Affordable Housing Advisory Committee - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, everybody. It is 03:30PM on Tuesday, 12/02/2025, and I'm calling this meeting of the City of Ocala Community Redevelopment Area Agency Board to Water. Can I have a roll call, please, ma'am?

Mister Marciano? Here. Mister Bethe? Here. Mister Hulte? Here. Mister Musley? Here. Mister Mansfield? Here. Miss Dreicht? Here. And do we have public notice? Yes. The 12/02/2025 CRA meeting was publicly noticed on 11/12/2025 on the City of Ocala's website. Thank you. Thank you.

Alright. Agenda item four is the approval of the minutes. If everybody has had an opportunity to review them, I will take a motion to approve.

So moved. Second.

Thank you. Are there any comments from the public on that agenda item? Any council comments? Nope. Please call the roll.

Mister Mansfield? Aye. Mister Bethea? Aye. Mister Hulte? Aye. Mister Musley?

Aye. Miss Dreyer? Aye. Agenda item five five a is the approval of resolution two zero two six dash one. Is there a motion to approve this item?

So second.

Thank you. Presentation by planning director, Aubrey Hill.

Was created as a sub plan within the downtown CRA. Later, it was broken out into its own CRA, I believe, around around the in the early two thousands, and it was created as a separate subdistrict, which officially separated the two. However, it also still maintained the initial establishment period of 1988 for the CRAs. During that time during the time frame in between that, there was the a downtown master plan that was created. There was also the Ocala 2035 vision, the West Ocala vision, and the comprehensive plan was overhauled in 2013, which out of that yielded some recommendations for additional CRAs within the city, and that created the West Ocala and CRA West Ocala and the East Ocala CRAs.

Those were established in 2015 and 2016. Now when the initial CRAs were established in 1988, the Florida statutes at the time allowed for a maximum of sixty years for the extension of those CRAs with an establishment initial establishment of a thirty year period. After there's been some legislative changes, the West Ocala and East Ocala CRAs fell into a different category under those Florida statutes where it reduced the time frames in the life expect expectancy of CRAs from sixty years to forty years but still kept thirty year establishment period. So really the maximum that we could extend for it would be for a forty year period for the West Ocala and East Ocala due to their creation time. The CRAs have been a very successful tool that we have been able to utilize throughout their life.

There have been some things that have occurred during the life of

the CRAs such as the 02/2009

economic downturn that kind of limited some of the redevelopment efforts. There's also been some things from the legislative sessions that have looked at ways to reduce CRAs and the life expectancy of those. So staff feels that it's appropriate to bring this before you to extend the CRAs to their maximum length possible at this time. That would allow for the North Magnolia and Downtown CRAs to be extended essentially another ten years to the sixty year maximum time frame that they would be allowed so that would go to a sunset time frame of 2048, as well as the West Ocala and East Ocala CRAs and extending those for an additional ten years as well. Lot of some of the successful projects that we've seen out of that have been the Mary Sue Rich Community Center at Replace.

We've seen numerous facade grant programs, commercial improvement grant programs, residential improvement grant programs, as well as more recently we've had some larger developers agreements and incentive packages that have allowed for TIF payments over the course of time to support those redevelopment efforts. So staff recommends approval and is available for any questions in regards to the extension.

Okay. Thank you, Aubrey. Are there any comments from the public on this agenda item? Hearing none, I'll bring it back to council. Does council or the mayor do have any questions or comments for Aubrey? No? Please call the roll.

Mister Hulte? Aye. Mister Bethe?

Aye.

Mister Muslin? Aye. Mister Mansfield?

Aye.

Miss Dreyer? Aye. Item five b is the approval of redevelopment agreement between the city of Ocala and Marion Opportunity Zone Investment One LLC for the rehabilitation and redevelopment of the historic Hotel Marion property. Is there a motion to approve this item?

So moved.

Thank you. Second. Thank you. Go ahead, Aubrey. Okay.

