City Council - workshop

Good evening. I'd like to call the North Guster City Council study session for Monday, July 27, 2026 to order. It's great to see everybody. Thank you all for being here. At this time, I'd like to turn this over to our city administrator, Mr. Jim Clifford.

I think Mr mayor council members we have, uh, as our normal practice, the agenda review this evening. All by department details, lastly, followed by. Uh, focus items that are mayor matters, and we have several for those for this evening. So, if I could, I'll go ahead and move into the agenda review. And I sadly report that this is Tom Caesar's last full week as a city employee before his impending retirement And so next Monday evening we'll be recognizing Tom on his long-standing service to the city as our director of public works And we'll be sorry to see him go, but that'll be the start of our meeting for next week. So I I'll save any commentary by Tom for his moment in the sun on Monday, but I just wanted to point out this is Tom's last week here for the city council and for his support to the staff, of which we are eternally grateful. And then under old business, there are three items, and these things are all linked. And these are under planning and development. Three separate ordinances, 2025-02, 03, and 04. I'm going to omit covering those in any kind of detail here during the agenda review because Tommy Paradise is one of the focus items. He's going to do a comprehensive review. I know a number of the council members were not seated on council when this originally came up to council. through the Planning Commission and into City Council's purview. So really this is going to be kind of a rehash for the entire City Council just to get you all up to speed on what it is you're going to be considering next Monday as far as the ordinance requests. And also this is coming at the request of the developer to remove from the table. And so you'll have an opportunity next week to Vote to remove this from the table and understand for each of the council members that a vote to remove from the table does not give tacit approval of the subsequent hearing or the subsequent resolution or ordinance that you'll be voting on. It just says, hey, I agree that we have a reason to remove this from the table. And sometimes it may be because you've tasked the staff to come up with additional information. The staff then says, yep, we've got everything that you've requested, now it's time to move back off the table, in which case you can do so, or in this particular case, which we have with this developer, is the developer has requested that this come off the table so they can make decisions about what's gonna happen with this based on your vote for this ordinance. So they have a legal justification for requesting this, and so that's why you're gonna have this as a vote to remove from the table next week. So again, just wanna make sure you all are tracking, just as you vote to remove this from the table formally next week, That is not the implicit vote for the actual action. You're just saying, okay, I'm going to take it off the table now and then hear the full consideration of what will be before you.

Which we need to do because the applicant has asked us for an up or down.

So those are the items there. And so aside from that, there really aren't any other items. I'll just say for the folks that are watching this evening, the three separate ordinances are, and again, these are all linked. So the first ordinance has to do with changing the corporate limits of the city of North Augusta. which is annexing essentially, which is the Kellogg track, which we're going to talk about in depth a little bit later. Then the next ordinance is amending the zoning map from its current zoning of critical area CR to a planned development, which is what has been proposed. And then the final item there, which is the last linked item, is approving the general development plan for what we're calling the Kellogg tract. So again, those three things all go together. There's no point in, at least in my opinion, there's no point in voting for one and not voting for another. Those three things, if you intend to do something with that action, it makes sense to do all three or to do none, but not to pick and choose and go, hey, this, because you're just going to lose the intent of what you're trying to achieve there. So with all that, I'm going to go ahead and pass it over to our city clerk, Jimmy Barton, go through department details, and then we'll talk the Kellogg track among some other topics here this evening. Jamie, over to you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. First up for department details is Finance Director Linda Williamson.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Finances update for tonight will be that our Cycle 1 customers have a due date for their July 10th bills on August 3rd. Disconnection for their July balances will begin on Tuesday, August 18th. Cycle 2 customers, their disconnection date for their June balances will begin on Tuesday, August 4th. And the due date for the July 26th bills will be August 17th.

Thank you. Thank you. Next up is Human Resources Manager Kayla Ferguson.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. If you look at your department details, you'll see that we are highlighting we have three new hires this week. And then on the next page, we have our list of employment opportunities.

Thank you. Next up is Engineer and Public Works Director Tom Cesar.

Last one, Tommy. Last one of these.

Thank you. I don't want to be too redundant, but the Creighton Park site work has been completed. It was completed last week, and as of today, the parking lot is reopened for public use. I wanted to make that known. And also, our contractor working on the Crestview woodlawn drainage improvements, they have reached what we call substantial completion on that project, and so they are just in the process of restoring yards and fences, et cetera. for the very minor punch list to complete. I haven't spoken in a while about the SRP Wow Club Terrace leak. since we did all those major repairs last year and first of this year. But several weeks ago, during some heavy downpours, we did see some evidence of leakage in the retail space below. Fortunately, the space is now unoccupied. But nevertheless, our original contractor, Brasfield & Gorey, believes they have identified the source of the leak This latest leakage and starting tomorrow, they will be doing some additional demolition of the concrete on the terrace and re-waterproofing the area of the intrusion. And hopefully, or they plan to have that fully restored before the end of this week. Hopefully that will bring resolution to that matter. And then lastly, we've been notified by SCDOT that they have awarded a contract for the resurfacing of a substantial portion of West Martintown Road that will be from Butler Avenue to Hammond Pond Road. They, however, cannot give us a timeline of that work. It could be tomorrow. It could begin three months from now. But I have seen some markings on the sidewalk and sidewalk ramps in that corridor, which indicates that they have identified portions of sidewalk and ramps that need to be reconstructed to current ADA standards, which is typical for that type of work. So it appears that that work is imminent. Thank you.

Great job, Tom. Tom, is the work on the terrace, is that still under warranty?

no the original warranty with the stadium expired several years ago right so the contractor is working the city committed a portion of funding that was approved by Council probably in 25 I think and so however the contractor the work once they got into it the work tremendously ended up ceding the initial scope, the cost of all of which the contractor has borne himself, except for the portion that's specifically authorized by council. So it's not technically under warranty, but the contractor is sticking with it and continuing to try to solve the problem. OK. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up is Planning and Development Director Tommy Paradise.

Mr. Mayor and Council, the RFP for the comprehensive plans due by Thursday at noon. No BZA meeting in August. The traffic signal at Exit 1 in the Hive is now operational. Preliminary plat for Carolina Lakes was approved. Preliminary plat for Swallow Lake Townhomes has been approved. For the code enforcement, we've got eight new cases open, seven cases closed, 13 illegal signs removed, and six landscape inspections. And now if I can go off script a little bit, for those of y'all who may have heard about Bentley Place, that was cleaned up by the owner over the weekend. We were scheduled to clean it up tomorrow.

Appreciate it. Good job, Tommy. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up is Public Services Utilities Foreman Ryan Metz.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, council members. We are continuing with our AMR transfer over to the water meters. We added 1,791. We have approximately 168 left. So we are at the tail end of that project. We're also in the process of cleaning our sewer main easement from the San Salvador to the Village Parkway in the Riverview Park area. about 1,100 feet of that that we're in the process, so we can do some sewer main cleaning and inspections, and also the Miracle Utility Field. The utility building for the Miracle Field is in a spot where we can connect utilities, so we will begin connecting the sewer line and the water line for that facility. Thank you.

That's great. Thank you, Ron.

Thank you. Next up is Public Safety Chief Johnson.

Good evening. As you can see on our sheet here, our public safety will be hosting National Night Out August 4th at Riverview Park. We'd encourage anyone to come out there. Good night to join with law enforcement in the community. Also, school started back last week in Aiken County, so you'll see an increase in officers in school zones, and we just remind everyone to be extra careful when they're driving through school zones. And also, we're looking forward to our animal shelter assistant, who's scheduled to start this Wednesday.

