Community Economic Development Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

Good morning. We're gonna go ahead and get started. We call the meeting to order for the Community Economic Development Advisory Board, Tuesday, November 18 at 10:30AM, and we are here in the Commission Chambers. This is different. And, we will start with the roll call. Start with yourself, sir. John

Perkins, present.

Ursula Eisenhower. Julie Lacour.

Mike Andy. Lacey.

Lacey Holland.

Michael Meerman. Sean Burrows.

James Jerome. Terry Cheney. Okay. Excellent. And we will have the Pledge of Allegiance.

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. Okay. Excellent. And were there any public comments? Excellent. Okay. And the approval of the minutes from the October 21 meeting. Any adjustments, changes, collections? We have a motion to approve the minutes. I make a motion to approve the minutes as is.

Second then.

All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Thank you. Alright. And to new business, discussion on possible action regarding the review and approval draft for the annual report. And that would be from our staff liaison.

Good morning to everybody. As we talked about in our last meeting, we are required on an annual basis as the advisory board to the economic development group to provide an annual report, which we then submit to the city manager who makes that report part of the presentation of all of the, boards that are like yours that represent the different divisions within the city. And then that presentation is made here in chambers to the commission. So based upon the recommendation by this board that the staff go ahead and create such. We did that.

And we created the annual report based upon prior minutes of the meetings in the twenty five fiscal year. The agenda does, I note, have the attachments and a second item listed. So I am hopeful that all of you had the opportunity to look at the attachments as they were so noted in the agenda because that does contain the content of your annual report. I will say in advance that we did not have an overly active year with a lot of, action items, but we did have some. And they are therefore noted in the report.

If it is convenient and you did not happen to have the opportunity to review those items and you would like, we are prepared to display them here in chambers for on the spot review. I defer to you, mister chairman, on how you'd like to proceed.

If we could, just so that as a board, we can see it as a whole.

So

the first thing that we will review would be the annual report memo which would be coming from this board, the Community Economic Development Advisory Board membership. It's being addressed to the city commission and through our city manager, Jerome Fletcher. And it reads as follows. In compliance with chapter four article one section four dot four of the code of the city of Northport, the community economic development advisory board is providing the attached annual report to the city commission. And this is what would be presented to that commission, on your behalf.

It's very simple language. It's the language that has been used in times of past, so we did not reinvent the wheel. But if you would like to make an adjustment, an amendment to this language, this would be your opportunity for discussion and recommendation on what you would like to see changed.

Does anybody see a need to make any adjustments to the language? No? Okay.

Mister chairman, I'm not sure how you would like to proceed. So I ask the question, would you like to approve each of the three attached documents individually and a motion to accept each one? Or would you like to make the motion at the end of all three presentation and have a single motion?

We'll have a single motion.

Alrighty, sir. Be best. Here on display now is the narrative of the annual report. As you can see, it is contained on a single page and is therefore relatively brief. And so I'll just take the opportunity, to go ahead and read the narrative.

I know sometimes seeing these screens from afar can be challenging. Pursuant to the city administrative code section four four reports, all boards shall provide a verbal or written report to the city commission, including the previous year's activities and goals for the upcoming year. The following was approved by the Community Economic Development Advisory Board to forward to commission. Community Economic Development Advisory Board accomplishments for 2025 include discussion and recommended approval to the city commission to extend operational hours for select commercial businesses in corridor transitional and corridor districts. Discussions and recommended approval to the city commission to review city code chapter six, alcoholic beverages section 6.4, sales near churches or schools.

Discussion and recommended approval to the city commission to adopt the proposed ordinance as presented amending chapter 58. Completed annual sunshine training. Discussion and motion made to elect chair Burrows as chair, discussion and motion made to elect board member Holland as vice chair. The board ended 2025 with 10 members. Four members were newly appointed in 2025.

The board goals for 2026 include, make recommendations on any updates to the city's business and economic development strategic plan with long term goals and objectives, provide recommendations on any city commission short term action plans and measurements, make recommendations on resources allocated for economic development activity of the city, and provide recommendations on policies and ordinances affecting economic development.

That's pretty good. Any questions? Anything updating to Jeff? Any more moving or go to upstairs? No. I think we'll move on to the next one.

