City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

Good morning.

Thank you all for being here today. I wasn't expecting a full house this morning, but we have lots of golf people in the audience apparently today, so that's great. Welcome to our monthly workshop, the first Tuesday of the month. This is June 2nd. We have a reasonably busy agenda here with lots of exciting stuff to talk about. Let us get started if we will, although I want to say Jackie Hatley is traveling, so she won't be here today. But we'll be thinking about Jackie and hoping she's having a good time. So let us get started please. The Myrtle Beach Golf Centennial. Ryan Cannon from Myrtle Beach Golf Solutions is here today.

Some other folks are going to join me as well. Well, good morning, Mayor, council members, staff, ladies and gentlemen in the audience. Thank you for making time this morning. We are grateful for your attention. Myrtle Beach's first golf course opened in 1927. Originally known as Ocean Forest Country Club, the course was renamed Pine Lakes in 1946. and has been rightfully credited with jump-starting the Myrtle Beach region's emergence as one of golf's most popular destinations. This means that next year, 2027, we will be celebrating 100 years of golf here at Myrtle Beach. Why is this important? Well, we believe this celebration is a tremendous source of community pride. There are many golf destinations in the United States right now, but there is only one golf capital of the world. In addition, we believe there's tremendous economic opportunity in a centennial celebration. The annual economic impact of the Myrtle Beach area golf market is $1.6 billion and employs over 13,000 people. If we get this right, 2027 should be the best and most impactful year ever in the history of the Myrtle Beach area golf business. Now, this moment was too big for us to plan alone. In turn, we formed an advisory committee made up of representatives from the city of Myrtle Beach, Horry County, the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism, the Greater Myrtle Beach Collaborative, the Brandon Agency, the Myrtle Beach Area Golf Course Owners Association, and Golf Tourism Solutions. Together, we've established three simple principles that guide our work and approach. We think these principles are present in our community at all times, and one of the things that makes it special here They are, one is that we honor our history. Two is that we celebrate the present with our friends. And three, we feel a responsibility to cast a compelling and positive vision for the future. The work itself is broken out into four distinct phases. We spent the last 18 months working on the brand messaging, the visual identity, and preparing for the activation work required to bring this very special story to life. Today, we're gonna share some details around what that activation work actually is so that as leaders in our community, you're informed. To bring you up to speed though on the brand messaging and the visual identity work, it's my privilege now to invite up Scott Brandon. CEO of the Brandon Agency, who helped bring these critical and foundational elements together.

Okay.

Good morning. How are y'all? Good morning. I'm not nearly as polished as Ryan is as a speaker, so you'll have to deal with me. But before I jump into the presentation, I thought I'd give a little context. I was born in Myrtle Beach. I've lived here my whole life. You know, I've watched this place grow from a small, sleepy little coastal town to the tourism destination it is today. And, you know, professionally, our agency, we've worked in golf tourism marketing. We work for the predecessor to Golf Tourism Solutions. We worked for Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday from the mid-1960s, which was when I was born, so I wasn't working on it back then, but until about 2018. You know, I worked on it personally myself from about 1993 until then. And, you know, during that time, you know, we marketed the destination to golfers around the country and, of course, across the world. And there's one thing I learned about it while we were doing it is that, you know, Myrtle Beach isn't just part of the, I mean, golf isn't really just part of the Myrtle Beach story. You know, golf really created the Myrtle Beach story. And even today, when we go out and do unaided awareness and perception studies on tourism and Myrtle Beach, you ask people, just consumers, what's the first thing they think about when they think of Myrtle Beach? What do they say? They say golf. You know, it's the first thing that comes to mind. So for millions of people who come here, you know, golf's still a major attribute and a reason that they come. So, you know, if it weren't for golf, I think, you know, it would be hard to say that Myrtle Beach would be what it is, you know, today. So I think that's why this centennial matters. You know, we only get one shot at this 100th anniversary. If you were around in 1976, you know, you remember the bicentennial, right? We're going to have, what do you call the 250th? I don't even know. Sesquicentennial. Sesquicentennial, yeah. So I'm looking forward to that. I'll get a bicentennial and a sesquicentennial in my lifetime. So this is the centennial for Myrtle Beach, and so it's important. But I wanted to talk a little bit about how we approach this brand strategy project today. We did a lot of research. We did primary research with thousands of golfers around the country. What we really want to try to understand is what makes Myrtle Beach different than other destinations, right? So we did primary research. We did interviews. We did a lot of analyzing current trends. We looked at golf's current culture. We looked at our competitors. And we really dove deep in today's golf consumer, but we wanted to understand not just why people come here, but why they come back year after year after year. What's really interesting about Myrtle Beach is about 70% of the people who come here, and this is just kind of top of mind stuff, haven't done it for so long, about 70% of the people that come here come year after year after year. Part of the reason people move here so often is they come here, they love it, and of course they wanna buy real estate here, which is problems y'all have to deal with, right? which is great, but you know, what the research that we did really kind of brought to the forefront was that golfers again and again told us, you know, yes, the great golf courses, that's really important, but more importantly, it's the annual traditions that they create while they're here. It's the fun that they have. It's the attitude that we as a destination deliver to golfers year after year that's the reason they come. And so, we built this brand platform, it's called Where Golfers Play, and it kinda has a double meaning, right? It works on two levels, you think of play You think great competitive golf course, we have some of the best golf courses in the world, right? It speaks to that, but it speaks to the challenge of golf, it speaks to our variety, our beautiful courses, our great weather, but it also speaks to the playful side of golf. And this is really what makes Myrtle Beach different, right? It's where you can let your hair down, it's where you can have fun and you have laughs and friendships and camaraderie and memories. And so that word play kind of intentionally captures both sides of that. And then from a positioning perspective, this is the positioning statement, and I assume y'all have screens and you're looking at it while I'm talking, okay. So I've never been up there, so I don't know what you see. You're probably writing words down like this guy's not a good presenter, but that's okay. But on the positioning part of it, so much about golf is stuffy, right? A lot of people think golf, they think velvet ropes, private clubs, and they use the word exclusivity, right? What does the word exclusivity have? It has the word exclude. Well, Myrtle Beach never had that. It's always been include. It's been come, have fun. This is what it's all about. And so we didn't want to define Myrtle Beach that way. And over these hundred years, we really believe that this really encapsulates Myrtle Beach golf. For golfers who play for the last as much as the leaderboard, Myrtle Beach is golf's playful side where good times matter more than good form. no gatekeeping, no stiff collars, just open fairways, cold drinks, and stories that grow with time. And that's where we are with the positioning, right? And the way we want to celebrate this 100th anniversary. And I think this positioning will live on past that 100th anniversary, right? So the next thing is just talking about the visual identity system we've built for this. And I won't spend a lot of time with that. But we really took that positioning statement. We wanted to build a visual identity system that celebrated that 100 years. But we also wanted to do it in a way that remained connected to the current brand. So we didn't want to venture too far off of that. And so the goal was to create something that felt iconic, you know, modern, energetic, and worthy of a centennial celebration, still reinforcing that message of where golfers play. So this can, you know, this visual identity system can evolve. It can evolve across events, merchandising, advertising, PR, and a lot of the things that Kyle's going to talk about when he comes up. But in closing, my part, I just want to talk about, you know, I think this anniversary represents a whole lot more than a marketing campaign. I think it's an opportunity to celebrate one of the most important economic and cultural success stories in Myrtle Beach's history, really. And of course, we're here to ask for money, right? But it's to help really do more than we normally do in an ordinary year marketing Myrtle Beach. You know, because for 100 years, golf's really helped shape our economy. I can remember growing up, there was no paved road from 38th Avenue from the highway to... Well, there wasn't a bypass, right? So I can remember all these things that golf has really helped grow in this area. It shaped our economy, our identity, our reputation. And I think the Centennial gives us a chance to not only honor the legacy, But more importantly, to remind a new generation of golfers that we're the golf capital of the world, right? And so that's the foundation behind the brand platform that we're talking about. And I think I have no dog in this fight. I'm not the agency for Golf Holiday anymore. I'm not doing the work and all that kind of stuff. But for somebody who's lived here for 62 years, I really believe this is one of those rare moments where we have the opportunity to celebrate something that's transformed our community and continues to drive our economy today. So I think that's cool. So I'll turn it over to Kyle, or give it over to Ryan. Sorry, didn't do that hand off good. And I'll let him talk.

Thank you, Scott. One of the great privileges of my role is that I get to work with people like Scott, and I've learned an unbelievable amount from him. One of my favorite things he said is golf used to be about there was so much emphasis on the scorecard, and now there's more emphasis on the story card, which I thought is a really, really great way to put that. So on to what's to come. The activation plan breaks down into five simple categories. Events, merchandise, paid, earned, and owned media. Within events, the idea is that each one ties back to a simple principle. So for example, to honor our history, On February 27th, 2027, the annual Myrtle Beach Golf Hall of Fame ceremony will be conducted at Pine Lakes Country Club, the permanent home of the Myrtle Beach Golf Hall of Fame. Led by Tracy Connor and Myrtle Beach Golf Hall of Fame member and board chairman Gary Schall, this special evening will be dedicated to paying our respects to all those that have come before us. Names like Cecil Brandon, Clay Britton, and General Hackler, just to name a few. When I think about this night, I'm reminded of the saying that if we are able to see further, it's because we stand on the shoulders of giants. To share more about events where we will celebrate in the present, it's my privilege to invite up Kyle Olin, Director of Marketing for Golf Tourism Solutions.

