City Council - Regular Meeting

I'll call the city council work session meeting to order. Clerk, please call the role. Counc Stringham here. Here. Hater here. Here. Bing here. Germaine excused. Mayor Clark here. Next item. The next item on the agenda is uh public comment. Okay, we'll start see if there's any public comment here to start the meeting. Uh this is our work session. We have a couple items on the agenda, but there any public comments at this point for the work session. Seeing none, next item, please.

The next item is the on the work session agenda, item 5938, review of final event center feasibility and market analysis report. Interim City Manager Cochran. A couple items this evening.

Yes. Uh good evening, honorable mayor, city council, clerk, treasure lavoy. Um so this evening we've got two presentations on deck. Um the first one is in regard to the feasibility and market analysis that uh we had completed on the south event center uh at the former multisports complex current uh river and national battlefield park foundation. And so the uh we had contracted with Hunden associates uh late last year to conduct the market and feasibility analysis to determine whether utilizing the South event or South Arena as an a full-time event center would be a productive business venture for the city. Um primarily looking at an opportunity for revenue generation to help sustain uh the future of the building. And so, uh, Hunden Partners may sound familiar to, uh, several members of council. They had completed, uh, prior when we were closing down the ice arena, an alternative use analysis to look at alternatives for the facility. Uh, and since then, Hunden has grown into a much larger firm uh, that does this work all across the country. So, they're based out of Ohio. Um and we had spent some time working with them um touring with them at different facilities uh looking at case data looking at um the existing use data at the facility. This uh this slide is just an introduction a bit to Hunden. Um but first also this is just the draft study. So in your packet tonight you had over a 100 slides um uh that was part of uh the presentation this evening. Rest assured, we are not going to go through all 100 slides uh this evening. Um however, what we are going to do is just go through uh the executive summary and and that should give us an idea of the recommendation and where we're at. Um as part of that though, throughout the the entire um

presentation, the study does provide at the the further back pages more information on the data that was provided. So any questions? Okay. Um, so here's just an econ the analysis and the contents of the the report. Um, but the executive summary what we did uh we were engaged uh throughout the fall months. Matt Banisacker and myself and what we did with them was analyze the current supply and demand of event centers not only within Monroe um but within really a 15-mi uh area of our region. And then we also uh Hunden interviewed different meeting planners from across the state in the region to understand what they look at for event spaces and then also analyzed different case studies from across the country of different venues that were similar to ours uh to look at how it's been done and and what they've done. So um the first uh slide that we're looking at, this is just where we're at right now. um looking at where we stack up compared to those other uh event centers throughout the region. What are the opportunities uh that we could do with the facility and then how do we get there and what would the outcome of that be? So this slide talks about what we already know. Um the benefit of Monroe's uh location within uh several different metropolitan areas including Detroit and Arbor, Toledo, our proximity to both the the Detroit airport, the Toledo airport and the ease of access to uh different metropolitan areas uh especially with I75 uh M50, US23 and Telegraph Road. And so you can see um within air travel there's uh we just found this as an interesting slide. Not sure it's uh too relevant to

our project, but uh the passenger traffic that goes through uh Detroit Wayne County Airport in the past several years. We also look at large employers in the region. Um and uh as you'll see as we go through the presentation, one of the markets that is a huge opportunity to tap into is the corporate presence and corporate events. And so with us being home to Lazy Boy, of course, DTE and some of the other larger employees and the trainings and the events that they have, um looking at those opportunities and corporations within our our uh direct spaces as well. So, continuing where we're at, um, we also worked with an architect, uh, that contracts with Hunden associates who has done event centers, arenas, uh, different convention centers across the country. Uh, and did an evaluation of the facility and what the opportunities, what the threats are, what our weaknesses are. um looking at just the sitewalk and I'm we're all familiar with the with the building itself, but recognizing the parking lot was recently updated. Um the sidewalks, the driveways are all in good condition, which I would expect given that uh it's only 2 years old uh since we updated that. The building itself structurally is in great condition. Um, however, it does appear dated and you can see from the outside this building was obviously built to be an ice arena, not a destination, a tourist uh tourist destination um or a hospitality event center. So, uh the exterior of the building appears dated um with limited curb appeal. Obviously having the National Park Service arrowhead at the top of the building does create some draw with their brand and of course the the number of visitors that uh visit Monroe specifically seeking out that destination. Um however the exterior of the building was not

noted as one of the um the weaknesses with uh moving forward the lobby of course we uh in partnership with the found the battlefield foundation the park service has spent a significant amount of money uh renovating that building which of course it's very attractive uh it's wellmaintained um however the the south event center does not have a distinct uh entry And so, um, there's no branding anding, uh, the event center or the entry to the event center from, uh, the battlefield. Uh, visitor center would be a suggestion as well. You'll see as we walk through the report. The theater would be a great amenity for events. We've seen that already. Um, and having both uh, breakout spaces as well as opportunities for larger programs. Um, relatively new, noted. Um the the technology, the temperature control seems well, it presents well, it's comfortable, um ideal for larger programs. However, the event space itself does lack um aesthetics and we knew that. So, this information I I believe that's on this slide is some of what drove us to do this report itself. Um, we knew that in order to function as an event center to host, whether that's weddings or whether it's larger events, the acoustics are a big challenge. Uh, given it's a steel and concrete building with a concrete floor, uh, exposed ceilings. We had looked at and worked with Jim Jacobs Architect to look at different acoustic treatments. But before we make that investment and before we look at some of the investments that are needed to make it a more attractive space, we wanted to know whether it would be a smart investment for us to make. So I don't think any of this is a surprise. Uh the HVAC system is exposed. It's got

utilitarian lighting. Uh not very warm, not very welcoming. Um it lacks AV technology for a sound system. And then prefunction space. Um, I will say this is something that that we said, what is pre-unction space. Um, so most event centers that you go to, there's always a space you walk into before you go into the larger center. So the main corridors, the hallways, um, where there's seating or a welcome before you actually get into the event space and corridors, you'll see as we as we get further into the the presentation. The back of house, the current restrooms are very nice. It was noted uh most of them were upgraded as part of the the education center renovation. The existing locker rooms are unused at this point. Um the ice plant was uh removed and so we've got that open space and all the chiller equipment. And then I'm sorry, just checking. Um the second floor office space up top is just noted um is sort of that mezzanine uh area at the top. However, there is ample storage space with the locker rooms and the ice plant being removed. So, recap for you. The existing uh users within the building, the National Park Service leases um the visitor center, the theater, and the offices. Uh they do pay a dollar a year, and they pay $7,000 a year capped uh toward the utilities that are increased by inflation every year. Um the correction on this slide noted it was a draft. Um the city pays $50,000 a year toward the utilities but the Battlefield Foundation in accordance with their lease they pay anything above and beyond that. So anything above the city's 50,000 in the park service is the foundation's responsibility. And then the tourism uh and con

convention and tourism bureau also leases an office uh near the front door and they pay $3,600 a year in rent for that facility. So the event space we looked at what is the current um condition of the past several years. As a reminder, we've had the Battlefield Foundation operating the event space um as part of their lease. And so you'll see there's been a minimal number of events uh since they've operated it. In the most current agreement that we that city council adopted with them, uh they retain 75% of the operating profit and then return 25% of that to us, which we then reinvest back into the facility for maintenance. Um last year they hosted a total of 12 events. Uh but only three of those were forprofit bookings. the rest were uh hosted by our parks and recck department for some of the special events that we've done. Things like our employee appreciation lunch. Um so it's been largely underutilized, but also that's a reflection. Uh they do not have a full-time coordinator for this uh for this purpose, which would actually market uh the facility as a rental facility um and also manage it in a full-time capacity. So um some of the recommendations uh that are limited by the current agreement that we have with them is they don't uh hold comprehensive marketing events, build relationships with event planners or actively promote the space through um business planning or community outreach or social media. So it's really uh lacking on that and performed at a basic function at this point. And then you'll see uh the operating income last year was only $1,700 through those rentals. However, the facility financials um you

can see that we've the city itself has incurred consistent operating losses due to those low amounts of uh rentals and leases. Um, so the you'll see from 2022 to 2024, the primary driver for the losses was the the debt payment, the bond payment that we had. Um, we paid that off in 2024. So you'll see right now the break even point is about $90,000, but we subsidized it by about uh $86,000 last year. That's primarily due to uh utilities and insurance. There's been some maintenance, but note that this these um these uh expenses have not included capital maintenance that we've done on the building, including the parking lot, the new roof that we put on, and some of the other uh higher ticket items. These are just the day-to-day maintenance costs that are noted. So, what we wanted to do as part of the study is to look at are there opportunities to increase uh revenue to help offset um the the day-to-day maintenance costs uh relative to the facility? Any questions on the presentation so far?

This coming later, but how many people visit the um

Yeah. So that is statistics not in the executive summary but it's included in uh some of the appendixes of the final report. There's about 250 to 325,000 people that visit annually to the battlefield in the education center. And that the the appendex goes into the population that we have the opportunity to tap into within a 3-hour drive of Monroe. Um, I believe the the last estimate was about 14 million people that are within our geographic vicinity that could travel this facility if it were used to the maximum benefit for events and trade shows and conferences and such.

Other questions at this point? I'm sure we'll have more later.

Okay. So, when what we also looked at I mentioned is um the local event space supply. So, we looked at basically who our competitors would be um so to speak. What we did is we looked at facilities that had a thousand square feet or more um that were within 15 miles of the the the event center. So, you'll see the different um types of facilities that we're looking at here. There's really only two that are similar to ours in space, and that is the Frenchtown Event Center, which is 10,000 square ft. Um, and then the uh, First Merchants Bank Expo building at the fairgrounds, that's 27,000 square feet. And we'll go into a little bit more detail on what those are. Um, but ours is 20,000 square ft, our facility. And so we wouldn't be categorized as a meeting space like the Sawyer House or like some of the hotels are um, or a wedding venue that are like Duss or Loy Hall. um we're looking more at a larger exhibit building uh than we are those other items. So when we looked at the current market um when it's noted there's a gap in ballroom spaces. So there is no large um ballroom which are more aesthetically pleasing more highquality function events not trade show pipe and drape concrete floor type facilities like the the expo building thinking not quite so large but um Kobo Hall or uh Huntington Place I guess it's called now how they have more carpet uh chandeliers the drop ceilings things of that sort um that host more um I guess higher upscale events But there's only also looking at the number of facilities uh between 10 and 20,000 square feet. Uh we have a gap. There's only uh one or two with that being the the Frenchtown Event