When does that start, the night out, at 4 o'clock, or what's the time?

It is 6 o'clock to 8.

Thank you.

Yes, sir. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up is Park and Recreation Superintendent Jeremy Junis.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. So Park and Recreation, the activity center, we are kind of preparing for a floor finish project that we're going to start 1st of August. We're doing it two phases. We're going to redo the floors in the front building which just needs kind of a re-sand and re-finish. Then we'll move into the back building where they're going to take it all the way back down to wood, repaint the lines, and restore the floors to their brand-new look. While that's going on, we've still got fall sports registration for football, cheerleading, soccer, and volleyball going on. That goes through August 3rd. Then we're still playing adult wood bat outside, so we've got a lot going on, and things are still moving. Thank you.

Thank you. And closing out Department Details is Tourism Director Carl Waldhauer.

Good evening, Mayor, Council. Director Carl tonight. It is. It is kind of a weird thing. Yes, sir. Thank you. We're hosting at the Community Center of North Augusta Chamber of Commerce Power Lunch starting at 1130. This month's format's a regional leadership forum. Our main rooms will be speaking along with representatives from Aiken Regional, Fort Gordon, and SRS. Community Center will also be hosting a U.S. Senate special primary August 5th, 6th, and 7th, so Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. From 8.30 to 5 p.m. for those three days for early voting. It's a special election due to the vacated nomination due to Senator Graham's passing. And we'll also be hosting our regular precinct on August 11th. That's 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on that election day.

With that, I'll turn it back over to you, Mr. Clifford.

Hey, Jamie. So we have three focus items for this evening. And the first will be Linda Williamson to give the quarterly update about Riverside Village. No major changes, but just let Linda go through the financial updates here for you. And Linda, turn it over to you.

all right thank you um all right thank you um tonight i have our second quarter uh update for the year um again we do these quarterly voluntary disclosures and they are all published on the electronic municipal market access website and that is emma.msrb.org under north augusta public facilities corporation these are also posted on our city's website as well We are required to do an annual flat filing each year with the market access. And we did that right after we finished our audit in June. And several tables from tonight's update are going to come from that audit that we had performed. Next slide. The first chart we have is included with our statistical section of the annual audit. This table's been updated to reflect the assessed values of all real and personal property for the 2024 tax year and the prior four years. Taxes assessed in 24 are collected in the fiscal year 25. Next slide. The next two tables remain unchanged since quarter one. That's our tax rates, next slide, and our general fund budget, next slide. Next, we have the 10 largest taxpayers, which has been updated from our most recent audit. The most notable change from the previous year are that Ackerman Greenstone is no longer on that list, but it was replaced with the Crowne Plaza. And also, Comcast made the list this year over CVS. Next slide. This slide shows the tax collection of the city, another statistical table from our audit. We continue to collect over 99% of tax revenue in the current year that it is levied. We do also collect in subsequent years as well, and we'll continue to do that. Next slide. This table is part of our audit where our debt is disclosed. These numbers are reflective of our debt as of December 31st, 2025. These include our capital leases for equipment and vehicles that the city has done in the past, as well as debt pertaining to Riverside Village, the public safety headquarters, and utilities. The city's legal debt margin currently is $16,306,331. Next slide. This table is our general obligation bonds. We issued this bond through referendum for the public safety headquarters. Since our capital sales tax for collections exceeded what they initially estimated we would collect, we were able to make that final payment early. And we saved over $20,000 in interest payment. Next slide. This slide represents our hospitality tax collection. So far this year, we've collected over a million and a half dollars in hospitality taxes, and that is up about 6.3% from this time last year. We continue to see hospitality doing well in the city. And just as a reminder, we collect a 2% hospitality, but 1% is designated towards the debt service. Next slide. This is our accommodations tax. This table represents all the accommodations tax The Crowne Plaza is the only one that's dedicated to the debt service. We have a tax, our current collection rate is at 3%. Our collections this year are up 29% from the second quarter of 2025 to $419,402. And these numbers include the Master's Week's peak. Next slide. The next... Table is our tax increment revenues. This includes all the TIF revenues collected. So TIF revenues that come from the county have the intergovernmental agreements. We have a payment that we owe about $350,000 as part of that agreement, and we have fulfilled that, and that is reflected in these numbers. And just a quick reminder, our TIF revenues will be a little bit less this year due to the fact that we did not have to assess that mid-payment on those properties in the municipal district. And that was due to the estimated tax revenue was going to be more than the annual assessment. Next slide. This remains unchanged.

Next slide.

parking revenues although our quarter one showed a positive net revenue in parking we have a net revenue in the negative for quarter two this is due to the riverside village baller project that the council passed in september of last year we allocated that back payment from the previous hotel developer when they sold the hotel back in 2024 to improve or to fund a portion of this project which was to improve vehicular and pedestrian safety in riverside village Next slide. All right, this is our final chart. It reflects our stadium revenue, emissions taxes usually collected or received in August for the second quarter for the Green Jackets baseball season. And that payment will be updated in quarter three or four. This chart has been updated to reflect the receipt of the rent payment that was made in April. And just a reminder, the naming rights are always paid in December. Any questions? That's all I have.

I mean, our local hospitality and accommodations, those numbers are incredible. Yes, they're doing very well. Those are going to be really nice. Very good, thank you.

Thank you.

So our next item is going to be presented by Tommy Paradise, the city's planning and development director. And again, this is really meant to be a refresher about how we got to this point with the Kellogg tract, as we call it, and oriented map. The Kellogg tract is in unincorporated Aiken County, and it is directly behind Fire Station 3 on Belvedere Clearwater Road. So it's on the west side of Interstate 520, directly behind Fire Station 3. There's a large wooded track there, which is opposite from what we had previously called the Highland Springs, and now it's called Allardade, over by Highland Springs Middle School. So that's the area of the city in the unincorporated county that we're talking about here. So this is what is before you. And so, Tommy, I turn it over to you.

all right thank you mr mayor and council just before i get into this just a little history in the so you know the developer and his engineer is in the audience tonight um the planning commission heard this application originally in december of 2024. the annexation request was unanimously recommended for approval by council the rezoning request was unanimously recommended for approval by council The general development plan, however, was recommended for approval with a 4-3 vote by the planning commission. And the ones that voted in opposition was Waddell, Christie, and Harbison. So the three-part process you've got is the annexation, rezoning, and then the adoption of the general development plan.

Next. Next.

What's being proposed is the annexation of 381 acres, rezoning of 467 acres because 86 acres is already in the city, and the adoption of the general development plan. Next. Next. 476 acres is project location. You can see it in the blue here, or excuse me, in the green, and then in the white, subject parcels. The remaining 386 acres are in, 381 acres are out, and they're in Aiken County unincorporated. Next. So let's talk about annexation first. Next. annexing 381.29 acres plus or minus two different parcels um between edgefield road i-520 and belvedere clear water and they're requesting that it be annexed with the planned development zoning designation next Future land use designation from the comprehensive plan calls for it to be mixed use. The proposed plan includes residential uses, commercial spaces, and open spaces. So that's why the planning staff checked the box on the mixed use for the development. The comprehensive plan, when you looked at that, Staff found it implied there as well with the housing and diversity, housing supply, and economic growth. And we have those listed out on the handout for you. Next. So how does annexing work? The development code requires that it come in as R14 unless the applicant requests something different. And in this case, they did ask for something different, which is the PD. The Planning Commission reviews whether they think it's appropriate and makes that recommendation to City Council, which they've done.

