City Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, and welcome to the 10/06/2025 meeting of the Orlando City Council. We're gonna begin today's proceedings with the invocation and pledge led today by commissioner Tony Ortiz.

Thank you, mayor. Those of you that's feel so inclined, just bow your heads. No. Prayer or the prayer?

Prayer first.

Okay. Heard the pledge. Lord, we stand before you with grateful hearts thanking you thanking you for your mercy, your protection, and the grace that carries us each day. We know that everything you do is for our good even when the path is uncertain. In these challenging times, we face circumstances that call for your mighty hand.

Grant us the wisdom to understand and meet the needs of your people so that all that all may live with dignity, peace, and hope. Touch the hearts of those who lead our nation, fill them with compassion, empathy, and above all, a deep sense of humanity. Let their decisions reflect justice and love guided by your truth. We ask you and we praise you. We give you all the praise and glory and we ask these things in the name of the father, son, and holy spirit. Amen. Amen.

Okay. Let's call the meeting to order. Madam Clerk, would you call the roll and make the termination of the quorum, please?

Commissioner Gray?

Here.

Commissioner Ortiz?

Here.

Commissioner Stewart?

Here.

Commissioner Sheehan? Here. Interim Commissioner Rose? Here. Commissioner Burns?

Here.

Mayor Dyer?

Here.

Mayor, you have a quorum with all members present.

Thank you, madam clerk. First order of business is consideration of minutes from the Agenda Review, City Council, and Budget Workshop of 09/22/2025. Motion by Commissioner Ortiz, second by Commissioner Stewart. All in favor indicate so by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? And so, the motion carries. Okay. We are going to go right into awards presentations and recognitions. And next week, our community will host the best Pride Festival in the entire country.

Come out with pride. And, I can't think of a better time than right now, given everything that's going on in our country and our state to come out and celebrate what we hold dear in our community and that's diversity and inclusion. It's fitting that it's here in October in LGBTQ plus history month. Commissioner Sheehan, I want to thank you for your leadership and our entire community for being committed to making sure that Orlando is a welcoming place for all. And Luis, could you come out and come up and tell us some of the things going on?

Good afternoon, mayor Dyer, city commissioner and residents. Today, we are joined by members of the city's common with pride committee and LGBTQ plus community leaders. Will you please all stand so we can recognize you? Thank you for joining us. Thank you.

In the city of Orlando, we acknowledge the importance of LGBTQ plus history month, which we observe every October. This month is a time to honor the voices, stories, and contributions of LGBTQ plus individuals throughout history, people who have shaped our communities, advanced civil rights, and inspire progress toward acceptance and respect. Recognizing LGBTQ plus history month is not just about remembering the past. It is also affirming our present values as a city that fights to be welcoming, re respectful, and supportive of all its residents and employees. Thank you, mayor Dyer, commissioner Sheehan, city commissioners for your unwavering support and making us visible.

Today, we are demonstrating demonstrating not just with words but with actions that being different is also valid. Gracias. We took a group picture before the meeting. So now mayor Dyer, will you please read the city of proclamation?

Thank you.

City of Orlando proclamation. Whereas in Orlando, we believe that learning about the past can help us build a stronger future for all and whereas October is recognized as LGBTQ plus history month to showcase the achievements and leadership and contributions of LGBTQ plus Americans. And whereas LGBTQ plus residents and community organizations, small businesses and events have strengthened Orlando in countless ways over the years. And whereas by advocating to address injustices and discrimination, they have created lasting change and inspire others. And whereas because of their efforts, Orlando has become more welcoming as countless residents, businesses, and organizations have shown their support for LGBTQ plus rights.

And whereas the city of Orlando is grateful for elected officials, community leaders and residents who have worked to ensure that our city remains welcoming to all. And whereas during this month, we make it known that Orlando is and will always be a city where every person can be their authentic self. And whereas while we celebrate the achievements and contributions of the city's LGBTQ plus trailblazers. Our community reaffirms its commitment to the hard work to ensure that all people are valued, seen, and heard as we continue to show the power of love, unity, and compassion. Now therefore, we, Buddy Dyer, mayor of the City Of Orlando and the entire Orlando City Council, proclaim October 2025 as LGBTQ plus history month in the city of Orlando.

Thank you, Luis. Okay. We will move on to the mayor's update. I have a few items. Michelle is not in chambers today but her Michelle McCrimmon who is our CFO has provided fifteen years of leadership in the office of business and financial services and her last day with the city is next week.

She'll be moving to Texas to join her husband who took a job out there and she likewise has a job as CFO some city in Texas. I can't keep all of this. My wife is from Texas so I have a million Texas jokes for you guys. But she started her career the controller position in 2010, moved to deputy chief financial officer and then CFO and she has been critical in making sure that we have a fiscally responsible budget. Michelle, thank you for all of your leadership and service.

Okay. Believe it or not, the Kia Center, formerly the Amway Center is fifteen years old and looks brand new if you go in there. It's our fifteenth anniversary. It was opened in 2010. Can't think of all the major sporting events and concerts, graduations, family shows that we've had there. It's a source of pride. I wanna thank our venue staff and all partners for everything that they've done to give us legendary experiences there. Election day for the city of Orlando is coming right up Tuesday, November 4. Deadline to request vote by mail is October 23. There will be early voting in person on October 27 through the second at the Supervisor of Elections.

If you need more information on it, you can go to orlando.gov/election. Two items that I wanna go over that are on the consent agenda. I actually have three. One is we will be funding We have funding agreements with the coalition for the homeless and homeless services network which are critical partners in the provision of services to those most needy in our community and we appreciate that. The city does not do their correct work.

We like some other organizations help to fund that important work that is done. Lock Haven Park for Angel of Hope bronze statue on today's agenda is approval of the Angel of Hope statue, the Mock Haven Park. The Angel of Hope serves as a symbol for parents who have endured the loss of a child. It represents hope and provides a place to reflect, grieve, and heal. It's being brought forward by two women that I admire very much and have dedicated to offering comfort and hope to families facing such loss.

Cindy McCree Bodine in honor of her son Matthew and Susan Chapin in honor of her daughter Blair. I believe they're both here. Which if you would stand, we'd like to thank you. Okay. And now a really fun one.

Orlando happens to see value in arts and recognizes that arts and culture make our city a much stronger place to live and that's inclusive of the literary arts which is why we introduced the poet laureate position in 2017 to foster appreciation for poetry for residents. Our initial inaugural, not initial, inaugural poet laureate Susan Lilly is here today. Susan, would you please stand so we can recognize you? Our second poet laureate, Sean Welcham, just finished his four year tenure. He has been a great ambassador to our community.

He's worked with our office of community affairs to continue the Words and Wonders poetry contest. Has shared his love of writing with young residents. Sean, thank you for serving as our poet laureate. You have showcased Orlando's vibrancy. Please stand.

And now I would like to introduce our newest poet laureate, Camara Gaither. I've been practicing saying Camara all week so that I would get that right. She is a spoken word poet and mental health therapist and I think that's gonna broaden the appeal even more of what the poet laureate is able to do. She has led a variety of poetry groups, won slam competitions across the state and represented our community and a national poetry event. I wanna thank the poet laureate search committee that spent hours reviewing and making recommendations.

