good evening everyone mic check one two the bottom good evening how's everyone going on this meeting to order this is the north neighborhood citizens advisory committee it is 5 30. today is wednesday september 2nd 2026. agendas are available in the back at the entrance we ask that you please sign us all electronic devices also please remember to fill out the comment card if you would like to speak during the citizens to be heard uh section of our agenda um please be sure to fill it out completely and when you come up to speak please uh come up to the podium so now we are moving to introductions we'll start it all the way to my right introduction maryland termen with clearwater urban leadership coalition and i'm kenard robinson i am your committee chair so moving on to item 2.1 on the agenda do i have a motion to approve the meeting minutes from july 7 2026 as presented i make a motion to approve your minutes from july 7 2026. we have a motion by chair chairperson tournament do i have a second we have a second by chairperson davis um is there uh is there any discussion saying none all those in favor say aye all those opposed nay motion passes thank you uh so moving on to uh citizens to be heard for not i was not alleged if you wish to speak uh please uh come up to the podium to be heard yes please please fill out a car but you can make your way up we have a microphone for the podium go ahead um good afternoon my name is lois dale resident of the north greenwood community and i live in a residential branch street over near montontario harris park um one concern i want to ask you to mention that i know after dark the park should be emptied i don't know but i've been told that people of the who are just walking through going to another street taking off the street uh approached by the police it seems to be a problem i don't that i've told them i wasn't an issue then you look to be done about that but i'm concerned because um i noticed one night i was driving down betty lane and you don't see any watering or any traffic happening on that strip over there and i noticed how bright it is the light that's shining very bright but when you go film greenwood and to me it's kind of sad because those businesses close the truth that are there and they are i would say disrespected by people who are hanging out around their property and leaving trash and things like and sleeping so i don't know it's not a good book i know there are a lot of people who don't have things to go and i think there's something we need to address about how do we handle the homeless population in the north freewood area because even the library i was there last week there said people coming in and sleeping they bring tons of bags into the library not just here but downtown also and that's that's a big issue for me i know someone in tampa they got little places where they can offer people that's something i would like to see happen for our area that's the populace the homeless population thank you very much my name is barbara story love and i am here this evening with pastor reverend dr pastor reverend dr james wilsonville james vincent williams and the mount olive civic engagement group and i appreciate ms bell mentioning the library and i am following up on a request that i made in a couple of minutes meetings ago about the renaming of north greenwood library being named to christine with bar mars who was first african-american librarian and i have recently been following the budget cuts in florida which will which will probably trickle down here to clearwater and after 125 years of service the florida library association is on the brink of ceasing all operations the association has cut its operating budget to the bare minimum uh by closing its tallahassee office in october 2025 eliminating part-time staff and suspending resources not suspending its lobbying services despite these significant cuts financial resources have been exhausted without immediate support branches all over florida and maybe north greenwood branch will be forced to operate without staff within weeks placing the future of florida its legislative advocacy efforts professional development programs and the annual florida conference in serious jeopardy funding libraries across the state of florida including the north greenwood branch library is vital because it acts as a historical educational and economic anchor for historically for our historically underserved african-american community here in north greenwood securing its financial future directly drive neighborhood revitalization closes the digital divide and preserve persevere preserve vital city history so our question or our suggestion is uh well the question is how soon can we expect to have a discussion about renaming the library and the second question is when can we get into a conversation with the powers to be on funding libraries across the state of florida specifically north greenwood because as those of us who know the history uh in 1988 the north greenwood library was one of the ones that were designated as closed but citizens here in the north greenwood area we rallied and we prevented that from happening thank you for listening thank you thank you mike jack thank you for coming are there any others from the community for coming seeing no additional speaker assistance to be heard is now closed thank you we will not move to new business item 4.1 board and um i've been requested to attend this meeting our budget and to i've said the will of the board um and answer any questions that there may be as it relates to um the referendum um that is being proposed that's going to be on the ballot in november relating to property taxes so with that i will go ahead and get started and you know like said we'll leave it up to the board in terms of how we do questions and answers and that that's something that the board wants to do so this is um a a briefing version of the budget that was presented to councils and presented to council uh multiple times and we'll go to public hearing later on this month i'll get the dates as part of this presentation um but there's not new information in here this is just part of the education process to make sure that we're bringing the information out to the communities um so that people have a better understanding in terms of what our budget entails so we have a we presented a balanced budget for the 26 27 fund or one year our budget starts on october 1st of 2026 and we'll go through september 30th of 2027. we um our budget priorities were to pull the line because we knew that there was going to be back when we started our budget process that there was going to be some potential for revenue reductions as it related to what the state may or may not do and so um through our strategic planning process the council direction was to preserve what we have um and um not to pull the line and not add anything new the nine increased ftes that we have nine new employees are all in the fire department and that has is as of a result from our prior collective bargaining agreements where to reduce our the firefighter work week we had to add positions and so that is now coming to fruition so the only new positions that are being added are those nine and it has it's as a result of those negotiations so what this budget focuses on um a continued focus on our downtown urban renaissance hopefully you all have an opportunity to see what's going on um downtown there's a lot of new businesses coming a lot of construction we've got between three and four cranes in downtown on a regular basis first time we've seen that a very long time so that is exciting um the county property that project is still moving forward as a reminder there's 17 properties that the county will be vacating as they move to their new campus and they have an rfn which is a request for negotiations that is out on the street right now for a master developer to provide proposals as to what to do with those properties um while they are county owned properties they are in our great city and so we will be involved in that process we are not a decision maker in that process but we will be involved in terms of input as the selection moves through and then obviously you know whatever developer that they select to do that will have to work with our team as it relates to what it is that they're going to develop and be in compliance with our code and our downtown plan um the block development is continuing we've got the hotel um and the apartments that are both at vertical construction it's really cool to watch and see that occurring down there um we're replacing some equipment in the fire department that has exceeded the life cycle um and then also you know we've talked to this group before we continue to have water and sewer improvements um throughout every budget infrastructure is incredibly important to us and so that is continuing through this budget and um and then also just preparing for the the pending fiscal challenges that are likely going to happen no matter what happens with the referendum and i don't mean that from a political standpoint i mean that we've heard the call for affordability and for reduction in taxes and things like that and so no matter what happens with the referendum if it passes or fails we know that there's going to be a continued focus on affordability which means revenue reduction for the city so um on the