Community Redevelopment Agency - Regular Meeting

Larry?

So I just want to say I love the sign. I think that really makes it stand out. So great job. Just to add, I know you're making red eyes, but we know octopus always change color to their, environments. So if there's some way that you can tweak it so that it changes colors to really exemplify what an octopus did, I think it would be an added bonus.

Orange for Halloween, you know, you can you can, change the colors. No. Just the eyes.

Just the eyes.

The LED.

LED ones and have them changed Right. Because they, you know

You might wanna

to their surroundings.

You could have green for Saint Patrick's Day, you know, that kind of stuff. Alright. We have a motion and a second to approve the resolution. All in favor, aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none. Item carries unanimously. But Barrett, since you're here, you're finally here, we're giving you an opportunity to come up to the microphone and just say a few words on on what it's like to own the octopus and this project.

Oh my gosh. Octopus has been amazing, smartest thing I ever did or smartest business thing I ever did. So I'm really excited that I would normally say I'm completely excited, right? But I've to tell you, it's scary messing with something that already works. But with all the condos and improvements coming to downtown, I've got one opportunity to expand over when Pinchos became available. I think this is the right time to do it. It's scary but it's the my head tells me it's the right time. So I am excited to get it with the Awesome.

Well, we love it when business owners like you see what's happening downtown and how that's compelling you to step it up on your business. Other businesses already have through the assistance of CRA and some some without. And for you to, you know, take Octopus to the next level, keep its character but make it, you know, more more larger and just more open is really a great result for us. So thank you so much. Thank you excited.

Yes.

You Thank got it. We'll be ready to cut that ribbon whenever it's ready. Yeah. Alright. Alright. That concludes the item. Barrett, you're welcome to stay in because we're gonna have a presentation now on on the occupancy and some of the empty storefronts downtown and talk about any building permit issues. So if that is of interest to you, then we welcome you to stay and maybe, you know, spread the word with fellow business owners with what you might hear on the next presentations. Executive director?

So as you said, Mr. Chair, focusing on the downtown now, we regularly talk about the occupancy and the permit issues as new space becomes available, what the uses are, how the mixes and the vacancy rates are, and also some of the open and live permits and any issues associated with that. And Lisa is going to do a presentation for us on it. I also want to thank, since Russell's here, the building division and all of the regulatory reviews and development services for having continued to make improvements on expediting not only downtown but throughout the city the processes so that we can encourage more people to not only go through the process, but get through the process sooner, get those improvements made, build the tax base, and continue to do that in a more efficient fashion. And we're continuing to work on that even more as we go forward so that that's good news for everybody on all sides of the equation.

But thank you, Lisa.

Thank you. Good morning. For the record, my name is Lisa Liotta. I'm the redevelopment and operations manager for the Hollywood CRA. And I'm here before you today to give an update on Downtown Hollywood's tenant mix, occupancy, rental rate, and open building permits.

Now as many of you know, I give this presentation on an annual basis. But this year's presentation is a little different because what we've done is we've expanded the trade area. So we've actually expanded it to include the East Side is now Young Circle, as opposed to what it has been over the previous years, 19th Avenue. And we've also included additional developments. So the numbers may look a little different, but it's all familiar.

Let's start on Downtown Hollywood, our existing tenant mix. And I want to say first, before going any further, a couple of things. The information in this report is primary data. This is data that has been obtained by actually going out and literally walking all of downtown and interacting with the property owners, the brokers, and the businesses to get a better understanding of not only what's happening right now, but what we should expect in the future. And I'll get into that a little bit in more detail as the presentation continues.

So from the top, as they say, in Downtown Hollywood, our existing tenant mix, we've broken it down into food and beverage, which is about 32%. Now, we're looking at 149 occupied locations. We're not including on this slide, we're not including any vacant locations or any locations, any bays that are leased but under construction. We have the extended hours licenses. We have, we'll say, 9% for argument's sake.

And bar lounges at 3%, retail at approximately 17%, entertainment, we're still at that 3%. We've been really trying. It's not easy. Services at about 25%, and office at about 11%. So once again, 149 out of two zero four locations.

Now, if you want to group food and beverage extended hours licenses and bar and lounge together, we're looking at 43%. And I'll just call it food and beverage for argument's sake. Taking a look a little bit and also including the vacancy and the lease under renovation, our vacancy, as you can see, if you compare it to last year, our vacancy has increased. However, we've also added new product. And as I mentioned, the new product includes the 1800 block to Young Circle, as well as developments such as Hollywood Heights, which has 11 bays.

Yes.

Obviously, that's impacting these numbers significantly. But if you were to compare the spaces prior to those new bays, Are we flat, or are we better? Or are you getting there?

Are you saying the space is

If you take out the 1818 and you take out

Well, no. Because most of 1818 is completely occupied, but I understand your question. Like Hollywood Heights, which is new on the market, so they only have 13% occupied, right? And they have a decent footprint. They have like 30,000 square feet. So no, it brings our vacancy significantly higher. But I wanted to be transparent.

No, no. That's my question is without those new the

new space, we're at

where we were?

No, we're still higher. That's my question. That number is about 13%. So we bumped up to about 4%. So without Hollywood Heights, we were at 13%.

That's it.

We're at that 17 Okay.

So we can't blame additional square footage only.

Correct. We've seen some changes in the market. But we've also seen those acts of confidence, which we just heard from Barrett. He sees what's happening. And since he knows he's been here, he understands what we are looking forward to. And there are a lot of those. Reinvestment. So leased under construction, we have approximately now, I have it here based on bay and also square footage. So if you look at the vacancy based on square footage, we're really at 16% as opposed to 18%. Leased under renovation, we're at about 8%.

And then occupied, we're at approximately 76%. My view is to look at the square footage over the bays, but I like to have both available.

Board Member Hernandez might have a question on

the Sure.

Of course.

Actually, by a resident that it's a lot savvier than I am, they suggested if we could have a workshop with the developers and the businesses in downtown. Because one of the requirements of the rack for the new development is for them to actually have commercial on their site. And some of their commercials are remaining open for years because they have a hard time being able to rent that particular site for a commercial that actually makes sense in the downtown because we don't have yet the foot traffic that we're looking to have. So at some point, I will come back and ask so that we don't contribute it to the more that we build, the more vacancy that we have, if we could actually have some kind of forum, if you would, with the CRA, the board members, and the developers that are actually developing the new businesses to see how the regional activity center's requirements for the mixed use is affecting some of their bottom floor, if you would. If there's anything that we can change at So

let me just add to that topic because if you remember when we had a discussion about the in the CRA, the property that that we supported for the senior housing, a Paramount on Washington And 21st Avenue that had a requirement for a retail liner and you just say to yourself that we really need there to be retail there, probably not likely to be too successful. And to your point, our beach regulations also require, if you were to build on the side streets, a full retail liner on the side streets, which we know is not gonna be successful because the the passers by are on the broad walk. So, yeah, I agree. And it's not only in Hollywood. If you drive through Flagler Village and Fort Lauderdale, the mixed use dream requires retail line all over the place, it's all empty.

It's a

good intention, but

it has unintended consequences, which is you wind up with an empty space because number one, build it, but it's what they call the throwaway. So if we could have a better use for that. And I think if we meet with the developers and if we, as a board, meet and have a powwow, we can actually address with zoning in the regional activity center, which is currently being under review, so that we can see if we can wind up with a better product and not have so many fake vacancies, which is actually a waste of space.

And I think we have we have to keep in mind also for downtown to your point. There's existing 600,000 square feet. That's a regional mall. So to require each building to contribute additional square footage when, you know, we know we're not the Aventura Mall is a good point and and something that we definitely, I think, ought to be very brave.

I'll bring it up on my comments, but I just wanted to talk about the issue that we're having right now. The more we build, the more vacancies we have. And some of the residents are wondering, why are we continuing a trend that we know it's not working? We just need to address that. And I hope that the board supports that.

Board Member Ocalari?

So maybe clarification on this. I thought that in order to approve development of certain areas, especially in the RAC and maybe I'm I'm incorrect, but I think it's under the Geller's law or the development push that he it requires that you must have commercial or retail space.

There will be cases where it might be required for certain bonuses. But what what what what Bernard is saying is that just as a blanket rule that's area wide, we might wanna be more precise with where we require it and not necessarily require it everywhere in order to have the applications be have the flexibility to offer ground floor, you know, uses or or or attributes that are, you know, that could be different. So to your point, there will be some cases where it is required if the applicant is asking for a county incentive that, you know, requires that, then they will have to, you know, put that in. But whether or not our zoning should require it everywhere is the question that was raised and I think we we ought to look at that and hear from planning on that, you know, at some point soon so that we don't continue to have, you know, non prime frontage buildings require retail where we know retail is not gonna really move in anytime soon. Well Go ahead, Borham Maherunesh.

Okay. Go ahead.

Just finish.

A little off topic, but let's let's finish finish it.

So it's it's crazy how things always work out. But I was actually in the car with a small business owner driving around yesterday, and this exact discussion came about. And we can build stuff for people to move into. But if they don't have the conveniences of the that retail nearby or that store frontage, which is the whole synergy of the process, right? So you build something where it's affordability or we can bring synergy into an area.

But then if you don't have that retail space or that convenience of a grocery store or a Walgreens or conveniences, it almost negates the whole process, right? So I think that we may, in some areas, yes, considering the new development that we're talking about here with open space. But let's not start changing. I'm not a proponent for starting to change all the zoning. Number one, I think it becomes a slippery slope with grant funding and development purposes.

Oh, you built it with the perception that you're going to do A, and now you're changing it to B, which I think puts us at a target area. And second, let's find out before we do, yes, we have our ideas of what can go in there, somehow solidify them. Because it does bother me to see these empty vacant areas for a long period of time that's not accommodating. So instead of being reactive, we must be proactive and really secure certain type of entities that will go in those buildings or solicit in such a way that we can get them to come in. So I get it, but I think that we're I don't know how to articulate it properly, but I think that in order to build certain things, we must provide that bottom frontage for the purpose

of I think your point is that mixed use is valuable for the what it contributes to the livability of an area and to have, you know, services downstairs. The point is is that when there's so much already existing on the ground in some areas, you you have to question whether or not a hard requirement to pile on even more and more everywhere is the right solution. It's just a general discussion. I mean, there's open for debate on a case by case basis. But let's finish this. Boardman Hernandez?

Thank you, Mayor. And that's basically what my point was. I'm not claiming to know what needs to go there. My position is to let's have some kind of forum and allow those people that are building so they can tell us what it is that they feel that it's missing and what they're willing to bring and what will be acceptable to the downtown. I can remember years ago where we said no offices on the Ground Floor. We want retail. And yet, that turned out to be something. And Hollywood Station is a great example of it. They've had their Ground Floor open for years and years. And nothing is willing to go there.

So yeah, I get it that we need a grocery store nearby. Need amenities for the people to be able to have the walkability. But are we saturating the area with something that is currently not working? We need to listen to the residents and we need to listen to those developers that are bringing the products to town to see what they feel it's missing and if there's any flexibility that we can use when it comes

to that. That's all. Just want give the director.