Next.

Now let's talk about rezoning. Why is rezoning needed? Well, the whole parcel needs to be the same zoning district if it's going to be a planned development. And so all of it needs to be planned development to make that work. 86.22 acres is currently in the city limits, and it is zone critical restricted. Next. So how do we evaluate the rezoning? We look at the comprehensive plan, compatibility with surrounding uses, transportation impacts, public utilities and infrastructure, environmental impacts, neighborhood compatibility, and community development needs. So to the north is predominantly wooded and undeveloped county land. To the south and west is single family neighborhoods with some commercial business and services. The east is bound by a 520. And nearby zoning in the city includes R10 and general commercial. And then you have the county zoning of urban development and residential conservation. The residential compatibility with surrounding area is the proposed zoning compatible with nearby neighborhoods does provide appropriate transition between uses and our buffer requirements included. And staff looked at it and said it believes it's a transition area between Edgefield Road and Belvedere Clearwater Commercial Quarters and also the nearby neighborhoods.

Next.

Transportation considerations. The TIA recommended future traffic signals. Those would come at a certain point in time in the build-out. Roadway improvements and coordination with nearby developments. Allidade is right across I-520 from this. So it is important that we coordinate the traffic from this development with that of Allidade. This development will generate tremendous traffic as well.

Next.

Sewer capacity, and this is where we kind of had to hit the brakes. Future requirements are going to need detailed utility calculations and be required during site plan review and preliminary plant review. Next. This gives you an idea of the layout and where you're looking at in the topo. Next. Environmental considerations. Existing zoning is critical areas. And why is it zone critical? Because of wetlands, watercourses, stormwater areas, and environmentally sensitive lands. This particular tract that's in the city has wetlands on it.

Next.

So this gives you an idea, incorporated in the green there that's in the city. And then if you look to the right, you can see in the green, that is what's designated as the wetlands. You can see the wetlands are to the right of the critical restricted. So that opens up the left that's outside of the wetlands for development if it was rezoned to planned development. Next. Wetlands report was completed in January of 2024. There's 15 acres of wetlands on the property fed by streams and a four-acre pond located near the center in the unincorporated Aiken County area.

Next.

Environmental protections, we'd have the 50 foot wetland buffers required by the stormwater and anything within 100 feet of any area that appears to be wetlands has been delineated.

Next.

So then we get to the general development plan. What is a planned development? And y'all have heard me talk about that before probably. It's allowed by South Carolina law, intended for large mixed-use projects, which this is. Allows flexibility in design, requires a unified development plan. Must provide public benefits beyond conventional zoning, such as it has to have mixed housing types and densities, integrated commercial areas, open space preservation, and then we need to coordinate the transportation system in there as well. Purpose of the plan development is have flexible site plan design, mixed-use development, preservation of natural resources, coordinated infrastructure, and improved community amenities. Staff felt like we checked the box on that when we sent it to the Planning Commission. This is the conceptual use plan. You see it divided. into different pods and different phases. I'll get you a little bit better slide here, I believe. Next. The residential is up to 1,763 residential units, about 27 acres of retail and neighborhood serving commercial. I believe that's a typo there and it should be 300,000 square feet instead of 30,000 square feet. And approximately 117 acres is preserved with a minimum of 25% open space. Now, this one gives you a little bit better here, or to me it does. Track A is 993 single-family detached homes. Track B is up to 810 units of mixed single-family homes. Patios, duplexes, townhomes, apartments is in the general development plan, and condos. There is a cap of 300 units on the apartments if the developer were to go that way. That gives you A and B. C is the commercial, and then D is the green space.

Next.

This slide gives you basically what I just told you. Next. Open space and environmental preservation, we're required to save 25% of open space. That's about, we're doing 117 acres is protected at build out. And wetland protection areas would be maintained and the greenway connection would be incorporated. 117 acres, about 89 football fields. Next. Transportation improvements. Inside the development we've staffed during the negotiations, there's a collector road network with divided medians, turn lanes, multi-use paths, greenway connection, and internal connectivity between uses. From the bicycle and pedestrian features, there's an eight-foot multi-use path on one side of that main collector road. There's connection to the I-520 greenway and walkable access to parks and open space. The general development plan includes architectural standards which reduces the garage dominance and front porches and pedestrian oriented entrances. We required monument signage, landscaping enhancement, and greenway entry. There is separation, buffer separation between housing types where they're required. So the key question for y'all is should the property be annexed into the city? Is the plan of development the appropriate zoning district? And does the proposed general development plan satisfy the city and state requirements? Next. So what happens next? If the annexation, rezoning, and general development plan are approved by council, that's not the end of it. Future approvals require subdivision plans for individual neighborhood components. They'll have to come in and get a preliminary plat approved for each section that they do. Site plans for the commercial parcels, just like any other development. And of course, they'll need the construction plans and building permits through building standards. So tonight, you do not approve construction plans, building permits, subdivision plats, authorized development outside the GDP. Next. I think that's it.

I mean, also is a note here for administration, just as a reminder for council based on previous guidance that the council's given to the staff. This is an example of a project where the developer required to pay for additional sewer capacity. This is not sewer capacity. that the city has resident and available as far as what the requirement is and so we would require the purchase of additional sewer capacity through aiken county the horse creek facility in order for this project to move forward to be an another an additional action uh for the city council to consider in addition to um the normal actions the ordinances that are before you tommy you talk fast but let me ask you this

Explain to me, so under the critical area, 86 acres, 84 acres, if that was zone critical area and then you made a comment, you said that was because of wetlands, but not all of that 84 acres is wetlands. Why did the city state the whole area was critical if there's only a portion? Because you're saying now, I don't know what the acres is, but whatever is the wetlands, you said the rest of it could be developed. I guess I'm wondering, why did we even do that originally? What was the thought process?

And I don't know, other than that is one parcel. I will tell you that since I've been here, what we have done several times is dual wetlands delineation for development and rezone out that portion that is not critical restricted. It's not uncommon for a portion of the critical restricted lot not to be part of the wetlands or the critical restricted.

The other question is, you talked about 117 acres for green space. Where did that come from? Because in the ordinance, it shows green space and air is an acre 29, which is like 6%. And you're showing 117 acres. I didn't know.

I believe that comes from ponds and the wetlands as you run up through there.

Just under the plan designation, you have plan A, single family, 276 acres, mixed residential, 135, generally in green space, just at 29 acres.

And then we'll also pick up some as the various developments come through, too.

So basically 117 is what it is. Yes, sir. Okay. Questions for Mr. Paradise.

And how is that 117 acres guaranteed protection?

We look at it as it comes through and make sure that at the end we have 117. And basically, as we get the preliminary plat for section, we'll make sure there's open space in there and build that. And same on commercial plats, that there's open space in there. And it will build up so that we have at least 117.

So this isn't a set piece that we're going to say, hey, this is going to go into preservation?

Not necessarily, no, sir.

OK. So could they come back if there's enough space and build in that 117 acres in the future?

No, sir. Not if it's open space.

OK. Mr. Paradise, can you explain to me why there was such a divide on the planning vote for the 4-3?