And thirdly, on the agenda for your review was the report presentation, which mimics what I just read to you, but is in a slide deck format, which the commission has adopted a master slide deck in which your components will be part of. And so what you're seeing is your portion of the master deck, slide deck, and all of the board's information that will be presented on this day will be included in the packet in this format, and you're just gonna see your portion of that today.

Gotcha.

And so the community economic development advisory board report to the city commission, page one. Page two details the exact language word for word that I just read to you in the verbal report, a slide detailing the membership activity that I just shared with you, a slide detailing the goals that I just read to you. So it is word for word the narrative that was just presented to you, and then that is included in that board packet.

Okay. Thank you very much. Can we have a motion on this presentation? I'll make a motion to accept. Okay. Motion by Terry. Can we get a Second. Second by And all in favor?

Aye. Thank you very much.

All any opposed? Okay. Good deal. So then

What was the motion? Can you

just repeat the question? The motion was to accept the presentation as presented. Okay. So we'll move to new business item 25 Dash3025 or excuse me. Three zero five two. Discussion and possible actions regarding affordable table housing, Sarasota Memorial Hospital, progress commercial development, diversity, and workforce education. I guess that would also be staff liaison.

Thank you very much, sir. This item came up before the board two meetings ago and was last occasion repeated to be sure that it was making the agenda so that there could be presentation on those specific subjects. On affordable and attainable housing, I'd like to report to you that from an affordable housing perspective, and we'll recall the distinction there, affordable being housing that is being constructed and or available that meets government housing and urban development guidelines related to income levels. And typically, it's based on some percentage of adjusted median income, household income, and metrics of those sorts. With regard to affordable housing, we have a project that was approved, a year or so ago that has been active.

I met with the development firm, Houston, Texas firm that is developing a project along Pan American, over there, on the western side of the city, if you will. And that Pan American project is named Waters At Northport. And Waters At Northport is a 288 unit affordable housing initiative. I met two weeks ago with the principals who are financing that project, the development firm who is developing that project. And they brought along with them Moody's.

And some of you may not know Moody's. And so if I may take the moment to introduce you to Moody's as being one of this country's premier financial rating agencies. And, the development and financial backing individuals who were present there in the room with two representatives from Moody's were there to understand their project, what the city had going on in general, continuing to look at their financing and development and credit score of those developers. Right? Moody's making sure that that project, because it is using certain, monies that are allocated to them, participation monies through other government, resources, that that that fiscal responsibility remains intact.

And I can tell you that it was a fantastic meeting. Very top notch professional. They were here not for any kind of approval because that project has already been approved, but they were here to further demonstrate their sincerity in getting that project finalized, bringing all of these players in from out of town, meeting here at City Hall, and looking to gain insight from the economic development department. And myself and Michael McClellan from our department were present at that meeting to discuss with all of these principals the current state of economic development in the city of Northport. And of course, you can imagine if you're funding a large project like this that you'd wanna make sure that your funds were going to people who could actually pull this off.

And so they were here to get the support and understand what was going on here at the city, and everybody left extremely happy. So that's the one initial project that I wanted to share with you about affordable housing that we have going on. I will tell you that I do receive calls with fair regularity from affordable developer, affordable housing developers. And what what is most interesting for me to share with you today about those telephone calls and and the the folks that are contacting me is that nearly all of them want one thing. They want to use city assets.

And if you follow any of our public discussions hosted by commission, you'll know that we are not a community that has assets to share nor do we have a bank account that has any fluff money. And so repeatedly, I am sharing with them, that is the developer queries, that we would love for you to do affordable housing in our community. Please buy property that will be zoned and please bring us plans to do that. But it's gonna be private investment. And if you do get other types of funding, it would have to come from outside resources, not the city.

And, of course, that's enough to chase most of them away. They're looking for some sort of participation by the city. Typically, is what they're after. And so I don't have anything else on affordable housing. If you have any questions about that, I'll be happy to take them.

Is is there a groundbreaking or completion date for that project that is happening?

There is not, sir. Okay. It's a multi acre property over off of Pan American, not far off of 41. I believe don't quote me. I have to look it up. I'm sorry. I didn't look. I believe it's in the 15 to 20 acre size property. It's a good size property. Yes, ma'am.

