular agenda. A presentation by the CRA regarding the Central Beach District, East West Streets, backflow preventers, and street raising options and cost. Executive director, this has been an item that we've all discussed for a long time now. And we're really happy to finally see this analysis here and hopefully give you some direction.

Correct, correct. As Sarita gets ready to make the presentation here, going back a few months ago and beyond, Obviously, a lot of discussions on this issue for Central Beach to see what options there were with the East West Streets and related to flooding issues, whether it be raising the streets, the WA pros, pumps, whatever. And especially important that we kind of synthesize our posture on this because, yes, although it's changed a couple times, FDOT secretary is now scheduled to be at next month's CRA meeting. So in preparation for that opportunity, this way we can kind of consolidate our posture on where we're at on this, what we want to do, and who would be responsible for what under an interlocal agreement. And hopefully, can have that all queued up for him.

But with that, Sarita will present the important information we have.

SARITA Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Chair, Vice Chair, Board members. My name is Sarita Shama, senior project manager at Hollywood CRA. I'm going to be presenting the evaluation that we did for the redundant backflow preventers and the street profile elevations.

Back in December 10, the board directed us to evaluate and present a cost estimate to add WAPRs on 30 streets in the Central Beach segment, from Hollywood Boulevard to Sherman Street. So during this time, we reached out to a vendor that has a contract with public utilities. We got a cost estimate for the 30 WAPR installations. Just to note that four WAPR's have already been installed and the board requested that we only use information that we already had. So, we used visual observations.

We got GIS profiles from the City of Hollywood Public Utilities. We got some information from the storm water master plan and also the SCALER report that was funded by DOT. So this rubric represents a summary of our findings. We evaluated the backflow preventers, the street profiles and the proposed storm water pump stations. So, for the City of Hollywood Resiliency Initiatives, installing these WAPros is a very efficient way to control localized flooding.

And this cost is $1,300,000 Raising of the street profiles also provides localized improvements, but it has a higher cost. Just the lowest five streets will cost $6,400,000 But it's also very important to notice that while we can provide some localized improvements because we depend on the FDOT drainage network in order to reach the level of service that we are required. This needs to be a comprehensive approach in which we need to partner with FDOT and also have city funding, which has already been provided in blue for the design and installation of two pump stations in addition to the three pump stations that we already participated with DOT. So, is just a summary.

So,

on phase four, we already installed 16 out of

the

18 WAPRs. And by observation, we've already seen that there's an improvement with king ties. We've got positive feedbacks from the residents. And all that investment that we have done for raising the streets and installing the WAPRs requires some level of maintenance. But that cannot replace the need that we have to partner with DOT and to have a mechanical system along the corridor.

So just a summary. What does a backflow preventer do? It basically protects the city right away from incoming high tides from the Intracoasta. It does not address stormwater flooding. It requires maintenance and does not stop tidal flooding from the seepage from the groundwater.

And the street raisings are also a localized improvement because we do improve the flooding depth just by the fact of elevating the road. We reduce that flooding by the amount of depth that the road is elevated. However, that creates improvements by reducing the flooding from the high tides, from pervious areas, from groundwater coming in, in many times. It also helps with the INA, the infiltration from the pipes, and even sometimes cracks in the pavement. Just a review of the CRA geographical area and where all these backflow preventers are located.

We have on the intracoastal 16 Checkmates, one flap gate, in the central beach segment. It's just a review. And also as a summary of a very important element, which is the mechanical system and where we're at with this evaluation that was initially presented in August 2020 when the Scala report basically stated that we needed up to almost, I don't know, 26, I believe it was the number, of localized storm water pump stations. So the yellow squares are those pumps that are under construction where the city, the CRA, and other agencies participated. They're under construction, but they're estimated to be completed in 2027.

The hatch blocks are those pump stations that have been provided in our capital program to be funded and constructed where one of the pump stations is already 90% designed and the second pump station is in the ranking process to select an engineering consultant. And then the purple squares are those pumps that have been recommended by the Scalar Report that was released in August 2020. And this is the cost of the WAPR installations. The purple stars are those WAPRs that have already been installed. This is a cost provided by a contractor.

It includes mobilization, MOT, inlet protection. It's soup to nuts here, turnkey. It requires yearly maintenance. And as I noted, we already have four wafers that have already been installed. So, let's move along to the profiles.

We have 35 streets along the Central Beach segment. Sherman Street is a pedestrian walkway that is at the elevation of the sidewalk. So that specific street does not connect to the Intracoastal Waterways. Therefore, there is no need to install a WAPRO in that street. That's why we're only analyzing 34 out of the 35 streets.

So just in order to simplify, we selected a high profile and a low profile. As you can see, the right of way, A1A and the city right of way, the same as Surf Road. They vary as A1A curves to the east to the west, I'm sorry. The topography also changes. So not only the length of the street is different, but also where the right of way and the FDOT right of way interconnects.

One interesting thing to note is that all of the outfalls are relatively at the same elevation, which is around 2.5. So, in this case, this is Liberty Street. We go from 1.6 NAVD to almost seven NAVD. In contrast, we have Arizona Street,

which

is at point seven at the right of way location. And if I read well, it's five. So there's a two feet differential between the high from one street to the other. To illustrate better, Perdong?

No, no, ahead. Go ahead.

So I'm just going to show the five highest profiles versus the five lowest profiles. So, we start with New Mexico. We continue with New Hampshire, Liberty, Scott and Harding. In the lowest profiles, we have Taylor Street, Buchanan Street, Polk, Arizona, and Tyler Street. Just so that everybody can visualize all of the streets, this histogram shows all of the 34 streets.

And you can see that the highest profile is New Hampshire. And you can also note below the current high tide of 2.5 where we are and which streets are the most vulnerable ones. So this is the cost to raise the six lowest streets, dollars 6,400,000.0. And that includes I don't want to spend too much time on this, but we did material takeoffs and we did it on the inappropriate cost. Just this final chart shows all of the streets Since, obviously, we understand that this is a priority phase, not all the streets are in a vulnerable position as the lowest, lowest street.

So if there is funding available, we can move on to the next phase. So this is as far as my presentation goes. I'm going to turn on the conclusions to CDM Smith, Jonathan Goldman.

Thank you, Sarita. Excellent work there, Sarita. Thank you.

Good morning, board members. John Goldman, CDM Smith, stormwater engineer for the city, your consultant. I'm here to facilitate the discussion about potential recommendations. So just in summary for what Sarita was saying, so city streets backflow prevention. It's a quick and easy way to stop tidal flooding.

It only helps on the east side of the street, obviously. It helps at the city's catch basins. You've seen where if it's leaking anywhere else, it's coming down the street and still coming into that area. She mentioned that it is an additional 30 valves that need to be maintained every year, but that's the cost of living down here. And it buys you a little bit of time to figure out which streets to raise because those can go in pretty quickly and contractors are very familiar with that.

There's not a lot of harmonization or other things that need to happen. And you'll still have the problem at the low streets of the groundwater when the tides come up bubbling up through the ground. And remember, repeated up and down and up and down every tide cycle and these high tides begins to granulate the sub base and the base course and eventually your roads fail. So you can't get away from raising streets forever. But if you want immediate results, that's a good way to do it.

The surf road is high enough head that it shouldn't pose much of a problem for head loss, although you do look at each one individually and it buys you some time so you're not relying on FDOT to constantly fix the system and you've taken that into your own hands. So that's pretty much a discussion on the backflow preventers. I think we covered that last meeting I was here and it sounded like everybody was kind of in favor of that. Remember street raising, right? That's an immediate flood for both high tide and for the storm water. If you can go up 12 inches, you've just bought yourself 12 inches. But every street's different. You can't say, yeah, it's 12 inches and then fall off a cliff when you hit the sidewalk. It has to be harmonized. So there's a second part of this.

Each one of those streets needs to be looked at carefully. Some can come up two inches. Some can come up six inches. And then you can make a better decision on whether something's worth it or not. And of course, those are already pretty much complete. So you're picking up bricks and you're storing things. So it's a little more expensive. But it's something that needs to be done. Remember, you don't put in larger and larger pump stations in the future when the whole area is Okay with the pump station side you have just to get this 50 to 100 feet dip and make the level of service meet there. So you do normally put in street raising anywhere else in the city.

The only difference is there, when we're putting in pipes in those streets, we're coming in. We're turning up the whole street. So it's just the cost of that little bit of fill. This is obviously a lot more harmonization and things. So the street raising is something that should eventually happen. You do have some time. You can start with the lowest ones. But remember, there's the second study. If it's the lowest one and it only comes up an inch or two, is it still worth it to spend that kind of money? So that would be the second part of that to make that decision. And then talk about the future pump stations. Remember this area we showed you last time we were here. Two pump stations from FDOT works fairly well. You fill in those two gaps, it works very well. Well, it's the same thing out here.

If you say, well, let's put in a pump station. We have enough money to put in one out here. And you need six or seven, whatever the number was we saw there, is that really something sometimes we refer to it as stranded infrastructure. Something has to go in. If you were given a grant, you jump on it and say, yes, this is something we need to do. It's getting funded. Put it in now. But you don't want to spend a lot of your money on something that's going to work in the future and, right now, only work at certain times. Because sometimes, perception of that is you spent a lot of money. And until you have a plan for the rest of it, you may not want to put something in and spend all your money on that.

So that's basically part of that discussion of what we need to kind of figure out today together on the conclusions there. So the next steps would be to kind of finalize that decision on the redundant backflow preventers and then finalize decision on which streets you want to do, if you want to raise those streets or if the money is better spent somewhere else. And then confirm that those backflow preventers are definitely going in on any street that you don't raise and make those kind of a priority. So

Jonathan, given the relative inexpensive cost of the backflow preventers, we can install lots of them for an average of, say, dollars 40 some odd thousand. It's my impression that we would install them, observe conditions, and from there decide on the pace and the funding of raising the streets, knowing that the benefits of raising the streets are, as you described, if you raise it 12 inches, then you've gained even if water rises 12 inches, it's still going to stay under the surface because the street is 12 inches higher. So in a nutshell, while we look ahead toward raising streets and eventually pumps and continuing to pursue funding, obviously, backflow preventers are number one to help relieve the situation, right?

That's correct.

Right? So I think it's pretty clear for us what we the direction we need to give staff to get this best KAUFMAN: bang for

the buck on the backflow preventers and the way pros. We've already installed a number of them. And these would be installed basically right at the structure at the end of these East West Streets And US 1.

That's correct.

DELL: And so we're not going into the Intracoastal and doing it from that side. It's a lot less expensive and actually more serviceable and actually helps

to GREGORY

avoid the inflow issues that might be under A1A to the outflow.

GREGORY Right. GREGORY DELL:

So lots of good things here. Happy that we're here. And I just want to commend our CRA and public utilities and yourself because we did this analysis in house. We didn't hire a consultant to tell us what Sarita just told us. And thank you for using the tools and the expertise we already have on hand to get us to be able to say go. I have, obviously, board members who want to speak. We have Bob Blickman who wanted to speak. And so board members, did you want to ask questions to staff now? Or you want me to have Bob go ahead first? All right, Bob, come on up. Then we've got board members Hernandez.

I was just informed there's one more slide. Sorry.

Okay.

The rubric again. So this is the same that we've seen before. It's just the rubric on the Hollywood's initiatives. So the backflow preventers are up there with the costs, the storm water pump stations working with FDOT, and the street profiles where we're going to do the additional study to see how high each one can go. And the bottom part of there is just the coordination with FDOT. I know we're meeting with them next month in a couple of weeks. So we can take those bottom ones and talk to them about accelerating funding for the rest of us.

Thank you. Bob, come on up. If anyone would like to speak on this topic, see the clerk, provide them with a common card, and we'll go ahead and call you up. Bob Glickman?

