City Council - Regular Meeting

2016-2026 meeting to order. April, do something. There we go. Thank you. I will ask for the clerk to do the invocation.

Good evening, everyone. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this day and thank you for the rain that you send to us. I pray that our mayor and council make wise decisions for our community. In your name we pray. Amen. Amen.

Would you join me in the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for All righty, we will need to adopt the agenda for this evening. Before we do so, items C and J were removed from the agenda. Are there any other changes to the agenda? If not, do I have a motion to approve the amended agenda?

So moved.

Seconded. We have a motion and a second.

Any discussion?

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. As always, council abides by the 2026 Code of Ethics and the front and center strategic plan. Tonight we have some special presentations. We have a couple of proclamations, one for our friends at Piedmont Healthcare. and one for our internal friends at Parks, Recreation and Economic Vitality, sorry. So first I will do the Piedmont Healthcare Proclamation. I'll ask my friend and Piedmont CEO Jeff Smith to join me. So this is from the Office of the Mayor proclamation for Piedmont Healthcare's 30th anniversary, which was on June 1st, 2026. Whereas Piedmont Healthcare was founded on June 1st, 1996, when more than 50 physicians united to create an independent physician-owned healthcare organization dedicated to providing high-quality medical care close to home. And whereas for 30 years, Piedmont Healthcare has remained committed to exceptional patient care, local leadership, innovation, and meeting the evolving healthcare needs of the communities it serves, and whereas what began as a collaboration among local physicians has grown into one of North Carolina's largest physician-owned healthcare organizations, providing comprehensive primary and specialty care services across six counties, in serving approximately 150,000 patients annually through a network of 225 providers 1,250 employees in 70 locations. And whereas Piedmont Healthcare has become an integral part of the Statesville and Iredell County community, serving as one of the county's largest employers while supporting local schools, nonprofit organizations, civic initiatives, charitable causes, and community events that enhance the quality of life for residents throughout the region. And whereas as Piedmont Health Care celebrates its 30th anniversary, the organization continues to demonstrate excellence in health care, community partnership, and service, improving the lives of countless individuals and families throughout the Statesville, Iredell County, and surrounding region. Now, therefore, I, J. Douglas Hendricks, Mayor of the City of Statesville, do hereby proclaim June 1, 2026, as Piedmont HealthCare 30th anniversary day in the city of Statesville, and encourage all residents in recognizing and celebrating Piedmont HealthCare's 30 years of dedicated service, compassionate care, and commitment to the health and well-being of our community. Congratulations, Jim.

I know you have a long agenda, so I won't say a lot. I just wanted to thank the council. Certainly, you know, the relationship with Statesville is important to us. We're based here. We have no plans to move from here. It's incredibly important for us to be here and be part of the community that we serve. This is our largest foothold, but we just moved into Elkin. So as we continue to expand north, but I just wanted to thank everybody for the support that you've given to the organization. It's great to see so many familiar faces. Ron and I have a great relationship, able to talk about things. But in case you don't know, every Tuesday morning I'm on the radio, so I get to meet people like the fire chief and the police folks that come in and talk. So it's nice to be part of the community. I live in Statesville, and I truly believe that this is a great place to be. So thank you very much.

It's probably way misunderstood how important having Iredell Memorial Hospital and Piedmont Healthcare right here in Statesville. Those two organizations provide an amazing amount of quality healthcare to us and for us. And not every town our size can boast that quality of healthcare. And I truly appreciate Jeff and his staff. They do an amazing amount of work here. Second, our second proclamation is for our own Parks and Recreation Department. So if you will just come up and join me at the wall and then we'll have a picture. I hope they're getting paid overtime. All right. Whereas parks and recreation are essential to the quality of life in the city of Statesville, providing welcoming spaces where residents of all ages can gather, play, learn, and enjoy the outdoors. And whereas parks, greenways, trails, athletic facilities, and recreation programs promote healthy lifestyles by encouraging physical activity, supporting mental well-being, and creating opportunities for people to connect with nature. And whereas the City of Statesville Recreation and Economic Vitality Department offers a wide range of programs, events, and services that enrich the lives of children, adults, seniors, and families. And whereas parks and recreation contribute to a strong local economy by enhancing property values, attracting visitors and businesses, supporting community events, and improving the overall attractiveness and vitality of our city. And whereas parks and natural areas play a vital role in protecting our environment, preserving natural resources, improving air and water quality, and strengthening our community's resilience for future generations. And whereas the staff, volunteers, and community partners who support parks and recreation work year-round to provide safe and inclusive recreational opportunities opportunities that benefit all residents. And whereas July is recognized nationwide as Parks and Recreation Month, celebrating the lasting impact that parks and recreation have on the happiness and well-being of communities. Now, therefore, I, J. Douglas Hendricks, Mayor of the City of Statesville, do hereby proclaim the month of July 2026 as Parks and Recreation Month in the City of Statesville and encourage all residents to visit our parks, participate in recreation programs, and enjoy the City's natural resources. Thank you all so much.

I just have one quick thing. While we have everybody here in this public forum, I would like to recognize and thank Eric Higgins. Eric's preparing to retire. Eric's preparing to retire at the end of this month. Eric's been with the city for 30 years. Eric's positive impact on this community cannot be... cannot be understated. It's colossal, the work that Eric's done to improve the quality of life for the people here in Statesville. So, Eric, thank you so much, and congratulations on your retirement.

Thank you, Rachel. Thank you, Eric.

I'd like to say before Eric, Eric, I want to say thank you. You've been a part of our ward. for over 30 years. You've been a friend. And people may not know it, but Eric is the father and grandfather and great-grandfather of many of the residents in the city of Statesville. And I've seen my children and my grandchildren and many other family members have been up under his watch and care. And under that leadership, there has not been many reports, no major reports of any crime or anything being done like that because they have been They have been a great access to our community, and I want to thank you from the depths of my heart for being a part of City Council even before I was in City Council for the great work that you've done, Eric, and thank you.