I wished I could. As you see, it's a year and a half ago. And I really don't remember. I would need to go back and watch that video.

Mr. Kelly, please chime in. South Carolina, the nature of rezoning. Under the South Carolina Local Government Comprehensive Planning Enabling Act, Title VI, Chapter 29, rezoning is considered a legislative act Municipal councils have broad discretionary authority to grant or deny a rezoning request. Does that seem like a factual statement to you? Are you reading from the statute? Yes. I mean, if you're reading from the statute, I'm certainly... And it does mention that one of the things that we can use is compliance records. And I do have two sets of compliance records. The contractor, the builder in question here had an EPA settlement against them. And they were made to do a year of public compliance reporting for 2025.

Well, you know, I'm saying I do not have any of that information in front of me. I will be glad to review anything that you want to provide to me, but I have not researched this on my own because I have not been requested to.

Before, I would feel comfortable going forward letting this developer build on a wetland based on their own compliance reporting, which I'm holding in my hand. I would feel more comfortable if you reviewed. this information and if i'm directed to i will be glad to i mean i can't do that on my own but you know there's definitely i can name our laws and i can go in their own compliance reporting and say we're in our region not just nationwide in our region where they have self-reported breaking laws similar, and zoning laws similar to ours all over the southeast over and over again. In just six months' time, for instance, we can look at one working without a permit, I think, I don't want to misquote and get us in trouble, for sure. Well, I think we got the point, so we need to let Kelly's going to do that. Yeah, I mean, for the Carolina region, 176 instances of discharging sediment beyond permitted load in just six months. So I think it's definitely something that we should look at before going forward.

What other questions do we have, Councilman?

question um if it's not annexed into the city what's the developer going to do well that'll be up to the developer in aiken county the city ordinance and and it comes back to will y'all provide water and or sewer if you don't provide utilities which the ordinance says you'll annex for utilities you know they would be on a well and separate tank and whatever that would support

What's the build out time?

That would be one for the developer, Mayor. I really don't know. That's a lot of houses.

They haven't shared that yet.

Mr. Paradise, how does annexing this area, how does that strengthen our position as a city?

It provides more housing. And I don't know at this point if that strengthens the city or not, to be honest with you. But it would provide more housing. It would be a commercial component. And I could see this supporting commercial in the Allidade region. But there again, it is mainly rooftops.

And then, I guess, Mr. Clifford, again, how does this impact our police and fire and other city resources?

I don't want to make a comment, Councilman, about this specific development, but I'm just going to make a general statement about residential versus commercial development within the city. So ultimately, residential development does not pay for itself. Residential development, if you took city and so there was zero commercial aspects to this city there was no Dollar General's and no Walmart's or whatever else and you just had rooftops when you start looking at the math problem of the requirements for public safety for police for fire for County EMS services for all the things parks and rec quality of life initiatives and whatnot you look at all that adding more houses to that equation does not make that a better equation It actually isn't a better tax option, and that's why I need commercial growth to balance that out to help pay for additional residential. I think what a planned development tries to do, to some extent, is to have the commercial component kind of offset the hit, if you will, to your services through the residential. But it's not a perfect math problem. It depends on your ratios of apartments and residential to what kind of commercial goes in there, which you can't guarantee necessarily. through general commercial zoning. And so ultimately, what I would say is that in general, when you add apartments and residential, it puts a higher load on public safety. And the public safety costs are borne pretty much exclusively through the general fund, which is your property taxes.

So Mr. Paradise, then you did say there is a commercial component. At what point does the commercial component get built out? And do we have any idea what that even looks like?

That would be a developer question. The developer, I think, would be subbing that or selling that portion off to somebody else. But that would be more of a question for them. I am not privy to that information.

Councilman, I can also tell you, based on recent historical markers here within the city, and this is not on this particular plan, but at other developments that we're seeing that are PDs, historically what we're seeing first is the apartments. That has the most bang for the buck from a profit perspective, so the apartments will normally go first, then you'll see residential, and then commercial will follow.

Have we considered any opportunity cost? What's the... You know, what might we be giving up for our other citizens by going ahead and annexing this property in?

Well, Councilman, I think what you're asking is really a question for you and the rest of the council, which is a philosophical one, which is, hey, what is the vision of the city council for growth within the city, both residential and commercial? And so ultimately, if the appetite of the council is to grow the city of North Augusta from a population perspective, then this certainly helps you get to that point. Is there gonna be an opportunity cost, as there are with any of the developments that we have, both infill development and potential annexations, that we're gonna have to maintain public services to maintain the level of service that we have, meaning that as more residential and apartment units go online, Chief's gonna send the demand signal that he needs more patrol officers, or what other support officers he may need as PSOs. And James Sutton will probably tell me, hey, we need some additional sanitation trucks at some point in time, although that's not borne by the general fund. That's borne by the sanitation funds. That's more of a fee for service. But ultimately, yes, you're going to see some of those rises occur as you grow the overall footprint of the city.

We didn't codify this, but if you remember several months back, we all came to the opinion that ideally annexation for us moving forward was going to be commercial development. infield potential and you know if you remember that so I think for what it's worth that's something everybody should be considering I think the question is, I think, Robert, you asked a good question. What is the benefit for North Augusta? I guess that question I had, Tommy, was, I think you mentioned it, they have done a traffic analysis study, correct? Yes, sir. OK. And because there's no doubt there's going to be traffic. So what, I couldn't tell when they talked about the main roads, what will be the main entrance coming and going? Is it going to be Belvedere Clearwater?

There'll be one in, if memory serves me correctly, Belvedere Clearwater. And then there'll be another entrance out toward Highway 25.

Mr. Clifford, so potentially what you're saying is we could see a ton of apartments going in on one side of 520, and if all the dice roll right for Adelaide, we could see a bunch of apartments going in on the other side of I-20 with no benefit to helping us increase infrastructure and public safety at that point because there's no commercials.

I would say, roughly, I would agree with that. I think I would defer to Tommy, because I think the first plat has been, or what's the right verbiage, Tommy, as far as Allidade? Because I know they've already proposed phase one for that already.

The preliminary plat, we're just waiting on copies to be sent to us. The preliminary plat for the first two phases of Allidade has been through the planning commission and approved. It's just a matter of getting those. And those were detached. Now, to answer more specific to your question, They're limited to 1,000 apartments in Allardade, and 300 apartments is to proposed in this one. So that's just the numbers to work with. In addition to that, you would have single family attached, I'm sure, townhomes.

So potentially speaking, maybe around the same time. 1,300 additional apartments between the two developments with no increased benefit to help us raise infrastructure, public safety to help service that.

That's what we're looking at.

And I, like we discussed, I'd feel better if Mr. Zier went through these reportings of compliance. One of the reasons it gives us is public health, safety, and welfare to deny rezoning. Councils have the authority to deny applications if past noncompliance shows a history of detriment to public health, safety, or welfare. maybe not necessarily them building, but they certainly have a history of violating sediment working without permit by their own compliance reporting. It would lead me to believe that we could have potential issues there. But is it a good idea for the city of North Augusta to bring all this on? We can decide that ourselves for public safety, health, and welfare. You know, we're talking about stressing public safety out and beefing up traffic. And I don't think I'm not in favor for annexation or rezoning at this point with the information that we have.