Good morning. Good morning. So I get to talk about a lot of fun things. We're gonna celebrate the present in 2027 during a couple different events during the centennial. The first one is the One Flight Myrtle Beach Classic, which just wrapped up about a month ago. And I do wanna share a few notes on that event to talk about the importance and the significance that event has played in our community the last three years. So I'm sure a lot of people in this room have been to that event, attended it this year, and you could feel the excitement that took place at the Dunes Golf and Beach Club. There's a lot of community pride that that event brings. But one of the things that people, or some of the aspects that you don't always see, is the impact that that event has outside of our local community. We brought this event here three years ago with a goal to elevate the Myrtle Beach market. and I can 100% say with confidence that it's been one of the best investments that this community has made. When we look at some of the numbers, just from the One Flight Myrtle Beach Classic on social media, it generates tens of millions of impressions during that week. That's visibility to our marketplace during a key time for us. In addition, from an earned media standpoint, generates 10.9 billion earned media impressions. And I think one of the most notable aspects of that is one of our agencies pulled this number, that during the One Flight Myrtle Beach Classic, Myrtle Beach and this destination owns a 95% share of voice. And what that means is essentially during that week, compared to other destinations, we dominate the conversation. So when we look at this event, it is significant for our community, not just from a community pride standpoint, but also on how it elevates this destination. So how are we gonna activate? So in 2027, when we celebrate the centennial, when you go onto the grounds of the Dunes Golf and Beach Club, you'll feel the presence of the centennial through the branding you can kind of see some visuals there of what obviously it looks like this past year but you'll see that you also see on the video boards different spots that celebrate and speak to the centennial if you're watching or following along outside this marketplace you'll see the commercial spots you'll see the storytelling You'll listen to the broadcast where they'll be talking about the centennial, the history, and the story that makes this destination the golf capital of the world. So that is what we'll do in May. And then as we move forward to August, we'll continue to celebrate through another marquee event in this community. And that's the Play Golf Myrtle Beach World Am, which if you're not familiar with that event, That event is the largest amateur golf tournament in the world. No other destination does what we do. No other event does what we do. It's at the end of August every year. We bring in 3,000 golfers for a week here in Myrtle Beach at the end of August. It is a great event. It's been going on for over 40 years. The significance of that event for this community, it generates $17.1 million in economic impact at the end of August every year. Golfers and their families come here for a week during a time when typically, historically, when we created this event 40 years ago, there weren't a lot of people visiting Myrtle Beach. When we celebrate the centennial, come August of 2027 at the World Am, you'll see different aspects of the brand and the messaging of the Centennial come to life. Here on the screen, you can see the video boards at the world's largest 19th hole, which is at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center every evening, Monday through Thursday. It's a massive party gathering of all the players, friends, family to celebrate and share stories from their day. As they're there in 2027, they'll experience, obviously, the centennial coming to life. And they'll also be able to, there'll be a lot of different content and stories that come out from the social media platforms for the World Am, which generate over a million impressions as well. So this will be a great time where golfers will come in in the present and experience and celebrate the centennial through the World Am. Moving forward, I want to introduce Brian, who's going to talk about one of our other marquee events in 2027. Thank you, Kyle.

The World Amp, the 19th hole, that's where those stories, the putts get a little longer that were made, the drives get a little further that were hit. So to help us paint a compelling vision for the future, we are close to securing the largest golf-centric technology and innovation event in the world, the Golf Business TechCon. This event is conducted every two years in October by the National Golf Course Owners Association of America. In 2025, this event was conducted in Frisco, Texas, a northern Dallas suburb. If we are successful in securing this event, hundreds of golf business executives will come to our community and represent this represents an incredible showcase of the future of golf technology with Myrtle Beach as the background host, which is really an incredible chance for us to showcase the future of golf. Onto merchandise. In August of this year, a merchandise component will go live with PlayGolfMyrtleBeach.com serving as the primary outlet for Centennial gear for people outside of our region. Then in the spring of 2027, local golf shops will serve as the distribution outlet for visitors and residents. Kyle's gonna come back up to touch on paid media briefly.

In addition to, obviously, the activations and events we talked about, we are going to launch an integrated paid media marketing campaign at the beginning of 2027. That'll be a national campaign in all of our major markets, both regionally and both direct flights across the country. those that are in these markets as they're scrolling watching listening they'll be fed and serve different advertisements in and around what we are doing but it's also not going to just be a national and regional campaign but it'll also be local as well and the reason behind that are two reasons the first is our local community This local community and the individuals that live here are the men and women that have made and make the golf capital of the world the special place that it is. So we want this local community to feel a sense of pride as well. That hey, we are the golf capital of the world. We are celebrating a big moment in our history. So as they're scrolling, driving, watching they'll see advertisements as well the second aspect is from that is all of our visitors are millions of visitors that come here annually that is there in market they'll see and experience this celebration as well again as they're driving scrolling listening watching they'll see this advertisement and this campaign come to life next I'm going to introduce Kayla and she's going to speak on the next activation

Good morning, everyone. Thank you, Kyle. Yeah, so as we continue to activate here, I'm gonna share about how we're gonna make that presence stand out to our community with a mobile placemaker. And that mobile placemaker, what those do, they create so much value, and as this showcases the 100-year centennial for Myrtle Beach and the Gulf, capital of the world, it's gonna create so much more visibility to not only share with our community, but also invite that audience and reach a greater audience with that. And also one of the key pieces of that is it builds the sense of community. And so we want to share with all our visitors, with our community, and find this special place for everyone to gather. and be shown and also it creates an opportunity for them to share as you can see and create that social media piece as we look at. And so on this slide you'll see a few examples that occur in the golf industry as a whole right now. For example, the US Open, the Players' Championship, and also the PGA Championship. Those mobile placemakers are a huge piece of where people gather. They create memorable experiences, and they share their memories not only with their families, their friends there, but all across their media platforms. And that's what we wanna do. We wanna bring something here to life where people are excited to come and they're a part of this special monumental moment in Myrtle Beach and for our community and not just bringing everyone together. So with that, we're excited to really have this collaborative effort. So first, being part of with Horry County Schools, we're gonna work with the school systems to create a design contest for kids K through 12. And so we're reaching through the eyes of young kids and seeing what golf means to them and when that 100 years of golf, what those ideas generate. And so we're really excited to partner with Horry County Schools to create that contest and reach in that generation And then also, we're going to partner with Coastal Carolina University. So we're really excited to also tap into working with college students and helping those marketing business students to create and generate a plan to help us make this mobile placemaker come to life and how it's going to be and reach our audience, but also how it's going to be displayed throughout the community for the entire year. So we're really excited to not only have our community come together, but also work with other organizations and also reach multiple generations that can help really see this whole vision. And so for us as professionals in the industry, and then also being able to see that kid's view and through their eyes and what it means to also spark that interest in how we're gonna continue, not only in celebrate this 100 years, but what does the next 100 years look like for the golf capital of the world? And in that, In addition, to help make this plan from working with the CCU students and from the design contest of Horry County Schools with the students, we're gonna see and we're really excited to also bring in Little Spiders Creation who's going to help us design and create that vision, that design that wins and bring that to life in a statue that's to be displayed in our community. And so the really unique and creative piece and what we're so excited about is our community coming together across multiple organizations to really help bring us to life. And as it speaks to what we stand for now within our golf community is we work collectively together to elevate and advance, you know, every day. And so to really just stand behind that and to bring it to life, we're really excited. So with that, excited to share. to share just something here. So you've seen some current examples of the golf industry as a whole. And we're going to bring it down. Something closer to home is just a mobile placemaker showcase, not only at the Myrtle Beach Classic, but also at our World Am. And in this special moment with our special guest, Mr. Dwayne Parrish, and also Mike Wan, you see this memorable moment, the joy in their faces. and having this special spot. And I can tell you there were so many thousands of photos taken there, right? But we wanted to capture this one and what that speaks on. And so just bringing this and continuing to elevate, but not only giving four nights of this wonderful, you know, a week of celebration, but also just throughout the entire year as we celebrate the centennial. So yes, excited to have that mobile place banker come to life and the value that it creates. At this time, I'm excited to bring Ryan back up to share.

Thank you, Kayla. We couldn't think of a better way to engage our young people than to ask them what they thought about the future. Ultimately, it's going to be their future to own, so we're really, really excited about that. And thanks to Clifford Jones and Dr. Elizabeth Delagraze, who's a professor at Coastal Carolina University, for quarterbacking both efforts. The last area here of the activation is owned media. So there's a major long-form original content plan that's in motion. The Golf Channel and Golf Pass operated by Versant Media Group is the largest digital and television platform in all of golf. In partnership with Golf Tourism Solutions, we are producing and distributing a three-part long-form docuseries with episodes being released throughout 2027. Each episode will air digitally on Golf Pass and on linear television via the Golf Channel, no less than five times each. The working title for this long-form docuseries is Trademarked, the story of how Myrtle Beach Golf became the golf capital of the world. Ultimately, this content's going to reach millions of viewers globally. There will also be a social first content series, shorter form distributed on YouTube and through social media, but we anticipate similar engagement as to the long form. So ladies and gentlemen, in closing, it's impossible to overstate the positive impact that the golf industry has had, continues to have, and will have on our community. At a time when national golf participation is reaching new heights, It is only fitting that Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in Horry County, the golf capital of the world, that we serve as a bright and shining example of how a community celebrates the game of golf while also carving out a pathway to lasting progress that's in step with the changing times and pays due respect to those that came before us. Thank you for your time and attention this morning, and we're happy to try to answer any questions that you might have.

Thank you very much, Ryan, Scott, Kayla, Kyle. Ryan first approached me with this 100th anniversary about a year ago, I guess, and y'all have been working on it longer than that. They recognized early on that 2027 was the 100th anniversary of Gulf and Myrtle Beach. We have a lot to... be thrilled about from our golf heritage, and this is an opportunity to take advantage of that history that exists, but also to take Myrtle Beach's golf industry to the next generation as well. Council, do you have any questions for Ryan and the group?

Mayor, I've got one for Scott, if he wouldn't mind taking the podium one more time.

This isn't about a high school bet, is it, Doctor?

It's close. Not to get in the weeds, but my concern has always been in my limited travels, I see fewer and fewer youth on the golf courses. And we all remember the George holiday days and the junior tournaments at the surf club. My wish or hope would be that we could birth something here and something may already exist with regard to a top flight junior tournament. I mean a regional junior tournament that could be incorporated in the framework of this event and also perhaps a parent-child tournament. Those events can be very big if properly promoted and can be a recurring event past this 100 year anniversary. Has any thought been placed into those type of splinters within this thought process.

Well, it's interesting you called me up to answer that question, because I'm not the event guy. But, Ryan, do you want to answer it? But I would say, I used to play in the father-son with my dad. That's why I called you up. Yeah, it was really cool. We won one year, by the way, just because I had a really bad handicap. But those are great ideas, and we should latch on to them.

Yeah.

So in the junior space, there are several existing marquee from elite juniors down to high school juniors down to anyone, any level of player that do currently exist. And our hope is to amplify all the event activity that happens in Myrtle Beach every year around the game of golf. We just shared the highlights, if you will. We'd monopolize your entire day, and I'd be happy to do that, talk about golf. It's our favorite subject. But on the junior side, there's some great events like the Dustin Johnson World Junior, the Palmetto. What's that? Where is that? So the DJ is played every year at TPC Myrtle Beach.

Okay, great.

And then the Palmetto is another large high school junior event every year. And then keep in mind, too, that kids play free in Myrtle Beach, and that's been true now for years. It's an incredible benefit for both residents and visitors to bring kids to Myrtle Beach and introduce them to the game.

Well, it's wonderful to focus on the present, but I think we all need to look down the line to the future. Yes, ma'am.

I thought one of the cool things that they did this year was to invite all of the high school championship tournaments that have been happening across the state. They all came to Myrtle Beach and played their state championship tournaments here, and then all of the kids that played got tickets to go to the One Flight Classic, and they brought their families. So that was a pretty cool energy.