Thank you, Eric. All righty. I'm going to turn it over to Ron for the City Manager's Report. Where are you all going?

Yeah.

They've got to go clock out. Thank you all for coming. Congratulations, Eric.

Thank you, Eric. Thank you, Mayor, Council. So I'm going to start tonight with the last update. It's not really an update anymore, but the last update on the Fire Station 5. This has been a long journey to get this station built, and we had our grand opening on July 6th. Thank you for all of you that were able to come out. And when you came out, the ones that were able to see it, or if you've seen pictures, you will have noticed, and I actually asked people to raise their hands, that we had a ton of participation from people in the neighborhoods or in the area, which I think speaks volumes to the desire for putting this station in place. And one of the things I wanted to point out, because I've been preaching about this for some time, quite some time about the calls and the need for this station. The chief was able to pull for me over there first, six days they're trending to be the second highest call volume in the city behind fire station number one he feels like and i i kind of feel this way myself because it's covering the 21 the crossroads area he feels like it's going to probably be the highest volume station that we have so definitely the need is there and we've got that we've got the numbers to prove that So moving on to the police department, I was able to take a tour of the construction today and I wish I would have taken a lot of pictures because what you're seeing here in the two buildings that are kind of looking blue, the buildings are, you know, basically they're under roof, the studs are in, Most of the work is done. We're getting close to the point of putting up walls. This project's moving along very quickly. I mentioned at our last meeting that the dispatch center is already in place. They're not using it just yet, but when you walk in, if you were able to go into the old one, this is probably three to four times the size, Chief, I don't know. So roughly that size, much, much better facility for our employees who have a difficult job to start with. But in general, the project's moving along very well. I think we are still on time for later toward the end of this year, early next year. The parking garage, We're seeing continued delays. It's really, as I understand it, with the elevator or the second elevator, I think it is. But we're moving through that. We're getting close. It should be in August when we get that project completed. The next big one that we have is the Municipal Operations Center. This is the, I'll call it the final phase of what we call the mock. We are working on final pricing. The architect is working through the design now, our staff is working with them because this building is gonna be broken up into multiple departments and so we have to be very thoughtful about how that space is used. We also have to be very thoughtful on how we pay for this project because being enterprise funds in the general fund, we're gonna have to break it out into percentages and that's gonna be how the building is funded. SO WE'VE HAD A PRELIMINARY MEETING WITH DAVENPORT FINANCIAL ADVISORS. WE USE THEM FOR DEBT PACKAGES. NOT SAYING THAT WE'RE DEFINITELY GOING TO DO ONE IN THIS CASE, BUT IT'S TRENDING TO BE ABOUT A $40 MILLION BUILDING. So this is going to be coming to you. We're going to have a discussion next week with Davenport and our 3x3s, and they're going to walk through all of the steps to help you make a decision when we get to that point about whether to take on debt, how we're going to specifically pay for the project, and things of that nature. So REV projects, Recreation and Economic Vitality, two that I've wanted to pinpoint today, Newtonville, I keep talking about the Newtonville improvements. Fence and parking are completed. This is one we were kind of taking steps to get to completion on. So the fence and parking have been done. Pickleball, the surface went down. I'm not quite sure why, but we have had to resurface that. Somebody's put a makeshift net up, so somebody's playing on it, but I don't really think they're supposed to. And the disc golf design is underway. So ultimately, this is taking a very passive park that would have had a greenway and a playground and a basketball court that was not being used and making it into a full service park adjacent to Mac Anderson. So this is gonna be a nice park. The Cochran Street Recreation Center, we're gonna be presenting or showing you some before and after pictures. The building has been basically cleaned out entirely. We're doing renovations now, HVAC, everything that you can name in a renovation, basically we are doing it. Most of that is being done with our staff, but we're augmenting them with contractors. The building was not in great shape, and a lot of that you couldn't see until you just got it all cleaned out. But we are looking to open in October. probably would have been a little sooner than that but the the fitness equipment is just going to be coming in i think it's the end of september so it's pushing us out basically because of that i've heard the plans i wish our rev employees had not left the plans that they have for this building are are great it's going to be it's going to be a true value add not only for the area in which it is located but statesville in general i mean well richard i mean rich everybody was here earlier he's hiding back okay i'll give richard kudos i know he didn't come up with all of it but yeah i mean just very very creative ideas that i think you're going to be proud when this when this facility opens up waterline spline we're getting there we're about 80 for 84 percent completed, construction is just going to continue until the fall. Again, I've mentioned this a number of times, we have to get it done by the end, basically by the end of December, because this is a American Rescue Plan Act funded project. Still in stage two drought. The rain today, I would love to say, is gonna pull us out of that, but it's not. It's only a fraction of what we need. So I would just always say go to our website for details on when you can water, when you can't. Cars still cannot be washed. We go through Bill Vaughn, our public utilities director, for variances and requests and things of that nature. We're working our way through it. But the key bullet there is the first one. To date, we've issued two warnings. I told you all up front, we did not want to be the water police. And it hasn't been because we haven't been paying attention or people haven't necessarily called us. But in general, our residents have really been towing the line on this. And I know it's no fun. So my appreciation goes out to everybody. On the public works side, sidewalk project on Alexander is almost completed. And if you get a chance to drive by that one, it basically starts at NB Mills and comes all the way back toward downtown. And definitely you can see how much more walkable that THAT COMMUNITY IS GOING TO BE. SAME IS GOING TO TAKE PLACE ON STOCKTON STREET. THESE GOT DELAYED FOR VARIOUS REASONS BUT THEY'RE DEFINITELY CHURNING NOW AND WE'RE MOVING ON THEM. BROAD STREET CROSSWALK IF YOU EVER NOTICED WE DON'T HAVE THE SAME SIGNS THERE. on Broad Street as we do on Center. That's been a delay on getting those delivered, but they should be here this week. And then finally, the fence at the flats, I think we went by on Friday and they had six folks out there working. I haven't been by or heard since then, but I think that one should be done. Planning update. A COUPLE THINGS I WANT TO POINT OUT SPECIFICALLY ON THIS. CODE COMPLIANCE, USUALLY THIS TIME OF YEAR IS A LOT OF WEEDED LOTS AND NUISANCE TYPES OF VIOLATIONS, SO A LOT OF CASES. YOU'LL NOTICE THAT PERMITS ARE DOWN PRETTY SIGNIFICANTLY, SO WE'VE DONE 522 TO DATE. CLOSE TO 2,000 IN THE LAST TWO YEARS. THAT IS THE ENTIRE YEAR. 37 THIS MONTH. I WILL SAY THAT THERE ARE several large residential developments though, that are in the site work phase. So my guess is, and I haven't talked to Erica about this, but my guess is once those get the roads in, get all the utilities in and all of those improvements, our permit numbers are gonna probably end up going back up, if I had to guess. Construction plans, Warren Woods. This is a very large subdivision. I wouldn't necessarily keep this on here, but that's one that's, I think it was around 300 lots or so, if not more than that. It could have been closer to five. But that's a significant one out on 64. That's big. I'm actually surprised that one is continuing to move on. I've had a lot of calls about the sheets on 115. It is being torn down to be rebuilt. So that puts that to rest. And site plan, we have a hotel that the city sold property on Free Nancy a year and a half ago that's in the plan review. City Council committees, I wanted to add this because this is something that you all are doing, and I don't think this word gets out necessarily. We've got three committees right now, Land Use Committee, Utilities, and Economic Development. I have everyone's initials up there as who participates, but everybody participates on at least one committee. The mayor sits in on all of them. And these are just what we're working on. Land use is working on batch text amendments. Utilities committee is working on what is a difficult sewer issue, a territorial issue. So we're trying to work through that. And then on economic development, we've only had one meeting there so far, but we've got the second one scheduled and it's looking at economic development, moving that forward globally. Respect the state's will. Key dates, DSDC annual meeting this week, ice cream with a cop at Pelican's on the 16th, bowling with a cop on the 23rd, and then Friday after five on the 7th of August. And I won't go through every open position, but I would always refer people to our website to look at positions for the city of Statesville. I'd be glad to answer any questions that you have.

