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06/06/2018 CLEARWATER DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT BOARD MEETING June 6, 2018—5:30 PM — City Hall — Council Chambers Members Present: Paris Morfopoulos Chairman Caitlein Jammo Treasurer Thomas Wright Member Lina Teixeira Member Ray Cassano Member Venkat "Vincent" Devineni Member Absent: Stu Sjouwerman Vice-Chairman Also Present: David Allbritton Ex-officio Member/Councilmember Hoyt Hamilton Ex-officio Member/Councilmember Amanda Thompson CRA Director Anne Fogarty France Board Administrator 1. Chairman Morfopoulos called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. 2. Citizens Comments--Items not on the agenda. Stacie Krupa, 628 Cleveland Street, advised that she recently moved here and rented a space for her artist studio. She paints murals and is interested in getting involved with the community. 3. Approve the Minutes from the May 2, 2018, Meeting Member Wright moved to approve the minutes from the May 2, 2018 meeting. The motion was duly seconded and upon roll call, the vote was: Ayes: Member Morfopoulos, Member Wright, Member Jammo, Member Teixeira, Member Cassano, and Member Devineni. Nays: None. Motion carried. 4. Adopt April 2018 Financial Statement for Filing Member Jammo moved to adopt the April 2018 Financial Statement for filing. The motion was duly seconded. Upon roll call, the vote was: Ayes: Member Morfopoulos, Member Wright, Member Jammo, Member Teixeira, Member Cassano, and Member Devineni. Nays: None. Motion carried. 5. Post Event Report— Festival Series including Blast Friday, Miracle on Cleveland Street and Cruisin' at the Cap— Brianna Hartigan, Theatre Manager reported on each of the events held noting the estimated attendance and components. There were issues with getting attendees to travel down to the 600 block despite incentives such as free beer samples, car shows and music. She noted the cooperation of the Downtown Clearwater Merchant's Association (DCMA). Downtown Development Board Meeting—June 6, 2018 1 Ms. Hartigan brought up the May 25 Blast Friday where the decision was made early to hold the concert in the Capitol Theatre. They attempted to keep the party atmosphere feel outside and hosted a bar outside, encouraged merchants to provide promotional materials and speakers for outside attendees. It was rainy during set-up and she estimated attendance of 900 outside and a packed Capitol Theatre. Members asked what time of day was the decision made to move the concert indoors and were advised that the official decision made on Thursday and they let merchants know Wednesday. Ruth Eckerd Hall staff will have a better way to make similar decisions next year. Members acknowledged the value of the Capitol Theatre and Ms. Hartigan's significant role. They felt that she was so personable and valued and wanted this to go on the record. Members were happy to see that they're revisiting the cancellation policy. 6. Post Event Report on Dali Tours Downtown/Clearwater Galleriez Tour— Lina Teixeira, DCMA President thanked the board for their support of this event. The progressive tour of thirty plus Dali VIP guests sent a strong message to the Dali Museum. The Zodiac Committee members were impressed and surprised at all that Downtown Clearwater had to offer. Merchants have seen some return guests from the tour and this shows a direct impact. She advised that a meeting was held with herself and CRA Director Amanda Thompson and a Dali Museum representative about the Dali having a presence in downtown for six months to a year. Members stated that the prospect of this occurring downtown is impressive and please let the board know if there's anything we can do and thanked her for her efforts. 7. Proposed Downtown Sign Regulations— Gina Clayton, Assistant Director, Planning and Development Services Department provided a presentation to the board on the proposed standards and showed images of signs that depicted allowable signs. Questions were raised concerning some of the images shown and the formulas used to determine the amount allowed. Ex-officio Councilmember Hamilton noted that the council's last discussion on signage was when we included electronic signage to be more current. He said he would be more than willing for Downtown to have more than other areas, including color changes on the Capitol Theatre sign. He suggested that members talk to us and if you can get us on board we can bring this before the council and board. He did advise that he was only one vote on the council. Ms. Clayton stated that the Planning Department still needs to do some work on window signs and needed time to finalize signs and design standards sections. She asked for feedback on limiting the number of signs per fagade. Members asked if she had a suggestion and were advised that three to four would be ok to which members felt three to four should probably be the limit. 8. Funding Request for Clearwater Arts Alliance— Clearwater Cultural Map Printing/Update Support — Beth Daniels, President stated that they produced the first comprehensive map for Clearwater two years ago. They hired a professional designer, paid for all the design, printed 20,000 and have been paying someone to distribute them. The DDB helped us to start the utility box wraps by funding six that are downtown on Cleveland Street and near the library. Laid out the proposal and that $11,200 is what they predict the cost would be to add update the maps. Downtown Development Board Meeting—June 6, 2018 2 Members asked what the ad revenue was and this number was not known. Members were also concerned that locations outside the downtown were promoted to which others felt the map would funnel people to the downtown area. Member Wright moved to fund the Clearwater Arts Alliance— Clearwater Cultural Map in the amount of$5,400 from funds from the Future Downtown Initiatives line item. The motion was duly seconded. Upon roll call, the vote was: Ayes: Member Wright, Member Jammo, Member Teixeira, Member Cassano, and Member Devineni. Nays: Member Morfopoulos. Motion carried. 