Planning and Parks Committee - Regular Meeting

We have to do it this way. Okay. Live on YouTube. Be looking at this. All right. Welcome everybody to the city of Wildwood Planning and Parks Committee meeting for today, March 25th, 2026. And um let's do the roll calls from toe. Uh chair Galani here. Uh council member Rambo here. Council member McCutchen here. Council member Dodbo here. Council member Crayons. Council member Atenberg here. Council member Trier and Council Member Bleski here. And we have a quorum.

Okay, great. Thank you very much everybody. Um, next on we'll do the approval of the minutes from the committee meeting on Tuesday, February 17, 2026. And I have a motion to approve the minutes. Council member Bleski. A second. Council member McCutchen. All in favor of the motion, please say I. I. Any oppose? Any obstensions? Okay. Good deal there. Thank you. Yeah. Next, we've got uh do we have anybody for public participation? I don't see anybody here physically in the room. No, we don't have any attendees via Zoom either.

Okay, takes care of that. Next, uh we have under action items for planning matters, we have four items ready for consideration. First one being the strategic review and modernization of advisory bodies reporting to the committees includes all wards and uh city actually director Vunich I got Tom on here too. Yes.

Well, first of all, Mr. chair and members of the committee. Thank you for being here tonight. We sure appreciate it. We've got a couple of items that we've been waiting a long time to get to park resurfacing of the parking lot. So, I'm glad you're all here so we can talk about it and see it move forward. So, thank you again. Mr. Lee will do much of the presentation tonight on this particular item, but I just wanted to kind of give you some background on the memorandum and the attachments. The memorandum is very similar to the one you received last month when we had a detailed discussion relative to all the different boards, commissions, etc. that the city has to conduct business as part of that memorandum. Now, there is also the initial table that was requested by city council relative to all the boards, commissions, etc. who staffed them, the meeting frequencies, just some commentary on. Also new now to the attachments is the report that the administration and public works committee completed at its meeting um this month. And in that report, they made specific recommendations relative to some of the boards and commissions. Much of that is very similar very similar to the conversation we all had at our February meeting and of their recommendations. The principal one that department of planning and parks identified related to the architectural review board. As you all may recall, we talked about disbanding it, reorganizing it, doing something to it because the current configuration wasn't working. And so tonight, um, from administration public works conversations Tom, Travis, Melanie, and I've had, we have a

proposal, and I'm gonna let Tom take it from there if you don't mind, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. With your permission, chair. Okay. Um do appreciate everyone's time this evening and did just want to quickly go over um some of the efforts that had taken place at the administration public works committee. Uh going through these kind of one at a time. There was an objective uh from this body and also that body to go through after somewhat identifying what tier one, tier 2 and tier three were after putting together the commentary but also the legal basis for each individual committee. Uh the idea behind it was to assign an actual tier ranking system to each one of the boards and determine you know a tier one just to go through some of these definitions um would be more the legally required uh boards that we have that are serving either in a quasi judicial function or overseeing you know a large swath of operations planning and parks being one of them. We'll dive in here to some of the recommendations, but since they oversee, you know, the whole entire parks and planning committee and the efforts there in um and those budgets, that's one of the criterion, but the other would be more of a quasi judicial function, which board of adjustment, planning, and zoning, the city council itself do serve in some capacity. So, that was one of the major items that made up what our tier one advisory bodies were. Uh then going into tier two. Um those were somewhat of in the gray area but had been established by ordinance uh but also serve in a function that supports either the objectives of a tier one um advisory body or helps you know support some of the regulations that we have and keeping things moving. um also some of the strategic objectives that have been implemented over time um as the city has grown that has fallen and and also encompass some of those committees as well. But tier three are ones that are either project specific and we'll go through a couple of them uh that the

department with the help of the administration public works committee had come in um and they don't exercise any regulatory or quasi judicial function. Um the other side side of that is that the tier 3s also are typically limited in the scope. Um that a good question that we asked ourselves were if this body were to make a recommendation could that go into full force after being reviewed by the council so does it directly go to council or after that committee makes a recommendation does it have to go to another advisory body for review prior to its consideration by the city council. So just wanted to go through again um the definitions of the tier three tiers that were established by the administration public works committee and then brought over to this committee um as we were going through and then to give a little background as well uh after providing these definitions the administration public works committee had given a directive to the department to go through and um for tier 2 and tier three bodies if they're tier one they were well identify which boards are tier one which boards are tier tier two and which boards are tier three um to identify them, categorize them and then pretty much come up with a recommendation of if there's any changes to be made. One of the major changes that was brought up at the other committee was that there are term limits currently associated with our appointed officials. So, not just the council members, but if someone were to be appointed to one of our advisory bodies, um they're able to serve two terms depending on what that term length is, which is provided in the chart, but they're able to serve two uh then they have to either go to a different board or they potentially just are termed out. One thing that was brought up is that we will be going through our charter review uh process here within the next year. And during that time, um, the committee had said it would be pertinent to go in and really look at that term limit provision, not necessarily for the elected officials that, um, that provision that was passed at the last

charter review, but potentially just for the, uh, the appointed officials and also in that same vein, uh, possibly looking at the term limits. And if you look through that that chart, you'll see that the term the actual terms of some of these advisory bodies, they're somewhat all over the place. It's mostly consistent, but you know, you'll see some with two years, others with three, some that aren't established, they're established by rule. So, another idea was to standardize the terms and the number that was agreed upon, at least at the committee level, um was about 3 years versus the standard two. Uh so, that was something that was brought up and still kind of working through the recommendations. And the other side was going through some of the actual board specific recommendations as a whole. And the directive from the committee was that if it wasn't a tier one and there wasn't an absolute need to have the meeting monthly that the structure would practically hold a spot on the meeting calendar each year so that if there is a need for a meeting that they have a dedicated date that everyone could agree to. Um, but practically speaking that the tier 2 or tier three committees would then have an as-needed meeting function. So pretty much at the beginning of each month you would decide whether or not a need for the meeting was necessary. So go through some of these. Um we'll start with the tier twos and then we'll go through tier three. Um the first one was for tier 2 was the economic development committee. Um that was one that was created for a very specific reason. um had a limited scope and did not oversee a large portion of the budget. It does oversee a a portion of the budget, but traditionally the city has not budgeted all too many funds and that that actual budgetary item is held underneath the department of administration and the administration budget more generally. So, just wanted to quickly touch upon that. But the idea would be to have that meeting possibly go to an as needed schedule um and and when needed uh kind of the conditions we

let listed out here that the committee agreed to is that if there's a major commercial development coming in um or if there's an economic incentive that's being reviewed, if there's a large business that's potentially interested in opening and they would need need some guidance through our process, uh that those would be excellent meetings need reasons to meet. And then secondly, um any type of events or programs that are set up, they would still serve that advisory function over those. Um that was probably one of the bigger ones, but we'll just kind of go through these and answer questions. The other was tier 2 is the historic preservation commission. Um there are a couple things that this board does serve in a more official capacity. One is the demolition of historic assets. Uh they do go through the initial process for reviewing those. And then second u they do help us maintain our C certified local government program uh through the Missouri State Historical Society. So overall there is some function there and that's why it was somewhat in the gray area between tier one and tier 2. Uh but there was also talk between the the committee um of whether or not that could be if there was a way to be compliant with the CG CLG program um while also making sure that the commission is available for any demolition. um any demolitions that may come forth in front of the city council. Uh but also more importantly that with this historic preservation master plan that's being put together as of right now that after that plan's put together, the primary function is going to be for that commission is going to be executing that plan uh in perpetuity and making sure that it receives timely updates when necessary. So that was another tier two. Um and the recommendation was to pretty much to meet as often as necessary uh to maintain the CLG certification. Also whenever there is a demolition within 30 days or so of a submission of an application um and then also uh making sure that we do still um are able to execute the what the master plan is going to end up showing for the

historic preservation component. The other tier two and I'll just try to go through these a little bit quicker but the Wildwood Celebration Commission. The idea here is not necessarily to do an as needed, but to still have some very standardized meetings. still would meet as needed on a monthly schedule, but potentially looking at um having very scheduled meetings for a meeting right before the uh Celebrate Wildwood event to pretty much get everything ready and have it finalized for the meeting event that would come forth and then set those objectives, what we hope to see at the event coming up and then having a meeting directly after the event uh where at that point the commission members would really kind of test some of the hypothesis that were brought up at the meeting before and also just make sure everything ran smoothly. smoothly and really kind of geared towards the next year start doing the planning. Um there would also be possibly two to three meetings that are scheduled throughout those two pivotal meeting dates that would be you almost mandatory and that would be more so setting up the logo um if needed. that was something that was done recently, but setting the budget, then making that recommendation to the council. Um, doing a lot of the things that are in the planning side, you know, right after the event leading into the budget season, but after that, setting objectives and then maybe only doing a check-in meeting versus a monthly. So, that was for board of uh not board city uh the celebration commission. Then, u I did want to jump into this. I know Mr. Bunich had made a comment about this, but the architecture review board uh this was something that we have had discussion about and code had been changed recently to accommodate um a little bit of a different structure. But the idea behind this and was agreed upon at least by the commission I by the committee was that the architecture review board may want we may want to look at replacing um that board with a consultant. After talking with the um director of planning and parks here, but also the team, it seems like that could be feasible. And we have had, you know, when it looking at some of our architectural when we're looking

at the architectural guidelines for the town center and also comparing that to some of the plans that do come in, um it is a tedious process going through and checking off each individual component to make sure it's compliant with our town center guidelines. uh which would maybe meet the requirements for having a um a consultant possibly fulfill those duties and then this becoming almost a standing item on the planning and zoning commission's uh overall workload and agenda each month. The idea too, and this was discussed more recently after starting to operationalize some of these recommendations coming out of the other committee reviewing this matter, was that we could potentially have the individual that's submitting the application actually offset the cost associated with review um by this consultant versus having the city pay for it. There are other cities that do this. Um and in this case um it would be commiserate for the amount of money that you are spending on your development yourself. So, if it's a larger development, the amount of money that would be needed to go through that review would obviously be expected to be less versus a proposal that might just be for a couple houses. Uh, just going through a little bit further here. And I mean, Joe, did you want to touch upon any of that before going I go through the rest of the list? I know um there's a few here, but

Okay, thank you.

No problem. Um, and then board of public safety tier 2 as well. Uh this was discussed and this is currently meeting on a uh every other month schedule. So right now um the idea between behind the board of publica safety is that there they do review each year our emergency operations plan. They review um development different certain developments that come in that may have a controversial or something that's not perfect for emergency access. Um they review our police services agreement etc. The idea behind this now is that potentially have this as an as needed meeting schedule for board of public safety as well. The reason behind that is there was a idea to bring some of those functions to the administration and public works committee such as the police budget uh police services contract that's currently being reviewed by that committee. um city marshall would still remain. But the idea would be we really looked back for this committee uh commission and we looked back and saw that many of the things that were coming forth for review have been you know changes to our traffic schedule u and some just general complaints about parking restrictions on some of our public roads and that are near schools. So that's been a lot of the content that's been brought forth. Obviously we do review the annual crash study each year. We also review some other police data that they provide, but most of the time it it's very actionable and very acute what the matters are that come forth before the committee. Uh so did mention that they were recommending that that would meet meet as needed, which would most likely line up with how we've been meeting recently as every other month or so. So that sums up the tier two and unless the chair would like we can go through the tier twos real quick or I can jump through the tier threes and get all these done at once if if that would be the preferred method.

Let me ask questions on tier two first. Certainly. Okay. Um on econ development, would we still hold the byianual business meetings? Yes, that that was my understanding that there was no mentioning of affecting the B the the business forms at all. And I think that would almost serve as a primary role after having those surveys come in. Um that would be a really good reason to meet. Okay. And in line with that, um are we going to be adding a communications econ person to help that meeting?

