Affordable Housing Advisory Committee - Regular Meeting

Order is 03:45PM. Can I get the roll call, ma'am?

Mister Marciano? Here. Mister Musley? Here. Miss Dreyer? Here. Mister Hilty? Here. Mister Mansfield? Here. Mister Pithea?

Here. The clerk will call the roll.

I'll do the public notice. The 04/21/2026 CRA meeting was noted on 03/03/2026 on the City Of Ocala's website. Thank you.

Thank you. Everyone had an opportunity to review them, I will entertain a motion to approve the minutes from 03/17/2026 meeting of CRA agency board. Do I hear a motion to approve? So moved. Is there a second?

Second.

Are there any comments from the public? Are there any questions or comments from the board? The clerk will call the roll.

Mr. Musley?

Aye.

Mr. Hilty? Aye. Mr. Dreyer? Aye. Mr. Mansfield? Aye. Mr. Bethea?

Aye. Item five a is the presentation of our

fiscal year twenty twenty four-twenty five annual report presentation by economic development manager, Roberto Ellis. Good afternoon. Roberto Ellis, economic development manager for the record. So this report include included in your packet highlights or activities of the CRA for the period 10/01/2024 through to 09/30/2025. Every year each CRA must file a report with their respective board and publish this report online.

I'll just go over some highlights from the report. The entire report is included in your packets. A section of this report will include the annual audit that will be presented to you at a later date. As it relates to taxable values, these increased across all CRA district. Downtown CRA rose by 9.6%.

In North Magnolia, it rose by 11 increased by 11%. In West Ocala, 9.1, and in East Ocala, 8.9%. So West Ocala remained our largest revenue generator, followed by East Ocala, then Downtown, and North Magnolia CRA. Collectively, the total CRA tax increment increased from $4,320,000 in fiscal year twenty twenty four to approximately $49,000,000 in fiscal year twenty twenty five. So this trends our overall capacity and expand the resources available to reinvest in the community.

So in the last year, the CRA awarded 38 grants totaling approximately $3,800,000 And that's broken down into 12 commercial grants and 26 residential grants. Broken down by CRA that works out to be 22 grants awarded in the East Ocala CRA, 12 in the West Ocala CRA, one in downtown, and three North Magnolia. Included in those commercial grants was a catalytic grant awarded to Rayleard One LLC and then our major downtown project for the AC Marriott. That is also captured here. In addition to the grants that were awarded, another 42 projects were completed during the fiscal year.

This includes a mix of facade improvements, both commercial and residential, affordable housing rehabs, catalytic projects, and then our development projects focused on our downtown CRA. Together, these projects leverage approximately $9.8000000 dollars in private investment, and this is well needed in our CRA. As it relates to capital improvements, spending decreased in FY '25 as major projects were wrapped up in the previous year. During the fiscal year, we completed landscaping improvements at the Heritage Trail that closed that project out, completed other improvements at the downtown market, and the CRA contributed funding support to the skate park expansion. We will continue this year focusing on community outreach.

We participated in a lot of activities, community engagement activities in the last year, and this will also be a focus for us going forward. Additional details are provided in the full report, and this does not require any action from counsel but I'm happy to answer any questions.

Any questions? Just to tack on to the end of that, we did discuss what we would bring back to you on every CRA. And I also dropped in front of you an affordable housing advisory commotes to all of the boards. We're actually gonna, in city manager's report at the council meeting, I'm gonna suggest that we have a workshop to deal with both of those.

Can I just add council president that this is a really in-depth detailed report and it's really well done? I appreciate that. Thank you.

Thank you. K. No action is required. So five b is the approval of a downtown CRA commercial property improvement grant. Do I hear a motion to approve? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Mister Ellis, once again.

Thank you. So this application was submitted by the forge at Madison Commons LLC, and this property is located in our downtown Ocala CRA. The scope of work includes the renovation of three forty foot connects containers and these will be repurposed repurposed as permanent commercial units. The application cover the these this site as a catalytic site in the Midtown Master Plan anticipating that redevelopment of this site will generate significant economic activity in our Midtown area. Following that in 2022, the entered a redevelopment agreement to support phase one of that project.

The scope before you today is captured in phase two of the project. Since the overall project started, the applicant indicated that the cost from their original estimates have more than doubled and they are seeking financial assistance from the CRA to complete these phase two improvements. Based on quotes provided, the applicant qualifies for a maximum grant of $50.00. This will cover up to 30% of the project cost that are estimated to be no less than $165,371 Staff recommends approval.

Is there any comments from the public? Comments from the council? Call the roll.

Mister Hulte? Aye. Mister Mansfield?

Aye.

Mister Musley?

Aye.

Miss Dreyer? Aye. Mister Bethea?

Aye. Five c is the approval of a West O'Kelly CRA residential property improvement grant application. Do I hear a motion to approve?

So moved.

Aye. Miss Ellis, once again.

Thank you. This applicant is miss Lisa Coleman who resides in our West Ocala CRA area. The proposed scope of work includes the installation of a six foot PVC privacy fence that will also include one double gate, one single gate to the sides of the home. We conducted a site visit on February 27, and we observed that there was a chain link fence to the northern property line. This fence will be removed due to its condition, and then the new fence will be installed.

Based on the the cost estimates, the recommended grant amount is $5,218 The CRE advisory committee recommended approval at their meeting held on March 26. Staff also recommends approval.

Any comments from the public? Council? Roll the roll.

Ms. Stryer? Aye. Mr. Mansfield?

Aye.

Mr. Musley.

Aye.

Mr. Hulte. Aye. Mr. Bethe.

Aye. Item five d is the selection of applicants to fill two vacancies on the West O'Kellis CRA Advisory Committee. The clerk will handle the selection of applicants. So I think before you, you have vote voters. So we need to fill them out.

So we That's have two.

Yes. That's two.

It says, please vote for one.

Vote for one on the first one. So I our thought was that the simplest way to do it would be vote for one, and then when you're done with that, we'll go and vote for the second one. Otherwise, you're likely to be all over the place if you're voting for two, and it'd be hard for you to find three that form a majority the first time.

Can we just pass two forward at the same time?

But they're not for the same person. Right?

Correct.

Okay. Then that would work.

Well, I have four ballots here. Do I get to vote four times?

No. You screw up. Wow. I we all got four. We all got

Oh, we all got four.

We all got four.

I thought I was being

Oh, not just you.

Vote early, vote often.

So for the West Ocala CRA, council appoints Jamie Gilmore and Gloria Robinson. Council member Hilty, council member Mansfield, council member Bethea, council member Musley, and council member Dreyer voting for Jamie Gilmore, and council member Hilty, council member Mansfield, council member Bethea, glor Gloria Robinson, and council council member Dreyer and council member Musley, Darnitha Johnson. So mister Gilmore received five votes, and miss Gloria Robinson received three. And miss Darnita received two. That went too bad.

What's up? Alright.

Any public comments? Having none, counsel, comments? Right. This meeting is adjourned. I

have to We're we were looking

I'm gonna Maybe I want you

to take it with you. Yeah.

And then I'll send it to you later on. Yeah.

It's very

You don't like that this way. Alright. Yeah. It's As soon as I yeah. Yeah. I'll let you guys