Once again, Aubrey Hale, planning director. So this is a continuation from the November 4 meeting where staff presented the incentive agreement and generally there was some support with regards to the roughly $2,900,000 incentive package which equates to 10 of the total developers cost for the project. However, we did it was decided to table the agreement till December to address some additional concerns about the property donation as part of the incentive, and thereby, it was also pulled from the city council agenda as well. If it's moved forward today, it would be back on the city council agenda as well. Much of the conversations that the developer and staff has has had as a follow-up to that meeting circled around some of the discussion that happened at the meeting, which was pertain to pertaining to paragraph four point two point five, which is the right of revert clause within the developer's agreement.

Originally, it stated that it would give a four year time frame for that develop for the city to have the ability to ask for a right of reverter as well as or that would tie it to the specifics of building a parking garage on that. Since that time, we have removed much of the language pertaining to the construction requirements. So it's really just a clean right of reverberating the city of the ability to do that as well as extending the the reverber period to to a maximum of six years but after years after the anniversary of the fourth year, if the city was to execute that right of reverter, then there would be a new appraisal that would be required and and an adjustment to the purchase price. It should be noted that the overall incentive agreement does not change. Roughly 2,900,000.0 is still capped at the 10%.

So it would come back on either the TIF payments would have to be reduced or some other kind of in order to keep everything within that $2,900,000 buffer that area that we have. With regard to the TIF payments, so those would go out and basically the way that the TIF payments have to to operate is the developer is still required to make those payments and then it comes back as a reimbursement at a later date. Upon the verification that the the taxes have been paid. Staff has also reviewed the initial purchase of Lot 6 and included the 04/03/2018 city council report. The property was originally acquired for $580,000 back in 2018 and has closing cost of $7,562 for a grand total of $5.87 $5.62 for the purchase price.

This downtown CRA contributed $200,000 towards that. The remainder was made up of a electric utility fund loan that was then paid back by the downtown CRA. Those payments were concluded in FY twenty three, twenty four. Finally, staff also did a preliminary analysis on the maintenance and management of the Parking Lot Number 6. The parking lot does not generate any additional taxes as it is owned by the city.

We also have a similar parking lot known as the Murphy Lot, which is at locate at State Route 40 and North Magnolia. It's a little larger than this lot, but it yields a taxable revenue of around $15,800 annually. Based on the size of Lot 6, we estimate that the annual taxes that would come out of that would be $10,303,100 dollars annually. The city also manages that parking lot currently. We do not collect any revenue on it.

There's a free we do not charge parking for that that area. It's kind of outside of the core downtown parking area. But there is an annual cost that's associated which we have estimated around $7,700 for just mowing and landscaping. If have we to do tree replacements annually, it can equate to around 750 to $1,000 depending on the trees that are having to be replaced. Also resealing and striping occur every five to seven years and are coming up with a cost around $30,000 for that cost.

Again, most of the agreement has structurally stayed the same, and a lot of the modifications were made to the right of the rotor clause and the extension of that time frame to give us some greater flexibility on the length of time to plan on the location of additional parking facilities or other redevelopment opportunities within the area. Staff is available for any questions. Developers are also here if you'd like to ask. Thank you.

Thanks, Aubrey. Rob, would you like to say anything further, or did he cover it all?

Rob Batsell, 1531 Southeast 36th Avenue, Ocala, Florida 34471 on behalf of the applicant. I think he covered it all. They've done a very thorough job and did last time as well. I hope we've addressed the concern, but I'm here to answer any questions you may have.

Okay. Thank you, Rob. Thank you. Are there any comments from the public on this agenda item? Hearing none, any council comments or questions? Nope. Call the roll.

Mister Musley? Aye. Mister Bethe?

Aye.

Mister Hilty? Aye. Mister Mans Mansfield?

Aye.

Miss Dreyer? Aye. Item five c is the approval of a North Magnolia Community Redevelopment Area commercial property improvement grant. Is there a motion to approve this item?