screen what they're showing is these are all of our funds what do you mean by fund and how this really comes into play is that property taxes um add the warm fund the general fund so our budget is made up of multiple funds as you see here but when you're talking about property taxes property taxes only go into the general fund utility funds are funded by utilities um enterprise funds are such as like the marina um parking is an enterprise fund sanitation solid waste is an enterprise fund so all of those things are not in the general fund and they have their own funds that support them so um we're proud of that the budget that we presented um only has a three percent increase and when i say only i don't mean but three percent is not a lot of money but what we were able to accomplish we just talked about the big things that we're going to continue to work on we're also maintaining our staff and keeping them at a competitive wage because if we don't have a competitive package we don't have good employees to provide the great services that we do so being competitive is important so we're maintaining our competitive pay plan as well as like i said keeping all those services going at only a three percent increase is pretty impressive because as much as you all are feeling the increase of insurance um and the cost of goods the cost of labor the cost of um built construction supplies we are too the city feels those increases as well and so we're pretty proud that the budget we present is balanced at only a three percent increase military um so the military is what is used to calculate the property taxes um this is what you know when we're talking about it we all myself included pay taxes um our tax bill does not our whole tax bill does not only come to the city of clearwater it funds other things like schools um and things like that but um just to make sure we all understand in terms of what the military is for the city of clearwater what we collect is at 5.885 we did um we did do the rollback rate what the rollback rate is is what the increase or reduction would be to keep the um in this case it's a reduction to keep the same amount of revenue as it relates to property taxes coming in so it was a small rollback um by no means did we tout that this was going to be the answer to affordability but it is a commitment to that you know we are trying to keep things in line and where we can make cuts are making those cuts so we did roll the rate back um from the 5.885 to the 5.8773 it'll be a very small reduction on your tax bills um again it's not something that we're trying like hey we heard you and here's the affordability but it's more in terms of the message that we're sending that we do steer you and we'll continue to be responsive as we talk about the different revenues um that make up what our budget is you can see that out of the warm is a significant portion of our budget at the warm is the property taxes in terms of what we collect this year um property values for the city of clearwater only went up two percent we were projecting them to go up four percent so in terms of revenues this is a reduction in revenue right off the bat because our production was our projection was off um and so but that's what the property values increase were um our utility taxes did go up five percent and then you'll see i don't want to leave this to you all i feel like in other neighborhoods and communities that i've been presenting to the most competitive i can ask questions so if i go through any of this too fast and there's an opportunity for questions i'm happy to come back and answer questions specifically about this and we can email this out um if anybody wants a copy of their presentation as well the other side is obviously expenditures right so the revenues are that's what we charge fees for and select fees and property taxes for this is what we spend the money on um and um broken down by department so public safety is the largest portion of our budget you can see that at 46.5 percent um parks and rec is the next um largest portion of it and then the other departments make up the rest of it so as is normal with a majority of budgets not just government budgets but a majority of budgets out there um the majority of our budget is spent on personnel so labor costs are number one expense and that's demonstrated here about being 62 percent of our cost and then operating making up the next biggest portion but at 15 so you can see the significance in terms of personnel cost um again i'm sorry i went a little fast there but those are the departments that are funded by the general fund so just like um property taxes only go to the general fund all those utility funds including the personnel and stuff are not impacted by the general fund so i mentioned solid waste a question that i've gotten is you know um change you know solid waste fees or change how to recycle or things like that to offset um any of the reduced revenues that might happen as a result of property taxes different funds and that does not help nor can we use the solid waste and sanitation funds to help fund the general fund because those ones are dedicated just to support those services so it is important the station to remember what areas are impacted and included in the general fund so i'm sorry for that i said it was good i'm sorry um so these are the departments um that make up the general fund because we um when i talk about the planning document i hope you all have seen my planning document um if you haven't you get a copy of it it is on our website um but when we talk about the the planning document and the potential cuts to the areas that are being proposed it's important to remember these are the only departments we have to work with um if the general fund revenues are reduced these are the general funds that we have to pick from as to how to impact and absorb that reduction so police fire parks and rec library planning development public works um not environmental and all others so um you know there's departments that people don't see like it and you know public communications you see because they're out and about but there's a lot of those internal services human resources finance that are a part of the general fund as well it's up to them i'm sorry this is going um i just wanted to just pause one second so if we can hold so i will open it up for questions when she's finished oh just slow down i got you i do talk fast i'm so sorry i apologize i do talk fast so i will try to to slow that down um so these are the departments so hopefully i know i talked about but you can see it too that would be subject to being impacted by any kind of reduction in property access okay so we have done a variety of engagements um with both our council and the community to find out what the priorities are in our community and we use that information to come up with the budget and our planning document so that people would have something to contemplate as they're making their decision as it relates to um what we have heard so far and again we're continuing to go out um i have multiple other neighborhoods that i'm speaking to next week and the weeks after um is that residents prioritize public safety that is always the number one thing that we hear as a group when we go out and speak is that public safety is number one but we also hear that our residents in our community very much appreciate the services that we provide and don't want to see those go either um i know some of you attended our dollars to donuts event that was a community budget event that we did so that we could gather information we had every department there um and as you walked through and learned about what every apartment did what the general fund supports we then at the end of it gave you dollars to spend to tell us what you want to prioritize we did not give you enough dollars to prioritize everything and so what we learned from that is that was very hard for the community and that whereas public safety always is at the forefront everything else is important too um and didn't want to make those um decisions about what you cut and so it came out that everything was important um other than like the things that had the fewest amount of votes um or dollars spent on it was on um like sports tourism and sports programs but everything else ran pretty high um the public meetings for the budget so this is where the public gets to come and engage and tell the council whatever they want them to hear contemplate as it relates to the budget around tuesday september 15th that's at 6 p.m and then we have another one because we do it twice it's required to do it twice on monday september 21st at 6 p.m these dates change they're not going to now but the reason they aren't on our normal schedule is because we can't hold our budget at any time that the county or school board is boarding their budget and so that's why it's off schedule not on our normal thursday night um so we're trying to make sure that everybody knows it is a different date and that they know what those dates are so you have the opportunity to hear the budget presentation and provide any feedback that you may want to provide now these meetings are at council chambers that is correct okay yes and not so we've held workshops workshops the public does not get to you to provide input these are the public hearings so this is we welcome public feedback