And hopefully that will establish a tradition there that's kind of in line with what you're talking about. It's an amazing opportunity. A lot of folks worked really hard to make that possible.

And we did host a 2002 tournament for a little history where Myrtle Beach won the championship. Perfect. But won golf championships and ten tennis championships. So you see we want to emphasize golf too. No doubt.

Anybody else? Yeah, Ryan, notwithstanding Pine Lakes, because it's going to kick everything off, what plans, if any, are made to really highlight the Whispering Pines, which the city owns and tries its best to maintain? So how are we going to include them in our 100th anniversary?

Yeah, it's a great question. The Whispering Pines story, again, and we just touched on the highlights, but they are part of that story, a very unique part of the story as the entire Air Force base. There's this really, as you dig into that, there's so many members of the United States Air Force who lobbied hard to be stationed in Myrtle Beach. They came here, did their service, And then they went on to work in the golf business. And that's a really, really unique story. I mean, there are dozens, if not hundreds, where that's true. And Whispering Pines is home. Literally, they built Mint. Some of them are with us. Gary Shaw will tell you. He came to Myrtle Beach as an airman. And the next thing you know, he had a shovel in his hand. He's building a golf course. And he's like, this isn't what I signed up for. That story will be told in the context of the long-form docuseries. Whispering Pines will come to life there. But we're also open to a larger and perhaps even more aspirational way to tell that story.

Good, good. Because when you think about it, when you fly into our airport, you get off the plane, you're pulling out, what's the first thing you see? Whispering Pines. Whispering Pines.

It's right there.

Thank you.

Bill, to your point of note is maybe 10 years ago, 15 years ago, they played 35,000 rounds. I think last year they paid 55,000 rounds. So it's a success story in itself and should be included.

No doubt. Chip Smith has done a phenomenal job, as has council, to empower, encourage, and support Whispering Pines. It's a really remarkable asset for the community.

Well, the call was for us to close that 15 years ago.

I don't know if you recall. I've heard that story. I'm glad you did.

I would just say that I'm sure this is not the last presentation that we're going to see or hear from the organization and about this event, and I'm sure that Bill and Phil and the rest of us would agree that we would like to see something in the presentation that would include Whispering Pines is not just talking about it. Let's see what that involvement will be. Right.

Thank you all. Thank you, Ryan. You've got other golf people here in the audience today. If there are golf people here, wave at us. Thank you. Very good. Four. Super. Well, thank you. We're excited about this. This is a great opportunity for Myrtle Beach and the Grand Strand as a whole. We mentioned funding a little bit, but I know that you'll come back to us and talk a little bit about that. And Fox and I have talked a little bit. We may have some ideas there as well. Great.

Thank you so much. Appreciate the time. Thank you very much. Thank you.

The golfers are welcome to stay, but it's a beautiful day out there.

I think we need to give them a few minutes to leave.

That's just a number. I don't know if that's hard.

And I'm assuming y'all are excited about this too, correct? Yes.

While they're leaving, I don't know if you know this, that... Dr. Rinder, back in the day, was known as 007 of golf in Myrtle Beach. Yep. 007. Zero pars, zero birdies, seven three-putts.

That's pretty close. That's pretty close. I think so. Coach Floyd on the golf course.

First time I've seen him.

All right, our next item on the workshop agenda today is the Brittany Park Road Acceptance Consideration. This is something that we've talked about a little bit internally. I don't know that it's made it all the way to council at this stage. But Fox is here, and we've got some Brittany Park residents here as well. Fox, take it away.

Yep, thank you, Mayor. This is my friend Tony.

Good morning. Good morning.

City Manager Fox and the Council for giving us this time today. And let's see if we can get to the bottom of this.

All right. So I'm just going to give you a brief overview. For folks who don't know, Brittany Park is located on the west side of Grissom Parkway across from the Presbyterian Church between 48th North and 44 North. There's one entrance onto Grissom Parkway. It's kind of a unique neighborhood the first half of the top how I call the top half which is towards Grissom Includes 29 single-family homes and the back half which is what that we're here for today what they're here for today are 11 townhome parcels There's only one road in this subdivision st. Thomas circle one entrance off of Grissom Parkway and The history is that this was annexed into the city in August of 2004. And then in May 2005, the request from the Sangle Family Home, and there's, let me go back for a second.

There's actually two HOAs in this neighborhood as well.

The first HOA is the Brittany Park HOA, and Tony, and I think these folks are the Carriage Home HOA, which is a totally separate HOA. And so in May of 2005, the single family HOA asked for the city to bring in St. Thomas Circle as allowed. And then in June of 2005, the carriage homes HOA asked for the same thing for the portion of the road that's in front of their town homes. In July of 2005, the Public Works Department suggested that only the St. Thomas Circle that's in front of the single family homes come in because that's the only part that meets our standards and our code. And the Planning Commission made a decision to, recommendation to council in December of 2006 to not take any of the roads in because of these various, these four reasons that are outlined here. But as we all know, Planning Commission is just an advisory body and council passed just the first half to take in the road, the first part of the neighborhood in December of, excuse me, was it December? 2007, they decided to take in the first half of the road. So the first half of St. Thomas Circle is a city road, but the back half, where Tony and these folks live, is not. Fast forward to 2026, and there's some issues that is created, and Tony and his group would like for the city to take in their portion of the road, even though it doesn't meet standards.

That's what their request is They've spent some money considerable money on resealing the roads and I can let Tony take it away from here and explain to you the what the Basically how we feel is The road you took the road that was taken over is approximately 3,000 square yards of paving. And what's left, our section of it, is 1,600 square yards. The problem is you took both sides of the single-family homes, so your city road actually connects on both sides of the community to our private road. What happened with that was you basically put us in a spot that's worse off for us because we are liable, we have to keep this road open, and we have to pay to maintain it. So basically, the city is simply saying that the road is your road, but we're gonna use it, and you're gonna pay for it. And it just doesn't seem fair. We get all their traffic, there's 29 homes there, there must be 15 to 18 different landscapers all pulling trailers All their deliveries, I'm not talking about the EMT, fire department, sanitation, I'm talking about deliveries like UPS, like FedEx, like furniture, like tractor trailers with sod on it, like concrete trucks. They use our road every day. Okay, we have tried and tried to no avail meeting with the Department of Public Works in both locations, the one down there on 10th and the one where the waterworks are, and we just kept getting kicked back and forth. Finally, I brought the attention to City Manager Fox, Okay, and he basically had an open door to me. He understood our dilemma. Now, I understand the road does not meet zoning. I understand we don't have the setback, okay? But there's a variance to anything. I'm here just looking, appealing to your sense of fair play. Okay, we even went as far as to apply for a traffic barrier, which we really didn't want to put up. Okay, one of those single arm things. Okay, we didn't want to put it up, but we applied for it because it would be a way to restrict the traffic. I went to 10th Avenue and I applied for it. Police officer there put me on the phone with a gentleman. Guy knew all about Brittany Park right away. The first thing he said was, I'll deny that the second it comes in. Couldn't even talk to anybody. If it is a private road, and it's our property, I feel that we're just being forced to maintain it and to open it to anybody who wants to drive on it. And there is wear and tear involved in these roads. We've already sealed it twice. I can't seal it anymore, okay? Basically what we're doing is putting lipstick on a pig. So it's a situation to where our community is 44 units and 11 buildings. Okay, we're primarily senior community, 34 seniors only. And the cost being incurred, I could understand it, and I wouldn't be here if it was only my cost. But it's not my cost. Well, not all of it's my cost. And basically, that's where this whole thing is. And if we can't get the roads accepted, I need to know how I can restrict the traffic. I guess we're just appealing to your sense of fair play. And that's what we are. I mean, I can go into the meeting minutes and stuff like that, but that's really, you guys have all that information. So it's not gonna get us anywhere.

And I think we've spoken, and I know I've talked with Carol as well.

Right, the president of the board, right. By the way, that's our board back there.

Hello. Thank you for coming today. I think the approval process or the disapproval process is even more convoluted than Fox went through at some point. You have a loop road that serves two neighborhoods, essentially, but you can't divide the neighborhoods. They are connected by virtue of the road. So my first question is how far off from our standards is this unfinished portion of the road?

Where it's variances, but I know the right-of-way is a big deal, and there's not enough room to get to the 50-foot setback in the right-of-way. That's the big one, and I don't know about the state.

So is it 30 feet?

I'd have to go out and look at that, but I do know that when this was built, this was actually built to county standards originally when it was then annexed into the city, but we can probably get you a list of where it's, I know the right-of-way is the big one.

Well, let me go to the next question then. We're serving you because you're city residents with solid waste collection. we're serving you with fire trucks when necessary. So while it doesn't meet the standard, have we had difficulty getting one of our larger, heavier equipment vehicles back there?

When the city just paved the front section, they had no problem storing, putting their paving equipment on my, not my road, our road, and that was some big equipment. There was no problem putting it there all day.

Parking it there all day. While this doesn't meet our standard, and that if city council chooses to approve the acceptance of this inferior piece of roadway and that would be an exception. It would literally be an exception. It wouldn't be setting a new precedent along the way somewhere. This is from 20 years ago where we had the opportunity to fix it at that point and didn't.

I would even say You don't have to, even if you didn't adopt the roads, okay? What happens if we gave you an easement in perpetuity and you, for that easement, gave us maintenance on the road? We would still own the road, we would still insure the road, but we would have an agreement that might be a workable solution. All we're looking for is the maintenance of the road, not the finger roads, just that one loop at 1,600 yards.

And we're maintaining the two ends of that loop currently.

Yes, both of them. See, the way I look at it is the city shouldn't have took, if they weren't going to do the whole loop, they shouldn't have taken any of it. I believe it was a mistake 20 years ago. And that's basically where we are.

Do we know what the cost is? I know we just paved the front sections in the last couple of months.

Matter of fact, the contractor said to me, the front section, he parked his truck right in front of my house, so I was talking to him. He says, what happened here? He says, it would be so much easier if we could just go around this loop. He says, I've got to keep staging it at different sizes of the community.

And then how often would a road of this nature need to be paved?

Well, the front was paved, it was 21 years?

Yeah, every 20 years typically is what would come to mind for me.

Yes, sir.

So it's not an often recurring expense anyway. Council?

A couple of things. Actually, I believe it's the first I've heard of this request. I don't recall hearing about it before. Could be, but I just don't recall it. The thing that I would want to see before we do anything, I'd like to see what the width of the road is and what the code is requiring for a street to be accepted in the City of Myrtle Beach. I do have, quite honest, is this we're setting a precedent or is it an exception? I think those questions have to be answered. If there's a way that we can do this that we just don't open up, well, I've got a 10-foot road I'd like to get put in the city too. I mean, I understand what you're saying, sir, but there's also some things that we do have to take a look at and be considerate of before we make a decision to accept, in my opinion, to accept any road that makes no difference where it is in the city. And so those are questions I would like to see answered before we can move forward.

and your memory on this may be better than mine, but part of the conversation, yes, yours, part of the conversation was back in 2005 when city council voted for this, that the original, and I'm doing this from my failed memory here, the original request was to take it all in and then at some point council limited that to just the first half.