Is it commonplace for cities to support a development like that?

Well, an excellent question. Commonplace is probably a misnomer today because anything goes in our world. I would tell you that many communities do offer arrangements to induce and draw this type of economic development. Some communities have larger populations of needy than others, and so they therefore focus on it. Our commission has before them, approximately two to three months ago, a list of city owned properties.

And those properties were presented to them for some level of adjudication with respect to what should we do with these city owned properties. Should we keep them in our portfolio? Should we consider public private partnership arrangements? Should we sell them off? Should we make them green space?

Should we make them part of our parks and recreation offering? So there were many options available to them. They did not review that list of properties other than it was presented. And my recollection is that somewhere in the 2026, commission will again be looking at the large list of Citi real estate holdings.

Wouldn't it be the enticement by impact fees? Because I know that was normally used to people and a little bit of a carrot to build in the area.

So impact fees are fairly normal in terms of a component in development. And our community has not been one to waive impact fees with any level of regularity. In fact, at the commission meeting approximately two weeks ago, there was some discussion about, waiving impact fees for these specific uses and they were denied. In fact, it included, government facility usage and exempting government facilities from impact fees, and it too was denied. The perfect example of that is the hospital going on up the street at the corner of Sumter And 75, Sarasota Memorial.

How exciting a project that could be, dollars $520,000,000. It is a community hospital. It is publicly funded. It is a government facility. And Sarasota Memorial Hospital will be paying impact fees, as does the city of Northport for any of our own projects.

And the VA clinic that is progressing nicely out front here at the corner of Main And Price. So if you go directly out in front of City Hall and head towards Price, on that corner is the location for the Veterans Administration Clinic and that organization also will be paying impact fees.

Okay. Excellent.

That's With regard to attainable housing Yes. Which is the distinction this group now understands. I have nothing to report to you on attainable housing. I would shade this to you, though, that attainable housing is a component of market dynamics. So if the market, I.

E, the builders who build single family, multifamily homes, determine that the market is expressing a need for price point styled development, they will then build it. That is a function of the marketplace. It's not something that is driven by the government. So what we're seeing, and I'm not a realtor, but I I I do follow the the market pretty closely. And I will tell you that what we're seeing is that in general, there is a view that there are more homes available than are being sold right now.

And in fact, in some markets, particularly to the south of us, there are so many homes available that the label, the unintended landlord has developed because people who can't sell their homes are now deciding to rent them. And that is now causing competitive issues and competitive pressures on builders who have now put up multifamily and apartment buildings. And so, again, market driven. It's no different here in Northport. Attainable housing is a component of the marketplace.

And so the level to which builder develops is dictated by what the market is willing to pay. So that's really how attainable housing works. The Sarasota Memorial Hospital progress. Well, I attended the groundbreaking a week ago. Pretty exciting stuff. I will tell you that driving by that property is way different than driving onto the property and being in the middle of it. Holy mackerel. Sean, I know you were

there. Yep.

Yes.

It's amazing to stand in the middle of that property and look around and see the scope of what's going to be created there. Tremendous facility, groundbreaking. They continue to forge ahead every day. I come by there twice a day. If you haven't been by, please make a trip by and slow down. Put your flashers on. Take a look. It's an amazing development project. But other than that, I have nothing to report. Most of what comes out of that project's development will be in the press, widely published.

Sarasota Memorial does a great job of putting information out. Our planning group, you know, continues to review any plans that are necessary or amendments to plans, I should say, at this point. So there there there's probably not a lot of information that'll be coming out of City Hall on that project unless there are major changes to the plans as filed. But keep your eyes on that project. Good stuff.

They they and I will tell you this. They had originally planned to only complete four or five of the stories on that building. And then based on the additional monies that were received by the hospital board for future expansion, they just decided to go ahead and build all nine floors. And the top few floors, I'm not sure how many, three or four will remain shell and vacant for expansion when they are ready to do that. They're gonna put up all nine stories right off

the bat. So Makes sense.