That is correct.

Okay. And one more question on the architectural review board. Um would the developer pick the architecture the consulting firm that's going to review it or would the city have someone designated? So, I think the way that we were talking about it, obviously, this would be subject to council approval and review, but um and Joe, correct me if I'm wrong, but the idea would be that the developer has to put up some type of some cost upfront u based off possibly the percentage of the construction cost that they're estimating that their development is going to be. And how it would work is though that the city council would actually choose maybe annually a consultant. They review that agreement each year. But this is the consultant that we want to the architect that we're going to want to review any development proposal that possibly comes in over the next 12 months. And then how it would work is they're almost on a retainer and that the architect would have to agree to this too. Um that the individual that's going through that review process is the one that's technically responsible. The city's just kind of holding the keys to allowing them for review. Does that does that make sense? And that would

Yeah, that that makes better sense. I I just wanted to make sure that was the way it was going to work. Okay. Council member McCutchen.

Yeah, I've got a few questions. Um, so did I read this correctly that basically we're going to take some of the committees that we have now and they're going to be reassigned to either planning and parks or to public administration. Is that correct? There is some of the duties but not necessarily the entirety of the meeting because these all of the meetings I don't think any of the tier 2s none of them were recommended for disbandment except the architecture review board. So these committees or commissions would still be operating in in a function and they would still pretty much honor a date each month on the city calendar. um it would just be more so the chair of each individual committee would have really a couple instances or circumstance that would cause them to call a meeting

and then um the term limits those are for the volunteers. Is that what you're

That was what the and this was something brought up by the com the administration public works committee but the idea was that we currently have term limits both for elected officials and appointed officials and something that was brought up was that and this is from the committee itself. There was feedback that when we originally updated that u it was originally just for elected officials but somehow the appointed officials got put on the ballot language. So, the idea was to revisit that during the charter review. But that would be something either we would modify the terms themselves. That's something the council could do with a simple code change um of these different committees, commissions, or boards. But if they were wanting to actually change the the fact that term limits exist for appointed officials or elected officials, that would be a charter provision that would need to be voted on by the residents,

right? I mean, even the the number of years that a volunteer could serve, if it was specific to the um what was it, the amend amendment, whatever it was on the ballot, then we'd have to follow what was on the ballot because that's what was passed. So, how could you then change it by code?

Well, no. So, let me uh back that up a little bit. So technically right now in the spreadsheet that was provided that shows the different tiers there is a provision for ter each one of these committees actually was established at some some of them were established at different times and what was established was different term limits not limits but terms for those different boards. So you're appointed um and I'd have to check one of these to get the exact time but some will have a two-year term that's established per code. Right now, the the charter provision states that no appointed official shall serve more than two terms, but there's no language within that charter langu uh the ballot language that states that those two terms must be two years, but those two terms must be three years. That's where the discussion of what could be changed via code is really how long are the terms? No matter what, you still have to remain with two terms. Um, but that said, depending on the code that you want to change and standardize it, it it would be up to the code. Does that make sense? But if the if the ballot if the ballot language was I can't remember what was it four terms for city council members then yes

the way it sounds like it was written and it would have to be four terms for um a volunteer as well the way it was written on the ballot. So the one for the city council was a specific one for the city council and the city council only. Yep. So I can I'll just said it was on the way he said it phrased it. It was on the ballot as well. No, just for the city council was on the ballot.

And I I can read off the chart the specific charter language too. So it it specifically mentioned that no person shall be appointed to serve more than two full terms on any committee, board or commission provided however no and then it brought brings in the provision about no time service counted before the 2018 date in which they were serving. So it is for committees and boards it's two years and then for the council it's those four terms. It specifically says two years. Yes. What you read didn't say two years. Yeah. That's what I was saying. It Well, not sorry, not two years. Two terms. Two terms. Two terms. And so that's what I'm saying. four

if that ballot language was was you know what four terms for city council and then it's got two terms for volunteers then you would have to use the same number of years for each term so I mean the way the language was written on the ballot Yeah. So, volunteers don't fall in the same category as city council. No. No. But the language in the charter change. That's what it that's what it sounds. Does it specify a number of years, Tom?

No. No. It says terms. It's terms, right? But we have a specified number of years that are attached to a term for a council member. It's four years. But if you don't if it doesn't specifically Yeah. four council's four terms, but each term is two years. So it's that's correct. Do we have I I know it says for volunteers two terms, but do we have a specified number of years that are attached to a term for

So there Yeah. So for the volunteers and just to kind of back this up again, uh right now it does have a little provision here that says regular members shall uh the terms of the regular members shall be for five. It does have some but that's per code. The charter provision specifically states that two terms for appointed officials. So where this comes in though is that the other committee wasn't necessarily saying that we want to abolish term limits altogether u for appointed officials for the volunteers. The idea was to either do one of two things. To go back and review it during the charter review process, of course, is one of it, but the other side was to make the terms actually a three-year term and make that standard across all uh volunteer positions. So, you're on the Wildwood Celebration Commission, you would have a three-year term versus the current term period. We have different ones for each board, so I'd have to check that real quick. Then the other side of that would be to possibly look at it during the charter review and maybe review getting rid of it. But no one wanted to actually get rid of the terminals for both elected officials or really mess with the amount of time that each individual would serve right now. It would start when someone got appointed.

Three and three. So two six years two three. That was what was brought up. Anybody else? Mr. Oh, councilberg. Yes. Can you hear me? Yes. Uh, city administrator Lee, did the first committee for um examination that uh that you mentioned, was that the economic development committee? That is correct.

And did you say the recommendation has been made that the economic development committee uh meet on an as needed basis? That was the that was the recommendation from the administration and public works committee not necessarily the council. This is this is going to be reviewed tonight then go to the full city council. So one standing committee is recommending that another standing committee only meet on an as needed basis. Is that correct? That is correct.

All right. Uh does not the city charter name the economic development committee as one of the three standing committees? not the city charter, but the city code does list the economic development committee as one of the standing committees, and that does tie into one of the master plan objectives and the whole element of the master plan that there's a couple goals that are tied directly to it. And does not the city code require that that committee meet on a monthly basis? That's correct.

Okay. Um, I don't recall being asked for my input on whether or not the economic development committee should change from a monthly meeting format. So, I have a grave concern about that. I think the administration and public works committee is taking liberty here by trying to determine how frequent another standing committee should meet. One of the concerns I have is although we don't consider urgent matters all that often, when Ed Con's chapter 100 proposal came up and we needed to consider it on a rather quick basis, we were able to do so because we already had a scheduled meeting on the calendar. If we go to an asneeded basis, you know how difficult it is trying to pull together people for a quorum on a committee already. If we meet on an as needed basis, trying to pull together people quickly to consider some type of an urgent matter is going to be difficult because people already have travel schedules and uh we may have a very difficult time addressing something on an urgent basis. So I guess number one, I've got a strong concern with one standing committee trying to determine how another standing committee operates. And I have a very big concern that at no time do I recall anybody on the e economic development committee being asked for our input on how often we should meet. So I would be opposed to any changes.

So in this case just to add a few items there. Right now this is at committee. So this will eventually go to the full council to for consideration. And quite frankly, if any changes were made, just as you mentioned, with the economic development committee or its schedule, not only would there need to be some type of work session motion, u obviously with concurrence from this committee, too, uh but the standing committees would almost need to act on it together, go to the full city council, and then if there was a there was a decision to change anything, it would need to go uh through a code change, we'd have to bring that back as an ordinance. Um so that provision that you were calling about meeting monthly, that would have to be altered here. couldn't just have a work session motion that affected this change. It would need to go through the full ordinance proc process. Then secondly on that same note um see here too one item just as uh thinking through some of the the meeting how these would actually work and function because as you said and how this is how it does typically happen is if you haven't as needed um if you don't have a date down at the beginning of the year folks do have different travels arrangements and that can be confusing. One thing that we have outlined at least from a staff's perspective is even if you were to move to an as needed basis for any of these meetings that they still should if there's still except architecture review which is a little different because it was recommended for um disbandment and then having their the provisions moved over to planning and zoning in a consultant. Um but for this you would have a standing meeting date each month on the the calendar. It's just almost at the beginning of each month does that meeting end up happening. But your your points are well taken and we'll definitely well we can vote on tonight too, but that'll be included in the summary report that goes to city council. Well, I appreciate um the u clarification there on a couple of points, but I guess I I still have an issue with one standing committee interfering, I consider it, with another standing committee and how frequently they should meet or making any

recommendations regarding that standing committee without any input from the people on that standing committee themselves. Thank you.

Yeah. Um Tom or City Administrator Lee, I I tend to agree with Council Rottenberg on that uh piece as far as one committee making decisions about another committee. I I will say, you know, to to to a certain point on this, I think, you know, I'm definitely someone of the belief that it's not necessary to meet just to meet. Um so I think I think having the conversation about you know whether it is necessary to have a committee meeting each month if there's not relevant content to be decided upon just to meet and go through motions of talking about different things just for the purpose of looking at things if they're not urgent matters that are necessary to be discussed that are specifically pertain so I think from that standpoint um but I think for a standing committee that's already been established by ordinance that you would still have that committee formed and you would still have a monthly meeting set and then the chair of that committee would decide on a monthly basis whether it was in coordination with the department whether it was necessary to have that meeting right so you know you wouldn't need to have because I think economic development's one because I've been on that committee multiple times and um I feel strongly about economic development but at the same time I think it's a situation here in Wildwood where we've had a lot of struggles not just maintaining hiring and maintaining an economic development chair, but just also having a relevant amount of, you know, urgent matters to discuss and deal with related to economic development because I feel like even when I was on that committee, there's a lot of times we were just talking about all kinds of different things that sounded good, but they didn't really have any pertinent

connection to anything in Wildwood that was happening or getting ready to happen, right? So we were just literally talking about things to talk about. So I'm definitely opposed to having committee meetings for that purpose. Uh but once again, I think that a standing committee would remain a standing committee and have an actual scheduled meeting that could then be decided whether it was necessary to meet uh that month if you know if there wasn't anything specific like to councilberg's point when Ed Conston came up there would have already been a meeting on the calendar and so at that point it would have been like we're meeting this month because we have something specific to discuss.

No, that's that's and that's fine. We what we can do there chair um is this this was one committee and now we're here at the other committee. U these recommendations and the recommendation from administration and public works committee was to obviously have this review here but also to forward it to the city council. When this goes to the city council whatever the vote is tonight will be shown almost as a you know black and white negative of if there was any differences in the opinion from either committee what those changes were and what specifically was recommended from each. So the whole council, any of these changes would have to be approved and reviewed by the whole council. If anything messes with city code, just as a clarifier, that's why that chart is a very great help. Um, if anything changes for the code, just like architecture review, if it was disbanded, we would have to go back and change the ordinance and go through that full process as well.

No, I get that. Council Rodenberg. Yeah, I guess uh just one more thing. right now without making any changes to the economic development committee we can have a review at the beginning of each month regarding whether or not we should meet based on the items we think may be on the agenda. The concern is that once you make a formal change and you classify the economic development committee as only meeting as needed, people are going to start planning their travel schedules betting that we're not going to meet in a particular month. And that's just going to make it much more difficult to have uh a meeting to consider urgent matters that may come up in a particular month.

No, I don't I don't disagree with that. I think a form making a formal change is unnecessary in my opinion, leaving it as is. But I think moving forward with the conversation and the thought process being that instead of just assuming like it's on the calendar, but it doesn't have to have a meeting every single month just because it's on the calendar and to come up with an agenda to just talk about and discuss because it's on the calendar is I guess the point. Yeah. Well, all three of the standing committees could do that at the beginning of each month. Yeah. Without any changes being made. Yeah, council question.