Center and the fairgrounds. So looking at opportunities for Monroe, it really is looking at that ballroom space. Uh and we'll look at what what sort of investment it would take to uh transform this facility. So, the Frenchtown Event Center, um, and I will say when Matt and I worked with Hunden and visited these facilities, uh, we want to thank them for opening up their doors to us. Uh, they knew what project we were working on. They knew we were looking at, uh, possibly creating competition for them. Um, but they didn't view it that way and they were more than happy to share their experiences, what their insights are. Um and so uh we got some really good information from them in terms of what they've experienced with events. So the Frenchtown Event Center just opened last year. It's 10,000 square ft with a 700 person capacity. Um they do have a full kitchen which allows for in-house catering and bar service uh to provided by uh the facility as well. They do have a full-time employee that manages and markets that facility. And last year alone, they had 26 events within that first year. So, looking back at where we were at, we had seven uh events last year being managed part-time without a full kitchen uh inhouse. So, the types of events that they've hosted, they had an RV show. They have had corporate events. I know uh DTE rented that facility several times for some of the trainings that they had and public events, uh community banquetss, dinners, lunchons. They also host some similar to what we have in the park with um with concerts and things of that sort. Um so, it is comparable to ours, albeit about half the size. the Expo building at the fairgrounds. It opened in 2008. It's a little larger

than ours with 27,000 square feet. Um they do not have a kitchen. Um so what they do is you're allowed to bring in your own caterer. Um you're allowed to have food trucks, things of that sort, but that's not something that they an amenity that they can offer at their facility. They have 57 events uh last year. Everything from the vintage market to the tattoo convention to dog shows. Uh we did not include the statistics for the Mineral County Fair itself in this report. So um when we visited with Daryl Diamond, he mentioned they do not advertise. Um they do have uh quite a lengthy weight list and everything is done by word of mouth and returning vendors. So, um, we knew that would demonstrate an opportunity for us, uh, if they had a wait list and they don't even advertise what the opportunity would be for us to help, uh, pick up some of those, uh, those trade shows, conventions, and other things. Duss, I will say this was bigger than I thought. Um they've got 20,000 square ft² total, but that's separated out into two 10,000 ft² reception halls uh that hold 5 to 600 guests uh each. They do have a full kitchen and they do offer in-house catering and they host over 52 events a year, primarily weddings, receptions, things of that sort, family events, banquetss. Any questions on those facilities? Those were the ones that we looked at that were most comparable in size and location to ours. Um, in in the full report is a breakdown of each of the facilities that we uh took a look at and what their characteristics were. Okay. So the opportunity um we did look uh within 50 miles uh in the research that uh Hunden did and working with um event planners and different

organizations. You can see for facilities between 10,000 square ft and 45,000 square ft. There's over 3,000 events that happen uh within that 50 or yeah 50 mile radius. And so a majority of those are corporate events that you see on the right. Um there's over 7,700 uh corporate events for uh event centers that are rented out for higher rates. Um but with that, when they pay higher rates, they have higher expectations. So they're not looking at open ceilings, exposed HBAC and concrete floors. They're looking for breakout rooms. They're looking for a a nicer touch or finish to the facility. Um AB equipment, technology, things of that sort. So that's something to keep in mind. uh that there is a market there and uh based on um the size considerations, our site does have the ability to capture about 36% of those events um and compete competitively with those because of our proximity to I75 um but also the facility draw being attached to a national park um and our location within the um the metropolitan areas. So um you may ask what Smurf is in the right uh chart. So 7,700 corporate events. Um Smurf are social, military, education, religious and fraternal groups. So those are more nonprofits and social groups than corporate events, associations, or even government events. Questions? Okay. It's a lot of information. I know. Okay. So, what are the opportunities for us when we look at um those regional meetings in our facility? Um so, stakeholder interviews that uh Hunden uh performed, they they asked questions of

what they're looking for when they rent facilities, what is it, what is the the landscape look like when they're trying to rent facilities. And the thing that really came up was the need to have a full commercial kitchen. if you're really looking to have those higher scale events, um not like trade shows and conventions that they offer at the First Merchants Bank uh expo building, but to really remain competitive and have that advantage that sets the facility AC apart from other uh places would be the installation of a commercial kitchen. And this was something uh that we had actually approved as a capital improvements project a couple years ago. Um but we never moved it forward because the cost came in higher than what we expected. Um but also trying to figure out the right configuration within the existing space. Um we redirected those funds to other uh higher priority projects at the time. So that was something that we weren't surprised when we heard as part of the study and report. Um but looking at the market demand and competitive landscape when we interviewed those other facility hosts um in terms of uh the demand that they that they see again folks like the Monroe County Fairgrounds they've got a wait list um they could have a lot more events if they had more staff capacity but also there's only so many prime weekends available in a year as well that they have to turn people away. Um, so the market supports numerous smaller wedding venues with healthier uh, utilization. Um, but most, if not all of the the folks that they interviewed noted a lack of ballroom space with adequate meeting rooms and pre-unction space uh, for those larger events that that can host uh, 600 to a,000 people. And then all of them identified um, professional management is required for any facility. So, somebody's got to answer the phone when you call. Somebody's got to return the calls when they're inquiring about facilities. Somebody has to market them. Somebody

has to go out and meet with event organizers and build the relationship in order to bring the business in. And we noted that when we went through some of those facilities from uh the French Town Center to do to the fairgrounds, they all have an event a full-time event manager, not a part-time uh manager. And then finally, we did take a look at what are some other case studies from across the country in communities that are similar to ours. Um maybe different than ours, facilities that are the same as ours. Um and the next several slides just uh describes a few of those. And what it demonstrates is there uh communities have found success in converting former sports facilities into civic centers, convention centers, and event centers. So, we looked at specifically the Anderson Civic Center in South Carolina. Um, that holds about 36,500 square ft. It does not have a kitchen, but they get, according to Placer AI data, about 92,000 visits a year at that facility. Um, Long Beach, Long Beach, California, of course, a much different community than ours. Recognize that. Um, however, they did a renovation in 2013 that converted a former ice arena into an event center. And you'll see with an on-site kitchen, they attract about 74,000 people a year. And then the Enid Convention Hall, which is similar in community size to ours, um, that's another I believe that was a basketball arena that got converted into a an event center with about 20,000 square ft and a kitchen. and they generate about 31,000 uh visits and individuals per year. So again, these are not all exactly similar to our community and our facility, but they are some examples uh that we could reach out to to understand more what their success and challenges have been and how they've done.

Okay. So then we get into what are our options and what are the recommendations. So of course there's always the baseline. We can continue doing what we're doing now. Uh continue subsidizing the facility uh and uh and continue on the pace that we are now. Uh there's also option one which is basically that we would hire or contract out a full-time event center manager. um make no changes to the facility, maintain the existing floor plan, and we would be able to uh continue as we are uh maybe with increased operational capacity with a full-time staff member. Option two, um is the middle of the road option. That's again hiring a full-time manager, uh doing that full-time or commercial kitchen buildout, and installing movable dividers for space flexibility. What this does is it expands catering capabilities and expands the sizing options for events, ability to break it down to smaller events for smaller audiences if uh there's not a need for the full facility. And then option three is hiring the full-time manager, a commercial kitchen buildout, and full ballroom quality finishes. uh that would break up the ballroom space, have meeting spaces, the pre-function space and additional uh commercial kitchen and storage. But you'll see there is investment requirements for those uh the option two and the option three with different uh price tags that we'll go through. So this is option two. Option one again is keeping the building the same, just hiring somebody to manage it and market it full-time uh in the condition that it is now. Um option two, you can see that there is uh where the locker rooms are. It's that darker blue um color in the middle of uh in the middle of your screen. That's where the kitchen would

be. And then the south inch or south arena would be broken up uh have the ability to have a 14,000 square ft event space. But again, those dividers to be able to break those up into about 3,000 square foot uh event spaces for smaller events. Outlined in yellow is the pre-unction space or those uh corridors that you go through before you enter that ballroom space or the the event space. Um that middle blue area is the service space. That's where servers go in and out to the kitchen. It's not necessarily a corridor that guests or visitors would uh use before they enter the event space. And then all of them note uh you'll notice all the way in the bottom right hand uh the construction of a new event entrance. So a separate distinct entrance on the south side of the existing lobby that would only be used for the event space and would separate it out from the main entrance to the visitor center. And then this is premium option number three. Uh much the similar layout with the construction of a new event lobby on the south side of the building. Still the same pre-unction space. Um the addition of the the full kitchen in the middle. Um, but reconfiguration of some of the rooms, having a dedicated meeting room that's about 2400 square feet, and then a 10,000 square foot grand ballroom that would still be dividable. Um, but again, those higher higher uh quality finishes. Uh, that would you would think of more as ballroom space rather than event space. Questions or thoughts on any of these options?

Yeah. So how many people could this hold right now the way it is? So right now it's just under a thousand and part partly the limitation um parking requirements but also your um your maximum occupancy is dictated by the number of toilets that you have. Um and so all of these would require some upgrades to the existing restrooms which has been something we've looked at in the past as well. And so how many parking spaces are there?

I don't know that number off the top of my head, but we do in addition to uh the paved parking, there is the overflow parking that was also installed at the corner as well for larger events like this too. Kelly, how would how would this any of these options or each of them affect the museum operations?

That's a great question. So, ideally, most of these by adding the the separate entrance, both of them could operate at the same time. Um, right now, that's also been one of the challenges is uh the event center is rented out primarily when the park service isn't in operation. So, evening events or weekend events. Um, sometimes like when the robotics competition uh occupies the space for the weekend, there is that crossover activity. Um, but generally uh the events take place outside of park service hours right now. Andrew,

currently all three options uh assume city retention of the space. Is it possible to separate the space functionally from the National Park Service or have it owned by a a separate entity other than the city or the national park?

Yeah. So, um that's a great question. With both of these options, we could, especially with the event lobby, adding on the event lobby, any of these options could remain where they're they're operated by outside operators. So, this doesn't mean that the city has to hire an employ, but the intent is to generate revenue that would come back to the city that would um be reinvested back into the facility to offset our our long-term maintenance costs. I think that the report outlines and I know that we're not going we're not going over everything but the report does outline community impact in addition to operational expenses of the of the facility itself. Correct.

And so I think that that all of us, you know, from the time that we have begun investing in this facility, it's had its HVAC upgraded. We built a new parking lot. We did the leg work to have the study done for feasibility. There's a lot of ground laying taking taking place here. and we all believe in the long-term vision of the economic role that this can have in our in in our community. That said, what is the city of Monroe's role and responsibility in in helping to facilitate

that? uh maybe not in terms of operating it ourselves but in in many other community projects that I can think of you know KM Cornerstone which is on the agenda this evening we are a facilitator and a partner of that project where there is a a private participant that is that is helping really to to make those investments in the community where that's not necessarily those those capital dollars aren't necessarily coming out of uh city Monroe taxpayer pockets. Yeah, that's that's those are great examples. Also thinking about the ALCC and the libraries, we own them, but we do not operate them. Um there's revenue that comes in thanks to those operating partners who seek out grants and provide their own funding toward the maintenance of those buildings as well. Uh thinking about the Sawyer House, we do not uh manage that facility, but the Sawyer House nonprofit group does, and they collect revenue and generally help uh put funds back into the facility. But it's certainly um a model that we can look at for this facility as well.

If I might clarify, Mr. Mayor, um I when I not only in terms of operation, but in terms of ownership, is it possible to separate to divide the ownership of the space so that we're not responsible so that the city is not responsible for ongoing capital expenses? Yeah, there's once we get into the next steps, there's multiple things we can take a look at. Okay. Yep. I guess a follow up to Kelly's question about impacting uh the museum. As I look at this, there's no transition of space from the museum to this project or is there?