That's an exciting exciting piece of activity here in our community. It would make that the tallest structure in Northport, by the way. If you hadn't put that together or thought about our our structures, it would be the tallest structure in Northport.

Yeah. I have a question on that.

What what are we addressing as far as traffic pattern there?

Economic development does not address that or monitor that, but I can tell you that our public works group does. And I am certain that as part of I I am very certain that as part of the planning approval process that that was addressed. Now how that works, just informationally, and if you ever have the opportunity, they are open to the public. There are development review committee meetings on a regular basis here in City Hall in the same room in which we normally reside. And during those meetings, you will see development projects come into the room and present to the development review committee.

And that committee includes natural resources, fire, police, utilities, public works, planning, economic development. And they go around the room after the presentation by the developer who puts forth the plans, the detailed plans that is, and they're reviewed. And then they are provided with commentary from each of the respective groups. And I have sat through those meetings, and I can tell you that public works is part of that and does actually talk about what the needs, the necessities are for that plan to get approval. And specifically, what's going to get developed there, I don't know.

But certainly, it's available for review if we dig back into the plan approval process. Or it may still be coming. There may be additional enhancements.

Thank you.

Yes, sir. And then commercial development diversity. I think this subject came up originally to talk about what kinds of commercial development activity do we have going on in the community. Diversity, not a word that I wanted to confuse with societal standards, ethnic diversity, and things of that nature. This was commercial diversity.

What's going on? And so what is the commercial diversity in our community? Well, it's broad, I can tell you. And I'm gonna talk to you more about economic development projects here in just a few moments. But just to say that we see, talk with, engage in projects as small as partial acres to multi acre initiatives from

simple

structures to complex structures, from quick service restaurant drive thrus, national franchisees to large scale retail mixed use development that's combined with housing. And we see a lot of those things. And so the landscape of diversity in commercial projects is all over the board. Less than 1,000,000 to well, as I mentioned, the hospital project being half $1,000,000,000. So we see zeros at all levels, and we see projects of all types and we see industry of all types.

We can't neglect the fact, as I mentioned to you the last time we met, that health care continues to be, a hot spot for this region of Southwest Florida, specifically Northport. Tremendous amount of health care activity here. Know, Sarasota Memorial, HCA, EXALT, Advent Healthcare, the VA Clinic, just to name a handful. Northport Behavioral that's active already there off of Toledo Blade and Price. We have become a hotspot for health care.

How wonderful it is to be in Northport these days if you have a need for health care. I even have ear, nose, and throat practice up out of Tampa that's wanting to create something down here as well. So the growth in the health care marketplace continues. And all of those projects include not just hospital. They include rehabilitation. They include clinic style. They include behavioral. We're touching on a number of different health care levels. So good stuff, really good stuff. But it's not just health care.

I am working to attract the aerospace and aviation industry to our community, both from a research and development standpoint and from a logistics and transportation and warehousing standpoint. We a perfect posture geographically to do that. We are geographically situated between five different airport locations. If you run from south to north along the West Coast, you've got the Naples Naples Executive Airport. You've got the Fort Myers International Airport.

You've got the Punta Gorda Airport. You've got Venice Executive Airport. You've got Sarasota and Tampa International. So just along this coast, there are a number of airports that alone by themselves have a need for parts, supplies, and the like, which are all coming today from the other coast. Right?

And so part of the idea of having a logistics hub here along this coast we are central among all of those locations I just named makes good sense for those who are looking for more convenient type of parts and supply activity in the aero and aviation industry. I'm also looking to grow that sector from a research and development component as we continue to pursue R and D styled activities here in the city. We are ripe to do that. We have educational institutions that potentially offer the opportunity to develop a workflow workforce. And we have a high school structure that is anxious to provide alternative types of skill training at the younger ages that then move into the technical and local colleges and then through articulation agreements we'll talk more about that here in just a moment to provide a level of workforce education that creates a ready workforce for things like research development.

What with even with the UDC, we have limited commercial space. And so where would these companies go?

Excellent question. Thank you very much. I am I am working with, Benderson Development to help them, not Benderson specifically, but they do have right now the biggest we will work with all developers. Of course. Okay.

