Remarks by Dr. Glen Spiritis
247 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 2 of 10
- Play at 2:23:18
“So I just think that we should check and make sure that under state law, the CRA can do this outside the CRA district. because it is cra money it's paying for that staff so you just better check to see whether or not it's legal or not for them to do it otherwise once again i would recommend planning and community development is the name of a lot of these departments and municipalities throughout the country and they do come under that umbrella so that is for a long-term uh answer i think that's something that we should look into now my second question is for mr sherman on the capital…”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 2:25:22
“I don't think you need a million. I think the number is closer to 5 million, 4 to 5 million is what we're going to need.”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 2:25:29
“I thought that the money that we used to pay the county last time was from the previous year's budget.”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 2:25:49
“This year we didn't use any of it. We should have a million dollars budgeted for our share of the grant, correct?”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 2:25:55
“26, not 27. 27, we're going to need another million dollars to meet our requirement with the county. Right. Which would be to give us two million.”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 2:26:20
“Well, I do know that sometimes the insurance, the amount of money that we have to keep in insurance and reserves, those are a little bloated sometimes. Maybe we could take a look at that area.”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 2:31:20
“Chair, I think I brought this up at the last meeting or meeting before, but there was a sale during the Safe Harbor project. where there was going to be a certain amount of money split. I think it was for the abandonment of one of the roads. And part of that money was supposed to be split between Park Manor and Lakeview Park. If someone can look into that and staff where the money is, because now we're ready to do the paving.”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 2:43:19
“We are- Chair, I have a question. When you're saying all religious institutions, so I can go and form a church tomorrow for $250, form a corporation, and I would fit into this?”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 2:43:42
“Okay. So you're going to keep that in the code. Okay. Yeah.”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 2:44:29
“I just wanted an explanation on that. So you're saying you're going to let the downtown zoning, that's eight stories?”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 2:44:37
“Oh, three stories. Okay. You're going to limit it to three. And then on the Miop, if they want extra floors, are they going to be eligible?”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 2:45:19
“So are you suggesting, what if the, you know, I did a couple of these projects up north with the Union Baptist Church and Antioch Baptist Church and one of the Greek churches up there. And it's a difficult program now because a lot of these entities want to form a not-for-profit to run the housing portion of this project. So will that be considered one? Will you consider that as part of the religious entity, if they set up a 501c3, a separate 501c3 to own and operate this facility? Because usually for funding purposes and liability purposes, they usually prefer doing it that way.”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 2:46:56
“Is there any way we can separate that or permit the not-for-profit to own the property? Because for funding purposes, very often they want to see the ownership in the hands of the organization that's going to be doing the development.”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 2:47:35
“Yeah, but that doesn't do it for the funding purposes. Yeah. If you could look into that, maybe if the church put a certain number of members on the board of the 501c3, maybe if they had a majority of the board, that would be acceptable. I don't know, but I would look at that because for these projects to work, you have to have control of the site.”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 2:48:19
“Right, right. We don't want to develop a coming in there and giving the church a few dollars and then developing the project. Correct. Okay, please continue.”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 3:07:28
“Okay, so I have a couple of technical questions. You know, I want to see this work. You know, I support faith-based projects. I've been involved with them and I think this is a great thing. But my question now is taxes. as we were discussing before. How does that play here if the church owns it? So if the tax rolls?”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 3:08:49
“So can we look into maybe a required pilot in the ordinance, depending upon the income requirement, the income levels, who it's who they're providing it for. 30% maybe is nothing. Maybe when you get to 60%, you pay a certain amount. It could even be a graduate, 50% the first year, 55% the second. Over 10 years, they're paying 100%. Something on that order I think we should look at And that was my main question there. I'm sure I'm gonna think of other questions while we have this discussion. Did you have any workshops in the community? Because this is a pretty major change to our zoning that's…”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 3:11:30
“I would suggest, I would suggest holding a town hall meeting or a couple maybe in the community before we do the second reading. I think that's important. to do that. Like I said, this program goes back, I hate to say it, but it goes back to the Bush administration with the faith-based program. So this has been around for a long, long time in the country and very successful. You just haven't heard a lot about it lately, but it is one of the best programs probably in the whole country. Mr.”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 3:21:32
“Okay. So, Counselor, my question, well, first of all, when I did these projects up north with the religious institutions, we permitted daycare centers, whether it be child or senior care. we actually encouraged that and we built those into the project. So we're going to permit that use in these buildings.”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 3:22:40
“Okay, and my follow-up question is the shared parking. I would recommend that you tighten up on that. I think a certain percentage of the parking should always be available to the church and not be shared. It should be a certain percentage should be open just put aside for the church itself and for the housing.”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 3:23:52
“I hear what everyone's saying, and this council and previous councils, very often we change ordinances and the community has no idea what's going on. I think it's very, very important. There's no rush here. Nothing's going to happen within the next six weeks, development-wise or construction-wise or anything else. You've got to do this right. I think that the community deserves the right to weigh in on this, whether it be they like They want four stories, two stories, one story, setbacks. I mean, this is going to impact people's homes. There's no doubt about it. So just let them have a say.…”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 3:26:58
“Chair, can I ask one more question before we vote? Can you tell me, do we require the church own more than 50% of the project?”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 3:27:22
“Right, but they may not own the project.”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 3:27:25
“So they can, a private developer can own 80% of the project. and control everything, including making the money. So I would rather see it so that we make it so that the church is the beneficiary, not a private developer.”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 3:27:51
“At least 50% or 51% of the project so they can have control.”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026