um so i was talking about the planning document and we'll get into that a little bit but if you go to our dashboard and if you can scan that qr code it'll bring you right there with your phone we have a dashboard that addresses the planning document but in a i think much easier to understand format and what i mean by that is it's summarized um we don't bring it up but um when you go to that website you will see i think it's six blocks and when you click on each one of those blocks it tells you for example public safety so if the referendum passes this is what may happen to public safety and it talks about the dollars that would be reduced it talks about how many positions from public safety would be reduced and what services would be impacted um there's one for a library and there's one for parks and grass there's one for roads and sidewalks so that the community can see what may happen the reason i say may is because nothing has been decided our council did not approve the planning document we presented it they said thank you i don't mean that in a facetious way i mean that they acknowledged it and now we're going to wait and see what happens um during the election um and then we will have a recommendation to discuss now what um now what if it passes now what if it fails so that that continued dialogue and listening so we know that affordability is an issue so we're going to do about it there is a significant impact to the city of clearwater should the recommend three pass i don't do fear tactics we are prohibited by law from being persuasive so all i'm all that is on this dashboard and all that we are talking about are facts so when i give you numbers for example 20 million dollars that is the number the city of clearwater has been provided by the county property tax appraiser to say this is what clearwater would lose in revenue if amendment three passes over the course of two years okay so it's 12 million dollar reduction in year one and an additional eight million dollars in year two those are not fear tactics those are facts i know it's a big number but that is that is what that's the number we've been given and to be honest with you that is the most conservative number there are other numbers out there if you google or chat gbt what will clearwater be impacted you will see that number and then you'll see numbers that are much higher we're doing a conservative number because we don't want to participate here we do know that there will be additional hits excuse me for example we receive funding from jwb the jwb support programs at this rec center jwb gets their funding through property taxes our 12 million dollars total of 20 over the course of two two years does not include any reduction to jwb it does not include any reduction to the pcclb which is library okay but it's the library funds it doesn't include those reductions that are also supported by property taxes it also doesn't include ems dollars ems money is also supported by property tax dollars so again i say that as fact not as fear tactics to just make sure people understand that's our job i'm incredibly passionate about educating i want you to vote i will beg you to vote i will not tell you how to vote or try to persuade you one way another i'm going to pause there and ask the board what now well first i would like to allow the committee to ask any sort of questions if you have any questions this time i don't have any questions but thank you you clarified a lot of things i have a better understanding of a lot more of this as far as those line items for each of the you know the funds that come out of general or utility and those things so thank you i encourage people to please go to our dashboard i mean it is a very educational pool that we can look at to see the different impacts in the different areas that you care about or that you don't care about and then give us a feedback reach out to us let us know what you like what you don't like we love to answer questions and engage i'm very committed to that so just a point of clarification for everyone's knowledge the vote that's upcoming yes will of course dramatically impact one way or another but if it were to not go if it if it were to be approved right you know word passed at this point right now there is no way to nail down the exact number of the impact correct we've been told it's 20 million over the course of two years right but that's just one bucket there are other buckets like jwb and other buckets that you mentioned that could contribute to the reduction that's correct right if you don't have those numbers okay okay so with that being said it it's up to the community to make sure that they review all the information that they can if they can attend one of the sessions to share their thoughts or perspectives on you know what they care about what they would like to see if it were to pass or not that would be the best way to navigate it yeah um yes and the reason why i hesitate is because i feel like should you do that okay we're going to listen because we always listen council's response on at september i think would be nothing has passed yet we haven't made any decisions which is true okay um but we will listen i just wouldn't want anybody to be frustrated like wait a minute i didn't even feel like they are blown off or not blown off we're hearing you we're listening to you but council has not approved anything when you review the document and you review the dashboard you'll see that it's painful okay what i mean by painful is it's a reduction in services there are libraries that will close there are parks and rec facilities that will close there are reduced hours again i don't say that as fear-mongering i say that because we have to reduce our budget by 20 million dollars and only have so many buckets to reduce that five and so these are suggestions in terms of another question um we've talked about increasing fees for the usage of the facilities that are still open um so all that information is in there but it's a it's a we wanted to have an education tool to get people to talk about things and be able to see like this is what a possibility is if the referendum passes so that you would understand that come election day um but we haven't identified what rec centers or parks i'm sorry what rec centers or libraries outside of the beach so we did identify that the beach rec center in each library would potentially again planning document nothing approved those were identified specifically to be closed but there are additional we said we would have to close one more of each potentially um and if the record passes and what i mean by potentially is there's a million ways to cut things up okay there's not we're not saying there's any one way we're not saying the way we propose it is the best way we're saying based on what we heard and the tools that we had available at the time this is what we would recommend so that we're not eliminating services completely rather than just offering them at a reduced schedule so one follow-up question with that is how would residents in the north 3-1 community advocate to make sure that or to the best of our ability that our library and this rec center doesn't close or that if rent fees increase that we find a way to help mitigate that so again i'm not allowed to be persuasive right the city is not allowed so what i would encourage is to educate episode is to people to look and see what the document is and what it what it means what is being proposed and then to provide feedback now i don't want to say the feedback is early um right now because it's good to hear it now however um we have we i don't have the date for it yet but i believe at our next meeting which is september 17th we are going to set a date post election to talk about implementation and it's implementation no matter what because we know our council has provided um direction from the dais that they want to reduce property taxes so if amendment three does not pass they still want us to come up with reduction measures and so there's going to be a conversation in i think november holidays are you know i mean so that's why i say possibly november but we want it to be close to the election post-election but that really is the time to say you know because you're going to know what will have happened and you don't even have that but i think in the meantime educating each other on the possibilities and what's important and making sure you can be okay thank you uh you mentioned that at the dollars for donuts did i say that right or donuts for dollars okay anyway uh you mentioned that the um those who were there and participated they shared or they utilized their dollars for what they thought how they prioritize things you mentioned that sports and tourism was the least yes and so can you tell me what that like what did that encompass i can use the context clues but i'd like to hear you say yeah what that encompasses and what does that mean that now that you've heard that from from the residents that that was the yeah so what it meant to us from what we interpreted from them right listening both in terms of the dollars that were provided but also in terms of what the people were saying as they were doing it um it's about um also like sports programming you know what i mean so we are well known for our youth sports for um adult you know sports and activities and for the the different like