I didn't mean to imply we were exclusive. But we are working with them to fully occupy their space out at the intersection of Toledo Blade in 'seventy five, where they have several 100,000 square feet of Class A space that is prime for this sector. Prime from the standpoint that it's class A space and well developed, that the infrastructure would suit these type of organizations. But also from a logistics standpoint, they are right there on the highway. And so that's an example.

There are several 100,000 square feet available out there. If you've never driven other than flying by on Toledo Blade, pull in and drive down the middle of those structures. It's enormous. You will like the hospital, it's a totally different perspective on what several 100,000 square feet of space available for occupancy looks like. It's amazing. And so initially, I'd like to see all that space occupied by research development.

I live off Toledo Blade. So believe me, every time I go to 75, that traffic is a mess. It is bad development there.

Yes. It is. Especially early in the morning and at the same thing at the 05:00 hour at night.

Yes. Insanity.

Capitalizing on the commercial diversity, again, I mentioned health care. I mentioned aero and aviation. But I should not ignore hospitality, which continues to be a focal point for me. As I mentioned to this group the last time we met, we have some hotel projects that we're working on. Since that meeting, I did talk to one of the real estate investment firms that I'm working with who did confirm that Hilton does want to put up a hotel on the property that they are eyeballing.

And they are just now down to determining whether or not it's going to be one of two different Hilton concepts that is designated for extended stay, suite styled.

Where would that be?

I'm sorry?

Where would that be?

I am not at liberty to talk about, their project. It's confidential until they actually ink the, land acquisition and submit plans.

Well, basically, asked the question about diversity because Price Boulevard is an excellent opportunity for smaller diverse businesses to move in and get them started. And I actually worked for a commercial developer in my career, and I understand how important that is because any time you work for federal government, do work for federal government, you have to have a certain percentage of diverse suppliers. And, that was part of my job, to find them and develop them. And oftentimes, their hand has to be held because they don't know what to do. You know, they got a small business, maybe family owned, and they need someone who can guide them into how to expand their business and how to keep track of, government regulation, that sort of thing.

Thank you. I I I do agree with you a 100%. And we are a community that is built around small business. I did not bring with me today the metrics for the month of October, but off the top of my head, I can tell you oh, I think I might have a pencil note. Off the top of my head, in the month of October, we had 34 new businesses here in the city just in the month of October.

And 80% of them, whatever that is, 24, 25 of them, were small businesses based out of their residents. And only less than 10 were commercial entities. And so it's a testament to what you were just discussing and talking about, and that is that they need their hands held a little bit. It's not like they don't understand how to make widgets or how to cook the recipe, whatever it may be. They just don't necessarily have all of the business acumen necessary to advance.

And these are not businesses that are gig economists, as we affectionately referred to them a few years ago. They're not folks that are just making ends meet, say, driving a car and getting Uber revenue. Nothing against those folks. But this is far more advanced than that. They just happen to like the home based models. There are numbers of them through our community. 80% of our business community is that way. And to provide another metric for this group, we have approximately 17% of the city properties are zoned for commercial development. And we need more. Yeah. But at the at the at the current state, that's where we are.

Just by in my experience, the problems they had are mostly administrative. They didn't track their accounts receivable and payables properly, payroll, that sort of thing, and didn't consider it important because they were concentrating on their fieldwork. You can call it that.

So if we can do a small shout out to Mr. Jerome, who's a member here today. Thank you, Mr. Jerome, for representing Cruise. Cruise has been a sponsor of a city program where we are providing on a monthly basis education for the small business community at no charge to the small business community.

It's a program that our economic development group, we created this program in conjunction with State College of Florida. We have instructors who are business people themselves that are subject matter experts. And that program, as I've shared with you once before, I believe, is called North Port Next. It's a series of eight workshops on different topics each time. It's held over at the college campus.

And thanks to Mr. Jerome and the gracious sponsorship of Cruise, we're able to offer that to the community. In fact, I believe Mr. Jerome made a presentation, was it just in October, on financial management?

Yes.

And so to address the fact that receivable management is clearly part of financial management, and those small businesses did get some amount of education on that. Another economic development program that we run out of our division. Moving on to the last point in that agenda item, workforce education. We are actively interested in all forms of workforce education. We we recognize that the future of this community and the current existence of this community is dependent on having a ready enabled workforce.