Good morning again. Bob Glickman. So let's go back to the original premise. Flap gates, flap gates, flap gates. We need to step on FDOT to fix the flap gates and the underground piping. This is the original cause. We're trying to put Band Aids on things. And I appreciate that. And we're moving in the right direction. But we need to keep on top of FDOT to get this thing done. The other thing is I had sent an email. I don't know if anybody had seen it yesterday. But I have a concern. And I spoke to Susan this morning about it. About there's curbing around some of the street basins on the side streets.

Okay? This is holding water in. Okay? I understand her explanation to me, but I'm going to explain it to you in a different way. When you have surrounds like this and a dip in the street, the water is just sitting there. There's no way for it to evacuate. On some of the streets, there are no surrounds on the street basins. The level with the street and the water runs off to A1A, Okay? On some streets and I'll pick one out for you, Carolina Street, where they have a surround on one side of the street and nothing on the other side of the street there's no water at that street end either. The only reason I know that is I live there.

And for us to get in and out of our building, we have to find streets that have no water in them. Because if we can't take a car through six, eight inches of water, we flood out. So we find streets that we're able to do that. New Hampshire and New Mexico are streets. I sent a picture of New Mexico Street with no surrounds. And the water just evacuates onto A1A. At Carolina Street, same thing happens. At our streets, they're blocked in. And there's a lot of streets where they have the curbing on the surrounds at eight inches. And it just sits there.

And there's no way for it to pass until it evaporates. So I just want to bring this to your attention. Possibly, this is a solution. If you remove the surrounds on one side of the street, we can get some of the water out of the dips. And you don't have to spend $6,000,000 to raise the strips. Just a suggestion to you. But the thing that concerns me the most is that we need to stay on top of FDOT. They need to fix the flap gates in the intercoastal. They need to raise the profiles. They just need to do this stuff.

It seems like other cities, they have a contractor that comes in there once a year and takes care of all of this stuff. We have broken pipes, and they're just not fixing it here in Hollywood. I don't know what their problem seems to be. But we just somehow need to get them more involved and down here so they can take care of the problem. Instead of us spending the money, it's their obligation. So let them do it. I mean, we just need to get them to do it. Thank you.

Thank you, Bob. Well, as you know, we have the secretary coming in next week. We'll have next month, we'll have a robust discussion. But right now, we want to take our own destiny in our own hands and have a very cost effective implementation of these backflow preventers that is, you know, bar none, the first thing you ought to do when you have backflow of tidal water, especially where we don't want the years that it would take for an FDOT repair and improvement and to just stand by and have the same conditions continue when backflow preventers can significantly reduce, if not eliminate, the high tide issues on the Central Beach, I think there's no doubt that we need to be doing this, and it's cost effective. So let's go to board members, Board Member Hernandez.

Thank you, mayor. Great presentations, Farida. Bob, thank you for your concern. And I'm going to address your concern first. If you take the curbing around the catch basins, now you're dispersing the water into private property, which has basically become detrimental reliance. And that is exactly the same thing that would happen if we raised the streets. So by eliminating the curbing around there, we are basically saving, as he said, dollars 6,400,000.0 because that's exactly what the street raising is going to do. It's going to disperse that water. It isn't going to make the water go away. It's just going to disperse it into private property, into the low lying buildings it may be next door.

So we may be fixing one problem, and we're creating others. And question to and Sarita is shaking her head. I don't know if you agree with me or not. But nonetheless, the question that I have, as a CRA, we have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to redoing the street ins. This should have been addressed at that time as a comprehensive approach. But I agree with you, Mayor, that the $1,300,000 to fix those backflow preventers, it's a no brainer. That should be done. And if it needs to be done at our expense, it should be done at our expense. However, I caution you, if you go back to page three if somebody can go back to page three? Anybody has a clip here that can go back to page three of Sarita's presentation?

You passed it. Three. One more. Right there. Okay. The cost of the $21,300,000 even though that may be budgeted by us, that should only be spent after we have an agreement with the DOT. Because otherwise, if we don't have an agreement, that's going to be money that's coming out of our taxpayers' money. And it's not going to be refunded. The same way that we have agreements with the FDOT for the other two pumps that are under construction, we should have an agreement with this. And I spoke with Susan yesterday about it, and she's in full agreement of that before we spend the money.

We can let them know that we're fully prepared to move forward with it. If they sign an interlocal agreement, then we will refund it. And maybe we can talk about whether they can pay us back in five years or not, but for that money to come back in order for us to continue to have purposes of work that needs to be done on the beach. Just because the CRA goes away, that doesn't mean that the need goes away. So that this way, we have $21,000,000 or part thereof in order for us to be able to get that money back. So that's a concern that I have. And I would ask that the directive would be we'd be ready to move forward with this after the DOT signs an agreement. They will refund us for this. Because overall, this is their road. A1A is their road.

And some of the faults that we've been finding out, even though we're paying for the studies, it points to them of not maintaining the road properly. Page seven, if I may. Sorry, guys. It's okay.

Seven.

Seven.

There

you go, perfect. These are the pumps that are needed. And these are the pumps that we're looking for. It goes back to the $21,300,000 that we're talking about. It's a comprehensive approach to make sure that everything else works accordingly. Because right now, we have deficiencies in certain places. So it would be the equivalent of you going through a nice, smooth road, and then all of a sudden you go through bumpy roads or flooded roads in this case, and then go back to the other. It doesn't make for a synchronized project. And that's what we look forward. So the fact that they don't have to budget this right now, and it could be under five year budget alignment, it should go a long way with them to be able to move forward and sign an agreement with them.

And if you go to page 13, I only have two more. Okay. This goes back to the same thing, raising of the street, 6,400,000. We paid already to redo those streets. I'm surprised that at that time that was not addressed. Or maybe it was looked at. And the reason they didn't do it was because we were going to be flooding the adjacent properties. And that's a concern that I have. Don't know if Sarita

What year was that, Susan, when the Central Beach Streets were redone, roughly?

The Central Beach Streets started in 2006 when we did the Garfield Street parking garage. And the last project was let out in 2015.

And to Board Member Hernandez's point, was tidal flooding really something that was heavily looked at twenty years ago? Was it obviously, you looked at profiles because you were reconstructing a street. But what were conditions then, if you could recall, since you were an institution here?

JULIE Okay, I'll take that. So back in actually 2002, when the whole design of the streets and the Garfield Street parking garage became underway, I'm going to be honest with you. We were never sea level rise and tidal flooding was not even mentioned as a priority. And even at the beginning, all of our projects were coordinated with public utilities and public works. Those topics never came up.

So we were directed to meet the profile on A1A, do the undergrounding of overhead utilities. Obviously, if we found any broken pipes in the streets when we were constructing to repair those. But there wasn't a directive or a direction to raise the streets nor look at harmonizing. When we started planning phase four, fast forward almost twenty years, it became apparent that that was really an important thing to do, which is why in the phase four, the 18 streets we're doing now, we're doing harmonizing, which is complicated, as you mentioned. We have to sometimes come close to I mean, on private property.

And there's driveways and stairs and all of that, as well as the construction of the razing of the street.

Yeah. And I appreciate the point, the fact that twenty years ago was different than it was ten years ago. Because when we finished in 2015 on the Central Beach, we changed our model of moving forward to address all of those issues. The point is the streets have been redundant. Twenty years old, there is time for us to go back to do it.

But the quick answer is, if we take the curbs out of there, we're going to be displacing the water much the same as if we raise the street and it's a fraction of the cost. So that may be a consideration to give the directive to staff to look into something like that because that'll be a prelude of what's going to happen once we raise the street, how are we going to affect those private properties? And this way That

could be addressed then, too.

And this way, it could be addressed at that point. And here's

engineering Well, can address JOSEPH that. So obviously, I'm not designing the road. But what you do, you're sloping it towards new cash basins. You don't raise it without putting in new infrastructure. However, remember the part that we said, the second step, the harmonization? You can't raise a road if you're flooding private property. So some streets may not come up, and that's part of that discussion.

And therefore, if we take the curbing away from those catch basins, number one, it brings allows more water to come into the catch basin from the area that it's curbed in. But it also allows for that water to be displaced naturally.

During storms? Yes. During high tide, it's not going

During high tide, we need to be able to have the backflow preventer, which I think that that's a no brainer.

And again, I didn't design those roads. There may be a valid reason why that was done that way. So I can't really speak to that design. But I'm hearing what's happening and what

No, no. I think the point is, number one, we shouldn't spend money that we'd be able to get an agreement for bless that we should be able to get an agreement with FDOT because we're helping the road. Number two, before we actually spend the money and look at unintended consequences with raising the roads, I think Bob Blickman has a good point where we take the curbing around it off, see what kind of effects that has. And then we look and we'll go from there. The good thing about all of this is we have budgeted these things. And we have the ability to pay for these things when and if the DOT signs the agreement, then it's going to reimburse us for it. So we'd be able to move forward with that. So I think this is all good. Page 17 is the only other note that I have, if we can go to that page.

SPEAKER Fast forward four.

And it all comes down to money. The $21,300,000 is what we have budgeted. It's what it's needed to get the repairs on the two pumps and everything else that needs to be done. We just need an agreement with FDOT. And hopefully, we can ask the director when he comes out, see if we can get that agreement sooner than later so we can move forward with this.

I think it was a great presentation. I think that some of these issues that we're having, it's not being addressed with this presentation because it goes from A1A to the intercoastal, which is the part that we try to we've got to get the DOT to actually come up and work on their easements and maintain their pipe, because that's where the leakage is coming. Otherwise, we can do all of this. And if the infiltration stills take place, we're still going to have flooding on A1M.

Thank you.

Thank you, Board Member Hernandez. Let's go to Board Member Shuhem.

Thank you. Sareeda, great job. Visuals are excellent. Totally understand what you were saying. Jonathan, I have a question for you. Well, first of all, when we are raising roads now in phase four, you can't just dump the water on the private property, right? Can you explain what happens?

That's exactly what the harmonization is. We have to look at the elevations of everybody's property. Sometimes let's say there's an asphalt private parking lot. Sometimes what we have to do is go in ten, fifteen feet on the private property and make sure that there's a gradual slope where it meets the sidewalk. So we have temporary construction easements on private property, which was quite an effort.

MR. Much of coordination

effort. Peter's still chasing some private properties because people get nervous. You're coming onto my private property. Now, the idea is sometimes it's easy. There's a landscape area there. That's kind of a little bit easier. But sometimes there's a staircase. And some of these buildings were built back in the '40s and '50s. The staircase spills out right onto so each street is an individual design. Each property is an individual design. But the design that has been done in phase four is actually so that each private property has a gradual segue to the sidewalk, which is gradually, again, sloped to the street.

And if we were to continue to raise streets, we would have to do the exact same thing on these other roads, correct?

Yes. And as Mr. Goldman just said, not every street could be raised the same amount because you are dealing with private property. How much can you actually do? Some streets can only be raised maybe two inches, maybe three inches. Some streets may be six inches. Again, we did this analysis in house for the six lowest streets, both a visual observation as well as looking at surveys that we had. In order to do a complete exhaustive analysis, we really would have to get drawings done and do a full analysis.

Okay. And with respect to the additional pumps that the CRA is trying to move forward on, it was my understanding that you have been working with FDOT on this funding question.

We have been requesting that, but we a reimbursement.

JANET No, nothing signed.

I think

Yeah. That's that's on our list of things. But it's not new. I mean, they know this is coming from us.

JANET R. Correct.

JANET Okay.

Jonathan, a couple of questions. If you look and I don't know the slide number, but when we look at Arizona Street in the profile

Do it from here or the profile?

Yeah, like that's fine. Just Arizona is just one of the examples. Any of the low streets, they are higher at A1A. And then they dip way down. And then, of course, they come way up at SURF. Is that dip like a subsidence issue? Is that what happened? I mean, don't think the street was designed this way, right? It was probably a straight slope.

