City Council - Aug 17, 2023

Team 2008. Welcome to the City of St. Petersburg City Council meeting. Your elected officials are Mayor Ken Welch, District 1, Copley Gerdes, District 2, and Council Chair Brandy Gavards, District 3, Edmonton Mary, District 4, Lisette Hanowitz, District 5, and Council Vice Chair Deborah Fig Sanders, District 6, Gina Driscoll, District 7, John Muhammad, and District 8, Richie Floyd. Good afternoon, everyone. We called the order the August 17, 2023. City Council meeting with the roll call, please. Floyd. Here. Curtis. Here. Gabbard. Montanari. Here. Hanowitz. Here. Vic Sanders. Here. Driscoll. Here. Muhammad. Here. Thank you. We will now have our invocation given by Reverend Ethan Cole, pastor of Bartholomew's Episcopal Church, which will be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Would you please stand? Almighty God, send down upon these city councilors who hold office in St. Petersburg the spirit of wisdom, compassion, and justice, that with steadfast purpose they may faithfully serve in their offices to promote the well-being of all people. Give them a generous portion of creativity and imagination to address the needs and concerns of this city, and a practical plan to carry that out. And for all those who live and work in this city, be present in our homes to guard and guide us in the right way. Help us to take pride in our labor and industry. Give to all a just return for their labor and help us never to forget that our common life depends upon each other's toil. In your holy name we pray. Amen. Thank you, Reverend Cole, for that moving invocation. Council members, we have an agenda before us today with a request to delete F3, the issue regarding the Sunrunner service. With that change, shall I entertain a motion for approval? Move approval. Second. Now that we have a motion and a second of approval as the agenda as amended, seeing that there are no requests to speak for discussion with the clerk, would you please open the machine for voting? Seeing that all present council members have voted, would you please tally the votes and announce the votes? Madam Chair, the motion to approve the agenda passes unanimously with Council Member Gabbard being absent. Thank you. Council members, we have an agenda before us today. Do we have any cards or for approval coming? I do not have any cards. Okay, and with that, I'll entertain a motion for approval. Move approval. Second. Now that we have a motion and a second for approval for the consent agenda, seeing that there are no requests to speak, will the clerk please open the machine for voting? Council members, please first vote. Seeing that all present council members have voted, would you please tally and announce the votes? Madam Chair, the motion to approve the consent agenda passes unanimously with Council Member Gabbard being absent. Thank you. So now, next item we have, we should be joined by City Architect Manager Raul Cantina. There you are. How are you? Nothing, council. He's going to discuss for us item F5 regarding the architectural design services for the new public safety training facility pulled to good news by Council Member Driscoll. And I want to offer you the opportunity to please introduce. Thank you. And thanks to you all for joining us today. I brought this, I pulled this as a good news item. Since my first year on city council, I have asked for, for funding to redo our fire training grounds. And those grounds also include the police canine compound. And last year with help from the administration, we were able to move forward and get that funding that's needed. And now we're at a great milestone in this project. And I just wanted to point it out. I did have a couple of questions, but for the most part, I just wanted to thank you. Thank you all for your partnership and for working together to get us to this point. I'd love to get just an update of where we are and what this means. And, um, I'd also like to know, um, a little bit about why Sweet Sparkman has been chosen. Certainly. I'm happy to, uh, lead and I'll then turn over to Assistant Chief Kvassev and Chief Gansi to fill in. Uh, this is the, um, um, selection of, uh, Sweet Sparkman architects, uh, accepting the selection, uh, and approving the first agreement with Sweet Sparkman for the architecture and design services for the new facility. Uh, Sweet Sparkman, um, was one of three firms that, uh, applied. Uh, they came to us with a significant, uh, background in public safety training. They also brought, um, a con a consultant who specializes in just that, who's designed over 400 such facilities around the United States, uh, in several countries. Uh, they've completed, uh, recently completed, um, a Sarasota fire station with the training complex. They're working on one at Cape Coral and also, uh, a regional, uh, county one in Sarasota County or EMS and fire training. So their, their background, their experience really was superior. Um, and in the committee as a whole, uh, felt that, um, that they really were qualified and have done a great job on that. Sweet Sparkman has also, um, done work for the city. Uh, they were design architect for the sanitation facilities currently under construction. Um, so that, um, and in the committee's opinion, uh, they really were the highest ranked. And, uh, so we've successfully negotiated the first phase. That's what we're taking before you. Now the agreement with Sweet Sparkman is, is not the full design at this point. We're asking them to develop a, a program and master planning and determine within the compound. And I'll talk to that a little bit by exactly where is this facility going to fit? Cause we have a