Uh no, there's not. So, um when we think like the auditorium could be a benefit for some of these events, too. The rest of the space could be a benefit for some events, perhaps not all events. Um, this does not assume that it has to be completely cut off from the rest of the building in order to utilize those other spaces. Um, right now there is the doors that go into the main lobby just outside the gift shop. Um, you'll see in here those are proposed to go away and have all traffic come in directly from the new event center. Um, but I would say once we get into um, future decision making, there are many ways to to evaluate these. These are purely schematic and show different options that can be then be carried forward for u possible implementation with updates and modifications. Thank you. Okay, so the price tag for these options again these are just construction costs. Um option number one was to keep the building the same. No construction costs included. Just consists of hiring either a full-time manager or contracting with somebody uh with some sort of management agreement to uh operate the space as it is right now. But you'll see option two for that basic meeting space, not the the ballroom finishes, the event space, uh the new entryway, and the kitchen. The price tag is about $10.3 million. Um, and again, these are just estimates, but um, option three, which is the premium venue, uh, for the ball full ballroom, it's just under $14 million in total project costs. So to Councilman Felder's uh point talking about the um the measures of return that you can get on uh the future use of this building, there's the financial performance which is revenue

covering or not covering expenses and direct return on capital deployed. Um but there's also the the economic impact to the greater community with the creation of jobs, the spending of jobs, um the input or the economic output that new visitors to the area um provide uh because of the the renovated space and we'll get into those a little bit uh next. So, the financial comparison at stabilization and that looks at year four after everything is built out, after the kinks are all worked out uh and we're uh fully up and operational. Um looking at baseline, so right now where we're at right now, if revenue were to stay the same at about $2,200, expenses would primarily be um what they are right now with utilities and the the hiring of a full-time employee or full-time maintenance contract. um you're looking at uh a loss of about $71,000 annually. Uh if we continue at the baseline right now, um option one would be hiring the full-time I'm sorry, baseline is where we're at right now. Option one is hiring the full-time manager. Um increase you would hope to increase revenue and have additional events. Um, however, still operating a margin at about 23% loss every year. Um, just current status quo with the the hiring of an additional uh full-time person. Um, option two, which is the basic event space, adding the kitchen. Um, we are looking at the opportunity to increase by about $700,000 in new revenue. Um, but that also comes with expenses. And when we look at expenses, we looked at wages, contracted services, operating expenses, the repairs, supplies, insurance, utilities. This

does not include the construction costs. Uh so that 10 $10 million to renovate the space for option two. This uh net loss does not include the the debt that we would have to take on to renovate that because we don't have those funds readily available right now. So looking at uh a smaller loss at about 3% but still not um an opportunity to cover completely cover the costs not including construction. And then you'll see where the real um opportunities are uh for the highest break even point would be the full premium convention uh conversion center uh making close to a million dollars in revenue a year as an opportunity but your expenses remain higher than that. um looking at an operation operating margin of about a 1% loss. Um but construction costs again not factored into that at about 14 million. So I will say when we first got this and Matt and I met with Hunden to go over this um it was definitely Hunden told us what we needed to hear, not what we wanted to hear. We had hoped that there would be a greater opportunity for revenue generating to cover the costs associated with the building and the operations. Um but with the financial comparison at year four right now that does not seem likely. However, that could be offset by the regional economic activity that we talked about. So the opportunity uh that would increase with direct spending that visitors would bring uh to our area. looking at the direct spending as well as the multiplier that the US uh economic analysis administration uses um for these types of events. We are looking at an average impact of about $6.8 million in economic benefit to Monroe. Um that's the the investment

that visitors would be making in food, lodging, retail, transportation, uh with new folks coming into our community. um over 30 years that could be about $23 million of an econ a regional economic input. Um multiply that or add to that the jobs that are created with with this facility uh being about $2 million in new wages. Multiply that uh by a multiplier of8 million, you get an economic input of about 2.9 million in addition to that spending uh direct spending input of 9.8 million. And you see that uh graduates and increases with each of the each of the three options. So that was a lot to go through. That's a lot to think about. Um it's a lot of information to receive. Um brains are probably thinking, okay, so what do we do? Um we do not have to make that decision tonight. Um we still have the ongoing maintenance or operating agreement with the Battlefield Foundation for the time being. Um however, we are sort of at a fork in the road to decide what are we going to do with this facility. And so when we met with Hunden, there were some options available to us. And I will say I've had communication and conversations with some folks in the community who uh have heard a little bit about the study that we're doing um that it may not prove to be feasible for the city to operate um an event center ourselves. Um but there is interest with other people who may have other ideas for the space that that may be different than an event convention and trade center. Um, so one of the things that we talked about with Hunden is we could do what's called a request for information or an RFI where we cast a broad net and we say we've got this facility, this 20,000 square foot facility that's attached to a national

park in Monroe that we are looking for ideas and opportunities for um, and see what sort of proposals we get. that net would be a lot broader than where Matt and I would outreach to the folks that we know just here locally. But when you looked at who Hunden is, the network that they have, the folks that they work with, the network that they're involved in, that is a service that they can provide to us is to help us find some other users that we may not have thought about um knowing uh the results of this uh this uh feasibility study. The other is we could continue to have these conversations with the local organizations that may be interested and have some more serious dialogue with them. We didn't want to get too far in conversation with them without presenting this to you first. Um and so we have not carried those forward. Um or it could be a combination of the two that we do a request for information or request for proposals and the local folks have an opportunity to respond to that just like anybody else would. and then together with council and administration, we could evaluate those and see where the next steps we we go are. So those are some opportunities of what we could do next. But I also understand this was a 100 pages of a lot of information uh that you just got last week. So, um, one recommendation would be for you to, uh, take the report, look it over a little bit deeper, think about it, think about this presentation, the introduction that, uh, was given to you tonight, and then we can come back at a work session maybe in a couple weeks and have further discussion about where you would like to go.

Thanks, Mark. We'll see if there's other questions or follow-ups, but there there is 77 more pages to go. So, just a few more for those. I want to do the reading which we already probably have. Uh but that aside, I I'm it's really um I don't taken back but at the same time I'm thinking about where we were before and how we got to to where we are today uh from the sports complex to now know recognizing that there's some similarities. Um, as we talked about, you mentioned about management and you mentioned about transitioning and of course uh Andrew's uh comment about, you know, having somebody else do it without having some of the responsibility. We never got past that last time and it was always still the city's obligation. I think there's there's a variety of things that can be uh maybe a couple or three that might be more feasible, but I'd like to I do like would like some additional information. And what you said last I think is kind of where I'm still thinking about. But Kathy,

is there a cost to doing the RFI? Is that Yeah. Yeah. So they offered that but we did not ask them for a proposal yet because we didn't want to go there until we gauge whether you were interested in moving in that direction. So if if we move forward from the presentation tonight and think about coming back to this conversation in maybe two meetings or so um I can get a proposal from them and we can discuss that uh further together uh if that's one direction we would like to go that would be helpful

question I had as well because it's you know we're at a point where we've expended and uh revenues to get to where we are as Andrew said as well and and what is our next step and I think we're going to need some time to think about it. But what I think you're going to get questions for more or yeah inquires more answers. Andrew,

um the construction costs for the uh options two and three where they um talk about building a new entrance, the footprint of the building that was shown in the diagram included the doors to that entrance on the south side of the building, but they did not include anything any additions to the building. Currently, if you put doors right there, it would just open up under the south lawn. Essentially, you'd be walking into grass. Does that include building a new entry? Because there's no parking over there. There's not I think there might be a sidewalk, but that's really about it. It's overgrown with the the big

evergreens right now in that area. So, it is a sidewalk that goes to that door that goes directly into the South Event Center. Um, and there's a couple different things. These are just ideas that kind of got us thinking. Um, but there was also we had some previous discussion about building a new patio space that it didn't mean we need to build a brand new entryway to that space, but perhaps a new patio that utilizes that existing door that can then go into the pre-unction space and save us some funds from those construction costs. So, there's a couple different different options to look at there, too. Yeah,

as as we're talking about entrances, if if that's just so that the caterers can get, you know, the trucks in and out of the building, you know, that's that's one thing. If we're having guests enter through that part of the building, we probably need something that isn't included in that blueprint, and now we're adding to the already substantial construction costs that have been estimated.

Yeah. Yep. I will say the the cost that they had for their the kitchen as well seemed a little bit higher than some of the estimates that we had gotten previously. I know costs have increased when we built the commercial kitchen at the ALCC. I think it was $350,000 estimating a million here. Um we had worked with Jim Jacobs and his kitchen consultant about 2 years ago and we were looking at about 700,000. So, the numbers are a bit all over the place and it comes down to what exactly you're looking for in a design and we would certainly expect to get some second opinions on on millions of dollars in projects. So,

other questions? If we did go with option two or three, do we know and and we uh we're still in charge of the buildings. What something like that might somebody coming in and getting name rights to the facility? what that would bring in is there any kind of

those are other opportunities for revenue that weren't explored as naming rights. Um certainly those are opportunities like with what First Merchants has for the the fairground. So those other opportunities for revenue. This also didn't get into if we don't hire a management team that would be employed by the city what a management contract would look like. I know I've had conversations with one at least one entity that may be interested in doing that. Right now it's a 7525 uh split with the foundation where they keep 75% and we get 25% of all rentals. Um those would all be worked out in management agreements and and negotiated fine-tuned. Yeah. I won't say it's overwhelming, but it's a lot of information. I think your your thoughts of, you know, coming back in a couple weeks. Um, um, I guess the last things you said, I think maybe if there's a uh, you know, one, two pager or something like that, I think that would be helpful for me. Um, I just think about when we start having uh, contracts and then, you know, not delivering. Lived that before

and it it it didn't end well. And um but then the usage went down as well. That that was the main factor that that made the transition. Um I I just I don't think we want to repeat that either. But I think that's but we have to make a decision at some point to move differently than where we are now. Not that um you know it is being used in some fashions as the the the slides and slides show, but that's not going to be a long-term uh solution either. So, Mhm.

Um, I I I recall being at a I believe it was a net U Michigan municipal and they had a presenter and they said, you know, we were talking about if you have this, you need to hire somebody and when you hire them, it's uh then you're hiring the second person that's going to be there with them if you're going to have success. And it was substantial, anywhere between 250 to $350,000 just to get uh if you want it to be done correctly. And that's that I think those numbers showed that somewhere in here when you talk about you know the operating of 700 and some thousand and you know you're still in the deficit at the end of the year. So uh that that's probably not beneficial for us.

Yeah. And there is there's a bit of the you're operating in deficit but there's the regional economic benefit that could offset some of that. Um, but it all comes down to what is the city's interest in in the economic return and the economic benefit of the two and is there some way we can find another use that brings that gap closer together.

And I think there's probably better uh data collection that is being done today than it would have been done 10 years ago. You know where people are coming from, where they're going, and we we know that, right? We know when they're leaving a particular place or going to a particular store. and not that people are being tracked but you just have that connectivity to get data that tells you is it I think it brings more substance to the economic return of saying it's bringing this many people and they're going to this many restaurants so it's this much economic benefit and I believe that's factual it does have that but

I I'd want some more clarity of you know um definite expectations versus you know the expected is to be this we've heard that before and I'm not saying it doesn't occur. But I think if uh however we go down the path here, I think we need to find the best possible data that that gives us the information to make a a full decision.