And over time, the city streets start up on the sand ridge. And then they come down. And then, of course, A1A being the major evacuation route over time has to raise. So it causes that little bit of a dip. And in a perfect world, you'd be harmonizing as A1A came up over time.

So one question I have and I don't know if it's for you or for street engineers is when we do this going forward, because I think that we'll delay it as best we can with all these valves and everything. But at some point, we're going to have to do more of these streets. I'm just curious, are there any new products or new ideas that people are having in light of the frequency of cities seeing this issue to when you go in now and fix this fifty year old issue, is there any new way to do it so that you don't have this subsidence?

There are geogrids and other things that stabilize soil underneath. But remember, the street is in areas eroding from the change in the tide underneath. But it's not causing that dip is literally the profile of the two roads that come together. And that's a common problem, up and down large roads like that that have city streets. You see it all along Dixie. You see it all along Federal right here. A lot of the storm water master plan is putting exfiltration trenches on either side of that because US 1 is so high. And those areas catch it's in your district there. So that whole area is getting new storm water infrastructure. We're not recommending raising the roads there because you can exfiltrate there.

On the beach, it's a different story. The water

Right. Heater is Okay. And then I just wanted to understand something you had said about the head loss from SURF down to A1A. If you raise the streets, are you talking about the explain that to me.

Yeah. So it had come up before, well, if you put a second backflow preventer in there, then it takes a little bit of pressure to open up. Isn't that going to cause a little bit of problem with additional stages there? But you have so much driving head coming up from SURF because it's higher. You're in a good position to where you'll have enough to open that second backflow.

Okay. All right. Be a problem. GREGORY I mean, it looks like it from this profile.

GREGORY It doesn't take much to open the small ones.

GREGORY And then I certainly agree with the approach here. I guess my one question I had was there was a slide, the second to the last slide, I think 16 or 17,

that

had yeah, this. No, no. No, not this one. Yeah, this. What's the difference I'm just curious. What is the difference between one and three? Am I missing something here?

Yeah. So if there was a decision that the backflow preventers were not going in in every street for a cost or whatever the reason, then any street that you're not raising, you want to make sure that

you

have Because the it's not one or the other. It's treating the symptom rather than the cause. But if it's impossible to do it in one spot, the backflow preventer is is your your second choice. So if for any reason some of the backflows don't go in, prioritize the ones where you're not raising streets.

JULIE Okay. And then for me, I think the only comment I would have is that in between these various projects that we pause and see what the impact is. You know, like, this is science to a certain degree, but also nature is playing a role. And we also know that the situation with mother nature gets worse every day. So I would just ask, if we move forward with some of these larger projects, street raising and things like that, that we are certain that we're taking into account projections that we are getting from the county.

Because to design for current conditions is to throw money away. It's getting worse every day. But generally, my comment is I agree that we do the quickest, cheapest thing. But then I would like to take a bit of a pause and see what is the impact of that additional work. Again, thank you, Jonathan,

for And being keep in mind, the backflow prevention is only for the sunny day, high tide, and the sea level rise.

That's true.

If have a storm water problem collecting at all the dips. And that requires DOT said it themselves that requires a pump station. They're beyond the gravity system at this point.

Got it. And obviously, we definitely need the secretary here. I mean, so much of this is out of our control. And we can't be the funder of FDOT. So thanks so much.

Thank you. Let's go to Board Member Kalari, Vice Chair Kalari.

Hi. Thank you.

I'll get that right by the end of the year.

JOSEPH By the end of the year, it'll be So just a couple of questions. One, everything that everyone said, like coordination with FDOT is so important. I know we've been reaching out to them. We've talked about it. That is priority. As far as the curve that Bob had mentioned, I don't know if this would help, but just even we've seen it in other areas where they take the curb and they cut out like a little dip so it allows the water to go in. So that way you don't have to take out the whole curbing. It provides that aesthetic appeal, But it also gives an opportunity for the flow of the water to go. And I think that that would be an easy fix. I don't know.

Again, I'm not an engineer or anything, but just thinking common sense. If we could go back to slide 11 and this may seem like a crazy question, but I do want to just better understand this, if possible. Sorry. And you're the perfect person to ask.

Going to where?

11. Okay. So when we're talking about I know you said we're talking about high tide, king tides. We're not talking about storm water. But what the layperson sees, such as myself, driving down A1A and I'm assuming RAFAEL that this further end is Surf Road, correct? Like the 340

The far right.

And then the lower part is right along A1A pretty much where you see the roads are flooded. Am I correct on So that? What we're talking about currently is king tides and sea level rise. So if this orange part over where it says Tyler Street, that orange one let's just take the orange line the water flows down into the lowest part, correct?

Right.

Okay. So the homes or I guess the homes that are on that, are they lower as well?

JOSEPH I don't have that information, but I assume they're pretty much in line with

The street? So if you were to raise the street I guess this is my question. If you're going to raise the street to help prevent that blockage of water from collecting in that area down here past New Mexico Street, right? Just I'm giving pinpoints. I mean, that's a lot of money and it's a lot of work.

And help me, this may seem like a very bizarre question. But in other areas, such as, let's say, Tallahassee, they have the cauldrons, I guess you call them, or latrines. And then they have a metal mesh that goes over the top so that the water collects, but you still can get your car through and you're not flooding. Would that be something that would be more, I guess, less burdensome on the impact of the areas, but also allow for you to get through and create that opportunity?

So what you're describing is technically called a trench drain.

DANIELLE Or a grate,

yeah. Right? DANIEL So the answer is yes, that can help if you're going to start raising roads. But remember, you're losing the storage where the water used to be in that road, and you can't put it on people's properties, which is why the harmonization comes in. You're going off the property and you're sloping them up too. You're channeling this stuff down towards where your catch basins are.

Right. But as far as cost efficient, right? Like, you think about it, the water is not there all the time. So we're spending millions of dollars to put in the pump stations to help retrieve the water. But we're also going to spend a lot of money to put pavement that we don't know if is a fix or guarantee, if the flap gates are going to like all of this is a hypothetical, I feel.

Yes, it's proven certain areas work, maybe not. But cost wise and just food for thought, if there is that opportunity to not raise and put into the just put a grate there, a metal grate of some sort, where the water is still going to collect there. Eventually, it's going be reabsorbed. Maybe the pump stations work. Is that more cost efficient as a trial to see if it works? Because our main concern is actual getting people to get out, not their cars not being flooded. So harmonization type of thing. I don't know how what do you think?

Right. So just keep in mind, the trench would be full of water at high tide.

Correct.

And yes, it would help. But again, then it comes down the land surface towards the catch basins. It flows over land. And yes, you can put more infrastructure. You can put regular catch basins. When they come in, you usually, when you do any road racing, you tilt the streets towards the catch basins as best you can. You can put those channel gutters on this. There's a lot of things that can be done to direct water. So each street has to be looked at individually. But yeah, I mean, you can look at all sorts of different collections.

I mean, I'm just looking at what's most cost effective because as Commissioner Schuham said, it's constantly changing. The environment has its way. You're living on an area that's surrounded by water. This isn't something that just happened yesterday. This has been going on for years. That's why we're trying to address it. But if there is a more cost effective I we're not going be I don't think we're ever going to be able to get rid of all of the water. Right? So if there is an opportunity, and just like in just common sense, you put a bridge. That's all I'm thinking.

And if there's an opportunity where we could look into it, maybe it's more cost effective. And maybe it is an opportunity for immediate relief, but also help with the planning of the future. That's just my question. But that, to me, is a better way. Maybe it's more cost effective for harmonization until we can get to the point of putting the pump stations, putting the flap gates, putting in all of these back flows, like everything that's needed, which is years. This is years. I'm talking about instant gratification, making sure we get people to A and B, prevent them from the flooding, and maybe that would help. Just food for thought. That's all

I have. Thank you. I think it would be helpful, Susan, if you guys talked about the timeline for the WAPROs. It's pretty quick, right? What would be the outlook? We say go today, comes back to us for an authorization, so play it out.

We can bring the RESO for April. We already have the cost estimate, the piggyback on the public utilities contract. We can bring that to the April CRA board meeting.

And hopefully be already installing before the next fall king tide season.

Absolutely. They have to procure it. If they can get the materials quickly, yes, we would work with contractor to accelerate as much as possible. But we can bring it as quickly as April for your consideration.

Okay. And as commissioners have said, obviously, step two and still needs a little bit of study is discussion about raising profiles. But in the meantime, the way pros are the immediate thing that we ought to be doing.

Yep. Yep. That was C. D. M. Smith's recommendation.

Yeah. Yeah. I just want to put it out there. Board Member Biederman. So we

have fourteen months left, fifteen months left at best, right? Is there funding for this budget item? I mean, that's going to cover some of these costs? Or is this going to eventually fall on the general fund?

Which component?

Which? Just in general, what we're talking about today the raising of the streets, the WAPROS, everything else that we're talking about today. So

we have funding for the WAPROS. Funding at the fiscal year twenty twenty six budget was for the two pumps. We don't have them under construction yet, but there's funding approved from the fiscal year twenty twenty six budget. We do not have funding approved for street profile raisings in Central Beach.

Okay. So one of the things that I've talked about before when we were talking about raising the streets in South Beach was creating the water storage underneath the streets. So if we dig up some of the streets and we don't have to dig them all up dig up some of the streets, put in storm tanks or rain tanks underneath the street and then the rock and the pavers because those side streets aren't asphalt so it's pervious pavers. And then the other thing I talked about is trying to get easements along some of the properties and creating some swales that will help drain some of that off. And if we have an easement, then we can shed some of our water onto some of those side houses.

And I think what we're dealing with here is just a highlight of why we need more redevelopment along certain areas of the beach so that when they redevelop, they're creating more water storage as part of any permitting. So it's even more important to encourage some redevelopment and modernization and raising some floor elevations so that we're building for the future and not building for the past.

Thank you, Board Member Wiederman. Let's have some comments by Board Member Quintana. And then hopefully we can wrap up the direction, which we have already enunciated. Board Member Quintana.

Thank you, Chair. Absolutely, the way pro valves. It's a great short term response. I kind of see it a little bit as a Band Aid that we have to put on. We have no choice. I'm really confused about the idea of underground storage there because I don't know. Mean, it seems like that where would water go underneath when it's already so close to the surface? I'm just

You'd have to basically build an underground tank, for lack of a better word, like a trench and a tank that's

probably I

mean, wouldn't like a big bathtub.

Of like the issue we're facing citywide with septic tanks. It wouldn't just kind of be floating in water. We put a I don't know. I'm not an engineer. I'm just

I mean, whether it would need pilings to say put or not is a whole other story. But I don't think we need to dissect the whole issue of how do we construct underground storage there.

So that type of tank would have to be watertight. You would raise up a parking lot, and it would be designed to hold its own storm water. But you'd need many, many, many of them. And then during dry weather, you would have to pump it out, because it would be full all the time.

DANIEL Right.

So it's just a separate We're

kind of fortunate that we have the outfalls here, where we can go, go, go with the water. The problem is that the outfalls are back flowing. And so the way pros will solve that. And then, as conditions are observed, to the points that everyone was making about whether groundwater is seeping from under the ground, other areas, and things like that. That would require additional review and addressing it when and if we see that.

All right. And then I just to Commissioner Biederman's point about how we build for the future. So back in '19 I'm going to age myself. 'seventy nine, when I was graduating from high school, we knew about sea level rise and climate change. You know, it was kind of when I first heard about it.

We certainly didn't have the level of data and specificity that we have now where we can really project what's going to happen in the future. And I keep saying it, and I'll say it again. You know, I'm so excited about some of the young people who have come into our city's planning department. And we have some excellent people in our engineering department with PUD. But I still am kind of not seeing the integration of all the information that we have about what the projections are and what our day to day operations and decision making are.