lot of work to do to determine, um, how to move around some of the stakeholders that are there now. This is on the West side of Lake McGorry. The compound, as you probably know, um, has a number of city type facilities there that are storage and maintenance related. And within that, right on the edge of Lake McGorry on the West side is the current fire training facility and the current canine. And both have been there for a substantial amount of time. They're both well beyond the need for, uh, these facilities. And that's, that's the plan. That's what we're going to have Sweet Sparkman do first is determine, um, you know, how big, where do a little bit of programming. We've done some of that already, but really they need to update it. And really based on, um, the actual siting of that facility, exactly where is it going to go? What, what sort of things are we going to need to consolidate, how we're going to move things around and following that process and, and some conceptual designing, we will then have a cost estimate, which will allow us to then negotiate the balance of the services, the full design services. We're going to bring in a construction manager, ultimately, hopefully here in a couple of months and then get down to the nuts and bolts of designing and building this facility. So, uh, this is exciting. This is the first step in getting there. Uh, we've got the funding for the, for the design. Now the partial design, um, in FY 24, there's an assignment of dollars that once we know really what the design is going to take and the amount of dollars that we're going to need, we're going to come back to council with that amendment to this agreement for the full design and appropriate the dollars to get us to, at least through the pre-construction. So, um, yeah, there's the spaces. If you, you know, I can, I can speak to what the space needs or maybe the chief can also weigh in, but, um, yeah, it's, it's, uh, improved classroom areas. It's a, uh, fire, uh, training building, uh, for fire building. Um, it's a new, uh, you know, canine compound with the kennels and the training areas. And I know they're all both, uh, here and can, can speak to those, uh, questions if you have those questions and we're all, you know, excited to move the project forward. Thank you. And let me ask a couple of questions. Thank you. Um, Raul, can you tell us, um, just roughly what kind of a timeline are we looking at here? If everything goes well without major hiccups or delays? Yeah. Well, to get through this first step, we're looking at probably, um, early fall, you know, end of the year, by the time we have that, uh, the concept laid out and, you know, the, the actual siting. So I think probably coming back to council either before the end of the year, early next year with the balance of the design agreement. And then it's a good, you know, eight to 10 months of design, bringing in the construction manager. Um, and then, you know, the bidding and the construction, I, I, I haven't really plotted it out, but I think probably a year's worth of construction. It's, it's, uh, you know, we, there's a lot of site improvements, a site as far as, uh, you know, it's about a six acre, uh, area that we're going to need for all the components of this. So, you know, I, I think, you know, two years, two and a half years of, of, you know, design and construction and planning and bidding and so on to, to get it done. But obviously getting through this first couple of months is going to be essential. All right. Thank you. And chief Gansi, if you could speak a little bit about, um, the, the background on this as well, um, started to explain, uh, why this is so needed. I know you've done a lot with an aging facility. Um, you've really worked wonders with making it something that is, uh, workable now, but clearly it's, it's time for change. Thank you. I appreciate all the support for the facility. The facility is aged over, over 45 years old and, uh, some of the classroom space is in pretty bad shape. We've done good to try to bring it to neutral, but their buildings themselves were, you know, over 25, 30 years old. The floors were done by provius to fix. So they, their age, some of the props need to be destroyed and removed. So the collaboration between law enforcement and, and row and just to help push things along. We looked a long time, uh, over probably three years to try to find another location in the city. And it ends up being, that's the best place for us to cohabitate and work together, which we do jointly very well. Uh, my whole career has always been jointly sharing the property to get whatever the mission is done and completed. And to this day, we just had a, uh, law enforcement, uh, joint venture down there. And even the sheriff comes down. So for, for county purposes, North, mid and South train at the facility. And we also do special operations there, which will be the larger of the three components and North, North County for six departments. Mid is usually at the Academy and then future look to run our own Academy, which we did many years ago. So it would help with our recruitment, uh, concerns. Uh, so from, uh, the fire perspective, uh, we're really looking to push it forward to make it state of the art with immersion rooms for not only fire tactical training for the commanders from Lieutenant to battalion or district chief, uh, to immersion for the medics on medical calls, which is a 360 degree room. Law enforcement has one similar that you might've seen, but this is three rooms where we would put them in and stress them out on things that we cannot typically put them in without having the call itself. Uh, but yes, we'd like