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01/16/2024 Community Redevelopment Agency Meeting Minutes January 16, 2024 City of Clearwater Main Library- Council Chambers 100 N. Osceola Avenue Clearwater, FL 33755 e Meeting Minutes Tuesday, January 16, 2024 1 :00 PM Main Library - Council Chambers Community Redevelopment Agency Page 1 City of Clearwater Community Redevelopment Agency Meeting Minutes January 16, 2024 Roll Call Present 5 - Chair Brian Aungst Sr., Trustee Mark Bunker, Trustee David Allbritton, Trustee Kathleen Beckman, and Trustee Lina Teixeira Also Present: Jennifer Poirrier— City Manager, Michael Delk—Assistant City Manager, Daniel Slaughter—Assistant City Manager, David Margolis — City Attorney, Rosemarie Call — City Clerk, Nicole Sprague — Deputy City Clerk, and Anne Lopez— Interim CRA Director To provide continuity for research, items are listed in agenda order although not necessarily discussed in that order. 1. Call to Order— Chair Aungst, Sr. The meeting was called to order at 1:00 p.m. 2. Approval of Minutes 2.1 Approve the minutes of the December 4, 2023 CRA meeting as submitted in written summation by the City Clerk. Trustee Beckman moved to approve the minutes of the December 4, 2023 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 Kathy Flaherty expressed concerns with the rezoning of parklands located in the CRA and urged the parcels remain parks. Michael Foley supported Betty Lane Park remain a park. 4. New Business Items 4.1 Confirm the City Manager's appointment of Jesus Nino as the CRA Executive Director, to be effective on the date to be listed on the Employee Contract. One individual questioned if the new CRA Executive Director is aware of the Mercado and expressed concerns on how the Board has handled the Gateway neighborhood. Page 2 City of Clearwater Community Redevelopment Agency Meeting Minutes January 16, 2024 Trustee Bunker move to confirm the City Manager's appointment of Jesus Nino as the CRA Executive Director, to be effective on the date to be listed on the Employee Contract. The motion was duly seconded and carried unanimously. 4.2 Approve an allocation of$90,000 to partially fund murals in the Downtown CRA as part of a Mural Festival. CRA staff has been working with Amber Brice, Arts and Cultural Affairs Coordinator on a Mural Festival that will take place in the Downtown CRA. The CRA will cover wall priming, materials, and artist fees. This would be based on eight locations within the Downtown CRA boundary with a focus mainly in the Downtown Gateway. Neighborhood Services/Cultural Affairs Division would allocate $10,000 to cover consultant fees, lift rentals, PODS rental, marketing, and cost related to an unveiling event. Through this mural festival the City's art presence will be elevated, removing blight from existing buildings, encouraging visitors to the Downtown CRA to view and photograph murals and patronize the businesses in the area. APPROPRIATION CODE AND AMOUNT: Funds for this program are available in R2002- Community Engagement In response to questions, Arts & Cultural Affairs Coordinator Amber Brice said the murals will be located on privately owned businesses, which is responsible for selecting the artwork. The owner may decide to incorporate lighting to draw attention to the mural. She said the murals should be installed by March. Trustee Teixeira moved to approve an allocation of $90,000 to partially fund murals in the Downtown CRA as part of a Mural Festival. The motion was duly seconded and carried unanimously. 4.3 Discuss the North Greenwood Advisory Committee. Provide CRA staff direction on the members of the North Greenwood Advisory Committee. Page 3 City of Clearwater Community Redevelopment Agency Meeting Minutes January 16, 2024 Interim CRA Executive Director Anne Lopez said staff has received six applications, with one application not eligible to serve per city code. She said three of the applicants are city residents and two applicants do not reside within the North Greenwood CRA but own businesses. Staff was directed to re -push a call for applicants. 5. Director's Report 6. Adjourn Attest c/L1.4-LAt (i)21.L City Clerk City of Clearwater Assistant City Manager Michael Delk said staff is in the process of value engineering the Mercado. He said the plan is not being altered. The plan has been thoroughly vetted with the community and will be built as adopted. He said staff is looking at minimizing some of the costs associated with the project. Staff will bring an item soon requesting additional funds. The meeting adjourned at 1:20 p.m. Chair Communit Page 4 development Agency Community Redevelopment Agency on 2024-01-16 1:00 PM Meeting Time: 01-16-24 13:00 eComments Report Community Redevelopment Agency on 01-16-24 13:00 2024-01-16 1:00 PM 10 3 0 0 1 Sentiments for All Meetings The following graphs display sentiments for comments that have location data. Only locations of users who have commented will be shown. Overall Sentiment ■ S pport(0%) ■ Qpoose:0%) ■ Neutral(33%) No Response(66`. Community Redevelopment Agency on 2024-01-16 1:00 PM 01-16-2413:00 Agenda Name 3. Citizens to be Heard Regarding Items Not on the Agenda 4.1 ID#23-1559 Confirm the City Manager's appointment of Jesus Nino as the CRA Executive Director, to be effective on the date to be listed on the Employee Contract. 4.3 ID#23-1612 Discuss the North Greenwood Advisory Committee. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Sentiments for All Agenda Items The following graphs display sentiments for comments that have location data. Only locations of users who have commented will be shown. Overall Sentiment • SuppoOUO`'a) ▪ Opposei0%i 1111 Neutral{33%) No Responsei66° of Agenda Item: eComments for 3. Citizens to be Heard Regarding Items Not on the Agenda Overall Sentiment ▪ SuppoO O% ▪ Oppose(O% ▪ Neutrai(0%} No Response! 100`% Kathy Flaherty Location: Submitted At: 10:50am 01-15-24 I want the CRA Trustees to be aware of three major problems. 