So like, you yeah, twenty years ago we didn't know just how bad it would be now. But I just, when we make decisions now and we sometimes will say things, oh yeah, Yadama, but that's not for decades. That's not going to happen for a while. We can just kind of keep doing what we're doing because that's going to not be now. I'm afraid that twenty years from now that people will be looking back at the decisions we're making and saying, they should have been and knowing what's coming in twenty years, we should really be designing and planning for what we know is going to come.

And so I just want us to I keep saying, has anybody seen what the projections are? Has anybody seen what it looks like at this address? In twenty years, we know. So I just want to encourage us to use the data that we know as we plan for our future development. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll just have to just put it on the record that the forward looking, twenty years forward aspect of what we're talking about is the pump stations. We inherit today and for the past one hundred years the elevation of the outfall pipes as they were constructed by FDOT many, many years ago. And yes, the tides are back flowing. And the only thing we ought to need to do is stop the man made problem here not nature, but man made problem of having a storm water system that has a low elevation that doesn't conform to, yes, nature's higher tides.

I totally agree, Mara. I'm just saying I'm just saying

We're doing the right thing is what I'm trying to say.

Absolutely. I'm just saying more globally, not just about this particular decision, CLEMENT: but just more globally for us to use what we know as we plan for the future.

JOSEPH All right. So executive director, I think we

have our direction on the way

Absolutely. Absolutely. And on that last comment, I just want to say, globally, we do appreciate that thought and that concern. It may not always be evident or apparent. But if you remember a couple of years ago, we added a chief resiliency officer position in this city.

And we are. And just like the time and the data has seen that kind of impact and realization grow, those kind of correlations are being done increasingly on a daily basis as we go forward. So I assure you I mean, for instance, now one of the most important things we look at whenever we have an opportunity with open space or redesign is for water retention. That was not the case a few years ago. So all those things are happening and changing over time and going in the right direction. But there's a lot of catch up.

All right. Thank you all. We're going to shift gears now for everybody who's here at the meeting. We're going to shift gears to a presentation and talk about our downtown CRA District and the retail recruitment strategy that we're putting in. If you might have been paying attention to our CRA board meetings, we've obviously pointed out a priority for us to fill a space downtown. We've got a lot of a lot of existing ground level retail office commercial space And we want we want to see it filled. We wanna see it thriving. And so, Joanne, we've put you to the task, and and you're providing us here with a multifaceted strategy to to get there. And so thank you, and thank you to the CMAT team that I see here in the audience. Let's talk about it.

Sure, Mayor. Thank you. Joanne Hussey, Director of Communications, Marketing, and Economic Development. Disclaimer, I'm a tiny bit under the weather, so just not my usual bright shining light that I am for the city of Hollywood. So as the mayor said, today I'm presenting an overview of the work underway in Downtown Hollywood for our retail recruitment strategy.

It was not that long ago, as you remember, that the responsibility for retail recruitment fell to the C Med staff. And so now that that transition has taken place, C Med has developed a strategy to capitalize on the next phase of economic revitalization that is happening downtown. Over the past several months, new ground floor retail space has come online that needs to be filled, as the mayor mentioned. And there are new residents and customers that are moving in who we have the opportunity right now to capture. Before we look at the retail performance, it's helpful to start with the residential growth that is happening in the area.

Downtown continues to grow with more mixed use properties recently opened or coming online soon. These developments are increasing activity and expanding the customer base for businesses in the district. Across the wider trade area, there are more than 39,000 households. Mayor, this reinforces what you've said for years, that even if a small share of these households visited downtown regularly, they could strongly support our retail service, dining, and entertainment businesses. Here's a look at the current residential lease up.

I'm not going to go over all of them. But right now, Hollywood Heights is over 90% leased. 9 Hollywood is approaching 90%, etcetera. You can kind of see on the screen. These numbers tell you that there is healthy absorption happening across multiple projects here in the city.

Established buildings are being stabilized. Newer buildings are leasing steadily, albeit with rent concessions, an important note to say. But these newest projects are following an expanded and typical lease up curve. Downtown's residential vacancy is reflected of the timing of these deliveries. A lot of supply is hitting the market at the same time.

So it's not indicative of weakening demand. It's just there's more options. These units are being absorbed and it is continuing to strengthen our potential customer base. That residential gross is beginning to produce as new units are absorbed and the customer base strengthens. We're seeing some ground floor activation that's following.

Etatropic, Bagel and Company is coming soon, adding a strong daytime anchor that serves both residents and office workers. Bahram Thai Street Food has brought a vibrant, authentic concept to Hollywood Boulevard, which is continuing to contribute to our growth mix of independent, experience driven dining. Garden of Soul on Harrison expands our culinary diversity and reinforces downtown as a place where locally owned concepts can thrive. Vanilla Cafe I believe most of you were at the grand opening. It is quickly becoming a destination for those specialty coffee and desserts.

And it's a place where it's activating on the park adjacent DAY: to Arts Park. And when you need a

place to work off those coffees and desserts, established locations like CKO kickboxing are growing as

After you energize the company.

JAMES Right. So they're attracting a whole new clientele as well. These businesses are reflecting these early stages of our residential density. And they're converting our retail performance. This is a progression that we want to see continue along with the investment and the absorption now that these spaces are activated.

These are our new buildings and the influx of residents. These residents didn't appear overnight. As you know, planning for this time happened more than twenty years ago, as Mary, you were just talking about and Commissioner Quintana. Since the board approved in the CRA, the city has been making steady improvements in the downtown environment while also working with our property owners and our businesses. Zoning changes, underground infrastructure, and updated streetscapes have supported this mixed use development and responded to longstanding requests from the business community.

These investments reinforce the existing foundation and have helped to shape the conditions that we are seeing downtown. Now we're focused on helping these property owners fill these spaces, increasing foot traffic and helping to seek new retail experiences. Overall, this reflects the expanded evolution of our maturing, full service downtown. So as we wrap up a busy centennial year, which I hope nobody has forgotten so soon because it was very busy for the team, C Med was also we had already started putting into motion an action plan for downtown. The plan, as you see on the screen, is broken out and organized around six focus areas data and marketing intelligence, technology and digital tools, campaign and content creation, regulatory improvements, consultant engagement, and, of course, business and property owner support.

Elements for these components are happening simultaneously. It's not just one and then we move on to the other. We're working to strengthen both the customer attraction and tenant recruitment at the same time. So what are some of these tasks and initiatives and elements that are part of the plan, you may be wondering? Our plan includes data driven retail targeting.

We're using technology and AI while also enhancing our direct outreach, our strategic marketing efforts to increase foot traffic. We're reviewing our rules and regulations, our policies, and our procedures, including efforts to make the certificate of use and building permit process with development services more efficient and predictable. For example, additionally, this fiscal year we launched our quarterly market vitality report to share with the community the facts of our downtown. We also wanted to establish a baseline. This was really important for us.

The Q2 data was recently shared with you and it is posted to the city's website for all to see. The data shows ground floor occupancy currently stands at about 77% in downtown, which is in line with similar downtown areas throughout South Florida. And I'm stressing downtown areas. While we also launched a Placer AI technology that has helped us set a baseline for foot traffic in the downtown. It's showing roughly 156,000 unique visitors are in our downtown each month.

They are not driving through. This is grabbing them that they are here for at least ten minutes. This baseline metric is going to help us better understand our activation patterns in peak periods. We're also sharing this with interested business owners who are looking to grow their business downtown. The CMAD team is also completing a comprehensive downtown business inventory with points of contact and hours of operations, business URLs, property owner information.

All of this information that's kind of out there in multiple places, we're gathering it into one spot so we can ensure that our marketing and recruitment efforts are aligned with what's actually happening out there for real world conditions. On the advertising front, in our promotional efforts, we're structured around the two complementary tracks that I mentioned. First, customer attraction and destination marketing. This includes storytelling through video, which we saw success with our On the Seven campaign about a year and a half ago with telling the story of the corridor. But it also includes events and lifestyle promotion, a dedicated visit downtown web page.

The CRA's website is going to be incorporated into the city's website as part of our redesign. It also includes a live geofencing campaign to help raise awareness and increase foot traffic. Geofencing is where we serve ads through a cell phone and just in case anybody's, you know, wondering what that plan is going to be. On the tenant recruitment track, we have targeted digital outreach campaign that's running in the state of Florida. We've created broker facing materials that we're distributing on our FAM tours.

We have an upcoming South Florida Business Journal market review and realtor panels. And we have vacancy promotion that is currently underway. We're advertising both in print and digital in multiple publications publications and organizations like The Real Deal, Florida Trend, etcetera. Ads are also placed and they are currently live that are both reinforcing our audience and working to grow our retailers. This is a conceptual.

We're working to finalize the artwork for vacant properties. So when you go downtown, the spaces that are not leased right now, there's either artwork or per code, the window is open and the lights are on. So we are working on an updated window covering program. And you can kind of see the approach that we are going to be taking is not just to showcase some custom art that speaks to the Hollywood experience, but it's also going to include information for leasing and for contacting us. Brand treatments for these vacant store funds will help to reduce the perception of inactivity and it will signal that our downtown is active, investable and artistic.

This is an example. At the direction of future city manager Story, our very talented graphic designer and economic development marketing coordinator, Vicki Nelson and artist, architect, and principal planner, Nicole Moyo. They have collaborated and merged their artistic talents to create new downtown coverings with their original artwork. These covers also include, as I mentioned, messaging and QR code that direct to leasing agents and the city's website. Here's just a couple of examples for what they could look like.

On the regulatory front, we've heard the need to speed up these processes to help businesses get from application process to opening. To that end, development services have a number of irons in the fire to help address, including the launch of the final phase of Acela and that will help to streamline the processing and speed approvals. The C Med team has also stepped up to help answer certificate of use calls that come into planning. And an RFP for a citywide call center continues to make its way through the competitive BIV process that C is a part of. We're reviewing our existing code, zoning, and land use for quick wins and to remove growth barriers.

C Med's also working with our building fund folks to review open building permits that have stalled. Jim and Vanada have been amazing helping us with that. The C Med team will be meeting with the building staff on a regular basis to help push these tenants over the goal line to get their projects done. And CMAD will be bringing forward next month a reworked citywide property improvement program that combines the CRA district and city programs into a more agile, comprehensive program with levels of funding and participation that, more importantly, will streamline the process for faster results. A few of the other things that we're addressing in that streamlined program will be potentially to require only one quote at that time and some insurance adjustments based on the project scope and streamlined approvals.

And of course, as I always say, we can't do it without the help from the community, certainly. We're strengthening our on the ground engagement by having a presence at the Coffee with the Crew, the downtown property owners, and DHBA meetings. We've been meeting with individual business owners and we continue to provide support for the business community, including our monthly Small Business Assistance Center that is here at City Hall. We're also coordinating our door to door outreach to businesses. And we're going to new residential businesses to distribute a new downtown marketing piece that has or will have an incentive coupon component that encourages patronage of the local businesses.

That piece will also include a QR code that points to a downtown survey. We're working to get businesses where we're ready to go, but we have to get the businesses to offer the incentive first. So we're on the streets trying to get that to happen. And then once we have those coupons, we will be distributing this marketing piece. All these efforts that we're doing that I just mentioned a few here, they are bringing in leads.

People are interested in moving their business and growing their business here in Hollywood. So with that, we're continuing to connect property owners and prospective tenants to the available spaces. To assist with that, as our downtown continues to grow, we recognize that the value of adding capacity to the department by partnering with the right people who have the right contacts in the right way of going about things. We've onboarded retail strategies to help us with this effort. Our focus is to connect their viable retail brand clients that they have in their Rolodex right now with our agents and property owners here in Hollywood who have the space and who want people to come and move in.