That's about right. That's a fair summary. They only took the first part of it in. To answer Mr. Lauder's second piece of his question, We've been racking our brain, and I think this is the only neighborhood that has this type of situation where the first half of the neighborhood is public and the second half is private. We have a lot of private roads. There's no doubt about that. But this situation is very unique in that sense of that. We can certainly get the rest of the list if they wanted where it's inferior or insufficient, I guess. But this came up in 2005 is when it initially started coming. So I don't think you were, you weren't on. So, and it hasn't come up since, there's been no issues. We've had, Tony called up and I'm like, what's this about? I didn't know either. I had to learn it all earlier this year myself.

The actual pavement is the same width And again, we're not having we're not having any difficulty getting our heavy equipment through there to service your your neighborhood Okay Yeah

I agree with Mr. Lowder. We need to really take a cold hard look at this. But you just mentioned that this is the only neighborhood or the only situation like this within our entire city limits?

That we have found. I'm not making that a definitive, that no one's brought another one like this to our attention.

Right, and knowing what you guys do, you've already taken a pretty good look at it anyway. Eh. Eh, okay.

People going through memories or anything like this type of thing, we haven't.

Right, right. And maybe we could find that out. I'd like to find a way, some way, that we can help these folks. You offered us an alternative of what if you give us this and, you know, I don't know how that plays in.

I don't know. My third part of it would be to seek counsel. Right. Whether that's doable or not. Because when I look around, I'm seeing expressions like, So sometimes that tells me that maybe that's something we need to dig into the weeds on before we go that route. But listen, I get it. And if there's a way we can do this and we don't just open up, as an old Southern expression, we don't open up a can of worms by doing it, then I'm all in. It does make good walking around sense to go ahead and pay and go ahead and take it into the city. But there again, well, take it into the city too, take over the road. And so I'm willing to listen and see if there's a way to do it. And if there is a way we can do it, then I'm all in to do it. But I just want to make sure we dot the I and cross the T's first.

And one thing, I've got a question. I guess the proposal is that we would take the road and not the finger road. But then what worries me is eventually somebody's going to come back and say, oh, well, you took this, and now we can't maintain these.

The finger roads would not meet any regulations or codes. I'm not sure. The finger roads are basically extensions just to get to the other side of the house. They're really not roads. They're like driveways. Yes.

Okay. Did you go over that again? I'm sorry? What exactly they want us to take in?

See with the yellow line? I do. It kind of just goes around in a circle, just a circle. The finger roads are the ones that are kind of going up, look like driveways. So they're asking us... You have a pointer you could unfortunately there is a pointer, but it doesn't work very well on the screen on the screen I can explain to you It's the rest of that loop right there It's just a loop that goes around with the L connecting the yellow and what it just finished off the semi circle

I'd like to see us, if we can work something out, but I was going to ask, Will probably don't want to talk about it here, but can you take a look at this and see, come back with some kind of recommendation or something?

Sure, I'd be glad to.

It is a very unique, appears to be a very unique situation from what we've discovered.

I've been sitting here trying to rack my brain and see why we did this back in, I mean, we went against what planning commission, but I thought there was big support from the neighborhood to just take this in. I don't wanna call any names, but I remember talking to someone who had, actually this person had two houses over there. I don't believe they're here anymore, but.

Well, my concern, and I was there also in yesteryear But at the time, the boss of the schoolhouse was Ron Andrews, and we had supreme confidence in his judgment and still do. So we want to help, but we want to, as Mr. Lauder says, cross the T's and dot the I's.

And I'm in the same boat as you guys are on this one. We've been racking our brains how to do this thing, but it's common sense. Yeah. Common sense isn't always common either, so.

Amen. Amen.

Do we have a potential timeframe?

I've got to get some of the notes, some of the stuff we've got to talk with staff about whether it's sufficient. And then we've got to talk to the attorney a little bit. So give us a little bit of time.

Tony's good. Tony's good at getting... Well, for their benefit, are we talking a month, two months?

Probably a month or two. Okay. I'll put it on my calendar, 60 days. Transparency, Tony and I do go to church together. That's fine. But they've made a point to come and sit and... Thank you.

Thank you all.

Thank you all.

All right. You can stay or be like the golfers and go enjoy the day.

I may get rid of Jordan. I think they've had all the fun they can stand.

All right. You need to speak? Come forward. No, no. Got to come. Got to come. I don't hear well.

I'm not hearing aids. It's confusing to me. That's why I was getting on the edge of my chair. But we have some neighbors. Emily Ann Skews wanted to come today. And Mr. Rendish, you know you.

And I've lived in the community.

I was the first person there with the dirt roads 25 years ago. And this has been an issue. that we've tried. So I appreciate, as president of the homeowners, you know, your consideration. And we'll work with you, thank you.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

That's the reason why I knew I hadn't heard about this, because it took place before I got here. It must have, yeah.

You were still in high school. What? You were still in high school. I wish.

All right, well, the General Assembly has, Come and gone, and we have the talent group here today for 2026 legislative report. Scott and Kathy, you're here. I see Brandon's just sitting in to observe.

Good morning. Good morning, Mayor, members of council. It's nice to be with you again. I wish the statement you just made was true. The General Assembly has not come and gone. The General Assembly is actually well underway. And every year that I've been involved, you say it's more and more interesting. This one certainly fits that bill. Catherine and I are glad to be with you. like to make a couple points and updates and then certainly leave some time to answer whatever questions you may have. One of the reasons that the General Assembly is still meeting with probably just got an update is we were sitting there about 10 conference committees that are yet to meet. One of those is the Budget Conference Committee, which is obviously important to a lot of people, including this council, but they meet for the first time this afternoon. A little bit delayed in the sense, as many of you following the news have probably seen, the last couple weeks of this legislative session were dominated by a redistricting debate that went nowhere, ultimately, but certainly took a lot of time amongst the members of both the House and the Senate and their respective staffs. So a lot remains to be done even though obviously we're in June and typically the session would end by June 30th. So our report today may be a little bare because there are a lot of things that are still left undone. Let me touch on a couple of those things. I'll start with one that is done. I've talked with you before, have had several conversations with staff about the tourism development fee bill. That bill did not pass this year. In fact, it was not even given a hearing on the House side. I reached out to Representative Herb Kirschman, who sponsored that bill from Beaufort County last week, to see what his thoughts were going into the off-season. Were there going to be any meetings that would be held in Columbia to discuss that potential pre-filing of the legislation next year? And I've not yet heard back. from him, so that is a topic that we will continue to monitor and keep everyone apprised of. I know there have been conversations at the local level that we have been briefed on and will continue to stay in those conversations as well. Second, the budget that I mentioned a minute ago when I was last before you, we had discussion about priorities for this council, some requests that had been made by members of the local delegation. And then some other commitments that had been made, frankly, prior to our engagement that involved the area, but may not have been something that was directly before the council. And specifically what I'm referring to there is an airport project. That, we learned, was a priority amongst certain members of the Horry County Senate delegation. There was language that was passed in the House budget that would help the runway improvement project at the Senate budget that would help the Myrtle Beach Airport. In particular, that was changed in the House, and so that funding debate that is an annual debate now amongst the commercial airports in the state of South Carolina will continue as part of the conference committee's deliberations, which again begin this afternoon. On the House side, there was $2 million that was allocated for an Horry County Fire Department members of the delegation and members of the Ways and Means staff, and I say this with a smile, have not yet been able to define which fire department in Horry County that means. We're hopeful that that means the city of Myrtle Beach. Catherine will be leaving just after this meeting. to go and participate in the conference committee meeting this afternoon. So that is something that we continue to monitor and see. Obviously that was less than the requested amount. Two things, I'm not giving these as excuses by any stretch, but just situational awareness. Keep in mind there were no earmarks in Columbia last year as part of the budget process. And so what you saw, if you look at what was passed in the second version of the House budget this year, were a lot of projects that received far less funding than requested. Most of those projects were not in the Senate version of the budget. And so that is, again, a big difference that the conference committee is going to have to work through. One thing that may help is since the second version of the House budget passed, the Board of Economic Advisers issued a revenue update that was positive. So the conference committee has a couple of options. Don't know which way it may go yet. One is that they can request free conference powers from both bodies to reallocate money within the plans that have passed this year. That's one option. Another option that we may see Don't know yet is there may be a supplemental appropriations bill that is passed either later this year if the adjournment date is extended, or it could be one of the first items that's taking up when the new General Assembly convenes in January. Obviously, at that point, there will be a newly elected House of Representatives. There will be a newly elected governor of the state of South Carolina, all of which could play into what any potential supplemental appropriations bill looks like. The other thing I'd mention on the budget, and then I'll turn it over to Catherine, and then, like I said, I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have. The local development project that we discussed previously had a $25 million earmark request that was put in. On the second version of the House budget, there was $8.25 million allocated for that project. A lot of questions remain as to how that funding, one, might be maintained as part of a conference committee, if at all, because it had zero dollars funded in the Senate version of the budget. The big question that remains is, since that was not the full request, what could be done, if anything, with that money at present and how, if it is allocated through the budget process this year, it would be dispersed. And so those are some questions that remain. We've had conversations with staff. We had conversations as late as last week with Representative Britton as to his understanding of the project. And so he's looking for some clarification on that as well so i just bring those items to your attention and let catherine touch on a few things because she does need to get back to columbia and then i'll come back up and answer any questions you might have thank you good morning nice to see all of you today um as scott mentioned i'll be leaving shortly to get back to columbia to

Monitor the Budget Conference Committee and also the Hemp Conference Committee, which I know you haven't specifically asked me about. We have many businesses here locally that sell this product. So we'll keep you apprised of both. I wanted to specifically talk today about where we are moving forward and what we want to do in the off session because we feel like that's a very important part of our job. We are fortunate that this year we're gonna be able to spend time together in the off session and to develop a strategic and targeted plan to identify the issues that are important to you that you want us to pursue and issues that we maybe need to be concerned about and that we're gonna watch next year moving forward. So as part of that, we would like to do that fairly soon. And then we will start making an agenda and setting a schedule to meet with the local delegation and to include some leadership from both Ways and Means and the Senate to invite them. Scott and I have talked about the fact that we think it'd be nice and helpful once we get this agenda set to invite everyone to have some coffee meetings here locally. And then we will plan to spend some time in Columbia now with both members, especially both leadership committees in Columbia this year to determine when's the best time before the budget, before the House takes up the budget, maybe in the beginning of the session, and then maybe again towards the end before they wrap up. So they're reminded of all the important priorities. Besides that, we're also going to ask a few members from all of you today to spend a little time with us in Columbia this year, next year. Not every week. but just maybe once or twice a month so that they see all of you, they hear you, and they know what's important for not only the county but the city specifically. So we're really looking forward to that and excited about doing this work together.