It's that simple. It's that simple. We we hugely value the relationship that we have with the Suncoast technical community. And we've had that for many years. They offer programming that has been perfectly positioned to put out student skills that are then transferable directly into the workforce.

We work with the State College of Florida. We work with, the local high schools. We recently have been engaged by Imagine Schools to work more closely with them in developing, skilled programs and connect them with players in the community where they can offer skilled programs. All, of course, part of the Sarasota County School Board control and oversight, I should say, rather than control. And we plan to move to engage both high schools more actively in a development role for additional educational opportunities.

We have been pursuing what's known as the agreements that are buy in between universities and high schools and other technical schools. These agreements provide for transition from one institution to the next, being semi seamless if they've got the right credentials and credits. They're known as articulation agreements. Maybe Mr. Endy can speak more to how those work.

Yeah, sure. So for STC in particular, for Suncoast Technical College, we have multiple programs, multiple certifications. It depends on most of it's certification based. So for example, if you earn your LPN, you become a licensed practical nurse after you complete our program. SCF has a bridge program that takes away the first semester for those students to pursue their RN.

A lot of our business programs have credentials that you earn from Microsoft or QuickBooks or all of those types of things that you learn earn in those programs. They're articulated into credits that articulate into their associate's degree as they pursue higher education. So we have those articulations with SCF. We've had them with our culinary programs with Kaiser and, Johnson and Wales, which moved out of state. So things like that exist.

Thank you, mister Wendy. That's it's perfect. And and it it's a it's a avenue which the economic division will continue to look to for growth in workforce development. I have spoken briefly on one occasion with Mr. Endy about articulation agreements related to technologies such as research and development, specifically talked about semiconductor and things that are a bit foreign here in this part of the county, predicated on the fact that we have to have employers who will employ people when they receive credentials or degrees in these areas.

But by way of example now, me weave this curious web together for some of you. I mentioned aerospace and aviation. Like, well, Michael, we don't have a runway. We don't have a hangar. We don't we don't have an airport, Michael. What are you talking about? Well, we don't need those things for the type of aero and AV that we're pursuing. We're talking about logistics. We're talking about research and development. And from a research and development standpoint, right, think about who does that kind of stuff.

Engineers. And where do engineers go to school? Well, in the state of Florida, they go to the University of Florida, they go to Embry Riddle, they go to other degreed engineering programs, and they crank out these aeronautical and aerospace engineers. Can you imagine for a moment if there were articulation agreements between Embry Riddle, right, and Sarasota County Schools? Ding, ding, ding, it already exists.

Imagine if we could get the Sarasota School System, which includes both Northport High Schools, one yet to be opened, and the Sarasota Technical College to begin to provide pre engineering styled classes around aerospace engineers, right, aviation engineers, semiconductor engineers. And then as they progress through their AP classes in high school, their dual enrollment classes in high school, their classes and certifications certifications with with the the Technical College and moving on through to and then maybe going over and up to Daytona to go to school in Embry Riddle or go to UF. And then what do they want to do? They want to come back home and work. That's workforce development.

Right? And so we are working on those exact type of programs.

And I want to make a comment. I think those classes that they do at STC are very affordable considering what their salaries will be after they get their certification and get hired in these companies. It may look like a lot of money to some people, but considering what they cost in other communities, I think it's a great program.

Mister Endy, could you make a comment about your campus expansion and where that stands today?

Yes. So actually, two days from now, we'll have our final selection of our architects. We've narrowed it down from seven to four. And once we do the architect selection, it'll go off to bid. Long story short, our goal is to open the doors to the expansion in August '27, and then which will align hopefully perfectly with the hospital to have those graduates coming out and entering into the workforce there.

So as as we prepare for what we hope to be, it'll be an it'll be a two story building, an additional 11 classrooms total, five dedicated to the trades, such as auto, welding, more electricity. Potentially, if the city has a need for advanced manufacturing or something that's gonna go into that engineering type of role, we can look into that program. And then upstairs in the 2nd Floor, primarily health care, whether it's our LPN to RN program that we can now offer to add more RNs into the area because the hospital will sure need them. All of the hospitals coming. And then also, maybe patient care technicians, some other programs.

