City Council - workshop

Good evening. I'd like to call the North Augusta City Council study session for Monday, June 29, 2026 to order. It's nice to everybody. Thank you all for being here tonight. At this time, I'm going to turn it over to our city administrator, Mr. Jim Clifford.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council. As our usual practice, we'll go through an agenda review for the items that will be considered by City Council next Monday. We'll have the department details from the department directors or their second in charge. And then under focus items, under Mayor's Matters, we have three separate updates. First being Riverside Village Valley Operations, which we have our contract partners here tonight to talk about how that's going. We're going to have a golf cart parking update from JD McCauley. And then Tommy Paradise is going to give a quick class on the comprehensive plan as state law requires. Comprehensive plans do every 10 years. And that's a fairly lengthy process. So we're going to get the ball rolling now because our comprehensive plan expires summer of 2027. So with that, we'll go ahead and go into the agenda review. Under old business, we have under Parks and Rec ordinance number 2026-12, granting an easement on city property that includes Summerfield Park to Demean Energy, Connor, for placement of facilities to serve North Augusta Middle School second reading. I know you've had the engineers from the school district came and gave an update to the city council about what was required. And again, this is all in support of the North Augusta Middle School improvement project that they have there. but they have to remove some of the utilities. They're going to maintain those as aerial utilities, but that is going to encroach further into Summerfield Park and affect that there, and that's what was voted on last time, and I believe that first motion carried. So this will be the second reading of that ordinance because, again, this involves city property and the easement, so that requires a two-reading ordinance.

I think we're good. We've been on here for about a month, it seems like.

All right, we'll move on to planning and development. So new business planning and development, ordinance number 2026-13, detains the corporate limits of the city of North Augusta by accepting the petition requesting annexation by the landowners and annexing plus or minus 0.16 acres of property located off Lake Greenwood Drive and owned by the Lakes LLC. First reading, luckily I have Tommy Paradise here who will be Happy to talk about this, but the very high level overview of this is this is in the lakes and stream neighborhood and there's a portion of that that is in the city. And this annexation is to allow for a road connection. For the, the rest of that's why I see point 1, 6 acres. It's not a large piece of property really is just adding a 2nd. entrance, if you will, to that part of the neighborhood. But if you have specific technical questions or anything from the Planning Commission, Tommy's here to be able to answer those.

Yeah, I think Tommy ought to talk about, I mean, like, is it going to be in and out? I mean, were the neighbors, I mean, yeah. Give me a better feel for how big is this one?

Yes, Mr. Mayor, this is points. three, I think, acres that you're actually annexing. The annexation is only for the right-of-way portion between Swallow Lake, townhomes, and Lake Greenwood Drive. Planning Commission has reviewed Swallow Lake townhomes and gave approval to those. And this is just the connection. The development code does say that new residential and commercial development shall connect wherever possible to the existing development. It has provided a stub outstreet connection to a property line. They didn't provide a stub out, but there was a vacant lot there that we could make that access. So that gives us a second means of egress in and out of the townhome subdivision. It's going to have 79 single-family attached homes. It's been approved already.

Will that be the only entrance? You said that's the secondary?

Correct. There will be one off of Lake Greenwood and the other one off of Swallow Lake.

Is this one where some of the challenges as far as how to go through Aiken County, as far as their planning commission and all that?

Yes, sir. It has been. The connection's finally been approved by Aiken County. The planning commission, our planning commission, actually approved it. August 20th of last year. And we've been working with Aiken County, or the developer has, getting through the processes with the county to make that road connection that we wanted.

But that other entrance, that was in the counties that they dealt with that?

Yeah, one entrance off Swallow Lake Road that was in the city. Okay. Lake Greenwood connection. Lake Greenwood is in the county, is a county-owned road, and they had jumped through some hoops with the planning commission with Aiken County to get permission to tie into their road.

So essentially all this is doing is just putting this tiny little piece of infrastructure within the city, this access road. Correct.

I mean, just for clarification, because I would imagine somebody's either thinking this or asking it, if the city did not zone this in, would that stop the road from happening?

I would anticipate a private road for the length of that lot. And that private road would probably not be maintained to the standard that we would want it maintained to. I look for this road to be dated to the city. when all of the infrastructure is deeded to the city for subdivision.

Thanks, Tommy. Any other questions for Mr. Paradise?

Tommy, how long is the road? 100 yards?

A couple hundred feet. It's the depth of the lot. It was a residential lot that was there. They could make that connection. And so thinking that the city really didn't want to be maintaining Excess property, they needed the excess property not needed for the right-of-way to the adjacent property owners, and it's just a roadway right-of-way.

Are the adjacent property owners have any issues with this? My understanding, not.

Okay. That's good. Thank you.

So, Tommy, I know I've had several people ask me about that whole development issue, And I think traffic was one of their main concerns. So by having this road, is that kind of calming some of those concerns? Or was this road always intended to be in the development?

Talking to the developer, he said that that was the reason the lot wasn't developed properly. But from our end, I would say it depends where you sit. If you live on Swallow Lake Road, it's going to reduce the traffic there by having the connection. But if you didn't have the connection to Lake Greenwood, you would have less traffic on Lake Greenwood. There was a lot of push wanting us to make a connection out on Old Sudlow Lake Road. And that was just economically and... The terrain, just went on wetlands and other challenges there. It just wasn't feasible.

Any other questions? All right. That's good. Thank you, Tom.

I mean, it's probably interesting right there, because we're going to go to the next one, which also is planning and development, which is ordinance number 2026-14, amending ordinance number 2004-14, which approved the general development plan for North Augusta Gulf Venture planned development to modify the use of a 4.28 plus or minus acre parcel located at Riverside Boulevard to Shoreline Drive, portion of tax parcel number 00-011-10. zero dash zero one dash zero correction dash one five three first reading and so orientated the map if you will if you're familiar with the landings uh which are the three-story townhomes there right across the 13th street bridge from the stadium there's a piece of green space there real estate between those townhomes and the shoreline and that's what is in debate and there was a Discussion at the planning commission, because the applicant requested to change the ratio of usage to be higher residential than commercial. And my understanding is the planning commission unanimously decided to recommend against that. So, Tommy can talk that more in depth of what is actually being requested. But ultimately, in this particular case, the planning commission makes a recommendation, but the city council makes the final decision on this particular aspect.

Just looking for questions, I'll start. Reading over this and just trying to understand, I know where the parcel is. I guess in the original plan, it was proposed to be hotel space. They came back, changed it to townhome space, but the ratio was supposed to originally be 25% residential townhomes, 75% commercial of some sort. Yes. This and I, well, I think I'm, I'm accurate on that. This was also proposed prior to the other side of the bridge being developed to the level that it was developed. So, I guess, as I'm thinking through it and reading through it. I'm not sure. What I'm trying to understand is in today's situation, does it still make sense to have such a more commercial space? But I guess in reading it, the risk, as I read through it, is if we don't approve it, then there's potentially some state law issues with it not technically being a PD as it was developed. So is that where the kind of resistance to changing it more than an actual, I hate to say what makes sense, because both could make sense, but at least I'm thinking through that.

i think everybody in the room would say residential probably be the least offensive and more most um compatible use there problem comes in is what is a planned unit development and if i can the definition out of state law is um is a development project and this is the um thickened part is comprised of housing of different types and densities and of compatible commercial uses for shopping centers, office parks, and mixed-use developments. So when you look at that PD development, the only commercial use, if you made this all residential, the only commercial use you would have would be the golf course. in that golf course, and Kelly can probably help me more on the golf course than I know, but my understanding is it's private. So what is the commercial that is still in the PD so that you meet this definition? The Planning Commission Not only, this was staff's concern about getting outside of that legal definition. And of course, the developer proposed to flip the ratio and get as little in there as he could. But also, with a PD, there's a lot of give and take. And you get a lot of latitudes that you don't get in your other zoning districts. And I think there was a part of the planning commission that felt like, okay, you've got all of the good out of being a PD, and we should hold you accountable to that plan. You can agree or disagree, but that's some of the conversation that I heard.