We had some great applications I gotta tell you. So Camara rose to the top but it wasn't because she was uncontested. We have a vibrant community in the spoken word. That is for sure. So please stand, share gratitude and I would like to invite you to the podium for your very first official city board roundup form.

Hello everybody. This is called names that are narratives. I was the first poem that bloomed in my mother's womb. Before my debut she pondered the contents of me, she wondered what name I would be and at that time the year of 1989, a black tennis champion named Arthur Ashe was a freedom fighter stateside. In South Africa, he contended with apartheid.

There he adopted a South African girl and I became her namesake. Ever since then, strangers and acquaintances alike mispronounced me making my name sound like a cut up question Kamara, Camille, Camilla. My parents offered aid again and again helping grown ups so sounds in their mouth yet lazy resigned. People preferred to call me by my middle name, Kristen. I think this is how my body first learned to edit every inch of me.

To use all my energy to reassemble myself from the inside out, to disregard what I'm about. If it makes me more palatable for western tongues, if it makes me fit in a sliver of space a white world will give me, yes I think this is one of some reasons why it's always felt more natural to shrink than to rise. I think humans are like distant land masses severed by the sea and blockaded by borders too untried to digest our differences, quick to choke on cultures unfamiliar to us. Maybe saying names that feel foreign are just cosmic invitations to behold the goodness of others in different skin and different kin. Maybe meeting a stranger is a way that God ask, would you be willing to sojourn a labyrinth of someone's syllables different from your own?

Would you let your tongue trip until it can tenderly hold that name like a prayer? I wonder if we know names knit our narratives. Sometimes a name paints a love story of how an expectant parent held so much for something like a flower or a city or a month or a book or an adjective that they endowed its beauty and significance to their newborn. And sometimes you can sense centuries inside a name, traces of continents, ode to ancestors, symphonies of blood and bone and geographic zones, symphonies of sorrow and survival, departure and arrival. Khmera is a West African word.

It means one who teaches from experience and in all of its sustenance, it's as if I was made of its contents all along ever since I was a heartbeat to be heard, ever since I became a poem within one word. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much to my friends and family for being here and happy birthday mom.

Hey, Camera, Camera, Camera, do you have any intros you want to make? Any introductions you'd like to make?

Hello, city of Orlando. I'm excited to serve you and I'm excited to work with all the great organizations and people that are impacting Central Florida and Orlando. So I'm really looking forward to this year. Would love to meet you all and connect with you. I'll be around so I wanna see

you. Okay.

Thanks Okay

well that brings us to the consent agenda. And the consent agenda are a number of items that are worked to acted upon through a single vote of council. We give each of our council members an opportunity to comment on items on the consent agenda as well as update you on important happenings from their district. We rotate the order that we do that and today commissioner Ortiz is first up.

Thank you, mayor. I think I know what you want and what were looking for. Miss Camara, you wanna introduce your daughter and your husband? Yes. Of course.

That's what I was fishing for.

God bless her. She's an angel.

Kamara, I thought, wow. Maybe I leapt to the wrong conclusion and that's not her husband and daughter sitting.

We're gonna try.

Thank you. Thank you

so much.

Thank proud of her. Since we're talking about recognitions, don't wanna want this moment to go by without recognizing a good friend who did it a lot for the city of Orlando, miss Alana Brenner who's with us. She used to be the former city city clerk. So Alana, thank you for being with us today. Alright. On the agenda, I wanna point out the three item three I three a four, the funding agreement with the coalition of the homeless once again. I think it's a great it's a great investment for our community. So thank you for all the work that you guys are doing. Also the funding agreement with the homeless services network. Let's see.

We also have the lease agreement for Holocaust Center. I wanna make sure that doing a great job and they're doing a great job. And we're looking forward to this building being built soon. On Family Parks and Recreation, three d one, community violence intervention contract grant for Operation New Hope. And three d two, installation agreement with Angel of Hope, which the mayor talked about.

Orlando at Lock Haven Park for Angel of Hope bronze statue. Items on the morning of September 23, we continue our commitment to ensuring that every person has access to quality housing. It was an honor to be invited to the groundbreaking of Ivy Flats located at 10 And 30 Street. Congratulations commissioner. South Ivy Lane.

This development will add 137 affordable units and we're very proud of it and what is gonna be accomplishing for our community District 5. We also have on the morning of October 2, I was honored to stand with our firefighters as they unveiled a sign honoring Amanda Adams. Despite a rare cancer diagnosis, Amanda fought tirelessly. Her courage, dedication and spirit left a lasting impact on her team, community and loved ones. May we always remember her spark and the legacy she leaves behind.

It was one of those moments where it's a sad moment, but at the same time we were happy because there's a legacy that we'll be able to enjoy for decades to come. So and that's all I have, mayor. I I promise I was gonna be short since you allowed me that break last time. So

Thank you commissioner. Commissioner Stewart.

Thank you and thank you commissioner Ortiz for yielding your time to me. I appreciate it. A couple of things I wanna share with you but first I I know that Michelle is listening so Michelle, we love you and we're going to miss you. Couple of things have happened but I'll first go to Kamara. Kamara, welcome. Love having you here and I will say candidly you have a long legacy to live up to because those two are really talented but you've done well and I'm so grateful for that. So thank you very much. Okay. Teacher. Right?

Camaro's teacher. This past week, we completed our Virginia Drive parklet. Excited about that. We've got a little bit more work to do, a little bit more money to raise, but appreciate OUC's help. Mayor, thank you for your helping us get that through as well as the those who dedicated and given some money towards it through the Ivanhoe Village Main Street.

And I appreciate especially Alex Englert and the work that she's done. This past weekend, we had to celebrate the seventh celebrated the seventh anniversary of Ivanhoe brewing. Looking for the for the Robert's Red Ale to come back out of the works, but maybe they'll get that right after they do the Buddy Brew again. Buddy. We had a golf tournament last Friday celebrating raising some money for our our Family Parks and Recreation Youth Trust.

I appreciate everybody who was involved. Thank you for the commissioner who supported commissioner Byrne showed up out there and looking good out there, commissioner. We came in third which is I didn't cheat quite enough. I should have cheated a little bit more. We kicked off our neighborhood national night out last night over at Rose Isle with their annual chili kickoff, cook off. So we had that it was great to see that and appreciate them. They've been such wonderful friends of mine over the course of my tenure here. Lisa Early's birthday is coming up. Is she here today? Oh, no.

Okay. Well, we'll we'll catch her next next time. I got a special announcement I'd like to make, so if you'll just bear with me. Several months ago, as we were preparing for Orlando's 100 birthday, I realized there are many great leaders that are still active in our community who have a unique perspective on the history of Orlando. So I decided I would take the initiative and go and speak to these leaders.

They're my friends and they're our friends and record their conversations. This idea expanded to what I have called the first season of my podcast called Orlando History Makers. This podcast is a glimpse into the personalities of these influential leaders. It's my hope it would create a growing interest in our city's great history. So let me first thank you, mayor Dyer.