Great, thank you.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Can you tell us offhand who the six budget conferees are, House and Senate?

Yes, so it is Banister, Representative Bruce Banister, the chairman. It is...

Jackie Hayes from Dillon County.

Coach.

Drawing a complete blank. You can send that to Fox. Senate conferees are Senator Peeler, obviously Chairman of Senate Finance, Senator Davis from Beaufort, and Brad Hutto from Orangeburg.

And the other member from the House is Jackie Hayes. Oh, Hyatt, Representative Hyatt.

Is he the majority leader or what's his?

He is the majority leader.

So the retired majority leader is a conferee?

Yes. From Pickens.

Thanks. It does sound like there are more questions than answers at this point. Thank you for what you're doing. I like the idea of us getting together and developing a strategic plan this fall. As you point out, we'll have a newly elected House, to be sure, and a new governor as well representing us.

Senator, we're not blind to we put you folks in coming in late in the game. So we just appreciate you pulling the boat for us. And if those numbers expand with a supplemental, I know you'll be right there fighting for us.

And we need to probably bring you up to speed on the conversations that have occurred regarding the pavilion site as well.

I was fortunate a couple weeks ago to be invited to attend a presentation. It was very helpful and informative. And I think that's obviously one of the key things that Catherine and I have talked about is when this session may ever end, working with all of you to find time to get together to talk and then how we incorporate the local delegation to do that and let's really take advantage of the time that we're going to have this summer and fall before the session reconvenes. Because as you know, budget discussions in earnest begin on the House side as early as October.

And we've had good preliminary discussions about the tourism development fee. We sort of paused that for the summer while other conversations occur, but that's something that we can revisit this fall sooner rather than later as well. I've got a couple of quick questions. The abandoned buildings credit bill, did that die? Where did that end up?

No, that passed, actually. There was, last week of session, there were three or four bills that dealt specifically with tax policy that were given sort of priority and actually made it through. Not many did, but that's one that has obviously been important. I may have mentioned before I wrote that bill initially when I was in the House back in 2007, so I've always kept a close eye on that.

Can you shoot us a link to that so that we can have a chance to read that? And then I did read the DOT bill that passed, which did not, in my reading of it, address the disposition of state-owned roadways to local jurisdictions. Did I miss that somewhere along the way or that just fell out of it completely? Fell out. Okay.

Councilman?

Let them get back to Columbia. And if there are any items we haven't touched on important to either of you, please reach out. We'll get you whatever information you need. We'll be following up with staff to set up these meetings in the coming weeks, and we look forward to continuing to work with you. Thank you.

Thank you very much, both of you. You did indicate that the revenue numbers were positive, so that there may be more funds with which to...

Yeah, that was something that was delayed this year as well, was the release of the updated Board of Economic Advisors impact. But when it came out, it was revenue positive. And so we'll see what happens.

But it created, was it $600 million?

Just out of $700, I don't remember exactly, but it was $600 million in additional revenue from the prior forecast.

Senator, you remain on good terms with Mr. Rankin, Embry, and Goldfinch. Yes, sir. To your knowledge.

To my knowledge. As of last week, yes.

That's good to know.

Yes, sir.

Thank you all very much. Thank you, Scott, Catherine. Good to see you. Safe travels. Thank you very much. We've got an update on the youth council. It was an idea that came to us a couple of meetings ago. I just didn't want it to fall off the table. I know that it's summertime, but it is something that we seemed interested in and I wanted to see where we were headed with that. So Kevin is here to talk a little bit about that.

Good morning. Good morning. Thank you for giving us an opportunity just to update you all on where we are since this conversation started. I will say that Ms. Altman, the Myrtle Beach High School principal wanted to be here this morning, but she had a conflict with graduation. So here we are. So our summer intern, Christian Lennon, who's a native of Myrtle Beach and a rising senior at Duke University, is going to walk you through the update, and then we'll answer any questions you have.

Good morning, Mr. Mayor and city council members. I haven't had the chance to meet all of you, but like Mr. White said, I'm interning with the city, born and raised in Myrtle Beach. I am a rising senior at Duke, studying public policy and political science. So I'm happy to be home this summer, gaining exposure with municipal government. So thank you for giving this opportunity to provide this update. First, the purpose of this initiative is essentially to create a stronger connection between youth and municipal government. It aims to increase civic engagement and leadership skills, volunteer opportunities, and provide students with an opportunity to give youth perspective to council with issues that are citywide. In preliminary research, we had researched other localities and municipalities that have had similar organizations, such as City of Greenwood, City of Seneca, City of Charleston, Mount Pleasant, City of Inman, and the City of Conway. Common features across the youth councils in South Carolina include an application and selection process with an admissions committee. Students are typically in grades nine through 12 or starting at grades 10 through 12. Students hold yearly terms. They hold monthly meetings to discuss projects, ideas for the city, and to provide, again, youth perspective. There are community service projects, and there are leadership opportunities within the youth council. So we can structure it similarly to how we structure city boards and committees, having a chair, a vice chair, things of that nature. And then, of course, interaction with elected officials, city staff, just allowing them to gain more insight about what goes on in local government. We mentioned the city of Conway earlier. This city stands out as an exemplar because of its proximity and great outcomes. Discussion with school administration, staff members, specifically guidance counselors, highlighted the increased community collaboration with the Mayor's Youth Council in Conway. Two examples are that the council implemented a school-wide recycling program, and they recently completed a mural installation at the Conway Marine and Playground. And again, these projects promoted sustainability, beautification, and community pride. About a week and a half ago, Mr. Waits and I met with Mrs. Kristen Altman, the principal at Myrtle Beach High, and she was very enthusiastic and provided great insight for us to figure out structure and logistics. One big question we had was to ask when would be the best times for students to be able to participate in something like this. And she specifically mentioned that she would allow students to attend activities and meetings during school hours to allow students who participate in after school activities like sports and other clubs to attend and be a part of this as a field trip. She also gave insight on current student passion projects, which are usually community oriented, and she gave us insight onto the broad range of students at the school. She specifically noted that there are seven languages spoken within the school, and so there's a good variety of students with different experiences and backgrounds. And so the youth council would create a formal method for students to do what they're doing with these passion projects, community oriented projects, and connect it with municipal government. Next steps include just creating requirements. So we already have a drafted application process where we would be asking students to fill out a Google Form application. This will have formal written components, so students will be able to write short statements to explain their interest in this, what are some issues that they would like to see the city consider, projects that they would like to to to create within this council if chosen and We recommend like I said structuring it like current boards and commissions Communicate over the summer and to prepare to start things in August so we can get this up and running for the 2026-27 school year Mrs. Altman also gave us information that she is able to do school-wide email blasts over the summer. I am personally already in the works of doing some digital media campaign information, so that is in the works. And then we can continue to set up information tables during sporting events. Obviously the school year is winding down, so potentially information tables during the school year at the beginning of the year next year. And then, of course, our final goal is to create a resolution to officially establish the Myrtle Beach Youth Council. And like I said earlier, the selection process will be something that we are going to continue to develop. Youth will apply. And then finally, there's already been a creation of some drafts of standing rules codes of conduct, and this is a draft of an application form flyer. So students will have the opportunity to just quickly scan a QR code. This is just something I kind of threw together as a draft, and we can create a contact for any questions or concerns. give a date for applications being due, and it just kind of gives students a good idea about what this project really is. So that's what we have. Any questions? Thank you so much.

That was very nice. I do have a couple of questions, and I'm sure they will have some questions too, Christian. Who makes the selections? Who chooses who's on the council?

Well, we're forming a, what we'll do is share all of the information with city council at some point, but there'll be a staff liaison working along with Ms. Altman at the high school. A committee will be formed and we will make selections through that process, through the after the application process.

Okay. What size group are we talking about? Seven, 11, what do we think?

12 to 15 is what we're seeing across the state. Okay. It's pretty standard.

That's big. The two Conway examples were internal to Conway High School. I think in my head anyway, I was thinking that this would be granted inside the school system, but also citywide,

Absolutely, and that's the plan. We just use that as a great example because they're pretty much next door and in close proximity. But the plan is, and we've been talking about it the whole time, is for the young people to not just represent the city, well, not just represent Myrtle Beach High School, but to be a mouthpiece and ambassadors for young people all across the city.

Okay. Council? Council?

I think it's great. I'm really excited about it.

I learned a new term the other day. Last week I was talking with a group of young people, and I say young people like 19 to 35. That's young. Yeah, it's young to me too. They kept throwing out third spaces, third spaces. I said, what the heck is a third space? And she's shaking her head because she's heard the term, Christian's heard the term before, but there's home and there's work, and then there's a third space, that interaction space. nexus that exists that's not home or work somewhere along the way.

That's why Starbucks is so successful.

I thought it was Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Any other questions? Do you have a name for this group yet?

No, just the Myrtle Beach Youth Council at this time.

I think I said this the last time. I know in the NLC, National League of Cities, This is for down the road, of course, but I know they have a great program for young students taking part of what's going on in the national side also. So that's just something to think about later. I can tell you, I was speaking to my oldest gran in London, is... getting ready to go to the fifth grade, and she was president of their little student council. She was excited the other day. We took a tour of City Hall. I think Will was there and Amy, and they were all excited about, you know, being excited to be at City Hall. And Papa, what goes on up here? It's amazing, their mind. This is exciting. Good.

If there are no other questions, is it okay for Kristen to just walk around and meet everybody and shake hands? Absolutely. When I asked her if she wanted to present, I thought she was going to have a heart attack, so she did a really great job. She did very well. Congratulations.

And if y'all, you will work with Fox and maybe Brian, I will if he needs to be involved, but to come up with a resolution and bring it back to us in a month or so.

Yes, sir. I'm Bill. Good to see you. Nice to see you again.

Good to see you again.

Good job. Good job. Good job. Nice to see you again, Christian.

Christian, good to see you again. Eric, can we take five?

Yes, we're going to take five. We'll be back in five minutes, which really means ten. But five minutes. We're going to take a break.

Thank you. Thank you.

All right, good morning again. That was our 10-minute, five-minute break. Thank you for your patience this morning. Up next on the workshop agenda, downtown facade grants and incentives. Devin Parks and Jason Green are here to talk a little bit about that. We talked about it Six weeks ago March budget retreat.