This is a key component to our strategy that brings national relationships with retailers to our brokers here in Hollywood. This partnership actively identifies brands that are growth ready. And it's going to save us some time where we're not just making cold calls, which we will still continue to do, but this will kind of streamline our process. Not only that, Retail Strategies actually makes the introduction which a lot of companies do not.

Sorry.

They help to facilitate these early discussions and they will help to move the conversations forward towards lease and negotiations. This partnership will strengthen our ability to proactively help our downtown owners by facilitating leasing of their storefront activation. As we work our way through this year, our progress will be measured using a data set and metrics. I'm all about facts, just the facts. It is clear performance indicators that we are established.

We are including ground floor vacancy trends, foot traffic, certificate of use processing timelines, and retail openings. Those are just some of the metrics that we'll be using. We're going to continue to issue our quarterly market vitality report and share with the board and community to ensure our accountability and our transparency. Our immediate next steps include our retail strategies work completing the downtown business inventory audit, securing business partnerships for the resident special coupon that I mentioned, continuing to build our dedicated downtown website to transition the CRA site to the city's main website, hosting our first and we'll be hosting, with the help of Retail Strategies, our first property owner roundtable and community town hall. So this concludes the presentation.

Before I open up to questions, I just wanted to recognize the team Janelle, Hugo, Richard, Vicky, and of course Herb for their digging in over the past several months. The progress that we continue to make in this short time is really reflective of our real team effort. And we all have the shared belief of what we're trying to help continue to happen in downtown. There's a genuine sense of excitement across downtown that I hope you've heard from some of the property owners. And we're just at the start.

Our work is just beginning. It's been going on for a number of years now, so we're picking up the torch. And with your help and with the community's help, I'm certain that we can achieve these goals together. Thank you.

Thank you, Joanna. Can we give a round of applause to the team? Because and I think we we we're approaching this, I think, with confidence, given that you said, Joanna, we have a a downtown that's been evolving intentionally and maturing. And it's many years ago, the city understood, we understood, in the master plan that we needed to bring in a lot more residents downtown to create a vibrant economic environment there, fill the spaces, and have that critical mass of people living there. If we fast forward to today, we have these thousands of units that you highlighted in the beginning, and they're filling.

And they will be full. And they're on their way. And so, obviously, now with that inherent foot traffic in downtown and with the outreach that we'll go forward with in accordance with your plan to welcome the broader Hollywood community and beyond to visit downtown and to discover it anew, We obviously are in a I always say downtown is always in a better and better place together with the public improvements that we've made over the years. And so I know that all of us up here love downtown. We know it's special.

And we want more people to discover it and more businesses to come in and thrive there. And so I know we're there. And so your strategies that you've laid out are obviously top to bottom on everything that needs to get done. If you could, just for the sake of having a slide during discussion, put up a slide that shows your six strategies. Sure.

Because there's a lot that needs to happen concurrently to make the result that we wanted to fill the space and to create the vibrancy across all of these different areas that you've pointed out. So I'm excited about the execution of this and obviously happy to be a part and looking to be a part of executing on all of this to the extent, you know, us as elected officials certainly can and help in our part.

Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate that.

So let's go to Board Member Coleri.

Thank you. So thank you for the presentation. Really exciting to see. It's sort of like that build it and they will come type of moment. So I think it takes a little bit of time. There's a lot of naysayers that are like, oh, you built all these buildings downtown. And no, they're all vacant. And it takes time. They really have flourished. And I'm excited to see the least percentages, which really clarifies that.

I think just three of the things that I know they're on your board here, but just to really point out and get your input. As far as the owners, we know that a lot of downtown buildings are old money, out of state owners because it's been in the family for so many years? And how are you navigating through that? I think that that, I have always heard, has been the biggest issue with getting those spaces rented. They're so astronomical.

They don't care if it gets rented or not, where it's been a challenge. So have you made any headway with some of these owners of these buildings that have been vacant forever in a day or charging so much money?

It is definitely a challenge. There's no doubt about it. We have been working with some of the leasing agents who are trying to also fill the space for some of these property owners. The rent is a lot. And if the building needs, you know, dollars 600,000 worth of work to get that business started, They are finding challenges with people are just you know, that's taking up all their reserves to just renovate the building.

And so we are encouraging the leasing agents and the property owners to maybe you want to, you know, look at the rent or some sort of incentives or maybe a long term cost sharing option. So or you fix the building. You fix the building and you have it ready to go for, you know, a business to come in. I will not stand here and say that we have made any progress in actually having that done. But we continue to push. And I think they're hearing us. I think they're hearing us. So it's a work in progress there.

I mean, you would think it would just only make sense that if it's vibrant and enhances their ability. But I know that it's like they don't really care because it's not an issue for them. But do offer and refresh my mind. I'm sorry for this. But do we offer types of grants for new businesses to come in to help with that renovation, like the PIPs and the HHPS and the HOPs and all those?

JULIE So as part of our and I'm glad you brought that up, Vice Mayor. So as part of our citywide commercial property improvement and I mentioned we're coming forward to the Board next month with a comprehensive plan to fold in the PIP, the POP, the HOP, the mural all of those into one program. But what that program really focuses on is exterior.

I know.

And so there is no exterior or there is no interior grant program. Now if the Commission would like to support that again I mean, I know we've been there, done that but maybe it's something that we want to look at again to, you know, have some sort of gap financing or something to help with those interior improvements, I think it's something that warrants another consideration.

I mean, I strongly would encourage my board members to look into that because that is what is kind of the barrier from people coming in because the cost is so exuberant more than they could afford and starting up their business. So I mean, maybe that is something we can kind of get a little bit more understanding and grip on what is our percentage, what we would allow to encourage. Because you have to offer that olive branch to be able to bear fruit off of it. So maybe that's something we can do. The other biggest concern that I hear is and we've made major adjustments, but it's still food for thought is parking, convenience.

And I think that in your presentation or when you do your outreach, showing where that parking opportunities are at, maybe putting a map of the distant walk. Because when you go to Fort Lauderdale, which seems to be super busy, or Dania Point even, even now they're so busy you have to park in the parking garage. And if we could show that comparison, it's only 50 steps or 100 step walk from point A to point B, well, it's only 35 steps, just kind of breaking it down to show that it's not such a challenge. I think that that would be really important. And then connectivity.

We have this amazing downtown park. And while we have the walkway, you always have to bring something energetic to the table. And you have to bring something that's new and fun to draw people in. And thinking about it constantly, I don't know if there's ever an opportunity that we could venture down with new developers that are coming into the area. Downtown, there's three more projects that are on the board.

Where they're at, I don't know. But even a crosswalk bridge from the Arts Park over into the downtown, I think, would be really phenomenal with artwork on it and lighting that goes over the circle aspect. So it provides that connectivity. I don't know how challenging that would be. But I definitely think that it would be a wow stopper.

It would be something that would encourage people, oh, I want to go. Even if it's LED lights that are displayed over, it's something that really creates a synergy even more than we have and provides that connectivity from the Arts Park to the businesses in the downtown. Because people go to the Arts Park and then they go home. And that's a lot of what I hear. So maybe there's some way we can get something incorporated. But that's just my food. I think food for thought. I think it's amazing what we're doing. We've to do a little bit more. And I think once everyone starts moving into those buildings and starts utilizing everything that we have to offer in the downtown, it's going to be unstoppable.

And then the last thing I just want to add, even if the walking is different from the parking garages to our downtown we used to have the trolley. We have the sun shuttle. But maybe there is something that we can bring back into the downtown that would actually promote and bring our business the individuals who are coming to our downtown so they feel safe to get from point A to point B, just like a time of transportation shuttle of some sort. And I think that then we really create this opportunity for people to utilize our downtown to its fullest potential. Thank you.

Thank you, Board Member Vice Chair Colari. Let's go to Board Member Hernandez.

Thank you, Mayor. Great presentation. And one of the things that and I want to go back to the percentage of rental properties that are actually filled. If we go to that screenshot, please. And I didn't write down the page.

I think it's over here.

There we go. This is great news and it flies in the face of some of the people that are saying that the buildings are empty. They are not empty. But here's what they're not saying. It's something that we need to look at.

This is creating a vacuum to some of the older properties in the district and nearby the downtown because they don't have the amenities that the new buildings do. So you have some individuals that are renting nearby actually gravitating to these properties because, number one, they're brand new. They're only a few $100 more per month because of the rents and the taxes and the insurance is going up. And so it's creating a vacuum and an opportunity for some of those other properties to be redeveloped. So one of the things that we need to talk about at the board level is being that we're getting only $3,000,000 for the next five years from the county, and being that we have incentives that we have provided to some of these developers to do this, are we looking to leverage some of those incentives that we have when they go away to continue some of the grants availability that we may create for some of those smaller properties for them to update those properties.

So this is a conversation that at some point we may need to have a talk with the CRA director and the new incoming CRA director for us to be able to have a plan to see if we can do that. In other words, some of those incentives are going to be going away and we can still utilize that money for future development. In other words, it will be a CRA not relying on county money, but relying on our own money, but in order to continue the progress that we've started. That's number one. I also want to ask, has there been any progress for us reaching out to the county?

Because 21st Avenue and Dixie Highways are county roads, to see if we can two way those roads in order to create better business opportunities for those roads and be safer roads, actually, order the crossing of the railroads. That's something that needs to go hand in hand with what we're doing with the downtown. That's not being addressed. Need to be able Access. Access is key. Because now we're intensifying. We've got almost 6,000 units. We've 5,800 units into the downtown. We don't want 5,800 cars traveling back and forth over the railroads. We need to be able to keep those people within in house.

And that's something that we need to look at. So we need to see what we can do in order to get that approach. Here's one thing that there's more than one way to skin a cat as some people would say. The existing building owners, they're not looking to make their money in rent. They're looking to make the money and the value that those properties are creating year after year because of everything that's coming around them.

So for them to be able to lower their rents, they're not making the money when it comes to that. What Vice Mayor Calhary just mentioned regarding the interior grants, I would be in support of something like that if you tie it to rent control for those property for an extended period of time. In other words, I'm not looking to do what we've done in the past where we give the grants for interior and then the property owner says, Okay, now that I've got it fixed, I can get a lot more money for rent. And potentially exhausting the ability for an individual to be able to survive. Because we gave them free money.

We updated their building. Their value goes up. So they feel that their rent should go up. And that defeats the purpose of what we're trying to do. We're trying to fill that space, not fill their pockets. We should get they're not into affordability. Correct. It needs to go hand in hand. So we have some money that we can do towards these things, but it needs to have a comprehensive approach in order for us to have the tenant that we're looking for. It goes back to what I was looking that I asked for permission from the board and the board said I should do it. I will be more than happy to work with you, which is create a survey for the new tenant of what it is that they're looking for in their downtown.

Neighborhood services.

Neighborhood services. In other words, are we looking for a pilates studio? Are we looking for the kickboxing studio? And the ones that do exist, can we provide them a list of where these people are through a QR code? If we're looking to market the downtown, we should have a QR code for marketing that it's not so encumbersome. The one complaint that I get time after time after time is that when they go to the City Of Hollywood webpage, they go insane. They can't find something a way that they can find in other places. So we need to be able to create something that they can look at and says, I'm looking for this. And it gets it's there or it's not. So the marketing, when it comes to this, needs to go hand in hand with the survey needs.

Can you address that, Joanne? Because I know your Commissioner Hernandez has mentioned that before. I know you're working on it.

JOSHUA Exactly. So we have the piece. We have the QR code. And we have the survey ready to go. But we wanted to tie that piece to the coupon incentive. There's, it's a multi prong. So there's that piece for the new residents that are coming out. There's also the same QR code for residents right now, but we were waiting for comprehensive rollout.