You are our first guest on it. I'm so grateful for you doing that. We published later on this month. We also have interviews with former Orlando mayor, mayors Glenda Hood and Bill Frederick, Orlando mayor Jerry Demings, former Orlando mayor Mel Martinez, former city and Orange County attorney Charlie Gray, former senator and Orlando city commissioner George Stewart junior, judge Emerson Thompson, and Florida Citrus Sports director Steve Hogan. It is a great lineup.

It is not inclusive, all inclusive because there I'm telling you there's 30 other people, but we just started with these and figured if with great interest, we'll keep it going. This project is a labor of love for me It's a chance for me to reconnect with some really great people in our community. I wanna thank our staff for teaching me how to do this. It was my desire not to put the burden of this on our staff because we have plenty of things for them to do. So I got the equipment and I learned how to use it and man, I'm now a podcast expert.

I've done nine, so it makes me an absolute expert. Right, Carolyn? Mayor Dyer, thank you again for your willingness to share your time, your thoughts on the first episode. And thank you for your candor and your frankness and a chance to glimpse into a little bit about how your leadership and the role of leadership here in Orlando. So I appreciate that. Thank you very much. So look for a formal announcement next couple of weeks. We should have that out by the end of the month and I hope to open announce those or publish those about every week over the course of next quarter. So thank you all very much. Upcoming, tomorrow night's national night out.

We all know know all about that. Doctor drip coffee shop is opening up in Ivanhoe Village. Edgewater homecoming parade is coming up. It's I get a chance to be right there with my granddaughter. I cannot believe that's I've been there before she was born, so now I'm now I really feel old. We're unveiling a mural over

at the

Manila Museum on the tenth. And then we have the Baldwin Park Monster Mash coming up. These are all things that are on my calendar and we have the College Park Jazz Fest coming up in the twenty fifth. Orlando Science Center has also got Island Science Center after dark on the twenty fifth. On the agenda today, I've as I mentioned earlier in the earlier meeting, I have to abstain on item 12 b.

My son-in-law is the president of Pulte Homes North and they're applicant for item 12 b today. I'm honored to support the holocaust center in anything that they do. So I'm so grateful for the work that they do in our community. Not only in the work of remembering, but the work of impacting the future of our community. I'm so grateful for that. And the funding agreements for the HSN and the coalition to the homeless three b four and three b five, mean, three a four and three a five. Thank you all so much for what you do. I know what you do and it's important to me. And of course, in the Lock Haven Angel of Hope, Cindy and Susan, thank you so much. It has been a labor of love.

And I'm so grateful to get to know you better and appreciate that. Also, say thanks to Lisa Early in our parks department, our public works department. We've all tried to kinda put this thing together and find a great place on our city property and I think we've got a great location for it over in Lock Haven. And so I appreciate that a great deal. So thank you very very much. And that's all I have. Mayor, thank you for your time.

Thank you, commissioner. Commissioner Sheehan.

Well, thank you mayor and commissioners for for recognizing LGBTQ plus history month. It's very, important. It is our history and especially when there's been so much efforts to erase our history and to erase us lately. FDOT, I just found out this morning that FDOT is now going after our banners that were hanging on our streets. It wasn't enough to ruin fifteen years. It took our staff and transportation fifteen years to do all those beautiful crosswalks to protect children, senior citizens, and the Pulse Memorial. There were crosswalks throughout our city and art throughout our city that was erased. It was disgusting. And you know what? They can say that this is that DEI is about special rights.

It's not. People forget that public accommodation, housing, and employment were denied many people of color, people in the LGBTQ community and it is disgraceful that diversity, equity and inclusion is being used as some kind of a cuss word in the federal government and state government. It's absurd. It needs to stop. Orlando is better in color. We are we are better in color. And our art is better. And we need to write we all need to rise above this nonsense together. I understand what it's like to be afraid. I've been thinking they're gonna kill me since I was a young activist and I haven't died yet.

Okay? So we all need to get together and fight this garbage and nonsense. And I was at a I was at a symposium of women and they were talking about what is the alternative, what is the antidote to burnout in all of this that's going on and it's awe. And Kamara, you mentioned that in your poem today, it's awe. And why do they wanna stop us from creating art and creating beauty?

Because they wanna take away our awe. They wanna take away what joins us and what brings us together. All the more reason why we need to keep doing it. We need to we can't stop doing it. And mayor and commissioners, I appreciate everything that y'all have done to to, you know, to to put forward art, but we need to keep fighting and finding ways to continue to talk about why this is so very very important.

And another thing we got attacked on in this stupid Doge audit nonsense is is our wellness programs. Wanna talk about wellness for a minute. Yeah, we get yoga, we have Weight Watchers, we have smoking cessation which has saved the city millions of dollars because our employees are healthier. My personal experience, I lost 60 pounds on Weight Watchers. It saves us it was saving the city $500 a month on the on the prescriptions I was having to take.

That's just my own personal story. You multiply that times all the people in city hall. So these people are trying to divide us by saying our values aren't important. Our values are important. It's not just what they want, it's what collectively brings us to a healthier, more beautiful, more sustainable community and I'm proud to be a part of that.

And we should all be proud to be a part of it. And we should speak truth to power because they cannot crush us if we speak truth to them because our truth matters and our art matters and our lives matter. So thank you for letting me say that because I'm just mad lately mayor. But I wanna turn that anger into into some into action and we all need to turn that anger into action. So there might be some rainbow bombing going on with some local artists. I'm just saying. We did get final approval with Orange County last week. I wanna thank Heather Fagan. We got final approval for the $5,000,000 for the Pulse Memorial. So thank you, thank you, thank you Orange County.

And people have been asking me, is this memorial going to happen? Under Mayor Dyer's leadership, this is going to happen. Okay. We I Yes, we cannot erase what happened with One Pulse Foundation. Yes, they mess it up but we are moving forward and this this memorial is going to happen. I wanted to also say, Kamara, thank you for your inspirational poem. Thank you for everything. And what Again, what artists do is important. Artists deserve to be paid. Artists deserve to be compensated because they are professionals.

They are professionals. And Susan, I looked up the angel of hope and looked up the statue and it's just absolutely stunning. So thank you for everything you both have done, to bring this again, to bring beauty because beauty is what inspires and what makes our city so lovely. And on the agenda today is also Mariposa grows which I know has been asked to be pulled. I understand that this is a large investment but I'm very I'm a little frustrated because everybody says, when are you gonna start having some affordable housing in your district commissioner?

And I finally get enough senior affordable housing project in my district, you know, which we haven't built one in a long time. And you know what? The the the land in my district costs a little bit more. Can't help that, you know. So I am very supportive of this project. I've had some issues with my constituents being opposed to it because they don't want their views blocked and this and that. You know, again, our values are to protect people, to protect vulnerable seniors and I welcome Mayor Proza Grove because it's gonna be important to provide senior affordable housing as our as our community ages. So I think it's a very important project. I'm glad that we've It's taken a long time. We've gone through numerous lawsuits on it.

This has been litigated over and over and over again and I hope that I will have the support of my colleagues from this moving forward. And that's all I had, Mayor. Thank you very much.

Okay and to clarify, it was pulled to do business, it wasn't pulled from the agenda.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, Commissioner Rose.

