with a presentation of the city's fiscal year 2027 budget, which was just approved by council last month. So I have a few quick slides to discuss some key highlights of this year's budget, and at the end I'll be more than happy to answer any questions that any of you may have. Also joining me today is Assistant City Manager Al Battle, so the 22 of us I'm sure will be able to answer any questions. So to jump right in, as required by state law, our fiscal year 2027 budget remains a balanced budget. Across the organization, the only increase in staffing was as a result of the addition of nine full-time fire medics, which was negotiated as part of our most recent collective bargaining unit with the city's fire union. Our primary focus this upcoming year will be the continued alignment of our city's work plan, which provides for the execution of existing operating and capital projects that are approved within the city's budget, as well as the maintenance of our employee pay structure, which remains competitive at the 75th percentile across comparative public organizations. So as we look ahead to some of our key initiatives in the upcoming year, we're pleased to continue advancement of what we're calling our downtown urban renaissance, which includes several key redevelopment projects, including construction of both the new Ballard Hotel, as well as Osceola Apartments on the Bluff directly adjacent to Coachman Park. Furthermore, Pinellas County continues to advance a call for development to solicit interest for 17 county properties as part of their transition to a central government campus in mid-county. Several key street renovation projects are also either upcoming or underway and designed to improve pedestrian and vehicular traffic, while also making improvement to utility infrastructure throughout the downtown core. Some examples of this are the Fort Harrison reconstruction and Osceola roadway improvement projects. And also speaking of utility projects, we're excited to highlight improvements to both our water and sewer infrastructure that remains underway, such as our planned facility consolidation for wastewater and automated meter reading projects. And so finally, lastly, I'll just highlight as the city continues to prepare for possible changes to our budget in the upcoming year. As you all know, upcoming property tax reform is on the general ballot next month. And as staff, our role remains committed to forecasting the potential impacts associated with what that could be in preparation of the ultimate outcome. Quick disclosure, as staff, we are not allowed or permitted to advocate on either stance of that, but our role remains to provide factual information and education to the public. So across all funds, the city's fiscal year 2027 budget totals just over $800 million and is further broken out by a fund type on the slide. So to provide you all with a brief overview of how millage works, it is the rate at which property taxes are calculated where one mill equals $1 for every $1,000 of taxable property value. It's a little bit of a mouthful where your assessed property value is factored into that. Assessed property value is your property's value that the county's property assesses of that. And then taxable value is your assessed value minus any exemptions that you may be eligible for. The city's millage rate for fiscal year 2027 is 5.8773 mills and represents only the city's portion of your property tax bill. Other taxing authorities establish their own millage rate for their services, such as the school board, juvenile welfare board, and for Clearwater residents, the city's total share of this bill is approximately 30%. For fiscal year 2027, the city council approved what's called a rollback rate, which is the millage rate that would be necessary to provide the same level of property tax revenue as received in the prior year. And this lesser figure is also as a result of increases and adjusted for property values and new construction. So property taxes aren't the only source of revenue to the city's general fund. Other sources as listed here include utility tax and franchise fee revenue, user fees, and revenues received from other agencies as well. And the next two slides represent a breakdown of our general fund expenditures across major general fund departments, with public safety remaining the largest share of our general fund expenditures, also followed by quality of life programs such as parks and recreation and library services. In terms of our general fund spending by category, personnel remains the largest share of our expenditures at 62%, which as I mentioned earlier also reflects our strategic commitment to funding our employee pay plan at the 75th percentile across comparative public organizations. So to briefly discuss what we're hearing from our community, as you all know, we had our first budget community workshop earlier in August called Dollars to Donuts, which was designed to give residents a broad overview of each city's service, the level of funding required to provide those services, and to offer key insight into each department's operations and upcoming priorities. We wanted to hear from the community about what they value and wanted to see their local government prioritize in