So just to confirm, in that definition of PD, at no point does it really specify a particular ratio. It has to be, you just have to, I hate to say, I guess not common sense because that's not necessarily common sense, but use some sort of rationale for how you break that out.

Yes, sir. And in talking with the developers, yeah. I'm not an attorney, but I was concerned about moving forward with anything less than 25%, just because if we end up in court, I need to give Kelly something to work with.

I went down there. I hadn't been down there in a while. years, quite frankly. I wanted to get my eyes on it. The size of it, I don't quite know what you put in there enough sufficient on the residential or the mixed use side. The parking, we talk about parking with everything it seems like, but people talk about parking.

There's no parking. It's tight.

It's almost like, why would that even have been put in there? I don't think it's doable.

I mean, yes, you can make something of it, but I mean, talking about square, I don't get it.

And they will be required to have on-site parking as well. In the PD, they were requesting or going to request that after they finish the bridge, maybe they could get an encroachment permit and park underneath the bridge. But that is, who knows when the bridge is going to be.

Yeah, all that land, that's DOT? Yes, sir.

So what is the current ratio of 75-25?

Yes, sir.

It needs to be 75 commercial, 25% residential.

And what are they proposing to change it to?

25 commercial, 75% residential.

So what does that look like? Just like some townhomes and a cafe? Or what do you think?

Well, you would probably have the same type building character, I would think, the envelope. But you would also, you might have a cafe down on the bottom floor or, you know, 25% of it, whether it be a dry cleaner's drop-off, a cafe, or something for the river. That's for the market to determine. I really don't know. From the practical standpoint, and I'm not a businessman, it seems kind of out of the way.

There's no visibility.

That's what I'm saying from a commercial aspect. But then again, trying to fit that box, and Kelly, if you disagree with me, jump on in here, but trying to fit that box to meet that definition.

I don't disagree at all. And this is one of those situations that what we have now was a negotiated agreement. And so unlike if they were coming to us originally with this and there was not some agreement with this property, we'd probably be more would have to be more concerned about what's the highest and best use what's feasible and that kind of thing. As it is this way, and I'm not trying to recommend one way or the other, that they negotiated themselves into this situation. And they've gotten the benefit of what they negotiate. And so now I think council

has the ability to do whichever way you want to go with it.

I don't think that there is a strong argument that they can come back if it's denied, because, again, it was negotiated and they've gotten the benefit. But at the same time, council certainly, if they believe that It's not reasonable to not, it's not gonna be developed probably unless we agree to some change and council would have the right to approve it.

I just don't, I don't see how it brings anything. I mean, it brings back to the contractor, but I mean, there's no aspect. I mean, I can't believe there'd be a single citizen that would want it. It takes away the green space. I don't know what business, I just, it's hard for me to see us.

So did you put a bar in there to try to pull people off the golf course, maybe?

Well, Tommy, just to confirm, though, I mean, really the question is not at this point whether or not we allow something to be built there. It's how that, if the developer decides to build something, whether we hold them to it being a mostly commercial property or a mostly residential, I mean, that's really what's being asked at this point. Legally, correct. Yes.

So is the, I'm a bit confused, is the percentage based on this, just this small section, or is it on the entire development?

It's just this parcel. Just this parcel? Yes, sir.

So when you mention the River Golf Club about being private, what does that have to do with?

Well, remember this is a planned unit development. It includes the golf course, shore drive, and this area here. So all of that's within that PD. So...

Are you saying the golf course, since it went private, is not considered commercial?

I would not think that that is commercial as far as the definition of commercial uses or shopping centers, office parks, you know, that's in that definition.

They do have a restaurant which people can go to. And, you know, that is – Jenny, but – I'm not – and I'm –

I can argue that in both ways. As the planning director, we were trying to put us, make sure we kept the city out of trouble, basically, with keeping the 25%. If you want to interpret it that way, if Kelly doesn't have an issue, I surely don't.

It is up to council.

I don't know if that restaurant's open to the public or not.

It is.

Anybody can go.

Right, Kelly? Anybody can go to the River Club for lunch. Anybody can go to the River Club for lunch. It's not a closed membership.

I know anybody is going there now. I don't know whether.

They also have the rental space where they have big events. They rent the cabins, too, don't they? The three cabins. And they rent the cabins.

Yeah.

Personally, if I lived in that area, if there was a convenience store there where I could get a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread or a dozen eggs, I would be thrilled. And I think it would do very well. In fact, the whole riverfront Emmons Ferry development doesn't even have that. I think that's a commercial venture waiting to happen. Personally. Personally, yeah.

Any other questions? All right. Thank you.

All right, these next two items are linked, even though they're listed separately under administration and tourism. So the first being ordinance number 2026-15, amending article 15, sections two through 286 through 2-290 of the code of ordinances to reclassify the position of tourism manager as tourism director. And it's a good thing that my kids are studying Latin or else I would not have been able to pull that one out for you today. But this will be the 1st reading there and so JD has got a. Take a lead on this particular 1. I would just say that we've spent a fair amount of time on tourism as a whole and moving in that direction based on the mayor's guidance. And we're seeing some really good. Economic development results from tourism, and this really would be to allow us to have some parity. And this is tied to the next item because we're talking about restructuring so that the three-person Greenway team that is out there taking care of the Greenway every day would move from Parks and Rec to tourism. And when you look at the total number of personnel that Carl Waldhauer will be responsible for, that would necessitate, in our opinion, a moving of that bullet change from a manager to a director. But with that, I'll turn it over to J.D. for discussion.

Thanks Jim. We have a few slides we put together if Rick you want to cue those up but just to give you guys a history lesson when we took over when I took over in 2024 and we started the split with PRT and moving tourism out moving the Greenway team was one of the items on the list of things of where does it go you know with Parks and Rec being the if you want to go back to that first slide we can start there you know where does it go where does it where should it end up and Rick Meyer and Carl and myself went round and round on that. We know that it's going to be an iterative process when we broke tourism out from Parks and Rec. And we keep coming back to the idea that the Greenway team and the Greenway itself is a gem. It's a tourism asset to our city. It's also an asset to our citizens and our residents. And so you can go to the next slide. What we have as a focus for tourism and why Greenway team fits so perfectly there with tourism is that our tourism mantra has been from the get-go that it's residents first. And this is something that's been adopted for, as you can see down here, this is sources from the city of Charleston, but also the state tourism department, Discover SC. A lot of the conferences that Carl goes to has also adopted this type of mantra, which is, you're going to do something for to attract visitors to your city or your town that you focus on doing things that your residents like and want to do so it's improving the quality of life doing events that your locals like and that in turn if attracts folks from outside of the area and so the tourism asset aspect of the greenway as you guys can see from this past few years we've had the iron man come to town, but also this is really a result, these ordinances are a result of us reorganizing, because what it will do is it will give operational efficiency and give the Greenway more attention than it deserves. So it'll be laser-focused in terms of streamlining and reporting. So you've got Jake and the Greenway team working hand-in-hand with Carl. They're already working hand-in-hand with events at the amphitheater, the restrooms there, so all the facilities they're all very familiar with. um so next slide please this is uh to kind of backstop what we're doing with tourism in north augusta this is a presentation slide that carl gave at good morning north augusta this year which encapsulates exactly what we're trying to do which is through explore north augusta which is our tourism department we get out communications promotions events and things on the greenway is what we're working towards which translates into additional quality of life, private investment, local economy, continues on around the circle here, increased tourism and visitation, results of retail, lodging, restaurants, that's H&A tax, which we'll get to next, which increases revenues, new jobs, promotion overall, business prosperity, which brings us right back to investing back in the community. So it's kind of a cyclical process that we've taken and approached here and not unique to tourism in general in the state. Next slide. So this is a historical document that we're bringing back up. Linda Williamson put this together in her So the voluntary filing that you'll see that we put in for H&A tax, as you can see, we've had tremendous growth. And as you can look, we continue to go up with 2023-24 is when the tourism department was stood up officially separated from PRT. But we're trending in the right direction with H&A tax. And it's due to the efforts of not only the tourism department, but all the departments, because we all work together in making this place a wonderful place to live and visit. Next slide, please. All right, so this just describes if you just want a refresher of what the H&A tax is. Hospitality tax is the 2% imposed on food and beverages, and the accommodation tax is 3% for rental charge of rooms. So, I'll stop there for for questions, but really, it's a restructuring that results in the change of 2 positions, the tourism manager to tourism director, because all the staff facilities equipment. And those 13 or so miles of Greenway would now fall under that department's purview. And also there's a facilities coordinator that right now is responsible for just the. community center and that job has been expanded to then encapsulate all the facilities that tourism is over which includes palmetto terrace and all of uh the greenway so now i'll pause for for questions the amphitheater oh yes sir i'm sorry the amphitheater um all of the assets along the along the greenway bathrooms and everything any long-range plans The boat launch. The boat launch would still fall under parks because we consider that a park, and that's maintained through property maintenance and parks and rec. As it is, you can get to it from the Greenway, but we don't consider it being on the Greenway at the moment.