So moved.

Thank you.

Second.

Thank you. Presentation by economic developer. Economic developer. This is okay.

So, I'm sorry, Roberta. I just had

a moment. Go ahead, Roberta. Save me from it.

Good afternoon, Roberta Ellis, economic development manager. This is a grant request from our North Magnolia CRA. The property is located at 903 Northeast Osceola Avenue. The applicant is requesting a grant to repaint the 21,000 square foot building. In 2019, they did receive a grant to repaint the building.

Typically, we ask that the improvements be maintained for a minimum of five years before they can reapply for another grant to do the same work item. This was reviewed by the CRA advisory committee on September 25 based on the estimated cost of $25,500 The grant will cover up to $19,001.25 dollars of that amount. Staff recommends approval.

Thank you. Are there any comments from the public on this agenda item? Any council comments?

Please call the roll. Mister Hulte. Aye. Mister Manstiel. Aye. Mister Bethea. Aye. Mister Musley.

Aye. Miss Dreyer. Aye. Item five d is the approval of the authorization to enter into a purchase and sale agreement for real property located along the 1900 block of Northwest 21st Street. Is there a motion to approve this item? So moved. Thank you.

Second.

Thank you. Go ahead, Roberto.

Roberto Ellis, economic development manager. This request to enter the purchase and sale agreement for the 10. 49 acre property located along Northwest 21st Street. It is in the West Ocala CRA. The city currently owns properties to the west and south of the subject property to the south is the Mary Sew Ridge Community Center at Reed Place.

This purchase aligns with the West Ocala CRA plan and the Reed Place master plan studies that has been done. We are looking to acquire and assemble land for redevelopment. This property was identified as one of those properties that would further our redevelopment efforts in the area. The master plan it's included in your pocket. It outlines a mixture of uses to address the needs of the community including housing, open spaces, supporting infrastructure.

The master plan was completed utilizing funds from the EPA Brownfields Grant that was received three years ago ago. And this will help to further those initiatives. So based on the plan the city would own approximately 50%, 57% of the total area in that block if we were to acquire this property and we would seek to issue an ITN or some type of solicitation to have that that property redeveloped in the future. The estimated market value of the property is 1,000,200 based on the proposed purchase price and this includes $8.00 $7.00 for the property and closing cost not to exceed 800. Advocate funds are available in the West Nicola CRA land acquisition budget.

The West Nicola CRA advisory committee is in support of the purchase and staff recommends approval.

Okay. Thank you, Roberto. Are there any comments from the public on this item? Any council comments or questions for

Roberto? Alright. Please call the roll. Mister Bethea? Aye. Mister Musley? Aye. Mister Hilty?

Aye. Mister Mansfield? Aye. Miss Dreyer? Aye. Thank you, sir. Are there any public comments related to the community redevelopment board? None. Okay. Before we adjourn this meeting, I do wanna take a moment to recognize Clark Yandel, who served our city well over the past many many years.

So, we're going to have a moment of silence in his honor followed by some comments by the city manager. Go ahead, Pete.

Thank you. Yeah. Many of you I don't know if everyone knows Clark Gandel passed in the last week or so. You know, he was a champion not only for the North Magnolia District, but he was a champion for the whole city. He really truly cared about what happened in his city and on North Mag and he would tell you the way that he felt which was always refreshing to me that he was he was why he ran it wide open and and didn't pull punches and, you know, had a few meetings where Clark was pounding the table, but we always would go out and go for a ride through North Magnolia and look at things and and, you know, his observations were always astute and he he truly cared and and his support for staff and for for the city council and and and all of us and me personally, I just think that the amount of time that he spent getting people to care other people to care about North Magnolia and and getting that group to run the way that it ran was something that we should we should honor and look forward to do something in the future for Clark as a as a citizen who who really made a difference to our community.

Alright. Thank you, sir. Are there any council comments before we adjourn the meeting? Okay. We'll see you back here at 04:00.