Well, here's the thing that I would ask. Break it down because if we try to wait and do everything at one time, that's why we encumber so many things that people get lost in it. The survey, I have approval for us to be able to send a survey. I like to be able to put my name on it and put my office number as well in case they need to be able to do something like that. And then based on the results of that survey, we can address step two, which is the QR codes and the coupons.

We can go to our businesses and say, this is what the residents of the downtowns are looking for. What are you willing to do? Because I've talked to some of the businesses. They say, hey, look, we're willing to give them a dessert if they buy a meal. We're willing to give them the second drink if they buy a drink. But we're not willing to give them the first drink because they take the first drink and they go to the next place and get another drink and what have you. So it needs to make sense for the business people as well as value for those residents. But we need to bring them in. And then we can always have them be able to track that. And how they track that will be part of the QR code and their credit card.

If the people pay in cash, then they pay in cash. But if they pay with a credit card, we know where that credit card is registered from. So that is the plan that we need to have in order for us to grow the downtown into what we're looking to do. And this is how we will get more and more participation from the businesses in the downtown. Parking, as it was mentioned by the vice chair, is already being created.

So I haven't heard as much complaint as parking as we have in the past. What we have heard is there are some streets, because of the RPP, that don't have any parking, being that the residents are utilizing their parking, but there is creation of parking. And one of the things that I've spoken with Yvonne about and I've spoken with the parking director is we're going to be looking at those streets to see if the opportunity for meter parking payment, not necessarily permits, yearly permits, but meter parking payments to be available so that whenever we have an event, those people are not precluded from parking there and we can get a premium for those parking. And that's something whether we can do that or whether we go to permit.

Sometimes you got to hold Javon back from charging all that he wants to charge.

And you know what? That's a fair statement. Or we may need to go to Parment. But the problem that we have with Parment is then the people that we're trying to attract to the downtown don't have the ability to do it. And to give it and take it back, it becomes problematic.

Now we've taken it back, we need to be able to see how we can implement that. If somebody is willing to pay the premium, then we let it do so. But if we do it where it becomes a yearly permit and then we have a search because of what we're trying to do for the downtown and we need the parking, it's difficult to get it back from those individual. And let's remember, those individual already have design and designated parking in their structures. So it's a great approach. I like to be able to see what the survey says and see if we can put in some comments so that it's not all done by the time we get it. And then work with you guys in order to get that survey out and see what the results are.

Thank you, Commissioner Hernandez. You're very on the ground downtown, and you're communicating with business owners. You're really interested, I think, in knowing what the new residents want and to complement the existing ones. So I appreciate your willingness to really get into the trenches always. Let's go to Board Member Biederman.

Lots of information to ponder. But that being said, there's lots of ideas that we're tossing around, just some things that I wanted to mention. I like the idea that Commissioner Hernandez brought up about helping to bring some of the empty storefronts up to code with some grant money. But it's got to be tied to some kind of rent stabilization. Same as we do with workforce housing.

We provide money. They provide affordable rents. We could provide some upgrades to some of these, especially on some of the historical buildings that have some of those upgrade issues. And we want to maintain those historical buildings, but we don't want to maintain the historical fire threats. Life safety is very important.

I like the idea that you are doing geofencing advertising. A lot of people are and I'm saying that because my next comment might be irrelevant at this time, but a lot of people are cutting the cord. So it's got to be out of the box thinking on how to get information to the marketplace. That being said, some of these new buildings might have closed circuit TV or cable as part of the rent. So they might have their own channel that we might be able to advertise on, whether it's Hotwire or whoever else they're doing.

Not everybody's cutting the cord, although I have. On page 15, you talked about this flyer with the QR code multiple times. Is this going to be distributed to all the residents? Is there a distribution channel or an idea that you have in mind?

For this document, we were planning on printing We targeted six of the new buildings that are downtown, Bread Building, Hollywood Heights, etcetera. And we were going to print. We try not to print too much. As a green city, we try to be more of an electronic digital. But we are printing, I think it was about 1,000 copies. And then the team was going to go to the buildings, to the property owners, and put this out here. We're also asking them for their distribution list within the buildings to get that information that we could potentially use.

Okay. Perfect. I love that idea. We should be doing it in house with our water bill contact list.

Well, once I finish working with Commissioner Hernandez for the overall residential survey, then we can make that happen.

All right.

We're not talking about tourism as part of this presentation but I think it needs to be a discussion either now or at a later date. We can't rely on the county because we know that they don't give us the attention that we pay for or collect taxes for. But maybe we can do some kind of an outside position, a consultant, that maybe we can co op fund through. I'm sure the diplomat goes to travel shows throughout the country, and Margaritaville does. But maybe we can co op a consultant that we can pay to go to travel shows in the Northeast and the North Central, and stuff like that to get word out that when they come to South Florida, it's not just the big cities to our North and South, but it's us.

And it's not just the hotels, but it's the restaurants in downtown and the restaurants on the beach. So that might be an idea, too.

Just hold your horses, Peter.

You can buzz back in. Tourism consultant. Let's see. And I love the idea of this. But maybe we can have and I mentioned this the other day, but like co op advertising.

The CRA used to do a co op advertising piece where the businesses in downtown would contribute for a quarter page or an eighth page. And then the CRA would buy a full page and feature the businesses that are in downtown. Might be something to think about also. And then lastly, talking about Commissioner Vice Chair's comment about a bridge going over Young Circle, that might not be a bad idea. I think some people in the audience, while they're not in the audience anymore, might not like it.

But we also talked about circulation in downtown with the garages. And we have the circuit that should help, but it's a little bit more cumbersome than we originally intended it to be. So I'm wondering how much money it would take in our budget to fund a couple of pedicabs in downtown a couple of nights a week that can go that can circulate through the garages and bring people from the garages to the downtown core, especially with the furthest garage over at the Polk Street. I can't imagine that it would be that expensive and it would be something that some of our downtowns might use. Hard Rock used to use it.

They are used at some of the festivals like Renaissance Festival. You have about 10 of them going in and out of the parking lot. So maybe we can have a couple of them in downtown and see how that works if it's accepted. And it would, you know, might be the buzz of the, you know, everybody can talk about Downtown Hollywood that has the pedicabs at it now. You know, I'm sure, you know, they're in other cities too, but I haven't seen them recently somewhere, but that might be an idea if we can RFP or RFQ or find out what the costs. I can't imagine it would be. In our grand budget, how much could it possibly be?

All right, we're getting creative.

And I think that is that's it. Why wasn't and I'm afraid to ask sometimes, but why wasn't the tropic on the slide? Are they like not moving Occupancy? Very few occupants? This

was just a sampling.

Okay.

We love the Tropic. It's beautiful. Yeah. Should go and rent there. It's gorgeous. Beautiful view.

Thank you.

Let's get to Board Quintana.

Thank you, Chair. Joanne, I just wanted to say, great presentation. Thank you to you and your team for the hard work I know you've done to put all of this together. And I love all your creative ideas that you've brought forth. I hope you feel better soon.

Thank you.

And then I also just wanted to support the idea of the rent stabilization as part of whatever incentives we offer for new incoming businesses. I think that's brilliant. And I also want to support the idea of the survey really guiding who we try to recruit to diversify the business base downtown. And I think if we get a good mix of businesses that are what people want, that people will want to stay and linger longer and it won't be just in and out, you know, we went to a restaurant and we went home. So I think that's just key and I think it's a wonderful idea.

And I just love the pedicab idea and want to support you in bringing that forth. So those were the three things that stuck in my mind that I wanted to make sure I said out loud. Excellent. And thank you for your work.

All right. We're going to do a final round real quick with some folks who want to maybe express support and maybe stimulate some other ideas for hearing from our colleagues. So let's go to Board Members Hernandez and Gruber, then we'll wrap it up.

Thank you, Mayor. Did Commissioner Biederman, one of the things you talked about was having an individual that will go and represent us, because you don't feel they would be improperly represented from the county at this point? Years ago, we worked with the chamber to have an individual that would actually go to trade shows, whether they were national or international. And we kind of share that expense and that particular position with the chamber. This way, we don't have to create a position here.

And they're more nimble to be able to do things. So I would say if we're looking for something like that, to reach out to the chamber, talk to maybe Marie, and see if that's a possibility so that we can go back to some of those where we actually had accountability as to where our money went. I don't know if there's support for that from the board.

So I can react. Go ahead. Ahead.

Pleased that you're more supportive of the chamber.

Well, it's not that I'm saying supportive of the chamber. I'm supportive of what we used to do because it used to have results more so than what we see now. And it was at a fraction of a cost.

So let me just weigh in real quick on the idea of sending people to far and away trade shows. I don't think that's a good place for us to spend our dollars. The county promotes Visit Lauderdale as a whole. And just remember, while we are part of it, although we do feel under GREGORY Represented. GREGORY or not prioritized in the messaging as far as the city name I don't disagree with that.

I've mentioned it many times at the tourism meetings What we're really talking about here is how do we drive people to downtown as opposed to filling hotel beds on the beach. And so I think it's more valuable for us to spend our energy on getting the tourists that are already on the beach in the hotels to downtown. The idea of a display at the Diplomat and at Margaritaville and at the Marriott and at any other hotel that will allow a display in their lobby is key for people to realize. Even I see people visiting from out town and playing paddleball at the paddleball courts on the and I say to myself, do these people even know that they can go downtown for the night and not just feel like the beach is what they have to do? So where these visitors are congregating the beach and hotels and everywhere there we need to push downtown as a nightlife and as another destination to every the thousands, the tens of thousands, the millions of people that are on Hollywood Beach.

And that's our initial besides the residents and the overall surrounding market. I think we put our dollars there. That's where we get

And by the way, it's a simple sign on the paddle ball fence. And I know we may not allow signs on fencing, but we do allow them for school board for them to advertise their sponsors. So charity starts at home. Maybe that it's a way of allowing, letting those people know that there's a business that's in downtown. I don't think that you're going to find the restaurants and the entertainment on the beach going to be advertising much of the downtown because that's taking food away from them.

Of the

hotels? Yeah, just in the hotels, they're not they'll work with you to a certain point. But the marketing that we had years ago that we thought it was going to work, where we gave incentive to bring people downtown, they weren't advertising that because it takes away from their own entertainment and their own venues. Not to misconstrue that we're sending people throughout the world, it's in order to enhance what Broward County is already doing. And if we can give some incentive to the chamber to be able to send a representative from the city of Hollywood to highlight the downtown and the beach, not just the downtown. I mean, we're talking about the CRA altogether. It's penny

Another way to do it.

Yeah, it's pennies on the dollars that we're going to be able to get results out of. And I would just try to see if we could work something like that out, and not necessarily thinking that we're going to send them throughout the world.

All right. Let's keep moving here. Board member Gruber, then Shuham, and then we'll wrap up.

Yep. That'll be quick. I love the pedicab idea. Could see those maybe circling around to all different like, maybe make a route so you know that they're going around to the different parking garages and circling around downtown. So I definitely support that. I wouldn't really support sending somebody to a trade show and when we are talking about bringing people to downtown. But rather than that, I'd run a commercial that we could do for Visit Hollywood. Maybe we're doing that in the Northeast. There's been lots of these winter days where a nice picture of our beach and a weather forecast might have drawn some people down from New York. I know a lot of them are excited to get out of there.

Just Right. Visit Hollywood, Florida. Like we could do a commercial, run it in Boston and in New York, especially in the wintertime, our beautiful beach and our downtown and that type of stuff.

Commissioner, I just wanted to say one thing, too. So the for our destination marketing, very small buy right now. But IPW is one of the, if not the largest convention for travel and travel writers in the world. It is being held at Fort Lauderdale Convention Center this year. We have a booth.