So I think. I share what it sounds like some of the concerns are that have been surfaced in trying to understand how this benefits current citizens. I understand that they're, and again, I will acknowledge that we are still dealing with at least some level of a housing shortage in the area affordability. is a problem that is driven at least you know to some degree by inventory um so we're seeing some of those pressures on the market and you know i'm all about trying to create more opportunities for people to be able to affordably live within the city but i think i share a lot of the concerns that have been expressed this evening about just understanding how this benefits the city. And I think I know the, in fact, I'm pretty confident I know the answer to this question, but I would assume, and I did, I watched that Planning Commission meeting, but to your point, it's been a couple of years ago, and I don't remember the specifics of it. I would at least make some assumption that if they passed the zoning, or passed the annexation, passed the zoning, but denied the general development plan,

4-3.

4-3. Yeah, I'm sorry. They passed all of them, but it was a closer vote. Unanimous, unanimous, not unanimous. Quite split. Is that some of the concern from those that voted against it were probably along those same lines, that that development plan, as it's presented, may benefit the developer economically, but it doesn't benefit the city. And again, I think some of the concerns with front-loading the apartments, back-ending the commercial, which from a market standpoint, I understand you need rooftops to support the commercial. So I get that calculation that the developer's doing. But I guess my question ultimately is there are levers that the state allows us or that our own code allows us to to not accept that development plan and maybe ask for changes to it to where if we decided that it made sense to zone all the other concerns aside, just say that we decide that it makes sense to zone it in or to annex it in and to rezone it, that we could perhaps maybe reshape that calculation so that there are benefits to the city now and that some of the benefits to the developer would be on the back end? I mean, do we have any letters to pull?

Sure. Yeah. If you vote to bring it off the table and then you deny it, they can't come back for a year. I think you could take it off the table, and Mr. Zier, correct me if I'm wrong, send it back to the Planning Commission, and then they could rework it and resubmit to the Planning Commission if y'all wanted to go that route.

If we gave some guidance to say, this is what our discomfort is with it, and this is some sort of direction. And again, I don't really know what that is at this point, but... you know it really is hard sitting here looking just at infrastructure needs looking at public safety needs looking at all the other things that are going to go to support this and trying to understand you know how it benefits the developer but how does it benefit our citizens here now and i'm having a hard time answering that question

i think in the future when we talk about saving 117 acres that we need more details on is that 117 acres going to be in the preservation is it just going to be buffer space that was clear cut and graded and no trees were left on are we going to call that green space because i think to our citizens there's a difference And I think if I were able to go to our citizens and say, hey, there's going to be 117 acre preserve on here, they're not going to clear cut and grade. It would make a difference between me saying, I don't know.

I believe this will be clear cut and graded and then replanted back.

OK, understood. So not necessarily with the flora and fauna that already exists there, just whatever they kind of bring in. How does that work?

Well, if we require buffers and plantings, the code requires different types of buffers with different types of plantings in different situations. But there's a list of approved trees, a list of approved plantings, bushes. lack of a better term, that we allow to go back. And those, you know, they are not mature trees when they go back. I'll be the first one to admit that.

So it's green space, but it's not comparable to the existing green space.

Our ordinance as it stands now has nothing that preserves trees.

You'll be dead when it's green space. We all will. Agreed, agreed. Tom, let me ask you this.

Mayor Williams, let me ask a question. If we do not annex this portion into the city, it's approved in the county already? What would stop them from doing the development in the county versus the city?

One is y'all would have to give them utilities. That is both water and sewer. They're not located in the city. And I'll let Mr. Zier jump in here if I'm wrong, but I don't know that there's anything that requires you to provide those services to them outside the city. In fact, our ordinance says they'll come in. So whatever they develop out there has not been submitted to Aiken County, but it would have to be approved by Aiken County, by their rules, by their planning commission, by their council if it's a PD.

Can't they get water from Edgefield County or another supplier?

I don't know about the availability of other utilities in the area.

Councilman, I think the answer is no, partly because of the technical limitations of that infrastructure, but also because I think the state legislature dictates what the districts are. Special purpose water districts and utility districts are set partially through the legislature. That's why we have some kind of weird boundaries there on the north side of I-20 with Edgefield County, Water and Soar, where, you know, some people, residents of North Augusta, are getting some utilities from Edgefield County, Water and Soar, and other services from the City of North Augusta, and we can't pure fleet them because the state legislature has drawn those boundaries. And I think in this particular case, this tract would also fall under the same rules, that if that is supposed to be serviced by our, you know, service authority, that there is no relief from that, so to speak.

sewer sewer so my question is we don't have that capacity they willing to write a check for everything that's gonna be necessary for this development

They understand, and we've had that discussion with them, that it would be an upfront check. Now, in some of our conversations last week, they talked about maybe trying to split this development into two different annexations so that the checks wouldn't have to be as large at any given time. But yes, they are aware that they have to pay for capacity. And that's $11 and something a gallon.

Your point, if they won't split it for that, they can split a section and start with commercial first. Okay.

I would think that we all would like to see commercial there first, but I think the points have been made is that the commercial first. space has to have customers. I don't see how you could ask a developer to do that. I don't know that I would want to do that as a developer to guarantee commercial space first. I think we have another development, like the Hive, which we're seeing developed with the apartments already in and the single-family housing starting and still no commercial not even not even a groundbreaking i don't believe over there so i i struggle with it as well seeing another large development perhaps even a larger this is a larger development to come in with the uh with the pressure that we've got on city services without the commercial background to to help make it all work

And Mr. Felak, in what you're saying, the driver behind this developer development is a home builder. So they're looking at the residential homes.

And John, your point. But I will tell you, I mean, if you look, trust me, there's enough residential.

They aren't in the city. They're in the county. But there is a lot of residential before residential being built.

I agree with that. Sorry, what I'm saying is I don't see this as...

The commercial's not there now.

I understand because it's just land, but what I'm getting at... It's not as if, I mean, yes, I agree with you. I know why they're going to do it, but what I'm saying is it's not as if there's not residential. Now, there is a lot of residential around. It's not in the city, but there are plenty of.

Between Cherokee Drive, Belvedere, the other side of 25 there, they've got, those poor people in that area have every variety of dollar, Dollar Tree, Dollar General, Family Dollar, and they got the KJ's market, but they don't have a lot of, commercial businesses in there and that is something my mom that's my childhood home is on the end of cherokee drive i know that's something that they crave in that area they often come all the way over here to shop with us but the time is pouring this is being geared by a residential bill what other questions for mr paradise or anybody thank y'all all right thanks tommy great job

So again, these three ordinances will be for you all to debate next week during the city council meeting as well. And you'll have the first action all to take is to take it off the table, and then you can give an up or down vote or give guidance at that time as far as what you would like to have done with those particular ordinances. And again, I look at that as a bundle. So those three things kind of go together, not independently. So with that we have our final focus item of the evening and I'll turn this over to JD McCauley to give the intro here for our parking vendor services