to run it from firefighter cadet all the way through to medic at some point would be the future goal for the facility along with joint CME. We're a secondary location there now, but it's really not in good enough shape to have the personnel go there. So when we're done, we'd be able to have multiple classes, including the CST that comes down regularly to train. So I'm, I'm very thankful for the assistance between the city and the council to, and my partner and PD and engineering to get it rolling. So thank you very much. All right. Thank you. And then finally, um, they, the whole area there was actually kind of a dumping site, like back in the day. And, you know, there are, um, some concerns. I do wonder about any, um, environmental impacts or how, um, what measures might be taken to ensure. I just want to make sure you guys are looking at that. Cause I know there can be some issues from time to time now on the grounds. So the, the specific grounds that, um, we're looking at, we're obviously, we're not going to touch some of the areas that are, uh, to the North where, um, you know, there's some asphalt millings. And so the area where we're looking at was, uh, traditionally an archery zone, uh, predominantly undisturbed. Uh, but however, as part of this scope, we're going to have, um, Stantec, who's one of the sub consultants for Sweet Sparkman. They're going to look at, at, uh, at the environmental issues and all the permitting issues, you know, this water quality issues, obviously. So all that's going to be part of the analysis. Now, uh, we don't anticipate really anything where we're, we're trying to keep this in a, in a place where we believe it and we're hoping that, uh, you know, there aren't any issues, but we're going to study that as we go. Okay. Excellent. I, I look forward to hearing more about that as we move along, just, um, so it's a topic of interest. So, okay, great. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Monteneering. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. And I'm very excited also to see this move forward. And I want to thank, uh, Council Member Driscoll for taking a lead on, on this. And, uh, Chief Gansey, uh, was kind enough to give me a tour out there. It was a little over a year ago. I remember it was a cold day when we went out there and classes were going on and that facility, uh, is not heated. I mean, and you just kind of think of sitting in a classroom that's, that's not heated and it's time for, uh, something new and better for, uh, the members of St. Pete Fire and Rescue. Um, so I'm, I'm very excited about this. I did want to ask about the, the brush site that's just to the, to the West, because you go out there, uh, on a windy day and the day that I, that I went out there and took a tour, uh, there was just a bunch of like blowing debris and dust and, and it's just not very conducive to, to training both for on, on the, uh, St. Pete Fire and Rescue side and for the canine side. Oh, sure. That's, uh, that's sanitation's composting site. They're currently, there's two permitted zones. What we'd like to do is consolidate them and move them a little bit further towards the, the North. Um, and obviously that's all going to be what we're going to start working with all the stakeholders, both sanitation, uh, SPTO, uh, parks department, um, all the users. So try to really define the, the zone that, uh, public safety is going to be able to work within and understand that there's, you know, there are these other components that need to stay there. How can we protect and how can we avoid that situation you're talking about? And it's going to, I think it's going to be better than where it is now, uh, which there is a lot of, I mean, you can speak to achieve with, uh, you know, the, the breezes coming off the lake and the mixture of, you know, that pile. So, yeah, we, we're aware of it. Unfortunately, we can't get rid of it. It can't move it out of the site. It's got to stay. So I think we can all kind of put our heads together and figure out, you know, what's the best place to put it. Uh, and I know sanitation's open to consolidation and try to move it around as well. Um, to supplement what Raul was mentioning. Um, I will tell you that Marshall, um, Brian Eichel and myself, we've already started speaking about it and started initial discussions on how best to scope it and do the site cleanup and make it much more efficient. Okay. And I know you all are going to be on top of this, but I, I don't want us going down a path that we're investing a substantial amount of money into brand new facilities, but then we still have a location problem because the proximity to that brush site. Uh, so that, that needs to get solved so that, uh, you know, it all, it all works together, um, in, in a way, in the right way. Okay. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. Council member Hannah. Thank you. And thank you, council member Driscoll for bringing out this good news item. I also did a tour a while ago with chief Gansey. I'm sure a lot of us did too. And I was pretty shocked at the condition of the facilities. Um, and it was evident. I, I didn't need convincing, let's say going there and knowing that we needed better facilities for our people. Um, I also love the fact that the collaboration with the police department and the fire department is there. It's been there since the beginning. You guys have been working so hard for three years, trying to find another site and it kept coming back to this site. Um, and having said that, I guess my, one of the questions I have given the fact that we're going to be on that site. And this is probably a two to two and a half