We have a presence. We will have Ms. Arlene there with our 60 dedicated appointments with these travel writers. Additionally, Margaritaville is working on a Wednesday night event that will have a presence with it well. So in order to try to conserve the limited dollars we have this year, with our focus being economic development downtown, for destination, we're targeting the people who just happen to be coming here and not going to Las Vegas this So we're going to try and maximize that.

Of course, we also have FIFA happening this year as well. We have two watch parties. So we're going to be hitting that. We just put our post up yesterday, one hundred days, along with everybody else on social media. So we're trying to leverage those type of events to get people to downtown.

Okay. Then focusing on the consultant, I just, from my standpoint, it's most important to me that their function is drawing in new businesses as opposed to, know, I mean, a bunch of data and whatnot from that report. What I want to see is that they're able to bring in operators. Yeah. Would be in support of that interior grant.

I'm not crazy about the rent stabilization. What I'd almost rather see is that a landlord brings to us the potential business and then we can analyze it through whatever criteria that that business gets some grant money, especially if it's these older structures that just have the aging plumbing and electric and they would have to do so much more work in that type of building than they would somewhere else, whether it's in Hollywood or whether some or another city just because, you know, to tie it into rent stabilization and this and that. I don't know. I don't I'm not crazy about it. I'm not totally against it, but I'd rather see it let's say a Rocco's Tacos or a Broadwalk Pizza wants to open in Downtown Hollywood.

The landlord brings us, you know, what the business idea is. We vet it. We have a criteria and say, you know what? It's gonna cost you an extra $25,000 for the electric in here because it's so dated and ancient and this and that. And because it's a historic building, you're gonna need to do this. And maybe we can subsidize the cost for the new business to come in. I'd look at it like that. I don't know what you all think.

Another way to do it is to instead of just as we're brainstorming here, instead of tying it into the landlord taking the dollars and having a contractual commitment to a reduced rent, you could pay the same incentive over time to the tenant so long as the tenant is still there and to help the tenant on the backside that way, as opposed to controlling the rent. But depending on who you give the incentive to, the idea is we want reasonable rents to help the businesses succeed. But it could be, again, on the tenant side.

And I would like to know the difference when somebody's coming to rent one of our aging buildings that has never had upgraded plumbing and electric. And now it has to be brought up, what the difference in a newer shopping center or whatever would be. And then we can maybe take a look, Okay, how can we close the gap for businesses to open?

Just to give you an example of something that just happened the other day. A tenant, we're told, came to a property owner and said, we will sign a thirty year long term lease, but you've got to give us a break on the rent because it's a $600,000 investment to get the building, to get the interior to where it needs to be. And that is all my money. That's my operating cash for three months. And if I'm going to be doing that and doing the permitting and stuff, then when I'm finally ready to open, don't have any money, you know? So it's

So question to that would be, that $600,000 build out, what would that have cost in a different building, whether it's in Hollywood or not? What

A brand new one of our brand new retail space is significantly less.

Right. Right. So if we wanna fill up some of our older buildings, especially the historic ones, we're gonna have to figure out a way to bridge the gap for new businesses to come in because why would you have that's a going to cost you a few $100,000 more when you can right.

It's the rub right now.

I don't do are we going to look into that? Do I need support to have to look into

Well, I think the board has expressed support to come up with an incentive program to get help to supplement the idea of getting businesses downtown. You've heard some ideas from the board members. And let's come back with what Fantastic. You different programs.

Okay. That would be fun. JOSEPH Great presentation. And just the last thing, refreshing to see the occupancy rate at those buildings because if you go on Facebook sometimes, somebody takes a picture at 11:30 at night and there's two lights on and they say, look, all these buildings are empty. So facts are facts. There's people in there. I don't mind that they're giving incentives. We have an affordable housing crisis right now, which is part of the reason to build housing because it's a supply and demand issue. So the fact that rents are stabilizing and coming down a little means we're going in the right direction.

And I would just add to that. If you were to drive by my house at 09:30, 10:00 at night, my lights would be off, too. Yeah, exactly. I'm sleeping.

Right. Me too. But appreciate the data for people to actually see what, in fact, is going on in this building.

CHRISTIAN Board Member Collier, you just wanted a final comment, and

then we're going to wrap it up here.

Just I think maybe we could look at both rent assistance, like keeping the rent, because we don't want to repeat the same mistakes we've made. And while times are different, we've had issues with providing funding businesses come in. And exactly what Commissioner Hernandez said, they get kicked out because they're like, oh, all these renovations are made. I could get somebody in that will pay a higher price. And then it's unfair to that business owner who wasted their time and efforts to get in. So I think that there may be we could try two different ways. But I really think just bringing in businesses will be great.

All right. Thank you all. Robust discussion, executive director.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Joanne.

This presentation of information discussion today was a precursor in remembering our recent discussions that in the near future, you wanted to hold a workshop with the downtown businesses in the downtown to go through more of these details and issues. So if that's still the case, we'll follow that for the near future then.

And I think that should be aligned with Joanne and what she was saying facilitating the discussion. It would be great for the board to be there and to participate and get firsthand information. Yes?

Yes. All right. Thank you.

And then we'll be equipped with the results of the survey. We'll really get to make some headway there. And I think it's really important for the downtown property owners and the business owners to hear our discussion, to understand where we're coming from, and to know that we expect them to move and as we want to move to. All right. Thank you all so much. So next on our agenda, we've had some patient business owners who are here. I see the Graham and Zini family here. I see Mr. Murad here. And so we've got business owners here on the beach as part of the informational report by the executive director on the beach in downtown.

There's some really a great segue from the discussion we were just having. Joanne, we've been working with these property owners, some of them with completed things to be proud of and others that are eager to get moving. So let's please share some of the things in progress.

Yes. Am going to Joanne Hussey, again. I'm going to provide a snapshot of several property improvement projects and highlight some of the recent activity. We're going to start with the beach and some of the recently completed projects at 600 North Surf Road. Then we're going to move through some additional properties in active coordination for our discussion.

So here is 600 North Surf Road with property owner Joseph Amsiele, who is here. This PIP was approved by the board on 09/06/2023, and the funding agreement was executed on 11/06/2023. The scope of the work included facade restoration, paint stucco repairs, and the replacement of exterior stairs. The total project cost was approximately $198,370 with a $50,000 reimbursement through the PIP program. This represented a CRA contribution of roughly 25%, along with significant private investment by the owner.

Given the property's size and its prominent location along the Broadwalk, this property represents a meaningful investment for both the CRA and the city.

Let's see those after photos.

Ah, you're rushing me. I can take a hint. Okay. So I will skip forward then. So fast forward to today, where you now see a clean, neutral coastal white finish accented with bold orange vertical elements to give the building a

sharper

contemporary feel. The 2nd Floor balcony railings were upgraded to the frameless glass system, which opens up the sight lines. And it enhances the elevation for a more modern presence along the broad walk. The additional facade upgrades include a geometric stucco detail, and the exterior staircase was also painted in that same bold orange with glass railing.

Beautiful.

The property has the clean, cohesive look that I mentioned. From a process standpoint, the paint was just finalized about a month ago, and the project has been fully completed. So the team is now working yes, that's group of us. The team is now working with the applicant on the grant reimbursement process so they can get their money. Get your money. We are headed

Joanne, before we get there, I just if the owners would like to come up and say anything or tell us the experience that you've gone through. I know it was long, and I know you had to overcome a lot of building challenges over time. But we've been talking about property owners and business owners for a long for today, for many hours. And you've been one of them listening in. And so tell us where you're at, how do you feel, your excitement about this new project.

So first off, thank you guys for all your help and patience. We've been doing this for, like you said, almost three years now, going back and forth. One of the things that I want to say is we started off thinking that it was going to cost about $190,000 We went well above that amount.

Yeah.

Standing where we are, we ended up doing a lot more other than just the facade and

the painting and the glass railings. JOSHUA We discussed on our last CRA meeting here that we were potentially thinking about doing flooring for the entrance of the building, glass doors for all the stores in the retail, which we ended up doing everything else as well.

We

also needed to talk about maybe changing some signage and adding some more stuff, which we did.

Yeah, we're That looks great.

Thank you. It looks amazing. Thank you for your investment. We look forward to this building being well maintained and obviously now improved to last many decades ahead for the ownership and for the tenants. And that's a really great result.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ben. Thank you.

Thank you, so much.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

Okay. As we head north, 200 Garfield Street is home to Florios on the Broadwalk. Property owner Doctor. Massimo Gramanzini is also here with us today. He's expressed a strong desire to modernize his building facade while still respecting the historic character of the area.

He's currently working with Development Services team on his application to the Historic Preservation Board. This is a required step as the property is located well within the Hollywood Beach Historic Overlay District, which generally runs from Surf Road between Sherman Street and Jefferson Street, including the Broadwalk. At the same time, C Med is coordinating with the doctor to begin his formal property improvement application and that would support a comprehensive facade improvement. So here's some of the conceptual renderings that were provided by the doctor's architect for the project.

A lot of oh la la's in the audience here.

They illustrate upgraded and modernized structure with a clean and cohesive look for the broad walk. The architect, I'm told, is also present here today if you have any design related questions.

I'd love for Massimo and the architect to come on up and tell us about this. I know they've been wanting to do this for a long time. So Doctor. G. And this is a conceptual drawing here.

Thank you, Mayor. Unfortunately, my architect had to leave.

So guess

I'm stuck doing this. I appreciate the opportunity here. But yeah, you can see this building here. So my name's Massimo Gramazini. My family and I own several properties on the Boardwalk as well as on the side streets that lead up to the Boardwalk, including the Broadwalk Restaurant, the Senora Frogs building.

But particularly, this building on 200 Garfield Street is really near and dear to my heart because it's been in our family for close to forty years. My dad actually purchased no, my dad started a restaurant back in the mid-'80s called The Patio Restaurant. And then he fell in love with the beach and ended up purchasing the building in the late '80s and then created Angelo's Corner. So I don't know if you guys have been around the beach for a long time. So Angelo's Corner was a staple on the beach there.

I grew up there. I worked there as a teenager. Met my wife in Hollywood Beach. So it's near and dear to my heart. Every time I walk by this building, I kind of cringe a little bit just because I think it really has taken a downward turn as far as aesthetics. And it's a 1960 building, so it's time. And so we came. The mayor had approached us a couple of years ago about this. And I was really happy about it. And we came up with this design.

We just need to bring it up to the modern age and revitalize it. This property is very unique because I believe it's the entrance to the beach, Garfield Street parking lot. People walk by this building. It just represents Hollywood Beach, I feel. So we feel that this rendering here that we have is pretty modern. Really just a facade change. We're not knocking the building down or anything like that. I mean, we would have liked to go 2nd Floor and do a whole thing like that. But that didn't work out with the way things are with codes and stuff like that. So we came up with this.

And this is, I believe, is a great representation of what we want the beach to look like. And I hope you guys agree and help us through this process. And just recently, we also owned the building right next door, which I think was on that list, 15

JOANNE JOANNE ST. JOANNE

you about JACKIE Hold

the thought if you want.

Here, do you want to grab your

JACKIE Yeah, yeah.

We're going to get a two for one here.

JACKIE Yeah, here we go. Okay.

JACKIE Lucky to have a property owner like this who wants to make investments and can.

JACKIE Okay. At 512 North Broadway, this property, also owned by the doctor, is functional. But it is dated, as he said, willing to explore the facade enhancements to modernize the building so it better aligns with the improved look and the investment. The renderings that I am going to show you were created by AI in my office.

It's imagination, yeah.

My office. Okay? So please keep in mind this is an artistic rendering. Nobody is agreeing to many things.

I'm sure the prompt was good.

Okay? Here we go. Okay.

Okay.

Yes. Of course, Thank you. Any yes. Any ideas Is

that Grock or Chad G. P. T? I'm kidding.

I'm not telling you my Could

have been Claude, but that's a secret

It would more contemporary, I think that's oops, that was it. So it was those two. It was those two.