Thanks, Jim. As we switch gears, we're going to talk about parking this evening. And to give you a back story or a little bit of history of what brings us to a focus item this evening is this is part of our Riverside Village parking pedestrian safety project. We're moving into phase two. We originally discussed this larger three-phase project a little over a year ago. Phase 1 has been successfully deployed, and Phase 1 included bollards. Linda referred to some of these earlier in her presentation, but bollards, sidewalks, yellow curbs, towing, valet, golf cart parking, and the trolley route. And then we're moving now into vendor deployment, which is a parking management services company to manage all of Riverside Village. And with most recent developments, So parking deck acquisition, now we control all the parking in Riverside Village and we're able to actually deploy this system. So the backstory that leads to today's presentation is we advertise, we went out for bid for a parking management service in March. Had it was well received, had a pre-proposal, pre-bid meeting April 2nd. And then we received eight qualified bids from vendors. We had an evaluation committee that was made up of four senior level staff and one council member. And that committee has selected this vendor this evening that will be presenting to you this evening. And in the scope of their RFQ that we put out is also in their presentation. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to introduce the presenter, Mr. Jack Skelton. He is from PCI Municipal Services. They are the folks that have... that are our winning vendor. They're going to present this evening. And then from there, we have a little bit of a break. So you don't see on your agenda next week a resolution to approve this. We're going to take some time. So you have the next council meeting. We have another study session where we'll come back. Administration will discuss, give you guys plenty of time to absorb this and think about questions for it. We'll come back to this in two weeks. And then we plan to have it on the agenda for an actual award of the vendor in August. So August 17th would be the day that that resolution comes before you on council. And then we would roll out looking at a September timeframe. But Mr. Skelton will probably lay out the rollout schedule in his presentation. So Mr. Skelton, please take it away.

All right. Thank you, J.D. Mayor, counselors, pleasure to be here tonight, talk a little parking with you. I put together a deck that covers the highlights. We'll start off first with a little bit about our company. PCI Municipal Services, my partner and I, Brian Kern, spent 30 years building the largest municipal parking company in the country. And unfortunately the owners of that company passed away and we were sold. And we ended up starting up our own firm back in 2020. And we decided we're only going to focus on municipal parking. So we're the only company in the country that that's just our specialty. We love municipal parking. I've worked with cities of all sizes, from New York City to a little Lauderdale by the sea down in Florida. Today we have 23 municipal clients, 15 different states, and we manage about $100 million of parking revenue a year for them. And we love doing business in South Carolina. We started off in Folly Beach and Hilton Head and headed Isle of Palms a little bit ago. We've done some good work with those folks, helped improve their programs. With Hilton Head, we started their paid parking program, and Isle of Palms, they outsourced it. They were doing it in-house and needed a little more help to improve the program and take a little bit of burden off their law enforcement agency there.

So we have great relationships with those cities.

we've worked with a number of other cities on complete startups i know you all have paid parking here but we've also helped other cities just bringing in other resources and expertise trying to improve the customer experience and really be an active partner of our municipal clients we see ourselves more as a consultant than we do an operator you guys have a problem or challenge you want to overcome we figure out a solution we work together to make it happen Our business approach, we were designed to be small. We want to offer a boutique level of service. Every one of our clients has my cell phone, has Brian's cell phone, and we're frequently engaged with the city. And we'd love to do the same for y'all and be a resource for you in all things parking. Today is so much different when I started in this business. Back when I started, I had a calculator and a green pad of paper. We didn't have computers. so nowadays everything is online we've got great data and resources and it really helps and it really helps for us to produce data for you all to make accurate decisions so much about parking is anecdotal stories every city in the country i've ever worked with says there's not enough parking that's usually not the case it's just a matter of making it easier for people to find making it easier for people to pay for parking and follow the rules so The last thing I would point out about us is there's no red tape. It's Brian and myself, and I'm also a lawyer, so I deal with all the contract stuff. So I'd love to work with your city attorney to do a good deal here for you all.

Next.

Smartly, your RFP asks for smart technology. And so a lot of what we proposed, there was already forethought from city staff on what you'd like to see here. And in today's world, everything has become license plate based, virtual based. And that allows for a lot of more efficient management of the program. It also allows for some great data. You know how often people are parking, how long they're staying. It helps with parking compliance. We don't like to look at enforcement writing tickets. We like the word compliance, getting people to follow and understand the rules, educate. Three main components of the technology that we propose here. One is on the payment side. These are both digital formats. I know you've still got some of the meters out on the street down there. Nowadays, most of our clients aren't going with hardware. They're going with the mobile phone. Our mobile phone seems to control our life. And now you can just simply scan a QR code or text, and you can initiate a payment without having to download an app and worry about all the security issues that are related to that. So we try and make the user experience real easy there. On the permitting side, where folks, residents or whatever it would be, that would be able to sign up and purchase a permit from the program, Again, same concept. It's all digital. And the customers will be able to do everything online and then administer and manage their account online. I'll give you an example why that's beneficial. In the old school, we used to have hang tags and stickers that you'd have to come to an office and do all that jazz. Now you can sign up for an account, get approved, and then if you get a new vehicle or need to update your information, you can manage that yourself really easy online. So again, focused on a better user experience. On the compliance side, you all ask for what we call a frictionless experience. So those gates that you have down in the stadium and the hotel deck that can cause some problems and trap people in there. I know they're a source of pain. So going without the gates and putting in license plate recognition cameras basically capture everyone coming in and out of the garage. Gives us good data, gives us real-time occupancy in the garage. We also know who's using the garages. Is it a hotel guest? Is it someone that may have a baseball season pass? Whoever it may be will be able to have that information. And for the folks that don't pay, it gives us an opportunity to mail them an invoice or citation in the mail, however we want to codify that. Similar to the toll roads that you see nowadays. So it's pretty accustomed. We've implemented this program for a number of our clients. We started up a program in Volusia County, Florida, in 65 of their parking lots. And then just recently did the same for Walton County, Florida, on a smaller program with three parking lots. And it goes quite well. The other thing that we'll be able to provide to you is real-time access to your data. So all of the staff, financial people, everything would be able to log in at any given time and see how we're doing on revenue, occupancy, all those key data points. And then you all can really see, do we have enough parking, or is it just an anecdotal story that we heard from someone? You'll have that real-time occupancy and also historic occupancy. So you can see how many people are using each garage at any given time of the day or day of the week. Next. On the mobile payment side, I kind of mentioned this, but before I get there, we put together a preliminary brand for your program. Park North Augusta. And we think it's important to brand municipal parking programs. There is great value. People have more comfort when they park in a government-owned facility. They feel more confident that they're going to be treated fairly. And I think that's an important step for us to take here, is to brand everything under a contiguous label and have a consistent experience for your residents and visitors to the community. and have consistent policies that they know what they are. There's no guesswork. There's no surprises. Parking can be stressful for some folks, and we try and take that down a notch. So with that, you simply scan the QR code or text a certain code, and you'll be able to go in and enter your license plate, a cell phone number. The system will also give you a reminder if you bought an hour and you want to be able to time is running out, you can add more time without having to run back to a parking meter and pay. Trying to avoid tickets and keep people in compliance. The other nice thing about these tools is we can also get surveys from folks of how the experience was. and oftentimes we get good intel from what they'll give us feedback. Nobody likes the pay to park, so you'll get those comments, right? But sometimes they'll tell us maybe the sign was obstructed or something like that, which allows us to get on it quickly and make the repair.

So next.

On the permitting side, as I said before, it's virtual, which means no hang tags or stickers to worry about. And we use the license plate data. Totally self-managed cloud-based system that the customer can log into and have their own account. Again, all of this will be visible from a financial side and a reporting side on the back end.

Next.