year timeframe process and some of it involving construction. Um, what are the plans for a, the training where, where would that possibly take place? And also the canine facility, because it's easier if you're doing it somewhere else and maybe you can use that temporarily and then move to the site. But I'm just curious. So if it stays in, uh, in the existing site, I can move to some of the North location off of 49th tree for some of the training, which would lighten the load. And a lot of our stuff is pad work, which we can move around the facility now. So if it's, if it's in another location, it's optimal because they'll, they, we could stay on the current footprint until the buildings are done. If it's impeding in any of those areas, we can adjust to, uh, St. Pete colleges, drill grounds. I've already spoke to the interim, uh, chief there and their staff to say, if I have to push when we do large scale five units in the morning, afternoon, or evening that we could use that facility. We do now psychically for high rise training where I'll run a training for the entire County where we'll have 21 units a night. So the facility can handle the load. Should we need to do that? Okay. That's good to know. And how about for the canine units? Same thing. We have a smaller footprint. We are only going to be looking at about an acre of it, but it has to do with where the canine, uh, not only train, but where their, their, uh, kennels are. So most of our training occurs during the evening hours. Most people don't realize we are one of the hosts for main, uh, canine training for the Southern areas, uh, Sarasota manatee. They come up to us for training as well. We do several schools a year so we can shift accordingly. Uh, some of the areas we'll look at consolidating as well. Uh, but the good news is the one thing we've discussed a lot is when they do their training during the day, we do most of our training at night. So there isn't really the overlap that we have. And we're working on trying to figure out exactly what Raul said, where best to kind of configure that to make sure that they have their own place, but it meets the needs for their training as well as the dogs. Uh, we just prefer to move away further from the park, uh, just to give them a little more space. Right. Great. Well, thank you for that information. That's helpful. And in terms of the environmental concerns, is there something specific to the site that is going to enlarge this timeframe because of that? Do you expect, or we're still within that timeframe, uh, with environmental studies involved? Well, we won't be able to answer that until we get through this process that we're about ready to, enter into. So we'll go through the process. It'll take us a couple of months to really answer all these questions, ask the right questions, take a deeper dive into it. And then we come back in December or January with the award of the balance of it. If there's something that's a red flag, we'll know now, and it will come back and report it. And, you know, yeah, I mean, we're, if we have to, you know, start over, you know, God forbid, you know, we'll do that. But at this point, we wouldn't be bringing it for you to you right now. If we didn't think that we at least had a place to start and a direction that we can go in. Good. Well, that's good to hear. I'm glad you shared that with us. And I do share the concerns with the sanitation composting site. I was there, it was glowing. Um, and I'm sure that our wonderful engineers are going to figure out solutions to that. So I have every confidence, right? So, you know, I did go down then, we took a look at it. And that's what triggered that in-depth conversation with stormwater, SBTU, as well as parks and recs to really look at how best we can, um, effectively and efficiently improve that site. Uh, you know, it's, it's going to be, if we end up there, it's going to be the forefront location for training. So we just have to meet the rest of it as well. Okay, great. Well, thank you all for the hard work and I appreciate everything you do. Thanks. Council member Flory. Thank you. Uh, I'll keep my comments brief because my colleagues have covered a lot of things. I just wanted to say, um, I'm excited to see this process kick off, uh, and add my voice as one in support of, uh, possibly expanding public access around the lake over there, um, and, uh, bettering our parkland if possible. So I wanted to, um, put that on your radar as a possibility to look into as you go through this process. Great point. I forgot to mention it. We are going to meet with the friends of Boyd Hill, uh, on this whole process initially at this first stage, um, because this is parkland, we understand that it's going to require a substantial change of use, which, uh, city council will be seeing that as well. So if, if it does move forward into design, that's when we're going to bring that, uh, portion of it, but to good point, council member, we're, we're very much, uh, you know, a part of the community with the park and, and the park is going to be a big part of, uh, of the discussions that we have as well. That's great to hear. Thanks. I'll move approval of item F5. Second. Now that we've had a motion and properly second for F5, um, seeing that there are no requests to speak, please open the machine for voting. Seeing that all personal council members have voted, would you please tell and announce the votes? Madam chair, the motion to approve agenda item F5 passes unanimously with council member gathered being absent. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Now we'll move into open form. Clerk, can you please read the rules? If you wish to address city council on subjects other than public hearing or quasi judicial items listed on the agenda, please sign up with the clerk. Only the individuals wishing to speak may sign the open form sheet. Only city residents, owners of property, business owners in the city, or their employees may speak. All issues discussed under open form must be limited to issues related to the city of St. Petersburg government. If you are speaking to an item on the agenda, you may only speak once during the open form and when the item comes up on the agenda. In order to provide an opportunity for all citizens to address council, each individual will be given three minutes to speak and after which the microphone will be muted. If you wish to address city council through the zoom meeting, you must use a raised hand feature button on the zoom app or enter star nine on your phone at the time the agenda item is addressed. When it is your turn to speak, you will be unmuted and asked to state your name and address. At the conclusion of your comments or when you have reached the three minute time limit, you will be muted. All raised hands will be lowered after each agenda item. Regardless of the method of participation used, normal rules apply, including the three minute time limit on comments. The requirement that any presentation materials must be submitted in advance of the rule of the meeting and the rules of decorum. If live public comments is disrupted by the violation of rules of decorum, the chair is authorized to accept public comments by alternate means, including by email only. And we do have individuals resume. Max McCann, when you enter the meeting space, please unmute yourself. State your name and address for the record and you'll have three minutes to address city council. Max, can you hear me? Yes, I can. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Okay, great. Max McCann, 2648 Third Avenue South. I'd like to talk about the Sunrunner Transit Oriented Development Plan and ask the council to include residential parcels within at least a quarter mile of the Sunrunner stations in that plan. What if I told you there's a way to make housing more affordable, reduce poverty, make our city more equitable, reduce pollution, increase economic activity, make our citizens physically and mentally healthier, reduce injuries and fatalities on our streets, and it wouldn't add a single dollar to the city's budget. In fact, it would be revenue positive. Here's how. It's zoning reform. More specifically, Transit Oriented Development or TOD for short. This is compact, pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use development where people can live, work, and enjoy social amenities near transit hubs without having to drive. And the great news is the city is already working on a TOD plan, but the city is about to make a huge mistake in that plan. The council's administrative officer should have distributed a map of the plan to you that was released by the city. Just looking at it, you can see the problem. Look at how gerrymandered it is. There's no upzoning north of the 22nd Street Sunrunner Station and very little upzoning south of the 32nd Street Station. That's because with no public input, city staff has decided to completely exclude any parcels currently zoned residential. The last time you reviewed this project, you were discussing whether to upzone within a quarter mile of the stations or half mile of the stations or more, and now we're going to upzone exactly zero feet north of the 22nd Street Station. That means one block north of that station will be restricted to single-family residences, which is a land use that encourages driving. City staff has said the reason for doing this is because we already did the NTM-1 zoning changes, but NTM-1 is not transit-oriented development. For one, it was sprinkled all over the city. It was not concentrated around transit hubs. And two, NTM-1 had costly parking mandates, so it's car-oriented development. Here's how we know the current plan won't work. Remember, we upzoned the western part of Central Avenue and nothing has been built there. Here's why. One, this part of Central is a car-centric hellscape, but two, Central Avenue is a straight line. And this is the main takeaway. Development doesn't happen in contrived geometric shapes. Development happens in radial form, circles. The current pattern plan will seriously jeopardize the Sunrunner when it's no longer fare-free. Please tell city staff to stick to the original plan and in addition to the parcels details identified on the map include the residential parcels within at least a quarter mile of the stations. Each neighborhood should do its part to make St. Pete more livable. Thank you. Madison Rice, when you enter to the meeting space, please unmute yourself. State your name and address for the record. You'll have three minutes to address city council. Madison, can you hear me? Yes. Hello? Yes. Please state your name and address for the record. You have three minutes. Hi, this is Madison Rice. My address is 3245 Jackson Street North. I am also here to ask city council to expand the Sunrunner TOD plan to include all properties, including residential, within a quarter mile of all stations. TOD is mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly, and aimed to allow residents to live, work, and play near transit hubs without needing a car. And the current plan is excluding the live part of the equation. So the only housing that will be built as a result of the current upzoning plan will be high-rises with astronomical rents. We need more missing middle housing around our transit stations to actually put a