Chair, I believe I heard the board member ask for a future workshop on on this the issue of you know, the the uses and the mix and the zoning. If that's the case, just wanna see if there's clear support for that so we can work that up and prep and schedule it if if there

I mean, there is I I I'd certainly support it because I think the discussion needs to be had for beach zoning as well, which is totally defunct in a lot of ways with its regulations and its requirements on the side streets. So we know there's there's codes that need to be updated. Do we have the three or do we That's

why I just wanna be clear that yeah.

Yeah.

Okay. It looks like we've got support.

Alright. Board member Biederman, you're up next and then Quintana and then we'll move on to Lisa's presentation.

Thank you, mayor. And so while this isn't part of this presentation, it makes a lot of sense with what commissioner Hernandez said. 9 Hollywood, I think, is having the same issue. Am I right? Where they can't lease the Ground Floor, the retail space? I mean, is that

Probably is the answer.

I don't have information, but we can look into that and find where they are. I've heard some murmurs and some rumors, but I can't definitively answer that question at this moment.

All right. And then I guess next year when you come back with this, you'll have to add The Tropic and BTI and all those new spaces into this mix. And then you can get to remove the La Piazza spaces.

It's already removed.

Oh, wait. Okay. I was wondering that was gonna be my question. Vice Is that part of the vacancy rate or not?

Chair Quintana?

I'm just wondering how this discussion fits in with the city's efforts with the creation of the comprehensive plan, update of the comprehensive plan. And I don't know. Just my observation is that this is an invitation for everyone in our development community and with our rep for our residents to really think creatively about what the needs are because my observation of the businesses we have is like we might have like five insurance agents on the same block and four Quick Marts on the same block. And it's just like, I'd love to see us think a little bit more creatively about the kinds of businesses that could serve our community. And I'm, you know, I'm hoping that maybe just having this conversation begins to open up possibilities in everyone's minds.

Okay. All right, Lisa, please proceed.

Thank you. And I did want to add, I don't want to target Hollywood Heights. And if we all remember, they just had the ribbon cutting at the April. I believe they got their TCO in January. Their broker is SMS is their broker. They are aggressively pursuing tenants.

You may have a dentist coming in on Tyler Street?

Yes. They do. Actually, a dentist on Tyler Street, they took two bays. So originally, there were 13 bays, but now they're down to 11 since the combination of that.

Thank you, Lisa. That's a good I I don't know if your presentation includes feedback that you might have from brokers. And maybe that's more to the point that commissioner Hernandez was making. We need we need to hear some feedback from why we have, you know, 36 vacancies in the core and and hear some of their reasons why And we need to if some of that includes action by us, then we would want to take that action. But go ahead.

Right. I do believe it's more of a business decision. But we'll get there in the presentation. So moving right along. No worries. All good. All good. So on the 1,900 Hollywood Boulevard, which is a very active block, we have 42 bays. And of those 42 bays, 52% are occupied by food and beverage. 21% retail, services about 5%, leased under renovation 14%, and vacant, 7%.

So our vacancy, we're really heavy. This is a heavily populated and heavily trafficked block in Downtown Hollywood. Some may call it the heart of Downtown Hollywood, the 1900 Block. Just a tremendous amount of activity. Hopefully, the heart will get larger as time goes on.

And we're seeing some of that type of activity. So as far as our occupancy, now the previous slide, we had discussed the 42 bays and it includes all the different uses. And I did clump the food and beverage together in that 52%. So looking again at a pie chart of the 1900 block of Hollywood Boulevard, percentage wise, we're looking at about 8% vacant leased under construction. As far as square footage, we're looking at that 13%.

Occupied, 80%. And the octopus, of course, is included in that leased under construction under renovation. Forgive me. Moving on to the 2,000 block of Hollywood Boulevard, we have 31 bays on the 2,000 block. And I will say that's not to scale.

You'll see the three bays on the East Side. That is Hollywood Heights. We do have a couple of other vacancies peppered in. But food and beverage total 35%. We have our retail at 16%, services at 10%, leased under renovation 6%, vacant 16%, and entertainment 16%.

This is where the entertainment, as far as those places such as Cinema Paradiso, the axe throwing. Our occupancy, once again, the 16%, five out of 31 bays, which is actually 22% vacant. Leased under construction, 5%. Occupied, based on square footage, we're at 73%. Based on bays, we're looking at 77%.

Moving on to Harrison Street, a little different. We're looking at less food and beverage, approximately 20% all in with bars and restaurants. Retail is 7%, forgive me. And service is 33%. Office, we see some office here, which we like our office tenants very much.

We like all of our tenants. But the office tenants, they go out to eat. 23% leased under renovation, 3% in vacant, approximately 13%. Breaking that down into the pie chart, a little bit more detail based on bays, 30 bays. As we already discussed, the vacancy at 13% based on the base.

But as far as the square footage, we're really at 10% leased under renovation square footage, 4% and occupied, we're at 86%. We have 34 bays on the 2000 Block Of Harrison Street. And when we lump again, we lump the food and beverage together, we're approximately 29% food and beverage. And retail is approximately 9%, services 24%, office at 6%, leased under renovation 9%, and vacant we have 24%. And I'm going to stop here because you're probably looking at this and saying, what?

What is that? And so the four I think there are four one, two, three, four, five five bays. Five bays at 2028 Harrison Street. They are intentionally vacant right now. The property owner is seeking short term tenants because he's planning a full scale renovation.

He does not want to lease to a tenant who needs to stay more than a year. So when we discuss having those conversations with the brokers, having those conversations with the property owners, That's what takes place. And I always like to tell the story behind the picture, because the picture can be a little deceiving. So if anyone knows of a short term tenant, which has very flexible zoning on Harrison Street, office tenants, etcetera, that may be an opportunity. Moving right along, further breakdown into square footage as well as the base.

We're looking at 22% vacant, still around that 8%, 9%, 8% leased under renovation. Occupied, we're at 69% based on square footage. Excuse me. Jumping over to Tyler Street on the 1900 Block. And this is another slide that contributed to our tick up in vacancy last year.

1909 was under construction. This year, it's available for lease. That is the one vacancy that you see on the slide. Food and beverage, 18% retail, 9% services, 27% office, 36% once leased under renovation. We don't have anything.

And we do have the redevelopment project on the South Side Of Tyler Street on the 1900 Block, the Marriott. Total number of bays on this block is 11. And once again, looking at the vacancy, it ticks up to about 14% based on the square footage. Once again, leased under renovation, zero. And based on square footage, occupancy is about 86%.

Moving on to the 2000 Block Of Tyler, we do see the additional vacancy from the new development, which just came online a few months ago. So food and beverage, 7% retail, 11% services, 22 office, 15% leased under renovation, approximately 4% That's the dentist's office and vacancy, about 41%. Basing it on square footage, we see that vacancy drop down to 28%. The leased under renovation jumps up to 7%, and the occupied jumps up to 65%. And that's based on 12 bays.

Bless you. Whoops. 20th Avenue forgive me. That was based on 20th Avenue is based on 12 bays. Food and beverage is 25%.

We do have extended hours license, so that bumps it up to 33% for food and beverage, 8% for retail, 17% for services. Leased under renovation, 33% and vacancy is at 8%. And this 20th Avenue includes both north and south of Hollywood Boulevard, so we're looking at Tyler To Harrison. And when we look a little bit closer, based on square footage, the vacancy is actually closer to 6%. The leased under renovation is approximately 44%.

And the occupied is approximately 50%. Now, we've included the 1,800 in this presentation, which we haven't done in the previous years, or actually we did many years ago, but not recently. So food and beverage on the 1800 Block is approximately 41%. The retail is about 12%. Services is 18%.

Leased under renovation, about 12%. And vacancy, about 18%. We also threw in the redevelopment project, the La Piazza, because we know they're not leasing to new tenants. So it wouldn't tell the story if it were included. Oh, I want to go back to that quickly. The 1800 Block

Board member Hernandez has a question for

Ruth.

Yes,

sir. Yes. Since we have Russell here, I wanted to ask some of the presentation that you have, if you back up one or two pages, it has a very high lease under renovation. Do you know why this is happening? Is this because

Well, that needs to be a big part of this presentation. It's kind of like the main idea of today is we have 19 properties that are listed as leased under renovation. I think, you know, where we have to bear fruit on this is what's going on with those 19. And I think is that Russell gonna be at the end of your presentation? Either

Russell or Andrea Whoever

it is.

I definitely want JOSEPH If necessary. To

That's the main cheese here. Okay. Thank you.

JOSEPH If necessary, yes. We do have some information included in the presentation, of course. Okay. Okay, the 1,800, back to the 1,800 Block. So I did want to point this out before going to the next slide. The 1818 Building is 100% leased, the commercial space. Sometimes it just takes a little Leasing new space, leasing space can take a little bit of time. And I'm saying that because of some of our concerns with Hollywood Heights. It really just came on the market. So in the beginning, obviously, 1818 was vacant.

Now it's completely occupied or leased and under renovation. Looking at the numbers a little bit more closely, looking at the square footage, we are looking at a vacancy of 23%. We're looking at leased under renovation at about 3% and an occupancy of approximately 74%. I'm going to move on to the price per square foot. And we're really at that $36 average per square foot, which you can see the chart going back a number of years, going back actually, I believe it's to 2015.

So we've seen progress. Our rental rates have increased. And this is an average. Because as we know, the properties in Downtown Hollywood, we have many, many property owners. And they all have their own business formulas. So when someone asks the question, what does it cost to lease in Downtown Hollywood? It's almost like asking, how much does a car cost? Well, it all depends. It all depends on a lot of things. It depends on the amount of square footage.

It depends primarily on the owner of the space. So this is I know it's a little hard to see. But most of the leases in Downtown Hollywood are triple net. They're triple net. That means that the tenant's paying the taxes, the tenant's paying the insurance, and the tenant is also paying maintenance expenses, usually referred to as CAM.

That's on top of their per square foot lease. So this location, the property owner is asking $71 a square foot, which is almost twice the average. And that's the property owner. It's not the broker. It's the property owner.

So when you say, well, why are there so many vacancies? Well, that could be intimidating for someone. This property and I apologize. I know it's a little on the small side. But we're looking at right there at that $36 a square foot, right on the average, like right on the nose.

And then another example, looking on Harrison Street, a little bit lower than the average we're looking at, an asking per square foot rate of $33 So literally, I mean, dollars 71, dollars 33, two different owners. What we are doing to make Downtown Hollywood more attractive with some of these vacant spaces, but primarily the spaces that are leased and under renovation, because it's our centennial. And we want to be festive. We have worked with the property owners and the tenants to cover windows instead of some of the coverings they've chosen in the past that we have not only found unattractive but have been violations of the code the brown paper, the painter's tape, etcetera. So we are working with them.