One tool we'd love to bring here and we brought to a number of other cities is a web app, Parking Finder. So this is a tool to communicate to the customers in real time where they can park, where there's available parking within the city. You know, a green jacket scheme, if they want to look and know which garage is going to have availability for them, all of that will be there. We can also give them all the general information. We have this app in play in Folly Beach, and it has all the hours of operation, the rates, all of that information. And then we can also link additional websites. From a public safety perspective, we can also post information there as well. The other cool thing about the Park Path web app, it'll be white-labeled for you. From the public perspective, it'll be your parking app. And in that, we'll be able to message people in real time. So if there is an event going on or construction or something like that, we can post that on the app. to help message that and again avoid any unnecessary frustration from folks trying to get to a parking garage or one of the lots. The other cool thing about the app is that we can work with local businesses and event venues and such like the Green Jackets to advertise. So at the bottom of every screen there will be an opportunity to offer free advertising. to the community businesses and help bring parking as a supportive element to the businesses in North Augusta. We'll also build you a custom parking app like we've done for the other South Carolina cities.

Again, the more information we can make easily available to people about parking, the less likely they're going to have an issue of frustration.

Everything parking related, even paying an invoice or appealing a citation they received, they can do all that through these applications. Next. Here's a drill down of the Park Path app. This is actually the Walton County, Florida operation. But you can see the detail. They'll see every available parking option within the city. And it doesn't have to be just paid. It could be any parking program. And from that, they can actually click through to the payment links and make their payments. We can identify other services and features available in the facilities, like EV charging or something like that as well. Next. Another opportunity I believe we have is, especially on the events when things are crazy and everyone's coming down here, is the use of VMS signage to help direct people to the proper place. If the stadium garage is full, we can use this sign variable message, change it to get people over to the hotel garage and vice versa during certain things. Again, just focused on trying to make it super easy for people to find the available parking as they come in to enjoy themselves. We'll also have VMS signs on each one of the garages on the exterior that will let them know how many spaces are available at any given time. And then any additional information we want to post up there, we can do that as well. Next, on the compliance, the enforcement side, just to give you an idea of how that works, The image there is an actual transaction of a car driving in and out of the lot. So from that, you capture the license plate, the daytime location. And from that, we can say, is there a payment or permit associated with this vehicle for that time period? If no, then they didn't follow the rules, and they could be issued a parking citation or invoice, again, that we would mail. I just want to give you an idea on the process, and it's pretty high quality. The air rates are extremely low. It's reviewed by multiple people to make sure that we don't send out a ticket to someone that didn't deserve it. There's quite a few processes to make sure it's accurate. You always want to have confidence in these processes, and the technology allows us to do that. The other thing I would point out is that all of the data captured by any of this technology would be owned by the city. And all of the data would follow your approved data retention policy and data use policy. Our company doesn't use any of the data for anything else other than helping to manage your parking program. And I know there's been some sensitivity around license plate recognition cameras and such. Uh, we're very cognizant of that. We've worked with the other South Carolina cities on that same issue. And I would love to do the same with you all to make sure we have a good solid policy that everyone's comfortable with. Next as to the policies in our proposal, we are asked to make some recommendations. This slide really covers the parking fees that we would suggest. and then the hours of operation. It's pretty consistent with what you have today in many respects. This gives you an idea. The on-street would be a little bit more expensive. Obviously, the garages would have the two hours free as they do today. The idea in the parking industry best practices is to use policies and pricing to get shorter term sessions on street. That should be for the folks that are going to be there shorter term. So what we propose for on street is the first two hours would be $2 an hour. If they stay beyond that, now they're paying $3 an hour. And that's just a tool that we've used in other cities like Omaha and Nebraska to try and push people that want to are going to be parked for longer terms to an off-street option. You want those on-street spaces more available for the short-term experiences, quick lunch, things like that. So that's the intent of the pricing policies there.

Next.

Our projections based on those policies and rates would be a total revenue for the program of 1.2 million for an operating year. You can see it's broken down by on street, off street, and then the event portion of the equation. We separated that out. So there's quite a bit of an opportunity there for additional revenue for the city to fund the program and use some additional funds. You'll have some cam charges, maintenance charges that'll be coming up in those garages with expansion joints and things like that down the road. So it's nice to have that revenue and able to do that.

Next.

So the proposed deal, the RFP, the city asked for a turnkey operation, and that's exactly what we proposed. None of this would require any funds out of the city's pocket. We would fund all of the technology to make this happen, and that would include all of the cameras, the software solutions. It would also include the signage. On street and or I go too far everything we do would of course would be approved before we put it out there whether it be on the website or a parking sign on the street the City would be responsible for the RFP for the utilities the major structural repairs in the garage elevators and things like that But otherwise we would take care of everything else Out of the revenue, we would pay ourselves first a $12,500 a month management fee. That helps us cover some of the capital costs that we're putting into the project. And then beyond that, we would have a revenue share with 75% going to the city and 25% retained by my company to pay for operating expenses and our profits. End of the day, based on our projections, the city would have over $700,000 net from this parking program. Again, based on the policies and procedures we've laid out there. We understand there will be discussions on all those points, but that's just kind of a preliminary starting point for you. The one thing I did want to point out is, if you're not familiar with it, the... The AG of South Carolina put out a non-binding opinion on privatized parking enforcement for municipalities. And it was non-binding, but a lot of our, two of our clients for sure, Folly Beach and Isle of Palms, we reworked with them their ordinances and our contract structure. With their city attorneys to put them in a position where they felt really comfortable If that were a binding opinion, they would still be in good stead So happy to share that information and the ordinance changes that we work with those municipalities And with that I think we're on questions I

this is i'll start first this is very good thank you i'm curious what is your percentage collection rate of the tickets when you send those citations out on parking citations our highest collection rate is about 90 percent and our lowest is about 72. okay so jd you're going to you're probably going to tell me this is what's going to happen when y'all talk to us uh but Who's going, I like this, I'm trying to understand how does our master parking agreement get implemented with this program? Because with that, and there's built-in $30 fee that we generate, and you're talking these other fees. So is this something you can present to us? Am I jumping ahead?

Yeah, no, I can put that together in my update. But I will tell you that when we put out the RF key for this, all of the agreements that we've already made with all the players in Riverside Village is part of this proposal. So they are aware of every agreement that we have. And so that is baked into this. So as the turnkey approach is basically what we've already agreed to, we're actually going to start doing it with this company. And then part of their consulting fee or consulting service is they're going to make recommendations to us to massage that and evolve that over time to become a better product and come back to perhaps council for a master parking agreement change or perhaps an ordinance change, but that's into the future.

So the massive parking agreement we voted on and approved in March of 2024, what we've been waiting on, now we have the three decks and everything, is basically this is the step to begin implementing that. That is correct. And that could be fluid depending on build out and all that kind of stuff.

And Mr. Mayor, and again, this is something we'll still have to discuss in the future, but I believe that at least a portion of this revenue ought to be dictated towards an O&M line for the decks themselves. Right now, it's a very piecemeal approach to how we're doing funding for elevator maintenance, for power washing the buildings, for doing any number of different functions. And if we could get a dedicated revenue line for these decks, there's other focuses of that money, should it become wildly successful, that can go into Riverfront Central Corps and fund other things inside the village. But I would say that the first priority would be to make sure that we're properly maintaining the decks that we have and getting all those contracts lined up correctly and paid for out of that line.

So I've got two quick questions. One, just kind of hearing your plan. So if I go into the parking deck, I've got two hours free. I'm assuming I'm going to register when I go in anyways. That way I get that notification when the two hours is running up so I can go ahead and pay. You could do that.