the phillies we also have the espn softball tournament we have some soccer tournaments like we're known for that we do that um and there's a cost and a benefit associated with that and so that's what rent the lowest but not by much okay you know i mean it was kind of like everything was important but that that's what it was thank you you're welcome question um what you're saying stating that the aquatic center could be hit you know because of the reduction what would it mean that the program funded by jwd that's the possibility of money being taken away plus this being funded by the city will be also another pop so the aquatic center would initially kind of get double so i will tell you that um possibly yes the all of our jwb programs across the city so not just put across the city are a hundred percent supported by jwb and if that funding goes away the program okay those aren't decisions that we will get to make um you know i mean that's going to be made by jwb jwb is going to have to decide what they're going to do with reduced revenues and how they're going to implement that across all of their agencies um so yes um you know we won't have control over that what the city will have control over is in terms of how we handle our portion of it um and yes you know if there's decisions to be made about the aquatic center then you're right we can use multiple as could all of our sites um that have them it's a great question so um one macro clip question for you so thinking about the cra sure and the funding for the cra which could potentially be impacted by property taxes so what what conversations are currently being had if that were to go through for the cra if they so again all we can do is educate you know um we are we are bound by to not being persuasive so that's why you know we're off lose the city and our neighborhood's team is making sure they go around and say hey if you guys want to hear about this we'll make it happen and they have their team committed but i love it um you know i hope we've got 40 something neighborhoods i hope i speak at all 40 of them because then i feel like i've done my job from an education standpoint so i hope to get that and i mean it it would be a lot but i mean it i hope i get to go to all of them um and do that but education is all we are allowed to do um including like we can't we're prohibited from spending any money so um we have ideas you know like um you know our team is amazing and they were so proud of what they do i mean they wanted to put signs everywhere that says funded by you know general funds and you know things like that so people would know in terms of education we can't do that that you know i mean so it's been determined that that could be considered being persuasive so there's not um there's not a lot that we can do and not because we won't but because the law prohibits it but i want to hear ideas and all you know i mean because there could be things we haven't heard of um i meet with the city we have a city manager's meeting every friday so any city manager in pinellas county who wants to attend and attend this virtual meeting and we talk about what are you doing about amendment three what works i mean like what's going well what's not we're sharing those ideas i mean like we're we're all in on this because we're all passionate about education um so if you have ideas on different things that you please let us know awesome thank you very much so i will allow questions to be opened up i see your question in the back so please make sure you know on a comment card come up yeah there's an opportunity thank you on education my name is barbara sorry love you already know that and the league of women voters and this tanya landry gave the my colleague civic engagement through an excellent presentation on amendment amendment three so if you want to be educated follow up with miss tanya landry and she can give you all the information you need to know on amendment three thank you very much and if i may you know so electives are allowed to have to not do so the law does not prohibit elected officials from advocating for or against i am not elected none of the employees for the city of plain water are elected so yes there is a difference there we are not allowed electives are gotcha um thank you and you mentioned that of course you you encourage people to vote but you can't tell them i can't tell you who vote either but i'm telling you if you don't vote and the information that you're hearing at this session and others you need to share it with other people make sure they get to some of the other sessions make sure they talk to tanya landry or whoever because if we don't get the word out um whether we're for losing all these things or not if uh elections do have consequences we just want to make sure and i don't only have to go to associations if there's a different group would like me to speak new presentation we'll go wherever we're asked um you know that we can make work so it's not limited to just me so anywhere you know so please pass that on to i'm happy to give a presentation um to anybody that wants it thank you very much real quick um again i'm mullet and open up with the budget information you mentioned in the cranes downtown and the construction and the 17 was that 75 as well um that's a it's a great question um i can't answer for the county because the county owns those properties and so um they they i know that they have had conversations about what if the amendment passes would they move forward because they are bonding on their new property and would they continue so that's a that's a question that will be decided by the county i know that they have initially decided to continue to move forward so the rfn is out um and it closes on the 20 something it's the end of september that that rfn closes so they're continuing to move forward with it could it be impacted potentially yes um in terms of the projects um that are currently going on we as in the team have not identified any current construction to stop um as a result of the you you know if the referendum passes however it's a council decision and so could council decide to do something sure um but we won't know that until after it passes and we have that next meeting i hope we'll have that date hopefully after the 17th because that's when i'm asking council to set that date um is on this month of september any other questions from committee thank you very much we really i really really love you okay okay i'm sarah baker is there a minimum i hear all the preparation which is right yes like um like most like it's known that most people are going to vote for a reduction in public action um so um is there a minimum for am i hearing 20 million in front of these cut okay yeah so is that the minimum that's going to be from the information that we have been provided i would say yes that is the minimum that would be cut it will likely be more than that 20 is the minimum is the minimum from the information that we have been providing okay will there be a spot for example or no reduction so you will have the opportunity to either vote for the amendment or against the amendment okay okay thank you no problem any other questions saying that thank you very much thank you so much for the opportunity we're going to go on to own business item 5.1 update on the north greenwood overlay provide an update on the planned redevelopment district overlay i know many of you have heard heard about it for those of you to me i've been to some of the meetings we are doing this effort based on the north greenwood community development area plan and community entities that we've received for many years and we are working on adopting what's called a planned redevelopment district overlay it's going to be applied to most of the north greenwood cra an overlay is an actual way of the land use rules that sits on top of the future map in the zoning app it doesn't change the zoning the overlay allows property owners to choose to redevelop and meet certain design standards to opt in and build more units or square footage than is currently allowed today we have a four-step process that we're working on and you may be receiving some letters or some postcards that we're sending out we're trying to be more communicative and sharing about upcoming meetings with everybody we have a hearing before the city council on october the first it's a second reading and then there's a third reading on october the 14th and that's for step one and two to adopt the overlay then after that we're starting to work on some community development code amendments so we want to amend our code to add design standards for people who would like to be in the in the overlay or use development and we're going to have several meetings here in the recreation center and that we have a print out there on the table with the free meeting date so i'll read those to you if anyone would like to come we'd love to have you so tuesday september the 29th october the 27th and december the 8th at 5 30 p.m we'll have meetings here in this room to talk about the potential code amendment for the overlay and the types of things we're going to ask you are what types of residential development would you like to see how should buildings look and overlay and where should parking be on site so we'll be talking a little bit about some real specific stuff that we might put in the code