Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

I'll bring the meeting to order. We'll do a roll call at this time. Mayor Prom is in the flesh in here. Council member Joiner is in char so he is absent with excused. Council member Andrews, are you here? Here. Council member La, are you here? Here. Council member Santa, are you here? Here. S uh uh Council Member Clinton Quintano, are you here? I am.

And the chair is here. Everybody's here and accounted for. We'll start off with the consent agenda. Uh we have one presentation tomorrow night. Uh C1 is a um a resolution authorizing city manager to enter into an agreement with Hazen and Sawyer PC for hydraulic modeling professional services for $116,900. C2 is a resolution authorizing city manager to enter into a three-year agreement with SHI International Corporation for the renewal of the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement in the amount not to exceed $2 million. C3 is a resolution authorizing city manager to execute a contract amendment in the amount of 1,860,000 to New Pipe LLC for the annual need stormwater infrastructure repairs and rehabilitation contract. C4 is a resolution authorizing the Hammerhead Soccer Club to serve alcoholic beverages at at an event at this incena sports park. C5 is a resolution providing approval of a multifamily housing facility in the city of Wilmington, North Carolina, and the financing thereof with multifamily housing revenue bonds in an amount not to exceed 32,950,000. C6 is approval of the minutes for the regular council meetings of May 4th, 2026. Public hearings. Uh, PH1A is an ordinance making appropriations to the general fund, grants, projects, financial plans, enterprise fund, debit service fund, special tax district, and convention center for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026. PH1B is an ordinance making appropriations to the capital projects funds for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026. and PH1C is an ordinance amending various chapters of the city of

Wilmington fee schedule for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026. Ordinances 01 is an ordinance amending Wilmington city code section 8-5 on criminal history background checks and/or credit history checks required of applicants and employees. And this was continued from our May 4th meeting. 02A is a resolution authorizing the city manager to accept the Great Trail State Grant Award for the replacement of the Lions Bridge in Greenfield Park. And then O2B is the ordinance making the supplemental appropriation in the amount of $500,000 for the Great Trail State Grant Award for the replacement of the Lions Bridge in Greenville Park. That is all of the items on the agenda that we'll be hearing tomorrow night. Are there any questions from council? If not, what did um Madame Clerk, do you have I mean, not madam clerk, ma, madam manager, do you have anything?

Yes, Mr. Mayor, uh we do have one presentation this morning. Deputy city manager Mary Vigu is going to give council an update on the celebration popup park that is coming together at Third and Chestnut in honor of our 250th anniversary of this country. Good morning. Morning. I almost wore my red, white, and blue today, but I figured I would be a little bit early.

Uh, I wanted to just provide a brief update because I know there's an item on your calendar uh and there's a lot of moving parts uh on where we are. Um, but I wanted to take us back just a brief moment and staff will appreciate this. So, just as a reminder, this is our 305 Chestnut Street site. Uh, the city owns this property. Uh it was supposed to be sold uh last year. There have been delays in that. And so this is some aerial views of this property. Uh I wanted to talk about how this project came to be. And so as you drive down Third Street, uh this is the site. Uh and this is the way it currently was about a month and a half ago. Uh there was a temporary fence that has been surrounding the property for I want to say about two years now. I've been driving by it and you can see it. Um and so what you can see is there's been when we demolished the building, this is the site of the former city hall. Uh this is what has remained. So how the project came up and so uh on March 31st and so I highlight that date. I took a group of staff down to 305 Chestnut to walk the site uh to take a look at the fence line, what had been left on the property uh and where we were. uh because much like probably you as you drove down Third Street and you looked at the site, you wondered what the city was doing with it. The other challenge that I was awarded uh was the idea of how do we as a city in terms of staff celebrate the 250th anniversary of this great country. And so as staff and I stood around thinking about it, how do we utilize a piece of parcel of property that we own as a city uh in a temporary location? And I'm going to reiterate that several times that this is temporary because we all recognize that this is a piece of property we will sell or develop in the future. But in the time being there's a popups is what they are are called. And so, how do we take

this vacant parcel of land uh that has probably been an eyesore for some of us uh and change it to celebrate something that's great about our country. And so, look at that date, March 31st. I challenged staff and I asked them, "How do I take this piece of property and can we make it a park? Can we make it a popup park? And can we celebrate this great country?" We also had some temporary we have an ARP uh the teacups uh that have come before this council uh that council authorized. We were looking for a temporary placement for that. Uh the site itself needed some cleanup uh just some basic love and care uh and some of that and so you can see that happening on the right. So as we stood there at 305 and walked it uh and this is I just want to pause here and talk about it because we brought together this is that notion of one city pulling together departments from across. It took a village everyone from brick laying that occurred in transportation to communication who helped us tell the story to asset and property who park staff and everyone. I can't even tell you the amount of work that has happened and is continuing to happen at this site. But the question of staff was, can we get it launched by Memorial Day? Staff looked at me that day and said, "Yes, we're going to get this done, and we're going to do predominantly most of the work in house, and we're going to clean up the site the way it needs to be cleaned up and prepared in the future uh as we look to sell it at some point." So, what have we done? So, it will house the artwork. We have installed lights over where there used to be the brick area. There are red, white, and blue lights in the trees. We're really excited about that. There's some overhead lights. We have uh our own in-house staff went out and repaired the stonework around there. So, you'll see that we have new fencing that has come in today and is getting ready to be