Good afternoon everyone. I don't know, everybody said everything but I have a couple more things. I do wanna thank Commissioner Gray and Ortiz for joining us for Ivy Flats for those that don't know, a 137 affordable units. I wanna thank Elmington, First Horizon Bank, but I also more importantly wanna thank Orange County government. I want folks to realize that is the strongest relationship that the city of Orlando and Orange County have ever had and our continued partnership will grow only from here as we serve the residents here in our community.

We had a couple of late cleanups last week. I wanna thank you to all of the volunteers who came to Barker Park for cleaning up. I was able to join the community for hunger never sleeps. I wanna give a big shout out to second harvest food bank for the work that they do to make sure that our community does not go hungry. Hunger never sleeps was a twenty four hour, four different groups, four different time frames throughout twenty four hours we were packaging food. First shift, did almost 21,000 pounds of food. And if you ever are looking for somewhere to volunteer, Second Harvest is always looking for hands as we continue to feed our community. I want to thank one hundred four point five the beat and iHeartRadio. So a couple of months ago, went on the interview. We were having a joint back to school event with men's closet.

And while I was there with the promoter and the radio host, he talked I talked about like my commitment to the youth in this community and how I want to engage them and let them explore different career opportunities. So this past week, we were able to take some of the kids from our downtown teen rec center. The program for those that don't know is called the Yard, youth advocacy resources Development. They did a whole tour of the radio station, learned about different career opportunities and job opportunities. We're actually looking for potential summer as we do our youth employment and they were able to do song drops and the song drops were so cool because we separated the groups and gave them like five minutes and said, go figure out how do you introduce a song.

So for those that don't know a song drop is if you're listening to any radio station and they talk their way into leading into a song. And so it was great opportunity to watch our kids work together. They were in awe learning the types of jobs in a radio station because they're like, you know, you listen to the radio, you listen to a podcast. So it was a great opportunity so I want to publicly thank them. These experiences are priceless as we expose our youth to the future career opportunities.

I want to thank Rodney and staff for always answering my call when I say I want to do great thing. I want like the youth to explore things going on in our community. Today is World Habitat Day. This morning, the mayor and I had the privilege to cut the ribbon on one of the many homes that Habitat Orlando and Osceola have been building within the Paramore community as we work to increase homeownership. We were able to this council, and I want to thank everyone, was able to provide some incentives as they continue to build 10 more new homes in the Paramore community.

The fight for equality isn't over. I'm committed to continuing to stand and support the LGBTQIA plus community. I look forward to marching in the parade as we as I've been doing for years to come out with pride later on this month. National night out is tomorrow, so I look forward there are a lot of organizations. I look forward to joining as we promote safety within the community.

This Friday, we are finally cutting the ribbon for Art Squared. For those that don't know, it is the pocket park on the corner of Orange And Robinson, and it's a great tribute to the late Thomas Chapman because that was one of his babies as we've talked about increasing outdoor outdoor space for the community. And onto the agenda three a four and three a five, many in our community are experiencing homelessness. We are doing everything that we can as a city so it's great to be able to fund overnight accommodation as our OPD officers engage with unhoused individuals and have to respond. Three d one, I wanna say this, it's very apparent that in a collaboration with OPD, the work of CVI and Peace Orlando is working.

Crime is down 27%. Shootings and homicides are down. So I'm proud for us to continue to support and fund the great work that CVI and Operation New Hope is doing far as providing mental health services. Shout out again to Parks and Recreation as we continue to keep our communities safe. That's all I have, mayor.

Thank you, commissioner. Commissioner Burns.

Alright. Thank you, mayor, and good afternoon fellow commissioners and all who are in attendance. Kamara, congratulations and thank you for sharing with us this morning or this afternoon. My name Bakari is also African, Swahili specifically, and it means noble. So your poem really resonated with me.

So again, thank you and again, welcome to the City of Orlando family. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. My mother, Barbara Burns, is a twenty two year survivor of breast cancer and she benefited from early detection. So, I want to ask everyone to please encourage your loved ones to seek the necessary early breast cancer screenings that may be available. So, again, this is better when we catch it early.

Let's get those screenings. Also, this month is Mental Health Awareness Month, and I want to encourage everyone to attend to your mental health and encourage your loved ones to do the same. Mayor, last week, I had the opportunity to bring some opening remarks to the Chase Fraud Prevention Workshop held at the El Claudia Allen Center. I'd like to thank our thank our community partners, JP Morgan and Chase, Seniors First for their support, and Sergeant Michael Fiorittino in the Financial Crimes Department of OPD for developing a of delivering a thorough and engaging presentation. It was really targeted at our seniors because our seniors are unfortunately oftentimes targeted for scams and fraud.

So, a lot of good information was shared. I believe this is one of several crop fraud prevention activities that will be happening throughout our city. Also, participated last Friday in the golf tournament over in District 3, Family Parks And Rec, where the fun where the fun starts. Had a great time till we till it started raining, but it was a great time. Upcoming events, National Night Out is tomorrow, October 7.

Great opportunity to spend the evening getting to know your neighbors the members of the police department. I also want to again, as I did last council meeting, acknowledge that the National NIDAT has a competition. So neighborhood associations can join this competition and you get a first, second, and third place. So this year in District 6, we almost ran the table. We won first place Carver Shores, Miss Shirley Heath is the association president, then we got third place, the Isles Of Catalina where Miss Susan Garcia serves as the association president.

So I just like to give District 6 a shout out because we are doing some great things throughout the city, but again I hope everyone will come out and support the local national night out activities. Also, on October 8 and the twenty second, I'll have my satellite office hours. This is a time where residents can come and meet with me outside of City Hall. That would be from 10AM to 3PM at the El Claudia Allen Senior Center. Mayor on the agenda, I'd like to express my support for three a four as we heard the funding agreement with the Coalition for the Homeless to provide overnight accommodations for persons experiencing homelessness who Orlando Police Department deemed to be a in a dangerous situation or in need of immediate shelter.

So I I like to thank Lisa Portelli for her work with this and the coalition for the homeless because we do have to make sure that we are caring for our fellow human beings, our fellow residents of the city of Orlando regardless of the state that they're in. Also, the funding agreement for the homeless services network fiscal year 2526. Thank you to Martha for all the work that they do. Also, three three b two, the amendment the second amendment to the lease agreement with the Holocaust Center, supportive of that. Also, three d one community violence intervention as commissioner Rose mentioned, Operation New Hope.

A lot of great work is being done and Operation New Hope provides the mental health counseling support that. And then also the agreement with the Angel of Hope in Orlando at Lock Haven Park. Thank you all for bringing this to to Orlando and definitely supportive of that. And that's all I have mayor. Thank you.

Thank you, commissioner. Commissioner Gray.

Thank you, mayor. And I also I certainly like to thank Susan and Sean for your contributions to the city. Thank you. And Camara, welcome to the family. We're glad to have you. You know, one of the great things about being the last to speak is I'm in charge of quality control. So I want make sure they all said the right things and hit the right topics and they did. So congratulate them and I am gonna move approval of the consent agenda. Second. Motion by commissioner Grant, second by commissioner Stewart. All in favor of the motion indicates so by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? And so the motion carries. Congratulations to everybody that had something on the consent agenda.