And we're actually installing these vinyl appliques, which are easy to install and easy to remove on the properties that are mostly leased, not as many of the vacant spaces. And the reason we don't put them on the vacant spaces is because the landlords want people to be able to see into the space. They don't want to block. If available to lease, they want prospective tenants to see into the space. Two examples, 1900 Hollywood Boulevard, which we all know was vacant for quite some time, is now leased.

Of 40 applause. That's the Mona Lisa Building, everybody.

Right. Please hold your applause.

That's priority, Russell.

And 1948, Hollywood Boulevard. And so the top one, the name of the business is Babylon Lounge. And 1948, Hollywood Boulevard is actually called the morning after.

Right next to Octopus. Yes. Breakfast after they finish the coffee at Octopus. That synergy between penotypes as Mel likes to

moving right along.

Breakfast by

the way. Breakfast club.

Okay.

You're going have breakfast? Liquid breakfast. Liquid breakfast. Okay. Of was going course say, that's great. Have scrambled eggs at Octopus.

So in regards to the building permit status, this is more of a snapshot. There are probably others outside of the area that we covered, but we tried to get as much information as possible in regard to who had open building permits. And the CRA and development services are committed to assisting the property owners and tenants related to the following open business permits, as well as any other open building permits. Forgive me. So as far as starting, you'll see a number of outside agency and approval and corrections.

We have 1940, which is Barrett 2020 Four-twenty 26 Hollywood Boulevard, which actually is another grant recipient, also falls into this category. And this is the outside agency approval required. 1900 Harrison Street.

Lisa, let me cut you off real quick and ask the executive director who he wants to speak to why we have a bunch of permits here that are start with B222123. It means they've been going on for three plus years, two plus years, and something has got to give here. I wanna know what building division is gonna be doing, how we're gonna concierge and handhold this because, you know, a lot of these folks are paying rent for for years and not be able to open their business. We know that's not always on the city side, but what are we gonna do about about about changing this dilemma here, this this predicament that, is just I don't know. It's just DANIEL

Happy to have the building official, Russell, come up and talk about it. And I do want you to know, we place a high priority and now I'm speaking with my other hat in terms of the prioritization of getting people through and not just being regulators, but facilitating the process. We teach and preach this all the time. And I'll let Russell go into the details of what is the case with each one, if that's possible. But the message is out there loud and clear.

And as you know, we've added additional staff and additional resources there. And I think you can tell by the complaint levels that they're significantly down from several months and a year ago. Now, is it perfect? No. Is there still room to be made and progress? Absolutely. And we're doing that. But I'll let him talk to that. But the message is not missed and the priority is

You know, the question for me is and I'm sure the other board members have ideas also. But it's there ought to be a concierge person, and I don't wanna even put downtown ahead of any other business opening anywhere on the city. But there's gotta be someone that if an applicant doesn't doesn't get a callback or doesn't hear from or doesn't know what to do on a certain predicament, like there needs to be a a assistant or concierge kind of like individual that if I don't if I don't know what to do or if I can't reach my plan reviewer or if I don't know what to do with, you know, what fire told me I need to do, I'm confused, like, who does someone call? If they're just gonna keep chasing a busy plan reviewer, maybe things are gonna are not gonna, you know, move ahead. So, I mean, how we change this, Russell?

I would suggest may that

be the

May that person be at the CRA office so that if they need to walk down to downtown because sometimes one of the complaints we get is they tried calling people and nobody picks up the phone. Right. I hear that too. And that's just food for thought. If we want accessibility, maybe we should have it there. Russell, I know you're going to my hat's off to the building department for as many building permits that you guys go through. But whenever we see something like that, it's a bad optics.

We'll continue to make adjustments, again, the other hat now to that. I want to be careful about physically locating people somewhere because when you do that, you take them out of circulation elsewhere. But availability and communication, we'll make that happen, okay?

We're on it.

All right.

Russell, save the day.

Well, that's it. Good afternoon. Russell, City Hollywood Building official. Thank you, mayor and commissioners. Yes, I mean, like city managers stated, I mean, in 2022, we were a limited staff. We're in a much better place now. But just to give us some insight on where we are in some of these, a lot of these, I'd say the majority of these will work without a permit. In 2022, they got cited. They applied for a permit. It went one round of permits.

And then they stopped, never did anything else. And staff did reach out with the assistance of CRA to notify which properties they wanted us to look into. We did reach out to some of these contractors and said, oh, we're not no longer on that job. They changed the owners. And they said, we don't know what they're doing. And some of these, they've already got a new contractor that started in January applied for the permits. Some of these do have permits issued and they're only waiting, like for restaurants. We got one of them that's close to getting a final, but they can't call the final because they don't have the state department business professional regulation hotel and restaurant approval. So they need approval for the restaurant. They don't have that.

And that's been put in there from the beginning. And so some of these right here, I mean, like the city manager said, some of them and like the mayor stated, sometimes it's their fault. It's not always their fault, but a lot majority of these are pending their we put our comments in. We don't get comments back.

How do you propose to have a closer hotline? And I don't know if it's the building divisions responsibility or CRA or economic development, but how do we while we're focusing on these 19 properties downtown that are labeled as leased and under renovation, like, we need the contact list for all 19 staff does and we need to continue chasing them because the viability of our downtown relies on that, the image of our downtown hinges on that And, I mean, there needs to be like an action team that pushes this. And if the property owners are a problem, let us know and let us beat up on the property owner a little bit because we might know who they are, you know, and they might need need a push, you know, maybe even from us. So city or executive director, I don't know how you propose but I would like there to be, you know, a a a list, a running list of the least and under renovation that we know of and, you know, follow-up on a recurring basis and when you feel like it needs to be escalated to us to FYI, you know, board members, then I'd like to know because

Happy to do that and and I'll take a personal interest in that as well because I'd like to see where those are at. It helps us not only measure how we're doing in terms of our service, but obviously in terms of the activity downtown. Absolutely, we'll do. And for the ones where we're not getting responses on when it's on somebody else's side, the responsibility, we'll be happy to have the assistance to try and get some activity. Sometimes we can push

the architect to say, hey, come on, you're holding this up.

Or just to indicate that they're dead in the water. They're not doing anything. So at least we can take that out of the equation as well.

Have it be vacant.

Which ones are they actually live ones that we should be focusing on too?

Absolutely. We do have additional staff that could, just like we do these high priority high rises and everything else, just have staff kind of keep an eye on what's going on downtown. We got three ABOs. One of them is Norm Braun that's helping out with the billing department for day to day activities. And he reaches out, as the mayor knows, and gets with those homeowners and those development and those new businesses and reach out to them and try to assist them in the permit process.

And like the mayor stated, some of these new owners and these new businesses that move in, they don't know the process. And it does help out that we reach out and talk to them and explain to them what we need. A lot of these restaurants, surprisingly enough, never even heard that they needed a state approval for a restaurant. And that does hold up a lot of them at the end. So we've been telling them at the very beginning, you don't need it for the permit to be issued, but you will need it before you can get a TCO.

So executive director, I don't know, since the downtown CRA does have dollars in it, If there needs to be an individual that whose job it is to everyday push these forward, I don't know that it's an everyday job. But unless someone wakes up in the morning and and looks at that list of 19 and says, this is my to do list today, then, you know, this is just gonna continue. So I don't know how you want to from an administrative standpoint, you know, give it the push on on the, you know, the always will be, you know, leased under renovation situation and help to expedite this since we are talking about the downtown CRA. Maybe there's a, you know, a room for a position in the downtown CRA to to do that. If we want people to call brokers, push contractors, push architects, be proactive, push, push, push, visit the property, help solve problems.

Some of that is what Norm does, what have you. I see Barrett's raising his hand. Come on up, Barrett.

For $19.40, there's an old mess from code violation.

Into the microphone.

Into the mic, if you could, Barrett.

There's code violations from the previous tenant. Dac Dia loan is the landlord. And he got a letter for lean amnesty. So he's got a half $1,000,000 in fees because of these old violations. He's given it to me to clean up. So I'm going fix these things. So there is a lean amnesty program.

Yeah, we're excited about that to help move things forward and get properties out of stuck mode. Yeah. So

What I would would say is that allow us and and we hear you loud and clear. Allow us immediately after here because I wanna know exactly who's doing what with what amount of time internally right now. And if we've got the capacity, it's a hand in glove kind of thing right now between the city staff and the CRA staff and the owners and the developers. So if we can do that with what we've got right now, we'll make it happen. If we think we need to add an additional person as an expediter or concierge service person, we'll we'll do that. I'll bring you back that at the next meeting. I I assure you that. Okay.

All right. Board member Kaleri.

I just feel like we, for the years that I've been here, this is the constant, the constant pullback and the issues that we're facing all the time. So I think checks and balances is really important. A concierge, I think, is a great idea. I don't know who brought that up. But I think it's so important, and not just in the downtown. But we keep repeating and trying new things in the downtown. We get some synergy, and then it falls. We get some synergy, and then it falls. And only the strong survive. But the ones that are trying to make it, obviously, we're missing that niche or we're it too difficult.

So I think checks and balances would be, for me, the best thing that we can do and maybe a running list. And like the mayor said, if it's a certain amount of time, it shouldn't take what we keep hearing. And we're hearing it on the back end. And we know, as was mentioned, that sometimes it's the contractor's fault. Sometimes it's the lack of knowledge. But I know that we've made it simpler where there's a checklist of what they have to do. There has to be some guidance. And a concierge is the perfect answer, I think. You know, here is your packet. You must have a, b, c, d, then we'll move to the next step, checks and balances.

And we should or city manager office should have this updated list and saying, okay, these are in the red zone. They have not been able to get a permit. What is the problem? Instead of them calling the commission and the commissioners and the mayor saying, I don't know what's going on. I can't get my permit.

And then we automatically assume that it's a delay in our permitting office, whether it's getting approval or not. Come to find out, sometimes it's the contractor. Come to find out, sometimes it's both. But to just assume, Okay, they're going to know what they're doing, really to me is the biggest pullback. So if we can implement but I feel that that one concierge for the downtown will be so overwhelmed they wouldn't even know what to do.

But we need to have checks and balances as far as what the department's going on, who's applied, who's not, what are they missing, just kind of like a running update monthly. Maybe that's a lot of work. But we've gotta get a hold on this because we are constantly hearing about these complaints.

Yeah. The vacancies.

The vacancies and and not being able to move it through for whatever the reason is. Yep. Yep. And and it gets frustrating. It gets frustrating. I'm surprised commissioner Gruber hasn't spoken up. But maybe it's not downtown that he's dealing with. But I know there are some. And we we hear it all the time. And our answer is contact Russell. So then you get bombarded. Right? You get these calls and then you have to stop what you're doing. And then it just continues this delay process that keeps the vacancies vacant. I mean, there has to be checks and balances.

Let's get to Board Member Hernandez on this.

Mayor, thank you. By the way, we have had buildings built in the last time that some of these apartments haven't been issued. So I know it's not the building department. But here's a thought. And, you know, call the tenants. What's a holdup? Call the holdup. Help and fix the problem. I mean, it's what we're talking about. Have somebody whose interest is to find out what's going on, bring it to the attention.