and we wanted to give your input about that and i also have some information for you we are looking at um so on the website you're welcome to check that out anytime the website is on the handout there at the table and it has all the information about our upcoming meetings the meeting dates the draft overlay itself we have maps on the website as well and so with that i'll stop presenting and just see if you have any questions well first are there any questions from the committee if there are any questions from the community please be sure to fill out a comment card saying no thank you very much update on the armory hello my name is jesus lino i'm the cra executive director uh this is an update for 706 north missouri avenue also known as the armory i just wanted to let you know let the community know that we did close on the property on august 24th of this year as to this five week ago that's the major update for us but we also want to let you know the staff including the administration we're in constant communication with mr david habib and his staff we have a statement here in the audio said a few words as well but the reason for that communication we want to make sure that they are good community partners they are working with the community they are showing up to the cac meetings and that they're always reminded very respectfully of their commitment that they made to do the restrictive covenant agreement with the city of real water cra and all of you here board members cac members you have a copy of page three of the covenant restrictions which is the commitment they've made from there i'm going to hand it over to miss favorite and give you an update i'm also giving questions as well hello everyone my name is mary favorite i'm the senior marketing specialist at yo mama's foods as well as having the privilege of being the community outreach chair as well so any any way i can connect with the community i'll be here and i'm very excited because there are people here today that are coming to visit yo mama's tomorrow and i'll be giving them a tour and chilling them around so i encourage you to try to contact me my email is mary.favorite at yo mama's foods.com and i'm on the computer more than i'd like to admit so i will always um email back but i did want to give some updates um we have entered the armory which is super exciting for our company as we're growing like not just nationally internationally we do need the space so it's wonderful our first line of business there is going to be first of all making sure it's up code of course with the city but making sure as well that we have a working warehouse because we're trying to stop our third party logistics in chicago and bring it down to clearwater so it'll be our main headquarters and so we're very excited about that um a couple of very exciting news um the employment opportunities um i put some buyers here and in the library across the street and send emails out that we have a opening at the warehouse and we do have a north greenwood member now working at yo mama's so we're happy about that um we do have two more openings um in entry level marketing where and i'll get flyers out maybe when you maybe get to make one um or see a marketing specialist role as well as the international sales managers who were requiring them to be bilingual because we do have a lot of um latin american companies that we work um other than that we are uploading our jobs on career source trying to be um inclusive by printing out the flyers and i hope to see you all on the tour thank you very much we're here for questions if you have any well i would like to jump in real quick and say that so to let everyone know one of the things that that i've made a request for is uh understanding that there are a number of jobs within the organization um having a list of what all of those jobs are even though they may not have openings but a list of the jobs and the descriptions of those jobs so then that way as a community we can familiarize ourselves with all the positions that are within your office foods right so you know if there's a warehouse position as far as position etc um even before the position is posted there's some visibility into what some of those jobs are so if there's any interest in those jobs we can start to work towards making sure people are prepared or qualified for those jobs so that when they do become open they can be applied for and hopefully win those jobs so that is something that uh david has agreed to so i'm looking forward to seeing uh the list of the positions within the company so that way as a community people can be prepared are there any questions or comments from the committee a comment if i may sure other items we're also working on with the economic development staff team we have a meeting scheduled with the dean for workforce development at st p college in addition was the dean for the business administration with state p college to see how we can work together with the north greenwood community to bridge new type of gaps then we're hoping to also work with and other entities within north greenwood we can see what those gaps are and we can do we can tailor some type of program through st p college but that meeting is set up and we're going to see how that grows hopefully really grows well so just clarification that that the date for that meeting is already set is that correct it's already set okay awesome thank you very much no but i would like to commend them that they hold into what they were saying about people from the area because i personally sent someone their way and a couple of people actually and um one of them i know doesn't have very many skills whatsoever in the business um but they would give them an opportunity thank you very much are there any questions or comments from the community yes ma'am please be sure to follow our part one my name is um my question is what is your commitment with the existing organization in our community there's many christians funded by common state for instance there's two head starts in this area there's this program here our community that have single household grandparents raising children and grandchildren a fixed income uh we have food packages in the various churches around here um and since you are a food entity have you reach out to the churches that have the various food pantry days or the after school program or the local schools that pack food for children to take home during the weekend i know you've reached out to help and a few other organizations i can't do the recall but as a retired director and educator and teacher this is something i would like to see your mama with their presence you know and there's one more thing and i don't know i get a lot of email from the city and everybody else um it's only i know you all are going into the armory and i spoke several times about the passion i feel for that building i don't have a problem with the name up there the chiseled name of national guard armory i was just wondering could that still stay there even with your business playing there that's holding a part of our culture in the neighborhood being an educator i was also an elementary school educator in st you don't get enough things no matter what so um i we are very excited to be having more community outreach opportunities and i've talked to the principal at sandy lane elementary so we'll be going there in november and you know even these stories that i'm giving in the upcoming months talking about career opportunities and how we can get children engaged and and our great thing at yomana is food scarcity and understanding that that's a huge problem and that's the number one problem we do not want to have i mean we're in clear water florida we should not be doing that right so we do understand that as a company um we yes we make sauce and we do donate sauce every single month and we are creating reports yearly reports of the amount of pounds and where exactly those the sauce is going to go to feed the community um but again this is it's been an interesting journey this year but i think because of this journey it's really brought the community closer with you mamas and all of you and i'm excited to hear more more ideas from you too and the people who are coming to visit tomorrow i'm excited to hear their ideas and see how we can work together to to do more for the community of course in terms of the question about the national guard uh angry um i i have no control over that answer i don't want to say the wrong i have no idea i'm excited yes so thank you for that answer so one thing that maybe i can recommend is that maybe you and ms jenkins can sit down one day because i recognize that you may not know all there is and know about all the ins and outs of all the different places that are within the community but she does so yeah so so i think that might be a worthwhile conversation i have just so that way you know the different things that are going on so that way when you go back to the team you can put together an attack plan to start getting things done totally and we've been that's that's why we've been reaching out and engaging more and sitting down with people like thursday at 1pm um tours just saying calendars thursdays at 1pm you can hang with me and tell me all the things you want to see and like how we can give back and and keeping in mind that at the end of the day we are a