Yeah. One of the the other ident or things that the study identified later in the in the report was hotel room capacity. So the ability to have these larger events that would draw in more people to our community, but do we have the hotel room capacity to house them? Um, right now I know with uh the Fermy shutdown happening, there were no hotel rooms available. Um, and so the report did say if if this moves forward and with the the other events that Monroe is drawing at some of these other facilities, there is room for more hotels in Monroe as well. Um, and and certainly that would be something that we would work toward trying to attract uh to help this be a successful venture as well. But um, it all goes hand in hand together. You know, we're always looking for partnerships and how we move forward and knowing, you know, you talk about hotels and you talk about the the use of those rooms. I mean, if they're filled, they're they're they're going to be content. who fills them may not matter where it matters to others and matters the impact it has on a community that's looking for that

um um I'll say usage of people showing for the purpose of coming to a an event center or facility or a night a weekend whatever it might be versus I'm going to my job for the next three months and then the rooms are full and so they both have value but I think there's a different um um value of that that presents itself. Andrew, um did Hunden provide any details as to how they came up with the revenue projections?

Yeah, so that's later in the study, but it's primarily based off of what regional facilities are getting for um for similar services uh based on per event function um and and publicly available report data. It didn't break it down by here's how much you would have to charge for every event. It breaks it down. They look at trade shows, sporting events, weddings, banquetss, things of that sort separately. So, if you look through the report, it breaks down how many of each of those events you would have to have throughout the year and what sort of overall revenue they would bring in with that mix and how often it would have to be full and used in order to reach those revenue targets. So again, just estimates but using that regional information that that we were we were able to glean from other operators to be competitive.

Okay. They looked go ahead Andrew. Rather optimistic. Yeah. Optimistic. And then I always say you know it's generating that but is it generating where there's employment opportunities that then means people are you know staying does it mean that they're you know uh it's going to increase business of a service uh management because they

you know they they need to buy more flowers for the the uh location so somebody has a second store you know or or it or it's just you know the restaurants the the dining the you know the the items that people buy if it's if if you have a capacity now of of providing services. If you're not increasing those services, of course, we we'd be looking for the city because it then becomes taxable value of properties and increase. And I I so to me the numbers are from a a broad perspective probably and I'm trying to think how do we how do we look at this of what's the opportunity that we have to increase those uh um best garner the economic impact dollars that are maybe come back to the city where they be more housing, more bo stores, more people, more employment and you know schools. And it's important to note too, those estimates, everything looked at year four. So looking at we're not going to have all this revenue in the first year. It's going to take us time to build up if that's the direction that we choose to go in. So the losses will probably be even higher in years 1 through three as we market the facility and and get the operations up and going. So it is rather ambitious some of the numbers that that were listed and I think those are goals and targets. Once complete build out, once operations are stabilized.

Kelly, go ahead. You want to follow up? Go ahead. If we did, you know, it sounds great. Say we chose option three, build a ballroom. Where are we going to get the money from?

And that's part of the conversation. Um, look behind me and see if Ed Cell was with us. um have conversation with him because obviously that would take some investment um and taking on some additional debt and a consideration is we just paid off the bond from building the building. It would have to be something we look at issuing bonds and issuing debt uh to move forward uh to to get that capital. And that's a a great uh point, Councilwoman Binding, as those numbers again didn't indicate what a debt payment would look like uh as part of that as well. and we can look up some estimates uh with those numbers to bring it back uh as information for you Kelly

to issue a bond or that we have to take it to a vote no Deb so have we had any interest at all throughout these past what three four years of other people you know wanting to rent it for one thing or another

yeah so and uh We do get the report as part of the operation agreement we have with the Battlefield Foundation. How many phone calls they get, how many times they rent it out. Again, similar to Amy Mason in our department, she's only one person and can only do so much. Alicia Culie is the director of the Battlefield Foundation and she's got a much larger job than operating the event center. So, um I will say they they do get interest. We've also had a partnership with the tourism bureau and they've brought in some events to the facility as well. um like the Bassmasters tournament and others. So there is interest in the facility um but and not the capacity to manage it to the full potential right now. And so that was where we wanted to do the report. We had a hunch that there would be a market for the facility based on the interest but we didn't know if it would be to the extent these investments that would need to be made would would offset what the cost would be. So,

another item uh and I think we probably have more questions, but if you I think uh just haven't heard otherwise, but you've offered a couple things that could bring back in a couple weeks. We'd have a follow-up conversation. We could look at some more uh information. If we have questions, we can send them ahead of time and uh then have a um a followup just to see as a start point. and happy to to sit down and and meet with any council member too to walk through this and and talk through it a little bit more because it is a big decision to make. So, we won't be making this quickly soon. No. All right. Thank you, Mark. Yep. And you have an a second item?

Yeah. While I'm here, um this is in followup to another priority that we discussed at your March work session in addition to uh looking at this facility, but also all of our city property that we have in surplus uh vacant property. What is the status of all those? Last time we did this presentation, I want to say I know you recently went by uh to update you on uh city property. We've sold some, we've gained some. Um so Matt's put together a presentation just to walk you through where we're at right now um and have some discussion about the future of those properties. Thank you, Mark. Matt,

thanks. Good evening, Mayor, City Council, Clerk, Treasure Lavoy. Uh, thanks for having me. Matt Vanisacker, deputy director of economic and community development and neighborhood services coordinator. I'm just waiting for the screen to load up here and see here if I can use my Oh, did I lose it? I had it and then I lost it. See if it I don't know why it's not loading. Did it do the same thing?

Sorry about that. You're fine. It's in your display. That makes sense.

There you go. Okay, great. Awesome. Thank you.

Excellent. Yeah. Well, um, as Mark said, the last time this presentation was given was December of 2021. So, a little bit has changed since then. Hoping to cover, uh, some of the elements that were, uh, you know, with the zoning code, residential updates, uh, but then also look at some what some other peer communities are doing, uh, to address some of these items and and look for some strategies and some guidance as we move forward. So uh just to briefly run through uh the goals of the presentation um be looking to at our process that we use for uh intake and uh and going through that process of marketing the sites. Um talking about some recent uh conveyances and and agreements that we've seen some success with. Um and then also uh just opening it up for some general topics uh and Q&A at the end. Um so to start I want to give thanks uh first and foremost to uh to Mark for his work uh going through the the initial uh batch uh back in 2021. Um also to our uh information technologies team uh Terry Davis and Kim Rer uh for their work and their efforts uh along with our assessing team and then also Mariaini our our community development specialist. Um looking at the city overall, uh the city currently has 245 parcels that are under city ownership. Uh 45 of those would be considered parks property. 58 would be considered residential uh parcels and 143 would be considered other and that includes things like the uh DPS facilities, fire station, the airport, uh a number of those uh items. If you look, those 245 total parcels span 790 acres, which is

right around 16% of the total acreage of the city of Monroe. 177 of that would be considered residential buildable acres, 305 would be considered parks, and 308 would fall into that other category. Uh the primary bulk of the 177 residential would consist of the highindustrial property. Uh and and then uh looking at the bulk of the 308 other acres uh would be the airport and some of the other uh largescale city-owned DPS facilities. Looking at the impact of the 2025 uh zoning code amendments uh based on the presentation that was given December 6th of 2021, there were 45 non-buildable uh residential lots and the reasons given for that were primarily minimum lot width, minimum lot size and then also setback requirements uh of the parcels. uh post July 2025, which is when the zoning code updates uh were uh approved and then went into effect in August, uh we now only have six non-buildable lots um that would be considered non-buildable per the uh zoning code. On the bright side, a couple of these are adjacent to each other and so they could be combined uh rather easily through either an administrative lot combination uh to market uh for residential use. Uh but 52 of those lots are buildable lots and and we've been you know fielding different calls and and conversations on those. Um looking at the uh the intake process that we use and I'm going to uh exit out of here and bring you to a couple different maps that our our GIS team have uh have developed. So first and foremost we have a general map of

city-owned parcels. Uh it's broken out based on um uh the blue are simply just city-owned areas. They're not broken down based on residential in in this overarching map. Uh but as you can see, some of the yellow and green parcels to the right uh are part of the DNR trust fund uh acquisition and some of our match properties that are required as a result of that. Um and then you'll also see our neighborhood enterprise zones that are um that are featured here as well and showing parcels that fit within that. Um recently and as as one of the key action items of the 2024 residential housing strategy, um the GIS team also put together a city-owned residential parcel uh map which focuses specifically on those residential uh properties that are um are considered buildable primarily uh or are adjacent to ones where they would be considered uh buildable. And the really cool element uh of this form is that you can click on any of these uh and you can click to submit an inquiry uh and it takes you to an inquiry form that asks uh a couple of different questions uh specific to the um to the parcels. We focus on some primary information obviously the name of the person that is interested uh the phone email address uh that they are interested in pursuing um and then also details of the inquiry. So we're looking for information along the lines of what are your intentions with this property. Um you know a lot of times we will get standard requests for I want to make my yard bigger. uh some of those, you know, that that we we consider, we have some conversation, some dialogue with, and then sometimes they make their way uh to city council ultimately for approval. But the parcel map is great. Um at this point in time, we've been sharing this uh on a inquiry

basis uh with developers. So, looking at developers um who have reached out about a number of different infill lots and and things along those lines, uh we will share this information with them, this map with them uh for their uh review. Uh they're they're looking for very specific types of parcels typically. Uh but this gives them an idea of what is city-owned. Uh and and what the city would have the um the ownership decision on. So looking uh looking back on our intake process um we typically will receive a phone call or a web inquiry from the form uh from an interested party. Um we've also uh with developers so at various conferences and and just in the community in general having those conversations. uh we've cold called uh different residential developers who have been seen to do reputable work uh throughout the state and have worked on similar uh projects uh throughout the uh the state. Um we've had some really great conversations as a result of that. Um and then also we will we'll share the uh the GIS map of the properties. Um the second step is the interested party does submit an offer for the parcel. um they talk about cash consideration, how much they're willing to offer uh for the property and then also the intention of their use. And then if it's non city initiated, typically we will conduct a staff analysis which you pro which you saw for the 719 West 4th uh property uh uh offer that we had received from two of the neighboring parcels that wanted to split the property uh and and we did conduct a staff analysis that include the history of the property, any zoning considerations and then also the future land use uh master planned uh items as a part of that. And then ultimately after

all of those steps are complete, if we do receive a formal offer, that offer is brought before city council for review, consideration, and approval. Looking a little bit at what some of our peer communities are doing uh in in Jackson, you know, our our friends over in Jackson, they have been probably the most progressive when it comes to looking at their city-owned parcels. um they have uh received a number of parcels through uh demolished structures very similar to how we typically will receive a parcel that's not a city uh facility. Um and what they have turned to are selling off for bulk what what I would consider to be bulk development. Um they have two projects right now. They have one that's 100 infill parcels and then they have one that's looking at 50 uh units on a single uh single brownfield site um that they had in the city. Um and what they do is typically for their lots they are offering uh developers to come in and acquire those for $300. And that $300 covers the standard legal and processing fees um that would go into uh filing a quick claim deed for the the parcels. Um they also include performance guarantees in their language which we do in a number of our different uh items. Uh you know we're expecting development within a certain period of time and if it does not happen it would then revert back to the city. Um and then council gives the community development department the authority to sell for planned purposes um that are in the um outlined in the master plan and in their uh departmental strategy. Uh and then also they incentivize uh and and this is particularly to the uh to the hundred uh parcel project, but they're incentivizing that with free water and sewer hookup. And typically that's a an