I just want to thank the city employees, Pacific City Parks. Let me say this. Let me start in order of importance. Sharice, Ron, thank you. Mayor, thank you. Sharisha, Richard, I see you back there. Stacial PD, Chief Kurfes, I'm not sure where he's at. Thank you, April, my go-to. I just want to thank you guys for helping me pull off the Juneteenth celebration. It was an absolute success and it would not have been possible without all of us, all of you guys assisting me. Public Works as well, because they and utilities help with the sidewalks and streets because we had a mess out there. But I just want to publicly say you guys really showed up. Michaela Griffin, thank you as well. Thank you guys for everything that you did to help me pull off that project. And I really appreciate you. And the community was very, you know, ecstatic as well. So thank you.

That's a good point. That was a big weekend for sanitation, too. They really did a great job keeping the town clean. That was awesome.

Only complaint I heard, more turkey legs next year.

Yeah, Todd ran out of turkey legs.

Yeah, Todd Scott and Marlene Scott. How can I forget? Thank you. Yes, yes.

Thank you. Any other questions for Ron? Thank you, Ron. Okay, Emily, no one signed up for public comment. Okay, no one signed up for public comment. So we will move on to the consent agenda. All these items are considered to be routine by the council and will be enacted by one motion. Item A is consider approving the May budget meeting minutes, June 11, 2026, pre-agenda meeting minutes, and the June 15, 2026, regular meeting minutes. Item B is consider accepting the three-year award from the Governor's Crime Commission under the Violence Against Women Act grant in the amount of $112,497.90. Item C was moved off of the agenda. Item D is consider approving a resolution supporting the city's participation in the North Carolina Public Employee Deferred Compensation Plan, a qualified governmental deferred compensation plan under section 457B of the Internal Revenue Code to provide eligible employees with an additional voluntary retirement savings opportunity. Item E is consider approving a resolution supporting the new Catawba Water E Water Management Group Integrated Management Plan. Item F is consider approving a resolution to accept, that would be contingent upon NCDEQ approval, the bid for the Third Creek sewer extension project. Item G is consider passing the second reading of an ordinance to annex AX26-08, that is 114 Bristol Drive, filed by Jorge Valdez on behalf of the property owner, the Painter's Personal Touch LLC for approximately .36 acres located at the corner of Bristol Drive and Gardner-Bagnall Boulevard. Item H is consider passing a resolution directing the city clerk to investigate a petition of annexation AX26-09 Moose Club Road Novel Holdings filed by Shane Siegel of North Carolina of North State Development for two parcels located along Moose Club Road. receive the city clerk's certificate of sufficiency, and consider passing a resolution fixing the date of August 10th, 2026 for a public hearing for the petition of annexation. Item I is consider passing a resolution directing the city clerk to investigate a petition of annexation AX26-10, Chapel Road, Harmony Vista Subdivision, filed by Mr. Mark Misarachi of Harmony Investing LLC, for two parcels located at the end of Chapel Road, receive a city clerk's certificate of sufficiency, and consider passing a resolution fixing a date of August 10th, 2026 for a public hearing for the petition of annexation. Item J was also removed from the agenda. Item K is consider approving utility line construction services for a purchase order amount of $1.2 million for the second of five total contract years. Are there any items on the consent agenda that need to be moved to the regular agenda? Hearing none, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda?

