07/18/2022 Community Redevelopment Agency Meeting Minutes July 18, 2022
City of Clearwater
Main Library- Council Chambers
100 N. Osceola Avenue
Clearwater, FL 33755
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Meeting Minutes
Monday, July 18, 2022
8:00 AM
Main Library - Council Chambers
Community Redevelopment Agency
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City of Clearwater
Community Redevelopment Agency Meeting Minutes July 18, 2022
Roll Call
Present 5 - Chair Frank Hibbard, Trustee Kathleen Beckman, Trustee Mark
Bunker, Trustee David Allbritton, and Trustee Lina Teixeira
Also Present—Jon Jennings—Interim CRA Executive Director, Micah Maxwell —
Assistant City Manager, Michael Delk — Assistant City Manager,
David Margolis — City Attorney, Rosemarie Call — City Clerk, Nicole
Sprague — Deputy City Clerk, and Matt Jackson — Assistant
CRA Director
To provide continuity for research, items are listed in agenda order although not
necessarily discussed in that order.
1. Call To Order
The meeting was called to order at 8:00 a.m.
2. Approval of Minutes
2.1 Approve the minutes of the May 16, 2022 CRA Meeting as submitted in written
summation by the City Clerk.
Trustee Allbritton moved to approve the minutes of the May 16,
2022 CRA Meeting as submitted in written summation by the City
Clerk. The motion was duly seconded and carried unanimously.
3. Citizens to be Heard Regarding Items Not on the Agenda — None.
4. New Business Items
4.1 Approve the transfer of$1,500,000 in Community Redevelopment Agency tax increment
financing (TIF) funds to pay for impact fees and connection fees generated by the
redevelopment partnership between the City, The DeNunzio Group LLC, and Gotham
Property Acquisitions, LLC, and authorize the appropriate officials to execute same.
On May 5, 2022, City Council directed the City Manager and City Attorney to
take all necessary actions to identify a redevelopment concept and team(s) for
the former City Hall site and former Harborview Center site to present to
Clearwater voters for consideration at a November 8, 2022 referendum. Staff
recommended disposition of the properties through an open call for
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City of Clearwater
Community Redevelopment Agency Meeting Minutes July 18, 2022
development concepts. After reviewing each of the three responses, on June
16, 2022, the City Council unanimously selected Gotham Property Acquisitions
and The DeNunzio Group as the City's development partners for these
properties.
In the 2018 Clearwater Downtown Redevelopment plan Policy 11 states, "The
CRA may consider reimbursement of impact fees and permit fees as an
incentive for redevelopment projects that are consistent with this Plan." The
redevelopment proposal for these sites, which includes new rental housing and
ground floor commercial uses, is consistent with the objectives of the
downtown plan including:
Objective 1 B: Support the relocation of Clearwater City Hall to another location
within Downtown Area Plan. Allowing the former City Hall site, which is in a
prime waterfront location, to be utilized for mixed-use, high-rise development
with residential and commercial ground floor uses.
Objective 1 C: Osceola Avenue should develop as an active street frontage. The
pedestrian experience from Downtown to the waterfront will be active and
engaging.
Objective 1 G: Continue to utilize a variety of incentives to encourage the
construction of new residential uses to locate Downtown.
This item seeks approval to transfer one million five hundred-thousand dollars
($1,500,000) from the Agency's TIF to a third-party escrow account for the
purpose of offsetting and paying all impact fees and utility connection fees that
will be owed to the City as a result of this project. The transfer to a third-party
escrow account shall occur in a manner acceptable to the City's Finance
Director.
If approved by the Agency, the escrow will be released to the City on the
developers' behalf as the fees become due, provided that each of the following
contingencies have occurred: (1) approval of changes to the City Charter at the
November 2022 election; (2) City Council approval of a forthcoming
development agreement and a forthcoming purchase and sale agreement on
July 21, 2022 or August 4, 2022, and (3) City Council approval of a forthcoming
Purchase and Sale agreement. Any unused portion or remainder in the escrow
account shall revert to the Agency after payment of all fees described in this
agenda item.
APPROPRIATION CODE AND AMOUNT:
Funding for this transfer will be included in the fiscal year 2022/23 proposed
CRA budget in project R2003, Economic Development - City.
In response to questions, Consultant Amanda Thompson said The
Nolen development received funds for site cleanup. The City Attorney
said developers had asked in order for them to ensure successful
financing, they needed to know that public commitments made by the
CRA or the City would not be withdrawn. Specifically, they asked that
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City of Clearwater
Community Redevelopment Agency Meeting Minutes July 18, 2022
CRA allocations be placed in an escrow account. He said the funds
placed in escrow may earn a trivial interest amount. The funds are
expected to be in escrow for approximately two years. The money will be
released to the City when the impact fees are due when the building
permits are issued, which will occur prior to closing on the real estate. He
said the developer will not spend out of pocket for the permit fees
since the fees will be released to the City. The City Attorney said the
CRA can only reimburse or pay for certain types of fees. The City's
impact fees are primarily 1) water and sewer impact fees, and 2)
multimodal impact fee. The CRA is allowed to offset those impact fees
because they fall under the public works category within the CRA areas.
He said since the statute was amended in 2019, the CRA no longer has a
basis to spend money on permit fees. The City does provide steep
discounts available if the developers choose to utilize private providers
for the building review process. Ms. Thompson said the funding will come
out of the new property tax allocations on October 1, 2022 and will not
impact any allocation in process or currently approved.
Trustee Beckman moved to approve the transfer of $1,500,000 in
Community Redevelopment Agency tax increment financing (TIF)
funds to pay for impact fees and connection fees generated by
the redevelopment partnership between the City, The DeNunzio
Group LLC, and Gotham Property Acquisitions, LLC, and
authorize the appropriate officials to execute same. The motion
was duly seconded and carried unanimously.
4.2 Item Withdrawn
Interim CRA Executive Director Jon Jennings said interviews for the CRA
Executive Director are being conducted this week and staff expects to
finalize a recommendation for the Trustees soon. He said the Trustees will
have an opportunity to meet the finalists. He said he met with Pinellas
County regarding the City taking over the maintenance of the Pinellas Trail,
the County is responsible for maintaining the trail. Staff is looking at what the
City can do to significantly upgrade the conditions of the trail. He said
before the City addresses the Trail's economic impact, upgrading the
conditions of the trail must be handled first.
It was stated that the County is responsible for maintenance of the asphalt
and that the City has nothing around its portion of the trail.
In response to a comment, Consultant Amanda Thompson said the
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City of Clearwater
Community Redevelopment Agency
5. Adjourn
Attest
Meeting Minutes July 18, 2022
placemaking grant would target pop-up retail around the trail; anyone
may apply. The Downtown Development Board (DDB) has allocated
funds for design of the Pinellas Trail, since it located in the DDB's district.
DDB funds would be used for potential improvements within the
right-of-way and on adjacent properties.
In response to a question, Mr. Jennings said he met with the East
Gateway Neighborhood leadership regarding the Mercado design and the
planning effort that was supported by the neighborhood ten years ago.
Those who have recently moved into the neighborhood may not be
as supportive of the planning effort. He said he is reviewing the
information that was proposed originally and go back to the
neighborhood and make a final decision in order for the project to move
forward. He said staff will meet with the neighborhood and determine what
should be Mercado's placeholder (i.e., grass or cement).
The meeting adjourned at 8:23 a.m.
City Clerk
City of Clearwater
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