It'll really be driven. We're gonna add paramedic next year, to the increasing demand of all the agencies requiring their EMT firefighters to become paramedics, so that's something we're looking to expand in Northport. So yeah. So that is that is our goal. So if we can build as is, budget will always be a constraint, which is the next piece to come up after the architectural designs come out from our our chosen person or company. And then the goal, though, is to build that two story building, and we may end up shelling in the Top Floor just like Sarasota will so that we can you know, it's gonna cost a small fortune, so and we may have to do that. But the goal is to build it all from the beginning.

And is that project funded fully?

Wait. The project, I believe, don't quote me on it, has approximately 23 to $25,000,000 set aside both from the commission that gave us 7 and a half million for the resiliency grant, 750 we got from a state appropriation this year during the appropriations, and then the school district's contribution to it as well, which is two thirds of that

amount. So no no shortfalls?

Not at the moment. The question is is what is it gonna be when we actually bid out the project.

Okay.

We have a soft estimate, I believe, of close to 25,000,000, and I believe we have 23,500,000.0 to 24,000,000 budgeted for the project. So we'll see what it comes out at.

Thank you, sir. Appreciate the update.

Is that the name for the section? Yeah. It's good. Excellent. So we'll just move into, new business item 25 dash three zero five three. The discussion on possible actions regarding recommendations on the city ordinance corridor transitional and corridor housing hours of operation. I know they discussed that at the last commission meeting about that. I do not remember exactly where they landed, but I know it was still more I think they reached out to staff for more input on how it would impact or what are the the other businesses that might be impacted by that. So

Yes, sir. So it is on the agenda today for this board To further what Chairman Burrows has mentioned, the commission did review the subject of extending the hours of operation for the entire city. And there were strong presentations around why that's necessary. Clearly, there's the obvious ones that you can't hardly operate a breakfast facility if you can't get your eggs delivered in the morning. And on the opposite end of that restaurant spectrum, it's pretty hard to have, dinner service and then have all employees leave the premise by 10:00 and be prepped for the next day.

It's just not realistic. And it's not just restaurants. It's all sorts of businesses. You know, nature, as it was presented, pet care is 20 fourseven when you drop your pet off. And, you know, the current hours of operation don't fit.

And probably one of the largest items reviewed by the commission as presented was the fact that the Supreme Court of the United States had ruled some years ago that there can't be any type of discriminatory activity related to hours of operation. And so the, commission heard those comments, and agreed to have a ordinance prepared and brought before them. And the planning department is in the process of having that ordinance prepared. It is in legal review. And that ordinance will be available for our review and our purview in advance of the commission review at our meeting in December.

The concept being that this board will be able to see how that ordinance looks, what it says, what it means, and then make recommendations on whether or not, as a city, we should adopt that ordinance. And then that recommendation would be presented at the commission meeting, hopefully in the month of January. And so the item is on your agenda today so that you understand what's forthcoming. You will have the first preview of that ordinance. You'll have that opportunity to discuss that ordinance and therefore then make recommendation about that ordinance.

And that recommendation then would carry forward to the commission meeting. And I and the last I heard, they were trying to get that on the commission's schedule in January. So that does mean that we're meeting next month

We're the following Chairman Burrows. No no problem with that, sir.

To review that ordinance.

There was also just the like, the Saturday hours of operation was way worse than we would even imagine. Like, it was like 10:00 on Saturday that you couldn't it was just how they initially wrote it literally did not make sense. Like, the the restraints that it was providing that we weren't we weren't actually following. But the restrictions, if somebody wouldn't really had a b in their mind, they could really cause a lot of issues. So being able to bring this up and address it, I I felt it was kinda cool. Listening to him talk about it was like, hey. We brought that up. And, they're actually taking it into consideration. So so thank you for for the discussion on that, bringing it to the commission. So we'll be able to see this.

We'll actually hold, which is gonna be good. So let's move on to the next item. New business item 25 dash three zero six two. Discussion and possible actions regarding the 2025 annual reporting, which, in a sense, we've already done.