So moved.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any more discussion? All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. So we will move to the regular agenda. Item 10 is consider approving the contract with Land Design Inc. to develop a small area plan for the Downtown Municipal Service District and its immediate environs. Mr. Matthew Pierce will do the staff presentation.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. And if I may, since I know Jeff Spith might actually watch this, I'd like to remind the city manager that it's the Piedmont Healthcare Friday after five. HE DOES CHECK MY VIDEOS TO MAKE SURE THE BRANDING IS RIGHT. PROBABLY. SO THANK YOU ALL FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO SPEAK WITH YOU TONIGHT. I'm coming here with a request to approve the contract with Land Design Inc. to develop a small area plan, an updated small area plan for the downtown municipal service district and its immediate environs. So the first question we would ask is why update the plan? The most recent plan for downtown was done in 2009. It focused on streetscape improvements, public investment, downtown revitalization, and private redevelopment, with the effect that at the time, in 2009, we had 42 vacant commercial spaces and approximately 105 downtown residences. 17 and some odd years later, we only have 15 vacant commercial spaces downtown. We've got 170 residential units, either recently built, as with Bluebird Commons, there were 50 units, or with approximately 120 coming in with Delco. The city's also invested, investing in a parking deck, which is just part of the signaling that there's a lot going on in the community. The most recent plan got us moving forward. Just a quick glimpse at 2007 versus 2022. To the 2026 picture was in the fall, so the green's a little poppier. But you get a sense of at least one aspect of what was done through the recommendations of the most recent plan, which is the streetscaping of downtown. Why is this the time? Well, as executive director of DSDC and your downtown business and development manager, one of the things we've seen in that first year is the convergence of multiple projects and multiple dynamics that make this the time to work on an update to the downtown master plan. First is that public power is preparing to convert the remaining four KV circuits downtown. There are two of them to 23 KV. Practically speaking, what that means is significant disruption in alleyways and rear service areas from downtown. That provides us with an opportunity not only to improve power service downtown, but if you're going to tear this up, you'll be disruptive. It's going to mess with folks' parking temporarily. It's going to mess with folks' movement of waste and movement. And so we wanted to take this opportunity to say, while we're in the midst of this disruption or preparing for it, how can we make sure what goes back into those alleyways, into the rear service areas is an improvement? One of the things that we saw with Michael and Diane's building, Michael and Diane Young's building here on South Center Street, is that an improved backup house increases the opportunities for rear service commercial buildings or service spaces. You see the same thing with Branded Peach and their rear entry. So the second of these, of course, is then the alleyway reconstruction opportunities. And tied to that is the waste and parking pressures. All downtowns of our size and age face some key pressures, waste and parking being among them. So given the growth that we're seeing, now is an opportune time to address all of these at once rather than risk doing any single one of them in a piecemeal fashion. THE REDEVELOPMENT OF THE PROPERTY ACROSS THE STREET BY DAVID LOOPER AND COMPANY DELCO AND OTHER DOWNTOWN HOUSING GROWTH MEANS THAT THERE'S A POSSIBILITY IF NOT THE PRACTICAL THERE'S A SIGNIFICANT POSSIBILITY OF ADDITIONAL GROWTH HERE IN DOWNTOWN. AND SO FROM AN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STANDPOINT DSDC, your partner as your main street manager, we want to know where is it that the growth needs to go? What are the opportunities for us? How do we collectively work together to guide that growth going forward? Next is the potential for passenger rail service. Several of you have heard us talk about the passenger rail line reconnection from Salisbury, North Carolina to Asheville, with Statesville being one of the stops. Apart from being just kind of like a cute tourist thing, this may open up significant opportunities for site redevelopment along the tracks, transit-oriented development, things like that. And so we want to know where to put this, how best to situate ourselves to get it, et cetera. And finally, continued commercial investment. You need only to walk over to Court Street to see one of our historic buildings being worked on right now. We've got two more in the same block. WE WANT TO MAKE SURE WE CAPITALIZE ON THAT PRESSURE FOR REDEVELOPMENT, ESPECIALLY AS IT PUSHES TOWARD THE MORE PERIPHERAL AREAS OF THE NORTH, EAST AND SOUTH. AND SINCE I'D LIKE TO BANG ON ABOUT ALLEYWAYS, THIS IS JUST ONE OPPORTUNITY THAT I'VE SEEN. YOU'VE GOT TO COME HERE, THE CITY OR TOWN OF BROVARD, AN ALLEY WAY FROM ABOUT 15 YEARS AGO. WHAT THEY'VE DONE IS TAKEN A SPACE THAT WAS KIND OF A BACK OF HOUSE ONLY FOR PARKING AND THEY'VE CONVERTED IT NOW INTO A PLACE WHERE PEDESTRIANS AND CARS COINCIDE NEATLY. IT'S ALSO GOT SOME PUBLIC SPACE IN THERE. IT'S PRETTIER. THE BUSINESSES BACK THERE HAVE MORE SHADE ON THE TREES. THIS IS JUST ONE KIND OF OPPORTUNITY FOR US TO IMPROVE OUR REAR SERVICE AREAS. I'M GOING TO LET MS. PUVI WITH LAND DESIGN TALK ABOUT SCOPE, SO I'LL FINISH UP HERE. PROJECT COST, WE ARE NOT REQUESTING ANY ADDITIONAL FUNDING FOR THIS. FUNDING HAS ALREADY BEEN SET ASIDE. $75,000 IN LAST YEAR'S FISCAL YEAR BUDGET, WHICH IS BEING ROLLED OVER FOR DOWNTOWN MASTER PLAN, AND THEN $50,000 GIVER TAKE FROM THE BROWNFIELD ASSESSMENT GRANT THAT REMAINS. QUICK NOTE ON THE SELECTION PROCESS. WE PUT OUT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS EARLIER THIS YEAR, RECEIVED SEVEN. REVIEW TEAM, SOME OF WHOM ARE IN THE ROOM. SO THANK YOU TO YOU ALL, REPRESENTATIVE PLANNING, PUBLIC POWER, RECREATION AND ECONOMIC RITALITY AND COUNCIL. We ranked all seven, did interviews with the two finalists. The thing I will say that stood out most about land design were three things. We could have done well with any of the folks that we got. All of them were solid firms. But land design was far and away superior in its understanding of our community. Land design was the firm that did the downtown master plan and street skate plan in 2009. MORE IMPORTANTLY FOR US, THEY UNDERSTOOD OUR REGION. WORK IN CANNAPOLIS, SALSBURY, HICKORY HAVE GIVEN THEM SIGNIFICANT KNOWLEDGE ABOUT OUR REGION AND WHAT'S POSSIBLE HERE. THE CONCERN ANY TIME YOU GO THROUGH A MASTER PLANNING PROCESS THAT YOU'VE GOT A PRETTY DOCUMENT THAT ISN'T IMPLEMENTABLE. AND THAT'S WHY THE THIRD THING, WHICH WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT, NOT ONLY HAVE THEY DEVELOPED SUCCESSFUL PLANS HERE, They've done so in Hickory and Kannapolis as well. So they have a proven track record of putting forward suggestions for communities that can in fact are implemented. Before I ask Ms. Poovey with Land Design to come up and talk about the scope of the project, do you all have any questions for me?