And if need be, an email could be sent or a phone call could be made to the proper person to be able to see what the number one, identify what the problem is. Two, call who's holding up the problem and then act accordingly. Sometimes I hear that some of this stuff in the restaurants in particular, fire is one of the issues that comes up. So it's not even the building department. Well, let's talk to fire. Let's say, hey, how can we get beyond this? Not to go around it, but to actually move forward with it. And it's just a matter of having the attention focused on something like this. Because I know it cannot be the building department because complete buildings has been done in less of the time that something like this is happening. Sometimes, I just heard the word expediter.

Sometimes the expediters tell you they're gonna be able to do everything. And sometimes they become the problem. So it's something that just needs to be addressed in order for us to move the downtown forward. We're just at that point. The CRA is getting ready to end. We're not going to be able to have this opportunity to do it again. So let's see if we can actually get into a system that actually works. If it's and my idea was to have somebody in the CRA. And that may not be the right idea. But we need to have someone of a hotline where an individual actually picks up the phone.

Because sometimes the people call and they get it, and I get it, somebody else is busy. They cannot always just be waiting for the phone to ring. But they get disappointed and they don't call back. And then they just, it's easier to point the finger at somebody else.

Yeah. It's just one thing, city manager. So this individual or individuals, whoever

Okay. Let me let me first.

Whoever's gonna be responsible to help, you know, clear these 19, you know, 19 leased and under construction labeled properties also needs to have and everyone at the building division and fire need to know that when this person calls, I need to be responsive to this person. It's not that they're they're suddenly gonna be begging for a callback from so and so and being stuck just like anybody else. Like this person needs to have the full authority of the building official and to to get answers and to get things moving. We can't leave them powerless and have them be shrugged off by someone who says, you're number 18 on the list. It'll be two months before I get to you. That's not an acceptable answer.

Right.

And I've heard that from people.

Yep. Let let me say this because I I I do hear you and I I do get it and I have a full appreciation of this. Decades ago, the city had a dedicated resource inside City Hall and it needs to be on the inside of City Hall, inside the process. And it was called the City Business Center. And I was responsible for it. And that went away a long time ago. You can call it whatever you want. That, concierge, expediter. You need to have a dedicated person who is committed as their priority inside the process, in city hall, inside the regulatory operations, and that they need to be the communicator and the conduit for that. And they need to have that.

And they need to have that recognition authority throughout the system so everybody takes it seriously and it moves. I I get it. Let me focus on this after this meeting and whether that's with existing or we need an additional one, assure you we'll bring that back to you soon.

Alright. Thank you. Let's get to board members Gruber and Biederman. Gruber?

Thank you. Correct me if I'm wrong, I thought already for years we we put in place to get that concierge expediter service for for people doing permits. I thought we've talked about this already. Like, I I thought that was gonna be part of the build out in the on the 2nd Floor there And it would be more than one person just to help because when people apply for permits, then they get comments, then they address the comments, and it comes back with other comments. And just to hold the hand through the process, most people don't know what they're doing. Anyone I talk to, whether it's a house, whether it's a business, they're drowning in the permitting process. So but I thought we already we were doing that already. The concierge, like, expedites are in house.

That that that whole that whole attitude and approach, yes. And that's what we talked about before with the teaching and preaching. And a lot of people work on that. But that's not the same as having one person dedicated inside the system to be the lead on that and to be the chaser in that that's their full time priority. It's different when everybody does a piece of that. He mentioned one of our assistant building officials there that's come on board fairly recently who handles a lot of the special or problematic cases. But is that person full time dedicated to doing that all the time? No. They've got a lot of other things they're doing as well, too. So Got it. I

thought we were bringing full time. And I think we might find that we may need three or four people to be doing that full

Well, I think if you have one full time dedicated person that's the chaser on that, it'll make an impact. Whenever you're ready, too, I know that Ray Lynn wanted to add some of the feedback we get in the process, too, but go ahead whenever you're ready.

We'll go ahead, Ray Lynn, and then we'll continue.

I just wanted to add, obviously, we've made a lot of improvements within the building permitting process over the last little bit. And we very much appreciate the commission's commitment to that. And we've heard that the three assistant building officials that we now have that have been in place just for a few months now are making a difference. And they are trying to provide that concierge level of service across the board. But I just want to I mean, just to give you a flavor, first off, you all know, are very, very complex deals that are regulated by the Florida Building Code, also the Florida Fire Code.

And so what happens in a lot of these cases is folks are, they should be hiring professionals who know the code and know the process. That will be a really big help at the outset. And sometimes what you see is that as folks maybe have decided to try to do something themselves, they get in a little over their head, end up with code violations. But I just want to share, like this is just one of the permits that's up here on the screen. And a comment that is a detailed comment from our folks.

They got a code violation several months later. They submitted for the building permit. They received comments within a couple weeks. And then several months later, they submitted some stuff. And in that, you see things like the only submitted plans for this are plans that were drawn back in 2006.

The current building code is the 2020 building code. So we're going to need a commercial remodel has to comply with the current building code. So even after six months of knowing that they were going to need to do something, then the plans that were submitted were based on something that was drawn more than fourteen years prior. So I'm just pointing that out because that is the type of thing that we see and it is the type of thing that this ombudsman or somebody who's just dedicated at the front end might be able to flag before you're waiting two weeks or three weeks for someone to review it. And then you get comments like this.

But obviously this is the type of thing that we see very frequently and is important to note that our folks can't draw the plans for these individuals. They do have to get the right experts and submit what is required by the building code. And we do spend an awful lot of time in remediation on folks that just don't hire the right folks from the outset.

It sounds like then part of the ombudsman's job has to be making the applicant familiar with the list of licensed contractors on the city website, maybe even pointing them to that specifically for the discipline. Also architects, engineers, if we need to have list of architects and engineers that are licensed that are doing business before the city, it's not a recommendation but it's something to help them move forward in the process and not letting them, oh, I need to find an engineer. How does someone who makes pizza know of an engineer?

We obviously can't make recommendations. We can provide lists for information and we do that. You really for the folks that are

Even fire code professional engineers? I mean, people are clueless.

For the folks that are experienced in the process, they know where to go and what to do and how to do it. For those that aren't, is where the hand holder part of the process comes in. And again, that takes a lot of time. And with that dedicated person, if that's what we need, that's got to be a big role there is too. Because they've got to be educated on the process. And they've got to actually be helped through the process, not just act as regulators and that's where the facilitation comes in.

Alright. Board member Biederman.

Like an in house consultant to them but we can't do their work for them.

Somehow, this feels like deja vu or beating a dead horse. We keep talking about this over and over again. First, it's a software issue. We replace the software issue. Then we replace the software issue again. Then, I mean, Joanne's team helps people through the process also that we've talked about. I just don't get it. Every time we bring this up, let's hire more people for the building division. We hire more people for the building division. And we're still facing the same issue. I can't tell you, for twelve years we've been talking about having a concierge service in the building department. Somebody could walk people through the permitting process. And then the next year's budget, we're hiring somebody for it. And two years down the road, we never hired somebody for it. I just don't get it.

I really don't get it. And I feel frustrated the same way Commissioner Gruber feels, the same way my colleagues feel. I don't get it. I mean, have a loaded up C Med team, economic development, with Herb and Hugo and a number of others that are helping new businesses get through the process. I mean, I've been out there with Herb where he talks to a business owner that's having an issue. And he takes their number and he tries to be a conduit with the building department. But so maybe 19 is not that big of a number. Maybe this is where we're supposed to be with a frustrated process. Honestly, haven't heard that many people say that they're having an issue. But maybe I'm just not talking to the right people.

But for twelve years, we've been talking about this issue. And either it's getting better or it's not. Sorry, George. When I criticized the fact that we have three assistant building officials, they said, but they're going to get all these problems fixed. But we're still having these problems. So maybe we need to go to one that can really concentrate on it. We can get rid of some of the fat. And then we really will have an excuse why we have 19 problems.

I tell you, the three that we have are critical to keeping this thing going.

Yeah. Me I want more.

I want still have issues. Do

Five, we need six? I just

We want to

have a luxury, if I could, city manager. We have a luxury in that this Florida law restricts building permit funds to be restricted and reinvested into the building divisions because Florida, as a state, recognizes that if cities don't fund their building departments good enough, then it holds back not just the city but also the entire state. So I think I asked the question on what our balances are. Now, we're in the $20,000,000 range of funds in the fund balance for for the building division. So and while some of those, you know, dollars go to future expenses like for the Acela phase two and things like that, we do have dollars in that building fund to make this the best, most efficient building division that we can possibly ever need wanna have because we've got the dollars there.

And so I know that in the past year, I don't know how many people we've hired, but it's been a lot of additional manpower and we are making progress. There is no doubt. Especially with the hand holding that these ABOs have been having to help solve problems that people have been stuck on for a long time. We just need to keep pushing farther, make it the best billing division that could be. We've got the dollars there. The dollars are paid for by the applicants. They're not like a gift from us. And so, let's give people what they pay for. I mean, people want to move quickly. It's it's just a matter of getting things done.

They pay expedited fees for fire plan review that's not so expedited, you know. So and then they say, I paid for expedited. Why is it still taking three months? So, I know the the new fire chief is gonna have that must be part of his priority to resolve. And I know it has been for you, city manager, a long time. We have been doing things. But clearly, we wanna, you know, move at a quicker pace.

I I hear you. And let me let me just say this very directly on on the record. If you look back a year or two ago where we were then, have we made a lot of progress? Yes, we have. And you've been very supportive of that. And that's made a real difference because I'm sure you've seen and I've seen the diminished complaint levels. Will there always be a certain percentage of these kind of issues? Absolutely. And the more active you are, the more you're going to see them because there's just more volume coming through. Does that mean it's a good thing? No. But they're always going you're never going to get to the point where you're not going to have any permit applications or active ones hanging out there that are not extended for whatever reason. Sometimes it's our responsibility. Sometimes it's theirs. Sometimes it's both.

Sometimes it's even other things out of people's control where they don't even they go dormant and they don't even realize they're dormant or not. So there's always going to be a certain percentage of that. But it's gone down. It's gotten better. And we're going to continue working to get it better. I want to look at exactly right now, do we need that full time? And many of those positions we've added, I want you to know, are full time in house people. And they were removing our dependency on people and hours from outside contractors so that we had more direct control over those people and their hours and the work they were doing, which wasn't happening with one of our contract providers. So that's been a change as well. So all that's working better.

But getting a key person, if we need one additional one in that role, and how we place them in the organization, and then get that with the authority and recognition so that everybody relates to that person, is different than just having a lot of people working on it as a priority. And I know because I used to do it. So I promise you, we'll jump on it.

All right, good. Sounds like we're headed to a proactive direction here. Board Member Shuham.

Thank you, Chair. I just want to reiterate. I mean, think I have seen huge improvements. And I don't want us to lose sight of that. You're always going to be able to get a little bit better.