for-profit business so um that is obviously something to keep in mind as well and um but at the end of the the day we are part of the north greenwood community we're proud of it thank you very much i don't have any other questions for the community no anything else for the community thank you very much bye it's about year 2026-27 good evening at this point my name is ann lopez i am the cra assistant director i do not have any presentations this is a very quick item on july 7th we had brought an item forward to the north greenwood cac for you all to recommend an approval of a fiscal year budget beginning october 1 of 2026 when staff created that budget it was used it was approved using a 5.8850 bill for the city's increment and as you heard earlier this afternoon the city manager stated that the city council decided to do a rollback rate so when this item was presented again to the cra trustees it had been adjusted to reflect that rolled back rate and it caused a decrease in the increment from the city a proposed increment a proposed decrease in the increment of 884 dollars staff has reduced the budget on the economic development city project fund by that 884 dollars so we just wanted to come in and provide an update of that reduction from the budget that was shared for you for recommendation versus what was approved by the cra justice and that final budget is right here in the packet correct yes sir are there any questions from the committee thank you very much you're very welcome mrs campbell please be sure to my question jennifer toprakow there were contingencies for the rollback depending on whether the referendum passes or not or even if it doesn't that there were going to be some rollback so i was just curious if there the cra department was taking that same stance and so what would those rollback the cra we do not issue a millage we receive increment from the city and from the county so our annual revenues are based off of what the city receives so if the city does receive a reduction in their revenues then the cra in turn would see a reduction in their in our revenue and we would adjust so if we do see some reductions we would bring those back forward as amendments are there any other questions saying none thank you very much 5.5 update on the village i'm sorry 5.4 yes 5.4 update on the village thank you uh good afternoon laurie campbell uh executive director of the clearwater urban leadership coalition uh giving an update uh as you see we have our coming soon thanks and we get a round of applause we don't actually got the sign yet but we have a uh what is the word facsimile of the sign um and we are still on target we this week received the permit for our uh site plan uh and that was according to our target we're actually um on target for that we have the next thing will be our building uh permit and that is in the works now at the same time we will have our containers manufactured uh because this is not brick and mortar uh the beauty of this is that once the building uh the construction starts the containers will also be being built simultaneously once the foundations are there then we'll be able to bring the container stand so we are still on target for second quarter of 2027 this was just to give you an idea this was the site plan that has been approved uh and you will see that there are names of built businesses in their tents we actually have 13 intent to leave the sign with deposit so can we uh the project is amazing uh one of the things that we always heard when we would go to council is how are you going to get people to come are you going to get businesses interested i will tell you we have a waiting list of businesses uh to come and be a part of this so some of the businesses we have mr empanada which is a franchise uh that she'll be moving in and we have the wine down blue those are our two anchors that's a wine bar we then have uh the several other businesses there uh jazzy seafood shout out to jazzy uh we have bro bites uh we have uh some of you know cyn cafe janice and uh richard uh they they have they've had restaurants before and so they're going to be there uh we also have a boss lady coffee juice up i think that's some luisa here yeah juice up uh we have remedies and treasure moments of candles uh we have uh jam rock sun uh we have the psalmist cafe and sweet l's bakery and uh and then uh eddie um adam's most of you know eddie he has loaded potatoes he will be doing tacos on the wood or in the wood so he will have a store there as well so we are quite excited uh 13 businesses we also have one uh container that uh does not have a name on it and we are at this point looking for that to be uh if you're familiar with ghost kitchens uh we actually have someone one container manufacturer had a pizza ria that is let's consider again and so we now maybe have changed our mind we may do something else with that but imagine 13 businesses imagine 13 businesses imagine 13 jobs new jobs imagine part-time jobs for young people people young people all of us had a first job but imagine someone who is in our community transportation is an issue uh there are no other businesses but having 13 new businesses and places to go things to do but also employment and economic uh empowerment so that is really what this project is all about uh we are quite excited and most of our the community is and i want to really give a shout out to the coalition members uh who have absolutely stood in the gap on this one we give a shout out to the cra uh that have really come alongside of us as well but most of all i want to give a shout out to the community the north greenwood community give yourself from out of the clock because when when you needed to show up you showed up really really do uh appreciate it uh this is just a rendering when you hear containers uh you know you don't know what it's going to look like so these are some of the uh friends of uh for bossy coffee and juice up and uh our goal with our architect is to make it look as much like this as possible so we really are we are absolutely uh trying to make this a show place a destination something that we can all be proud of two other events we do have our capital campaign uh that's where you can all help and donate we are we have a goal of a hundred thousand dollars to raise for some uh some things that we want to do that are not part of our budget have not been budgeted for right now we probably have about thirty thousand dollars of that we probably have another twenty thousand committee so we're halfway there so but we need everyone so please please consider investing in the village twenty five dollars all the way up to uh if you want to do a whole hundred thousand raise your hand and we will definitely give you a round of applause so it does not matter whatever we will we will take it we will also be bringing back taste of the village too how many of you attended taste of the first taste of the village was it not exciting it was amazing uh it was magical is what people said so we will be bringing back tasting the village too the beauty of this one is that we have all tenants that are going to be at the container uh village uh the village at the grove will be there with their products uh you'll get to sample them you'll get to purchase some things take some things home so we are really quite excited about that this time it will be at ross norton not here because they didn't have a face so we'll be in the big room at north across north please put that on your calendar and then the final thing is our annual event our family fun night that's happening again saturday october 24th and i believe we start on the 14th uh with the with our meeting so you'll get another are there any questions about the update regarding your donations donations so we will uh get the address and we'll share it with you so okay so yes we will uh make sure that uh that is correct um and anyone else and also uh you donate and we have these cute t-shirts that you'll get i invested in those t-shirts also uh we also are looking for to get it okay so it's under oh okay i just had to take the donate part oh okay thank you thank you appreciate that uh also we are looking for mentors for our businesses uh i did want to say that and uh we really want to give a shout out to hannah i don't want to embarrass her but uh but she signed on very early to be a mentor for one of our businesses and so we really really do appreciate that and we have several other people that are volunteering uh our our goal is to have 95 success rate for businesses and if any of you know anything about new businesses uh that start out that's about 50 more than what normally makes it our businesses are going to make it we have all the right things in place we have all the support that they need and we will also we are designing this as an incubator so those businesses in three years will scale up into other businesses bigger locations and other people will have the opportunity to move in so uh that's it thank you for donating all right so and uh see you we do have some questions oh it was c-u-l-c.org take the donate off and make sure you spell it right because it's yeah don't that's not c-u-c-l c-u-l-c leadership coalition we should have put a q up Ms. Campbell before we bring it to the audience just one second Ms. Campbell can you talk about the training that the businesses are going through um yes so one