Any questions for Matthew? I think we're good. Thank you.

I have a few questions just related to this EPA grant. So the proposal recommends using the funds from this EPA grant to help pay for this plan. And I'm interested in this grant because it's an economic development opportunity for South Statesville and for redeveloping a lot of those old industrial neighborhoods in South Statesville. So is this an appropriate time to ask about that or should we let land design go first and then bring Matthew back, or how would you suggest we do that? I don't want to interrupt the flow, but I just got a few questions.

Go ahead, and if you would, Matthew, go ahead.

So just for half of the council is brand new here, and this grant goes back a couple years, so can you tell us a little bit about the EPA grant? When did we receive the grant? How much was it, and for what purpose was that grant to be used?

sure so roughly 2001-2002 a prior council put out bids for and they applied for the brownfields assessment grant i was part of the team with that i wasn't with the city i was with higher county economic development at the time ralph staley the assistant city manager at the time was one of the two folks on point so i had the opportunity to speak with him on friday the pro i don't Both of us are sort of understanding of the history of that was that Council understood that there were opportunities for funding to start a broad look at brownfields in general. There was not a specific property in sight. Based on the recommendations that I had made, one of the things that was forward in the application was the Monroe Street corridor, Monroe corridor and then Western Avenue or Western Front Street because this is the highest concentration of historic industry and therefore brownfields in the city. That's why when I came on right after Ralph left, I took this, I was the sort of brownfields person. while serving as assistant to the city manager. So the two small area plans that we did using much of the money focused on that historic corridor. Primarily a stage setting for redevelopment opportunities later. That's the key piece here with the assessment grant. It's about finding those opportunities for the next round of funding, for the next, you know, either whether that's grants, revolving loan funds, things like that. So the use of it here for downtown, especially with the potential advent of a train station, train station's gonna go somewhere in a former industrial corridor. ONE, TWO, AND THE AREAS ESPECIALLY SOUTH OF THE SHELTON AVENUE, CENTER STREET SPLIT, LIKE WE'RE AWARE THERE'S ENOUGH INDUSTRY DOWN THERE. IT'S A KEY FOCUS FOR US IN REDEVELOPMENT IN GENERAL OVER THE PAST YEAR. THAT WAS ONE OF THE KEY REASONS THAT WE UNDERSTOOD THIS TO BE AN APPROPRIATE USE OF THESE FUNDS FOR THIS PROGRAM. BUT NOT ALL BROWNFIELDS ARE JUST FORMER INDUSTRIAL, RIGHT? SO FREQUENTLY GAS STATIONS ARE A CHALLENGE. dry cleaners. So there are a couple of brownfields actually scattered throughout downtown, right? There's dry cleaners, for example, not far from Stockton, right? In an area that's potential redevelopment. This provides us an opportunity to look at that site through the assessment grant and then come back later for other opportunities for funding for cleanup or whatever else.

Yeah, I think it's fascinating. I just done a little bit of research and on the EPA website, I found the 2022 brownfield assessment grant fact sheet for the city of statesville and the city was awarded five hundred thousand dollars in may of 2022 the target area for the grant was south statesville and the funds were to be used for environmental site assessments phase one esas phase two esas cleanup plans reuse plans area-wide plans AND THE TARGET AREA AND THE GOALS WERE ALSO IDENTIFIED IN THE CITY'S BROWN FIELD ASSESSMENT COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT WORK PLAN IN JULY 2022. I HAD TO GO BACK THAT FAR. SO TO THE BEST OF YOUR UNDERSTANDING, HAVE WE DONE ALL THOSE THINGS THAT WE SAID WE WERE GOING TO DO IN THE GRANT?

NEW SPEAKER SO THE AREA WIDE PLANS. SO THERE ARE TWO COMPONENTS OF THE ASSESSMENT GRANT. YOU CAN DO THE SITE SPECIFIC STUFF OR THE TOP DOWN STUFF. WHEN WE BEGAN THE WORK ON THE SMALL AREA PLANS, WE REACHED OUT TO EVERY PROPERTY OWNER, BUSINESS OWNER, RESIDENT WITHIN THE AREAS THAT WE WERE STUDYING, PLUS AN ADDITIONAL TENTH OF A MILE AROUND THEM. PART OF THAT WAS THE COMMUNITY OUTREACH, BUT ALSO, LIKE, LETTING FOLKS KNOW, HERE ARE THE OPPORTUNITIES FOR SITE ONE, LIKE PHASE ONE, PHASE TWO. WE'VE HAD VERY LITTLE UPTAKE ON THAT, RIGHT? SO THAT ALLOWED US TO FOCUS, THAT'S WHY THE FOCUS HAS PRIMARILY BEEN ON THE AREA-WIDE PLANS. SO WE'RE CALLING THIS THE DOWNTOWN MASTER PLAN. FOR THE BROWNFIELD'S PURPOSES, WE'RE TECHNICALLY SUPPOSED TO CALL IT AN AREA-WIDE PLAN. SO, YES, WE HAVE ALL THAT MONEY HAS GONE INTO PLACES THAT WE'D IDENTIFIED EARLY, AND Those two areas, like, so South Statesville, like, was it in Southside? No. Was it in South Statesville, south of the tracks, like around Monroe? Absolutely, right? But that was part of the conversation that we had early on when just determining where those two areas were.