And if that is the only thing you had was on the consent agenda, you are free to go. We're gonna take a thirty second break to do just that. Okay, if there's no objection we're gonna move to new business and skip over CRA till we've heard the Mariposa Grove item on new business. So we moved item three f two to new business. It is also represented on the CRA as CRA four d.

Orlando is community and as such we envision Orlando as a safe and appropriately designed housing options are available and affordable to older adults and that includes the ability to age in place and enjoy their home. Today we are considering funding for Mariposa Grove to expand our housing inventory for seniors at low, very low and extremely low income levels. There are 138 apartments all reserved for residents at or below 70% of area median income. But the development will be located in downtown, as Commissioner Sheehan mentioned, which will give access to premium transit, amenities, shops and groceries. And commissioner Sheehan is right, we are trying to expand the areas of our community that provides affordable housing.

I think it was just the last council meeting we dealt with a property on Roberto Clemente Drive in commissioner Ortiz's district that is also senior affordable housing and we're having an opportunity to bring some housing down town. And it does cost a little bit more in downtown, and especially when you go more than a couple of stories. But I think it's worth it and makes a huge statement to do this. Okay. Orin, are you gonna give a presentation on this?

Good afternoon, mayor and commissioners. It's my pleasure to be here today. If I can figure out how to advance this, I be doing real well.

Help is on its way. Okay.

Great. Anyway, the first slide shows where the proximity of tax credit unit projects are and as you can see, most of them are clustered West Of I 4 and the railroad tracks. I do want to point out there is affordable housing. Other affordable housing on the East Side that's not represented here, particularly Orlando Housing Authorities, Reeves Terrace, the projects that they have around their offices there on Bumbi, and then what's not on the map is Hollow Brook, which is way out on Curry Ford Road. But what we're seeing is a trend, and Mary, you mentioned that people, developers come in with proposals and they're all on the West Side and that's because property values are lower there And so that's one of the reasons that we pursued getting site control for the Roberto Clemente site and then this project with Banyan came in in District 4 and we thought this was a good opportunity to do this.

And this is not something that just happened overnight. You gotta go back five years and when you think about how much change there has been in this world since then and that these developers have had this vision and that they've stuck with it this long and the obstacles that they've gone through is pretty incredible. Mary, you mentioned the amenities that are nearby downtown. We have a great downtown and it's great for the residents that live here and we think that it'll continue to be great for those that take advantage of the affordable units in the proposed building. I do want to mention on this, you know, I've got on here more than 30 restaurants nearby and you might be thinking, well that's nice, people have a place they can go out and eat and all that.

Think about it, some of these seniors might be working in these restaurants to help make ends meet because restaurants don't pay a whole lot and they have a lot of part time work and for somebody older, that's an opportunity for them. Same with Doctor. Phillips Center, you might see them there helping out in that facility in some kind of capacity. It's, you know, you kind of have to look at how someone else might look at the housing in this area as employment opportunity. I think most of you, I don't want to dwell too much on this, we sent some of this information out to you a couple of weeks ago.

I think you're pretty familiar. It is an interesting building. It's 12 stories, 138 units, and it will have retail space in there which is a requirement of the zoning in that area and we'll have to have a parking garage because you have to have somewhere to park the cars, there are parking requirements and then there will be built in amenities residents and we hope it'll be a real nice addition to the neighborhood. One of the questions that has come up is the fees that are charged, a 4% tax credit project can allow up to 18% developer fee. That would be great as a developer if you got a check for 18% when you did the building.

But it doesn't happen quite like that. It's paid up front because the developer fee contributes to the equity in the program for the tax credit so you're able to generate more credits. But keep in mind, there are restrictions on these rents for up to fifty years so this is a major commitment that these developers have to take on as part of this kind of development. And these projects are expensive upfront due to financing structure fees, multiple layers of financing, and time to secure the funding. I mentioned this project began five years ago and the developer acquired this very expensive piece of land then, this has been a cost that they have to work into the budget, and it's gonna be 2 and a half years from now before there's any rents paid on these units by the time this gets constructed and people move in.

That's a long time to have to cover a piece of property for a development. So these tax credit projects are just a different kind of animal, if you will. But this is the major tool that we have in developing affordable housing these days. This goes back to the Reagan administration in the late 80s. It was an effort to use the private sector to create affordable housing.

It's not public housing. It really wasn't designed to serve the really low income folks that are in those programs. The government, the housing authorities got out of building new public housing and they went with the voucher program, which serves that today. This was another step up to help people who were working, but there was also this need for senior housing. So this is how these programs got developed.

As you all know, it's a 12 story building. It's precast concrete and the construction cost was the low bid of three reputable contractors, Brasfield and Gory and Finfrock were the other two who had higher bids for the construction of the building. And as I mentioned, the fee, it's based on percentage of the cost and it does serve as equity for the project. It provides a potential additional source in the form of a loan from the deferred developer fee as long as it can be paid back in fifteen years from the operations, which is the initial federal compliance period for tax credit projects. So until the developer fee is paid back, there would be no cash flow to the owner from that.

And the developer fee can fluctuate depending on any cost over runs for the project. Just in a conversation today with the developer as they're moving through permitting and finding there's some things that our building department is requiring of the building that is going to increase cost. Well, that'll dip in, it will cost more of the developer fee to be loaned to make this work. It's this flexibility and that's how you can manage to get something like this built in an uncertain environment. You know, who knows when they get into construction, there'll be change orders, cost overruns, things that tariffs might affect, and they have to have some flexibility in the financial structure in order to do that.

The developer fee helps accomplish that. This next slide was updated. There was a question about why are we doing going down to age 55 and that's pretty much industry standard. The Thornton Place, which is a project we hope to bring here to the next council meeting, is a 55 plus building. Piedmont is for families, so there's no restriction on that.

But some of you may have seen that there's a new Lutheran Tower that's gonna go into that complex and that will also be 55 plus community. And one thing you need to keep in mind too, start thinking well, you know, isn't that nice and these people can retire at age 55, be kinda young. Really, a lot of times these are folks that have disabilities and they need an affordable place to live and these senior type buildings where you have elevators and services available really helps that population. So don't think just in terms of somebody has worked and they're retired and now they're going into a retirement building, this might be somebody who just by necessity has to have this kind of unit. So that's why the age limits are lower.

On cost per unit, the cost do appear higher for this building than some of the other tax credit projects although we don't have a lot of detail on this proposed Lutheran Tower but they're at $6.48 per unit if you just take what the base development cost divided by the number of units. So the cost per unit is creeping up there. But with this building, when you have the garage cost and the required retail cost, once you remove those, you're under $500,000 you're about $495 So for this type of substantial concrete structure in this location on this pricey piece of property, it's not that much more than what some of the other tax credit projects that we deal with are. Do I think the costs are high? Yeah, housing costs have just gone net lately, all across the board.

And, you know, this is a reflection of that. And also, there's discussion about this is a lot of money for the city to put into a project. It is a lot of money. We're hoping at the next council meeting to come forward with Thornton Place. We're still working on the documents.