No. So, we're going through the master plan update. The economic development is in the master plan update. It was originally put in the last time we did the update. So, if we start going to a as needed meeting, what's the impact on that? Well, right now there's currently a an objective that states that we would create a advisory body that's dedicated to economic development incentives. As long as that board is retained, that's the part that would really need to be kept to ensure you were in alignment with the 2016 master plan. That said, you know, the master plan has a full element dedicated to economic development. So, that's that's another consideration to keep in mind if any changes are going to be recommended and fi and approved at the city council. And you just mentioned it become economic development becoming an advisory committee. That was not a standing committee. There's a difference.

I'm sorry. I I know that's I was just more so anything not city council. I've just for the term since we've been going through a lot. It it is a standing committee. And I'm I'm I'm going to go back to the celebration committee if that's okay. Sure. Um am I understanding correctly that there's only going to be three meetings for that committee?

No. So the idea was that it would have a 100% have at least four possibly five with the idea that you would have two that piggyback on the meeting I mean the event itself. So you'd have one right before uh the event uh kind of maybe the week you could plan it out to be the week before then have one after the event itself. So you know you could have a couple weeks to debrief a little bit but those two would serve two very important functions. the one before would finalize all the plans and preparations, make sure everything all the ducks are in a row where fundraising's at for the event for that year and then execute on the the day of the event. And then the meeting afterwards would be debriefing on that event and then setting objectives for the next year. What what went wrong, what went right, what we what can we do better um and kind of setting an agenda moving forward. Then you would have between then and then the the next year almost um you would have three to four meeting uh two to three meetings sprinkled in maybe every other month where you'd be just doing updates and general check-ins um to set standards that set the uh objectives for that year. Also the fundraising goals etc. Well, I've done a lot of events and to just have three or four meetings to put on celebrate Wildwood, I don't know how the committee would accomplish that because you've got to call, you know, different participants that are going to perform or going to have booze or whatever. And then

does the committee make those phone calls? Well, I would think so. It's that that's what they're doing. Do the committee members make those contacts with the participants? Well, certain members do, some don't. Okay. But we do depend on them to be kind of our ambassadors out to the community. Yes. In terms of the sponsorships and fundraising. Okay. Yeah. So, I I definitely having done this, I think you're going to have need more than three meetings and maybe one or two extra sprinkled in there. So,

it's a it's a big deal. It's not pulling it all together is a big deal and it's like a huge puzzle piece. You but you're waiting on other puzzle pieces to be brought to you. Um, so if we're if if the intent is three meetings, I I don't agree with that. I can't support that.

Okay. So, can I uh to answer that a little bit, it would be technically four or five meetings uh with the two right around the actual meeting date and then you'd have three almost check-in meetings throughout the year in between. Um that said, anytime there wouldn't be a meeting that takes place in any given month, then you at least from the department after getting this direction, the department's idea would be you almost would have like a standing item on this committee's agenda to keep up and keep the council informed on what's been going on. That report would then be forwarded to the city council as well to keep everyone in the loop. Nonetheless, um like I said, this is recommendations from the administration and public works committee and this will have to go to the full city council. U but it would be more like four or five meetings total per year.

Well, and then follow up on something else you just said, you know, then part of that's going to go to planning and zoning and then what I read part of it's going to go to admin public works. So, I mean, we always in planning and zone planning and parks always have items on our agenda that needs to be discussed and then to add some more to that. I I don't I don't see the point. If if X amount of things need to be done, they're under committee now, then why move them to another committee? I don't understand that. I'm not asking you to answer me. I'm just saying that doesn't make a lot of sense to me. you're just adding extra things to a committee that we currently have a committee that deals with those things. Um,

well, in prior years, this committee did assist with Celebrate Wildwood. Well, I've been here for eons and I don't remember us ever doing Celebrate Wildwood. As far as I know, we always had a volunteer committee. I just I got council member next, but um just to clarify this this conversation we're having because I

I I don't want this we could get in the weeds and spend five hours on this conversation. I mean, so what I don't want to happen, like you're we're literally just looking at this and we can provide our feedback, but at the end of the day, anything that that happens with this or that would move forward as far as any type of further conversation, it doesn't matter what we talk about tonight, this is going to come up for council in a work session, right? That'd be correct. I mean, if the thing is if the We're wasting our time going around in circles on this tonight. If the committee wanted to though and say, "Hey, I want to hold this up." I think that this is one of those things that's almost a joint item being reviewed by multiple committees. I would say that if you guys wanted to hold it up, you could, but overall it hold it up meaning what

if you guys needed to take a month to digest it. I mean that that's up to this committee and I don't think we'd probably bring it back.

I don't I mean I take I don't think taking a month changes anything. My point with this is that we could sit here and literally go through each one of these committees and have and we've got six council members here that could have 25 different opinions and we could be here till midnight tonight on this one topic. That accomplishes absolutely nothing because then it's going to turn around and go to the council anyway and the same five people in this room along with the other 11 people on the council are going to spend another 30 hours going around in circles about the exact same thing. So my point is like we've already spent 40 minutes on this topic and we've accomplished nothing. Um and so my point is that if this is going to council work session regardless all of the things we're talking about here are going to be talked about there with all the same people that are here along with the other people that are there. So I guess my point is that we're not actually accomplishing anything by continuing to go around you. I mean, I love everybody's feedback and I love the conversation, but I'm just the this goes this goes back to the whole premise of why we have meetings and why we're doing committees and maybe why it might make sense to consolidate some of these meetings because when you have three different committees that are all spending two hours having this exact same conversation so that it can turn around and go to council where now everybody's collectively going to sit there and have the exact same conversation again. This is the kind of thing that makes my head explode and why I feel like, you know, I believe there's a lot of good things we all do on these different committees, but once again, I feel like a lot of these meetings, and I think this is where the premise of this idea comes from, is that we end up repeating the exact same process in multiple committees and wasting hours and hours of not just our time, but the the staff's time that has to sit through all these different committees, including yourself. um you know, how can we consolidate some of these conversations? Or if it's got to go to

council anyway and be debated and discussed and talked about as to what would or wouldn't happen, why wouldn't we then just if it's an ordinance related situation that would have to be dealt with by council in order to change anything from the way it sits today, which is the case, right? So why don't we just then now say why don't we just refer this to council and and we can you know for instance council member's recommendation regarding not making the change and I agree with that and leaving it as is we can notate that or some of the different minor things that we can quickly come up with like hey what are the five points that the people on this committee feel that we want to just put our notes in there we can do that that's fine but I feel like we've been talking about this now for 40 minutes and we're no farther ahead than we were when we started. Nor has anything been accomplished that's not going to change what's going to happen in council

and oh I've got council Rookski and then I've got council done.

Um just a couple comments based on what you just said. Um first piece is is was the intent bringing it here to make recommendations on the big picture because I agree with um council member or that you know certainly that committee I feel like is very important economic development because we spend a lot of time at council talking about why isn't why aren't we able to do more. Um, so I would hate to see it go to less, but I also understand that if as long as the meeting's on the calendar and it's there. Um, but not having any feedback in that process or being asked, I think is um kind of crazy that everybody wasn't involved before it came to that or that that committee made recommendations. I also like that sometimes when it does come to the different committees that if you're not on all the committees, like I I watch all of them. So I feel like I'm much more aware because I watch them. Otherwise you get to council and you go where did this come from? So I do like that you hear about it at the different committees because that helps create awareness. But my other my real reason for raising my hand was to just clarify celebrate Wildwood that there are a few months that that committee probably doesn't need to meet but there are full agendas every month for that committee. So if it comes to a point that you know it November December there's not a lot we can do because we've just had it and our recommendations start at the beginning of the year but in reality we do meet every month and there's a lot on the agenda to discuss and try and decide but there's also staff members that do a lot of the work behind the scenes that comes back to the committee but there are um committee members that do a lot of work too in that process. So, it was just to say I think it really does depend on the committee um what they do need in terms of um recommendations, but I think like what you said um it's more than just three or four meetings a year.

That's it. No, thank you very much. I I agree with most of that too. Council Dwell, would it make any sense to um provide a rating matrix? Oh gosh, I know some of you hate rating matrixes, but there's no other way to capture effectively. I just I was gonna I mean and I don't think that's a bad and provide that to the council

members as part of our work session before we get to the work session have I mean give it to us two weeks before the council meeting and say rate the benefits strengths of a particular committee from your perspective and if we don't have that committee what do you recommend recommend doing and but that's what we're supposed to be doing right now. Yeah. But my point that I was bringing up earlier though and this is the part that I feel like we run around in circles is that we can sit here all night and we can all do this and we can rate it. We can do whatever we want. And the thing is when it gets to council, it'll get

99% of the council is not going to pay a damn bit of attention to anything that we recommended or anything that came out of committee. Everyone's going to have their comments and everyone's going to want to talk about it and discuss it based on their personal opinion at that time. This is what happens in council meetings every single time or director Vunich or or Director Brown, you know, present what came out of the committee and it's on the agenda and we say the committee recommends X and then we still have a two-hour debate in council because everyone on council, half the people don't pay attention to what was discussed in the committee and the other people have their own opinion and we still have like we could spend four hours debating this and talking about it and making recommendations here and it will not take away a single minute of the conversation we're going to have in council when it gets there is my point and that's why I think we need to be more we can talk about certain things and bring up ideas and provide our you know have a a short conversation about it and then provide some feedback and I think but I think we just got to be careful because what ends up happening is we get off the tangent and we spend an hour or two in the committee on one topic and then we make a recommendation then it goes to council and it's still a two-hour conversation there because it's like we're starting all over again. And I feel like we do this over and over in council, which is part of what negates the value of the committee because the council doesn't really pay attention to what the work the committee did, they relitigate the entire thing from scratch when it gets to council. And so that's what I feel like if there's something we can do to mitigate the amount of time that that happens or how we canate that

saying could we have people rate what's on this page as to yes they're for it no they're against it and a comment and then if that can be done the week before our meeting starts that would allow staff to pull all that together and say here's what the council came up with. What do you guys want to do now that we have to vote on it? Yeah, suggestion. So the the committee is part of the governmental process. I mean that's you you have your committees. I understand what they

and it's not to me us discussing this because it's going forward. I don't think it's a waste of time. Do we need to do every line? No. But, you know, this came out of one committee. So, I think this committee should have an input on it. Right. But I'm saying we don't know what every council member is going to do, if they're going to ignore it or not. When it comes to council, you don't know that. Yeah. You're going to have different

I've been on the council for six years. I've watched it happen with 95% of the topics. So, I'm just giving it from experience. But what I'm saying is that okay the the other committee suggested that this these changes are made and we move like economic development to to as needed and all this stuff right so basically our recommendation to council should be we agree with that committee or the other committees that those changes should be made and that's our stance or we don't right so

from this conversation my standpoint would be that it sounds like the collective opinion of this committee right now is that we don't believe that these changes should be made to the ordinance and that these standing committees should remain standing committees and and whether we say we think that they should or shouldn't isn't going to change anything that goes to council. Council's still going to get it and they'll hear planning and parks said we shouldn't, public works said we should. Now let's open the book and start from scratch and start talking about it because that's what's going to happen. So that's your point. I mean that's my point.

Yeah. And what we'll do from tonight if there's if and obviously having the discussion about the economic development committee u there was comments about the wildwood celebration committee uh commission if we wanted to what the department was hoping to get tonight would be firm motions if there was any disagreement which there is here if the full committee disagrees to say hey you know these recommendations what's presented at least in the report tonight um if there wasn't anything that's objectively you're disagreeing with then it goes as is. But if there's something that really is, you know, like the EDC, we as the committee would disagree and then that's going to change the report from staff. We're going to go in and say administration public works said do this and then planning and parks said do this. There's and we'll kind of highlight these are the ones that where there was agreement and then there's others where there was disagreement. So maybe we just focus in on the disagreement but we still get some of the um some of the deficiencies that have been identified.