So did we do any phase one studies? We did phase one work here on the Delco site.

There was some work. done for and it's technically I'd have to like look at the paperwork because I'm going to screw up the names on the site where Purple Heart Homes is located.

Yeah I know those phase ones are important but tell the council explain to us what those are and why they're important.

Sure so phase one is homework on a site right let's say you've got a property like a former gas station or service area here on Front Street you have folks do is go in look at all the past uses of the site using various documentation and part of what they're doing is generating a history on the site to determine the likelihood of contamination on that site right after that you'd go and sort of check your actuals look what's in the soil here what's in the water underneath things like that so we did some soil assessments over here in preparation for the delco project

And also I read the West Front Street and Monroe Street plan, which was fantastic. And the plan identifies 32 viable grant opportunities that include federal, state, and private funding sources for economic development, affordable housing, mobility, open spaces, and brownfield redevelopment. Do you know, has the city pursued any of those grants as recommended in the implementation plan that's cited in that Monroe Street plan?

We have not. I think that's in part the transition, my transition to overseeing the Main Street program took me away from those geographies.

So I'm just learning about this in the past 24 hours, Ron. This would be great to bring to our Economic Development Committee. And lastly, Mr. Pierce, how much of the original $500,000 grant remains and what's the deadline to use those remaining funds?

We have $50,000 remaining of the $450,000. So we're expending all of that here in this. All monies must be expended by September 30th.

Thank you, Ms. Pierce. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. Any more questions for Matthew? Ms. Poovey?

Hello. Thanks for having me here. I will just tell you I have a cold, and I'm hoping I'm not going to start coughing. And if I do start coughing, Matthew's going to finish my presentation. Can you all hear me okay? Yes. So I'm a landscape architect at Land Design. I have been with Land Design for over 25 years. I'm very happy to say I personally worked on the first downtown Statesville plan. And so super excited to be back and work on that again. I am just going to tell you just quickly a little bit about our team that we assembled for this project. What you're seeing at the top is core team. Emily Condon is going to help me with the project management. Meg Nealon is a planner with Nealon Planning who was at Land Design also during the time that we did the original downtown land use master plan. And so she's going to be joining me. And Aaron Wagner is an engineer who helps a lot with our downtown plans. He is pretty much the engineer who focus on Kannapolis so he has a lot of great experience with utilities and rethinking and brownfields but rethinking how you accomplish the infrastructure investments which you know a lot of the money for any of your future investment is actually underground so it's really important. And we have, at Land Design, we have over 300 folks. We have in our Charlotte office over 100, and these are some of the folks that are gonna be helping us with this plan. We also have a couple of sub-consultants on our team. Tripp Muldrow, who's a market analyst, also works very, he works nationally, but he's actually here in the Carolinas, and so he has a lot of local experience, which is really important. And Mike Rutzkowski is a complete street specialist with transportation. So I think Matthew talked about the reason why it's so important to be doing this now. You guys have a lot of great things going on and we wanna make sure when we think about your future that we're thinking about all the things that you have going on right now and planning for that future. And so thinking about, of course respecting the, what's important to us is that every community that we're thinking about what's authentic to your community and making sure that we are replicating, we're not replicating but we're incorporating that We think that you have a lot of historic districts and there's a lot of great opportunities to build on what you already have. Redevelopment opportunities, making sure that economic development is part of this plan is critical. And most of the projects you've seen that we've worked on If you visited any of those communities, economic development is a key component of that. And then we want to make sure that everything we are planning for is implementable. And so we always come from a perspective of can this be built? And so having infrastructure, understanding what the infrastructure investments must be, understanding land use, and then thinking about funding and phasing opportunities. So these are just some quick examples of some of the projects that we worked on, including Statesville, Kannapolis. We talked about Salisbury a little bit, and Hickory. I think I've heard that you guys have visited Hickory. Meg Nealon and I worked on that plan, starting from the big land use plan, but then down to the building of the main downtown area and the streetscape around that, and Rock Hill also. So the planning process that we're going to be working with you all on has really four phases. We first come in and listen. We want to learn again. Things have changed a lot since we were here last. So we think about all your plans that you have going on, understand that, digest that, look at what opportunities are, community engagement. We understand from Matthews are really important. We pride ourselves in having really great, engaging, meaningful public engagement. So that will be a big part of it. We come up with the different scenarios based on what the community has said, what we understand are your opportunities, how do they come together, share that back. And with that, we have a final plan that is really focused on implementation. Just a little bit about the community engagement. are focused now, especially since COVID, that there's always an in-person component of community engagement. So we look at opportunities to build on engagement opportunities that you might already have with Park and Rec. If you all have any events going on, it's really good to couple with those. But then we always marry that with something online. We find that since COVID, when we learned about all the online engagement, it's just made our project so much more successful. We reached such a larger audience. And so we have both of those opportunities, in-person and online engagement. It's really important that the community is involved in two different steps first for learning from them But then they're also when we're coming back We're saying this is what we heard you say and this is how this translates into priorities Do you do you agree and then they actually are helping us prioritize? projects so that your community is really supporting what's moving forward for When we're talking about projects that we might move forward with part of it in the end is really creating an action plan so we'll think about things that are immediate like right now what are some of the strategies immediately and then of course short term which is zero to five it's really about thinking about what what are some of the momentums that you have to have um to put in place to make these longer bigger projects happen so we break it into a short medium and long-term action plan and identify really who are the key players who are gonna help move that forward, whether that's public, private, or some sort of partnerships. And that's really quick. I can go into more detail if you'll have any questions, but that's sort of an overview of the process that we're envisioning.