I think we're gonna be ready. That's one though that the city controlled, the 9% tax credit of the local government preference that we're allowed to do every other year. And last year through a competitive process, we selected Wendover for that project and that'll be coming in fortunately on those, those are 9% credits so there is not a big gap and the city only has to pay a matching fee, so it's a little over $600,000 but that's well over $20,000,000 that the city is allocating to that project through the tax credit. And I just want all of you to understand, we take this very seriously, whether it's general fund or CRA or the HUD funds we're putting into a project or the tax credits. We're trying to make the best use of the resources that we have available because there's way more need and we know we can't squander of that for, you know, we just need to be very conscientious about everything we do.

I do want to mention that this project is not eligible for any of the CDBG Doctor disaster funds from the county because it was started before the disaster. Those funds are only available for projects that came out as a result of that. However, Orange County did award $3,000,000 to this project out of their housing trust fund. So they are participating in this. Gonna finish up here.

This is the rents that this structure will have some units at 22% and then up to 70%. And on the left you see the average market rate rent in Downtown Orlando is a little over $2,100 a month. The city of Orlando, it's significantly lower, but still 1,400 to $1,800 for efficiencies up to two bedroom units. You can see these rents are all below that. And one of the things that attracted us to this developer for this project was that 42 of the units will be affordable at 50% of area median income or below, so there are some that are gonna be at that 22%.

But 39 of these units, the rents, as we're sitting here today, you know, the stuff keeps creeping up, in two years they might be a little higher. But as we're sitting here today, they're under $1,000 a month in rent. And when I just said the downtown rents are averaging $2,100 a month now, so that tells you how significant the tax credits and all this financing structure do to lower the cost. The developer, Banyan, I think some of you might have participated at the ribbon cutting in January of Fern Grove out on WD Judge, and these are some shots from that building. They do quality housing.

So that's it. And I'm happy to answer any questions about this. But I'm very excited that after five years, this project's finally ready to go.

Questions? Commissioner Ortiz and Commissioner Burns.

Thank you mayor. I'm a little upset. I was talking to Commissioner Gray here and I was about to ask you what's considered the senior population. He said 55 and above. I took a little hit there.

Discounted coffee at McDonald's, come on.

So so first of all I have to say that I'm so so happy and so enthusiastic about this affordable senior projects we're developing. Because I know they're not just the old style projects that they look, you know, like they were they look very distant, very dignified. And people when they drive by they cannot tell that they're housing project. And that's what we need to do, continue to dignify our people. Especially those who made this nation the super nation it is today, right?

So let's give them their golden years as they deserve being golden. I also, I was checking some stats and it shows that we have approximately, since we brought the age here to 55, there's about a 21% population we have in the city of Orlando, which is account for about 66,000. But the stats that I got didn't give me 55, they gave me above 65 for what percentage was in low income. And it shows still 17 of that. So I think we still have some work to do.

And I'm looking forward. And I thank you also for the work that you guys have been doing with the particular development we're gonna have on Roberto Clemente. I'm really looking forward to that. And any other opportunities that we may find because we do have a great population of seniors in our city that are low income or in fixed income. And the way the inflation is going doesn't give them an opportunity to do much with those monies and any other opportunities.

I was going to ask you, there's a population that we have not talked about, is the disabled population. Because not all of them are seniors. Some of them are younger, but they're truly disabled. Are we accounting those? Are those part of, would they be able to apply for this senior development? Can we involve them on that too? Because a lot of find themselves in the same position with fixed income, you know, and not much opportunities or resources in order for them to develop.

I I believe we have to limit this to those 55. However, we're always happy to work with developers who come in that have project proposals that would serve any particular need or population and not necessarily tax credits. We've used our CDBG program and the home program to do group homes and other types of developments here in Orlando.

And was thinking more so into those that have severe disabilities, cerebral palsy. Mean manageable but still that they are more constrained because of the physical attributes or whatnot. I know people are in wheelchairs that cannot probably sustain or have a job like anybody else and they are in fixed income. There's those that are disabled they can do about anything and everything, but there's a lot of them that are really constrained. So I was wondering how or what we can do to help those because there's also a pretty dense population of those in the city of Orlando.

Yep. We're happy to work with any organization. As I said, typically those are smaller developments that are specialized like that. And you know, we do have different resources that can be applied you know, for that.

Thank you. I wanna give you and your team kudos because you guys are doing a fantastic job and we so much appreciate it.

Well, thank you and let me take this opportunity to to thank you know, David's Yeah, he's here. With CRA and all the people in the building department and zoning and the legal department because understand there have been phone calls with, what, 70 attorneys? Or was it 80? Just all of the bureaucracy and such in putting something like this. Have the finance department, my boss, the chief administrative office, besides the mayor, he's the boss.

And I I I wanna thank everyone, you know, there who's done that and and of course I appreciate all of your support.

While we're at it, let's also thank mayor Demings because if he had not come up with a housing trust fund, we would probably be facing some other issues since Tallahassee keeps playing with the Sandozky Fund. So thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Commissioner Burns.

Alright. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Orin, for for that presentation and and for all the work that you you and your team do. Orin, if you could go to the project overview. I had a and this question just came to me. Can you pull up the project overview?

Sure.

Maybe. In the second bullet, it says 138 units for seniors on Floors 12, And Then 6 Through 12. What's happening on Floors 234, And 5?

I believe that's where the parking structure

So the parking structure would be within the okay. Yeah. Okay. Alright. Good. Thank you. That that was that wasn't made clear.

It it so I looked at that too.

Okay. Alright. And and and I want to start off by saying that I consider myself an advocate for for affordable housing, and commissioner, I agree that we need to have affordable housing throughout our city. And I'm excited about what's happening out in District 2 and what has all happened out throughout our city. My my concern is is that we continue to see the the cost per unit to increase.

Alright? And if we look at these cost cost per unit, I know there was an update, but the original original amount that I received was $571 per unit. That's that's extreme even if we look at the other developments, and I know there are a lot differences in those developments. But I'm concerned about the cost per unit especially when it comes to the city incentivizing these projects. Because when and I say incentivizing because when they come to us for gap funding and we provide it, I see that as us incentivizing that development.

And I'm concerned. You brought up the Thornton, the the other the new development that's about $68,383,000 dollars, but I don't think they have come to us for for any gap for Well,

that would be a market project.

Right. Okay. So they haven't so we're not we're not incentivizing that and so that is that is what it is. But I I'm concerned that we are getting to the point where the city is incentivizing or even at some point encouraging this continued increase in cost. And the reason why I say that is I think there's a lot of different ways you can do affordable housing.

And you're right, we want affordable housing everywhere, but there are some places that afford it doesn't make sense to do affordable housing. And I'll give you an example. If we look at this this project, it's a 138 units on point six acres. Alright? So that means that everything has to be on that point six acres, which means it has to be taller, which increases the cost.

Because if we did the same 138 units at a three or four level, it would be substantially cheaper as as I understand. But also, you know, I I look at the cost per unit and you all and I don't know how you do this, but you wanted to subtract the garage cost from the development to to lower that cost per unit. But I don't I don't I don't follow that that methodology because you have to have parking. Alright. So the the lot that was selected was a small lot point six nine, which now means you have to have a parking structure that in this case it costs $10,000,000.