upcoming budgets, in which we saw public safety remains a key priority, but also that residents value their quality of life services, as well as public infrastructure to be maintained across the board. So lastly, I just briefly want to highlight some of the information our office makes available to the public as part of our commitment to transparency, which is very important to both our city, our city management, as well as our city council. As some of you may be aware, our ongoing performance management dashboarding project can be viewed at myclearwater.com slash data. General budget information may be viewed at myclearwater.com slash budget. And finally, as I mentioned, our role in educating the public as to the potential impacts of upcoming property tax reform. As part of that, the city has published a informative dashboard that showed potential cuts to services, as well as a contingency memorandum provided to council earlier in August. This information can be viewed at myclearwater.com slash property taxes. And at this time, I will be happy to answer any questions from any member of the board, either for myself or the assistant city manager. I have a question. On the pie chart, where do the expenditures for affordable housing fall? Sure. So the city contributes, I believe it's $300,000 a year to, it's categorized as homeless improvement programs. It's dispersed to different agencies that support homeless initiatives and affordable housing initiatives. And that's out of the city general fund. Thank you. So if the amendment passes, is there an amended budget or revised new budget? There would be discussions with the city council as a result of that to review what the city forecasted in our contingency memorandum and to see if there's still direction to align with what those proposed impacts would be. In that memorandum, we didn't identify any reductions at this time, which could change to the city's affordable housing and homeless initiative contribution. Thank you. Thank you. Excellent. There's no other questions. I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you very much. The main item on today's agenda is to continue our discussion led by, that is not Amanda Warner. Connor. From Wade Trim. Connor, the floor is yours. Thank you. Yes, I'm not Amanda. Let me just pull up my presentation. I always underestimate how cold it is. I've been in here like 20 times. So you'd think I'd learn my lesson. Okay. Yes, thank you. My name is Connor Baird. Amanda Warner is my co-worker. Unfortunately, she's not here today. So I will be running the meeting, our third meeting of the local housing incentive strategy update for October 13, 2026. So to remind you of the schedule, again, we are on meeting three today, October 13, 2026, meeting four will be on November 17th, 2026. And that will be noticed and held as a public hearing. So this is our last meeting as a, a workshop type structure. And that meeting will be at 9 AM in this, in this chamber as well. To review our values, principles, and vision. There were no changes made to these at the last meeting. So our affordable housing values are a supports a dynamic and competitive economy, B, improve social wellbeing and build sense of community. C, aspires to have housing that fits the city's residents. And D, everyone deserves a safe and affordable home. And as I mentioned, there were no updates to that at our last meeting. And we will continue that as our affordable housing values. Our affordable housing principles are one affordable over the longterm to diverse supply that provides for a mix of income levels and the diverse needs of residents. Three designed to be sustainable energy and cost efficient and to minimize physical barriers to accessibility for an aesthetic character with a surrounding neighborhood five strategically located and pedestrian oriented with access to mass transit, open spaces, educational institutions, and employment or workforce training opportunities. Six incentivized to promote incorporation of affordable housing into all housing developments. Again, like the values of principles, there was no update to the, and you still have the opportunity to update anything if you want. I should make that clear. And finally, our, our vision is the city of Clearwater will incentivize the development of a diverse supply of housing that is safe, accessible, affordable, sustainable, and energy and cost efficient that blends into the aesthetic character of all the city's neighborhoods, proximate to public amenities and employment opportunities, which supports an inclusive community and that diverse needs of residents. And like the other two, there were no updates to that as well. So to remind you of our incentive areas, there are 11, um, state statute incentive areas, and there are, um, another five additional incentive areas that past committees have recommended. Um, those are, uh, expedited review process, modification of fees, flexible densities, infrastructure capacity, accessory dwelling units, parking reductions, flexible lot configurations, modification of street required requirements, pre-adoption policy consideration, inventory of public lands, and proximity to transportation, employment, and mixed use development for the, uh, Florida statute