Any questions for Beth? I think that's great, thank you so much.

Thank you so much, we're really excited. Congratulations.

Okay, are there any questions from Council for Beth or Matthew? Is there a motion to accept the contract as submitted?

So moved.

Seconded.

We have a motion and a second. Is there any more discussion on the motion?

Yeah, Mr. Mayor, I'd like to just go back to this EPA brownfield grant for a moment. I do not support the motion, and I want to tell you why. I know that Land Design is a very reputable firm, and I know they'll do an excellent job, but my only reticence with this is how we are proposing to pay for it. And in my mind, to go back to this EPA application for this grant, We haven't accomplished the goals that we set forth in the application. We haven't followed the recommendations from the one plan that the grant money's paid for. And now we're taking a valuable resource away from South Statesville that'll be the precursor to the redevelopment of many of those neighborhoods. Those EPA funds were clearly intended for the use of South Statesville, and using the EPA funds to develop a small area plan for our downtown is just not consistent with the original intent for those funds. So, again, I think it's a great plan for downtown. My only opposition is how we intend to pay for it. Thank you.

Can I say one thing on the implementation? Please. So Matthew alluded to this. As far as implementation, I have talked with the planning director specifically and some to John Hatcher about looking at those two plans, the Front Street and Monroe to start pursuing those grants. We have had a lot of staff turnover and there's been this capacity issue as far as doing that, pursuing that. We do intend to follow through with those plans. And I will say the plans themselves or the Front and Monroe have been, you know, they were approved by this council at the beginning and have been done with the guidance of Stantec, I believe it was, to meet the standards of the original grant application. I understand where you're coming from as far as certain parts of that application, but we've trended along, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, Matthew. IT'S NOT AS IF WE DEVIATED FROM WHAT WE INTENDED ON DOING. WE JUST TOOK THESE TWO AS THE AREAS IN WHICH TO FOCUS. WE DO PLAN TO PURSUE THE GRANT FUNDING ON THIS. WE JUST HAVE NOT HAD THAT ABILITY AS OF YET. SO JUST A CLARIFICATION ON THAT.

I'D LIKE TO SAY IN REFERENCE TO THE BRINGING THIS UP, BECAUSE 2022 HAS BEEN A WHILE. BUT WITH THE CONCEPT OF THE QUESTION HAS NOT BEEN ANSWERED WAS SOUTH STATEFUL. and what has been done or did not do and say that that was because there was little participation. I want to go back and revisit that. I want to revisit all of that and find out exactly because I want my mind clear on the answer to this question coming from Mr. Pierce. So I'm just saying that as for me, it's been a long time. So I want to know at that particular time, what did correspond from that with the South Statesville. If it was intended for South Statesville, would the South Statesville get out of it?

So in this particular case, and I know the definitions of South Statesville are a little fuzzy.

Yeah, that would be good too.

Yeah, definitions of South Statesville are like a little fuzzy, right? And so let's, for the sake of argument, say it's the area south, right? South of the tracks, right? INCLUDING THE MONROE AVENUE CORRIDOR, WHICH WAS IDENTIFIED IN THE 2045 LAND USE PLAN AS A PRIORITY AREA. SO THAT WAS THE TOP PRIORITY IN SOUTH STATESVILLE, RIGHT? LIKE THE LAND USE PLAN SAID IT WAS A PRIORITY. I knew was a priority because I was the one who did the work originally for the grant. And I knew that that was part of the general trajectory. And so we've at least, so has that begun to sort of be put into place? No, but this is partly a personnel change thing. And I know that this is a, there are opportunities still to be taken up. This plan in part BEGINS AT GARNER-BAGNELL. THIS ISN'T JUST THE COMMERCIAL CORE. REMEMBER THAT DOWNTOWN STATESVILLE, OUR REMIT GOES ALL THE WAY TO THE TRACKS. SO THIS PLAN ACTUALLY BEGINS AT GARNER-BAGNELL AND IS FOCUSED IN PART ON THE CONNECTIVITY BETWEEN THE COMMUNITIES TO THE SOUTH INTO DOWNTOWN, WHICH THE PREVIOUS COUNCIL IN PARTICULAR SAID WAS OF IMPORT for the work of Main Street. And so the way of binding that together with this plan is to say, look, we know that there's major commercial development. Part of it's not South Statesville, but it is the historic African-American community south of Sharp Street, which is part of what we're looking at here.

Mr. Mayor, I think the lady from Ward 3 makes an excellent point that we've spent, here we've spent half a million dollars of this grant money and that's a great question of what do we have to show for it? And here we're just spinning our wheels in South Statesville and here we go again. I mean, here we've got this opportunity TO USE THIS MONEY TO ATTRACT PRIVATE INVESTMENT TO REDEVELOP MANY OF THOSE OLD COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL NEIGHBORHOODS AND I'M JUST BRAND NEW TO THIS BUT IT DOESN'T SEEM LIKE WE'VE DONE A WHOLE LOT.