dent in our affordability crisis. I know a lot of people will cite neighborhood character or historic preservation as reasons to avoid residential properties, but these two terms are nebulous and can be used to fit any agenda. To me, increasing walkability and giving people the freedom to live without a car would only improve neighborhoods. For the Sunrunner to achieve sustainable ridership levels, we need dense, walkable development around Sunrunner stations. If we do this wrong, the Sunrunner will be just another example that people use to claim that transit is a bad investment. Let's make the Sunrunner an example of a successful implementation of bus rapid transit by applying transit-oriented development where it actually makes sense. Next speaker is Magnolia Heights. When you enter the meeting space, please unmute yourself, state your name and address for the record. You have three minutes to address city council. Can you hear me? Hello. My mistake that my name is Magnolia Heights. Forgot to change it since recently. This is Warren Willingham at 3245 Jackson Street North 33704, and I'm here to speak in favor of upzoning around the Sunrunner corridor rather than just excluding residential. Love to be there in person, but the rain demands me otherwise. Excluding residential areas within walking distance of the Sunrunner stops is such a missed opportunity. There is no better place in a city to focus growth than around rapid transit. Other cities dream of having an asset like the Sunrunner, and we just are not using it enough if we're not going to upzone. I'm worried that if we don't upzone around the Sunrunner, it will be cited as a failed example of transit in the future, so people will use it and say, oh no, see when we did this previously? It didn't work, so let's never do it again. If we want the inevitable massive growth of St. Petersburg to not bring an incredible amount of car trips, upzoning the residential land near the Sunrunner will help to eliminate car trips by allowing more people to walk to like fruit stands, barbers, etc., rather than being forced to drive to everything. Shops like this need a population nearby to survive, and if we only keep going east and west in the city, I don't know of a line city that works in the world, but if you do please let me know. So there needs to be a nearby population to justify that shop being there, and the people that live nearby always pay the shops that are right next to them more. Yep, no neighborhood is set in stone, and a slightly more dense housing type isn't going to ruin the character of the neighborhood. Canopy big mansions are larger than quadruplexes and are completely legal. They're already here to stay, it seems like. The fear of change in character that I've heard people mention in previous meetings has started to feel like it's just a cover for being afraid that someone of a slightly different socio and economic status will live next door. Please upzone to make this a more walkable, equitable city, especially by our Sunrunner. Or we could just continue in this flawed direction and artificially limit our housing supply and give only two options. You either get single-family home or condo tower. Nothing in the middle. Thank you very much. There are no more speakers. Thank you for that. So now we will close open forum and take up item F1, the St. Petersburg Police Department quarterly report, and join us. We have our Chief of Police, Chief Anthony Holloway. Hi, Chief. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, council members. I'm going to go ahead and review the second quarterly report for the year. This takes over for April. This covers April, May, and June. Overall crime for the city right now is up by 4%, but our five-year trend crime is down by 6.5%. Violent crime is up by 2% for this quarter, but the overall trend is down 1% for the five-year. As you can see for the homicide compared to last year, we're down. Again, one is too many, but in this quarter we had four. Only one was used with a gun and the rest were by, I think it was by hand, and they were all closed with unrest. Our GRIT team, as you can see, they're still responding to our guns, and they're closing about 50% of the cases that they're responding to and pulling case numbers. Stolen guns, we're still having that same issue we talked about, but it's getting a little bit better. We recovered half of the guns that were taken out of cars during this quarter. For our property crimes, we got robbery that's not a property crime. As you can see, they're trending upward, but at the same time, our overall average for property crime for a five-year trend is down by 7%. For the quarter, it's up by 4%. So with the trending of crime going up, we also say the officers are doing a great job, and the detectives, they're making more arrests this quarter compared to the crime. So people are committing crimes, but we are still closing them out. Our Second Chance program, we saw three children that could not complete it this quarter, and that could either be due to they didn't show up, or while they were there at parks and recs, they did something that they couldn't complete the program. Our home, we're still monitoring our juveniles that are habitual. We're trying to make sure we get them back on track. Our PATH team, as you can see, they've made more contact during this quarter, and as the officers are out there talking to the people that are in our community, their observation is we're seeing more people over the age of 65. People between the ages of 30 to 40 have a major substance abuse problem, and what we're being told by the homeless people that we are making contact with, the