incentive areas. And then the AHAC initiated, uh, incentive areas are adaptive reuse, land development code, communication, and marketing of affordable housing, financing, and partnerships. And I'm just remembering that I did not give you, uh, so Dylan is going to pass out. Um, I, I believe Ms. Baxter already has one, um, cause I like her more, so. Um, you're not supposed to say that out loud. Yeah, yeah, sorry. Um, that is the, um, actual LHIS document that you're updating. Um, you'll see if you look towards the back that there are, there's some red wordage. Um, that is because that will be updated at the conclusion of this meeting. Um, a lot of that has to do with a review of this meeting and then the final incentive areas that we come up with, uh, with any updates and anything. Um, so feel free to review that as we, as we move along here. Um, and a little bit different from the last meeting, we're going to go through all the recommendations and incentives again, but I won't read every word out loud, um, cause you guys have heard them, um, multiple times now. Um, I'll just give you a recap. And again, do you have the ability to, um, provide any more recommendations to any wordage or anything like that? Um, so to review our committee discussion from our last meeting on September 8th, uh, there are a couple of points that we, uh, discussed, uh, before we got into the incentive areas, um, and during the incentive areas, uh, that was number one, use of artificial intelligence in the plan review process. Number two, accessory dwelling use and construction in the city. Uh, number three, review of existing strategies by city departments and number four, alternate modes of transportation. So we'll give you a little bit of a, a rundown of some of those points. Um, number one, use of artificial intelligence. Um, I believe we spoke to this at the last meeting. Um, the city uses a Sela, um, as the, uh, permitting, um, software. A Sela is, um, you crafting AI tools. Um, I don't think there's a timeline on when those will be ready, but when those are ready, the city, um, the planning department, I should say, will, um, review those. And then determine if they need it. That's right. Yes. Um, uh, 80 youth and missing middle, uh, housing. I know there was discussion, um, at our last meeting about, um, how many 80 youths are permitted within the city. Um, during our last. Yes, yes, please. I'm going to interrupt you. So, um, good morning, Lauren, Matt's be planning and development. And I just finished pulling that up a little bit late. So we, um, received one new planning application this month. We have three planning applications. Applications that are waiting for, um, responses to comments and resubmitting. So that's four approvals kind of on their way. Hopefully we approved one in 2026 so far and three. So three in 2025 of those four total that have been approved to are actively under construction and to have been constructed. And so we did have a few that were withdrawn. Um, and one was denied solely because of the time limits that the state requires us to make a determination. Um, so they had not responded to comments timely. So, um, we had to, um, we had to deny it, but they're perfectly able to resubmit and we would gladly process it again. For those that were withdrawn, I plan to follow up to see what were some issues. And then also, I think it would be valuable for us to just check in with everyone. Um, now that we have a few going through the process or having completed the process to get some feedback. Thank you. Okay. Um, and another, another point that we have on our slide here is the, um, North Greenwood, um, overlay district. Um, that will be, I believe we spoke, I think it was finalizing next year. Um, and that will include some, uh, additional middle housing, um, um, policies. Um, increased departmental coordination and strategy review. Um, both the economic development department and the planning department, uh, we'll be reviewing some of the strategies that we've talked about, um, over our last couple of meetings, um, and ensuring that they're still, uh, being cooperated with and if seen if there's anything that needs to be tweaked or anything like that to, um, to better advance those, uh, incentive areas and strategies, I should say strategies. Um, and then finally, alternative modes of transportation. Uh, we spoke about micro mobility, um, specifically as it relates to students, um, at, uh, SPC. Um, the city does not have any current program that incentivizes or provides micro mobility, um, um, modes of transportation. Um, but there, as we discussed, there are, there is programs with PSCA, uh, for reduced fares, um, as well as trail networks, uh, throughout the county. Now we get to go through our recommendations again. Um, and like I said, we'll, we'll go through them, um, kind of more of a broad, um, stroke on them. And then we'll, um, let you know of, there's two incentive areas and strategies or recommendations, I should say, that we've, um, edited, um, that we'll review. Um, like I just said, uh, and again, maybe sound like a broken record here, but you do have the opportunity to make any more edits if you so choose. Uh, so number one, expedited review recommendation 1.1, um, which is just