expensive uh cost for for development. It's a necessary cost as part of uh any development. Um we've had conversations with developers where that is typically around $5,000 uh as part of that process. So they're offering those incentives um to developers. Uh Ann Arbor, they conducted a financial feasibility uh analysis for their underutilized property. Um they have decided to target affordable residential development where possible uh meaning 60% of the area median income or less uh for some of their projects. Um and then Bay City u they also developed a strategy uh where the city manager uh has authority on everything under 6,000 square feet. Um, so those are typically your one-off residential parcels and some of those sites. Um, and then they've also provided the opportunity for real estate brokerages um to have non-exclusive rights to sell um a portion of their property or or market a portion of their property. So just a couple of things that other peer communities are doing. Uh we are not alone uh when we look at having uh parcels and and trying to develop a strategy within the parcels. um looking at uh just a couple strategy recommendations um you know from from the economic community development department based on uh based on a number of these uh pure community solutions that we've seen. Uh the first and foremost is to adopt uh pre-approved plans and this came up in the residential uh housing strategy. Um the MML has a really great pattern book Michigan Municipal League uh of pre-approved building plans. um they've encouraged all of the municipalities to to take that and run with it uh and and tweak it uh you know with some some local flavor uh if necessary. Uh but looking at some of those um and uh it it's it's great because anyone who's looking to develop a house can come in and say I want to build it to the pre-approved plans and then it greatly

streamlines their process for development. uh but then also possibly offering some discounted cash considerations uh for those that are willing to develop residential in accordance with the pre-approved plans. Um the second thing is looking at bulk residential uh options and considerations. So offer considerations to developers that are looking to build five or more uh parcels. I think, you know, we're we're looking at, you know, there's there's a a a smaller and smaller number uh of of parcels that are designated as residential out of our uh overall uh item. But if there's a developer that's willing to take the chance or or you know agree to a performance guarantee on 5 10 15 of those parcels certainly something that's worth uh considering and also exploring issuing RFPs uh for some of the uh parcels depending on how fast we're looking to uh to get rid of and and get back into productive reuse some of the parcels. Um the next one is really just a personal one that I threw in there. uh eradicate sliver parcels. What what I would deem as a sliver parcel. Uh we have a number of parcel. Well, actually it it wasn't as much as I was expecting uh when I was going through this uh analysis, but um we have a number of small parcels that are adjacent to uh residential lots that could very easily be administratively combined uh with with a parcel uh to make an even lot line. Uh, and so, uh, I think one of the things that that, uh, would certainly be make sense would be to look through all of those, see their see their use. Uh, if if they're if they have a productive use, that's fine. If not, uh, start to look at doing some administrative uh, site combinations on those, and then also plan for large parcels, which which, you know, we're we're we're doing now, but also looking into the future. Um we're we're getting ready to start

the high industrial pro uh property sub area plan and that process. Uh but also looking at some of the other parcels that were called out in the residential housing strategy uh for some of those sub area plans. So looking at uh just a couple of things I think uh you know we're we're we as staff are looking for some some guidance some some uh some input on uh are just the sales and marketing strategy overall. Are are there things that that you think we should be doing, things that you think we could uh we could do to improve that process? Um, looking at the lots that are considered non-buildable uh and uh they're non-buildable within the uh within the zoning code post zoning code updates, they are smaller in size and stature, and that's typically why they're um they're in there. Um, you know, there's probably four when you think about the the the two that could be combined that are next to each other. Um, there's probably four and they vary based on minimum lot size, the um the um oh the the lot width and some of those uh considerations within the zoning code. So, um developing a strategy for for what to do with those. Um and then just overall thoughts on on larger parcels and I think a lot of that will come with some of the sub area plan um development and some of those other things. But are there other things that we should be looking at uh based on your recommendation? So with that I'll open it up to any questions or thoughts.

I'll see if there's questions. Just real quick though high property is it 140? Yeah, it's about 100. Yeah, about 142 acres in total. Okay. And it's actually it's it's split between two uh properties. So when you look at the 52 properties that are buildable, two of those properties would be considered the high industrial property. So I just wanted to large area that is uh we're looking at for a sub area plan.

And I I should have specified too there's a couple of these parcels that are obviously larger in size that can obviously produce a number of units. Um the the vast majority of those 52 are parcels that or 54 are parcels that would be considered uh small small lots.

Questions? Kelly? So, in my time on council, most of the questions that I'll get regarding a city-owned lot will be from a neighbor who's been maintaining this, cutting the grass, taking care of it for some period of time. and um they want to know can they add it into their Mhm. So, right,

I guess those would be maybe the sliver lots you speak of or the nonbuildable lots. Um, are we trying to move away from an individual just saying, "Hey, I want calling up, can I get this lot?" and going more towards a a developer. Um, also, uh, well, yeah, that

Yeah. So, uh, to to answer that question, we field inquiries from everyone. Uh, it's it's not necessarily, you know, where where we would, um, you know, just just shut the door on on an individual that's looking to do it. You know, typically what we would do in that case is we would ask them to present a set of plans, you know, for for the parcel. uh as part of that um we uh the the reason I say focus on some of the um some of the developers that are looking at multiple sites is because there seems to be that interest right now uh across the state looking at some of the you know individual municipalities and um when you think about the cost of land and you know it's it's a huge cost uh into that process and it makes housing that less affordable. Uh and so anything that the city can do to offset some of those costs um the larger developers are starting to take notice of as well.

And and then speaking

if I may just add on to that um how we've generally handled those in the past is if somebody if it's a buildable lot and a neighbor would like to acquire it to make their yard bigger or to add a garage to it. How we've treated that in the past is we've reserved those buildable lots to achieve their highest and best value, which a lot of times is to put a new residential building on it and hopefully work with a residential developer for a residential housing unit that would address our housing challenges, but also maximize the value on the tax role. Um, and sometimes what we've done is offer those lots for a dollar if they're going to be built on with a residential building. So, think community reimagined. They they wanted two city lots to put housing units on. Um, city council approved an agreement to sell those for a dollar. Um, but what we've done with folks who just want to make their yard bigger and it's not going to achieve the highest and best taxable value that we can achieve. It's not going to solve some of our residential housing demands. is we've said you can offer the full tax or full true cash value that the assessor's office has on file. Buy it from us basically because the only person who's gaining from that is that that property owner who's asking for it. It adds a little bit to the taxable value, but it's vacant land that just gets added to their their tax uh their tax assessment. So, we've said we we will take any offer to city council for them to decide whether they want to allow it for somebody to make their yard bigger or to put a garage on or is it our our policy moving forward that we want new development on these lots. So, in general, it's uh if they're going to be used in maximum value, council has agreed to sell those for a dollar. If

they're not, then a full cash offer or full um true cash value is what would be presented to you for then you to decide. Other questions in Kelly in the general discuss uh discussion you have bulleted here owner occupied versus rental. Yep. But I didn't hear you bring anything up about it. Was what is was that a question?

Yeah. So just looking at the the lots that would be considered non-buildable. Um in in the past council's given certain consideration for you know some of those sliver parcels to um to sell those or convey those to owner occupied parcels rather than parcels that would be considered rental properties. Um so it's just been it's just been something that's come up throughout the years. Uh, but just I guess thoughts on whether that should stay that way, whether it makes sense to to keep it the way that that that's been going.

Other questions? Kathy, thinking about a sliver property. Um, I guess I'm struggling and I wasn't probably part of the previous um, conversations maybe, but if the landlord wanted to take a sliver that there was absolutely nothing you could do with any other way, I guess I'm struggling to see why that wouldn't be okay. Um, because it it gets rid of our expenses to maintain it

and we do get a little bit like if it's not buildable, does it matter who actually gets it, I guess, is the question I would have. I recall there was a one that was 8 in and one that was like 12 in and it ran the length of the property and they didn't want to take it because they didn't want to add to their taxable value which I thought how much could that possibly be and I to me that part that part wouldn't wouldn't matter as much to me but if it's splitting a lot and we've done we've done that here recently both homeowners at the side both wanted to expand one was going to build a garage the other did not but we allowed that But they're gonna an ownership versus, you know, a I'll say a rental property for expansion.

And I was just thinking of the sliver, the really small ones. Like why would we keep those? No matter and maybe the landlord would not want to take it on, but if they did, we had a square of a a landlock piece of property just a couple blocks from here. It was between four houses and it just sat there and somebody cut it thankfully. But then finally we said let's find somebody that wants this square to add to their property. It just didn't make sense. It wasn't much bigger than where you know Kelly and I are sitting here. So Kelly

I I just um one particular property I'm thinking of and the um I think it's maybe like 8 to 15 feet or something. So you couldn't build anything on it or anything. But I don't know about the I agree with uh Councilwoman Stringum about if if it's so small we can't do anything else with it and they're maintaining it. It wouldn't make a difference to me if it was owner occupied or rental occupied. Um I guess I'd have to think more when you get to buildable size lots and things like that. But for the small I was thinking of the little, you know, I know a few people just in my precinct who maintain city property. They keep it cut and and those type of things. And um they have mentioned the interest. And so that was my other question. I think Mark answered it for me. How do we decide who pays a dollar as opposed to who pays 2 or 3,000 or whatever? Is it based on the taxable value on that lot or?

Yeah. So, we typically will um in in these conversations, the first question that we always get asked is how much does the city want for this property? And what we do is, you know, we're we're we disclose to them that there's not really a listed price uh for the property, but we do share the true cash value per the assessing database for the property. And that's where we see a lot of the different uh items come. And maybe if there is a parcel that has some environmental uh you know remediation that needs to happen first at that time we would give some additional consideration for that.

Okay about three minutes I'll see if there's other questions. I could think I'll just say this with you know some of the potential changes when you talk about size of lots and whether it's coming from the state or here in individually that we've made some decisions on of making more lots I could see there's the possibility that somebody you know just that 15 ft might make the difference that they could put an ADU in the back and and and then make it whether it's homeowners or or or rental and and it's providing a location um for a smaller home and yet it's is generating. It would increase the value of the property because you're actually building something. So, I could see those are probably more opportunities now than they were the last time we looked at this. So, I think we really have to look at what those distances and spaces are and find out it might be especially if they have that intent. If I had the 15 ft, I could put this in here and it would be would raise the value but also provide a a location for residents.

Now, we got two minutes. Any last questions? Matt, thank you. I know you'll make that available for all of us and I think that we'll have just as we come back with Marks, so maybe we'll have more questions on this as well. Thank you. Well, if there's no other questions or thoughts, um I will close the work session and we have about oh maybe two or three minutes before we uh get started um before we call to order for the regular meeting. Thank you all.

Call the city council meeting to order. Clerk, please call the role. Stringham here. Felder here. Here. Still here. Vining here. Gerani excused. Mayor Clark here. I'd ask we all please rise for indication. Remain standing for the pledge of allegiance. Guide our working together. Give us wisdom to make the right decisions, your understanding to listen to each other, and your compassion to promote the peace and welfare of the residents of this community.

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. Clerk, next item, please. The next item on the agenda is uh the approval of the regular agenda. Thank you. Uh inter manager Cochran, any adjustments to the agenda? Uh none this evening. Any items from council? Seeing none, a motion to motion to approve. Councilman her second. Motion by Councilman Hater, support by Councilwoman Stillgave to approve the regular agenda. Clerk, please call the role. Council person Stringham. Yes. Felder, yes. Yes. Still, yes. Vining. Yes.

Mayor Clark. Yes. Next item, please. The next item on the agenda is the consent agenda. And for the approval of payments to vendors, the amount should read 2,66,88166.2066881.66.

