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08/27/1974 . f~' .:-. ~, ' , '"," r " .,:- ! ~ ",' . ';~. ,;' ", ;, " , .' '\ . . . . . ' I' ,.... c..:~>:) ...{;. ~; .;, ,', " " ,', '. '. j .~ , . .... : '. ~ ' :.\' 'J' I,' ,:l' ',., ' CLEARWATER DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT BOARD - Meeting August 27, 1974 Present: Charles Galloway, Jr. Chairman Le\<Jis Horner Darwin S. Frank M. E. Palmer, Exec. Dir. Joe R. Wolfe Brooks Carter Bob Taylor Leon Hammock Keith Crawford George Se'lvi:.o Tony Shoemaker Wm. Schaub Dom Minotti Mr. & Mrs. Ogg John Chesnut K. K. Smith Mrs. E. B. Weathers Mr. Warren , '. The chairman called the meeting to order and asked Mr. Hammock to give the invocation. All guests were introduced and thanked for their attendance. The Chairman asked Mr. Hammock for a financial statement. The statement through August 27 was read. A motion made, seconded and passed to approve as read. At this point the Chairman explained that due to the absence of one board member, we do not have a quorum, and the action taken today will be ratified at the ne~t meeting. e Mr. Frank was asked by the Chairman to report for the LandUse Com- mittee. Mr. Frank responded saying that the only business he has to report is the need for board approval to sign the CAC contract now in hand. Following an opinion by Mr. Wolfe, our legal counsel, discussion resulted in a motion to change the second paragraph of the letter agreement dated August 15, and which is signed by Mr. Levison for the CAC as follows: lilt is our understanding that payment for this work will be at the conclusion, delivery and acceptance of the statement of ~ork." Further, as to the number of copies which may be furnished by the CAC, it was pointed out by the Chairman that copies must be available for our Board people, the City Commission, the City Staff people, and for all consulting firms who may be asked to make their bid to perform the study project. The motion so made was seconded and passed. , - The Chairman called upon Mr. Brooks Carter to report on the activi- ties of the parking committee. Mr. Curter reported as follows: 1) Mr. Carter explained his contacts with the Central Pinellas Transit Authority for the purpose of assisting the Authority in increasing ridership in the do~ntown area. He explained that the Authority is gr~teful f','r 'any help thc,y may get frcm us. Mr. C l'awford commented that his department is charged with installing bus stop signs, and they are behind because of the number of signs which -1- .J.:: '., - " '." . \>",> \. ',~ ,I , , " ~ '" ,,"" , ". , . , ',., '"01:"\';':" . ,',"," . , ", " ",', . . ',,' , ~. > .' . '.1" .,1'.>. , ,1 " '" c:.<" (, " c ,~, "I , r ~ ! ' " '.I" ~. ',. , ,"', 'U1t~ ,,',,' ", "", -:. ...~~l!iM~/ '~~"1l_m't.!t',Ii"~~.f:,~~~;, '.' 2. e should be placed. Mr. Carter stated that he ~ould stay with this aspect of the problem of getting more people into the downtown area by a published schedule of routes in the papers, and hopefully he will be able to get cooperative reaction from the papers to accom- plish this. 2) Mr. Carter stated that after review of the survey returns we must go back to get a more thorough coverage of responses by the business sector. . 3) with regard to the request made to the City Commission for more long term parking for employees, with a corresponding reduction of long term spaces in the Coachman lot, met with a cool response by the City Commission. Reasons as stated were all related to the cost of making the old auditorium area into a serviceable parking area. (Cost estimate is $21,000.00 for 60 new spaces. Unused existing spaces in the auditorium area at this time was used as a reason to not build employee spaces for lO-hour usage. If ho~ever, employees could be required . to park in the auditorium area, and perhaps,walk another block, Mr. Crawford added that some of the long term spaces in the Coachman lot could be changed to short term spaces for customers in those days when customers parking was in high demand. Mr. Crawford stated that a recent survey ox the usage of the long term spaces in the Coachman lot showed that about t~o-thirds were Maas employees and the third were First National Bank employees. He added that if these people could be told to use the area of the old audi- torium for all-day parking this ~ould release about 200 spaces for short term spaces in the Coachman lot. In ans~er to a question by the Chairman, Mr. Crawford commented that in his opinion, it is a good possibility that the old auditorium area could be made into an employee parking facility, with the condition that this should go on until a multi-level parking structure is built in the immediate area. The area could then not be considered other than an emergency parking area. The Chairman stated that since the prime objection to converting the old auditorium site to long term parking is the