Community Economic Development Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

Eisenhower, Julie LaCourt, Lacey Holland,

and Sean Burrows. And we will have the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Checking for public comment.

Excellent. And the approval of the minutes from the last meeting, if you had a chance to review them. And a motion to approve those

I'll motion it.

Okay. Motion made by Ursula and second by

I'll second it.

Second by Julie Julianne. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Excellent. So moving through to new business, actually. The discussion under the possible actions regarding the Suncoast Technical College. Do you have any information on that? Or I'm assuming Ron wasn't going to be here to do

business, both items A and B, were carryover from some dialogue at the last meeting. But it was suggested that we move that for discussion in the future. Correct. And so they appear here based based on your discussions from last month. With respect to your question, do I have new information? No. We are not represented by Mr. ND or Mr. Dapillo. It's both associated with STC. Excellent.

Well, this is going be the shortest meeting ever. And of course, the other item of business with relating the corridor zoning, that's also another thing that the individual who would be talking about that is not here right now. So this is a unique situation. I can't say I've experienced this before.

Mr. Chairman, we could carry them forward to a future meeting.

I would definitely recommend that we do that. So we're going make a note to carry these two to the next committee meeting or board meeting for discussion. Hopefully, I think the communication breakdown may have been something. So I'll double check-in on that as well to ensure that we are notified that

Can you make one suggestion, Mike? Sure. Economic development is important. I I think that's why we're all here. And I look at all the Northport websites on Facebook, and there's so many people complaining about the new DLC.

They just have no comprehension or they just like to complain that, oh, they're taking over, and we need that commercial property. And one thing that your department used to do, at least last year, is a couple times a year, they would post post on the government website, the Northport government, to say why it's important to have more commercial development for tax purposes. Because that's the business's pay. And people don't understand that. And they're getting upset about taxes going up and homeowners insurance.

Everybody's worried about that. But I lived in Chicago for forty years. And let me tell you, my taxes here are 10% of what I used to pay in Chicago. People don't understand. And sometimes, I mean, if any would do that, she or somebody in her group would post something about what it really means to have commercial development. And I think that would you'll get a lot of kickback, but just don't answer them. Because there are people out there that just like to complain for no and they have no idea what they're talking about. Just a suggestion. No. No.

I agree. I agree. I think that was, I think at that time, Vinnie was the marketing coordinator for that. And that position And

and they hit somebody whoever posted it for her did get a lot of backlash. And they started to answer it, and I think she shut it down because it was all stupidity. People just trying to complain. Correct. And and I was reading an article online the other day about how the whole state of Florida is turning into rich man's haven. Only wealthy people can live here now. Well, that's not entirely true. And that's why we're doing the affordable housing, trying to get people because somebody has to service these wealthy people because they're not doing it themselves. That's for sure. One of my sisters works in a restaurant, and she'll and it happens to be in an affluent area.

And she says she gets people coming in there three or four times a week to eat because they don't cook. They don't have to. And it's just a matter of understanding that those services are necessary. And we all know with the new hospital, that's what the SCT is doing. They're trying to develop these skills that people need to have service jobs, yes, but qualified service jobs, jobs that actually have a skill, a technology skill of some kind that are important for service.

So it's those kinds of things that there's people who will never understand that. But that's a small minority, I think, in my opinion anyway. There's always going to be complainers. Can't get away from them.

I think overall, have the way that shifting in society is now, you can make an accusation with zero foundation or basis behind it Mhmm. And it'd be taken as true. So which is sort of why I yes. Like you said, we should get ahead of it or at least try to.

Right. And if all you ever do is look at what's on the web, you're not going to get accurate information all the time depending on what you're looking at. And even the television news and all those sources, you have to look at more than one place. And you're going to have your own opinion, of course. But you have to have a basis for making that decision and understanding what your opinion is all about if you don't understand all aspects. Conservatives should be looking and listening to liberals and liberals vice versa to understand how people feel and think. Would you like that for a future agenda item? Yes, please. Compromise is important. We do it all the time.

In business, you have to. So why can't we do that in our personal lives and political lives? Gotcha.

And I could talk all day offline on that one with you because I'm right there with you.

Yeah, you know what I'm saying.

100%. 100.

By way of information only for this crew, the metrics around land development, specifically around commercial and residential, specifically because you mentioned ULDC. With the rewrite of the ULDC, Universal Land Development Code, the

able

what

year.

To commercial zoning a in the city is still well under 20%. Yeah,

big time. It's currently at 8%.

Need to just Just so that you have a perspective, if you have an opportunity to engage in a discussion, we are below what most municipalities would have for commercial development. And of course, development, as you so eloquently pointed out, is the financial future of this city as it relates to tech space.

And right. And it's been said before about the 8% versus what it should be around 20%. But it never stated examples of other cities our size and what their commercial development is. And I think that might change people's minds when they actually see what other cities have to do. There was a posting people are complaining about the new police department, the cost of it. But they don't understand. It's just not the building. It's the technology that has to go into it long term. And remember when the computer companies were telling us that everything changed every eighteen months. Well, now it's even faster than that.

I mean, if iPhone's got two new ones coming out, sixteen and seventeen. Well, which one? And why? If your old phone works, why not? But they stop servicing them after a few years and forcing you to get an upgrade. Whatever. That's their business. It's like Kodak did not sell cannabis. They sold film. That's it. That's another heartburn. So if we could find I'm sure someone in your group could do some research to find other cities our size, population wise, and find out what their commercial development is. And if we present that, it would make a better argument or a I hate to say argument or defense. I don't like those words. Representation.

Representation of what we actually need to keep our taxes lower. And that would help some of those people change their mind. There's always going to be there's always, like I said, the people who will never be able to get a higher skilled job, are always going to work menial labor, unfortunately, that's our society. I don't know. Garbage men make a lot of money.

And nobody wants those jobs. Somebody posted all the salaries of all the city workers the other day. And they say, oh, they were all in uproar. Well, that's what it costs to retain good talent. And that's the problem, that people aren't understanding that either.

They don't understand what most government workers have to go through to attain the skills they need to get qualified for a government job, like the kind we have in Northport. I mean, you're a nurse. So what do you have to go through to get see, that's right. Every technical job of some sort or skilled job of some sort. And that's what SAT is doing. So I don't want to interrupt you, but the items that you're speaking about are really future type of Yes. I'm sorry. I have a tendency to run my mouth. And Sean's too polite to shut me up most of the time.

I'm learning this balance of and keep speaking. So Okay. Since there's no other public comment at this time, we do have those other items on there for future agenda items. Is there anything that needs to be brought before the board today from anyone? Okay. Finding that there's none, we will go ahead and adjourn our meeting at 10:47. Thank you guys for filling out.

Okay. Thank you.

Sometimes it's like that.