I think probably similar answer, but just for clarification, had a citizen reach out and ask if there'd be an effect on brick pond park as a part of this with that stay in.

Parks and record is that no, that would stay in parks records. We consider that a park as well. So that's what I said. I just wanted to be sure I was accurate.

Yes, sir.

So kind of my big question here is, we just passed impact fees, which largely benefits parks and rec. Does this movement take this out of the parks and rec category where we cannot spend impact fees on the greenway?

I defer to legal on that, but I don't believe so. Kelly, if you have an opine on that, but I don't believe it would take us out of that.

I'd have to look at it to get you an answer on that.

Councilman, also just as an aside, the impact fees, my understanding, and Tom is certainly more of an expert than I am, is that impact fees can be used for new capabilities, not to improve existing. So, for example, if we wanted to repave the Greenway, I don't believe we can use impact fees to do that. But if you were going to, say, expand the Greenway into a different part of the neighborhood or whatever, that impact fee could be used conceptually in that way.

I think you're correct on that. That's a good question, then.

another question but just for clarification on the ordinance on the restructure i think on the first the last whereas on that page it says that it takes effect the first july 15th pay period and then on the second page it says the july well july ending is that the same pay period just stated differently or is that a typo it is it's the same period period it is the beginning the 15th ending the 28th okay yeah as soon as as soon as the words are coming out of my mouth

I'll relook at that and make sure it's correct and accurate before we come next week.

Okay.

Does this cost the taxpayers any money?

Uh, yes, sir, it does. It's a, it's a change in what we do when we, when we have an increase, it goes through, um, evaluate through HR and evaluate through Archer, our outside consultant for compensation. And so anytime somebody gets an increase in responsibilities, we go get it evaluated. Um, and since it's a mid year change, the, uh, the total impact, the tourism director position is paid 50% of the general fund at 50% out of real front central core. Uh, together, it's just over 4,000 dollars and that includes, um. benefits, so that's salary and benefits. So it's just over $4,000 increase. And then for the tourism facilities coordinator, that's all out of the general fund, and that is just over $1,800. So altogether, about $6,000 changed to the whole budget, both general fund and Riverside Essential Core.

Definitely call is also I, I watch all when you're whether y'all know it or not and I pay attention to the things that you do, but you don't have to do. And I saw when I went to early vote, so call either picking trash up out of the fountain. Pick it up around the fountain and that kind of little thing means a lot to me. I think that we have to be careful with this because a lot of people. I publicly feel like this is taking the greenway away from the city, the citizens, and promoting outside use. I see room for both. If it makes money for the city that we can use for other things, it's a good thing. I think a lot of people didn't know that we had a tourism department. How is the tourism department outside of Ironman going to promote the use of the Greenway? How do we get more people to come visit North Augusta through the Greenway?

That's a great question. That would be a great plug for ExploreNorthAugusta.com and our app. So we market the city of North Augusta not only to the CSRA, but beyond. And as you're aware, the ATACS has a requirement for us to market and attract people from beyond, I believe it's 50 miles from our city. And so we're already marketing out that radius for all of our events and we would just and we already do market the Greenway in that manner so we would just continue as such this is more of a again more of an internal organizational change for reporting structure for operational efficiency do you think citizens potentially see an expanded level of care and maintenance for the Greenway with this movement that is our intention

This is a good time when you hear anybody ask you that that tell them to download the explore North Augusta app on their phone so Good way to turn that around I think this is great Excited about this opportunity because again I What the tourism, what Carl has done is tourism, as J.D. mentioned, begins with citizens. And you look at things like the ice skating. Well, that just when citizens of North Augusta, we had citizens from the CSRA came over here. You take Jacqueline Jubilee. That's not the Citizens of North Augusta or just the CSRA. We have people throughout the state. You take the concerts at the Amphitheater. Those are people coming outside the CSRA to, I mean, we had that one Christian artist. We had folks coming in from Columbia. But we did events for North Augusta, and that's what I love about Explore North Augusta is we get citizens excited about what we have, and we have so much to offer, then that carries over. And the only thing I will say, and I'll say it again on Monday, is to me, Parks and Rec is about programs of quality of life for our youth and our adults that are centered around our parks and our facilities. The Greenway is almost a separate entity. because it's it does it's not confined to an area it's going out throughout the city and i think there are plenty of people who love the greenway and at your point yes i think the potential of where the greenway could continue to go way down the road beyond our time i think is phenomenal so um But it is, again, it's a commitment. We have people everywhere from Aiken, Columbia, Greenville that come down to use our greenway just for that day. I think as we begin to make that an economic factor with the downtown greenway connector, then that's, Dennis, your point, that's where the economic piece comes. We always thought about it as a recreation piece, but if we can make it to where Businesses want to move here because their company does benefits from the Greenway, then it becomes an economic factor. And that's kind of paradigm shift for us, because it's always been that for us. So the big picture vision is, yeah, I think it will be very beneficial for our local citizens, but no doubt it will generate economic development, although you aren't going to see it just on the pavement of the road, is what I'm saying. So I'm very supportive of it and good presentation.

I think it's important, Mr. Zier, if we know just whether or not we're cutting it off from any potential funding in Parks and Rec before we go forward.

We can get that. Any other questions for Mr. McCauley?

Okay, and so those were two items that were linked together so eight nine unless there's any other questions about the Upgrading the tourism edge of the tourism director then restructuring the tourism department will move into the next item I'm number 11 resolution over 2026 test 35 designating valet service areas within Riverside Village and my understanding JD's will really kind of cover the meat of this during the focus item Presentation so like to just go ahead and keep moving forward and go to the next item which is under information technology resolution number 2026-36 authorizing a professional service contract for CPSD4 safety and security improvements for the municipal building. And that even is a bit of a misnomer because we had a presentation during the city leadership off-site in Greenwood and we talked about adding badge access to a number of the different departments and camera infrastructure here in the building and in the parking lots and the vast majority of the items that we're going to be procuring, if approved, is through state contract. So it doesn't even require a three-bid contract. It's just something you go through on state contract. There is one aspect of this that does require us to go out for the bids, which is for the improvements in front of the planning department. So much like if you go into the finance lobby now, you've got the glass wall between the tellers and the customers. We're going to do a very similar setup for Phyllis for planning and development as well. So she's got some physical barrier protections there. So that's something we'll have to go out to market for. But we have some good pricing on what that would look like. And we already have state contract pricing on the cameras and the associated infrastructure. along with the badging systems. And so what we're asking for is $300,000 set aside out of capital project sales tax for, and if approved by city council, that's something we could get moving and get completed probably within about a 120-day window. And I'll pause for any questions on that.