Director Vich, thank you. First of all, just to jog your memory, uh, back in 2025, due to the different standing committees taking on, let's say, things that might cross boundary lines, you all authorized us to basically carbon copy all of the other committees with our reports besides them receiving them at city council.

Yeah. I didn't take the liberty to basically include boards, commissions, and committees that don't report to you all. So, I wasn't trying to hide economic development. It's just not one that necessarily is staffed by this department. And so, tonight you actually have recommendations from the department regarding the 14 that we do staff either regularly, occasionally, or infrequently. So there is a report for this.

Yeah, for sure. So I I guess then in order to expedite this and move this meeting forward because like I said, I feel like we could just continue to go around and give comments and talk about this for the remainder of the evening um and to provide some level of feedback or direction from this particular committee on these items. Should we then um go through what what are the you know the several that we just discussed like economic development is one and then Wildwood celebration is another and give a recommendation on each one of those points as a yay or nay. Yeah, that would be that that would be acceptable. And then we would consolidate that into something a little bit more straightforward in a summary to the

Council Member Rodenberg, did you have a comment? Well, just that I'm not quite sure what type of motion we're going to make here concerning um the recommendation, but my recommendation would be that if um if we're going to forward something on for consideration at the work session that we definitely make note of the fact I'm guessing, but I can't be sure. I would make a motion that economic development committee be removed from um forwarding this to the work session for consideration. I don't know if I stated it properly or not. I think our motion would be regarding the economic what you're saying it's it's in agreement with what you're saying but our recommendation would be that the economic development would not be

like would be maintained would not be changed the ordinance the ordinance would not be changed to make it not a regular committee all right I'm okay with that thank you because I think we ought to have a full listing of all of our boards and commissions if this is going to the full council bring over what was at admin and public works, add it to ours, and add anything from economic development to it. And that way, the council's looking at all of these boards and commissions at one time. What if you don't discuss it? How are you getting there? You can discuss it at council.

No, I mean, if we're if this committee is going to make a recommendation, if we don't discuss it, how are we going to He's getting ready to move us forward. Yeah, we're going to we're going to just decide what we think we we should I mean it's pretty black and white. I mean, we don't have to go through and have a lengthy discussion on each committee. I mean, that's not going to get us anywhere because the problem is it doesn't matter whether we say we think it should be, you know, as needed or not. It's still going to go to council. All this is going to say is what our it's what your opinion is as of right now. It really is what this is. And then when it gets to council, there's still going to be a full discussion and debate.

I understand, but that we're not they're asking for a recommendation from both committees. If we don't I'm not saying we need to discuss every point, but if somebody has a concern about something, we need to discuss that so we know how we're going to vote on it before the other committee put together a list. We've been discussing it for 50 minutes. Mr. Chair, if I may. Yeah. There's the tier one, as Tom described it, that stay because they're enabled by state statute, part of the charter, etc. Correct. The tier three, they all have sunsets already. Yes. We wanted to focus on what stays, what goes, or what changes. Let's look at tier two. Correct. And that's what we're talking about right now is

you really only need to focus on those because either you can't or they're already sunset based upon their So, so with that being said, Tom, what are the tier 2? What are the specific tier 2 committees that the other committee that had changes attached to them that that have changes attached to them by for the other committees?

And Mr. and quick note, Mr. Vunish is correct that the tier 3es um all have sunset provisions already and they all the recommendation was almost to let them you know work out their natural conclusion and then end u the tier 2s though that you know were the department even expected was going to be more of the discussion was first these are from the administration and public works committee was economic development there was modifications recommended to that historic preservation wildwood celebration architecture review board, board of public safety. Those were the the items that tier twos that had recommended changes.

Right. So I think what we need to do then right now since we've already spent a lot of time on this is go through each one of these. Right. Well, I'll start with historic preservation. Does anybody have any questions, concerns, or and and these are the five committees that the AR that the public works advised should go to as needed? Um they had a few that were a little I can go through and give a quick update on that again. Um it it was most of them were deferred to an as needed basis but economic development was add as needed. um historic preservation. There were a couple components. The meet the it was as needed still would hold them every month um a date every month, but if there was a demolition recommendation or a um or anything that was revolving around the CLG program

to keep that up, those two would be reasons to meet or if there's something identified in the historic preservation master plan, that would also be a reason to meet. While with Celebration Commission, a little different. um it wasn't necessarily as needed. It would still hold a monthly item on the agenda uh on the calendar. That said, the idea would be to focus in and hone in on probably more like four or five meetings is what was discussed. But if that's something we want to discuss here to change, that's fine, too. And then the last one was architecture review board. Uh well, two more. Architecture review board. The idea was to disband that board uh replace it with a consultant and have that consultant funded by the individual applying. And then lastly, the board of public safety meeting that to an as needed structure.

So I think for let's yeah start with the one let's try to knock these off and the easiest first. So architectural review I think we can all be in agreement that that would be disbanded and we' use the consultant or does anybody have a problem with that? No. Okay. Somebody make that motion. I'll make that motion. Council member Dodwel. Second. Council Bli. Uh any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all in favor please say I. I. All right. Any opposed? Any abstensions? All right. We got one goes, four to go. Let's development's already done.

Yeah, economic development we already discussed. So, let's do a formal like to make a motion to keep economic development as is as a standing committee and not uh change it by ordinance. Scott, council member D. Council member Atenberg. Yes. Any conversation? Seeing none, all in favor, please say I. I. I. Any oppose? Any absent? Boom. One thing I would like to just make a comment on on that particular group is that we need to clearly identify whether there is a need to meet based upon actionable item actionable item um for that committee.

I agree. But that would be up to the um discretion of the chair. the chair and the uh department. Yep. All right, let's go to public safety and re re uh state what the recommendation was on public safety.

Yep. Uh thank you, chair. So, board of public safety was recommended to move to an as needed structure. It is currently every other month. Um, just to go over real quickly, the board of public safety, the main things they do oversee is, you know, changes to the traffic schedule, uh, possible parking restrictions that are placed on public rideway, any major items that do have safety considerations that come on as time goes on, as needed. Um, already the police services contract and the the police services budget, if you will, at the uh, but that's also reviewed by AMNPW, but reviewed in October. And then lastly, the emergency operations plan. The idea would be that they would move to an as needed basis, still covering the, you know, police items, tracking those uh yearly reports, and then also um making changes to the traffic schedule, making recommendations on them. But then some of these uh more monthly items would go to the administration public works committee.

And that's okay. And so that's what the admin public works committee. and and how does the department what is the what is the feeling of the department on that?

So speaking with um the city marshall but also with our director of public works and city engineer and the captain of our police precinct um I think having a board of public safety has a a nice purpose to it because there's like an outlet for residents to come in if there is a concern that they have. It's dedicated to public safety and it shows that the city takes that seriously. I will say that this is one of those things that we had found just over time that the agendas were getting a little bit lighter before when we had uh when the city was forming and coalescing, you know, we were trying to update our traffic schedule, be able to put in signs were necessary, make sure all the paperwork matched what was physically out there in person. Um, and quite frankly, we had a lot of different HOAs and whatnot coming to the meetings actively and asking for changes in their subdivision, whether it be speed humps or changes in speed limits. Right now I can I can say that we do not have many visitors that come to the meetings. Um most of the time when we do get something it is mostly a parking restriction uh that is being placed near a school. That's one of the major items we review. And then also we have had a few instances where we'll we'll review a traffic schedule change for a speed limit. Um something we've made sure of is we're keeping it 25 miles per hour. But there's some a lot of it comes down to parking restrictions. So right now I think that I I really actually appreciate the every other month schedule for that meeting. It seems that we do get enough items to come up and this in the format it is now an as needed schedule would most likely correlate to what it's currently being done. So it' probably be every other month too.

So basically just keep it as is. Yeah. If it was kept as is it I think that would be consistent. We would probably be calling a meeting every other month anyways. Okay. Would someone like to make that motion? Councelor Dwell second on the motion. What is the motion? To to keep the public well, no one no one is advising to disband it, but to keep the public safety board as is and instead of going to as needed, just keep it every other month the way it is. And and but what part of that's going to admin public works? None of it. I thought he just said

that was it. admin and public works wanted to move it to an as needed meeting and if something came up that needed to be done that it would go to admin and public works in between. We're just saying city administrator lease basically said if it was as needed it would probably be every other month anyway. So in that case we might as well just advise to keep per the department's recommendation as opposed to admin and public works just keep it as is. Right. Yep. And motion that counts. That's a motion that council member Dodwell made. So, we just need a second on that and then if there's any discussion, we can have that discussion. Anyone?

Well, I'm reluctant because I think they should have the flexibility to say, "Okay, it's been um it's every other month, but we still don't have much to discuss." and relieving the staff of the requirement to have a mandatory meeting sounds like a good thing to me in a lot of or or maybe we could say keep it scheduled every other month and leave it up to the yes to decide to lot more comfortable with that

and just Dr. I was going to say that all of these if there's any changes that are made these since these have all been you know part of the history of Wildwood too they're going to maintain a part on the calendar. So even if there was an as needed change for board of public safety we would still highlight because that helps us when HOA is called to rent out the community room or the council chambers we're going to make sure we have that uh in tow. Yeah. Okay. So I would like to change Katie's motion and she's fine with it. So we'll just make it the new motion. You got a motion, a second to keep it on the calendar every other month, but meet as needed per the chair and the department's decision. Right. Got it.

All right, that's three down. Let's go to historic preservation. Oh, good to Oh, we got a Yeah, we got a motion, a second. Any further debate on the motion? Seeing none, all in favor, please say I. I. I. Any oppose? Any abstensions? Okay, thank you for that. Um, historic preservation, huh? Director Vish. Yeah.

You know, first of all, we're going to be completing the first historic preservation plan for the city this early summer. There are a whole lot of new goals and objectives. So, my plea to you was no change now. We can come back in a year, but let's see how the plan fits before we start kind of whittling our opportunities to kind of implement. And then secondly, we have I believe three or four applications now since the plan started for our local registry. People wanting to put their assets on the local registry and that's a kind of a a meeting intensive process because under the code we have to have a public hearing at HPC. We have to write reports and then we have to have a public hearing vote at at city council. So I would ask for no change in the interim. We can certainly return after we get the plan in place and know what we've got. Thank you.

Thank you, Director Vish. Would you probably like to make that motion? Um, I've got a comment. Um, sure. Go ahead.

Yeah, HPC is invariably a full agenda and it gets a little, you know, turgid at times in the meetings, but there's a lot of discussion and it's useful discussion and so on and so over and I think it's probably it would be very hard to make it every to change it from a month. Matter of fact, they're pretty long meetings and you know, and if we made it every two months, it would be longer. And my I'm going to make a motion here in a second, but my personal opinion is that nothing would improve city government more than having mandatory graded pop quizzes for the assigned reading because nobody does it, you know, and then we got get in and somebody people show up at council and they want to just ask ridiculous questions that are covered in the writing. It drives me buggy. I don't think we're going to involve them in this problem either.

One one thing, not everybody doesn't come prepared. Okay. No, no, of course not. I'm not I'm not suggesting any particular person, but I'm saying that drives a lot of discussion that doesn't need to occur. I think most folks can agree, right? I 100% agree. Okay. So, so anyway, I will move that we keep the HPC unchanged. Would somebody like to second that motion? Second. All right. Second by council member McCutchen. Um I couldn't agree more. I think that's a great idea and um it's a very important part of Wildwood. So would there anybody like to further discuss that motion? If not, all in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed?