NEW SPEAKER SO IT WILL BE HELPFUL TO KNOW THAT YOUR BROWNFIELD SITES ARE NOT THE AREAS ALONG THEY'RE NOT ALONG LIKE RABBITTOWN IS NOT A BROWNFIELD AREA. The areas south and east of Garner, Bagnall, and south and west are not areas where you have any brownfields that I'm aware of, minus a couple that would be, again, like dry cleaners and things like that. The highest concentration of brownfields that are adjacent to South Statesville and more broadly to the African-American community are on the areas that we have studied and that we are purporting to study. NUMBER ONE, THE OTHER PLACE THAT WE COULD HAVE USED THIS AND THIS WAS DISCUSSED WITH STAFF AT THE TIME WAS IN THE EASTERN SIDE OF SHELTON AVENUE. BUT WE HELD OFF ON THAT BECAUSE THERE WAS OTHER WHICH IS WHERE THE LINEAR PARK IS LOOKING TO GO. BUT WE LOOKED DID NOT CHOOSE THAT PART OF SOUTH STATESWELL PRECISELY BECAUSE THERE WAS ALREADY A PLAN FOR IT AND YOU WOULDN'T HAVE HAD THE REMEDIATION OR PRIVATE INVESTMENT NEEDS THAT YOU WOULD HAVE EVERYWHERE ELSE ALONG THIS HISTORIC CORRIDOR. So other places in South Statesville wouldn't have made sense to study for this, right? You wouldn't have had the concentration of brownfields and or they were precluded by the linear park, which itself had other funding associated with it.

Mr. Mayor, the two brownfield areas that were identified were West Front Street and Monroe Street.

Right.

And we didn't even do a single ESA study in either one of those areas. And that's just the first most basic fundamental. If you want a private developer to come to town to turn a mill into a community amenity he's going to ask for that phase one esa and here we had the money to do that and we we just have to well our economic development committee will have to do some more research on this because we won't figure it out tonight but we got to understand why

Mr. Mayor, there's already a motion on the table. I think everybody understands that by moving these funds, this is an appropriate use of those funds, an authorized use of those funds, and will benefit every member of the city of Statesville. I recommend we move to a vote.

Before you say that, before I even made that statement, it was the information that was given prior to that. Because when they said about to get this grant, it was based on South Statesville. It did not say in the grant that it was for North, East, West, but it was particularly for that particular area. So that being said, it came to cipher it, and it was decided on where the money best fit it. And this has been 2022. So I'm just saying to me, I need a refresher because the refresher, because you had different people that was on council, including myself, but you brought up some good questions that need some great answers. And I think that the public needs to know as well. So I commend, and I did the motion to approve it because I did not, I wasn't thinking about the whole concept until you start talking about it. You talking about the division of what the grant money was for. Is it satisfactory that we did it that way? I can't say that. Even though I voted, because Mr. Presser, you brought our mind back to reality, and this is what we do. So I don't know how we're going to do this, but I am saying that it's something I'd like to look into a little bit more.

I think we need to just go ahead and make the motion since it's already on the table. I mean, we need to follow Rubik's rule of governing. So let's go ahead. What is your motion?

I seconded the motion. Doris made the motion to approve. I seconded it. So let's vote on it. But it's something that need to be continued.

So, Leah, is it appropriate for her to withdraw her motion or do we just need to vote on the motion?

Are you asking to withdraw your motion? I'm asking to withdraw with the statement that I would like to see us go back and review the questions that have been answered.

Can I make a comment before we do this? This is me being honest and transparent in a public setting. We have pre-agenda meetings. Matthew did a whole presentation, but when I said in the pre-agenda meeting, let's have a conversation, I got shut down. This is the times when we have pre-agenda meetings that we do this. So when we do come, the information is already at hand. It's not fair to the staff when we can't get up here and make a decision because we're not informed. That's not fair. You guys had adamant time to review your material and have questions asked at Thursday's meetings. AND I'M DONE WITH IT. THIS HAS TO STOP. EVERY TIME WE HAVE A COUNCIL MEETING THIS IS WHAT WE DO. IT'S NOT FAIR TO OUR CITIZENS. IT'S NOT FAIR TO THE PEOPLE THAT ARE IN THE AUDIENCE. WE HAVE TO DO BETTER AS A COUNCIL WITH DOING OUR OWN RESEARCH AND NOT BRINGING IT AT THE NIGHT OF. WHEN WE COME AT THE NIGHT OF WE NEED TO KNOW WHAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT.

Let's do better. I want to say this, and you can get upset and leave and do what you want to do, but I'm going to say this. Please, let's move forward. I'm going to be calm because it's very important. Information comes to us, and the public has a right. even in the midst of whether it's uncomfortable with it or not. This is a situation where we're saying about South Statesville. I don't care if it was West Front Street or East Broad Street. There was little bit questions that was asked. Could it have been done then? Yes. And it may not have been. It still would have came up. Something's going to always come up. But our staff is and I respect our staff to the highest. But when it's a situation that needs to be addressed, I don't think we should shun away from it just because I like it or you don't like it. But what about the public? The public is the people that are listening, and they need to have a clear understanding of what we're doing. It's no fault on Matthews. It's no fault on what was doing. But the questions were legitimate, and the answers, if we don't have the answers, we can table it. but not to sit there and just say we're going to let it go, I don't think that's fair to the people. The people did not call us to be here and put us in here just to make it comfortable.

Thank you.

Okay, Sarah, are you?

I'd like to make a motion in light of the withdrawal of the previous motion.

That's okay. Okay, Leah says that's all right.

Motion number one, I would like to make a motion to approve the request as presented by the staff. In addition to that, with Mr. Presley's information that he's presented, I would ask that the staff give a accounting of the previous funds and how they were dispensed for the grant money previously, but I think we can go ahead and move forward with the motion to approve land design to execute the contract as it's been presented, but then have the staff follow up with an accounting of how the grant money was used previously. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor of the motion?

Aye.

Oh, yes, please, yeah. Say one, two, three. Raise your hand. Raise your hand if you're in favor of David's motion. Okay. Motion carries six to two. Thank you so much. All right. Is there any other business? There being none, do I have a motion to adjourn?

So moved. Seconded.

So we have motion and second. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Thank you.