But the staff and the assistant building officials now are phenomenal. I mean, we actually get letters from people complimenting their work. So I think that we can't lose sight of that. I also think that, like Lisa is showing us, where an owner is asking $70 some a square foot, there are reasons that are kind of beyond the pale for us that owners are disinclined to finish these projects, whether they're taking tax losses or things like that. It may be another area that we need to get a little bit more understanding of why it would be beneficial for an owner to let a project sit and disincentivize letting that project sit.

We see this both in residential and in commercial. Nobody likes to lose money. And it's mind blowing to us that somebody who's in a state where they're paying rent are just letting this fester. So there has to be an economic it is always about the money. So there has to be some sort of economic incentive that is disincentivizing the owner or the tenant from going to find out, why is my project delayed?

If they're not concerned about it, it's because it's financially advantageous for them to not be concerned. And that, I think, is something that we need to dig into talking to the owners of the buildings and the owners of the businesses as to what it is and how can we, as a city and a CRA, disincentivize that lethargy? And the other comment that I wanted to, along these lines, and boy have we gone kind of way off of

CRA tendency.

But while we're here, I've asked Russell this question before. I know he's answered me before. And I remember my mind was being blown by the answer. And it was not something we could control. But what I see a lot and again, residential as well as commercial is a building that is just sitting there. And I say, like, I'll call him or I'll call his department or I'll call Andrea on what's going on. Well, they got an inspection. And so that inspection now extends their permit by ninety days or one hundred and eighty days. All they have to do is get these inspections all along the way. So that's what they're doing.

The permit remains open indefinitely. I mean, we have a house on Surf Road. And they get their inspection. Right? So my question is, what is it that we as a city can do legislatively to discourage and dissuade that? And so Russell, what is that rule about getting an inspection that allows a permit to just hang open for years and years and years and allows an owner to avoid getting his CO and keep his property off of the tax rolls.

That is true, that if you have a past inspection in one hundred and eighty days, it extends the life. But we're in a unique situation currently with the governor issuing a state of emergency. Even though the hurricanes that were under a state of emergency was on the West Coast, Broward County was included. So now permits are towed. We do have a system that alerts the owners, hey, nothing. And that's only if the permit's issued. If the permit system plan review, it's sixty days. And if you haven't done anything in that time period, you get a notice, hey, you've already you're about to go expired. And then that's it. The permit is canceled, they have to reapply.

But because we're in a state emergency with the governor and we're included in that, that we're just extending these it's called tolling, and nothing can expire.

And without that tolling, if that property owner were to just have an inspection, right, does extend the permit?

GREGORY It extends it anyway.

GREGORY Right.

They don't even have to call anything. And that's the problem.

So I

mean, these me twenty twenty two permits that haven't had anything done, they're still active because we're

in That's a SPEAKER where the concierge, as a separate order of business besides these 19 downtown, can say, Okay, any permit that hasn't had activity in sixty days, we're calling everybody right now. My job is to call them and say, what's going on?

Sure.

You know, we need this moving. And so we we can push. It's a

Not only not notification. Yeah. Not only that additional follow-up, but once you get the understanding of what the story is, if that's what the game is, you pull it out into a separate category. So at least you recognize that up there for what it is and what it isn't. Because I've got one of those right next to where I live for years now.

It's a game.

Every one hundred and eighty days, they put in one piling. One hundred and eighty days, they put in another pile. They're just looking to flip the property.

That's Right. All. DANIEL And for me, I mean, I see it in the residential side. And I see it downtown. I just think that, as a commission, as a board, we're not really understanding why an owner would prefer to have that building vacant. And there are plenty of reasons. And they're related to money. And my question is, are there other cities that have come around and figured out a way that it is less financially beneficial for the owner than actually getting the project finished?

Although I do imagine that's a small percentage of of properties that are stuck, let's call it, are intentional are intentional. Has to be a small piece of the pie. But nonetheless, we'd want to sort that out too. All right. Let's hear from board member Hernandez. Russell, stay up maybe. Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you, mayor. I was actually only talking about the 33% and the 44. That's how this whole thing started. But if we do identify that there's an individual that is going to be the person that's going to be charged with following up some of these things, that individual cannot do everything by themselves.

What I mean by that is that person may very well need administrative assistance in order to get those reports done, whether it is to the property owner or whether it is to us, whether it is to the city manager or whether it is to the building official. At the end of the day, we need to identify what the holdup is and be able to, as the city manager and CRE director just said, identify that and pull that aside so that whenever that property becomes identified on this, we can go back to it and says, look, we reach out to the property owner to find out what the problem was. The problem was this. We identified it. We send it to the architect, the contractor, to the property owner.

Nothing has been done. So this way we can get the stigma off the building department because how many thousands of building permits we go through on a yearly basis? And for the most part, yes, there's a hiccup every now and then, but they go through. So we need to identify number one, what the holdup is. How do we get beyond that and actually have a system to deal with those things and identify those problems, whether it's in a downtown or anywhere else. In this case in particular, the downtown has had a CRA for twenty five years.

Longer. Oh, well.

But active if you would. And this hasn't been, we haven't been able to get through that. And I agree that there are some property owners, they're speculators and they basically buy the property and they figure at some point they're gonna flip it. Do in the meantime, they take a loss what they need to do. We do need to have something.

And at one point, we talked about penalizing those individuals that did not have their property rented or available in order to do something like that. I don't know if we have the authority to do something like that. But whenever we are part of the problem, and what I mean by that is we're providing them a nice dress up on the window and everything else for them to be able to maintain the property because we don't want to identify that as a property that is dilapidated. Guess what? Maybe we should identify it as a property that is in a dilapidated condition and cite them for rather than to be a contributor to the ongoing problem.

I don't know how to solve the problem. I think we need to be able to get our minds together to see how we do that. But the downtown situation needs to be able to change. Year after year remains the same. People on the beach don't have the same problem because they have the tourism to come there.

So maybe bringing in more people to the downtown. But the price that they're getting per foot on the downtown, it's unbelievable. It's warranted for us to be able to spend some more time figuring out what the issues are and how we can address it. And if it's just talking to the owner, as the mayor said, bring it to our attention. We may be able to have their ear or we may be able to know somebody that does have their ear to talk to them and says, look, it behooves all of us, including the level of price that you're going to get for your property if you have the right tenant. So like, it's a problem. I just brought it up because of the high percentage and I think that we spend over an hour talking about something like this. But at the end of the day, it just needs to be addressed.

Alright. Well, I think we've covered it everybody. Just a thank you to the team, Lisa. Lisa. Thank you slide.

Have you concluded or if not?

Wanna close it out?

Me too, yes. Before I even move on to this slide, I do want to recognize a CRA employee who put a tremendous amount of work into this presentation with me, Adam Chernoff. He handled many different aspects of this number crunching percentage, all the stuff that I really don't like doing, quite frankly, as well as also inventorying with me. So I do want to extend my most sincere thanks to him. He's often an unsung hero.

So with that, CRA staff will continue to work with brokers, developers, property and business owners, and the City of Hollywood staff to attract new investment, commerce, and tenants to Downtown Hollywood.

Lisa, if you have a list, since you probably are the person in the city that has the most contacts with, property owners and tenants and you know the story of a lot of the properties, if you can help to populate that list of the 19 that are leased and under renovation and give a head start to the concierge effort. Let's get that list going, contacts, tenants, landlords, architects, contractors, whoever we have and know of for each one of these 19 and get the story and and help help push them forward.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Alright. That was good and productive. Let's go ahead now to any information report by the executive director for the previous month activities Yep. Downtown on the beach.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair, Vice Chair, and Board members. Just first, as an intro, the transition, again, is an ongoing process, obviously, with the CRA and the city staff. And I think, if I can speak for Susan and Damaris and Ray Lynn and others, that we've continued that. And it seems to be working well together. And we're smoothing out. And as the new employee here, I'm impressed with the amount of activity and projects that are going on out there. So I get to dig into more stuff in more detail. And just a few things right now that are active.

And then I know Susan's got some things to add. Obviously, the 50 modules on the reef have been installed in four different locations, north and south, on the beach in the latter part of last month. And they're being enjoyed by fish and humans alike. And we're already getting activity out there and attraction for it and some press coverage. So good on that. And in the next several weeks, the live camera feed will be up and running. And so that will be happening as well. So another major attraction for the beach and for the city there. And it's a good thing. We'll stay after.

We've already highlighted it. Speaking of fire rescue and beach safety, we've already highlighted that to make sure that we've got the safety side of it addressed well because now we've got folks that are attracted to going off maybe a little further offshore and into 10 feet water or so. And we've got to make sure that they not only do that safely and don't conflict with voters or other things. And then they can get back safely, too. So we've heightened that awareness as well, too.

We talked before about the Hollywood Boulevard streetscape work is virtually substantially complete now. And so that's wrapping up well. And it's going to be mirrored on Harrison Street, where that work is in the permitting stages as well. So you'll see that coming probably August, I'd say. August start on that? Yep. Okay, good. Thank you. Let's see. Keating Park, you might notice that that's under work as well in the south end of the beach.

A lot of renovations going there with both the site, landscaping, and structures. So that's moving along nicely. The Montgomery Palms issue that we talked about along A1A on the beach is we're in the process of removing a number of those, going to be closing up those openings so that they're not hazards. And it'll actually open up some of those sidewalk areas that are very tight right now. And then we'll look for opportunities to do planting in some of the other higher areas that aren't low boxes that might be able to entertain those.

And we don't get the saline problems there as well, too. So that will be coming in the near future. The phase four improvements on the South end of the beach with the undergrounding of utilities and the storm water improvements are also moving forward. It's making nice progress. And then I think we're working with some of the authorization work for the harmonization of the street ends as well.

That's making good progress as well. And then lastly, not that we're ready to talk about it right now, but I think we'll have something for you next month. The bollards, especially on Hollywood Boulevard and Harrison, I think we've reached pretty much of a conceptual agreement on what and where and the design and structural and which are and which aren't and the appearance of them. And so when we have some more details fleshed out for you next month, we'll move forward on that as well. So we can add that yeah, the security bollards and which ones are structural and what we have to do where and the appearance on them as well. I know Susan probably had some additional things and other details she wanted to go into as well. Thank you.

Thank you. Just in downtown, I think the good news is that the FP and L neighborhood lighting program, the FP and L drawings are in permitting. And they already received comments. The first round of comments they responded to. So the second round of comments are being reviewed. We're very close to having that permit issued to FP and L. Once FP and L has the permit in hand, that is when they're going to order the materials. So we've been coordinating with them. We believe we're very close. Again, FP and L permit in hand, they'll order all the light poles and then they will start hopefully in a couple of months doing the directional drilling.

And hopefully in the fall, be able to start placing the light poles on 19th And 20th Avenue between Johnson And Washington Street. In conjunction with that, we've been working with public works on tree trimming so that when the lights go in, the light is being cast where they need to be cast and aren't impaired by shade. So that's exciting for the downtown. And on the beach, I guess everybody here knows that there is a parallel project going on from public utilities, which is moving a water main on Van Buren Street. That water main needs to be moved in order for the pump that's going in by FDOT to happen.