1. The 2045 Master Plan turns North Betty Lane Park into a Commercial Vacant Property. The North Greenwood CRA Development plan explains the North Betty Lane Park. The city acquired the lot on the southeast corner of the North Betty Lane and Overlea Street intersection to access Stevenson Creek with dredging machinery. This parcel does not currently serve as a dedicated recreation facility. It has the potential to be enhanced to provide improved open space and access to Stevenson Creek. Heavy equipment access to the waterfront must be maintained to provide the necessary maintenance to Stevenson Creek in the future. Page 30 I Adopted 01.12.2023 Clearly this is a park but when asked about why the 2045 Future Use Map has this parcel as Commercial Vacant, Micheal Delk, Assistant City Manager replied, On Jan 12, 2024, at 11:47 AM, Delk, Michael <michael.delk@myclearwater.com> wrote: Ms. Flaherty: We are not eliminating Betty Lane Park. I checked with the Parks Director who told me that it was inadvertently left on a master park plan list but that is being corrected. This park is accurately reflected in the North Greenwood plan that we completed and adopted as part of the North Greenwood CRA. Theoretically, you could ask if you had a legitimate question or concern. We will try to discern and answer those should they occur. Your gratuitous assertions are a monumental disservice to the communities you purport to support. When I sent a screenshot of the Parcel in red, indicating commercial vacant property, that was labeled North Betty Lane Park, Art Krader replied On Jan 12, 2024, at 1:08 PM, Kader, Art <Art.Kader@myclearwater.com> wrote: This area is not a park and never has been a park. the area south of this is in fact a park named Betty Lane Park. Apparently this map has been mislabeled and I will ask our engineering department to make the correction. So as you can see both the City Assistant Manager and the Parks Director are trying to make the park disappear and turn it into a commercial vacant property. Nobody was informed of this in the 2045 Plan Presentations. This plan allows for a land grab. 2. My other concern is with the recently completed Street Market Facility in the Festival Core area on Cleveland Street. The Trustees do not seem to know that it has been built. It was approved by the Trustees and cost millions of dollars to construct. The Community has waited 10 years for this project, it has been built and now is being denied it's use. I asked the CRA /City why the Hispanic Market Organization was denied usage and Micheal Delk replied - On Dec 19, 2023, at 11:39 AM, Delk, Michael <michael.delk@myclearwater.com> wrote: The Mercado was designed and constructed to be a focal point or centerpiece to the east Gateway area community. The City acquired privately owned property in order to assemble the space necessary to accommodate this public space and redesign the intersection of the two roadways. The mercado was not built for any specific purpose intending to close streets. As with any street closure, it will be evaluated in the context of special event process review. Public safety and mobility are reviewed for appropriateness. The city's investment in the area is not yet completed pending a review of the cost to build out the remaining infrastructure of the mercado space. We hope to resolve this issue and move to completion after the new year. Michael L. Delk, AICP Assistant City Manager The Mercado is the small pocket park dedicated to the Hispanic Community, not the completed street market area. He does not want you to know what was built. The reason is the CRA Staff and you, have actively moved all Downtown events into the DDB area. You do not support this community and don't deserve to be Trustees if you continue to do so. 3. The City Council, which you represent, have been trying to usurp the DDB Board, starting before you approved to pay and staff them in September. The City Council, you, tried take over the DDB using State Legislation but were rejected by the House Staffers and now trying at the local level. Lina explained in a newspaper article that they have too much money and the funds need to be spent flexibly . You folks just paid them those funds in March and renewed their contract in September. You don't care about their performance just getting in control of funds that can be used as a piggy bank. This shows you folks don't care the community, just the contract with a private entity to spend CRA funds flexibly. The contract needs to be voided for lack of good faith. Govern Yourself's Accordingly - stop trying disappear the community assets and be honest. Agend Director, to be env Overall Sentiment Kathy Flaherty Location: Submitted At: 11:01am 01-15-24 I don't know anything about this candidate, but I do want to ask him some questions - 1. Will he support and promote the newly created Festival Core Street Market or act like it does not exist? Will he support the Hispanic Community. 2. Will he acknowledge that North Betty Lane Park Exists and is a required access point to the Creek? Will he support the African American Community to improve the park and get long awaited public access to the Creek? 3. Will he make sure that the CRA funds are spent on community improvements instead of lining Developers pocket and having parties downtown? 4. Is he here to buildup the community or tear it down like the City Administration wants? 5. Will he address the blatant systemic racism that exists in this city? 6. Will he do the enhanced Code Enforcement that is needed? If he is here for the Developers and such he can look for another job. Their are enough of those folks working in the CRA and City as it is. Agenda items eos # ;men ';' fee e Overall Sentiment ■ Suppo+t(O%) ■ opposoao e) ■ Ne*AraH!D%j No Responses 100%1 Kathy Flaherty Location: Submitted At: 11:03am 01-15-24 The North Greenwood Advisory Group should be made up of the community persons the helped create the North Greenwood Plan. They know what they want in their community. The Developers need to stay away.