This is one of those priority items we did at the retreat, right?

It is.

All right, I think we're good.

So if you have any questions, I'm going to turn it over to our city clerk, Jane Barton, for department details.

Thank you. First up for department details is Finance Director Linda Williamson.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

Updates for finance tonight include for our Cycle 1 customers, the due date for their June 10th bill is going to be Monday, July 6th. disconnection date for their June balances will begin on Tuesday, July 21st. For our Cycle 2 customers, the disconnection date for their May balances will begin on Tuesday, July 7th, and the due date for their June 26 bills is going to be July 20th. And just a quick announcement, the Municipal Association has an accredited business licensing training that spans over a three-year period. And after we finish those trainings, we get to take a test to become certified. And Jeff Williamson was able to take that test last week, and he passed that, so we have another accredited business license official among us. Um, also our 2025 audited financial statements are complete and they are available online under the financial transparency on the city's website. Our auditor Malden and Jenkins will be here on July 13th to give a presentation of those statements.

That's all I got. Thank you. Next up is human resource manager Kayla Ferguson.

Union Mayor and Council, just an update for June. We had four new hires and one internal promotion or transfer. And then if you look on the back of your department details, you will see the list of current employment opportunities.

Thank you.

Thank you. Next is Engineering and Public Works Civil Engineer Brian Malek.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. For engineering and public works updates, first, the Creighton Park improvements project. You may have noticed that the sidewalk has been complete out there. The contractor will begin on the parking lot this week. The Crestview Woodlawn's drainage improvements, construction on that concrete ditch continues. The contractor has started resodding yards and

will soon be replacing fences. So hopefully some residents will have some grass to mow.

And then streets and drains will begin next week repairing a sinkhole that has been in the Edenfield Park tennis court parking lot for an extended period of time. But there will be a minor parking lot closure to fix that sinkhole and replace the pipe. And that will be posted on the various city social media outlets. Very good.

Thanks, Brian.

Thank you, Brian. Next up is Planning Development Director Tommy Paradise.

Mr. Mayor and Council, the Planning Department has the BZA meeting a week from tomorrow, July the 7th. On this Wednesday, we have the Augusta Regional Transportation Study MPO Policy Committee meeting at 9 over in Augusta. And then code enforcement has been busy. This is the busy time of year for code enforcement since the last update, the last study session. They've opened 20 new cases, closed 12 cases, picked up 65 Eagle Eagle signs, and done 14 landscape inspections.

Wow.

Yes, sir. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up is Public Services Superintendent of Public Utilities, Ryan Metz.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. Things going on here in Public Services. We are continuing with our AMR transfers.

Out of the 1,791, we have completed approximately 1,359 meters to the new AMR meters, which leaves us about 439 left.

We completed Hammond Hill, Lakewood, Chanticleer, Brookgreen, Leland Place, and in the Pond Road area, currently working on the major thoroughfares now, Martintown Road, Knox Avenue, and Georgia Avenue. And after that, then we will have to continue out Edgeford Road. Sanitation, we have completed our new storage facility, covered bays, where we have our trolley stored at, and all of our sanitation trucks have moved up to that that facility and in addition to that we have completed the new parking area so all of our sanitation employees are now parking up there which is really free of the operations facility that's great thank you ryan thank you next up is public safety chief johnson

Good evening. As you can see on your sheet there, we're still making progress. We're actively in the hiring process of getting an animal control shelter assistant, the onboarding process for them. And also, good news below that, the state of South Carolina renewed our school resource officer grant for the upcoming school year in the amount of $576,000. This includes their salaries, training, and equipment that they need order to do their job and also not listed on there but we had it today we did a teen citizens Academy where we had about 20 kids from middle school and high school just introducing them to the profession so they can see what we do on a daily basis about 20 that's a one day yes sir thank you

Hey, Chief. I went up to the Pound yesterday, and I haven't been able to go for probably about a month because vacation, graduation, summertime stuff. But I normally religiously try to get up there every Sunday. I want to say, you know, I've been one of the biggest critics and one of the hardest pushers of this situation. Right now, that entire area, including the sign shop, the entire facility at 61 Clay Pit Road is the best it's looked in years. The pound is, you know, we're getting there. It's as humane as it can be. And I really appreciate the work everybody's put into it. The new puppy pad looks good. The new area in the back where they've laid down the sod and stuff looks great. I'm excited to see what that play yard looks like when we get finished with that. This, you know, What we were working with 10, 15 years ago compared to what we're working with now is day and night, and it is much appreciated by all of us. Yes, sir. Thank you. Very good.

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

Evening, Mayor and Council. From the Parks and Rec side, the Senior Softball League registration has started and the Adult Wood Bat League is playing right now. So we've got some adults moving. On the youth side, we're wrapping up the baseball softball. Our 10-year-old and our 12-year-old all-star teams went to, we played in Braves Country baseball. And our 10 and our 12-year-old all-stars won the national tournament with Braves Country in Atlanta this weekend. Eight-year-olds did very well. They at least made the nationals. Came up a little short this weekend, but we had three teams participating in the national tournament in Atlanta. Modern Turf has started their work on the irrigation project over at the Hammett Ferry Soccer Complex. So we're moving forward on that. So hopefully we'll have a little better turf to play on for those kids moving into that fall season. facilities transition into the basketball epicenter right now for Peach Jam and all that comes with that. We started talking to our members about different options. We keep the track open throughout the whole thing. It's busy, but if you want to come walk the track, you're certainly welcome to. But otherwise, we do have a relationship with the North Augusta Y so that all of our members, while they're inconvenienced with the overflow of traffic and some of the equipment being put away later in the week, they can go to the Y and work out during that time if they would like. So we kind of relieve the pressure of them having to come to us to get their work out. They can go there and get that. uh just to give you a couple quick dates that the junior eybl which is you know just the basketball is july 8th to the 12th and the peach jam which is really the the bigger boys uh is july 14th to the 19th thank you thank you thank you and to close out department details is tourism manager carl waldhauer

Evening, Mayor and Council. Just want to highlight, we've got a busy week, especially toward the latter half of this week. Just want to highlight a few events that are going around our citizens can enjoy. North Augusta Cultural Arts Council hosts the last Music in the Park series this Thursday at 7 p.m. with Wayne Hoey, Big Band, and Wyclef Gordon performing for that one. Wyclef Gordon's a nationally touring trombonist. I think he hails from Burke County. He'll be out there Thursday evening in Waddenfield Park. July 4th has a number of events coming up on Saturday. Our cornerstone event for North Augusta is Living History Park. We're going to host the annual 4th of July event from 10 to 2, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Events can include tours of the park, reading the Declaration of Independence, and free hot dogs and treats while supplies last there. The green jackets are home this year for the 4th, and it's going to have 1 of the largest fireworks display after the game. The game starts at 635. And then we're also partnering with the city of Augusta with, uh, meet us at the river. Which will be happening from 5 PM and 10 PM at rental street. And, uh, include food, entertainment and fireworks show at 930. We're encouraging our folks go to share in June, same theater around dusk and. Probably get a twofer for fireworks show. I encourage you to go sit down there, probably catch a little bit of the Green Jackets fireworks and also from the Meet Us at the River show. Lastly, I wanted to mention there's a lot of local folks, historians, folks from First Providence Baptist Church have been working for nearly a year on remembering the Hamburg Massacre, which is 150-year anniversary coming up July 8th. They have a number of events. I encourage you to look at the Hamburg, Carsville, African American Heritage District Facebook page. I have all these listed, but I'm going to go through them real quick. Wednesday the 8th at 6, they have a reef laying service on the South Carolina side of the 5th Street Bridge. On the 11th, they have a couple of events, Commemoration Day featuring Congressman Jim Clyburn, and it's going to end that night with a concert also at First Providence with a few artists performing at that, and that one does have a $20 charge to it. And lastly, on the 24th of July, they're going to have a concert at Grace Methodist here on Georgia Avenue with another concert that has a cost associated with it. I encourage you to look at their Facebook page. They've done a lot of hard work and a lot of good folks involved with that.