Yes, sir So and that's exactly why I'm here today, you know, we had a good conversation last time taking that information Made some changes. So I'm here to present those updates today So starting with the facade improvement grant Let's do a quick review as to why cities offer facade improvement grants to encourage revitalization stimulate private investment and preserve historic character, enhance aesthetics, boost economic activity, and promote quality renovation. So essentially the improvement of an overall district or targeted area. So as far as the project scope and eligible improvements, no changes have been made. If you remember, we reviewed a couple examples of other cities and facade grants that they offered. We believe that the one-year pilot program is still the way to go. The 50% reimbursement with up to $10,000 for the project cap is pretty standard in what we saw in other examples. And we still plan on allocating up to $150,000 of existing CIP public art balance towards this project. Eligible improvements have not changed. We're looking to see improvements that are public facing and that are permanent in nature. So really that is the gist of the list of eligible improvements. Signage, awnings, doors, windows, things of that nature.

Give me a second. That particular building there, what is going in there?

I don't know. I actually just caught...

renovations last week and took a picture have not had a chance to check but i will i know that you know that right there is one heck of an improvement that was there and uh i was just curious that's on broadway street right across from the public parking lot

Yes, that's Third Avenue North. That was the subject of the paving question that came up. And I got a text this morning that that little strip that was left unpaved was paved recently. So we've completed that project. That was the right picture to select. Let me tell you what that is. Hang on a second.

She was concerned about client safety.

I don't know that it tells me what it is, but it's like a life insurance office, something like that.

Very nice. Very nice.

So as far as the scope, the list of improvements, any questions, comments on that? Again, no changes. All right, moving on.

And it is a reimbursement. They have to spend the money first and then they can get the money back from us.

That's still the direction we're heading. We'll dig into that a little bit deeper when we talk about the process. The actual which properties are eligible, that is a change that we've made. based on the previous conversations that we've had. Original proposal was for all commercial storefronts in Art and C7, Broadway Street, and then all commercial storefronts fronting Kings Highway and Ocean Boulevard. I think during those conversations, several examples came up of businesses that probably should be eligible that might not be with this opportunity, so we heard you. We are proposing to... Modify the parameters to be citywide for commercial uses and commercial uses generally include retail establishments restaurants and cafes professional and creative office spaces personal services locally oriented businesses and visitor accommodations excluding single-family townhomes and duplex units so not residential unit uses right I will say Two things on expanding this to citywide. One, at the end of the day, so project cap of 10,000, we'll probably get 15 businesses that look a lot better, right? Might not be as concentrated and targeted, but the benefit will be there. Second, I can't necessarily control what comes in citywide. And what I mean by that is, I don't know if I'm going to get 300 applications in the first day or three applications in the entire year. So these parameters are wide open, which is fine, but just wanted to make sure that as a result of changing this to citywide that that is one of the compromises. Fair? All good with this?

I would think we'd get more participation. I would think so.

I would think so as well. I would think so as well. And you know, at the end of the day, worst case scenario, I get 300 applications. That's a good problem to have, right? So as far as the process itself, let's look at this from the applicant's point of view, because the goal is simplicity. Anyone that applies for this, they come in and apply. We do want to have a conversation, come in and talk to us, explain the scope. We want our team to make it very clear what portions of these improvements will qualify for the facade improvement grant, what won't, and just guidance as to like next steps in the whole process. So at the end of this conversation, we want to make sure that there is Absolute clarity they they understand what's expected of them. They understand what the process is internally and Really just want to set them up for success at the beginning.

We don't want questions halfway through we want we want there to be clarity When you talk about Determine what is eligible what it's going to be like what it whatever I? Is there a set of standards that's in writing as to what that would be? Was the first question. And then the second question is, I do hope this is not based on what one individual may look at and say, well, I don't know if that really works there or not.

Yes, sir. So I'll give you an example. Let's say that there's an applicant coming in for a roof repair, and a portion of their roof actually fronts the facade. So that would be an example of we will contribute towards the public-facing portion of that roof repair. So it's not necessarily – yes, there is a set list of – eligible improvements, and there's a list of ineligible improvements. These would need CAB approval, I'm assuming? Some may, some may not. And that's really the kicker is we don't want, outside of this initial application and conversation, they just go do what they already do as far as the internal city process. It may require CAB approval. In rare cases, it may not. So following that, just like we were talking about, you just go through the internal process as it stands. If you don't know that process, you will by the end of our initial consultation. So that'll all be made clear. So you do what you already do, come back, or we'll actually be tracking that, and we will establish a funding agreement with the participant. They build the project, send us the receipts, we reimburse them. So breaking that down a little bit further, that's the applicant's portion of it. The boxes in blue are what the applicant would be required to do. So step one is they apply, get that initial consultation, go through project approvals, we'll review it internally, send out a funding agreement. That's step one. Step two is you go build. The second portion of this process may not even be necessary. So if any changes from that initial consultation to the build, if there's a change in materials or costs, we need to be made aware of that. So if you're coming to us and we've approved a funding agreement for $10,000, or let's say $5,000, and you come back with $20,000 worth of receipts, if you didn't inform us, if we didn't approve that, you're still getting $5,000. We can't adjust that. Other than that, there's really no changes. They go through the process, they complete the project, city inspects it, they send us the receipts, we reimburse them. So the goal was simplicity in this process. Again, this is the first year pilot program. We're gonna take all of this data and information and really use that as a starting point to continue this project moving forward. Or if it's not to the benefit of the business community, we gave it a go.

I'm just really excited to see it. This is something that I've really wanted to see happen since I came on council. Something to spur, maybe spur interest of some of our long-time owners of properties to upgrade their facades.

This was done actually, let's see, Mike and Phil, a member of the council at that time, This was something council worked with property owners along Broadway 25 plus years ago. And at the time that was done, it made a significant improvement on how Broadway looked. And I keep going back to Broadway because there again, when I look at what's taking place in the downtown area, Broadway is one of the best examples to look at We've had some work that the city's done. But the vast majority of what's been done along Broadway has been done by private sector. And that's what I've been talking about for the last longest now is it's time for us to have private sector step up and start making investments in these areas instead of the city. The city's put a lot of money into this whole area, especially And we referred to it when I was in high school, the super block. And so I'm gonna stand fast on this for as long as I'm a member of council. Now it's time for private sector to come in and say, okay, here's what we're willing to do. Agreed. And this right here is kind of like a bridge to get there. And that's why I support it.

This seems workable. I've looked at North Myrtle Beaches. It seems a little more convoluted than this. This is reasonably straightforward. I think the Broadway improvements that Mike is referencing predate me. I think those are 30, 32 years ago. I think they're a long time ago. It's been quite a while. It's been a while on that. So a paint job on a building, if they don't have to change the color, but they're just refreshing the paint, that would need to go to CAB, probably a couple thousand dollars to do that sort of thing. On buildings that have something other than a zero lot line, would landscaping be included in this?

It's not to say that landscaping couldn't be an incentive that the city provides. I would suggest it being separate from this because we are looking for facade improvements of a permanent nature. Not to say that we couldn't explore an incentive for landscaping. I don't know how that would look, but no, landscaping is actually specifically on the list of ineligible. Okay.

I can see places in town where some additional landscaping on private property might be a good thing, but it's not the end of the day. What about buildings that front on Ocean Boulevard yet have a backside on Withers Alley, and it's the Withers Alley side that needs a lot of work? Would that be eligible?

That's a great example. Yes, because we are expanding this to all commercial uses citywide. It's not necessarily designated to any fronting highway portion. So yes, it would be. Whatever portion that they're improving is what we would base that grant on. Yes, that would be eligible. Okay, because the backsides of those buildings aren't good. And it's on weathers? Yeah. Then it's public facing. Okay. That applies. Councilman?

Let's look at the approval process again. They're going to apply. They're going to have an initial consultation. Then you're going to have project approvals. There'll be a staff final review. The project approvals, who is actually doing that?

This planning, zoning, construction services, so that is the same process that already exists. What we'll be doing internally is keeping track of what permits have been approved for what and making sure that that's all up to speed. So that's nothing for the end user.

And the reason I'm asking is that once that process happens, why do we need to go to CAB?

I don't know if we do or do not. The facade improvement grant is not interfering or playing any role in what CAB does or does not do. The only difference is they would have an initial meeting with us to make sure that their scope of work is congruent with eligibility. Everything else other than that, if someone is trying to improve their facade and doesn't want this grant, they would just go do the same process anyway.

Currently, Bill, if a property owner wants to change the color of a commercial building from what it is at the moment, they need to go to the Community Appearance Board and get that color change approved. I don't think this, I don't think we've got the power to accept that.

No, and I understand that, and that's one of the things I want to get at, is that through the project approvals themselves, there are going to be things... that don't fall in our domain, for lack of a better description. They fall under the CAB. But on the other side of that, in the project approval, if the process is to change the color of the front door, right? And everybody agrees to it, then I think Why even go to cab? Why even take the time to go to cab?

I think that's a larger question for the zoning rewrite at some point. Realistically, if a business changes the door to a different style door, I believe they need to have CAB approval.

I understand. Yeah, CAB approval will still be required where CAB approval is required, even if it's separate. I mean, that's still part of the process. Okay. If it would be required... without the facade grant, it's gonna be required with the facade grant.

As part of the zoning rewrite that's underway currently and should be complete by fall, will there be some simplification of those items that need to go to CAB?

Could be. I know I've brought this up 100 times. Yeah. But I keep thinking about when I first got elected and we did the boardwalk, and the Fun Plaza had signs on the boardwalk that were red, and they were painted yellow, and it said Fun Plaza. So when we redid the boardwalk, they were gonna repaint the signs anyway, so they put the sign Fun Plaza on the boardwalk. CAB turned it down. And that's been a sticking point with me from Why? Really? You know? And that's the reason I guess I get it that there's a great purpose for the CAB. But when you paint the sign the same dad burning color as it was, and you just add on the boardwalk, that's a little bit nitpicking to me. as we say in Marlboro County.

I think we generally would agree that simplifying those things that need to go to CAB would be on our list of things to do. To Phil's history with council, he suggested a menu for decades.

And my answer was it could. There will be some things that are... The zoning rewrite will provide some things in more of a boilerplate template fashion that could be looked at as a menu that may streamline that process some. But again, CAB is still the last line of defense to make sure that we are trying to put our best foot forward whenever we can.

One other question on the approval process. I'm going to spend $10,000 or more, right? With the understanding of if I follow all the rules, I'll get 50% of that first $10,000 reimbursed to me. Is that pretty much okay? That's correct. In this, would there be anything that would be excluded from that? Specifically, I want to do this. I'm going to hire an architect, and the architect is going to charge me.

That, that is specifically on the list of, and matter of fact, if y'all like, I I'm, I'd be happy to review the list of ineligible. Um, let's do it real fast. Sure. There was a list on one of your slides. Was that for the eligible things? That was eligible things. So this is not in the presentation, but we have, to Councilman McClure's point, fees assessments and taxes collected by the city, professional design fees. We're not going to pay for that. Landscaping, murals or decorative artwork, roofing repairs or replacement not visible from the public right away. Anything interior?