reason why they're coming to this area is the service that Pinellas County and St. Pete provide for the homeless population. Our HEAT team is still focusing on our human trafficking, nuisance abatement, the three you see non-responsive vacant property. Our legal team is working on that. Our pursuits, we had two during this quarter. They both were involved in carjacking, and they were authorized by the supervisor. Use of force for this quarter is down. We had three citizen complaints for this quarter. There were non-use of force complaints. Just one was discourtesy, and the other ones were due to, I'm sorry, they all were discourtesy complaints. Our tips, we're still getting a lot of tips from our community that's helping us solve these crimes as you see in the city. Park walkings continue to grow. We keep asking also what else can we do differently to make sure that we're hitting the right people, that we're getting our message out, and how can we again continue to build relationships in our community. We are staying under the average time that we predicted for ourselves. I can see party one, two, and three calls were way below response time. I can see in traffic there is increase in traffic, and the reason for that is we put out more traffic details. We want to make sure that we could curb people's driving behavior in our city, and I don't know if we can show a relationship to that, but last year we had 28 traffic homicides in our city. This year in time, we only have 14. Like you see, we continue to exceed our goals. I have to give Chief Dente and Major Bean credit. They're trying to find other organizations that we can go to to try to recruit more minorities and females in our city, but you got to remember all the police departments, law enforcement, state of Florida, we're all going to the same pool, so we're trying to figure out we can find a different pool to fish in, so to speak. Off-duty assignments, we're still operating in the black. Over time, we are still, there are some categories that are over, but we will, we're still operating in the black for this budget year. And the last thing we have is our call program is still very successful. We're still getting calls from around the nation, people asking us about how our call program is working and how can, what can they do to implement this in their city. With that, I'll open up for any questions. Thank you, Chief Holliday. You're welcome, man. As we come up, we have Council Member Muhammad. Yes. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. Thank you, Chief. You're welcome, sir. How's it going? Good to see you always. So, a few questions. It should be quick, though. On homicides, it says we have four for the quarter. Can you tell me how many we had so far this year? Sure. We have, we make sure. So, for this year, we've had 10. Last year, this time, we had nine. Thank you. On the GRIT program, I just need an explanation of one of the headers. When we say indirect criminal interventions, would you explain what that means for me, please? Let me go back and see which. The first one is the case they're assigned to them, then they're closed, direct criminal charges, indirect criminal intervention. Are those just, they find guns in the street, then we try to figure out where they come from if the officers were out there. Okay. That actually leads me to another question. With the recovered guns, um, it's like 32 recovered. I just wanted to get an idea of how are they being recovered? Are they being recovered as a part of, like, a commission of a new crime, or? I have to double check with you. That's what it could be, but I'll get that number to you before the end of week and let you know. Okay. And really, it's more about the process. Just like how, just generally, when you recover a gun, you know, just kind of high level for me. Are they recovered? Yeah. So again, I have to go back and look at the cases, how they recovered. I'll have that for you. It could be the, the officers made an arrest, or maybe someone called in and said they found a gun. Okay. In the property and things like that. But I will get you the exact way how they were recovered. Okay. And then are the recovered guns returned to the owners? If the owner can prove that that's his or her gun. And yes, we got to return it back to the owner. Okay. Thank you. Crime arrests. I'm looking at the, let's see which page it is. It doesn't have a page number on here, but looking at the motor vehicle theft arrests. And this may be something that you have to get back with me on as well. Usually when we think about auto theft, I know there's like this association with youth. Is there a way that we can break out how many of those are by youth so that we can really get an indication of like the impact that youth are having on that number? Yes, I can tell you right off hand right now, 90% of our auto theft are going to be juveniles. Okay. It's just a cycle where we're not to say young men, because again, that's a high number where the young men are either breaking into cars. They either have the keys or the key fobs in them, or still the Kia and the Hyundai products. They still need cars. They're driving around him. The officers are doing a great job. They're making the arrest. And once these young men either get off their 21 day hold or they're sent back home, we see where they're out still stealing cars again. Okay. All right. Thank you for that one. And then for home and path, particularly on home, the curfew and compliance check, is that done by officers or is that a function of the call team? That is done by officers because it's the order of the court. So we just want to make sure that the youth