Any obst? All right, we're good there. Last one. Wild celebrate Wildwood. Uh, director Vunich or city administrator Lee, would you like to Yeah, I can goate again what the what the findings from the other committee was and and and then we can figure out what we want to do or what and also give us what your recommendation is from this from the city side.

Yes. Uh so from the other committee they had recommended retaining obviously the the commission as a whole um but changing the structure to align a little bit closer going back into it the having one uh meeting prior so a meeting really close to the actual date of the event a meeting after as kind of a postevent evaluation and setting objectives for the next year and kind of a debrief and then having the report had said one to two but as we discussed it it was more So two to three sprinkled in throughout kind of an every other month throughout versus you would probably pick up the frequency right behind. So I would say let's just lock it in at five uh meetings per year instead of u the scheduled uh right now it's monthly so it' go from monthly to having a little bit more of a offbeat. They would still maintain a spot on the calendar each month. I know that the department of planning had some notes on that too. So if Joe has some items to re uh to bring up that would with your permission chair.

Thank you Mr. Yeah. generally speaking the commission meets about nine or 10 times a year. We already plan a couple of breaks just because as we move out of the the celebration season in the fall. There's really not much we can do. We set the budget. We basically do that kind of check down. How do we do what should we think about? And then sometime in January or February, we start back up. So I relative to this I I prefer not to put the number of meetings, but I'd certainly say it could go to a need basis.

Okay. The department concurs with the committee's findings. So would somebody like to make a motion to move that forward or does somebody have just as needed? As needed. Anybody like to second that? Second by Council Rambo. Any further discussion on that? Okay, seeing none, all in favor, please say I. I. I. I. Any opposed? Thank you. All right. Thank you, Thomas and document that you put together that I read before we came. I read it everybody before. I should have said that's great. And I mean, like I said, and I don't

in fairness, I don't mean to sounds like a hard answer or anything, but like I just get I think sometimes we just need to like buckle down and actually take action on what we're we can get in the weeds and just keep spinning and and we keep keep going. So, thank you everybody for the good conversation and for getting things getting on point and getting that bun. So that'll take us to the next item on the agenda which is urban night sky design designations of of city park sites. Miss Ripetto.

Good evening and uh thank you chair and uh members of the committee. Um, so the urban night urban night sky designation uh has been a conversation that started back in 2021 when the city was approached by the International Dark Sky Association regarding uh potentially certifying our community park. Um they're a 5013C nonprofit organization based on based in Tucson, Arizona. Uh they're dedicated to preserving natural nighttime environment by educating policy makers and uh the public about night sky conservation and promoting eco-friendly outdoor lighting. Uh when we started this conversation, there were only five designations um in the world. And now there are 16. Um one of them was actually Alvette. Um there uh uh Stacy Park. Yeah, thank you. Drew blank on that one. There's Stacy Park. And that was uh back in I think 2021 that they had that designated. Um but at any rate um at that time the city started looking into exactly what this was and there are several designations. They have dark sky um reserves, dark sky uh sanctuaries, dark sky communities. And uh we started looking into, you know, um what it was and uh realized that we came really really close to being able to qualify as an international dark sky community because the city of Wildwood has such conservative lighting regulations as is. However, they're not quite conservative enough. And the leap to get from point A to point B, despite it seeming really small on paper, is really expensive to, you know, go through and replace lighting and then also um you have to impose lighting on businesses and such and turn off street lights and and so it did not seem like a worthwhile endeavor. However, the um urban night sky place designation um was created to uh for for

like properties abuing urban areas that would that would represent um good lighting like best management practices and such and act as a way of promoting night skies and educating, you know, the public as to why we need them, you know, and why lighting pollution is not great for the environment. And uh so community park being so close to an urban area um but also with very little lighting over there um seemed like a perfect place for it. And our Bluffview Park has no lights. So that also seemed like a really good location. And so um basically um these designations it's their responsibility to you know promote these best management practices to surrounding communities help educate the public on not only like our lighting and like public like place lightings but also what they can do at home to help out and um you know lighting light pollution has always been kind of a big deal in Wildwood. Um so this is this is a great program for that. Uh the formal application process can take uh between one and three years just depending on how much time you have to invest into it. It is actually a pretty detailed um application and the most time that you need to spend into it is the application process. Um, and it also involves things like taking night sky readings um at night and uh you have to find not cloudy nights and um not like full moon nights and stuff and so coordinating that's a challenge but um once certified the city uh would be expected to host um either events or you know public outreach um as far as the uh um light pollution is concerned um and the international dark sky association Um they're building a statewide team of experts that can provide um training for city employees

um in order to be able to effectively promote this and uh um to the public. And um upon certification, they'll continue to work with certified places to promote their work through their media relations um member communications and social media outlets and such. Um as well as us doing it on our social media. um it can be used to enhance the visibility of these locations and promote them and uh foster increased tourism and uh local activity. So, it's a good thing. Um and at the time uh the committee was supportive of pursuing the urban night sky place designation for both community park and Bluffview Park. And according to the dark sky association, we can include both parks on one application. So, it only seems natural to just do that. And um if one of them ends up not qualifying at any point in time, then we can drop it off of the application and just certify the other. Um community park uh right now their current the current lighting that's there uh does not meet the dark sky associations um regulations for um it's too bright. And so the department's pretty confident that we can just swap out the actual lighting and not the entire fixtures and solve that problem at minimal cost hopefully. We have not researched the cost yet, but um if that's problematic later on, we can drop community park off. Um Bluffy Park is also uh owned by St. Louis County and leased by us, so we would have to do that in cooperation with St. Louis County. Um but either way, it's it's uh they're great places to have these designations and community park, you know, could be better for hosting some events and Bluffy could be better for hosting other events. And so having both definitely would not hurt. and being able to brag that we have two of our parks um is always good. Um so uh in order to do this, we would need to create a lighting management plan uh just for our parks. It does not need to be citywide. It would just be for the

parks that are dark sky um associated. And uh the application process is uh approximately 3 to five hours per month. Oh no, that's the application process requires more time than that. Once after we're certified, they anticipate to dedicate maybe three to five hours a month towards um keeping up with the certification and andor events or publications or something like that. But um yeah, and so the cost of the program is relatively little aside from that. It's $250 for the application along with a $100 annual membership fee. Um and uh yeah, at the time of these discussions, the biggest concerns were a that the designated parks would have to be open later hours so that people could actually view the night sky at these dark sky parks. Um but at the time we confirmed with the IDA that they uh don't need to be open year round. You can have special designated nights or like you know when cool solar things are happening. Um, and so you have to have x amount of nights in which the parks are open later. And Bluff View is open till 10 PM as is. So I don't know that there would need to be any changes there at all, but community park we would. Um, and so and as far as the lighting at community park is concerned, you know, it takes one to three years for the for the city to get certified and then the lighting would have to be changed within the year after certification. So there is time to like build in that anticipated cost um for changing out lighting in there. Um and so that being said, the city has fully intended to pursue this designation um every year for the last several years, but it's one of those things we've had so much going on. It's one that can easily slip to the back burner. Um but that being said, uh the purpose, the intent of like this designation is

for education, outreach, and things like that. And the city has been doing those things over the years. We have posts about lights out h heartland on our website. We've put up posters in the vestibule. We've um uh handed out flyers at events. Like we have we have incorporated a lot of things. There was going to be a dark sky article in the upcoming gazette. Um and so we have been putting forth more effort um to reach out to the public. Uh there's also uh pamphlets that we intend to have put into our new resident packets just to let people know that you know your outside lights do matter and although you might appreciate a flood light, it's uh not necessarily great for the environment. And so um so that being said, we have been keeping up with the intent of the program even if we don't have the bragging rights yet. And so um that being said um you know we've also discussed this at the master plan meeting and the importance of dark skies there and so we have uh rules uh regarding that uh um given the whole moratorum on our parks and budget budgetary um constrictions and many of our projects winding down, we feel like this is probably a great time to actually dive into this and move forward um sooner than later. And so included in your packet is a timeline um that that we hope to maintain in order to get the park certified. I have it not starting until June just because uh right now our fundraising for the village green has been consuming a bit of time and but we've been working on it and so we anticipate that we have a lot of the information gathered and the application process might actually take less time just because we're already like partway there. So that being said, um the uh department will provide updates along the way as we progress through this and or if we, you know, come up with any

interesting lowcost events. We uh we're talking about combining umformational opportunities with other events. you know, perhaps when we're having an event that's going into the evening, maybe invite, you know, um an organization out that has telescopes and do like, you know, some sort of uh event incorporated with another event or incorporating educational opportunity with uh our shivering shadows or, you know, things that were already outside at night anyway. And so that's kind of the goal to keep costs low enough and uh still be able to meet the requirements as far as the the education. And so with that, that concludes the department's uh uh presentation. We just wanted to give you an update on where we're at and where we hope to be. And hopefully uh by 2028, we will have at least one park designated, if not both. And uh if the committee has any questions, uh myself or uh Director Vunage or Mr. Newberry. Uh we'll hopefully be able to answer them. If not, we will get you answers.

Awesome. Thank you very much for that presentation. And are you looking for any specific action by the committee tonight? Not at all. We've just got it on the list of things to do and so I wanted to provide the committee with an update on where we're at and why. Awesome. No, I think it's great. Anybody else?

A couple comments. Um I've supported this from the very beginning. Um and um I think it's a just a a great thing. I've had calls from folks who are interested in in the issue, if not the designation, and um uh I've had a number of calls recently about the new mod lighting because it's awfully garish and I don't know if they took any sort of night sky compliance into account when they put those up, but it would be great if we could inquire of them and, you know, see what, you can be done about that because the the um I personally I miss the Milky Way, right? And um and even if we all got our parks into compliance, there's such a glow to the east from um from the city on out to Ellisville that we would never get to where we can see more than a handful of stars, which is very sad. But um uh it's so this effort is more about the benefits to wildlife I think than it is to um to uh you know let kids see what the sky used to used to look like. Um my questions are um community park is 100 acres roughly, isn't it Joe?

67. Okay. Um and what about Bluffview? It's 100. Okay. So, my yard's in that range and I'm as night sky compliant as they come with with my lighting, uh, you know, exterior lighting and all that kind of stuff. I is there a opportunity for private citizens or residents to jump on the application or make a separate application or do you know that? I will look into it. I honestly don't know. However, um, I feel like it's usually public spaces because that's my thought. It has to be open to the public. um for them to be able to actually go view the sky. And so if you would like to make your yard public, then maybe

is that a donation? Well, I' I've offered parts of it, but I'm not sure I'm ready to give up the whole thing. So So um Okay. Well, anyway, but I just wanted to encourage you to keep keep at it. This is a great thing.

Yeah. No, absolutely. And this year we even reached out to uh Singer Ice Cream and Good News Brewing um just to see if maybe they'd humor us and do like a dark sky flavor for the month of April because it's dark sky week. It's also bird migration. It's and they both agreed to do that. And so there will be a dark sky beer at Good News and it's Singers. I'm assuming a dark chocolate of some sort type of ice cream. And so yeah, there's all kinds of fun ways that we can incorporate it and um yeah. So, we're getting there. So, drinking beer and eating ice cream, that's making a statement for the in favor of the environment. What a great thing. Absolutely. Just make sure you drink your beer in a glass.