The system will track your time. you don't so the system will automatically compute if you've exceeded your two hours it's kind of debate on customer service so if you exceed it you can go back in oh hey I forgot and then I go scan and put my plate information in at that point in time yeah and that's one of the policies that we like with Volusia County Florida we recommended we compute the violations at the end of the day So if someone came and didn't park for eight hours and didn't pay, but at 11.59 that night they went in and made a payment, we're not gonna give them a ticket. So again, our goal is compliance, getting people following the rules. However we get there, we're trying to be as soft as possible in that process. But it's a policy decision if you want the folks that know they're going to be there for two hours to register because that could be a frustration point for them if they know they're not going to end up having to pay anyways. But you can. You can do that if you want to. Okay.

And then this may be a question for J.D. How does this work alongside with the valet parking agreement that we have now?

It works lockstep with that because that's another agreement that we shared with them. So we have the valet service operating in the Sharon Jones Amphitheater roundabout, and they are storing the cars in the first floor of the hotel deck. So those spaces are reserved for the valet services, and they're working in partnership with not only do they have to work with the valet, they're working with the hotel, the green jackets, Augusta Oncology, the clubhouse. I mean, every single player we have in Riverside Village, these folks will have to be partners with and work with.

So if I'm renting an apartment at parcel K, and in that I'm going to have a spot, That spot could be anywhere in the parking deck, right? I'm not going to have a section that's going to be strictly for Parcel K residents, right?

We would not recommend reserve spaces.

But what I'm saying is, when you have the sign, the VMS sign that says, x occupied available, whether my car is there or not, that's still going to be considered occupied, or is the occupied literally the car there?

come home where am I getting my parking space if it's yeah I understand what you're saying and we have that issue and one of our garages in Virginia Beach that has a residential event component to it so when we get to a capacity situation What we do is we preset the system to account for historically how many residential permits would be in the garage, and that way operationally we can send one of our people over there to begin filtering. That's one of the downsides of not having gates that would keep people out. You have a free flow environment, so even if you have a full sign out there, people could still come into the garage. So we have to manage that a little bit with people, and signage is best we can.

You said you're a small company. You talk about you and your partner. How many other folks do you have helping you do that?

Oh, I'm sorry.

Two people. Well, it would be too much.

I promise you that. Our business structure is very unique. We have, for every five municipalities we work with, we have a regional manager, a very seasoned manager that's overseeing those five. He supports the local team. So we'll have an on-site manager here as well and additional staff here as well. That regional, all he does is support, and it would be Quinto Iguizama, and he would support the operation here. And then Quinto works with Brian and myself on higher level things, keeps us abreast. And then on the larger things, it's quite common for Brian and I to come and Speak to city councils or on specific large projects, we help out.

So the support staff, will we find a space for him? Where is that going to be?

Where do we put your support staff?

You said they're on site.

They're moving here? That part we haven't figured out yet.

Sell them a house, they're going to pay taxes. We're going to buy a house in that new development. We need to hear before this. But we have to work that out, right?

Yes, that's part of the agreement, that they would provide that.

Does the system have the ability to remember your, if you're a frequent visitor to the parking lot, do you have to register every time you go in? Or will it automatically know my license number because I go in three times a week for whatever?

George. So with the payment app, if you're, let's just say you're here twice a month, you know, you'll park, whatever, go to dinner. As soon as you scan that QR code, it's going to know your device has been used before and you don't have to enter a bunch of information. We can also set up custom permits. Some of our clients, the residents, have a special program. So if the residents of North Augusta, they could have a different pricing model or they could have a bill back situation where once a month you get a bill for whatever parking you use. So really a lot of flexibility in how we can design the program for you all.

Does the preparation of getting this information out to citizens, is that y'all, is it us, is it a combination, what is the time frame, you know, how does that work?

Well, that's the biggest piece. You've got to start off right. And so the communication, we work with all of our clients on these, especially the new programs are the ones that are rebirthing themselves. We love to start off with press releases. Let's get the media with the right narrative out of the gate. And we need to arm all of you because you're the ones that engage a lot with the public so you have consistent messaging. The website will be out there. And we also love to do, before we go, we love to have open houses for all the folks that have any concerns to come in, get educated on how the technology works, ask whatever questions they have. And then the next step we love to do is, since you haven't had a lot of enforcement up to this point, especially on the paid parking, would be to do a period of warnings. instead of tickets. That way we're reengaging the public that there's a new way of doing this and you get maybe one freebie for 30 days. Every year at the City of Isle of Palms, we do two weeks of warnings and someone could get 14 warnings in that amount of time. It's just the policy that they chose to be soft and reintroduce that, hey, we're going from free parking to paid parking now that the season's in. Those are the approaches we like to take to educate and get as many people knowledgeable about it as possible. As well as the businesses in that area as well. Yes, sir.

You kind of touched on it a little bit. Is it possible to do like a prepaid pass for like a week, a month, six months, a year, however that would look like?

Yes, sir. You could sign up for a permit for a week, two weeks. We can really create whatever package would make sense for the public and the residents.

So you said it, I didn't. Let's talk a little bit about security and privacy. Who manages the network that this system runs on? Is that something you hand over to the city and you say you set the network up or do you manage the network?

So everything is cloud-based. Most of the payment products are not, nothing is owned by my company.

We use third-party vendors that are qualified to do the work.

and they're responsible for maintaining PCI DSS compliance, credit card security. All of the data, all these vendors use Amazon, so they have redundancy databases that are secure at the highest level. So none of these are any fly-by-night situations.

Does law enforcement have access to the data of who is parked?

We would love them to. In fact, in Volusia, we built in... full back house functionality to the system so they could use the data however they needed to for their purposes. It's a great thing to do because if they can use that information to help make their job easier, we're all for it.

And I think the reason why we've seen so much controversy surrounding FLOC, which this is not FLOC lately, is because they recently dropped an auditing system and a lot of the law enforcement around the south particularly have subscribed to the self-auditing system and it's throwing out flags. Does this system come with any kind of self-auditing software that will throw off inappropriate access, like a flag for that?

Are you speaking to the security of the system? Yes. Yes.

Like if somebody's just trying to look and see if somebody's parked down there for their personal reasons over and over again, will the system throw off a flag to let administration know?

Yes. Depending, you know, the city staff will have access to the system, and I won't be in a position to control their utilization of the data. But if there's specific concerns, we can ask the programmers to set up certain access points. We can also restrict the privileges, user rights, based on who the city decides to give access to.

Like how they sign in will give them certain privileges.

Yeah. Some things you can see, some things you couldn't see. We just need to sit down and map that out where everyone's comfortable.

any other questions let me just reiterate to everybody again for all citizens who are watching um you're gonna have until august the 10th so thank you your questions reach out to every one of these council members okay Because on August the 10th, our administration is going to do an overview. It's going to answer questions from us. And then from there, we're going to have another whole week. Then when this comes up to resolution on August the 17th, there will be a comment period. So we designed this specifically not to rush this through. OK? So questions need to come to this council. Do email. All our emails are on the website. You have most everybody's cell phone. I know most everybody has my cell phone. So reach out. Ask us questions as we move forward. We're all fair on that statement, right? Good job. Thank you. All right.

Thank you.

Mr. Mayor and council, that's all we have for staff presentations this evening. I turn it back to you.

Very good. Thank you all for coming. We stand adjourned.