We've So

and any the updates? Item number 25 three zero five one, updates on city economic development efforts by staff liaison. I believe we've done that unless there's anything else that you wanted to add.

Well, I'll give you a quick overview. You asked this to be a recurring item. I covered some of it in the discussion around the development diversity subject in an earlier item on the agenda today. But just a quick overview. And if you're not familiar with the way we manage our discussions in economic development and planning and natural resources and the like, We talk about activity centers. Right? And the activity center map is available to you. The development map is available to you publicly on the city's website. It's a map that is maintained by the economic development department. You can see all active projects on that map.

And it's very user friendly. If you've not gone there, please check it out. It's it's a great resource. And if anybody doesn't know where to find it, you can always reach out to me, and I'll I'll get you the URL so that you can have that bookmarked on your own personal computers. But by way of example, just to overview for you, in Activity Center 1, which is out towards the western edge of our community, we do have a hotel project.

In Activity Center 2, which is where we are sitting today, This this area of the community where city hall exists, Heron Creek. This general area here is known as Activity Center 2. We have the VA project, the Veterans Administration, clinic build. And we also have going on across the street from the cancer clinic there, we have an early learning development program going there. Daycare, much needed, part of that lifestyle, part of that diversity component of commercial development.

I am uber proud to say here today, and I'm gonna have the opportunity to tell the commission this on December 1 when I address the commission, all four corners of both highway interchanges have active development activity going on. That's huge for this city. So all four corners of Sumter and I-seventy 5 and all four corners of Toledo Blade and I-seventy 5 have activity. In some cases, it is a contract to purchase property. In some cases, the hospital ground has been broken.

In some cases, property has been acquired and master development plans and preliminary plans have been submitted. So there is activity on all four clover leaves of both intersections. It's just exciting times in Northport. On the south of more southern end of Toledo Blade, beyond the Benderson area, if you will, and beyond that even, we call that Activity Center 5. Big news, big box retailer coming to the area.

I'm not at liberty to talk more about it other than to give you glimpses. As an economic development board, I think it's appropriate that you hear that from us. And now for another big surprise. You sometimes wonder about what's going on out east, the Yorkshire Loop area, where there are no utilities. There is no infrastructure.

There's nothing north of 75 but trees and 45, 50 year old pavement. Well, I can tell you that I have 30% of that 1,500 acres under discussion for commercial development. Pretty exciting stuff when you consider the green that's existing out there with no infrastructure that we've been able to talk with development firms and have 30% of that space under serious consideration for development. So I'm extremely pleased to report to you that from a commercial development perspective, we continue to grow projects that will then contribute to the tax base of this community, which allows us then to have the full circle of having general fund revenue for infrastructure projects. Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you. And to future agenda items, I've written down written down the movement of childcare in the market, but you've just mentioned that. So that's possibly, any other updates maybe more than what you just spoke on?

On child care?

Yeah. On the child care.

I have been speaking to a number of different national child care and early learning providers. Of course, I should always put into perspective the role in which I fill. It's not as though the city owns these properties where I can just say, hey, let me invite you to Norport and build here. I am, you know, infamously known as Cupid. I'm the guy that goes around shooting arrows and connecting land owners and developers and investors and concepts together, bringing them together to hopefully engage in this.

And so I can talk to an early learning childcare business and invite them to Northport. And the first thing they're going to do is, well, point me to property. Where? And then I point them to property, and that means they have to work with investors and current owners and realtors. And just getting to that level, getting them to the table for a project is far greater than what meets the eye. It's not, again, like I have a skid of of a product that I'm selling. I am marketing to them the city of Northport.

Right.

Correct.

Any other topics that we wanna get an update on or discuss? I was thinking one thing from those of us that were part of the ULDC discussion. Having a better understanding the types of businesses that our economic development department are targeting. Some of us have a little bit more insight as we're part of that discussion. There's some new members on the team, I think, would definitely benefit, from that as well. Anything

like me to add that to the, updates that I provide?

Yes, please. Okay. Yes, please. Anything else? I think okay. So I think next month's meeting might be kinda short, so that's good. Anything public comment?

No public comment, sir.

Excellent. Is there anything else that needs to be brought before the board at this time? Okay. Then I will call this meeting adjourned at 11:32.