Why not murals?

There's a reason for that. Can I just? We may be pursuing a separate opportunity through the CRC specific to murals and public artwork. Um, so any interior improvements would not be eligible temporary or movable elements. So outdoor furniture, patio, uh, patio furniture, sandwich board signs where it's gotta be permanent in nature, security systems, um, and self-perform labor or in kind services. So we're not gonna give you money to, to pay yourself. Are awnings permanent? Yes. And that's the entirety of the list of ineligible. The last bullet point is any project element determined by the city to be inconsistent with program guidelines. So again, this is going back to that initial consultation. We wanna get all of this clear. Every project's gonna be different. So it warrants 15, 30 minutes of your time in exchange for $10,000 feels like a fair trade.

That list is short and reasonable. Yeah.

That was the goal. You did say city taxes. We do charge. So if you're buying $500 worth of lumber from one of the big box stores and they're going to charge you sales tax on it, we're not going to subtract out the sales tax, surely?

I don't know if that was the intent with the fees assessment and taxes collected by the city. It could be. That could be a portion of it. The short answer is... I don't know. I don't know the full extent of what fees or assessments or taxes specifically towards the facade improvement. But what I do know is this document as it stands is saying that that's not something we're going to compensate, recompensate for.

Let's go ahead and define that.

Yeah, let's get a better answer to that question if we could. And then obviously this is money that exists currently in the budget. So it's not an appropriation that we need to make. We may need to move money around, but it's money that exists. How quickly can we implement this?

I've got, well, I, our team has a program guideline, flyers, ordinance, baked in, ready to roll. So first reading as soon as we're able, if that's council's will.

Does it require, what sort of approval process does it require? It's not an ordinance necessarily, is it? I think a resolution. Okay.

Good, okay.

Okay, bring that back to us and we can get that going.

All right, so that's it for the facade improvement grant. Switching gears back to the vacant commercial building incentive. This is a targeted incentive, and the proposal was for C7 and Art District. A lot of conversation behind this one as well, but one of the questions that you had asked is what is our current vacancy? So I updated that. For Art District and C7 Broadway Street, we have 37 vacant properties to date. So those properties ranges from sizes 500 square feet to 13,000 square feet. So you can imagine there are a lot of different uses, business professional uses that fit this range. It breaks down to around 87,000 square feet of vacancy in our downtown. The 37 vacant properties, it's roughly 20% of our inventory in the downtown area. The vacant square footage, I always like to make it relative. So 87,000 is about three quarters of a Home Depot or two Dave and Buster's worths of vacancy in our downtown.

The big convention center exhibit hall space is 100,000 square feet. That's right. I looked at that one too for an example.

Yep. Yep, so a significant amount, it's not nothing. And again, going back to this incentive specifically, this wouldn't work citywide. This is a targeted incentive. I'm looking at it from worst case scenario, because I've had conversations with property owners that have tenants in line, it's just the upfit's a little bit out of the range to get that up to code and get those doors open. I'm not saying that this is going to make or break any project, but this is certainly an indicator of the city's stance of what they want to see as far as small business development moving forward. we we had this we've had this conversation for about two years now um i know the last time that we met more more focused on the facade improvement grant and we're on the positive on that i do i do want to just revisit you know now that you know what the vacancy is you know again exploring worst case scenario if if no one takes advantage of it the city has lost no revenue if anyone takes advantage of it I'm not going to say that there's not fees that would be in lieu of, but at the end of the day, we've got reoccurring revenue. Most of these buildings in ART and C7, we're talking about a 12-month window. They've been vacant for a lot longer than 12 months. I would say that's the exception, not the norm. These are buildings that have been vacant for years.

Do you have a 24-month, 48-month comparison for vacancy? I can. That would be interesting. We like to look at trends.

helps decide certain direction once we know where we've been so high level when i reviewed the material and i think the last time it was updated was about six months ago we had 50 vacant buildings some of those buildings don't exist anymore some of those buildings are in the upfit stages some of them are spoken for but are still vacant so but to give you an idea six months earlier that number 37 was 50.

I'm aware of a potential lease on a 5,000 square foot building downtown, so that'll reduce this number somewhat. I've also got interest from somebody who wants a 5,000 square foot building downtown. I need to share that with you. I haven't done that. I've got just the spot. My objection to this continues to be that this is not really an incentive to fill those buildings. This is tertiary way of getting to the end game. I'd rather have a much more direct way of getting to the end game at some point than giving up three years worth of business licenses and building permit fees. That doesn't seem to be the motivating factor that will get the building owner, the property owner, out there to recruit somebody for their building. Granted, it would be a bonus at the end of the day, but that doesn't seem to be what will actually motivate that property owner to do anything. We need something to motivate the property owner. And I don't see that as, in my mind, that doesn't fill the bill.

When you say direct, could you clarify a little bit?

Do you have any examples? You've got a vacant building. Say you've got a vacant 2,000-square-foot building, which is not very big. this incentive would be building permit fees. So if the building is vacant, the person has to upfit it maybe for a new tenant, so you can get building permit fees back at the end of that. And then business license fees, well, the owner of the building is not going to pay the business license fees. The tenant is going to pay the business license fees unless it's sold. So it just doesn't strike me. If the goal is to put businesses in vacant spaces, this seems kind of a backhanded way to do it. Maybe that's a better way to say that. An indirect way to do that.

One thing is we just talked about earlier is that building there has been vacant I'd almost be willing to say 20 years. So it's obviously eligible for that tax credit that we spoke about with the Talon Group on vacant building tax credit. So that right there in itself would be another incentive in it to do... And that would include not just doing the facade, that would be anything to do with the construction period of the building.

So that is a way to get there. We're giving away basic city revenue streams But I don't see that that's enough. I mean, it's just me. I don't think that's much incentive at the end of the day for them to do something tomorrow with that building.

I agree. But to Councilman Lauder's point, it becomes a little more significant when you can stack these incentives. And that's exactly what the goal of this is. It's not to put us out. It's not to put the city at risk of losing additional revenue. These are funds that, these are revenues that don't currently exist as they stand because these buildings aren't generating revenue.

When you presented this the first time, you said your goal was to get people to list the vacant properties.

I would like people to list the vacant properties. That wasn't necessarily the goal of this incentive. And what I'd like to do with the vacancy around town, I just haven't, is actually sit down, talk to the property owners of these vacant properties. But that's not the end goal. I mean, that can be done, though. The end goal is to get these buildings filled. We wanna provide them with tools to be able to do that with less difficulty.

I would say, this is just me, y'all can have a different opinion, certainly. I would say go back to the drawing board, come up with something that is more direct towards achieving the goal of making those property owners list the buildings. If they aren't listed, how do we list them? If they list the building, do we give them 250 bucks? That's a lot cheaper than three years worth of business license fees. If we give them 200 bucks to list the building, we haven't filled the building, right?

No, but getting it listed is part of that process. Okay. How about if I go around and ask the community and I'm getting pushback, I'd like to be able to try to do that for free first. But if I do get some...

Absolutely. I would like for you to go around and enlist the... Yeah.

I mean, have we talked to property developers or owners of some of these properties of what would be a good incentive? I mean, I'm sure you've talked to some folks and run this by them.

Yes. I will remind you all that one of the key components the first time we presented this was a carrot and a stick. We didn't get a good reception to the sticks. There are ways to incentivize property owners that are not maintaining their property that have chronically vacant property. One of the primary motivators in those is an additional ordinance or a fine or a fee or something that that nudges those property owners that aren't activating their properties. There's a path we were headed down. You all weren't comfortable with that, so we shifted away from the stick. But Mayor, to your point, if we just encourage the listing of a property and we compensate them for that, there's no reason to think they are motivated to list the property and would be reasonable if we brought them someone who, so I mean, To Devin's point, listing the property isn't necessarily the end goal. The end goal is helping the property owner understand that there's a higher and better use for their property and figuring out how to get them down that path.

At the same time though, what we're looking at here, if the building's attractive, then it may attract somebody. If the building looks like it is today, especially that one there, and I drive by that, I drive on Broadway a number of times a week, especially. Not to say that along Highway 17, I can drive to a number right now that, in my opinion, a couple of them need to be tore down, but that is what it is. But at the same time, what, What we're looking at here is to help people to improve what the building looks like. A perfect example, we'll go back to 3rd Avenue and Broadway. You drive by that building a year ago, you'd say, no, I don't know about that. You drive out of that building today and you say, hmm, that place there might have some potential. And that's exactly, I think, that's the goal we're trying to get to.

That building is rented, though, is now leased.

But I understand that, Mark, but my point still is the same. If the facade at the outside of the building looks attractive... And when a building looks attractive, when a business looks great, looks good on the outside, you know, you're never going to find out what the product is on the inside unless you get past the outside folks.

And I think we're all on board with the facade grant improvements. This is to get somebody off their duff to list the property, to fill the property so that it's not vacant anymore.

I don't know that we can force somebody to do that.

And again, it's about stacking all the pieces together. So this would be yet another piece of the stack of.

So Coastal Glass is actually a great example currently. Like they have. they have interested tenants. There's tenancy in place. It's the gap with upfit. And again, this isn't a make or break, but in this scenario, I would estimate the permit fees would be roughly four or $5,000, several thousand dollars a year for the business license for a project for a business of this scale. Again, it's not gonna make or break a project, but it is another tool for that property owner. However they wanna massage the numbers, It's reimbursable money that currently doesn't exist. So it does help mitigate that subsidy.

Do property owners presently, I don't understand letting a building stand vacant. Is the pride of ownership factor not there anymore? In other words, I own this and I'm not going to have my building looking like this.

I think there's a lot of different, based on the conversations I've had, there's a lot of different scenarios. No one has directly admitted that that's the case, but I have gotten that impression from some of the property owners downtown. Also, I've gotten the impression that there is a legitimate gap in what they can afford to do. So some of these buildings like like we've been talking about have been out of commission for years and years. They're expensive to to bring back up to code and get those doors back open to even operate a business out of them. The financial hurdle is valid, it's legitimate, but there's also this organic piece that is taking place. And we're seeing that, we're seeing examples throughout the entire downtown area, but there are still business owners, property owners out there that genuinely don't have the finances.

So they weather the property taxes and whatever insurance they must carry just to... And that keeps them floating, yeah.

We currently have incentives in place for much larger projects. The 2% voucher? Yeah, the 2% voucher. But you have to spend a significant amount of money to hit that 2%. So I guess my question then is, how does this interact with or conflict with the incentives that already exist for people who are spending larger amounts of money? Or does this need to be rolled into that?

I don't think it needs to be rolled into that and I don't think they conflict. So the parameters behind the 2% voucher, they have to come with a district redevelopment plan, if I remember correctly. So this would be comparable to the coastal glass building along with the entire block next to it.