Carl, one quick thing to add. I have a quick question. Yes, sir. I was able to attend the last Music in the Park event at Waddington Field, and I know we've probably been hit with weather on most of our Thursday night events.

The Danger of Summer one, yes, sir.

It was, but we were able to have that one outside, which was great. It was a great crowd. Yes, sir. It was a seven-piece band. which was fantastic, but the power kept going out, kept tripping it. Have we had that issue? Have we?

Yeah, they were, they had a little bit bigger draw with it. That's probably what I was. You know, again, you know, I know it was up because of all the power that they were using. Was that the issue? Yeah, I worked with them on Friday through that. Hopefully, you know, it's another big power draw this Thursday. And, you know, kind of like we talked about earlier, you know, we're all on the same team, work with Parks and Rec, and they have some knowledgeable folks. We're getting that evaluated. I'm not sure if they made it out there today, but I know we're going to get together here shortly and make sure it doesn't happen.

Okay, good. Yeah, just so we're updating that as we can.

Yes, sir. Just one thing to add, if I could, the Creighton Park is under construction, so during that event for the Fourth of July, we're running a special trolley route to make sure folks can make their way to Living History Park, as there's gonna be very limited parking, because of construction.

Okay, we'll move over to our focus items, and for the first two Riverside Village Valley operations and the golf cart parking, I'm gonna defer to J.D. McCauley on those.

Great we have a guest presenters. Um, I will tell you, this is the, um, the company that 1, when we're not to bid for our Valley services in Riverside village. I could just want to tell you these, these 3 gentlemen that are sitting at here behind me. I'm not sure who's going to come up and present, but they have been nothing but wonderful to work with. We've given them nothing short of a, a challenge. and they've worked through it, and they're here to update you on the progress since it's been launched, and they will have a small request at the end, which is what the resolution is all about, that we will go into greater detail after that. So with no further ado, I'll invite Parking Systems to come up and present to the council.

If you would, just state your name and address when you come up, so we have it on the record.

and Council. Good evening. Jonathan Baron, Vice President at Parking Systems, and this is Josh Candiotti, Account Executive for the operation here. So first and foremost, just want to thank you for, you know, overall the partnership. We've really, really enjoyed it and thank you for the opportunity tonight to, you know, present an updated plan. Since launching March 20th, the program has proven to be a real success. Demand is there. Community is using the service and our team has been delivering.

John, let me interrupt you. I'm sure since we're doing this as a live stream, if you don't mind, You're very loud, but if you don't mind, maybe get a little closer to the microphone and just you don't have to be looking around. Just focused. Look at the top of the microphone because I want the 20,000 people who watch this on live stream. Yes, sir.

Got it. So, um. And to date, we've parked more than 2300 vehicles, uh, Friday and Saturday are peak volumes and, uh. That. Peak that we've seen is now becoming the new norm tonight. We just want to walk through the data, explain how the operation works from behind the scenes and show where the current limitations are. Most importantly, we're not here because something is broken. We're here because the program is working. I'm just going to turn it over to Josh, I guess. Well, you want to.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. My name is Josh Candiotti from Parking Systems. And J.D., thank you for the nice introduction. I'm going to try to speak up and go through all this data here. The demand is real.

Can we get the next slide?

Oh, sorry about that. Yeah, yeah, the demand is real. The numbers prove it. So far 2374 vehicles have been parked and that concludes through the end of May. All time single day record was 86 vehicles, which was Saturday, June 26th, June 6th. Our peak checkout window for egress is going to be 6 PM to 8 PM. And our growth since the launch period is up 24%, which went from 26 vehicles to about 33. Busiest metrics on our peak day breakdown were 86 vehicles in a single evening as an all-time record. Fifty-five point four vehicles in May was the Saturday night average, which is the highest day per week. Fifty-one point five vehicles is our average Friday night vehicle volume. And Friday and Saturday nights are now nearly twice as busy as they were on opening week, which actually represents an 80 percent growth. Friday and Saturday alone account for over 60% of all vehicles parked. The peak is not a spike. This is our new baseline. We could go to the next slide, please. Section 2 is going to cover operation and tech. Here's how it works. Every car is equivalent to two trips. One trip to park it, one trip to retrieve it. Our designated parking region is the Crowne Plaza Garage, which actually is a distance of 0.2 miles each way. Without traffic, this is a 5 minute 1 way turnaround. 7, there's a 7 step process to every single vehicle. Step 1, the guest arrives, our attendant greets the guest at center street stand and issues a valet ticket. Step number 2, the car is driven to the garage. Attendant drives vehicle to the crown Plaza garage. Step number three, attendant parks and secures the vehicle. The vehicle's parked and locked in the Crowne Plaza garage, cars secured and accounted for in our system. Step number four, The golf cart picks up our driver. The golf cart returns the attendant to the stand to serve the next guest. Step number five, the guest text ahead. The guest is going to request their car before leaving, triggering a retrieval. Step number six, the golf cart drops the driver off. The golf cart will take the attendant back to the garage to retrieve the vehicle. Step number seven, the car is retrieved and returned to stand. The attendant retrieves the vehicle from the garage and brings it to the guest at Center Street valet stand. The actual route is .02 miles, which, as mentioned, has a typical turnaround time without traffic of about five minutes one way. With that, just some standout metrics show that on June 6, with 86 vehicles, that actually results in 172 individual trips to and from the garage. On June 6, the distance, which is pretty staggering, is actually 34 miles of ground covered by our parking attendants. If we could go to the next slide, please. Thank you. The section 3, the gap, we've become a victim of our own success. The demand grew the team kept up. The staging space did not. The math is simple and tells the whole story here. Every 90 seconds on Friday and Saturday is a new car departs. So we get a retrieval request every 90 seconds during the peak egress on Fridays and Saturdays. The full turnaround on that is actually nine minutes because the factor of considering a four-minute golf cart drive to the garage and then a five-minute vehicle return time actually equates to a nine-minute total turnaround. There's three staging spaces currently available in our current setup. So real-time scenario that we deal with day-to-day is that during peak times, nine cars get requested more or less simultaneously. With a current throughput capacity of three at one time, we run into vehicular waves, so to say. So wave one is three vehicles get requested or three vehicles get retrieved. That's immediately dispatched with a time span of nine minutes. So, call 1, 2 and 3 get handled, but car 4, 5 and 6 due to the staging area limitations have to wait for wave 1 to be completed. So, for wave 2 to be executed, you actually have a 18 minute turnaround time because. While wave 1 gets brought up, we also have to consider that we are waiting for the guests to get in their vehicle and depart. Same concept rolls over, but with an even longer turnaround time for wave three. So if you are vehicle seven, eight, or nine in that queue, you've waited for wave one and two to be completed as you're in wave three, and you could have up to a 27-minute turnaround, which gets a little bit lengthy and beyond what our expectations of the service are. Labor will not resolve this. Staging will. So adding more staff does not change the constraint. Staging resolves it. Cars can be preloaded and waiting at the curb before the guest arrives, eliminating the retrieval wait entirely. The team is ready. The space is not. If we could continue to the next slide, please. Section 5, the ask. One small space, one big difference. The ask is a simple policy change, not a construction project. The program works. The team is ready. We are here not because something went wrong. We are here because something went right, and we need the space to keep it going. Point number one, no new infrastructure is required. A small number of designated spots near the valet stand reserve for retrieval vehicles during peak hours only. Point number two, text ahead is already working. Guests are already currently using this feature. The system eliminates curb wait time when there is a place for the car to wait. Point number three, peak hours are defined and predictable. Monday through Sunday after 4 p.m., those are the windows. Spaces return to normal use outside of those times. We are not asking for a new program, a few spaces, a few hours of the week, and the guest experience changes entirely. 7 total signs needed 6 that read Valley only after 4 PM, Monday through Sunday. This is around the staging zone perimeter reserve spaces again only during those peak times. We would request 1 food pickup only. That has become a common occurrence day to day where there's door dash and delivery vehicles. We would like to accommodate that need as well for the businesses. That would be an active curb pickup zone keeps the lanes clear for 1 vehicle at time to come in and make those pick up and delivery orders. The plan is already designed the space is already there. This is just a policy designation, not a new project. If we go to the next slide, please thank you. Section 6, what we've delivered thus far. Since launching on March 20th, 2026, the Riverside village valet program has delivered consistent measurable results every single night. The date 2374 vehicles have been parked since the launch. The demand is real consistent and growing. The community has embraced the program from day 1. Average, 51 cars on Fridays and 55 cars on Saturdays. Peak night volume is consistent and predictable, the foundation for a structured policy-based solution here. 950 miles of patron eliminated travel. 2,374 vehicles with both directional turnaround of 0.4 miles that is saved per visit. The guest walks to the curb, not to the garage, which is over three football fields away. Zero guests facing failure since the launch. Every car returned every night. The operation has been reliable, professional, and consistent from day one. Friday and Saturday averages are up 80% since launch. Peak day volume has nearly doubled. The program is not plateauing. It is accelerating. The program launched. The guests came. The team delivered. By every measure, this has been a win. Thank you.