of the uh things that we say we're providing the resources for the businesses uh what's really nice is that a lot of these um our tenants have maybe they have businesses they're doing pop-up but no real formal business training and so we actually have had five weeks of training but we've had uh things to help them uh pricing for profit kind of product uh insurances that they'll need uh on left uh we did a culture of the village uh which was really amazing because it's about setting the tone and helping us to all understand we are not we are collaborators we are all in we're not competitors we're we intentionally chose the businesses that were there and so we really want that community that spirit of community that spirit of the village to be there everybody helping everybody else uh we did one exercise for we had them take a look at other uh tenants here and who could you collaborate with who could you create uh some synergy with and so it was really phenomenal it was quite exciting uh and then last night we actually had our um the bank our banking partner shout out to first federal credit union uh central florida central credit union uh they uh actually came along they're they are providing for us uh training they're also providing uh low interest loans uh for for our tenants um using our rubric so it's it's not what the bank says it's what we said our tenants need uh they're also providing uh they're going to put an atm on the the site if we need that uh they're also going to be a funder for our campaign and uh and looking to provide some workforce development training so um thank you thank you so much uh and thank you to uh yes let's give them a round of applause and they did have to tell on me because they reached out through several different people like chris and uh hundreds with you and maryland uh maryland brown uh because uh you know this is not my full-time job i do have another job i do but i spend more more time doing this than anything else but um they had reached out several times and uh they were reaching out through our coalition emails which we don't never regularly check and so uh john told on me he said i was not returning his phone calls he was trying to reach out to me and so when we did meet with him i said thank you for telling on me because it absolutely was the best conversation uh they did not come saying what do you want they came with a package uh and they were quite excited about being part of it so so thank you marilyn thank you for everyone to encourage them to keep trying well can you share some of your ideas as far as the campaign ideas that you have besides this uh what's in the capital campaign or what what else we're going to be doing yeah what else you know oh okay so um so we do have of course we uh again we want to give a shout out to the city for our our initial funding the 500k we got from the city to start the project uh we will be doing a uh number of events to help to uh to kind of bridge that gap uh we're looking at for the businesses developing some uh some grants and loan packages for them uh we think that could be important and we uh we're working with a couple of business uh duke energy is where we've got some other people we've reached out to who are looking to commit to the project what we need the additional money for are the things that are not we're not part of the budget initial budget for the project uh like we will have paper so you can actually purchase a paper uh and have your name or your family member's name on there we'll have uh there's uh some lighting things that we want to do so that's what the capital campaign of writing or dollars for infrastructure we'd like to be able to provide free internet um in our ears for folks one of the things that happened when covid hit was that the reason that our kids go behind the technology is the lack of internet and everything was online so so there's a lot of campaign information and if you have some ideas we are ready to listen as well i see you have a stage area do you guys have any headliners like really popular headliners oh yeah okay help promote this because i think if you have someone really popular they'll help start yeah actually i was planning on starting it off those who know me where i am not but uh great i am yeah so this is a food and entertainment uh you know i really have to give a shout out to uh dr rohouse from the st pete uh college team and audrey uh who helped us to kind of put what should this look like to be most successful so entertainment and in our community that is it it's the entertainment it's the food uh we actually are working with a couple of local uh individuals who do staging and who have some uh some entertainment that they work with uh we have contacted several local uh artists but yeah you're right so we're looking at you know we it's going to be c level but we have some really good local uh uh entertainment that we can absolutely bring there maybe it doesn't have to be yeah oh yeah maybe the sound amphitheater folks and you guys can work together and that is the key that's right part of what we are doing and again shout out to the city uh is to when there's something happening uh when there's at the sound we like to have a corresponding event happen with the that talent that is not going to be at the sound but people still want to come they still want to hear they want to be entertained so yeah and there's a lot of local talent so if you know someone i know several people have already contacted us about uh relatives i have a young man at my church who plays the saxophone who is phenomenal uh and so we'll be bringing that type of talent just for additional information for everyone a lot of the things that mrs campbell is sharing can be found on the website especially as it pertains to the capital campaign and where some of those dollars are going to go towards thank you so yes um if you want to be uh we will be we'll have a karaoke night for uh those of us who don't sing but think we can would like to so we we're going there'll be something for everyone let's be assured any questions any questions from the community we actually had uh talked about this project before kate craze was there so what grace became was a proof of concept for us uh so we had already started talking about this before praise even came about uh as far as the stage no the stage is we're not going to we don't have an area as big as praise but we have an area we think that can provide enough space that we can get people to come to listen to to uh to be engaged and uh and there's lots of space other spaces there there's a space on the other side uh there's space that we're looking to be able to to use it as well so it's not the entertainment that's not going to it's not going to be a thousand people it's not going to be a crate for you know you've got people jammed in there this is really but it really is an opportunity for people at least four or five days a week to come to have some good food and to respect that's what we want and we thank the community has said yes they said this is what they want as well and anytime we have that something they showed up uh and been very indicative so come to the taste of the village thank you very much i have 5.5 good evening chris we're talking about the economic development and housing direct with the city i think this is the first time on the dress show so that's good um i also have with us uh adra aha who is our economic development manager in the same department and we just want to provide you a brief uh update of north ward school so uh as many of you know um we continue to move forward basically with really the stage of pre-market uh what pre-marketing entails is really trying to get a gauge in the field for what market demand is uh for a historic site like uh north ward north ward north ward we do know has very historic uh asset and value uh to the north ward as well as the ward as a whole community we saw that recently and we got some information we're going to share with you about that but our goal with this project is to preserve the historic character of the site while putting the property back in productive community and economic use um we certainly don't want to keep right by the scene or just sitting there just kind of passing time away so we want to see this property uh be a productive asset to the community as a whole um so to go may ask the question what's next for north ward so as of right now we are still in the planning phases of what will then be what we consider a request for qualification so what is a request for qualification qualifications are are you qualified first of all that's the question rfp is really seeking and then rfp at some phase would also say well how would you do that and how much was it cost how much would you charge to do that so that's the other aspect of that so we're continuing to keep community input at the forefront so we're taking ideas we've got concepts and ideas that people are sharing with us uh the event on july 30th with audra will give you some highlights of um really was an opportunity for us to just kind of you know gauge the temperature what were people's thoughts and there were some really really good ideas so we're taking that and we're taking that into consideration we're also looking at other historic uh preservation projects that have occurred across uh the state and even outside of