Alright. So I'm not saying about what district the affordable housing development is proposed on, I'm saying the lot size, the area. Just because we can put affordable housing on a half an acre doesn't necessarily mean we should. Alright? Because now we are talking about increased cost from going from three to four levels to $1,210,000,000 dollar parking garage would add to the cost.

So again, I'm a proponent of affordable housing, but again, I think we have to be really careful and selective of the developments that we incentivize because I believe we set a precedence for this. But also I want to look at where the money is coming from. Alright? So and correct me if I misspeak, but we're getting 3.5 from housing ready funds. Alright?

And so housing ready funds are the funds it's like the city's housing trust, if we will, comparable to what the county has. So we're taking $3,500,000 out of that housing ready funds, and it's my understanding that the total that we have in there is 9,000,000. Is that correct?

It's that sounds close. Yeah.

So so we're gonna allocate a third of the housing ready funds to this project. One, a project that if it was on another it could still be in District 4 and another plot of land could be cheaper, but that's another discussion. Then we have 1,500,000.0 that's coming from the HUD home funds. Now how much of the HUD home funds do we have available?

Well, that's about a year's worth of the HUD home funds.

So we are committing a 100% of our HUD home funds, a third of our housing trust funds, which makes up the 5,000,000 coming from the city proper. And then we then the other 5,000,000 is coming from CRA CRA funds. So my concern is that it seems like we're committing a lot of our limited resources on this very expensive affordable housing project. Alright? Not saying that it shouldn't happen, my concern is the level at which we are incentivizing it.

Alright? If there was a discussion about, you know, okay, CRA funds make sense because this is in the CRA. I'm not even sure if the CRA had 5,000,000 budgeted for this gap funding. So, those are all some of the questions that I have. And so, mayor and council, my focus is not and I know we cannot control the cost of building housing, but I do think we can influence it.

And I think we can influence it by, you know, one our zoning, some the regulatory framework that we have, but also how we choose to incentivize and what projects we choose to incentivize. So, again, that's my question on I just can't see, you know, what would push us to allocate a third of our funding for the trust funds, all of our home HUD funds for a very expensive project that if the same project was done on a larger parcel would be, I believe, a lot less cheaper. So, that's all that I wanted to mention. And I thank you mayor for allowing us to have this discussion. But again, I want to be clear, I am an advocate for affordable housing.

It's not that I want all the affordable housing in District 6 or in District 5. I think you're right, it needs to be spread out. But just because we can put affordable housing on a half an acre doesn't mean we should. And that's just my my thoughts. So thank you mayor.

Okay. Commissioner Sheehan, it seems like we've moved into argument versus question. So do you have a motion?

I have a motion mayor. I have a motion to accept this proposal and to move it forward. And I have a couple of things I'd like to say though.

Okay. Motion by commissioner Sheehan second by commissioner Ortiz. Let me take the public testimony then we'll come back to you.

Perfect. Thank

you. Okay. We do have one member of public, very recognizable one, Eric Gray that would like to speak on this.

Thank you. I'll be brief. I'm Eric Gray, 808 West Central Boulevard, here in Orlando. I serve as executive director for the Christian Service Center for the homeless and also on the Orange County Planning and Zoning Commission. I just wanted to speak in favor of the Mariposa Grove project. There's really no need to educate this particular body on the importance of housing and homelessness because this is, as I've said here before, the most experienced city council on these two issues anywhere in The United States. And I would back that up with with with evidence. I have no involvement with this project. I've not been involved with this project. I've just been loosely aware of its existence.

I'm just very much in favor of affordable housing as I know everybody on this body is as well. A friend of all of ours, Craig Ussler, is fond of telling me that housing is economic development. And every time we find a way to push ourselves towards more inclusionary zoning, we're further sustaining the foundation of economic development in the community. The issue of the area median income on this on this particular point is is critical. And I while I know, again, everybody in this group knows this. Most people probably aren't familiar with the area median income right now in the Orlando MSA is about $98,100 according to housing and urban development.

But if

you look at the census data, that figure drops down to 76,600. There's big distinctions here to to commissioner Byrne's point. The difference in this case for the rental unit at the lowest cost is $439 a month per versus $560 a month. These things make a difference, and what happens is we have to work in partnership with the cities and the counties because the HUD money that we get is coming to the cities and counties in the first place. So we're tied to some of these regulations and I appreciate what Oren and his team at Housing and Community Development have done here.

My biggest concern on on all of this is really more about the five years. These can't take this long. And I know that there are special circumstances with every single project, but we've got a lot of people who are really struggling, which, again, I don't need to tell this body, but I feel compelled always to to try to stand up for my folks. And this bill is is is important or, excuse me, this this this issue is very important. If not for any other reason right now, we're gonna be faced with harder and harder decisions because of what the state legislature did this last year and tying our hands with home rule, particularly as it relates to issues of of residential development.

And I again, don't need to educate this body on this, but it's gonna get harder and harder and harder to do this. The the inclusionary zoning is how we fix the foundation of economic development in the community. It's how we support the end to homelessness. It has to be inclusionary. Meaning, we can't have every neighborhood be 15 foot step back and and no higher than 50 feet high and no more than 12 feet apart.

You know, the little pink houses concept that really has been popularized since World War two is killing us. And it has to be where we use every single parcel that we can and no disrespect, but I'll take the half acre any day of the week. And so I'm just really looking forward to seeing more of like this and I appreciate your time and all of your thought and most around housing. You.

Thank you. Commissioner Sheehan.

Thank you mayor. Well, it it's taken five years because there's been lawsuits because of NIMBYs to be quite honest. And it's and this this project they have worked in over and over and over again to advance this project. And I appreciate them you know keeping keeping going because this has been a very difficult process and if anybody saw the I've been getting crazy emails and everything like that and nonsense and it's just been dragging on and on and on because of NIMBYism and it's ridiculous. Every time we try to help people there's and and this was people who just didn't want their view blocked.

And we all know state law does not it doesn't your your view and I've told these folks again and again and again, your view stops at your balcony. You don't have a right to a view of anything. So but this is what that's what's been going on here to be quite honest. And I appreciate the developers staying the course with all this nonsense that has gone on. And this thing about density, I mean I I find it kind of funny because this is is the high rise area.

A city is densest at its core. A healthy city is like an egg, it's densest at core and it goes out from there. Okay? Yeah, we have different kinds of housing stock, but we need to be densest at our core and this is the high rise density area that happens to be in my district, and I had to be told a half an acre isn't big enough to build on. Are you kidding me?

We've been doing high rise density development in this area for years. The only difference is that this is affordable and this is for people that need access to stores and to entertainment and to possibly employment. I mean I remember one my dear mother who is now departed, she got this little scooter and lived up in Winter Park and she loved there living up there because she could take that scooter to public, she could take it everywhere. Okay? We need to provide more of that for our seniors in Downtown Orlando and we've had to do a lot with trying to even save the affordable housing that we have.

We just had to save Orlando Lutheran Towers. No, I mean I'm sorry, we had to save Canarit. That was a private one that happened, but we did Baptist Terrace which became the Roberts. We had to put substantial investment in it and to save that, those seniors were terrified that they were going lose their housing and now we're losing Hillcrest Hampton. So you know, these projects are going market rate and we have to provide affordable housing because there's more need and you know I'd welcome more dense development on on smaller lots if we can take care of people and that's what we need to do. So mayor I I I move it and that's that's where I'm at.