Thank you. Are there any items on the consent agenda that council wishes to have pulled for further discussion? Any items on the consent agenda from council? Seeing none, is there any items on the consent agenda uh those present here this evening wish to have pulled for further discussion? There's an item that you wish to discuss, now would be the time to pull it. It'll be put at the end of the agenda. Any items on the consent agenda from those present here this evening? Seeing none, Councilman Felder. Yes, Toronto. I'd like to make a motion that all items on the consent agenda be accepted, placed on file, recommendations carried out, resolutions adopted. support. It's

motion by Counciloman Felder, supported by Councilwoman Stringham, that all items on the consent agenda be accepted, placed on file. Uh, resolutions adopt, and recommendations carried out. Clerk, please call the role. Mr. Yes. Fder, yes. Yes. Still, yes. Vining, yes. Mayor Clark, yes. Next item, please. The next item on the agenda is pre under presentations, communications, and public hearings. Item 5943, public hearing for proposed ordinance 26-006.

Thank you. Inter manager uh Cochran, uh the uh item on this for the public hearing. You want to make comments, please?

Sure. Uh just for purposes of introduction, uh this is an amendment to the ordinance that deals with the the usage of ebikes uh and other micromobility devices across the city. We had a lot of discussion with city council and other stakeholders and internally at administration about proposed regulations pertaining to the use of ebikes both uh on sidewalks, trails, and within the parks across the city. So this is moving forward for adoption tonight. And I know we've had conversation at work sessions in the past. If there's any question from council. If not, uh I think I'll start at this time for the I'll call the public uh hearing to to open. Uh it's a public hearing regard proposed ordinance 26 to 006. Any comments from those present here this evening regarding this public hearing? Seeing none, I'll close the public hearing. Clerk, next item, please. The next item is 5944 public hearing on park regulation amendments.

And again, inter manager Cochran uh uh comments on this.

Sure. This is rather unique uh given our park rules and regulations or policies adopted by city council, not ordinances. Typically, when you update um policies, you're not required to have a public hearing. However, giving given uh the fact we're updating the park rules again to deal with regulations pertaining to ebikes and other electric micro micromobility devices uh in our park system. Uh the Michigan voter motor vehicle code uh sorry, cat's got my tongue tonight. Uh requires a public hearing for any rules, regulations, and ordinances that a municipality may be considering for ebike regulations. So in this case, we do have to have a public hearing for the revised park rules.

Thank you. Any questions from council for manager? Seeing none at this time, I'll open the public hearing item 5944, public hearing on park regulation amendments. Any comments from those present here this evening for this public hearing. Any comments? Seeing none, close public hearing. Clerk, next item, please. The next item is item 5945, public hearing on proposed Brownfield plan for former St. Mary Academy property and I should have mentioned in the previous two and in this one that there are no comments on file in the clerk's office. Thank you. Inter manager Cochran comments on this one?

Yes. So um this is the first of two brownfield plans that you're considering for approval this evening. Um the first deals with the former St. Mary Academy development that I think we're we're all aware and familiar with for uh two years of discussion we've had around this. Um, but this is a Brownfield plan that's up for your approval this evening following the approval by the Brownfield Redevelopment Authority on April 9th. And I guess just for purposes of recap, um, this Brownfield plan uh, does show a proposed total estimated capital investment of just under $103 million. Uh, 24.8 million of which would be eligible to be reimbured through the developer under act 381. um 6.5 million of that is rel relative to the construction of 115 new housing units uh as part of the development under the updates to act 381 for uh housing activities to be eligible under the brownfield act for reimbursement and the remainder is for the traditional environmental and non-environmental activities uh including the asbesus lead abatement site preparation other modifications to the property for the full development. So, um the the first step uh was for the brownfield authority to approve it and then we did have to hold schedule the public hearing which you did this evening. Um we also were required to do a mailing to all of the taxing jurisdictions who would be impacted by this capture uh for them to be aware of this evening's public hearing as well and the right to come and be heard. Uh and so tonight is the public hearing before your final adoption of this plan. Once you approve it, it will go to Mista uh for final approval given the housing activities that are involved

before the public hearing and council have any questions clarifications. Seeing none at this Oh, Councilwoman Ving. Um Mr. City Manager, if you could refresh my memory, these are all twobedroom units. Yep.

And did we are they all the same square footage? So, out of the 115, 116, they are all two-bedroom apartments. 71 of them will be set aside for um what's called missing middle housing according to the state's definition, which would be between 60 to 120% AMI uh rent restricted for individuals who qualify with that income. Um but they do range between 750 square ft to about 1,500 in square feet. So, they do vary based on where they are in the building, but typically we're looking at the upper three floors of the development being uh set aside for housing as well as G-wing, the fourstory building in the back between the building and the auditorium and then the lower two floors for commercial. However, the commercial development costs uh the buildout for that would not be eligible under act 381. So, we're only capturing and repaying the housing costs as well as the traditional costs on the remainder of the property.

You said 750 to,500 square ft. And so, I know part of the brownfield recapture has to do with the the potential loss of rent and it comes up with this number. So, has there already been rent amounts decided? Can you tell me what those would be?

Off the top of my head, I don't know the numbers for every single apartment, but it is included in the brownfield plan. And I will say, um, please know this is just estimates right now. The actual reimbursement will be based on actual costs that are submitted to the brownfield authority, certified and and then uh made reimburseable. So, the actual rents are not concrete at this point. Yep. Just estimated at this point. Okay. And um so you you can give me that information. Yeah, I know it's in our report. It is in there so many charts and numbers is really it's over aundred pages. So yeah,

there was a lot to to read that. But I'm I'm just curious um because afford I know we say affordable housing, but affordability is relative. And so I'm trying to see who can really afford it, you know, based on how much income they earn as opposed to what the state says they should be able to afford. The states is a lot higher than what the actual rent is proposed to be. Um, and what may be easier, we did a PowerPoint presentation on this. I think it was back in March, an introduction to the plan that laid that out and I can send that as a reminder, too. Thank you.

And Okay. Thank you. That was it. Any clarification from councel? Seeing none at this time, I'll open the public hearing for item 5945, public hearing on proposed brownfield plan and uh for former St. Mary Academy property. Any comments from those present here this evening for this public hearing? Any public comment? Seeing none, I'll close the public hearing. Clerk, next item, please. Next item is 5946 public hearing on proposed community reimagined brownfield plan. Manager, one more time.

Yes. So, uh very similar to the last one. Uh this is the same uh brownfield plan uh just for a different development. This is for 1026 and 1030 East 2nd Street with Community Reimagine for the Welcome Homes project. Um, this one doesn't have quite the same magnitude, but the impact uh arguably could be the same. Uh, the total capital investment with this project is 1.6 million uh total with 1.5 million being eligible to be reimbursed to the developer. Uh, which is primarily the housing cost, not the traditional brownfield costs for this site. Um, it is a 30-year plan with the future taxable value at about $1.1 million annual. Um, and this includes three duplexes, uh, which would be a total of six sustainable and energy efficient two-bedroom units that are about 1,230 square ft each.

Any questions for manager Cochran? Seeing none. Oh, Councilwoman, you would happen to know um the rent the estimated rents on these? I don't. It's in the report um as well. I know the developer is here may be able to answer that question during the public hearing, too. But I know that they are set aside uh each of the two units are set aside for a certain income percentage that um I believe the developer could speak to two two and two at different income levels.

Okay. And then when you say 1230 ft is that each indiv So is that 1230 ft split in half because it's a duplex or each? So it's um each dwelling unit would be 1230 ft. Oh okay. Okay, thank you. Okay, at this time I'll open the public hearing on item 5946. It's public hearing on proposed community reimagined brownfield plan. Any comments from those present here this evening? Please step forward. Just your name and jurisdictional residence, please.

Good evening, honorable mayor and city council and interim city manager. Uh thank you all for uh allowing us to uh present tonight. My name is Stephanie Casperac. I'm coming to you here with several hats. Um as you know, I'm the executive director of MCOP. Um I'm also the chairperson of the Monroe County Network on Homelessness and um co-founder of Community Reimagine with Aaron Lavender. You want to introduce yourself real quick?

Yes. Sarin Lavender um 428 Elmyra Avenue. Um excuse me. I I'm here with a heavy heart. Uh we lost a about three people in our community. Kelly knows them as well. And um I just want to apologize if I don't have the same energy that I once have. So um please forgive me for that.

But we are here tonight um to talk about our welcome homes development. Um and boy, when it comes to housing, I've spent about 12 to 15 years of my career here um trying to build affordable housing in Monroe County. And it has been a a true struggle to be honest. Um, as you know at MCOP we rehab housing. We've done acquisition, development, and resale of housing in the city over the years. We've done a lot of housing work. But my nemesis project has been building affordable housing in this community. We know it's a need. Our 2023 community needs assessment and many prior put affordable housing into the top five needs in Monroe. So, I can't give up, which is why I'm here today. Um about two years ago, Erin and I started to um look at developing um a project. We work with Woody Hoffer as our project manager. We work with Three Squared out of Detroit as our architect. Uh we got together, we worked with the city um to identify sites, which uh as Mark had mentioned, 1026 and 10:30 East 2nd Street. Um and we just been working on it ever since. And so we've been going through all the environmental work. Um we've been going through the project design. We received uh conditional site plan approval last year um and then developed our brownfield plan and housing tiff tables. And so we're excited to be blazing a trail with the new tiff program um coming down the pipeline with MISTA and um hope that you all will support Kelly to answer your questions. Our rent are set around $1,000. Um but we're using the housing tiff to make them more affordable for people. And so as Mark mentioned, we have three categories where the project you heard at St. Mary's is 60% AMI and up. Ours is 60% AMI and under. So we have two units that we're setting aside

to work for homeless individuals um which will work through the HAR and MOP to identify on our housing choice weight list. Um, we have two units at six uh uh 50% AMI and under and two units at 60% AMI under. So, ours are truly lower income units um built with shipping containers. It's a beautiful model and we've had uh you know, we've done all the work to get to this point. We just need the housing uh the brownfield plan approved so we can move forward with MISTA to get the housing tiff in place and approved uh so we can start construction this summer hopefully. Um construction happens really quickly on these projects with shipping containers. So by the end of the year we should be up and ready to lease out.

Good. Thank you. Other comments?

Yeah. Um I must say this. Um the the name Welcome Homes was intentional. Um, we want to welcome people back to the community. There's a lot of people that left the community and uh, we want to welcome them back home and that's why it's important um, for this community building and take advantage of what's already being h what's already happening in our community with the community center project. We want to keep the ball rolling with the 2.0 project happening. There's so many great things that's happening in our community. Want to continue to keep this momentum going. So, um it was important that we identified who needs the housing. And a lot of people see the um the outcome of these beautiful homes being built, but um as new developers, I never imagined retiring two years ago that I'd be doing this. It's a lot of work. It takes a lot of people. Um there's so many moving parts. There's so many things that you have to go through in order to make it sustainable um and affordable. um sometimes performing doesn't meet um the the the price of the homes. So you have to get creative in a different way of of trying to make this work. So it takes a lot of people. So I just want to thank everybody involved in trying to make these projects happen because everybody will see the cutting of the red tape and and the celebration but the hard work to get to the point to where we are um putting people in these homes. It's a really a journey and um I can't thank Stephanie enough. I can't thank the city enough. I can't thank the brownfield authority enough and the architects and and the general contractors and just so many stuff that goes on behind the scene that nobody knows. Um I just want to thank them and um and appreciate your support.