continuing the use of the request for expedited permitting process, um, and to fast track some of those affordable development, um, in the city. Um, at our last meeting, there was, uh, no modification to this only to continue recommendation 1.2, um, deals with coordination between the housing manager and development services, division manager, um, to maintain that avenue of communication, um, and structure, uh, within the affordable housing process. And there's continued wordage there. And again, there's, uh, there was no, um, modification to this, uh, recommendation. Continue. Excuse me. Recommendation 1.3, continue to improve customer service toward potential project applicants. Um, there was no modification to this in our last meeting. Um, only continue with that as well. Recommendation 1.4, develop by the end of year 2020, 2024 and annually update thereafter, brochure and other informational handouts to be published, um, at convenient locations and the city website. This is completed and continued. Um, and there was no modification at the last meeting. Recommendation 1.5, encourage affordable housing developers of single family homes and accessory developments to submit frequently used building example plans and templates. This is, uh, not a widely used incentive area. Um, but it does remain an option within the city. Um, and at the last meeting, there was no modification. Um, incentive area number two, modification of fees. Recommendation 2.1, coordinate with Pinellas County regarding database rate flexibility. Um, um, this status is in progress. Um, Senate bill one 80 has somewhat pulled this, um, this back, um, due to, you know, increasing development. So, um, there was no modification to this. It was continued. Um, and the continuation of this incentive area of this recommendation, um, is basically to continue to watch the legislature and see if there are any changes, um, that would permit moving forward. Recommendation 2.2, um, annually assess the financial, legal, and administrative administrative flexibility of reducing, refunding, or redefining the cost of impact fees or permitting fees within the city. Um, this is in progress. Um, the fee study has been initiated. So this was continued. Recommendation 2.3, but the planning and development department will continue to implement the fee, the fee schedule of fees, rates and charges ordinance, um, within the city. Uh, this is completed. Um, I believe we spoke about this in depth at the last meeting, um, reduced fees by, I don't think it was 75. I think, I believe, I believe it was 50, um, but we can, we can confirm that. Um, um, and that this was, um, continued with no modification. Um, recommendation 2.4, the economic development and housing department will continue to assess with the payment of plan review and permit fees and impact fees, um, using state and federal funds. Uh, this is completed, um, and there was no modification at the last meeting. Um, incentive area number three, flexible densities, recommendation 3.1, uh, continue to provide allowance of density flexibility for affordable housing developments, um, and monitor state legislation as it relates to flexible densities. Uh, this was completed, uh, and there was no modification at our last meeting. Recommendation 3.2, maintain specific parameters to grant density flexibility for affordable housing projects, um, as it relates to the, um, community development code. Again, this status is completed, um, and there was no modification at our last, uh, meeting. Continue that again. Recommendation 3.3, continue to define the density allowance for affordable housing projects as part of a pre-application meeting. Um, this is completed. There are ongoing pre-application meetings, um, for developments, um, and there was no modification at our last meeting. With that, incentive area number four, infrastructure capacity, um, there is no recommendation, um, from past committees and, uh, continuing with this committee. Um, there was no modification of no recommendation for this, uh, recommendation for this incentive area. We will continue that as well. Um, incentive area number five, accessory dwelling units. Recommendation 5.1, continue to allow for accessory dwelling units in non-residential zoning districts. Um, this was completed. ADUs are, um, allowed in non-residential, um, zoning districts, and there was no modification. Recommendation 5.2, implement city council comprehensive plan policy QP 6.1.7, and policy QP 6.1.10 to allow accessory dwelling units, um, corresponding with the standards of the community development code. This is completed with ordinance number 97, 9758-24, and there was no modification at our last meeting. Recommendation 5.3, uh, provide flexibility for other alternative unit types, such as co-housing, um, to incentivize unconventional solution to address affordable housing within the city. Uh, the status is under review. We spoke a little bit before about the, uh, North Greenwood, um, overlay district, which it will permit some, um, missing middle and, um, housing. Uh, there was talk of, uh, duplexes, triplexes, and possibly quadplexes. Um, that will be all determined during that, uh, process. So, um, I don't want to say, I wasn't saying those are what's going to be, I