So currently, there's a second contractor that's working within the footprint of the phase four contract. You know, Sarita's been working very closely with public utilities to make sure that that water main replacement happens as soon as possible because, as I said, it is an active construction project that's being done by Burkhart. So that was the two things that I wanted to add. Thank you.

Thank you, Susan. Thank you, executive director. Let's go on to comments by the board members, general counsel, executive director, beginning with board member Gruber.

Thank you very much, mayor. A couple of things. You know, in discussing the available square footage in downtown and the mayor mentioned that we have as much square footage as the Aventura Mall from

a I said a regional mall. A regional. Sorry.

Sorry. A regional mall. You know, I I know we discussed it, I don't know if we gave any direction to planning, but I I would love to know if if planning feels that we have enough square footage where we don't necessarily need to require some of the new residential stuff, Not not not dealing with, like, Geller amendment in the trans transit corridors where you have to do it, where they get extra density or whatnot, but just the other ones where we require it. I'd be I'd wanna know, you know, obviously, there's a formula based on population within walking distance and driving distance and all that stuff to know if maybe we have enough and to look at that. Do I need support for planning to look into that?

I think it was mentioned that we were going to have a workshop on this exact topic. So Okay. You support the workshop. Yeah?

Yeah. 100%. Okay. Great. I was I was able to snorkel two of the new reefs this weekend. Amazing. I did the one on North Beach and then I did the one at Keating Park. I do believe we're we're gonna get some educational signage and and stuff like that coming out. I recommend we do that as soon as possible. From my experience, as an experienced swimmer, I felt like I needed a flotation device.

It's a it's a decent swim, 250 feet, and then when you get there, it's deep. So there's no rest and then you have to snorkel, whatever, you know, that that is. I did speak to the lifeguards and they said a dive flag is required. And I don't know if people know that. I don't know what the law is.

Maybe past 150 feet, you have to have a dive flag. I went and bought a dive flag, so you know, just really to educate people. One thing I was a little bit surprised at is I went to Keating Park on Sunday and the weather was like this and I pulled up thinking the parking lot was going to be empty and there were two parking spaces in that whole parking lot and I said, Oh, wow. I guess everybody's coming here to snorkel. And I thought I would walk to a bunch of people snorkeling.

There wasn't one person on the beach. So I observed all day long the parking lot and it seems that that entire parking lot is being used by the building to the south of it. Got it. So, I mean, there was even a car there which had a tarp on it, which I'm gonna try to check today if we have time. It looked like it parked itself there for the summer.

So we're putting a lot of money into Keating Park and if, you know, if it's just gonna be used for the building, for the residents there, like and and I observed, I watched the only people that came in, not many people came and went came and went went to that building. And I remember we were gonna we were talking about building just a two story parking garage and I believe that building's residents were all up in arms and we we didn't do it. So, you know, it seems to me that that that's really there exclusively for them. So we built all these facilities. We put the reefs there. So I mean, I'm not okay with that. I don't know how all of you feel. So we can talk about it later when we go over parking. Maybe no overnight parking. Maybe no I don't know.

A limited parking, but basically that park is not for the public. It's just for one building, from my observations for the day.

I also had a chance to snorkel that same site. And I had to skip a couple cars and maybe in an unfriendly way in order to grab that one spot and there was no one on the beach. There there was no one at the there was a a parking vehicle actually. I had to, like, basically go the wrong direction in order to snag that one spot. And then when I got to the beach, there were zero beachgoers on that And as I was leaving, I saw someone come in and grab a space and, you know, very casually walk to the condominium next door. So it is a park without any public parking. And so we definitely need to do something about Keating Park. Go ahead. Yeah.

I appreciate you raising that, commissioner Gruber. Jovan and I have talked about this just the other day. He is very aware of it. You know, maybe you have no resident parking passes there or limit it by hours or something like that. But yes, that is one of the lots that he specifically mentioned to me was being abused by residents and thereby precluding park So he definitely knows about that one.

Okay, good. Good, good. And that's all I have. Sorry. Doing the different reefs is interesting. There's already fish. There's there's marine life there. The one on North Beach had a wider variety of fish when I went. I don't know if it was because of the weather or whatever, but really exciting stuff. Yep. Love it. Thank you.

Alright. Board member Biederman.

Thank you, mayor. Sometimes my words don't come out right. It's just out of frustration. It's not because I think that people aren't doing their jobs. It's just frustrating that we talk about this all the time.

I thought we already did this hour maximum amount of limited times parking on the beach because we wanted cars to rotate around. So maybe that's what we need no more than twelve hour parking or something like that on some of these spaces just maybe as a pilot project just to retrain people from not taking advantage of what's going on. And the other thing is I mentioned earlier about having it more convenient for people to take the public transportation and having chairs available for rent. Maybe we can do a RFP for some type of vending machine similar to the paddleboard rentals. Maybe we could have a vending machine company come in, do a without taking away business from the Bucher brothers that really do a phenomenal job making our beaches look good.

Maybe this is an alternative thing that we can have some type of a self-service vending machine type operation for beach chairs. So I don't know if anybody feels the same. Maybe we can have an RFP similar to the paddleboard rentals for beach chairs or umbrellas or something like that.

So I do believe the agreement for the the beach concession is is coming up in a number of months. And maybe, to your point, maybe we ought to discuss the scope of that concession or maybe have multiple concessions to have different vendors for different things. Maybe it's not just the same opportunity. Maybe it's different. Maybe there could be one or more vendors or not.

I'd like to have a conversation about, let's just call it, the subject of beach concessions and whether or not, you know, the limit to one exclusive vendor is the best way to go forward or maybe the beach is different in different areas. There's condos, there's not. Maybe we need to tweak what that concession is or have multiple vendors and not just one? Just just throwing that out

there.

Competition does wonders and I mean, it's kinda like if you call an Uber, you can choose an Uber XL or an Uber Comfort or or whatever it is. We need to have various options not just the luxurious $40. Canopy lounge chairs type of thing. And then finally, maybe we need to reach out to some of the new buildings and have them survey their residents what type of retail or office or commercial establishments they feel we're missing in downtown. Maybe we're missing the mark on something.

Maybe there's some thing out there that we don't know about to try and attract. And once we have a survey done with some of those new residents, you know, whatever, they're an extra 1,500 new residents in downtown. Is that what the number is? Maybe they have an opinion that we can really engage with and have our staff, Lisa or whoever going out and to use a resident's term that texted me, seduce some new businesses to take some of those vacant spots. That being said, we could finish the conversations this afternoon.

Alright. Let's go to Vice Chair Quintana.

Thank you, chair. I just my one thing I wanted to announce is that this Friday, the Art and Culture Center, the Center of Hollywood, having a pre party reception and screening of Wes Anderson's The Phoenician Scheme. The reception's going to be at the Vintage On Harrison at 06:00, and then the film screening at Cinema Paradiso at seven. So I'm really looking forward to that and, wanted to make sure folks knew about it in case they wanted to join me. That's it. Thank you, chair.

All right. Let's go to board member Shuham.

Thank you, chair. Just a couple of things. I just want to reiterate what commissioner Gruber was saying about the reef. We were out there over the weekend. I think it was Saturday morning. I texted you guys. It was amazing. There were about four or five paddleboards at each of the two North Beach stations, people swimming out there with dive flags and wet suits, because it was a little chilly still, kayakers, you know, going from one, the one at Sims up to the one at McClellan. So it was really amazing. And it reminded me that, you know, this really all started with Evan Snow.

We think of Evan now for zero empty spaces, but Evan came to the city. Marty and I ran into met him in Fort Lauderdale one night. Like, it had to be 2019 right after I was elected. He told us about a thousand mermaids. We brought him in. Susan was so open minded. Before we could jump on it, Dania got there first while we were still trying to figure out the permitting. Dania then found out they couldn't put it there because of the Coast Guard. And it is just amazing how things work out. So sometimes when you think something is bad news, it turns out to be good news and vice versa.

So I mean, I feel like this is just an amazing addition, not only for humans, but like you said, Commissioner Gruber, for the marine life out there. It's amazing. So I'm just proud of the CRA, proud to be a member of the CRA board and the commission and all of you on staff, both at the city level and CRA level, who made this happen. It's a gift. It's a gift to the planet, really. So it's wonderful. I want to just thank Sarita. She had her hands full the other morning with a lot of water showing up down on the Flower Streets. She jumped right on it. I hope with the help of HPD got traffic under control.

And I know that she is working with the city as well as with FDOT to see what can be done to improve it. But CRE director, I would just ask or executive director, I would just ask that we are ensuring that FDOT is maintaining the fixtures along A1A that it is responsible for. We had them come in. We asked them to come back a month later. That month has come and gone.

But I want some assurances that FDOT, they came here and they said to us that they have an ongoing contract for their vendor to come out here and clean and fix and do everything, but that doesn't seem to be happening. And as a result of it, we believe we had some unnecessary flooding just yesterday. Yeah, yesterday. So I just really want to make sure that someone is, whether it's you, Vin, both of you, are making sure that FDOT is carrying its weight with regard to maintaining obligation. And then lastly, I think I just want to one thing, Susan, getting back to the waterways.

I think for all of these grants, if it's a condo, can we please get with Russell and make sure that doesn't happen? I know we don't do that for code violations, and this is even more serious. And then finally, I just want to shout out to HTG. I was away when you guys had the great tour of University Station, so I got to go out there yesterday. Really amazing. You know, the building's occupied and underway and wonderful place. I think it was Commissioner Quintana who mentioned like Quick Marts. That's going to be one of their tenants on the 1st Floor is probably some little market like that. But I think in a condominium, it's appropriate so the residents can come down. And so hopefully that'll be there.

And of course, Barry University is really coming along great. So, I mean, apartments. But you know, a residential building. So anyway, it was beautiful and very exciting to see that addition to downtown. So thank you, chair.

Thank you. Let's go to board member Hernandez.

Thank you, mayor. And actually, if they have a place where they can have espresso or coffee shop, something

small in

the mini market, that's very, very helpful. A couple of things. Storm drains, I had a meeting with Vic yesterday, Vince yesterday. And one of the things that I talked to him about was even if the DOT doesn't approach and claim that, if we could get an agreement with them

Absolutely, we we can

do it and then just back charge them for or have an agreement that they will pay us because that's something that for us is a priority and for them

to Or even agreement that we can call their vendor.

Their vendor, it's authority when it comes to that. If we could just match their vendor prices and have them be able to refund that money from us, maybe we can do something like that where we have an interlocal agreement where it doesn't cost them any more money, but yet we get what we need out of it. And only because their regular cleanup on the storm drains is a yearly thing. And I believe that we may have a use to be bi yearly. So to come to some kind of agreement with the DOT to do something like that.

And also, we approved the CERC today. And this is something that I worked out for many years to try to get to bring to the downtown and the beach. But here's another demand that it's happening. And it's becoming more noticeable, if you would. People from out west and even people from my district would like to be able to go to the beach and not necessarily have to fight for parking.