Do think more

tones, etcetera.

Well, JAMES let's hear from Doctor. Gramazini what he thinks of the imagination. Do you see yourself being able to Are you inspired by these renderings, Doctor. Gramazini?

Yeah, absolutely. And this was just brought to my attention literally, like, I'd about a month ago. I didn't want to I mean, I always wanted to renovate this, too. But I'm navigating all these little projects with the city. And I'm like, I don't know if I should throw in another project.

But when

I saw this, I was like We

promise quick permits, Okay? Yeah.

I don't know. I'm going two years now for Garfield Street. No. But I'm sure we'll get it through. But yeah, when I saw this, was like, this is great. I mean, I think this is what we're trying to do on the beach there. And I think it's just a great representation of just a modern, clean look that I think will attract families and attract people as they're walking down that boardwalk. They're wow, this is great. This is a great addition to the community.

Yeah, makes the tenant's storefront more attractive to shop into.

Yep, Yep. So I'm all for it. I just want to thank the mayor for helping me get through all of this, or going through all of this, and connecting me with the right people to get this project moving and jump all the hoops.

JOSHUA Yeah, we're eager to see it done. Some board members might want to make GREEN: some comments and give you ideas or Questions or anything? Trustees, Board Member Collier, Ben Hernandez.

JOSHUA Can you go back to the original slide where you have keep going, keep going. There, stop. On your original design, you have this overhang awning. But on the design, if you go back one more Are

you talking about

You see that purple awning? Here, it doesn't show MACHT: a coverage. But are you still having outdoor seating there? Or what is your

Yeah, there's still outdoor seating there. But we didn't put the awning because it's a unique situation where we own both properties, but the patio is halfway on the second property. So I don't know if the city is going to allow us to

JULIE Continue? Continue? Yeah, Are you in?

To put that awning on there, because it's going over

But you own the property right door?

JULIET Right next to it, yes.

JULIET It's

our property.

But in the past, we had asked to renovate. And they said, oh, well, you have to combine the properties and do a unity of title. But we didn't want to do that.

JULIET Just a document. You just file a document, it gets done. Just saying.

No, no. Know what it is. Yeah. We didn't want to do that for personal reasons. But bottom line is we're still going to have a patio there and maybe umbrellas over there. I don't know if there's another way of doing it. I'd love to have that overhang there. But I don't see the city approving that.

Well, hopefully they hear us. I think that that would cause you a little bit you know, that patio get

Well, the patio's not, it's still going to be there. Right,

but it's not going to have the, they'll have the umbrellas, which listen, we know storms run-in, people run it. It creates And people love to center there because I'm one of them that have been there since I was a teenager. So I would hate to see that DUNLAP: coverage disappear because people need that protection from the sun. We talk about it all the time. So however we can work with the city, let's I would love to have it. I just But then my question is, what would you do? Because if you were able to put that, would you put an awning? Or would you put a like, what would you

JULIET Well, maybe follow the same JULIET same aluminum as the overhangs are there now. I don't know if you've seen our other property, the Broadwalk Restaurant. We have those overhangs there, similar CLEMENT: to that. So that type of material, I think, would be good.

And they even have them now where you can open them and close them if you want the sun or if it's raining.

Okay, So perfect. Would be great. Maybe So we can come up with some type of easement agreement or something between the two properties. But again, we own both properties. So for us, it doesn't matter. It's really for you guys

because JULIE it's

been know I've proposed it one time before. And they said, well, no, that property is infringing on here. And you have to do a unity of title. And we just

All right.

So you hear our concerns out there, our permitting people COHEN: and easement people.

I think

it's really important. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Board Member Hernandez. My pleasure.

Thank you, mayor. Error right lease. No. One property would probably lease to the other the air rights for that particular area and present that to their building department. That will probably take care of the issue. And I can understand why you would not want to have Unity a title because if you want to sell one versus the other, it complicate things. I just remember decades and decades ago playing paddle ball in Garfield Beach and actually coming by and getting a slice of pizza.

Of course, yeah. It's iconic. It's an iconic location.

So when you're redoing this, are the side windows still going to be available?

Oh, yeah.

Okay, because that was the thing that I remember the most is actually coming up to the side windows.

Of I was able to get my slides. JOSHUA Of course. Great job. JOSHUA JOSHUA Do we have a picture of the side?

JOSHUA There it is right there. You could see it.

So the one thing that always bugged me is, like, if you're in a parking lot, right, and you're walking up Garfield to come to the beach, you know do you have that picture? I can see. The bottom line is you see the back of this restaurant. There's a dumpster it's that's all just

you can smell it

very inviting, So that's why this design, what we did is we continued that high wall around the back and enclosed the dumpster. And we kind of faced off that whole area. So when you come by there, it's just going to look more appealing. And then we also came up with this I was talking to the mayor about this, too, and a couple other people from the city planners to put some type of artwork on that wall, saying, welcome to Hollywood. And it's like a three d artwork, where I'm working with one of the art people now. And I just think it will become more iconic where people will be taking pictures there. And it's just the entrance to the beach. So it needs to be something special the way it is right now. It's just kind of an eyesore to me.

All right, let's get Board Member Hernandez. You

No, I just wanted to make sure that window prevails and continues on.

The window will be there, yes.

I heard Board

Member Any restaurateur knows how valuable that window is.

And that's part of the historic part of that building, just in case you need that.

But remember Schuham, I think you are a strong second to that window.

JAMES Yes. Been to the

window many times. I think they're beautiful. I think Joanne has a side gig as an exterior designer. It's interesting that they all kind of have a similar flow. But my question really is for Joanne. But I just want to say thank you so much for everything you're doing to make the Broadwalk look so beautiful.

JOANNE My pleasure.

Really Thank you.

Exciting.

Joanne, JOANNE my question for you is, we spent a lot of time and effort and energy on pastel palette for the beach. And so I love these designs, but clearly we're not encouraging what we were encouraging. So what's the status of that? And why aren't we

This is just the first go at It's

just your rendering. I would defer to Susan on the

We'll definitely be recommending better

Are you suggesting that it's going to be painted a different color than

JOSHUA I think this is just an initial look. And I think we're going to talk about when we talk about the artwork and we talk about the front facade, it could have more bright colors. Obviously, property owner needs to buy in. But I think, yeah, this is step one. I don't think he just wants a plain, totally white building. He talked about artwork and making it pop. So this is just step one. I mean, I think it's Is correct, Doctor. Gramazini?

Like red, army.

We do

It looks very you know, it's similar to what they've done at the

We might have not had the color palette discussion yet with them.

Yeah, we're open to you know, this is just a rendering that we had come up with. Yeah, we're open to different colors. We wanted to introduce different materials, too, on the building to give it just a little bit more dimension.

Yeah, it's great. I mean, I love this. But as a general CRA effort, we had talked about creating more colors along the broad walk. And the only other thing for just as long as you're here, JOSHUA MACHT:

we've talked a lot about mosaic versus paint. And Susan and her staff will work with you, I know, on all of that.

Yes. Mosaic on the side of

the story. Yeah. MACHT: there was a mural on there. Then the feedback we got was which I agree with basically, murals are paint. With the weather, it's going to

Yes. It's very powerful.

So then we went to the mosaic tile, similar to where near the band shell there,

where they Exactly.

Have JULIETTE that they have all that stuff on the building.

JULIETTE Exactly.

Comes off the building. So again, we're pretty open to any of that stuff.

Well, again, thank you so much. It's really gorgeous.

Board Member Biederman.

So my comments were just basically first of all, I love the idea of the mural or the artwork or whatever it's going to be. But I would have loved to see more vibrant colors, even on the Angelo's Corner Building, where Florio's now. This is it. Oh, yeah, sorry. It just doesn't look like it.

I know.

Well, that is the Flores Building, yeah.

Right. So that's great. But again, more vibrant colors, whatever it takes, even to kind of like bounce off what we have on the new paint job on the garage. But I love that orange on the last building and just more vibrancy. Thank you. Awesome.

Thank you, Doctor. Gramazini. Let's give them a round of applause, please. Appreciate it. And Mrs. Gramazini.

Okay, moving on. So right next door to that, just south is 1504 North Broadwalk. This is a two story retail structure with a strong pedestrian visibility, but again, the dated exterior. The building is active and activated, but the facade doesn't fully reflect the level of reinvestment that we are seeking. We are still trying to reach out to the owner who recently, I guess, inherited this property to discuss potential participation in the PIP program.

And while we haven't been able to connect yet, we did launch our AI technology to kind of give an idea of what potentially it could be for That's that amazing.

And I'll just point out that if this property were to be done, too, together with the two properties we just talked about with Doctor. Gramazini, that would complete the entire block because the only other property on the block is that new three or four story building that's undergoing all that investment now to be a That's correct. So we have a fresh new full block when and if all these are done. So it's exciting.

Moving on from the beach. So this property is located along South Ocean Drive. It's transitioning right now from a mini PIP to a comprehensive PIP due to the expanded scope of improvements. Unlike the earlier facade focused projects, this effort includes broader infrastructure and resiliency upgrades. The proposed scope includes turtle friendly lighting, full parking lot repaving and re striping, landscape enhancements, and the installation of approximately 200 impact rated doors.

In addition, the seawall restoration has already been completed as a private investment by the owner. The initial scope of this work was estimated at approximately $52,000 per building with the inclusion of the impact rated doors adding about $333,000 to the overall project cost. What's important about this project is that it improves safety, storm resiliency, and environmental compliance with the area. Plus it also enhances the overall look. This is a meaningful investment the waterfront side as well.

So beyond the PIP improvement, the owner has also invested private funds of approximately $500,000 in concrete restoration, dollars 3 and 50,000 in seawall repairs, dollars 275,000 for a new roof as well. And those were all completed outside of the PIP program. So here are some of the renderings that kind of show the lighting and the landscaping and the new seawall. Yes, and the new roof. Taken together, this project demonstrates the evolution of the PIP program from smaller facade improvements that are now ushering in larger, more comprehensive investments that are addressing long term resiliency, compliance, and overall property value at the beach.

Okay, and so now shifting gears to this was an inquiry from vice mayor a little while ago about Lincoln Street. So Laura Becklin is here for the property. This property is located at 2134 Lincoln Street and it was approved by the board in 01/15/2025. The original scope of this project included impact windows and doors, exterior paint and stucco improvements, and new signage. It was overall a straightforward project but at the time the Board included a contingency.

Staff was directed to work with the applicant to explore potential creation of a parking lot to improve access that expanded consideration, held the funding agreement which is yet to be executed with the applicant. And so then they started to take a look at what we could do for the parking lot. They have also met with development services to talk about what some of the options were. So this is the current condition right now. As we see, you know, it's got the two separate parking lots And here is what they were looking to do.

So they were looking to paint, as I mentioned, and do the impact windows and doors, etcetera. The image on the right is also, this is what they started looking at for the parking lot to connect the two existing parking lots towards the front of the building to add more parking and to employ improve the traffic flow. When they started to look at that, it was really expensive. Like over $200,000 $280,000 to do this type of an improvement, not including the architectural drawings and the other associated costs. As part of the original CPIP, you were granted an additional $15,000 to address the parking lot.

And it just has come back as very, very expensive. So would like to staff would like to continue to work with this property owner. And I'm making the recommendation that we separate the parking lot project, take off the contingency so they can move forward with getting the paint, the stucco repair, and the new doors and get that done. And then we address the parking and parking lot issue at a later date. So that's up for your consideration.

Board members, is that good? Joanne wants to see this move? And then parking lot would be like a second phase pending funding and things like that, right, on their side. So I just would like some feedback given to Joanne. I'm supportive of seeing the impact window improvement and the paint, that's what we're going to Board Member Kalari says she wants to go forward with it.