Thank you, guys. We can pause here for questions, or I can go into what the actual ask is in the resolution, if you'd like, Mr. Mayor.

Yeah, before, just update, because we really didn't have y'all in front of us before you started. So probably maybe everybody on council knows this, but citizens, how are y'all getting paid? When you talk about the program, I think, and about that, if you don't mind.

Yeah. So, as far as the structure overall. Yeah, so the, the residents are paying for the service. So, uh, regular fee is 10 dollars event days is 15 dollars. We do have, um. a validation program with blink with brinkley's where they they do cover the expense for their patrons and then we remit a revenue share to the city so if you had more of our down if more of those businesses participated then ideally that'd be great for our citizens right yeah absolutely i mean it would certainly help promote the uh the service

I'm just curious, how many, maybe it was in here, you went through the numbers. I'm curious, is there a percentage of people who are, I'm at dinner and I just got my check, I'm going to text you versus walking out. Is there a percentage of that? Are you finding because of the delay is because people walking out and just waiting versus kind of letting you know in advance? Correct.

Unfortunately, without the staging area, so I would say, I mean, do you know the date offhand of? Yeah, so over 50 will go to utilize it, but then we run into that issue with the three staging spots where We don't have an area to ultimately bring it up. So, for that service to be successful, we would go retrieve the car. So while you're paying your tab, the car would now be pulled up to this new staging area and then ultimately they can come out and just walk into the vehicle.

We're noting to answer a little more detail on that question to our average locations with the text ahead feature often exceed 90%. Uh, we. we would like to see that in this case as well to be fair some of it has been the promotion end of it we don't want to promote something we can't uphold if we promise a guest that their car will be ready we want to ensure we deliver so we haven't pushed it as hard as we intend to in the future but most people are just driving up when they're moving they're going down in the riverside village they're driving pulling right up the valley they're not lit there's no way to let you know in advance hey we're going to be there in five minutes or So, there's a reservation page, and we are partnered with a couple of different mechanisms that gets that out to the general area. We, we've had a small. Yeah, fractional number realistically of of Pre done reservations probably 20. where do we find that?

Where is that located?

So it's actually on the Explorer North Augusta site. It'll bring you to the website, and then from there you can actually book. It'll give you all the information as far as hours of operation. It'll give you a little detail on pricing, and then you can actually book your reservation. Yeah, we also designated a Google Places page as well. So if you Googled, you know, Valley Park in North Augusta, it would bring you there, and then you can get to our page from there as well.

Okay, I understand the issue. I've been waiting on my vehicle and had concert tickets, and we were nervously waiting for our car to get there. So, yeah, I see the need.

Any questions for them before we get J.D. to add to it? The 86 car night, I'm assuming that was an event night? That was. So $10 a car, you made $1,290. Sorry, that's not even close.

About $1,290. About $1,290. How much of that does the city get?

The remit's 17.5%. And how much space do you have now and how much more space are you asking?

We currently operate with 3 staging stalls. Those are those are not actually painted stalls. We kind of use the perimeter. We've worked with the towing agency and police enforcement for productive use of that so far. So, thank you for the support thus far in that. We'd like to take the 7 total stalls that are at the bottom of the amphitheater. Uh, facility, and we'd like to convert that to 4 PM onward Monday to Sunday to have them designated for Valley use.

So, basically, we're doubling the space. Do you think that will. Reflect in the amount of revenue generated.

The great question I don't. I don't know if I can concretely say that it's going to, you know, monetize the program any differently. What I will say for sure is that every guest that paid and expected a level of service, no one's going to be waiting 27 minutes.

So if I don't wait 27 minutes, I have a better chance to come back and use you again. Absolutely right.

Councilman Briatico, if I could jump in for a minute. The revenue obviously is a big portion, right? We want to make sure that this funding itself and, of course, they're in business. to make money, and we understand that. However, the direction we've given them in any of these parking management services that we go out for bid, number one is customer service is our number one priority. So their focus right now is honing in on that. The flow. Correct, the flow, and they want people to be able to get their cars when they expect them and have a good experience in Riverside Village. And when they think about Riverside Village, we don't want them to think about the experience they have with parking unless it's a great one with them. That's what we've asked them to do.

Is there a way, are y'all doing any type of follow-up? Every time you do something, you get a survey. I mean, how are we getting feedback? Beyond it sounds great, but are y'all somehow send something to me to say, hey, how do we do? Are you getting feedback?

Yes. So excellent question. And that's something we are intending to have resolved within the next 60 days. Right now, that's done on the Google page that we've set up. And we do have a info at parking systems where we get a ton of feedback. But I think where you're going with this is, can we push it to the end user more forcefully and pleasantly, but to get it into their hands to get better responses on that? We're going to work to resolve that.

What is the main response you're getting from people who do respond is just, hey, I had to wait longer. I mean, I want quicker.

Oddly, despite the wait times, we've had mostly pleasant feedback. What we've heard a lot from users is that they are glad that this is open to the public. A lot of them have been around the area, and when they were a specific business customer in the past, they had access to a service. But now this is seven days a week. Whether you're going to attend a concert or you're going for a stroll with your kid in the stroller, and it doesn't seem like a great day to walk as far so we've really had every you know business use or customer use come in front of us and it's been good so it's always four o'clock on Monday through Sunday those are our current business hours now are we are you getting are you getting clients using the Crowne Plaza are they mostly using Brinks

Job house or where's the client base? What are they using?