Thank you very much for that presentation, that update. U great program. Next on the uh action items is Route 66. Route 66 historic markers. Uh director. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair and members of the committee, if you feel like you've been on a roller coaster with this particular item, you have. As of Friday, when this report was prepared, the secondary manufacturer of the marker was having trouble with the backside of the marker, specifically the map. The department had reached that point like,

we're going to miss the anniversary if we don't get something moving forward. Mhm. As of Monday, they figured it out. So tonight, the department is respectfully requesting no action on this item. All right. Next. Move on. We're back catching back up here. Mr. Chair, I we typically kind of go real quickly over this one. Melanie Travis, a lot of direction from Tom. substantial direction from town. I've redone the development site on our web page. I'm really lucky to see it. I know we're a little long into No, go ahead. No, we're ahead. They did a great job.

Yeah. No, thank you. We'd love to see it. Just give me a few moments to That's why Travis just

Okay. So, as director Venich me mentioned, we made um a substantial change to how we share information with our residents and the p general public about um current developments within the city of Wildwood. And we tried to do it in a context of how the residents think about the information and not how planners think about the information. Uh so let us know if we haven't accomplished that. Um so this is the landing page for the current developments page and we'll have we'll direct anyone inquiring about certain things to this page. So the thought process was that any person could find a development that they might be interested in using three different um ways of of finding it. The first would be if they receive a notice in the mail advising them of a a meeting date. Um so that's this first tab here, upcoming public hearings and meetings. Um, so if they if someone received a postcard or heard from their neighbor that there was a meeting on April 6th or they picked up a card out of the uh the sign that was posted on the site that was near their home, they could come here and say, "Oh, April 6th. Let's see what that's about." And they would click on that and it would take them to the document that describes what the meeting's about. So that's by date. Um, and then the next is we provide a list of current developments in the separate tab. So, um, this would be if they had the name of the project or the PZ number that we assigned to the project. Um, they could come here and and find it by the PZ number or the name of the subdivision that's been approved. A new addition and improvement we think uh with this is that we've started to list projects that have been approved and are under construction. Okay.

So, there would be a page to provide an update um regarding projects that have been through the process, but they're currently under construction, like the apartments down the road or the reserve at Wildwood or the number of other projects that are under construction. That's not something we've done in the past. Um and certainly, um it it's an improvement, we think.

Um so, these pages, I won't click on them now, but each of these are hyperlinks, and each of the projects have their own dedicated project page is what we're calling them. And I'll show share those with you. um after we get through the third component of how they might find a development they're interested in. Before I go to that, we've also added a couple of buttons here on this current development page. Um the first is a new uh idea that we've had. Mr. Lee's idea is to have an e-newsletter that was dedicated to public notices for meetings so that someone who might care about all development in Wildwood and not just the ones within 3,000 ft of their home could sign up to receive an email notification when there's a public meeting scheduled um and what it's regarding. Um so that's a new thing. We haven't rolled it out yet. It's available for people to sign up, but we have to work through some of the workflow with it before we go live with it. And then we also assumed that people who might be interested in current developments in Wildwood might also be interested in watching the meetings that are current developments are discussed. So we created a button that takes them to the YouTube page that will have all of the recorded meetings um discussing current developments. And then next the very the very pretty side of this website is we created a story map. So this is a map um that it's an interactive map that people can navigate. Um, and sorry, there's the glitch is because of Zoom. This all looks normal on my computer.

Um, and so people can navigate. So if they they drive by a project like the reserve and they see it under construction, they could come to this map and be like, "What's that about? What's going on there?" And they click on it, then there's a short description. That's awesome. And then a button to click projects details, which would take you to the project pages that I'll show you in a minute.

I want to show you. We offer the opportunity for people to, this is an embedded map into the city's website. Um, but we also offer the opportunity to view it as a full uh full screen map and it looks much nicer. It's a lot easier to navigate. Um, and so again, the list of the projects through here and they can move around, zoom in, or they can start with number one and then just scroll down and see the different descriptions and click through if they anything strikes their fancy. Um, so I'm going to go jump back to the current development pages and then very quickly show you kind of the meat of the the new um update. This is the This is where people navigate. The next section is where people learn the information that they're seeking. So, the project pages are broken down into by name, and then we have a a simple description of what the proposal is, a status, and then we couldn't help ourselves as planners. We've got the petitioner, the property address, general property location, locator numbers, etc. And then we've got the council member or the council board where they can click through and find your contact information if they wanted to contact you about a particular development. And then the staff contact if they if they had questions for staff.

It's very good you put the details in there Travis because just a description might get confusing to somebody and this this gives a unique designation. Yes. Thank you. Thank you.

And so then we created this graphic. We uh pretty much any development in Wildwood has seven steps. Development and zoning review, public hearing at uh commission, the information report and department recommendation at commission, letter of recommendation, final action by the planning and zoning commission and then on to city council for a public hearing and then the legislative process and then the site de development plan approval. So that's kind of the big buckets. So we created this graphic to to demonstrate that to people. And then underneath is a table of as the project moves through those processes, we would update this table um the supporting document. This is the agenda item that went to the development and zoning review committee. This is the this would go to the packet of information that went to the public hearing for the planning and zoning commission. And then on down the line they could follow through as the reports are issued um and see where it's at in this process um in this table. And then all the documents would live here as the project moved forward where anybody could access them um to see what the history of the project is or whatever they might be interested. This is opposed to how we currently do it. And you have to know how to navigate the agenda center. You have to know what the meeting date was. You have to know if we skipped a month because it got postponed. You just have to know about it. It's it's it's all there. We just tell people it's all on the website.

Yeah. But it's this is a simpler way for folks to find it based on the project that they might be interested in. And then we can do things like this and provide exhibits for people to get a quick look because some people just want to see that planned and go, "Oh, that's fine. That that's okay with me." Or they might see it and go, "I really need to get involved with this." Um, so we can do things like that too. And Travis, as far as the timeline goes, how soon after meeting A does the information get updated on the website? within a week, within 24 hours, within

So the the kind of the workflow side of it, the the day-to-day side of it for us is whenever um the information report for West Mill was prepared the Friday before October 6th, once that's uploaded to the website through the agenda center, we would just add a simple step to our workflow and we would throw the um link on this page before we left for the week. So, it should be as up to date as the agenda center is.

And for just a brief little background, we had a page pages like this um prior to the pandemic. Um and it was wellreceived by the community. It didn't quite look like this. We didn't have the story map capabilities yet. Um but we did have pages like this in the past. It was very wellreceived and uh because we archived a lot of documents from the website, we broke a lot of links and it got to the point where we just had to had to take take it down. So, um, this has been done. It's been wellreceived, um, by the public and you all, elected officials. Um, so we're hoping that this is a step in the right direction. Awesome.

And you've gotten guidance from um, our any developer resources on how to make sure that if we have to move this off of this platform, you're not going to break links. the next well we broke the links ourselves okay the city decided to archive a bunch of documents which led to the that page so that's a story for another day but um we're moving forward um and also and thank you for the question because we we had uh an individual commercial broker contact us about what's going on in Wildwood for residential projects we were able to give them the story map that you all saw and they were very complimentary of how helpful that was for them to understand um great all the work that's going on here

that's great the quote was this is really slick. So I took that as nice work. Yeah, this is really excellent. Travis and if there's any suggestions after the meeting um via email or however um we're happy to take them. I have a question on the agenda center page would be we have very little control. Um yeah, how are you defining development? Like is it any new building being constructed or is it add-ons? Is it somebody putting in a pool? Is it well all the above or

so it's basically and this is I don't want to complicate things but this is also connected to the recent development trends report that we prepare each month slightly modified that to make it a little more streamlined for you. Um pretty much anything that would land on that report that has to go to the planning and zoning commission. Okay. Well, we'll start with the DZRC and if it has to go through the planning and zoning commission process, um, and then I would add to that the some of the site plans that we've done for like the Durgga Temple and the Mgan Temple. Um, items like that would be development. It's not for at this time. It's not for board of adjustment cases. It's not for people pulling zoning authorizations for a new accessory structure. It's not including any of those types. It's just planning and zoning commission.

If there's FAQ or something like that, you can put those criteria right in it. So that people we can further describe yeah on the page we've we've not spent a lot of time in kind of the introductory paragraphs and things because those are are kind of the easy ones to do. That's a good idea for something like that. Yeah. Just to describe and fun. Yeah. Very good. Very good. Thank you. Thank you very much. Great work. Wait your permission. I just wanted to Yeah. Go ahead Tom.

I just wanted to say thanks to Melanie Travis but uh for putting this together. They been working pretty hard on that. So, just wanted to call out that that is a really cool tool and I know I've showed a couple residents what they put together thus far and some people are really excited. We also have uh some info about it out going into the gazette so folks are going to be able to take it for a swing here soon. So, just wanted to highlight some really good work from the team. Nice work, guys. Yeah, really good. Thanks, Tom. Um, all right. That takes us to park matters. Seven items

if he wants consideration. First one is bidding results for the resurfacing of the parking lot area at anniversary park. Director,

Mr. Chair, Mr. Chair, members of the committee. Starting back in 2024, we've been discussing resurfacing Anniversary Park. Anniversary Park is new because it opened about 10 years after the incorporation. It has not been resurfaced in that time period, meaning it's now almost 20 years old. We did a bidding process initially in 2025, but we also discovered that the Missouri Department of Transportation had desires on some additional money for the roof improvements. So, that money that was to be used for resurfacing was shifted. the city council as part of this year's capital improvement program put money back in for the resurfacing. We bid the project. We received seven responses. The low bidder and a qualified bidder is EIR. E-IR has done work in the city of Broadway. The street superintendent Scott Ho is familiar with their work and said that all three of the top bids are good companies. And so tonight, the department is respectfully requesting endorsement of E- Mir for the resurfacing of anniversary park so that legislation can be prepared for the April 13th city council meeting. Somebody like to make that motion. Council member Dodwell, second by Council Rambo. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all in favor, please say I.

I. I. Oppos. Any abstension? So, just a couple PS's. The bid is less than what we budgeted by $6,000 and it's less than the last bidding process as well. So, it really turned out awesome. You know, we made lemonade out of those limits. Perfect. Exciting to see that done. Um, next on the agenda is the memorandum of understanding with Department of Natural Resources for the Al Foster Trail in Ward Six. Director Budich.

Again, thank you, Mr. Chair, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, as you may recall, in 2025, the park superintendent at Castlewood State Park contacted the department of planning and parks and wanted to propose a fairing of responsibilities along the Alfa food trail. The process wasn't necessarily to have the city take it over. It was just to do general maintenance requirements whereas they the state would continue to take care of all of the bridges, major repairs, resurfacing etc. The committee endorsed that and the committee requested that a formal memorandum of understanding be prepared. That formal document is part of your packet tonight attached to the memorandum. Tonight I'm not asking for any action. providing it to you so you can have a review it at your leisure before our next meeting month next month. And in that time frame, I will have our city attorney review it again as well. So if there are any initial questions regarding this, I'll be glad to try to answer them now. And one caveat to all of this is the amount that we spend cannot exceed $8,000 per the motion of the committee and the action of city council. How's some

um it's mentioning having contract contractors do things. This would be city contractors that we currently have under Yes. Okay. Yeah. So that's a very good question. As you know, we do those maintenance contracts at the start of the year. We would use one of those. Okay. Okay. Awesome. Anybody else have any questions? Okay, thank you very much, Director Vich. Um, next is the Village Green phase one at Essen Log Cabin update A. Director Vich,

thank you again. If you haven't been behind city hall, there's a mammoth structure that's come out of the ground. Wouldn't say mammoth. Well, it sure looks bigger than I remember it. So, how's that? Just doesn't have all the trees around it.

So, just a couple quick items. Obviously, the SNL log cabin is moving forward very quickly. Um, Jerrett Creek Excavating has done a wonderful job. The master carpenter that's doing much of the work out there has, I think, just um taken this on as a personal challenge and we just couldn't be happier with the quality of the work right now. Two things relating to the village green. Um first uh some of the furniture was delivered today and so there are benches and trash recepticles now that's still green. Uh the remaining furniture according to bombshell construction will be months and months away and so I don't know if that's terror related war related whatever the circumstance. So Mr. Do has offered that he would extend a $10,000 credit to the city and we could address the furniture at a later date. And so that's the first item for consideration tonight.