Thank you. Other public public comments regarding 5946? Any further public comments? Seeing none, I'll close the public hearing. Clerk, next item, please. The next item is proposed ordinance 26-006 to amend chapter 199 ebikes. Manager Cochran. Anything further? I know you explained that. So, nothing further.

So, it's for council for council action. Is there any uh Councilman hater? I move to place ordinance 25-006 to amend chapter 199 bicycle skateboards and skates on the floor for its final reading. Supports. Okay. With amending 26 ordinance. Yeah, that there's a typo there. It should be 26-006. Yes, sir.

Okay. Any questions? There's a motion by council her supported by councilman Stringham on item 5951 proposed ordinance 26-006 to amend chapter 199 ebikes. Any additional comments or questions from councel? Clerk please call the role. Council person council person Stringham. Yes. Felder. Yes. Yes. Stillgrave. Yes. Vining. Yes. Mayor Clark. Yes. Ordinance 26-006 chapter 199 bicycles skateboards and skates. An ordinance to amend chapter 199 base bicycle skateboards and skates of the code of the city of Monroe. The city of Monroe ordains. Shall this ordinance pass? Council person Stringham?

Yes. Felder? Yes. Yes. Steelgrave? Yes. Vining? Yes. Geriney, I'm sorry. Mayor Clark, yes. Next item, please. The next item is item 5949, park regulations amendment. Thank you, inter manager Cochran. Any further? Okay. Any questions or comments from council? Any additions? Councilwoman Stringham. I make a motion u move to approve the proposed amendments to the park rules pertaining to ebikes. Support. Motion by counciloman string, support by council steel grave on item 5949, park regulations amendment. Clerk, please call the role. Council person. Council person Stringham? Yes. Felder, yes. Yes. Still grave? Yes. Binding? Yes.

Mayor Clark, yes. The next item is item 5947, approval of St. Mary Academy Brownfield and housing tiff plan. I think we heard from the inter manager Cochran on this already. Any additional questions? Councilwoman uh Stelgary, sorry. Move to approve the brownfield and housing tiff plan for the former St. Mary Academy property at 420 Westtown support motion by councilwoman still grace supported by Councilman her on item 5946 approval of St. ary academy brownfield and housing tiff plan clerk please call the role council person stringham yes yes hat her yes stillgrave yes binding

yes mayor clerk yes next item please next item is item 5948 approval of community reimagined brownfield and housing tiff plan manager Cochran you've already uh said to this any additional comments from council if not a motion is in Order. Councilman hat her. I move to approve the brownfield and housing tiff plan for the community reimagined welcome homes project at 1026 and 1030 East Second Street. Second. Motion by Councilman Hater, supported by Councilwoman Stillgave on item 5948, approval of community reimagined Brownfield housing tiff plan. Clerk, please call the role. Council person Stringham?

Yes. Felder? Yes. Yes. Steelgrave? Yes. Vining? Yes. Mayor Clark. Yes. Next, please. The next item is item 5935, resolution for approval of non-union employment agreement. Thank you. Being that this is through human resources, Dr. Everly, if you could come up and please uh provide us some background on this, we appreciate it.

Absolutely. Uh good evening, honorable mayor, city council, clerk Lavoy. Uh I'm as directed by you at your last meeting. Um, after some conversation at the workshop, uh, you authorized myself and attorney Buds and Attorney Green to move forward with, uh, composing a retire, not a retirement, not a retirement, an employment agreement, an employment agreement, uh, for interim city manager, uh, Mark Cochran. So, as as directed, what you have on your agenda this evening for your consideration is exactly that employee agreement. Uh, in the whereas section of the employment agreement, uh, we've outlined much of what you discussed on May 4th at the work session. And then as we move into uh the numbered section of the employment agreement uh that as directed it very much mirrors what has been the standard for the city manager agreement here in the city of Monroe. So I'm certainly available for any um any questions. Uh attorney Buds and Attorney Green have both have both reviewed this as well. Any questions from council for Dr. Everly regarding the employment agreement?

I don't see any. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Stringham, I'd like to make a motion to adopt the proposed resolution for approval of the employment agreement. It's a motion by council string, supported by council Stillgate. Item 5935. It's resolution to of for approval of a non-union employment agreement as stated. Clerk, please call the role. Council person Stringham? Yes. Felder, yes. Yes. Still, yes. Vining, yes. Mayor Clark, yes. Next item, please.

The next item is item 5901, front and first streets intersection redesign professional services agreement.

Thank you. Inter manager Cochran. Uh earlier this year, the city received a $50,000 grant from the Michigan Infrastructure Office uh for their pre-development accelerator pilot project. And what that uh grant fund is meant to do is to prepare projects to be shovel ready uh and uh in a point where they are able to apply for federal grants to move them forward. And so the $50,000 grant that uh that we had submitted with your support uh was to look at the intersection design at front and first as well as the entryway to Helenburgg Park um west of the I75 interchange off Front Street um in advance of the 2029 2030 I75 project that MDOT is doing over the bridge over the river as well as the front and first interchange. Uh and so in advance of that, uh we had applied and received grant funding to do a redesign of that intersection to make it um more clear and navigable and safer, uh as an entryway and a gateway into the city for motorists coming off of I75, particularly once the the interchange project is completed. And so we had gone out uh to bid uh requesting professional services to move this project forward. Uh and upon review and uh selecting uh the the contractor to move this forward, we're recommending to move forward with OM adviserss. Um they had previously done a lot of work on the I75 project back when uh in 2017 when the city first moved that project forward uh in engaging with MDOT as well as the Orchard East neighborhood master plan. So they've got a great understanding of the area, the project, and the city's intent um with it as well. Um their base fee was $30,000 but they offered some additional options uh which the committee recommended to move forward with that is coming up with a visualization for gateway options and uh

visualizing what that corridor may look like with renderings in artistic design and then of course with anything uh in the city particularly in the Orchard East neighborhood coordinating with the railroad on improvements given there is a a rail line that uh that is impacted by uh that intersection. And so the total uh would be the exact amount of the grant, which is $50,000. And so we're recommending to move forward with OM. They're able to start the work immediately. Um as we do have to have everything uh the entire project wrapped up by September 15th and submitted to the state in accordance with the grant agreement.

Thank you. Any questions? Very good. This is up for council. Council Mr. Straham. I'll make a motion. Move that a professional services contract be awarded to OM adviserss in the amount of 50,000 including the base fee plus options one and two. That the interim city manager, director of engineering and public services or their design be authorized to execute any necessary agreements on behalf of the city. and that the finance director, a city assistant city manager, be authorized to set up any necessary accounts and make any necessary transfers.

Motion by Councilwoman Sting, support by Councilwoman Stelgrave on item 5901, the front and first street intersection redesign, the professional services agreement. Clerk, please call the role. Council person Stringham, yes. Felder, yes. Stograve, yes. Vining, yes. Mayor Clark, yes. Next item, please. The next item is item 5939, authorization to submit grant application with Port of Monroe to EDA and resolution of support. Interim Manager Cochran.

So, we've had um several conversations with city council about um certain programs that the city is eligible to apply for as a result of the 2023 flooding uh that occurred after a heavy rainfall event in the uh uh sequential presidential disaster declaration. Um, with that there was a special appropriation made to the US Economic Development Administration for uh communities that were impacted by that uh natural disaster with Monroe, Oakland, and Mcome counties being the only counties eligible in Michigan to apply for the funds. Um, so Matt Vanisacher and our team have have had a lot of conversations with both the federal agency as well as the state about what projects may be eligible. Um, and all projects have to have a lean-in toward resiliency in future disaster preparation and planning. And so, one of the projects that we we identified as a very substantial project is in cooperation with the Port of Monroe and some infrastructure improvements that are needed to further economic development and advancement at the port um for cargo handling and uh new economic activity. And so what uh we're recommending is to submit a grant project uh to the EDA out of the disaster recovery fund. That's a total amount of about $18.6 million. The federal share would be about $14.9 million and the share the local match share would be $3.7 million that we would have to commit toward the project. Um, what this would do is it would uh reconstruct 12 acres of the cargo handling surfaces at the riverfront dock and strengthen those for resiliency, but also fully integrated storm water management system that would help with flooding uh and future disaster um uh uh prevention and then also reconstructing 7,000 ft of East Front Street from I75 east to the DTE Monroe Power Plant. Uh

this was a project that was identified in this year's capital improvements plan for future years. So this was a project that was identified for future funding which we could use that funding toward the local match requirement. Uh leaving an an unidentified balance of about $1.9 million. Um this conversation may sound familiar to council. Uh when we applied for the rail underpass project on West Elm Avenue, um we had to have the local match short up uh as part of that project. Um but what we did was commit uh the funds for the project and then work with stakeholders to identify other opportunities besides city funds like uh state matching funds, the county support, the city support and others to help meet that match requirement. So, if city council approves this resolution, the application this evening, uh we would work together with the staff and leadership at the Port of Monroe to identify other sources to to help with this match requirement um to move the project forward and have that uh aligned uh by the time the the project is ready to go. So, what we're asking is for your authorization to submit the grant application, but also that commitment that we would find the local match for the project as well. And the unique thing uh typically through the economic development administration there's a 40% match requirement but given this is the disaster recovery program there's only a 20% match requirement. So if we were going after this outside of the disaster um our match would be uh double what what we're asking to commit which would be about a $6 million project.

Thank you. Any uh questions for Mark? Councilman Hater. I move to grant authorization for the economic and community development department to submit the US EDA disaster supplement grant program application and local match commitment letter for the elevated industrial corridor and realignment man maritime logistics platform project and approve the resolution of support. Support motion by councilman her supported by councilman stringham. Item 5939, authorization to submit grant application with the Port of Monroe to EDA and resolution of support. Clerk, please call the role. Counc Stringham, yes. Felder, yes. Yes. Still, yes. Vining, yes. Mayor Clark, yes.

Next item, please. The next item is item 5937, consideration of grant agreement with CM Cornerstone.

Inter manager Cochran. At the last meeting, city council accepted a grant from Monroe County in the amount of $750,000 to help with the free pre-development costs um for the St. Mary Academy project. And so, as a reminder, uh those costs have to be used for pre-development planning such as the architect, engineering, site plan, historic preservation work, uh rehabilitation planning work to get that project toward a shovel ready state. Um, and so what's on your agenda for your consideration tonight is the agreement between the city and CM Cornerstone, the development developer for the academy project to utilize those funds. And in essence, the grant agreement lays out uh that we will pay the contractors directly once the work is certified that it has been completed. Um and that also the end products would be the property of the city, the IHM uh sisters and the county of Monroe and the developer just in case anything were to happen uh with the development plans in place right now. We could then use those documents with any other developer into the future as well or the IHM the property owner. So um it just lays out the terms for the utilization of those funding those funds.

Thank you. Any questions or additional comments? Seeing none, a motion. Councilwoman Steelgrave. Um, move to approve the agree agreement between the city of Monroe and CM Cornerstone and authorize the interim city manager to execute the agreement on behalf of the city. Motion by Councilwoman Stillg by Councilwoman Steingham 5937 consideration of grant agreement with KM Cornerstone. Cler, please call the role. Bringham, yes. Felder, yes. Yes. Still, yes. Bining. Yes. Mayor Clark. Yes. I have no further items.

Council comments. It's May still. Councilwoman Stringham. Comments this evening.

