City Council - Regular Meeting

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Mr. Roberts, Jeff? Looks like we have a very competitive bid, and we appreciate AR submitting their bid. And a question for AR Construction. Is your expertise in concrete, sidewalk, landscaping, parking lot type of work? Because obviously it's very detailed.

You know, contractors come in all different flavors, and you wouldn't want me doing your concrete work.

Mayor, I'll go ahead and make the motion. I'm excited just because of the timing. I mean, I know there's construction going on kind of beside this area. You know, obviously there's still Main Street improvements going on, so it's kind of nice. I know it's a challenge sometimes for people just with so much going on, but it's much better doing it like this, having multiple projects going on at one time, other than just dragging this out over years and years. So I'm excited to get this project going. With that, I'll make the motion to approve.

Mr. Mayor, what's the time frame on it, Mr. Strickland?

Mayor, I appreciate the transparency and clarity that these amendments provide every year, so I'll go ahead and make the motion to approve.

Mayor, Mr. McKenzie, what qualifies a property as historic? Does it land on us to?

So just as a blanket overlay anything in the historic overlay district qualifies? Yes. Maybe let's say, and I'm kind of poking a little bit, poking holes in it. Let's say there's a recent build in a historic district, and it's not technically historic. Does that come back to us?

And this also extends to owner-occupied residences. Correct.

Good. So, Mr. McEwen, I know we have three of these, and one of the questions I jotted down, and Mr. Roberts sort of hit on it. So they have three different options to determine the value of the property. Correct. Do we, like, for instance, I think one of them coming up is sold in the last... 60 days. And the fair market value is, I assume, the fair market value that the county assessor puts on the property. And so if there's a difference in those two, Which one, does our language say they have to take the higher or what?

Okay, most advantageous to that. And the three projects that we have coming for us tonight, and I think Mr., somebody had mentioned that we started this in November of 25. Is it just people finding out about it, or in-house are we assisting the people wanting to invest in the historic district or in the historic building?

And this particular building, not to get in the weeds, but this has the old walkway beside it that runs down. Is that part of the building? As I recall way back when, when that walkway was being used, the building didn't own the walkway because the property line was the side of the building and it got vague who actually owned that.

That's all I had. I had to get a joke in there.

Mayor, I'll move we approve this consideration in the special property tax assessment.

so mr mayor go right in and so if it's a residential property an applicant can participate in the program if the costs meet 50 of the fair market value and this is 320 000 and the estimated cost is 650 of the project cost So they only actually had to have $160,000 renovation to meet the qualification. I think that's unusual that residential has to meet less than commercial.

you want to be low and you don't care what the fair market value is for the residential because you're going to do 50 of that anyway

I mean, I think $229,000 for the one we approved just a minute ago is a conservative price on that. I actually think this one that we're doing now is way below market value. I mean, unless they survey it off, just this parcel, that's probably three acres, this lot, because it goes all the way through. Um, it's got a double driveway on Greenville street and yeah, it comes all the way through. Yeah.

And I assume the same people bought the house. We'll soon see the house right next door. I mean, I would have... I mean, I would assume that, to me, the house next door is more historic than this house. But both of them are historic, don't get me wrong. But, you know, the house next door is very historic, and it goes all the way through. It goes down to the corner.

So, he brought up, Mr. Mayor? So, do they own this property, the people that are applying for it? Yes. Okay. So, they didn't buy it on contingent that they could get this. They already own it. And... So that wasn't, I mean, they didn't say, hey, I'm going to put a contract on this, and if I get the Bailey bill, then I'm going to close on it and do it. That's what we want to make sure of. Correct.

Mr. Roberts? It seems odd that those numbers are the same, but also what stands out to me, the fair market value is so low. And we're not here to sit in judgment of these numbers, fair market value, or are we? I don't know many city lots alone that costs much less than that, much less a structural lot. I'm questioning, who set the fair market value?

Mr. Mayor, are you saying an appraiser or a recent sale?

But it would meet one of those three requirements.

Mr. Roberts, that was why I was questioning the other two. specifically the one on Greenwood Street. I mean, I don't think that's in the neighborhood of what the cost of that property is. I mean, it's 300,000 for three acres.

But it doesn't matter because they're going to do 50% of the value. Right. Even if it doubled in value, they're still It has almost quadrupled in fair market value for them to reach 50% on the $690,000 renovation. It's not even close.

I like that sentiment, too. I know this is probably one of my favorite things we do every year. You know, a lot of times people, you know, they might get upset with a lot of the decisions we make. They might be upset at planning or something going on over there. But I've never had anybody come to me and say, man, I really wish you'd tone back the Christmas, you know, spirit and the lights and stuff. So now this is, I'm very glad to expand. And I really, especially like Doolittle's, I mean, I think that's great, that little area. Because, I mean, that is such a focal point. Taking people skatin

I mean, I think they've done a good job, our staff. I frequent downtown early in the morning. It seems like they would come in the middle of the night to install, it seemed to me, when I would see them. Last question, when would they be installed?