Parking seems to be the word of the day today. And if we could have some kind of mode of transportation, and I know that we currently do not have it, to go from City Hall to downtown and to the beach when City Hall is closed Friday, Saturday and Sunday. City Hall parking is available. We have plenty of parking spaces. I would ask for staff or the CRA and I know the City Hall is not in the CRA area, but the benefactors are, which is the downtown and the beach.

We have the ability to be able to have the people come. I know you brought it up, but what were trying to do before was to get the ghost shuttle to come from there to City Hall and then to go from here to there. I just want a mode of transportation from here to the downtown and the beach. In other words, if they can get themselves here, they can have free parking. They have the ability to get on a mode of transportation to be able to visit both downtown and the beach. We have that if you call. I don't believe that we have one that goes directly to both. Okay? All

right, let me

No, go ahead. The Holly Go

So I did that for what was that? The Earth Day Festival at the beach. So I drove from my house near 441 Hollywood Boulevard to City Hall and then took the orange line. And it took me down to Johnson Street. It runs through the downtown around.

It does. It does a loop. Yes, it does. It's not a straight shot to be able to.

It's not. You'd have to walk a couple of blocks.

Well, that's what I was trying to do if we could facilitate something that would just be the downtown and the beach. Just food for thought if it already exists and we need to modify it to some degree just to be more friendly because the shuttle has the ability for you to bring a couple of chairs and a cooler or something like that. You can bring your family to the beach. We're just trying to I

agree with you. It's really important.

Okay, thank you. Also, an update, if we can, from city staff regarding what it is that we're doing for the delineated parking spaces that don't meet code in the downtown. I know that we were trying to come up with a plan to do some angle parking. Just an update as to where we are with that. I heard that there was some held up at the time because of fire. And I think that we're going to talk to fire about that. So if could expedite that. And finally, I would ask the CRA director, and I've asked for support from the board, I've received it. We just want to be clear. There has been a letter sent to the US Postal Service in order for them to be notified that we're interested on bringing the lot back.

We have not heard of anything as of today. Their deadline to hear something was for it is for tomorrow. I would ask for direction so that we have clear direction to the CRA director and the city manager so that we can move forward to bringing that lot to the residents and the businesses in the downtown and and George. So

if I could comment on

that. Please.

So Peter, today, I on the way to the fire station for the push in ceremony, I purposely drove by that city lot. And there were a lot of postal service vehicles pretty much taking up almost every space. But I think since downtown has grown and matured as as you're recognizing, our need for public parking is pretty severe as you've mentioned. And I think we need to put, if this letter was enough to put the postal service on notice, that the city needs requires this parking lot, you know, for for parking now. And though so if they need to make decisions on how the post office continues, if it needs to relocate or what have you, I think we need to give them a timetable that gives them time to leave and put them on on serious notice that we're gonna be terminating this month to month, you know, right for them to park there if that's what this board decides to do and and just, again, make them realize that things are not changing because whether it's this, you know, issue of this immediate need for parking that you're bringing up and also future intentions for that parcel, They're both require the post office to realize it's it doesn't have a future unless it wants to build a garage and build a whole new facility on on its block.

And and and I agree and and and thank you for that. I think that we should give them the proper notice that they need. They're under a fifteen day notice. We gave them that. But we can do whatever it is, whether it's thirty days, sixty days, whatever is required to do that. I just wanted the CRA director and the city manager to have clear support from the board in order to move forward. Because, yes, you're right. There's a lot of those little cars

Overnight.

Overnight. But then if you look at their spot, which is on the southern part, it's completely empty. So I think that they do need notice in order to do that. But I would just ask to send a clear message to our CRA director and our city manager that we are in support of getting the lock back.

Are we all good with letting the post office know that we need that block back? Yes. Okay, thank you.

I'll speak directly with the city manager.

Thank you. I think you're familiar with the gentleman. So that's all for me. Thank you for the support. I really appreciate it.

All

right. Thank you. Board member Kaleri. We're making good timing too, everybody.

Yeah. Is that a hint?

11:46. I think we I think what time is the ceremony outside?

Is that

a hint?

11:30?

11:45, I think it is. Right?

Okay. 12:45.

12:45. Alright. Good. Okay. So just a couple of comments. If we can get an update regarding the signage on Davie Road over to the circle part for the Hollywood signage, where are we at with that?

Tainy Beach Boulevard?

Boulevard. Sorry.

Wayfinding.

Wayfinding. I know we've talked about it. I know there were some issues. I I don't know if we should just abort the mission because it's been so long if we're gonna have some time of erection. You don't have to answer now. You can get back to us and let us know. I just really think we need to get that up and going. I understand, but it's been happening for a long time. Let's execute. And we need it executed.

In reference to the reefs that were put out, amazing feedback as we all have seen. It's amazing. We love the ocean. All of it's amazing. When we had gone for the deployment for the shore reefs, the one that's by the Carpenter House, which is North North Beach, I think it's amazing.

And we talked about it. There's an opportunity that's there with anyone who goes to the Puppermint House to learn about the history and to see the sea turtles, especially during summertime. This is a great opportunity for those not sea camp, but for those who want to snorkel and bring their families out and the families to enjoy. It's right offshore. If the weather is correct, they can make an entire day out of it. So it really becomes a tourist draw. So I don't know how we can accommodate that or direction wise. But I would like support for the commission to

And we can encourage the county that runs the Carpenter House to have snorkeling excursion opportunities. And they can rent and facilitate it right from the Carpenter House. I mean, it's a county parks department.

Becomes a partnership because it's our Reeves, right? I mean, they could take it over the whole thing. But I think it's an added bonus to the city of Hollywood. So somehow, if we can implement that even I believe in that area, you know, you can take your paddle board out certainly.

They could, at the minimum, they could rent the the needed equipment. Right. Snorkel fins, flotation And device, dive

make it a family event. So I think it would be something really, really, beneficial.

I'm supportive of that. And you may very well, at some point, see glass bottom boats. That would be something

Deployed out there. Would SHARFSTEIN:

troll through there and be a tourist attraction.

JOSHUA For those who can't swim. I mean, it really is a major draw. And it's something that we should really embrace and be proud of. In addition to that, though, the and I know it's a touchy subject, but so I risked going out and swimming on a day of rough weather to the buoys after work one morning. And it's a swim, and especially when the weather conditions aren't great.

And the curiosity didn't kill the cat, but I may have pretty much been very wet ashore and drifted. But we talked about the vessel exclusion buoys. And a lot of concern has come because when certain tides, you can see the top of those

Reef modules.

Reef modules that were put in are very close to the edge and boating. So I just want to make sure that we're safe for all, not just for the swimmers, but also for the boaters because they could hit the top of them and create a problem. Some, but there's that those boating distance. So I just think we've put something out there. A lot of people don't follow the rules. I was one of them. I went out with no lifeguard and went swam out because it was the morning after I got off work. I was going end of flag. So things happen. But also boats may drift and it create a problem as well.

And we don't want a bottomed boat because of hitting one of them creating damage to the boat, to the module, to the whole thing. We just want to make sure everybody's safe. So something to consider. I'm sure we're going be meeting with the fire chief, our new fire chief, and beach safety. But these have been issues that have been

That's brought dragged on. I mean, they've already done the research under Chief Russo back in the day.

Could

follow-up. So somehow just try so we could provide safety for everyone. Okay. And then we went to Latabbe's celebration, fiftieth year celebration. It was wonderful. It's great. I ended up parking in a paid parking lot and paid an exorbitant amount of money to park. So I feel the pain. But as I was walking to Latabbe, the paint markings for electrical and so forth on our brand new pavers really struck a nerve. And so there's so much lining, and they have to line it. But how is that paint going to be removed from those brand new pavers that we put down?

Susan? It's absolutely

an ongoing issue. And as much as we have asked, we've even had conversations with engineering about that. At the end of the day, the markings happen. But Burkhart will have to pressure clean those off before the project is given back. I mean, that's the only solution that I can think of. The utility companies are not going to stop. And they're not going to use a different type of paint. I mean, we've asked. It's going to be our responsibility before the project is handed over to do that.

I mean, looked like a kindergartner got out there and just free for all. I mean, it was really disturbing.

One spot is really bad.

JULIET It's unbelievable. So as long as we are on top of it, I appreciate that. And then going back to the CRA, talking about the downtown and the window coverings that we put to prevent the blight and vacancy looking, there should be some fee applied to the business owners if we can implement it. And if we're putting the window up to prevent that blight and vacancy look, if we're putting them up, somehow we have to motivate them to provide tenants. There should be a fee applied of some sort if it's possible. I think that that's something we should look into. I don't want to leave the windows open and see the vacancies. Right? Because that creates a whole another effect. But there has to be something that kinda puts their feet to the fire.

However we can implement that, I think that would motivate those business those owners of the buildings to really get the tenants in instead of delay, delay, delay.

I think with Boca or West Palm, one of them have actually a fee if you have a vacant storefront in some of their districts. You know, I hate to charge people money, but at the same time, if people need, you know, a push somehow, then maybe looking at a vacant proper stagnant property fee is is something that other cities have done. Maybe you can look at to see if that makes sense for Hollywood.

And if we need to get support of that. Well,

let's see.

Get to it. Okay. And then something was mentioned about providing going down to the beach. I think Commissioner Biederman brought it up. But I also think that for the West City folks, that maybe there's some type of opportunity where we can provide circuit and dining to bring them to the downtown. We talk about bringing people to the downtown and parking. Maybe there's something that we could provide with a discounted rate. If you use a circuit, you get a discount to facilitate or utilize the dining experience in our downtown. Maybe there's some type of thing we can provide to allow that. And then fourth of July is coming up.

We talk about this all the time. I know I mentioned, and I know Jovan is working on it. But try to utilize we talked about parking at Ann Cole, working with the county. If we can somehow expedite that, it's on the other side of the bridge. It'll take, hopefully, traffic off of the beach during fourth of July.

And if there's some way we could facilitate the availability of using that as an off-site parking with county, I think it would be beneficial as far as seeking parking during the beach and the traffic jams. And then the last thing is the motorcycle parking, but I did speak to Jovan about implementing motorcycle parking downtown and on the beach so they're not taking up full spots. Because if there is a license plate, they can park in a parking spot, which they use this amount compared to a full car. So if there's a way we can implement it and really expedite putting motorcycle parking to make it available in our downtown area, I think it would be great.

Go ahead, Peter, if you click in.

Thank you, I believe that they have identified with some of the angle parking in the area that it's too narrow to have some of the regular cars and therefore it will be a sign for motorcycle parking only. And there may very well be signage letting motorcycles know that they cannot park in a full spot in order to avoid something like that. So that's in the works of comment. And that's one of the updates that I was asking for.

And I think that implementing that on the beach also would be very valuable, too. So if there's an area that we have it, just in the garage. But online street parking, if you've been down there, you'll see a motorcycle will pull into an entire spot and take up that entire spot. So if there's an area where we can find for parking because if not, if you've been to Nick's bar, he'll pull right up on and park all along there too. And that's not what it's for, right? They find the spot.