Thank you.

Further discussion? Hearing none, commissioner Burns.

Yes. Mayor. And I just wanna make sure that my comments are understood because at no point am I saying that this this project shouldn't move forward. My concern is the level at which the city is incentivizing. Alright?

I'm for all for affordable housing. I just believe that we are taking a large percentage of the limited available resources that we have now and committing it to one project. There's no other project that I'm and please correct me if I'm wrong, that we've provided this level of support to if we look at it per unit. I know from the CRA they've incentivized a lot of projects, but this is the highest per unit that that that has happened. I believe if we look at it in general, it may be the highest.

So again, please don't confuse my comments that I'm against this project. My my concern is the level at which the city is incentivizing. It. Alright? And if we're going to do anything to to help curb some of that, I know developer fees were were were mentioned and things of that nature, but there's something that has to be at some point, we're going to get to the point where we're not going be able to incentivize it.

So, again, I'm supportive of affordable housing. My concern with this project is the amount of money that we're committing to incentivize it. A third of our housing trust funds, all of our HUD home funds, and $5,000,000 from the CRA which I'm not I'm hadn't been told that it it was previously budgeted. So, again, just wanted to make that clear. Thank you, mayor.

Further discussion hearing none all in favor of motion indicate so by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed. Aye. So the motion carries six one. Congratulations. Okay. If there's no objection, we will revert back to the order of our agenda. That brings us to the CRA. Let's see, David, looks like I can probably handle the first two. 4A or meeting minutes from the August 27 agenda review.

Second.

Motion by Commissioner Rose second by Commissioner Sheehan. All in favor indicate so by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed motion carries. Item 4B is CRA minutes from September 8. Motion by commissioner Sheehan, second by commissioner Rose. All in favor indicate so by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion carries. Okay. David, the rest is yours.

Thank you so much, mayor, and good afternoon, commissioners. So the next item in front of the CRA for consideration today is a facade grant. This one is specifically for 641 East Livingston Street. They are restoring some of their windows and replacing them in accordance with historic requirements in their area. Specifically, the improvement is about $34,600 which qualifies them for 50% assistance from the CRA. So they received a recommendation of approval on August 6 from the committee and qualify for seventeen thousand three hundred and three hundred dollars and fifty cents. And happy to address any questions.

Which way did that go? Sheehan. By commissioner Sheehan, second by commissioner Rose. Discussion hearing none all in favor of the motion indicate so by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed motion carries. And four d we just had that full discussion on so is there a motion? Motion by Commissioner Sheehan second by commissioner Stewart. Discussion hearing none all

Yes, in

I did have one question for David if I could. David, the $5,000,000 that's being committed from CRA, tell me about the timing of that, but also is that something that was in the budget for the twenty five, twenty six year, so that $5,000,000 was budgeted has been budgeted?

What we keep in the CRA, Commissioner, is an affordable housing line item. So we had approximately $10,000,000 in that line item this year, and we've been talking with Mariposa Groves for an exorbitant amount of time. It wasn't specifically identified for Mariposa Grove, it's specifically identified for affordable housing projects within the CRA area.

And David, if previous developments that the CRA has supported, what has been about the average cost per unit of CRA funds, if you can

So it varies greatly depending on the type of financing that they're going for. You heard Orin mention both the 4% tax credit, which this project is using, as well as 9% tax credit in some cases which don't require as much assistance. For the most part on the CRA side, we've kind of hovered on about $20,000 a unit. Again, those are different style of developments. We haven't had to incentivize a 4% tax credit project with the type of development that this has that does increase costs, but that is about the average or so that the CRA has been contributing.

About 20, okay. And what is

the cost per unit with this 5,000,000? The 138 divided by, at least from the CRA side of $5,000,000. Let's find it out. Right.

And and the next thing and you mentioned the difference between the 4% and I'm this is just for information, 4% and the 9%. There's nothing that stops this developer from going after the 9%. It's my understanding they chose the 4% because they couldn't, you know, guarantee that the 9% would be available. Is that correct?

That's the understanding that I have. The other context is also timing. Nine percents are very competitive, as you well know. And I know in the context of the affordable housing crisis that we're in, I think we all wanted to make as much progress as we could. Then it's specifically about 36,000 or so on behalf of the CRA per unit.

Okay. Thank

you. No problem. Mr. Ortiz?

I just wish where's Orin? Oh you're back there. Couldn't see you. To see if you can explain real quick the difference. Because as I understand the 9% is really really hard to obtain. I think they allow like once a year for specific zones so that's why most of the people that are trying to do this kind of projects they do a 4% am I correct, incorrect?

I think I can answer them.

Let the

record indicate that he's nodding yes.

Thank you, mayor. That's it.

Further discussion hearing none all in favor of the motion indicate so by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed. Motion carries. Further business, David?

That is all, Alright.

Then we will move on to madam clerk. You've been sitting patiently over there waiting to read some ordinances. You ready to go?

I'm ready.

You warmed up? Yes.

Well, let's do hearings ordinances second reading 12 a.

Ordinance number twenty twenty five dash twenty nine, an ordinance of the city council, the city of Orlando, Florida, amending the city's adopted growth management plan to delete sub area policy 15.9 from the growth management plan providing for amendment of the city's official future land use maps, providing for ability corrections governor's error and an effective date.

Motion by Commissioner Sheen second by Commissioner Stewart. I don't have any request for public input discussion hearing none all in favor of motion indicate by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion carries. Okay. 12 b, madam clerk.

Ordinance number twenty twenty five dash 34, an ordinance of the city of Orlando, Florida granting a petition to expand the boundaries of the Riverwalk Community Development District as initiated by the district's board of supervisors amending ordinance number twenty twenty two dash 44 to expand the external boundaries of the Riverwalk Community Development District, which is generally located North Of State Road 528 East of Narcoossee Road and West Of State Road 417 in accordance with the said petition providing for severability, correction of Scrivener's errors, and an effective date.

Move to adopt. Second.

Motion by Commissioner Graves, second by Commissioner Ortiz. Again, I have no request for public participation discussion. Commissioner Stewart.

As mentioned earlier, I abstain from

this because my son-in-law is president of Pulte Homes North and I filed the paperwork with the clerk. Okay, thank you. Further discussion hearing none all in favor of the motion indicate so by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed motion carries. Ordinances first reading madam clerk 13 a.

Ordinance number twenty twenty five dash 36 an ordinance of the city council of Orlando, Florida relating to outdoor storage uses, amending chapter 58 part four j, land development code entitled outdoor storage uses and storage facilities, amending chapter 66 of the land development code, entitled definitions providing for severability, codification, correction of scrivener's errors and an effective date.

Second.

Motion by Commissioner Ortiz. Second by Commissioner Burns. I have no request for public testimony. Discussion? Hearing none, all in favor of the motion indicate so by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? And so the motion carries. Okay. That's the conclusion of our agenda business. Ed, you're just ready for general appearance.