I don't know that it's a district plan, no, because the J-1 student housing was eligible for it. It wasn't a district. It's a single project. If you bring a $100 million project to the table, you can get $2 million back in reimbursements.

Isn't it like a redevelopment area proposal? It's new construction or redevelopment.

In an instance. So the original intent of the voucher program was specifically targeting hospitality-related businesses along Ocean Boulevard.

That's correct.

And one of the requirements there is a redevelopment plan for a larger area. The J-1 is an exception to that because there is a carve out in the 2% voucher that allows workforce housing to be considered and included in the broader district. So that one is a little bit of an anomaly. That particular project is an anomaly. But generally speaking, the 2% vouchers intent was hospitality along the boulevard.

There's a bottom floor to the 2% voucher. Yes. Here we have no bottom floor. We're taking this down to zero, basically. Can you do that with the 2% voucher? This would seem to be for a... For the value of the project, this would seem to be a higher incentive than the 2% voucher.

Yes, it is higher than 2%, but if you were offering a 2% voucher on a $10,000 program, that's negligible.

It is, I agree.

I think there's a larger conversation on broader economic development incentives across the city, which... I know Jason has done a lot of work on that and can present to you a much, much larger, more comprehensive. I think both of these efforts are sort of first steps into getting us into an incentive mindset to try to more quickly address some existing buildings with existing conditions.

And I understand that, and I'll shut up after this comment. This just seems less direct than we'd like for it to be to have effect tomorrow or the day after tomorrow instead of two years down the road.

The most direct way to handle this is to do it through a stick approach and not a carrot approach. It's to create a fine. It's to create some type of punitive outcome.

I think we were reluctant to do that because, hey, my building's empty. It's my choice to have my building empty. How can you fine me for that?

But that is, I mean, if you want direct, that's the most direct.

If it's empty and it looks awful.

The standard, the look standard we can address, and that's already in the current code. We should.

We should use a bigger stick on the look standard.

We're business friendly, but we're going to take this stick and knock you out.

Well, you've heard mine. Counsel, I've been talking too much. Y'all talk.

I just, I... not for what the mayor was, his line of thought, but I just want to be myself personally clear on what defines a vacant property. Looking at this particular graphic on our screen, that's a pretty big piece of property, pretty big building, right? So I own that, but I've got, small section on the on the end of it that i have upfitted and i'm renting it to joe dokes or whatever joe dokes does the rest of the building is vacant does the rest of the building qualify if i already have somebody in part of it and all of that language exists it's 66 of the overall but uh building footprint okay

of the conversation thus far, out of all of it, the issue that I would have, I don't know how, if somebody can correct me, Will, anybody wants to jump in on this. I don't know how we can say, okay, we're gonna force you, basically, to put your building up for sale, list it for sale. I think that, in my opinion, that kind of crosses the line. I mean, I'm really, all about trying to improve every vacant building and some that are, quite frankly, just some that are occupied buildings that need some significant improvements. But I don't know that I'd want somebody, even my home, I wouldn't want you to come by and say, you're gonna put your house up for sale or.

Yeah, and that's not where I was headed with that, just an incentive. If you list it, we'll, give you some sort of incentive to list it. There won't be a requirement to list it.

An incentive when you sell it or rent it, not when you list it. And I wouldn't do that either.

I just think that's a little, you know, we're going to help you out to get here to get your building looking better. And hopefully somebody will want to, maybe want to purchase it or maybe want to rent it.

I do understand. Your logic, and I'm with you on that, Councilman Lowder. I guess my only counter would be that specific to ART and C7, storage is not an allowed use. So if there's not a front-end business public-facing commercial use, it's not really in line with what our ordinance dictates.

I understand, and I think that particular building there is used for a lot of storage. No comment. A couple of others.

I get that. So thumbs up on the facade grant. Have you asked the owners of some of these vacant buildings what would be an incentive to them to redevelop their property?

Yes. And I've gotten a wide variety of responses, all of which boil down to money. Of course, I would do the same thing if I was in their position. So there's got to be a balance, right? Like there's the reality of of what people are telling me or the collective is telling me and the risk associated with us kind of meeting them halfway. This to me, treating it like a pilot program just like the Facade Improvement Grant is ticking in the right direction and it's giving us data to make more informed decisions about incentives and grants moving forward.

So I think one of the things that we're struggling with is that, and we've mentioned this, is that there are other incentives that could be stacked, right? And so my question is in terms of the cell, if you're the building owner and I'm trying to get you to do something with it, these 37 properties, have we looked at it and said, okay, here's what we're, going to provide, but for your particular property, you also need to be aware of you could be eligible for this, this, and this. I think it's part of the sell. I agree. That we, you know, we package it together because obviously, well, you have it right there. You've got, you know, from 500 square feet up to a significantly large piece of property. Maybe that's part of it is to be able to define stacking, you know, what the incentives are.

Because right now, Councilman, I don't have a package, right? There are federal opportunities. There is the 2% voucher, but I don't have that scenario right now. What I'm trying to do is introduce, just like you're stating, that package with as little risk to the city as possible. If things need to be changed in a year, we can adjust accordingly. But at the end of the day, I'm not putting our community in any risk of poor allocation of tax dollars, right? I wanna start small, take that data, and adjust accordingly.

And I understand that, but again, if we are aware that there is a county program, a state program, a federal program, that building owner, whoever that is, could possibly qualify for, in addition to what we're offering, all I'm saying is I think we need to be proactive and point that out. It might just be that one little twist that allows them to say, oh, I didn't realize that. Thank you very much. Let's go do it.

Understood. And that information, even the federal opportunities, the state opportunities are on the city's website under economic development. And we do share those opportunities as well with private. All right, I'm gonna surprise y'all.

You know these building owners probably better than we do, but I know a couple, all right? I can assure you they're not on the city's website a lot. Sometimes we need to, bring the horse to water and salt the oats a little bit so they drink.

I will tell you that conversations of that nature take place definitely monthly, if not weekly, with businesses.

I'm going to surprise you. I'm going to withdraw my objection to this as a one-year pilot project. It can't hurt to try it. say September 1 to September 1, and the fact that it's a one-year pilot project may actually drive some folks to accept this. Sense of urgency. So I'll be quiet about that. I do want to know what quantification exists. You've got building permit fees. Is that all building permit fees? Meaning? In terms of fee reimbursements, it says building permit fees. Yes. So all building permit fees?

involved in filling a tenant for that property, yes.

We wouldn't charge them anything. Just like after a hurricane, if you're repairing a hurricane damage, we'll give you free building permits. We'll charge you, but we're going to pay you back. We'll reimburse you. That would be a reimbursement. So it is a reimbursement. And then business license fees, it says up to three years. Who makes the decision? Is it one-year, two-year, three-year?

And that could be on a case-by-case basis. I say up to three years because if I'm not using the full stack of incentives that was originally proposed two years ago, to me... We broke down ERU, water and sewer credits. So like the original proposal was to the tune of the two examples I gave are 50 to $70,000 in reimbursement, significant. A lot of those were removed. And the one to three years for the business licenses was the logic was three years actually becomes a little more significant than just $1,000, $500.

Where's that determination made? It determines that why is that one versus three?

I would argue that it should just be three because the way the two incentives play out, it's really not a large chunk.

Would you say? Up to $500, $1,000. Yeah. Okay. I like that. I like that. And it could be up to like $2,000. Capping it. Great. Can do. Okay. Thank you. All right. Can you get us September 1 to September 1 timeframe? Yes. Is that doable, guys?

Mm-hmm.

Does that work? I meant for a year, yeah. Just a year, and you've got to get your act together and apply. We'll do it. Thank you.

Thank you all very much. That's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you for putting up with us.

Good job, Kevin.

That was it for the agenda. We've got one executive session item. Where are we, Fox, on the boulevard lights? Do you know?

I spoke with Greg Fullwood last week and tentatively scheduled for next week. It might be the week after that. They're kind of looking at weather, looking at personal schedules on his staff to make sure that they can come down here and do that. The installation time is about three days. Actually, it's going to be midnight to 8 a.m. to kind of avoid the traffic down there. But that's kind of the expectation at the moment.

I'm hearing from the business community that the cost is so much less that they have the ability to do more work than they were originally planning. So it will go south of 8th Avenue North as well?

They're going to go north to 12th, I believe, is what I heard from talking to Mr. Tucker, who had been handling that on the city side. So it will go from 9th to 12th instead of 9th to Joe White.

Okay. Maybe that's the extension. But there was a possibility to do more because the cost is so much less. That's right. Okay. Okay. Um, I noticed the other day that there's a, an anniversary for the 20th anniversary for the historic middle age colored school museum and education center, June 24th. So just put that on your radar. It's coming up. I don't know what time of day, but it's coming up June 24th. So, um, and then any word on getting either in hard or light, the Pelicans logo on top of our water tower.

On top of what?

The water tower.

Pelicans?

Yeah, the one that's right next to the baseball stadium.

It's on a separate parcel.

It is on a separate parcel.

It may require further conversation in executive session if you want to talk about it further.

Okay, I mean, I'd like to talk about it further, but I don't have to do it today. Don't have to do it today.

You don't want to do it today?

Don't need to do it today. Okay. We can if you want, but no.

Well, I would say my position is it's an asset of the city you cannot give away. So if you want to allow them to use it, fine. If you feel like it doesn't interfere with the safety of the use of the water tower, you just have to get, you can't give it to them for free. You need to get something in return.

Whatever that, I'm not sure what the fair market value of that is.

But I guess the first hurdle is to make sure that allowing them to use it does not interfere with our use of the water tower, doesn't interfere with fire department, public safety, and then we can, I think then we can address the fair market value of the use.

I don't know whether allowing them to use it is the way I would have phrased that necessarily. I think we own the baseball stadium. It would be a coefficient of the use of the baseball stadium at some point along the way. But anyway, we can talk about that.

We definitely do need to talk about that.

The baseball team is unique. There's not anything else. I understand.

I understand completely. But $40-some million, I think we've done real good.

We do have one motion to go into executive session, assuming nobody has anything else. Motion to go into executive session to receive legal advice relating to the regulation of smoke and vape shops. Following are invited to attend Fox Simons, Will Bryan, Brian Tucker, Josh Brugger, Michelle Shumpert, Marla Bell, Meredith Denary, Amy New, Schaefer, Chief Chris Smith, Captain Jeremiah Beam, and Charles Rowe.

We're just going to do that here.

We'll do that here. Okay. So thank you all very much for coming today.

Thank you. Thank you.

And we'll go into executive session if there's a motion. Is there a motion?

So moved. Second.

Mike and Debbie? Debbie. All those in favor of the executive session as listed, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And we're in executive session. We'll give you a chance to clear.