installed. Along with that, we have designed around it and you'll see very similar to what the county did working with planning. They're telling the story of the 250. So around it, it is going to be outlined in an overhang that has pictures depicting the 250th anniversary. And so that will be outlining the park as well. There'll be a green grassy area hopefully in the next 5 days. Uh we have added water irrigation back to the site. Uh there will also be flag poles out there highlighting our red, white, and blue. Uh and um a dog little uh way station uh and really just opening it back up, creating that popup area for our community, uh taking down that temporary fencing uh and really creating this space. Really excited uh about this collaborative approach and the fact that in less than two months we are taking this area and really creating something for our community that they can use over the next few months. Uh, this has the wrong date on it. I thought I changed that. May 22nd is our kickoff. So, this Friday, it should be on your calendar at 11:00 a.m. I welcome as many people down, uh, staff, council, the community to come celebrate, you know, the launch of this popup park for our community. It will be open from May till probably September. Like I said, it's that notion of that popup. And so moving forward in the future, we'll look to do this in other areas of the city in other parcels, but for now it was just focused in these areas. You can see on this chart um the cleaned up area. I really wanted to highlight that the brick work that's been done where that sits is where it used to be out in front of the building that will house the teacups.

That's uh so you'll see that. Some other items we are partnering with Phaleen Hall and continuing to work with them. We are hoping to do an outdoor movie series this summer with them on Saturday nights uh at least once a month. So, we're looking to see how can we take this uh this this parcel and really program it in an area that uh supports the community and downtown activity through the summer months. Uh the wanted to keep this slide simple just from an aerial standpoint. You can see the work that's been done at that site in terms of cleanup. Uh, and I'm so excited and proud of the internal work that staff has done because major majority of this work other than the fencing that will go in today has been done in house. Uh, and so we've been able to utilize our current resources to make it happen. And so there's some great pictures of it. Uh, over the next five days, we'll continue to monitor it. And this Friday, I hope you'll come out and join us as we celebrate our 250. And I'll answer any questions. Any questions?

I have a couple questions. Of course I do. Um, how long do you expect this uh popup park to be in place? So, I highlighted through September. I think some of it's going to be uh where we are come the fall what the next opportunity would be working with the city manager on that. Okay. And then uh I'll just open the canoworms uh grocery store was going to go here, right? Um that was the plan. Do we have an update on where we might be able to locate a grocery store somewhere in the food desert near downtown?

We are um continuing to work with some interested parties on um some other parcels. So, this parcel along with all the city-owned parcels is are all going to be looked at. Um but we think that given the space constraints on this site that um one of the other city-owned parcels may be better suited ultimately for it. Um but we're we're working through that process right now. So, this in no way um inhibits the ability to develop the site at a future date for whatever the city ultimately decides it should be.

Okay. Yeah. I bring that up because I think a lot of folk I've heard from a few folks in the community who think that instead of a grocery store, we're getting a park. And I I think I just want to make sure that it's clear to the public that it's not an instead it's an addition. Yes. This is very much just an activation of instead of it being just a fenced off dead space, let's get it in use. um let's make it pretty um so that it's not just sitting as an isore. That's fantastic. Also, this is a lot of work in a few short months. So, thank you to staff for doing this. I know it's a lot of work. Anybody else?

Yeah. Um it's good to hear a lot of this work was done inhouse because I believe and I've always believed that we have the capacity to do a lot of the things that we outsource in house. So, it's it's good to see us utilizing the resources that we have. And that wasn't a question, that comment. And the the question is now, are the goats going here or are they going to the new park? Uh, neither actually, but we'll update about the goats at a later date. Okay. Cuz I keep hearing about goats. And so, I'm just going to keep talking about goats until I see a goat or until I don't see a goat.

No goats yet. You will you will know it when the goats come because we're all we we are all very excited about about getting that program. Are they like are they grass eating goat? Is that what they're they're like kudzu eating goats? Um and like putting them on steep hillsides that are hard to otherwise maintain kind of goats. So So there you have it public. It's confirmed. Well, we we we don't have them yet. So we we got to make sure that we can keep them in a safe spot. Um but uh city goats at work is going to be a whole thing that we're very excited about. City goats. Okay. Thank you. That'll get a lot that'll get a lot of likes on Facebook. Yes. Um so um

so no goats in pajamas, not the baby goats because I'm for the baby goats. I mean big goats make baby goats. So can we get some baby goats, too? Maybe a little goat yoga. I'll make note of it. We'll see. Maybe put the goat yoga. I'm just saying it's in a park. baby goats, pajamas, little sneakers. It's cute. Um, all jokes aside, seriously. Um, so this park is here until September and then what?

And the reason why I'm asking is that I think, um, there are a lot of, let's talk about this from an economic development standpoint, small business owners who are doing various pops popup shops. It would be really nice if we could contribute something like that in this area while we're waiting for something else to come. Um, I could totally see a weekend popup shop with small business owners in the area that are able to um also get some of the same business and tourists that are coming through downtown. Yes, ma'am. We'll we'll coordinate with staff and start looking into some of those options. Yeah, you hear that, Dennis? That's why I'm looking.

We got that loud and clear. And we're also looking at interim uses for the parcels right around Skyline as well for the same sort of thing. Okay, good. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay. Thank you. Are there any more items you brought forward? Um, Miss Hawk. No, Mr. Mayor. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. With that, we stand a journ.