guess, um, those will be reviewed. Um, there was no modification of this, um, recommendation at our last meeting. So recommendation 5.4, consider educational and financial incentives that reduce barriers to the rehabilitation and construction of accessory dwelling units, um, included as information, uh, information about the permitting process and, um, how people can go about that. Uh, this is in progress. There is a webpage on the website, uh, the city of Clearwater website that provides, um, information on the permitting process and ADUs. Um, there was no modification of this recommendation, uh, at our last meeting. So we will continue. Um, number six, uh, incentive area number six, parking reductions, recommendation 6.1, continue to allow flexible setback requirements for affordable housing developments. The status is completed and there was no recommendation, um, at our last meeting. And we will continue. Um, and we get up to our first, um, uh, modification, uh, recommendation 6.2, continue to, to continue to tie reductions of off street parking requirements to proximity and access to alternative modes of transportation, including transit sidewalks, trails, and other options for affordable housing developments and special needs populations. Um, this was modified to include, uh, the red text you see there, um, which has to do with adding, uh, special needs populations onto this, uh, recommendation. And if you are all good with this wordage, uh, we can, uh, continue this and, and have this as a new recommendation for 6.2. All right. Incentive area number seven, flexible lock configurations, recommendation 7.1, continue to allow flexible lock configurations for affordable housing developments, uh, while remaining sensitive to the aesthetic of the neighborhood. Uh, this is completed, um, and there was no modification at our last meeting. Incentive area number eight, modification of street, excuse me, modification of street requirements. Um, there was no recommendation, um, on this, um, incentive area, uh, by past committees and this committee. And, um, uh, we will continue this, uh, no recommendation if we're all good with that. Incentive area number nine, pre-adoption policy consideration, recommendation 9.1. As part of its annual reporting, the economic development and housing department will continue to review all regulations and ordinances that may affect the cost of housing. This is in progress and continually in progress. Um, and there was no, um, modification of this incentive area. Uh, or this recommendation at our last recommendation. Recommendation 9.2, continue to continue the city's interdepartmental review process. Um, this status is completed. There was no modification at our last meeting. Um, and we continued this recommendation. Incentive area number 10, inventory of public lands, recommendation 10.1, the economic development and housing department will continue to maintain the inventory of publicly owned land suitable for the development of affordable housing. The status is completed. And I do believe that the new list is, um, was recently, um, adopted. Um, and I believe it's on the website, um, the city website. So, um, this has been completed this year now, and there was no modification of this at our last meeting. Um, and to that point, recommendation 10.2, continue to publish the public land inventory owned by the city for affordable housing and a link to Pinellas County's inventory on the city's webpage. Again, this status is in progress, um, and, um, has been completed this year. And there was no modification of this incentive area at our last meeting. I only recommend to continue it. 10.3, continue to make publicly owned land available to prospective developers and non-profit agencies for developing affordable housing. The status is completed, and there was no modification at our last meeting. We will continue. Um, recommendation 10.4, the economic development and housing department will coordinate with the planning and development department to identify properties having repeat code violations that may be suitable for redevelopment and rehabilitation or demolition for affordable housing. This is completed. Um, there's coordination ongoing between the departments, and there was no modification at our last meeting. Um, and we will continue this. And we get to our second, um, uh, modification. Uh, this is recommendation 10.5, continue to monitor the policy and procedure for distribution of city owned lots, consider including energy efficient items and related emerging technologies into the scoring matrix to support environmentally friendly development. Uh, the modification to this was a staff initiated modification, um, to remove in partnership with green, green print 2.0 timeline. The city is moving away from green print 2.0. Um, and, uh, the other part was, um, possible issues with, um, the state government, um, regarding this, uh, green print 2.0. Um, so with the city moving away from green print 2.0, um, staff recommended that we just remove it from the recommendation. I'll get with that. Yes. And you, we only removed language. If you wanted to add language, you're perfectly able to do that. Um, or if we want to just keep it this way. Good. Okay. Um, incentive area number 