9. Adopt Fiscal Year 2018-2019 Preliminary Budget— Caitlein Jammo, Treasurer and Anne Fogarty France, Downtown Manager presented the preliminary budget noting funding areas that will need to be decided after the organizations requesting funds are heard in July. Member Wright moved to adopt the Fiscal Year 2018-2019 Preliminary Budget. The motion was duly seconded. Upon roll call, the vote was: Ayes: Member Morfopoulos, Member Wright, Member Jammo, Member Teixeira, Member Cassano, and Member Devineni. Nays: None. Motion carried. 10. DDB Strategic Planning Session Debrief—Amanda Thompson, Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) Director noted that it was great to have a real-time record of the session from Collaborative Labs and that she looked forward to supporting the board. She advised that an update of the work plan would be next and that this would tie into the board's upcoming budget discussions. Ms. Thompson advised that she had updated the 1-year Tactical Plan document for the three goals with green, yellow and red colors. The green colored areas designate that the board should plan to work on these items. The yellow lines are those where more information is needed. The red lines are items that the DDB cannot do unless state law is changed. She added that it doesn't mean the policy and program strategies can't happen and noted that she wanted to hear from the board on how to proceed. Members felt it the session was organized and focused on what they needed to do. Some felt that that it would be nice to have another meeting or round table discussion. Others felt that the board didn't have enough budget information on these proposals to move forward with this plan and that someone needed to come up with numbers for this work. One suggestion was to think about a number to budget for each of the three buckets, or goals. The additional funds in this year's budget would give the board focus in a cushion year. The board could also consider what they would like the events they sponsor to accomplish. Downtown Development Board Meeting—June 6, 2018 3 Members felt that the board would be addressing the anchor tenant plan and suggested adding it to the list. Others felt that the CRA is planning on updating this incentive and the board could make recommendations. The board requested staff find a date to have a roundtable discussion. 11. CRA Updates—Amanda Thompson, CRA Director provided updates on the following: Anchor tenant program —She is working on changes to the program that will have agreements with property owners first and then recruit the tenants. The CRA will identify the spaces and get property owners on board and get an internal group on board to work with the tenant from beginning to end. She will bring forward in July and suggest we set an amount for improvements that stay with the building. If a tenant fails, the improvements stay with the building. She is also proposing that we first attract food or drink establishments that are open nights and weekends. Calls for Mural Program —This call will be sent out in the next week and would highlight locations throughout the CRA, to include the Garden Avenue Garage. Request for Proposal (RFP) for Second Century Studios —The RFP will be sent out in the next two weeks and will be an ongoing request for a proposal. Parking Study—a request for the study will go out soon with staff getting three quotes. CRA Vacant position —we will be hiring a public relations and programs manager who can help support all the programs the CRA is doing. 12. Chairman's Report— Chairman Morfopoulos noted the binder at everyone's seat with Funding Requests for the next meeting. If members had a chance to review it prior to the meeting it may spur some questions that could be asked of the organizers. He advised viewers about upcoming events and that the downtownclearwater.com website had additional information on events. 13. Appoint a member to the Mural Evaluation Committee. Member Jammo moved to appoint Member Teixeira to the Mural Evaluation Committee. The motion was duly seconded and upon roll call, the vote was: Ayes: Member Morfopoulos, Member Wright, Member Jammo, Member Teixeira, Member Cassano, and Member Devineni. Nays: None. Motion carried. 14. Final Comments Member Cassano noted that this is the best I've seen it in Downtown Clearwater. He is working 7 seven days a week. He feels that the DDB should support all that's going on. Member Teixeira agrees that this is a very exciting, critical point for Downtown and we need to keep our eyes on the ball. She is excited with the board's direction and likes being more proactive. Member Wright noted that Monday was a sad day for Bogie's as they closed and it was sad to see them go. He asked when the Harborview Center was coming down? Downtown Development Board Meeting—June 6, 2018 4 Ms. Thompson stated that she has seen a concept plan and they are working on how to get it out to the public. She asks when it is coming down too and noted that he should keep asking that question. She hopes she will have a date for the next meeting. Member Devineni stated that the Collaborative Labs session was good. Member Jammo echoed everyone's comments and looked forward to the round table. Ex-officio Councilmember agreed with everyone. He added that the board should pressure us regard signs. He added that he didn't think that anyone who bought at Water's Edge wants it to be a sleepy little town and we need to allow for things to happen in this district. Ex-officio Councilmember chimed in with everything that has been said. It shows what we should do as a board. He noted that art is important and it was nice to see the DDB support the arts. As far as changing the signs for the merchants, he would like to see a sign on the Capitol Theatre as to who's playing there each night. Chairman Morfopoulos stated that the Collaborative Labs session took us in a new direction as a board and raised the level of the game. We have moved from a rubber stamp of funding events to thinking about policy and direction and if we can think of the three buckets as we go through the budget process and we will see results over the years. 15. The meeting was adjourned at 7:33 p.m. Downtown Development Board Meeting—June 6, 2018 5