Are they still is it is the furniture still under order on order? It is still under order because again we just got the partial shipment today. Okay. So that's the question he has. Do we want to wait or do we want to accept a credit to that component of the overall cost of the project and find another solution for the purposes of the the tables and chairs and a few other ancillary items? You confident we can do that? I mean, that'd be the ideal solution because we get it quicker, right? Well, you may recall when when Mr. Do mentioned back at the middle part of October of last year that he had failed to order the furniture. He made a decision maybe to try to find an interim solution.

Yeah. And so Pen Kitel and Andy Do worked together and they found a couple of other providers. The it's not identical, but it was quality. It was quality equipment generally manufactured here in the United States and had a lot less of a lead time in terms of providing. So I think we could do it. Um but Village Green phase one has a challenge. Um so I don't want to make a promise but

I know that if Mr. Dopp said months and months that's probably a pretty accurate description these days. And then secondly, there is a change order request from Bombshell Construction relating to the delays associated with the undergrounding of the utility lines. Um it's inclusive of two major things. The mobilization of next level which was the concrete subcontractor and then the ongoing requirements of the city to provide storm water pollution prevention plan. The department is not supportive of the mobilization just because I just don't see that as a legitimate cost that should be assumed by the city. I think there's an argument could be made that that mobilization means I got my truck and drove out here. I don't know if we should be paying x amount of dollars for that. However, I do think there is a legitimate component to the stormwater pollution prevention plan improvements and their maintenance and I think CDI should pay for that because they made the mistake on the engineered plan and caused a delay. So tonight, the department is seeking direction on the credit relative to the remaining furniture that was not shipped with the items we received and then to basically direct our city attorney to basically have CDI respond to request to compensate the general contractor for the additional storm water improvements. Thank you, Council Mama.

Yeah, I I think um I would like to get the furniture here and if you have reasonable confidence, we can have Americanmade furniture of similar quality um rel uh similar cost um much more quickly. I'd like to off you authorize you to at least go and try to do that because there's no harm, no foul. Well, if you can't do it, we're we've already got the stuff on order and we can then, you know, take the credit. Um, I if we if we do find it. So, um, if that's a that's a convoluted motion, but want to wait to do everything at once or do you want to have this motion separated? I want to separate it. Seems to be separate. Make the motion. Okay. So, that's

Sorry. The good news is we're only about we're less than four weeks away from the next meeting. So, I think I can have something back pretty quick and to you as the committee. Please do. Go ahead. Yeah, that's we got a motion on the floor for them to explore other options. Second by council Dodwell. Any discussion on the motion? All in favor, please say I. I. Any oppose? Any absent?

Okay. And then the other relates to the change order. Again, I think we ought to at least attempt to have the responsible party in this case CDI compensate general the general contractor Bombshell Construction and um I think it would require obviously some discussion between attorneys but I like I just don't feel that the city is at fault here and that the cost of that change order should be borne by the taxpayers. um we paid a quarter of a million dollars to CDI to do the plans and so I just feel it's incumbent on us to make them stand tall. I agree.

I think most of us have felt that way from the beginning when we talked about this multiple times. I think so. Would somebody like to make that motion to refer it to the city attorney? Council member Godwell second council Rambo. Any discussion? Chair, before we vote, could I add a little note here too?

Yeah. And I know this was in the report, but I just wanted to emphasize the fact that we do have and this is standard within all of our agreements. And you know, in this case, I do think CDI bears a lot of the blame for the storm water management component of the SWIP. But at the end of the day, we do have a change order process. And for all the other change orders that took place, they had submitted the documentation prior to us executing and making said changes. And the department recognizes that during the course of a construction process, um, you're going to have instances that accumulate, this, what they're pretty much saying in this change order is it's an accumulation of of fee over amount of time because they had to come out more and make sure the SWIP was maintained. Um, that said, they should have been submitting that on a almost at least weekly, quarterly basis, getting us to approve it as a as a change order in of itself. it wouldn't be an afteraction change order. Um, and then also just bringing up the point that having a change order come in at roughly $400,000 and then coming back with a different change order that kind of speaks to itself too in the validity of the claim. I do think there is some it is true that they did have to maintain the SWIP a little bit longer than necessary. Um, I just think at this point the department and the city really shouldn't be funding that component of this because this really truly wasn't the fault of the city.

Yeah, I think we all agree on that. Okay, so we have the motion and the second and all in favor of the motion, please say I. I. Any oppose? Any abstension? Okay, thank you. Oh, so that I just have one question on that. Will Bombshell be notified that this is where we're taking things? Certainly. Okay. I just My intent would be to tell him we're going to pass this on to the attorney and see what we can do to gain you some some to make you more whole. Yeah. Okay. Uh okay. Next on Go ahead.

Oh, one thing. Sorry. Um, and this is something I just want to double check too about the chairs and the trash receptacles. Um, to just make sure and I'd have to just check back on the agreement, but was the credit commiserate with the cost of the what was bid out? Joe, I would have to double check that to make sure. In conversations with Ken Kitel today, he said yes. Okay. Just making sure. Okay. Thank you. checked the line items relative to the different components of furniture and found that the credit would be comparable. Okay. Thanks, Joe. Okay. Next is Village Green phase 2 engineered plan for all-inclusive playgrounds.

Thank you again, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair and members of the committee, we have the third version of what I would call an engineered plan for the installation of a all-inclusive playground. The third plan contains roughly three sheets. Um the key shoot is the one that actually shows the location of the playground relative to the 3 acre site that is west of the city oval. And as you can see, it's kind of been tucked into what I call the northwest corner of the property partially because of favorable. And in my opinion, more importantly, other than one small tree, we can save all of the mature trees on that portion of the site, which I think is a really substantial win for the city, and it adds almost immediate aesthetic and integrity to the plan itself.

Just a real quick question on that. Sure. Um, has our arborist reviewed the the method for which water is going to get to those branch trees because I know we have somewhat permeable surface that's going down on this playground and um Mike hasn't yet been given the grading plan because we don't have it. Okay. Once we have the grading plan and some of the additional information about the cleaning walls, things along those lines, I'm sure he sees it first.

I was just curious because it um at City Park we lost some trees once that stuff started going down, but they were integral inside that area versus offsides. So I found is you know we do the best we can but it just takes an errant contractor with it. Oh yeah the best way plans and we lost that oak on the east side of Old Pond School and I can assure you between that that volunteer group that did the oversight of the renovation of Old Pond School, they were out there chewing on that guy every day and it's just like what happened? But yeah,

I don't listen to you.

Um, so you have the what I consider probably the best plan to date available for your review. Um, it does show um the parking access off of Crest Drive. As you know, that's probably not something that's feasible. But the struggle that the engineer and did play our consultant on the playground internal being the city administrator and us is how can we have an inclusive playground when they have to go almost 300 ft to get to the access point. So we showed parking. the firm has the engineering firm has tried to integrate it into the future design of Main Street so it wouldn't be disposable or temporary in nature. So we're staying on that. Um Tom, Rick and I have had a conversation about Crest Drive and I think there's going to be more to follow on that shortly. And then the couple last items and I'll do this quickly as possible. um storm water. That's where they're working right now with MSD trying to figure out the best solution. And as you know, we've kind of asked them to expand and look at phase one and then just see where it all goes, which means city hall to the big basin behind the theater. So I'll have more information shortly on storm water. Lastly, Ideal Landscape Group, which is the general contractor and has engaged the engineering firm, has asked that we consider pre- purchasing the restroom facility at approximately $210,000 because the lead time on that is anywhere from four to six months.

Is it a modular one of those modular ones? Yeah. Okay. The picture here.

Well, key points about that. Obviously, it's one of those things that if there is a nuclear attack, we all should run into the restrooms, but it'll probably withstand it. It is fully accessible and we do have adult changing tables and other amenities in there that are specifically intended to accommodate population we're trying to reach. But yes, they are saying that with the lead time, the sooner we do it, the better. I know it's a pretty substantial ask. So, tonight I provided you the information. We're looking at the best color selections and I I need more input because we have the playground furniture

and and the equipment and I want to and what's in village green phase one. I want to make sure it all kind of fits together if we can. But I wanted you to see it and get your first impressions. If we do have that long of lead time, we come back at the meeting in April and have a a plan in terms of the color selections, etc. Would that be something that we could consider? Thank you. Catch, what what's a playground surface? It's it's like community park. So, it's cushion.

Yes. It's the soft material. It's not mulch. And then my other question, sorry. So if we have parking on the Crest View side, how are residents going to get to that? Are they going to come down Crest View? Either come down from Etherton Road or come up from Main Street by city hall. We it we've reached that point where we have to make a decision. I'm sorry. If you can't have an inclusive playground, I don't want to sound like a broken record, have people either walking 300 feet, 100 yards football field or having someone push their child or

But we would we would have to open that though, right? We're going to have to do something. And this isn't necessarily the time or place to discuss that, but yeah, we'll talk about Yeah, I'm I'm sorry. So, that's fine. That's fine. No, if if you so they'll either have to come down this way to Main Street, but then you still won't be close to the playground. I like to think we maybe can dodge that issue just because we have some space, but it's not great space or they have to come down on the private street of which we own 213. We're not It's not that we don't have rights. Construction access is going to come that way. There is no other way. Okay. So they can come in that way.

Yeah. Council Mora. Yeah. 213 is quite discouraging. We were there was an impetus behind the um acquisition of of you know rights of way and so on and so forth and doing Main Street the way it needs to be done. And we haven't talked about it in council or in this meeting for a while. And I I suspect that it's a a close session discussion item, but I'm wondering if you are seeing glimmers of hope in in in that um regard. Mr. Lee,

yes, I can add some context there and thank you Dr. for bringing that to the forefront here. Um we will most likely be having a close session discussion on this. Uh but what I can share is we have been making movement in the right direction here and we actually do have a pretty good understanding of what right of way would be necessary in order to fully open Main Street in the way that we've all planned it and the way that we've showed in that preliminary design sheet. Um, that said, the one thing we are concerned about and we're wanting to make sure of because it can make things tricky if you start making offers and going out uh to acquire property is one Amron and the fact that they're going to have to move on the north side of the street. They're going to have to push those lines back. Uh, I think we're looking at it most likely they're going to have to push back quite a few feet. I mean, probably four or five, six feet. And that's going to play a role into the negotiations we have with those property owners. uh because not only are we going to be acquiring their the the land to make right ofway um enough right ofway to accommodate their push back uh utility poles because if we have that uh we can't afford to underground them though that was $3 million $2.9 million in and of itself uh we do have monies budgeted to do the street but right now it just isn't in the cards moneywise um to be able to put the the the electrical underground. The other consideration is just we haven't finalized the storm water component with the consultant and that's something we've been pushing them on. That said, we don't believe that's going to be as much of an impact. What we're really worried about is that easement from Amron and we the thing we're worried about is going out with the right-of-way numbers that we think we need. Um and then Amron coming back and saying we would need a separate easement on our own or hey, no, we don't need a separate easement. We're not going to go after ourselves. We're going to need to be placed in your right of way. You need an extra 3 ft. And then while we're negotiating with someone, we may be in an inst in a situation where we'd be asking them, "Oh, we actually

need two more feet." We want to make sure what we offer at the front end is exactly what's going to happen and and no more, no less. Um, and that it's it's very straightforward and transparent, but nonetheless, we are moving close uh closer to it. We will be having a discussion about this shortly. Um, but as Mr. Bunage had mentioned we are be kind of getting to a critical point here. We have been pushing the consultant on this. Um we might have another item coming back with that consultant too. It it is a consultant we had used for the village green. So we uh couple convoluting factors all playing in at once. But overall we do have monies budgeted this year for the rideofway acquisition and I think we'll have offers out before the end of the year.