Unless we could designate it as

There a motorcycle

are some delineated spots that are not designated as anything because they're too small for a car to be in. But they could be repurposed for a motorcycle in some of these street ends

as Just thinking out of the box and trying to accommodate all the needs. So that would be great.

Then

No, let's just get support for Okay, to designate any available Area that it's not

allowed to to be so they could be delineated for To

expand motorcycle parking on the beach and downtown. Support that. Yes.

Parking spots. Know?

Right. No. Yeah.

If I said I don't know if if I were law, we could do that.

Create the spots for them to be able to park. Okay.

Great. And Okay. And then the last thing is, as far as our rack boundaries, if we could take a look at the boundaries and possibly there's always opportunities we talk about. NIMBY is not in my backyard, but there's opportunity on Dixie Highway North to possibly expand and development going. Because we know that we have to provide affordable housing.

And with all this energy that is going in, I don't know if the commission supports it or not, but I'm just putting it out there. It was a suggestion that was brought to me regarding the expansion of our RAC possibility for opportunity for further development, especially for affordable housing and LMIs to go on Dixie Highway North.

So We did it, sir. I'm sorry. Zoned out. Boardman McCullary, you just repeat

Far is it

repeat what what the request is? Expanding the rack boundary?

Dixie Highway boundaries north.

North to, what, to Sheridan?

Well, I mean, that's something for discussion.

You're saying on the West Side Of Dixie? Mhmm. Yeah. I don't know what the boundaries are offhand, but that's certainly something we can talk about at the city commission meeting. And it's not a simple undertaking, but It's

not a simple undertaking, but it but there is major opportunity, and it's a main corridor, and it would help with our

Board member Hernandez wants to weigh in.

Thank you. I think that's one of the things that we talked about earlier that I got support from regarding the vision of what you would like to see in Dixie Highway and 21st Avenue. It could definitely encompass something like that. And we talked about it. There was support. I haven't heard any more about it. But I do think that both of those corridors are prime for development. Absolutely.

Are we talking moving the boundary further north along Dixie or further west or both?

Think it ends at Sheridan right now. Yeah. Thought it did for half a block.

Half a block.

Yeah. Maybe, Andrea, you can send us all an email about the boundaries of the rack and

Iterate them to look at it because there is opportunities for growth. And this is an opportunity right now. I don't want to be proactive. I'd rather us be reactive I mean, proactive instead of reactive with soliciting. I mean, we have an opportunity here, especially with this

Andrea, please come on up, because if we're going to go back and forth, I'd rather you give us a little primer if you're off the cuff.

I think that it's probably best for us to have a conversation so we understand exactly what you're looking for. The Regional Activity Center land use already allows for residential and commercial along that corridor. Will be bringing forward some land use plan amendments to ensure we have the capacity to meet this vision. So it might be looking at the permitted uses under the zoning code to see what's allowed there. There's also some other affordable housing policies that we're bringing forward. So I think we should connect, talk about the affordable housing policies that are coming forward, get an understanding, and then we could provide an update to the board. Okay.

Do we have a workshop?

I don't know at this point if you need a workshop or not. I know you asked for one already today already. And so it might all kind of be tied together.

Yeah, what I asked for was regarding to meet with the developers and the residents to see what we're doing.

On the commercial space down

there. The

space on the bottom. If you want to throw something in a little farther, that's fine. But this all goes hand in hand with my suggestion of being able to two ways. Some of these streets I know that both of those streets are actually county owned. And at some point, we're gonna need to see the restrictions. I know that we have in My office told me that we're supposed to be meeting with you regarding Garfield Street crossover. But I think all of this conversation has a symbiotic relationship as to what we want to see for the city of Hollywood years to come. And if we don't plan it, as Commissioner Kalari said, regarding being proactive, we're gonna get caught to the point that we're gonna have to be reactive. And I'd rather have everything discussed so that we all can move forward on the same

And we're in the middle of updating our goals and objectives and policies in the comprehensive plan. So that sets forth the vision for 2050 in order to get there. And some of the vision is stuff that we have in place today. And maybe there's a tweak at a level that we can do that you're looking for. And maybe it's already coming.

Okay, great. And then the last thing is just the signage. I think if there's some way we can expedite it for the offshore reef, we need to get the signage up there as soon as possible. I don't know if we have to all

No. I think, Susan, you can tell

us expedited.

We had we had I we had discussed signage for the the reefs, specifically at Keating. There was gonna be, you know, a big, you know, emphasis on it. And in the other locations, are you planning on any signage to give a little bit of a picture to the beachgoer on what's out there and what the rules are and what the opportunities are in a happy way?

So, yeah, the CRA and CEMED are working closely with Shelby on that. Maybe we can provide an update at the next CRA board meeting.

Yeah, beach rescue as well. Yeah. Go ahead.

Chair, I spoke, I think, in our agenda meeting, but, director O'Brien Chris O'Brien is working, to come up with language regarding safety concerns, flag requirements, all of that. So he's on top of that as well.

Just the sooner the better would be the best.

Just really quick, Joanne Hussey, director of communications marketing and economic development. As Susan said, we are working with the CRA. Adam Chernoff right now is working on the design. And we're working with Mo and David Vasquez from Parks and Recreation on getting them fabricated and installed. And they will have a number of different required messaging, as well as information and education.

Wonderful. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. That's all I have.

All right. Thank you. So real quick on the issue of the reefs. It was great to snorkel them. And I'd like the staff, if you could, work with perhaps beach safety to see what Florida law allows.

But it could be that instead of the orange buoys that are right now, you know, in the ocean on the reefs, which don't necessarily, you know, bring with them any distance requirement by boats. A dive flag does. A boat needs to stay, I think, 200 feet away or a 100 feet away from a dive flag. But I wonder if we could have a permanent replacement of those orange buoys and have a buoy that has a dive flag symbol. If that's permitted by Florida law, then it could be a permanent notice to stay away from boats and they'll abide by it because it's a law it's a law.

And then maybe a diver a swimmer won't have to take a dive flag because there's already a permanent dive flag there. And so it'll also promote the idea that this is a dive site to people that are looking from the shore and not just a buoy that is, you know, unknown. So that could serve a number of purposes. So just if you could look into that and if that's permissible, you know, under Florida law, then I think that'd be a good thing. And then if we add the vessel exclusion buoys, then you really might be covered completely because there will never really be, at least by law, a boat between the shore and the reef if the vessel exclusion buoys are in alignment with the reef or a little bit beyond.

And so then maybe at that point, beach safety will feel comfortable with people swimming out there without a dive flag because boats are not permitted there. Right now, there is no vessel exclusion buoy and so, you know, a boat can easily make a mistake and just not know. So that all kind of goes hand in hand to create this amazing, you know, basically underwater activity center that we could have and we ought to have Yeah. And we do have. We just need a, you know, market in a, you know, in a in a light way that also has law behind it and then things will be safer and more attractive.

Yep. So we have one more CRA meeting before the summer break and I know that between then and now now and then, we also will be having a CIP workshop, city manager, right, for the capital plan. June

June 26, both capital and operating workshop. Yep.

So whichever meeting, I think we ought to have a discussion. And I'd like recommendations by the professional staff on the dollars that we've mentioned in the downtown CRA still exist, the $4,000,000 discussion. And then also the beach had a an $11,000,000. I'd wanna know what professional staff feels like they ought to recommend as options for us to direct the, you know, spending of those dollars, the investment of those dollars into the two districts. I know we've talked about the a one a bridge.

I'd like to know have an update on where we are with any discussions with FDOT, how that fits in with the whole pie of the MPO, getting that on schedule and things, separate and apart from if we ever see an improvement at the Hollywood Beach Hotel. One thing we can do is continue moving the bridge forward, which we all discussed. So whether that's at the next CRA board meeting to discuss the budgets for the downtown and the beach and those dollars and what you know, what you feel our priorities and your recommendations would be. Whether it's then or needs more time and at the at the workshop, I wanna get my head around because we're looking at the at the clock for the downtown especially. And mind you, downtown will stay and and law allows us to have three years to spend those dollars, but it needs to get to a point where it's designated and officially obligated so that there's not a refund, you know, at the end of this of this current CRA, you know, year.

So all of that combined, I'd like to to learn, you know, what you all recommend and also for the board members to brainstorm amongst ourselves and yourselves, you know, what you feel and bring it to the staff, you know, might be on the list of some things to do downtown on the beach if we had additional dollars, which we do, but always it's a competing, you know, priority. So let's get that that big picture for both districts and see if we have some additional enhancements to make and investments whether it's in resiliency or into, you know, attractions or safety of the whole realm of responsibility, economic development for both areas. I know board member Gruber brought up the the wanting to see Charnisle Park be a lot more vibrant for kids and more of an activity center versus the existing, you know, water feature and I've mentioned, you know, to parks that they've never replaced the kids feature on the North End of Charnisle Park. Not all those dollars need to come from CRA, but if they can come from CRA and the dollars are there and we have plenty of parks outside the district, then I would certainly love to invest CRA dollars for that small event.

So if you could, at either of those meetings, I'd like to see what you all have in mind and let's get ideas to the staff between now and then if we have them individually here, everybody. Alright.

Do you need support for any of that?

I don't think we need support. Go ahead, commissioner Hernandez.

Thank you, mayor. One of the things that I learned, which I was surprised, is that some of those splash guards Splash pads. Pads that we have actually use in recycled water. And one of the recommendation from Parks and Recs was for us to actually use city water. So I think that I don't know how you

get Is

it a

lot cheaper to operate?

It's a lot cheaper to operate and quite frankly, believe it would probably be more safe. So I don't know if you may want support or I definitely would ask for support for us to be able to ask Parks and Rec to go with city water rather than reclaim water.

I would.

It makes the system a lot less complicated. So if they want to bring forward, know, when they do, I'm happy to see that. Sure.

Okay. Thank you. Yeah, there's support for that.

Yeah. That's where you have a lot of the circulation problems in the sand getting stuck because you're always throwing the water in a loop and blah blah blah.

Yep.

Yep. Alright. Vice chair, anything before we go?

I just

excuse me. I just wanted to clarify since a couple of my colleagues mentioned. I have nothing against Quick Marts. I think they're fine. And my point was just about diversifying the kinds of businesses that That's are Yeah. It's all about the comp exactly the complementary mix of businesses. So I think having a quick mart at University Station is great. The residents need that. Yes. Thank you.

I will just say there's sometimes a city just can't we have distance separations on some uses, but we can't always choreograph because we're not the mall, the property owner. We do our best with zoning but, you know, where we have a use that's too duplicated like smoke shops and and other stores that we've we've done the distance separations and I think that's the tool in the toolbox to at least not have the clustering of a similar use that, you know, is maybe seen as not good for the surrounding area. Yep. So if you have them, let let us know. So, alright. Let's go to interim general counsel.

No comments today.

Thank you. Executive director, you good?

I'm I'm good. Thank you.

Alright. So Joanne, we have a $12.45 for the pride flag ceremony in the lobby. Alright. You, everybody. We are adjourned.