the state that maybe we can get some ideas as well in addition to that complement what the community is saying they want us so at this time i'm going to turn over to audra i'm audra aha and um we held an event on july 30th at north board that we called the night at north board thank you for those that were able to join us thank you canard for speaking at the event we had a wonderful turnout we had over 350 people that came out from the community as well as some of our development community that joined us that evening um and the night um offered the opportunity for the community to come and tour the school uh we partnered with the clearwater historical society and we brought in some memorabilia from the original school we brought in school desks and photo albums and just a lot of different memorabilia it was a really great evening um but what we also did that evening is we collected feedback from the community as to what do you want to see happen at north ward um we took that feedback and we went through and evaluated it and there were two that rose to the top among all the responses one of them was the community really would like to see some sort of an arts element incorporated into whatever happens at the school so we had people that said that they would like to have something like artist galleries um it could be something like a space for artists to work um um artist uh maybe a anything artist um the second thing that rose to the top and they pretty much came in similar was uh something like the armature works that they have in tampa which is a muse a mixed use project and that would have vendors that come in there they would have music and events and things like that that are happening so a lot of the community said that they would like to see it be something that the community come could use the space and attend events there one uh we hotels we did some people that said they would like to see north ward incorporate some sort of a boutique hotel element to it um we had a lot of other ideas but overall of the people that responded most of them said they wanted some sort of a historical tribute to north ward so if it was a hotel maybe there's a portion of the lobby that would include some sort of um collection of memorabilia or tribute to north ward or maybe there was a naming aspect to it that would provide um that significance to north ward um so like chris said you know right now we're in the planning stages for next steps um you know we are taking that information that was provided to us and that's going to help us inform the next step that we take we haven't set an exact date yet we're anticipating closer to the end of the year we'll be releasing that request for qualification um and then from that we would be able to take those respondents and then narrow that list down and invite those people back to submit proposals um and then from there that would be presented to the city for consideration so that's really where we stand right now with uh north ward and we are happy um to answer any questions that you might have so to to start off uh did the night of north ward generate uh developer interest and has there been developer interest since that night yes have they already started to submit their ideas of what it would look like or are they is it just interest at this point and they're holding their ideas until the rfp process opens up what's the hole in their ideas conversations information really what's historic what's not historic kind of delineate that so thank you very much any other questions from the committee are there any questions from the community just me again um i'm just curious about how would this or what be impacted or how would it impact with new changes that should may come because it is a part of our cra so i'm just curious would that how would that be considered or funding would it be funded by the city or money goes to that or we also have a chance of being cut so i just want to know how that's going to be impacted as of now there is there is no um not to move forward with the project to answer your question to that point um a lot of what you what you're alluding to will be dictated by what proposal we receive and what the terms are with what the deal actually we won't know that until we start that process so it's kind of early to make that determination so but if we are moving forward as of now with the plans to promote the redevelopment of the site any questions other questions oh no i'm sorry i didn't want to shout out to the other economic development team over here stephanie scalis can you raise your hand she's not up but uh we have a nice uh really well talented team uh small as we are we do a lot to uh get out and and see see folks like yourself tonight so we're happy to be here any other questions anybody has no one can hear me one thing is that property right now is not being attacked at all right it's not on attack though how cras work basically all the cities thank you jesus for taking me back to my cra days i used to do the exact same thing jesus does so i know it very well so so just a point of clarification on that so so as of now it's not currently on the tax rolls right but hypothetically in the future right a developer comes in redevelops it now the referendum the the number three right was being voted on that's for residential taxes correct or homestead right so commercial is not included on that so the development of that property regardless of how it's developed will not negatively impact the cra any way shape or form because that's commercial not residential all right yeah the goal is is to return it to the tax base right okay thank you very much thank you so we're moving on to uh cra updates item 6.1 updates regarding the north greenwood commercial grant good evening my name is marilyn brown cra specialist this item is to provide an update on the north greenwood commercial grant program the program provides funding assistance to property and business owners to help make eligible improvements to commercial properties and support continued investment in north greenwood community since beginning the program we have approved seven commercial grants totaling 557 228 in grant funding support improvements in north greenwood businesses staff will continue working with businesses to help move these applications and projects forward any questions question update on so item 6.2 an update on the north greenwood residential grant maryland brown cra specialist i'm here to provide a brief update on the north greenwood residential program the program continues to support north greenwood homeowners with exterior improvements that enhance neighborhood appearance helps perverse preserves housing and encourage continued investment in the community our physical year 2024-25 the program approved 14 residential grants totaling 185 486 dollars and 8 cents this year 2025-26 the program has approved 32 grants to date with 16 grants closed representing 485 361 dollars and 69 cents in approved funding overall in just two two years the north greenwood residential program has approved more than 500 000 in grant funding towards residential improvements in north greenwood this program continues to demonstrate strong participation and provides an important resource for homeowners looking to improve and maintain their property thank you are there any questions so that was remaining in the residential grant i do not have that number i can work a lot of magic but i don't have that number at the top of my head we will send you an email that gives you a final balance of where we're at i just wanted to know in the event someone was interested in applying it's it's not too late though right well i can give you an update on that so we currently have 14 applications open for 2025-26 those applications are going to be completed within the next budget year this budget year has been expended the next budget will open on october 1st so we are taking applicants now around the audience and it's so nice to see you here um but there's three applicants that have already been um submitted their application and they're waiting for those funds to become available does that answer your question yeah but we can get you the amount so you know other questions thank you very much we will now open the floor for our board members to be heard so i know miss gloria has already talked about the two events that we have coming up the taste of the village and the community family fun night but i do want to take this time to thank the cra staff for rearranging this room so we can see the people and the people can see us we can see the presentation this is great thank you all did a phenomenal job thank you so much can i just make a quick comment i cannot take any credit of that so for that i would actually like to thank marilyn brown eric santiago brian albrecht and tasha hadley they all came out here one day and set all of this up and did a run through to find what would work best for everybody anything else all right just a quick announcement at the next uh citizens advisory committee meeting will be held on december 2nd 2026 at 5 30 p.m again that's december 2nd 2026 at 5 30 p.m and that will be held here in this room so with there being no other business i uh entertain a motion to adjourn all right we have them we have what's been moved them and seconded uh all of those all in favor say aye meeting adjourned