Yes. So what's interesting is because of the validation program in place, uh, Brinkley's is all tracked, right? Because they are ultimately submitting a validation to close out that transaction. The others are not compartmentalize, so to say, but I can tell you that to our pleasant surprise that well, over 50% of the usage at this point stems from outside of just Brinkley's use. So the general public is using it. Part of maybe a potential workflow would be trying to gauge a little bit more as who they are and where they're coming or what they're coming from. So we should try to work on that.

Does the Crown Plaza have a similar program?

They do not.

Would their clients be potential clients of yours as well?

Yeah, they certainly could be. And then back to your point before, if we did have some others involved, then we'd be able to have some more detail as far as who's using it and where they're going.

I would think the hotel use would be a huge client base.

So we've seen, partially because the service has a conclusion time, we're not 24 hours, that sometimes the hotel guests aren't the best model of fit for the usage. But I will tell you the rooftop, I believe bar, we get a decent crowd from that.

Yeah, I bet. Very good. All right. JD, you want to jump in?

Yes, so just to kind of button this up, the resolution before you is to ask to codify what their request is, which is to utilize the roundabout, which is right by the Sharon Jones Amphitheater, for their service. Also, it's to officially designate that first floor of the Crowne Plaza for what we're currently using for valet service. Now, it's a flux, so they don't use the whole first floor all the time. They start at the very back of the parking garage. It's actually exposed there near the I don't want to say Brick Pond Park because it's not Brick Pond Park parking, but it's the outdoor parking lot. They start there and they work their way, depending upon need, towards the handicap stalls on the first floor. So this just would identify and officially designate that that's where the valet parking service is, storing the vehicles, as well as giving them authorization to use that roundabout for staging.

So right now, those seven spaces, we've been keeping four available. Y'all have only been using three of them?

Just to be clear, we have not used any of those seven spaces. So we've kind of worked, you know, ebb and flowed with three around the center island there and not.

This is going to be hard. We probably can't answer this, but just in general, you're there all the time. Those seven spaces, are people parking, staying, just keeping them there for a long time?

Yeah, they're there for well over 10 hours often. Before we get there till after we leave at times.

I know we're going to have people respond to that, but I mean, these numbers, I think, pretty much stand for themselves that I think we need to open that space up.

So 86 is peak. 55, 51 is average. What does a slow day look like?

It can vary quite a bit. Luckily, the averages are strong, but a slow day could be 25 cars. We've had some inclement weather that makes it not a pleasant day to go out and explore, so it could be even the high teens, 18, 17.

Thank you.

Now, my question, J.D., is, So seven space, let's talk about the hotel parking deck. So will we have to, at some point, I guess when we, I'm jumping ahead on you, but when we do finally get to the Riverside Village parking plan, we should be dealing with that down the road, this would be adjusted, At that time, because it looks like here in the 4.4 valet parking, it does have in the agreement that we have the ability to actually use these parking spaces on the hotel parking deck for valet.

Correct. It's already contemplated in the current master parking agreement, and this resolution would follow in that language to have council designate it as such.

Yeah. Okay. So we're sticking within the parameters. Okay.

J.D., I've heard from residents and things that a lot of the parking issues are a result of employees from the different restaurants and things down there. I'm assuming that that's in relation to the fee to get in and out of the parking garage. Are we working on anything to kind of maybe help that situation?

The short answer is yes. And coming before you soon is that the whole Riverside Village parking services agreement we went out for bid for will come before you for action. To go back to the master parking agreement that Mayor Williams was pointing out, it is contemplated in there what the employees need to do and where they should park and how that should play out. However, that's not working. And so we're going to re-look at that with outside counsel and our parking experts. As you can see, we get some great parking experts to go over what works best, what's industry standard, how best we can work with the businesses to get those employees somewhere that makes sense for everybody. Because right now, yeah, you're correct, it's not working. They're kind of parking wherever they can.

Kind of the same church, different pew, Mr. J.D. Are we still looking at something to keep people from parking in Brick Pond parking during events? Because I went down recently when a ball game was letting in, and I watched three families walk from Brick Pond parking towards the ballpark.

Right. We're trying to keep the families out of Brick Pond Park. I'm just kidding. So... Yes, that is all going to be encapsulated. So, you know, the high enforcement towway zone, and that kind of image is in my head because it's where everything is red, where we patrol and we look at. That whole area is part of the parking managed services contract that we've gone out for, and that will be managed. So, yes, the short answer is yes, that is going to be addressed.

These are impressive numbers. I mean, I don't know what to expect, but it really seems to be working. Any other questions of these gentlemen? All right, thanks for what you're doing, and we'll see where things go. Thank you. Thank you all.

All right, well, I'm going to stay on the microphone here and continue on for a golf cart parking update. I know that's been a. And also an interesting topic of interest as we had golf cart parking, and then it went away and I'm here to let you know that we have the ability to go back to allowing golf cart parking on. uh the parcel infamously known as parcel d in uh riverside village so we can go to the next slide uh this is what we did for the this is a short-term solution so the current owner of parcel d we worked in a temporary agreement with them to allow golf cart parking uh back on that parcel if the council uh would agree. Again, we've returned temporary signage. The ramps that were there, the barriers, it looked just like it did what we were going to do during the interim process. And the big thing here is no improvements, no additional funding for this. It would just be to get golf carts into this space until they build on that parcel, which they do plan to do in the future. So that's on the interim. So before I move to the next slide, which would be a long-term solution that we worked on, I want to pause here for any questions or concerns with us. uh moving into allowing golf carts to park in this space again and there's no staff here people just go where they need to go they'll figure it out right correct it is completely unstaffed um managed by sign um and we would you know we would through the lease we would be required to you know keep it trimmed but we would not do any site improvements and basically this is only going to be temporary whatever like the time temporary is correct we that's to be determined we do not know

J.D., I thought last time we discussed this that there was a charge for golf cart parking.

Oh, charging from the leaseholder or charging people to park? Charging people to park. So this would follow all the rules of Riverside Village parking. So the same rules that apply to a parking space in Riverside Village would apply to the parking space that is here. So if you're charged to park, you would be charged to park there as well.

i'm confused so if i drive a golf cart and i use this do i pay to park you would you would pay the green jackets if they're because they would be managing their if it was during a ball game you'd pay the green jackets okay yeah but if not you would they aren't they manning the parking garages

It's up to them to manage. I'm sorry. It's unmanned normally, Monday through Friday, just normal business. But if it's an event, the Green Jackets, again, manage their parking. If that's a managed parking lot they're going to take care of, they would take your payment for parking at that site, just like they would at MEDAC, whether they open it or close it, whether they use other off-site facilities.

So if I'm going to a Green Jacket game on a Friday night and I drive my golf cart down, which I do not own one,

i drive one down there i would pay to park correct okay and also when we roll out a parking management services um we would there's paid parking would be coming soon make it clear only for a green jacket if you just go down there on thursday night to have dinner you're going to pull in yourself get out and go do your thing okay all right

Okay, so that is any more questions for the short term again, temporary solution again, since it's not defined. I was tasked with getting with our city engineer and you can go to the next slide. This is a potential long term option for consideration. It's not we're not going to bring this to you tomorrow as a fall on resolution. But this is the center street. Median, and what this would do was, so let's say they say we're going to build on parcel D, get out of there. We have a plan to move 21 parking golf cart spaces to the center street median. What that does is it would, it's hard to see on this picture, but there would be identified by swapping out bricks that are currently in there. So it would look like parking spaces. They'd be marked. They'd have bollards at the end to protect the pedestrians. We also have golf cart only signage. So Tom did an excellent job with this. That is the golf cart parking aspect of it fitting the 21 spaces around. Now, in this project, we would love to also attack keeping the center piece, which is those gray rectangles. Those stay pedestrian and they stay protected. The existing benches that are there now are identified in the tan color. And then we would put in some new tables and chairs and against the new benches that we talked about before, which I know where those are popular and just would increase the kind of the word we use in the main street program is activate. We would activate this space for more pedestrian access and safety and also putting the golf carts in there. A few questions we got was, you know, what type of golf cart can fit in there? We had a limo golf cart pull in there. We measured that Tom got parks and rec to put a 1 of the long golf carts in there as as he measured and did this plan. So this is again a concept. It's not something we're going to just do tomorrow, but this would be a long term solution. So if you're asked, hey, what happens if golf cart parking disappears tomorrow on parcel D. This is our initial. And then if you want to go to the next slide, this is the cost breakdown in greater detail that I didn't provide last time when we kind of were talking about the improvements. Uh, and there are some things that go along with the, with the golf cart parking. You want to have tree grades because you don't want people to step out of a golf cart, breaking their ankle. You know, there's a lot of safety things you got to consider. We also need to fix the papers that are downloaded. I've shuffled. Um, again, the benches tables and chairs all that we talked about, and these are, these are estimated costs that Tom got for us together. So I'll pause for here for, um, for questions on the, uh, potential long term option of golf cart parking this median. Hearing none.