Awesome. Great news. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Chair, I did not want any action, but if you would look at the restroom facility and if you have some thoughts on finishes and colors, I'd love to hear that sometimes. I I would vote for some of the gray green to kind of go in with the rest of the space around there. I'll let you pick specifically which ones you want, but um Oh, that was Yeah, the baby tan. I didn't see it. this color. No, it's it's on your website.

Yeah, it's on here. Which documents it under? Like I say, if you just want to look at it, shoot an email under I um we'll be glad to pull it all together. And like I say, we're in a good position. We're less than four weeks from the next meeting, so we'll have something back pretty quick. Thank you very much. Uh, okay. Next is a Village Green phase 2 fundraising efforts, an upcoming event. Mr. Rubito,

uh, thank you again, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, members of the committee. Um, as far as the fundraising efforts uh are going, uh, we are, as of the first of the month, we were at approximately $24,000 uh, raised so far. um our Able Fables um a book company that we had partnered with for a couple of months. They got back to me and um she was very apologetic, but they raised $215, but I was selling 13 sweatshirts and 30 t-shirts, so there was clearly a lot of support. Um I feel like those are great numbers. Um but yeah, at any rate, she was very kind about it and uh offered to donate books, which I made the suggestion um that maybe we include, you know, these uh books that focus on inclusion stuff, maybe put them in our community park um for the storybook walk. Uh so there's that thought and maybe even add in there something having to do with the sponsorship of the park while people are going through this um just to raise awareness. Um so the group met again just on Monday and it was a very productive meeting in which they worked through a bunch of the uh components of the upcoming event uh which is going to be combined with the village green grand opening on the 25th of April. Um there's going to be a silent auction that leads up to uh the week that leads up to the actual um event. And there's still kind of a question about whether or not it's going to end at noon when the village green or stay open longer. Um Natalie said depending on what we have going into the uh uh for going into the auction, it might be worthwhile to keep it open just to keep bids up and um we might even attract national attention for some of the items that we have for it. Um so refreshments will be offered

and um unlimited play will provide a brief uh you know um it'll start with an introduction from the mayor and um some background information provided by director Vunage and then you know um Natalie will give uh you know share her a little bit of her story as well as Chelsea Bellu who is a resident of Wildwood and one of the initial families that started this whole thing and is also part of the fundraising group. Um, but they have the suggestion of incorporating as much fun into this as possible and maybe having, you know, kids introduce people and have them as a part of it or maybe handing out things and such. And so we're working on those details still, but it should be a fun event. Um, and so afterwards, the people that are at the VIP event that will be hosted either in here or council chambers will then go up and join everyone for the ribbon cutting. Um, and so the ribbon cutting will be on site and unlimited play will come out in advance to kind of outline the park in uh, spray paint and then where each of the individual um, pieces uh, of equipment will be, they're going to have a sign that kind of describes it, maybe shows a photo and has a QR code so that people can, you know, uh, sponsor that equipment while they happen to be on site taking a little walk. And so it wouldn't just be the people that are in the VIP group that would have the opportunity to um you know see it, walk it, um experience it in more of a 3D kind of environment. And so it should be fun. Um not all the details are worked out. However, uh we did uh get invitations ordered and there was a uh we provided an image in your packet, but it's essentially going to be a card that has a handwritten note from the mayor and then the invitation inside that has some details about the park on the back of it. But I think they turned out absolutely lovely. And so those invitations will go out to um a list of

of people that we've come up with. uh the department as well as the group has also come up with a list of over a hundred people that we've reached out to for sponsorship and or uh to donate items to the silent auction and those have already started rolling in. So that's exciting news. We have several wine tastings um some of them in home, some of them at restaurants. Uh we also got tickets for uh the Ambush um and uh even a signed Taylor Swift guitar. And so yeah, so this uh could actually draw a lot of attention and could actually bring in a significant um he had two bottles of rum until

I don't know what I don't know what bottles of rum he's referring. I don't know where. No. Yeah, we need to promote that Taylor Swift guitar. Yeah. So the whole suggested that we uh How much is it? My grandmother, my granddaughter loves Taylor's. Well, that's fantastic. We will keep you involved. It's an auction. So where will the auction be? The highest bidder is,

right? So it's going to be an online auction and even while the event is going on, it'll still be online. There will be QR codes and we'll have um you know tablets and stuff. But I think that leading up I think during the auction we're going to set up maybe tables in you know the lobby area here and have things on display because sometimes people just want to see the things you know. Um but yeah so we have a lot of really great items that have come in already and I'm excited to see what's coming next. I I I know that I know that um Facebook has Excuse me, I'm sorry. I know that Facebook uh has ad space

and I'm wondering if like um uh Tik Tok and and Pinterest and so on and so forth. I wonder if they have those because that that guitar alone is probably worth a lot of money if we can get word out. It's more of an, you know, more more attention national presence. I mean, yeah, that's definitely somebody in New York City might have a lot more money than somebody in Wow. Absolutely. Absolutely. That's definitely worth looking into. Yeah, it's worth or if we could promote the entire silent auction. Yes, that's what that's that was my point. But um you've you've got a a keystone um that's could be quite valuable if we played our cards right.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And unlimited play has done this before and they're actually going to be handling the auction component of it, but they have a tool that they use. C3. So they're hosting it and we'll have all the bidding online through unlimited play. How will we get the word out? How will we get the word out about the auction? Well, we'll do we'll Yeah, I mean we'll do it through whatever means that we have as the city, but unlimited play I mean this is not their first rodeo. Yeah. Good. Okay. All right. just just picture of a person playing. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Or if if you happen to know anybody that interested in donating something um by all means send them on up here with it. We are happy to take in anything. And we've also, you know, in our letter included something to the extent of like with our smaller businesses that no auction item is too big or too small. And uh we had um the businesses of Wildwood reach out to all of the businesses. And so therefore we could even combine things, you know, the in businesses of Wildwood basket or council member and I discussed like a Route 66 basket and things like that. And so um yeah, things swing around Funtown. We're getting a gift certificate for and so all kinds of fun things. Um, and we've heard from some of the businesses that are interested in um, donating items and, uh, I've also heard from at least one business uh, inquiring as to, you know, how much they have to donate in order to get their name on a sign and I was happy to let them know. So, yeah. So, it's moving right along and I think that we're getting to a very exciting time in in this process. Um the uh grant that we discussed at the last meeting, the $50,000 through the T-Mobile um hometown grants uh is due on Tuesday and we have all of the letters of support that we need for it and it's just a matter of continuing to fill out all of the questions and such, but that should be submitted by Friday. So fingers crossed there as well. Um, and aside from that, I think that those are

I tell them about Channel 5.

Oh, yeah. Absolutely. So, that is exciting. That I do I do have more updates. Um, Chelsea Bellu uh again um is on the uh committee or the group, the fundraising group, and um was also one of the moms that started this conversation. and um she was actually interviewed by Mike Fush um for um a little news event and I think it's supposed to be a 4minute um so which apparently is a lot of air time and so it's promoting both you know inclusive playgrounds and such but it is also telling her story and her struggles and um and you know focusing attention towards the city of Wildwood and this fundraising that we are doing for this. So hopefully we will actually reach a broader spectrum there as well. And so yeah, it is very exciting. Um, thus far we have I think 45 potential donors on or um like people that include in the VIP invitations and if there's anyone that you would like included on that list, please by all means send me there.

What's included in the VIP? Is it It's just the event before the ribbon cutting. Do they get any food? Do they get any orders? Yeah. So, we plan on having light refreshments. Um, yes. And so, there will be food provided. And And then is anybody going to I'm asking because I'm trying to find people, but I they're asking me. So, what am I coming to? Coming to learn more about our park and actually walk the site and to open bring their checkbooks. Oh, wait. I know that. But money, you have to give them something.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, in the silent auction, I think will be quite a draw and so that's exciting in and of itself. Um, but yeah, and and you know, Natalie will be giving a little bit of a speech and and whatnot, but yeah, I mean, learning about how this can impact our community, um, I think is is the majority. That VIP group will have a presentation done prior to going outside. That was my question. Yeah. And then I'll see it here from Natalie from Init. But then they're going to do something again outside and we'll go out to the ribbon fetty and they'll be able to see. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. So, it's just to learn more about it and uh learn why it's important and why this is something we're pursuing. Um and and then go out and enjoy the 3D experience walkthrough. So, it we're we're going to make it as fun as we can. Have you all seen the lights at night in fantastic because I haven't seen them yet. Oh, well, you get to see them tonight. They look like they're floating. Yeah. Alien spaceships. Yeah. They're just They're very dim. So, the thing the invitation we got, I guess the note, whatever. It said lunch with the mayor. So, is that the same thing as the VIP thing? Uh, I don't think it says It says what? Brunch.

It should say like refreshments. That's what you did, but the meeting before we talked about brunch. That's Oh, yeah. Yeah. Happy invitation. So, which are we doing? Refreshments. Yes, light. Light refreshments. Um, so it will be kind of brunchy, you know, type finger foods, things like that. Beer and ice cream. We're working on getting someone in with mimosas, maybe. Um, you know, some kind of something like that. Limited play is working on getting the catering component to involve beverages and such. And so, can the city do that? To my knowledge. Yes, we ask. Yeah, ask ask permission later.

And with that, Dr. Our presentation unless you have any more questions. Thank you very much. Tom, did you have something? I was just going to mention u to provide some clarity. My understanding was that we were going to have an unlimited play providing some of those components that uh may not be able to be provided by the city, but in some instances we are able to provide an alcoholic beverage. Um like at the board board and commissions, obviously not a massive amount, but um that said um the understanding is that would be coming from the unlimited play side. Thank you. Thank you very much for that. Thank you.

Um that takes us into the last two items under parks matters which are the wild and recreation programming update on current future offerings and facility reservations event registrations and ongoing long-term maintenance costs for parks and trail facilities. Um does anybody have any questions or did you have anything on that director Vish? No just if there's any questions the three of us be glad to answer them. Anybody not there giving us the info? Yeah. And then we have a close session. I was going to ask for a motion and second to postpone the close session. Okay. Would somebody like to make that motion?

Um because we're out of time or a couple of things. First of all, the phone call that that you just received on it. Um there seems to be a question of ownership. Um Oh. So I'm trying to work through that. So I'll make that motion. Got a motion postpone. Second for council. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all in favor, please say I. I. I. Any oppose? Any obstension? Okay. Need to go back.

All right. That that is it. Um, does anybody have anything under miscellaneous? I was going to just say this brings us to the end of another uh year of the parks and planning committee and I just wanted to thank everybody for the opportunity to serve as chair and appreciate all the conversation and discussions that everybody brings to the table and it's always a great group and uh to those council members that may or may not be on the council or on the committee anymore. Great job and um thank you for your service. Um, and it's been a pleasure serving on this committee with everybody. So, uh,

we don't have a meeting in May. April will have one and then May will be the new committee. Yeah, that's what I meant. We didn't have What's it What's the date on the April 21st? So, that's after the election. Remember? Oh, but we don't certify it until then. Since we only have one meeting a month, the certification certifi Well, that was a good warm-up speed. That's good. Well, now I don't have to give it next time. I'd like to hear it again. Great. Most importantly, thank you to the department and the city staff for all the hard work you guys do and putting everything together for us and dealing with our banter. So,

anyway, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Council member Dwell second by council member Blooki. Uh, all in favor of the motion, please say I. I. Any oppose? Any abstensions? All right. Thanks a lot, guys.