11, proximity to transportation, employment, and mixed use development recommendation 11.1. The city will maintain and implement policies of the city's comprehensive plan that incentivize affordable housing development, proximate to transportation hubs, major employment centers, and mixed use developments. The status is completed, uh, through multiple policies in the comprehensive plan, and there was no modification at our last meeting. Continue that. Um, incentive area number 12, adaptive reuse recommendation 12.1. continue to allow and promote adaptive reuse involving the conversion of surplus and or outmoded trans, uh, building, outmoded buildings, including old churches, school buildings, hospitals, train stations, warehouses, factories, hotels, office buildings, malls, et cetera, to mix uses with where permitted by zoning district or by the live local act. This is completed. Um, the live local act applies to, um, commercial, industrial, religious, um, institution and public lands. Um, there was no modification to this at our last meeting. We're good with continuing that incentive area number 13, the land development code recommendation 13.1 continue to incentivize developers to address recommended recommended design standards for affordable housing developments consistent with the community development code. Um, continued. There was no recommendation or excuse me. There was no modification of this, um, recommendation at our last meeting. Um, it is currently in progress. Um, and we recommended, um, continue this recommendation. Incentive area number 14, communication and marketing of affordable housing. Recommendation 14.1, continue to improve current communication channels and marketing materials to reach different stakeholders interested in affordable housing. And there's some suggested, um, actions there. It continued. This status is completed. There was no modification to this recommendation at our last meeting. Um, we're to continue this recommendation. No good incentive area number 15, uh, financing recommendation 15.1, diversify financial strategies to contribute to the new construction and maintenance of affordable housing and financial assistance to attain affordable housing. The status is completed and there was no modification at our last meeting. We will continue that recommendation 15.2 evaluate the, the feasibility of reducing and paying code violation liens on lots suitable for affordable housing developments. The status is in progress. Uh, city staff is evaluating, um, um, this recommendation, um, and it's in implementation. Um, there was no modification at our last meeting. Um, we will continue it if you are all comfortable. 15.3 ensure city staffing levels are adequate to achieve the AHAC recommendations of the LHIS report. Status is in progress. That is, it's continually in progress and there was no modification, uh, to this recommendation at our last meeting. And we will continue that recommendation incentive area number 16 partnerships recommendation 16.1 develop public and private partnerships for the provision of affordable housing. Um, and this is a continued, a continued one as well. Um, a lot of that has to do with coordination with stakeholders, um, other jurisdictions, um, and the county. And that status is completed, um, with ongoing efforts. Um, again, this is one that is continuously ongoing. Uh, there was no modification to this at our last meeting. And we're all good with continuing this as well. And that's all of our incentive areas. Um, they, um, I hope it's the worker or something. Um, um, our next meeting, um, it will be November 17, 2026. October. It must be ghosts. It must be ghosts. That's, I hope it's ghosts actually. Um, our next meeting is November 17, 2026. Um, it will be noticed and held as a public hearing. It will be in this building at 9 a.m. If you all have any, I don't want to rush anybody. Um, if you all have any recommendations or considerations, you can reach out to, uh, Dylan, um, for any updates to the LHIS report that you think of after this meeting. Um, but if you have no questions, that concludes, um, my part of the meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Does anyone from the public wish to speak, speak on this item? If so, please step to the podium and you will have three minutes to speak. Seeing no one, do we have any comments? I will now close the public comment period. Item four citizens to be heard regarding items, not on the agenda. Is there anyone here to speak on items, not on the agenda? If so, please step to the podium and state your name, spell your last name for, for the record. You will have three minutes to speak on a subject that is not on today's agenda. Seeing no one come forward. Are there any e-comments? I will now close the public comment period. And I'd like to ask if there are any final comments from any committee members. Lastly, I'd like to ask Dylan Mayhew if he has anything additional to report to the committee. Nothing additional at this time. Thank you. Okay. Um, at this time, I would like to adjourn the meeting. The next AHAC meeting, as Connor mentioned, is scheduled for Tuesday, uh, November 17th at 9 a.m. in this room. The meeting is adjourned. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.