I would just say for the council, what the staff is hoping to get out of this is just to at least start a conversation with the council on, you know, what's the long-term view of that space in between the Crowne Plaza and the other businesses that are part of the stadium. So there's a lot of things you could do. There's always the do-nothing option, which is, hey, we leave it as it is, and that's easy to do. You could also make pedestrian improvements. If you just envision this being a pedestrian zone, then this could be modified to have bollards further out so that it was fully protecting the pedestrians that were there and maybe invest more in tables and those kinds of aspects. But what we're seeing as a staff is there is... need at least to accommodate some of the golf cart traffic that we get down there and so we have negotiated through the the developer the ability on parcel D but I wouldn't envision that being a long-term solution I would say 24 months max is what we've got to work with so this will take a little bit of the pressure valve off from a golf cart parking perspective but I think we got to take a look at what's beyond and so what this is a concept or at least an idea for you all to consider. And so we would just, at some point in time, like to be able to revisit this with the council or if there's any guidance you want to give us from the dais now for consideration. But again, we're not preparing to have this resolution for the next city council meeting. This isn't something that you need to be able to turn on a dime, but we do want to at least get this conversation started to get some guidance from the council so we can put the right staff package together for your consideration in a future study session.

Well, you know, we're going to spoil everybody having 55 go away, so people are not happy with that. But the bottom line is if we went to a long-term option, again, how many we currently have?

Five, right?

So 21, and, you know, that space has always – I know we've had those tables down there and some things, but to me that space has always been kind of cold, and your point was the word you used, activate. Activate. Yeah, it hadn't really been activated like it should, so getting people in there with the carts, you know, decorated, the benches, I love that. So, I mean, I'm open to that long-term option at this point. That's all we've seen.

I would concur with that. I think it, I mean, it makes sense to go in that direction. It kind of solves a couple of different issues. I'm generally supportive.

I agree.

All right. Well, barring any other conversation, we'll go ahead and move into our final focus item for this evening, which is really the comprehensive plan update. I asked Tommy to just do a quick education session for the council. And as we've talked about previously, the state law, that requires cities to have a comprehensive plan fully updated every 10 years. We did a five-year update four years ago now, and that was well done. We got that through the Council of Governments, Laura Savanna, Council of Governments, Dr. Molnar and his team, and they did a good job for the update. But because of some staffing shortages that they have at the COG, they were going to have to really kind of Frankenstein a a group together to do a planning charrette to be able to do this for us. So our recommendation is likely to be going out to a vendor or a commercial entity to go do the comprehensive plan. And so this request is starting off from the planning commission, but I won't keep talking because then I'll just do all Tommy's harm. Tommy is going to give an update now on the comprehensive plan, but just wanted to give you at least a status of where we were, because you will have some actions in the future, at least from a financial perspective, and also some feedback to whoever we choose for city council updates. So, Tommy, over to you.

Mr. Mayor and Council, basically what we're going to be talking out of tonight is the South Carolina Local Government Planning Enabling Act of 1994, which regulates all of the planning stuff.

Next one.

Local governments must establish a planning commission. They are required to do the comprehensive plan, and any... To adopt a zoning ordinance or development ordinance, you must have at least completed the land use portion of that plan.

Next. Next.

And then the local planning commission has to review the plan. We're supposed to keep an eye on it all the time, continuously. But every five years, you're required to sit down and do a serious look at it and make any changes or modifications. This is what we typically refer to as the update. And then every 10 years, what we refer to as doing it all over again. They call it an update. But what typically we do is start from scratch and go through the process again. And that's where we're going at now. Our current plan expires next August.

Next one.

We'll start the process by inventorying the existing conditions, what is our needs and goals, and then we will implementation strategy with timeframes should be in the plan.

Excellent.

And there's 10 different elements to the population plan or to the comprehensive plan. Population, economic development, natural resources, cultural resources, community facilities, housing element, land use element, transportation element, priority investment element, and resiliency element. Now the ones that we normally look at To be honest, we'd use number seven, land use element. But we have these other ones in there that we're required to do and is good information for us when we look at moving forward with our plans and our recommendations to the Planning Commission and City Council.

Next.

So what we've done is the Planning Commission, at their last meeting, we kicked it off and started, how do you want to do this? And they said, you know, to issue a request for proposals from qualified consultants. They established an RFP review committee. It's three members of the planning commission, and then there will be members from the staff to provide a recommendation for approval.

And I know y'all are going to ask me, which three?

So those are Lisa Christie, Chelsea Waddell, and Aaron Slade are the three planning commissioners that are participating with us. On the RFP, we'll be looking at Their qualifications, their past work, their references. What kind of experience they, they bring to the table. But 1 of the biggest factors I think for us is. Is not only the timeline that they give us in the process, but the community engagement. And we don't say how many meetings on the RFP. We don't say how to engage in the community. You tell us, because what I've found out is they come back with a lot of things that I hadn't thought about, like pop-up canvassing, showing up at... Halloween thing, you know, those kind of things that other than just boom, boom, public meeting, public meeting, public meeting. A lot of times they'll go out and actually engage with the public where they're at. So that is what I'm looking for is a robust community engagement because at the end of the day, that is where we're at. And then from your end, we need money. Y'all always hold the pocketbooks. and we're going to need you to authorize expending the funds to hire the consultant and at the end of the day Planning Commission will work through the process, and they will make a recommendation of that plan to y'all. And then y'all will review it and say, yes, we agree, or send it back for more revisions. That is certainly within y'all's bailiwick. We are on a tight time frame, August next year. It usually takes about a year to do one of these things, so hopefully we can get moving rather quickly. Any questions for me?

Sounds good.

Thank you, sir.

Mr. Mayor and Council, that concludes the staff portion of the meeting this evening, and I turn it over to you.

OK. Carl kind of shared a couple of things I was going to share. So I don't really have anything, but I think Councilman John Felike, do you have something you want to take a minute and close this out?

Yes, I do. Several of our council members had the privilege of helping to open the Y, the new Y building, not too long ago. And three of the members of council actually participated in the pickleball event. So we really didn't feel like we should bring our A game against public safety, because they're so important to our community. And we did as well as we could, and we held up our own. Being that we're in this Generation Z, I believe is what we are now, where everybody gets a medal, well, They gave us participation medals, and one of our members left early, and he didn't get his participation medal. So we thought it would be best to present it during the council meeting, because he was really our ace in the hole, our youngest member, tallest member. We thought he could cover the most ground, but... We didn't win a game, but we did have a lot of fun. So I would like to make the presentation to Councilman Toole for your participation pickleball medal.

All right, thanks for coming. Y'all have a good evening. We stand adjourned.