All right. Well, I was um very glad to vote for the ebike ordinance and the updated to the parks. That that conversation started when I was on the um bicycle and pedestrian committee probably two years ago. And just a lot of conversations. I felt like we were been able to do a lot of education. Um, I see a lot of different varied abilities riding different bikes. And so what we've done, um, I'm proud of personally because we're just focusing on how people are riding a bike, not what a title is on the bike. And so if you have somebody that struggles to get out of the house and the ebike was the only way to get them out doing some exercise, they can still do that, but do it safely. And we've also given our local department of public safety the ability to do some enforcement when we see those people not following it. So for me this is um a win and so I'm very glad for that. Um the second comment I want to make um leadership Monroe which is uh part of the business alliance so the former chamber they do a program that's nine months and I want to congratulate Cody Kegress and director Tolstat for their uh graduation. Um, so it's a a huge commitment, but it just makes such a difference. I graduated almost 20 years ago, so my class was still the best class. Everybody always says that. Um, but it's just an amazing program and I'm glad to see the employees from this city making that commitment and learning more about their community.

Council Felder,

thank you, your honor. Leadership Monroe class 2023 is the best class ever. There you go. Um, uh, lots of good things happen in the meeting tonight, I think, especially on the development front. We're very happy to see that. But a lot happened in the work session as well. I think there were some good discussions of, uh, things moving forward and things to happen. It's very nice to have, uh, the update on city-owned parcels. Thank you, uh, Mr. Vanisacker, for putting those together. Appreciate that. I think I was the one that requested the report back in 2021, so it's good to see where we've come from there. I wanted to say I know we're running very short on time during the work session, so I'll I'll just burn time here. Um that I really appreciated the features where we're now able to sort on city-owned parcels that are buildable to make that search process easier for developers. I know that on at least three occasions that I've tried to uh connect developers to de to buildable properties in the city of Monroe. Um if we're able to sort on by zoning code, um that would be awesome. Um if I'm trying to come in with a a particular kind of development and that's only allowable in certain zoning districts, being able to to filter by zoning district would be an amazing feature to have. But, you know, cool things are happening and I'm sure that we'll uh we'll move forward in the future. Um, and one of the things that I know that the the city is working on and it's there's so many wonderful things that we're working on, but is the update on the oaks and uh the building and the development that is happening there to get them back into compliance so that they can begin operating again. And I know we have a couple of members um from the Oaks here this evening and I was hoping to get just an update from um the city manager about that if that is a possibility.

Manager Cochran. Sure. Um so the last conversation we had uh we sat with the Oaks leadership as well as their contractors and their architects to talk about uh where they're at in coming up with the plans to moving forward. Um, and I understand they had a meeting recently with their architect to continue moving that conversation forward. Um, the electrical permits were applied for and final out and approved appropriately. Um, and that was the the last update that we have at administration. Okay. Thank you. That'll conclude my comments for this evening. Thank you, your honor. Thank you, Councilman her. I have nothing this month, your honor. Thank you. Council Stillgrave.

Thank you, your honor. Um last last week the other night uh SMCC graduated and we're going into graduation season. So we will I know that airport Jefferson and Mro High in the next two weeks are going to be graduating. So I want to congratulate them and wish them the best. Also starting next Wednesday, the City Market will be coming to town and it will be closing Washington Street off um starting on May 27th. It'll be starting it'll be closed off at noon. It will not reopen till probably about 8 o'clock at night. There's over 30 some vendors. There's food trucks and uh bands and and different things. So, it's going to be really a fun event. We have a lot of great things planned. So, just want to remind everyone about that and uh have a fun and enjoyable Memorial Day. That's all I have.

Thank you, Councilwoman Vining.

No comments this evening, your honor. So, I have a couple comments. Um, leadership of 9798 is still the best, but that's I guess we're all start walks in next though or who may have comments. Um, Memorial Day is coming up here soon obviously and we think about Memorial Day and the importance of that. We do have uh activities that'll be in town. Uh we have the uh of course the veterans with the uh uh um I'll say the bridge uh not display but the the recognition and it is on Monday uh May 25th at 2 p.m. as they um parade down the street but also stop at the Monroe Street Bridge with a a dedication uh a wreath lane and uh comments from those that will be present. So think about that and if you and take the time to come and uh not just thank the veterans but thanks uh to all those that have uh why we have Memorial Day and why we take this time and has that as a holiday. I want to thank the county for their support on the last item was on our agenda with the grant agreement with the KM Cornerstone. I I appreciate their partnership yet again on another project just as they did it on a couple others when we had the underpass and we were looking for those additional type of funds to make our match and they've uh they've come forward many times and we have a great relationship and partner with the county uh on these type of items. So there uh their additional funds for the agreement just keeps moving that project forward and as Mark always says it's just stacking things on top of each other and how how we get to the conclusion. Uh, I guess I'll make a comment about the item before that, which was the the grant submission that we're putting in for the port. Some people are hesitant to put a grant submission in because they always think of how we're going to have the match. And I think we've shown that we have ways to do that through partnerships and um uh uh grant writing, but also uh if

it's worth the um consideration, then we should put forth our efforts to make sure we touch every opportunity for uh finding funding. So, last thing I have is the uh there's appointments on the consent agenda this evening. I just want to make a couple of comments about those. I always appreciate those that serve on boards and commissions and that serve the community here and provide input that helps uh bring things along. Planning Commission Steve Schwarz was reappointed. The downtown development authority uh uh Tino Maya was reappointed and uh we have a new appointment uh to the DA which was Todd Williams. the mineral uh port commission uh Gary uh Peret. I want to thank Councilwoman uh Stringer for her uh finding and re uh recommending his participation. I think that'll be a great addition. And then Kathy uh Councilwoman Stringham as well. Uh we uh is the alternate for SECOG. I I been at SACOG for many years, but I I know that councilwoman has attended and I thought it's have another elected official that's there to bring back information. Um, so those are my comments for this evening. Um, clerk treasurer Lavoy,

I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for their assistance for the city election. The last meeting we were on the eve of the May election. Um, it went very well. Uh, there was a little hiccup in the during the evening when we were trying to wrap it up. We had a small power outage um here, but you know, we didn't miss a beat and everything was secure and um the team members from the city hall that were present did a great job pulling together. Um the police brought over some portable lights and um just so many to thank. So, I appreciate that. And um we're getting ready to do it again. So, we are looking for any election potential election inspectors who may um really enjoy working on computers or may be interested in more of a leadership position as a a chair or co-chair for a precinct. So, if you are interested in that at all, please call the clerk's office and we would um really en enjoy and and be able to show you know demonstrate to you and talk to you about what that takes and hopefully have you join our team. So, that's for the August election. That's all I have. Thank you for manager Cochran. First I want to say uh thank you for your interest and also for accepting and uh congratulations.

Well, thank you council for for keeping the faith uh after the past few weeks and and moving the ship forward and I I want to thank you uh for your collaboration and your input as we work together. I think uh the work session tonight was very helpful in getting your direction, but even the ebike discussion, we had uh a lot of thoughts from a lot of people as we formulated that policy and and did it as we work together and I'm sure we'll be continuing to refine it as we we implement it. But I thank you for um all the input that you're giving us as we as we seek to move forward with your goals and objectives. Um a couple things I just wanted to highlight if I may. Um, parks is working on opening the splash pads, which I know is welcome news given it was almost 90 degrees today already. Um, typically we we aim to open those Memorial Day weekend. So, the the crew was out um uh both testing them and and getting ready to open those at Father Kins Park and the Labor Park splash pad. We'll be back open this year after uh taking a year off due the ALCC construction. Um, I also wanted to uh thank Matt for uh last week we were at the Michigan Historic Preservation Network uh conference and uh at a plat platform of statewide historic preservation enthusiasts. Uh Matt did a great job of putting together a presentation to talk about all the great work that's gone in over the past two years on moving the academy project forward. Um, and so great great work on that uh with a with a rather tough audience, but uh and then finally, Michelle, uh, Clerk Treasurer Lavoy, your staff did an amazing job, uh, when the lights went out all of a sudden. Um, but I think I was very impressed with the election inspectors who were all here. Uh, didn't skip a beat, got their flashlights on their phones out and and move forward uh, with closing everything down. So, it was definitely an election night for the books and and you ran another great one. So, um, finally, uh,

some sad news to report. Paul Lamar, the director of the port, lost his mother over the weekend, uh, after some challenging health issues. So, um, we had a lot of a few items on the agenda this evening uh, for the port, including the EDA, which wouldn't happen without uh, his hard work, and it comes with a lot of personal sacrifice. So, uh, we'll we'll certainly keep him in our thoughts and prayers in the in the coming days. So, that's all. Thank you. Next is uh citizen comments uh public comments. So if anybody wishes to make comments, please come to the podium, state your name, jurisdiction or residence and mindful of the rules of the chamber for three minutes. Any comments from those present here this evening? Yes, sir.

Omar Ferdin, 411 uh West Street, Monro, Michigan. Um, I just wanted to I don't know, you guys may have heard, you guys may not have, but here we go. Um, my name is Omar Ferd and I'm running for state representative in district 30. And I'm here today to invite you guys to a meet and greet. Um, Wednesday, Pete's Garage, 700 p.m. The Democratic Party will be there with all of our candidates that are potentially running our running. And, um, we're going to have some food. We're going to get to know each other. And I would like for you guys to come out and meet the candidates. It be myself and all the other ones running. So, Pizza and Subs, Pizza Garage, 7 PM. Please come. I got a little flyer here. I'm going to give it to uh Madame Clerk and then we can pass it on. And that's it. Hopefully, I see you guys there. Thank you. Thank you.

Other comments from those present here this evening. Yes, sir. Elliot James, 633 Stone Street. I just got a question. um when they doing all this stuff uh at front and first Mhm. are they still going to have a a opening for the the voters and the people that's using that that park in Maner? Sure. Um yes. So the purpose is to look at where the new entryway for Helenburg will be off of First Street. the park itself, we're still going to have the boat launches and the parking lots and all the amenities like the kayak launch that was installed last week as well.

That's what I want. Yeah, it's a good question because it, you know, when they start doing the um analysis and what it might be, it takes that into consideration. Obviously, there'll be I'm sure public input opportunities through that as well and they'll be publicized for those that want to come and listen and have input too as well as they do while they do their analysis. Thank you. Thank you. was present here this evening. Yes, sir. Sorry. Yep.

Gary Moore. Um, yeah, just I wasn't really planning on comment, but just a quick to Andrew's question to Mark. Um, we did meet again with the architect in that. We're going to plan on emailing Mark and trying to set up a meeting in the next couple weeks to go over some of the stuff that we are trying to finalize right now. Just working with architect and the contractors to finalize the scope of the work. Um, we've addressed the electrical concerns that were identified as life safety system issues to start and those are our top concerns and then it's a long list of stuff to work on after that. So, we're trying to finalize the scope of that. We do plan on starting some of the construction in mid June, but those are still discussions to be had and permits to be gotten. So, thank you.

Well, thank you. Thanks for being here. Other comments from those present here this evening, other comments, public comments. Seeing none, u motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. Second. Motion by Councilwoman Stelgra, supported by Councilman Felder to adjourn. Clerk, please call the role. Counc Stringham, yes. Felder, yes. Yes. Still grave? Yes. Bining? Yes. Mayor Clark, yes. And thank you all for being here.