cost, that he believes the businesses in the area might be willing to stand this cost. This idea was agreed to by Mr. Schaub of Maas Bros. store. It seems after the discussion, that this change might be favorably received by the City Commission. The members seemed to think that .05 per hour for 10 hours for employees was a reasonable rate to expect. e The Chairman spoke forcibly about the idea of increasing the cost of metered parking for shoppers to 20 cents per hour. He pointed to the already depreciated downtown area as far as shopping is concerned, and said to double the cost of parking for the stores' customers would drive more of them out of the core area. He added that in his opinion, the parking revenue is already putting thousands of dollars into the general fund of the City, and to expect shoppers and others who need the parking facilities in the downtown area to pay for the general operation of the City is an unfair approach to solving tho budget problems. , , '.,' ". . " ", . "01' . , , .",'J <. - " . . . . . . . :.",.:'.. '\:.. ~ ", , , " "...' . .., " . '. . r:r,J .-'~ ~ . i' ,~ ~ ": . . ..1 I'. .' \ ,. I i. .".:,," i it. .,~:: >, . . '. '... . ~ . , ~ ' I, . . ~ ~!i~~~itt~~~~~\~" The Chairman invited Mr. Wolfe to speak of the recent history of do~nto~n parking. He respDnded pointing to the follo~ingJ A continuous loss of customer and employee parking in the a.rea because the city, being the largest employer has continued to encroach into customer and business parking. Over the same years, the City has transferred funds from the ~. parking receipts to general fund, and has pcinted to the continuing reduction of advalorum taxes by the City by these means. ""~""; He pointed to the fact that the City has over the years over-taxed the users of the parking facilities in the area instead of taxing the entire City through ad valorum taxes. He pointed out that the city's purpose of doubling the revenue from parking is to transfer these funds to general use, rather than to use the surpluses for the purpose, to provide for more and better parking facilities for those who need them, a responsibity of the City. He added that the function of off-street parking, by law, is to move and control traffic, and not to make money for the City. He called attentinn to the la~s of the state which show .the intent of the Legislat~rc when these laws were passed. ~he City does not have the ~ authority to raise its parking rates for the purpose of raising funds for general usaqe. Mr. Wolfe concluded that it is high time the property owners repre- sented by the Clearwater Downtown Development Board take a firm stand against the City. Mr. Homer stated that we must not let the City plan for the sake of expediency, as is the case in its attempt to feed the general fund coffers by increasing the parking rates in the downtown area. He added that the downtown merchant is already paying more per customer than is the merchant in the Mall areas of the City. If we allow the City to proceed on this course we must stop the move even if we must take them to court. For the good of the entire city, he added, it may be necessary to employ counsel to prevent planning by implementation, which is destructive to a large part of the City. Mr. Frank reviewed the statements stated up to this time and added that, in his opinion, the Board and its members has an obligation to the people who elected him to protect the economic survival of the downtown area. To sum up, he added that we must challenge the City's ~ authority, if necessary, to operate city-o~ned parking lots, using surpluses for general funds, in court. He added that if the Board does not take this action, there may be individual property owners in the area who might take such action. Mr. Schaub suggested that we should not talk about taking the City to Court until after we have had a chance to talk to the City Commission next Tuesday afternoon. He added that there is some merit in raising the cost of long time parking rates. The Chairman urged that all merchants and businessmen attend the meet- I ing on September 3 and let their feelings be known. He suggested that -3- J:.~i~~~ff2;i1~l~~f)~:'f,r~~;~::,~~il~~!~~~:.i~e;\~'.:: .: ,f": . . .... r-, ' ,,.. ' t" " o.'l t - ~ . e ": 'a s~ memo ....call a '~up the meeting. will be circulated of people on and hopefully the to urge them to at once Tuesday morning Board members attend WLth no other business to be considered, the meeting ~as adjourned. The next meeting of the Board will be September 24th. l4.. E. Palmer ~tive Director FINANCIAL STATEMENT August 27, 1974 Cash on hand July 30 Checking account $7, 316~ 26 Savings account 224.20 'rota 1 7,540.46 . Add cash receipts in AU<]'.1st 28 _ 7 3 Total cash available 71569.19 Less checks paid in August 881.82 Balance August 27 6,687.37 Less cash payable in August 644.61 Est. cash on hand August 31, 1974 $6,042.76 .