has been placed on curfew by a judge's order that he or she is home at the time they're supposed to be home. Okay. Is that an opportunity for to increase the interactions with the call team? Or is that something that has to happen that way? That's what the officers and the parents appreciate that because the kids know this program was kind of like it used to be under the state. The kids knew no one was checking up on them. Now that this program is in place, now they know that, hey, an officer may come by three or four times a day, whereas they knew back then when a civilian had it, they came on a Monday, then they know they wouldn't be able to come back until that next Monday. So now is, you know, if you're supposed to be home, you don't know how many times we're going to come and check on you. I got you. So the boogeyman kind of works a little better than somebody in a polo shirt, maybe. Same thing with PATH. Are these officers, or is that an opportunity for call interactions as well? Are those interactions with PATH, are those officer interactions? Well, there's a mixture of both. So prior to June, we were down, now we're back up to strength. So those are also you see walking around all the time. Either they're making contact with the homeless population because we're getting calls from people they know. We also have a partnership with St. Anthony's Hospital, where we have a nurse practitioner that rob the ulcers once a week so we can address people that have issues where they're not taking the medicine or what else can they use. So those contacts are every day to see how we can assist the homeless population of people, how we can help them with the crisis that they're going through. Awesome. Thank you. And two final questions. With the PATH program, seeing that they're, let me just see if I have it here. Just one second. It was an 83% increase in contacts. What are we doing differently to have such a significant increase in contacts with the PATH program? As I again stated, council member, we're back up to full staff again. Okay. And we're seeing more people moving or since they were moving, coming to our area because of the services that we have in Pinellas County and St. Pete. The officers are out there making contact to homeless. They said we're here because there's services that can help us through our crisis. So we're, we're tending to see more. And again, like I said, they're seeing people over the age of 65. They're out there in drug problems between the ages of 30 to 40. So just so that I'm clear. So it's a combination of more people in the situation where they would be basically homeless. So we're having more, hold on, let me say it differently. Our homeless population has increased. Is that what I'm hearing? And staff has also increased. Is that? Yes, sir. Staffing has increased and more people are coming to this community because of the service. Okay. I got it. Thank you. All right. And then last question. Um, are we really the seventh most dangerous, most dangerous city? No, sir. No, that's not the case. Uh, what the account talking about, uh, there was a, uh, article that was done by wallet hub that said that we were the seventh most dangerous city, uh, in the United States. And, um, thanks to, uh, Ms. Fernandez, we went over the numbers. So, and also to, uh, there was an article done by, um, I want to say Bay News nine and we're trying to figure out where they got those numbers from. So we looked at them and they don't add up. Um, I think it said that we had 15 homicides for that quarter and we only had four. So we're trying to figure out where did they get 15? Cause we counted them and we give them the numbers. So it's like, okay, we're a difference of nine. So we're trying to figure out what that nine is. Okay. Got it. I knew that. I just wanted to have an opportunity to say in public. Thank you, sir. Chief. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. Thank you. And Council Member Monterey. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good, good to see you, Chief. Um, Council Member, uh, Mohamed asked a lot of the questions I was going to ask, but I was going to begin with a couple of the statistics that you started off with about crime being up 4% and violent crime being up 2%. Um, can you, can you talk a little bit about that and what's, what you see, what's causing that? Sure. So you could, because you're talking in quarters, things can go up and down. So we really look at where we are at the end of the year. Right now, it, when I say crimes up our, our biggest number in property crimes is still the numbers of, um, make sure I have it here. Auto thefts are up by 37%. Our other biggest numbers, robberies are up by 20%, but then everything else is trending down because we put everything together to try to figure out how that's going to be. And then next month, those numbers could go down. We do see those numbers. Uh, there's a graph that we keep that we know certain times of the year crime is going to go up. And then, and then at our third quarter, then crime starts to trend down again. Okay. So usually we see a moderate rise in crime in the summertime and then it usually goes down. That is correct. So there's more people out, more people are doing things and then school starts up, weather changes, then crime starts to trend downward again. Is, is, is the, uh, the trend the same with auto thefts? Yes, sir. Okay. And I had, uh, I had a lot of questions and I was glad that, uh, council member Muhammad asked about the path contacts because it just visually just going around the city, it seems to me like you see a lot more homeless. Uh, and then just this, these statistics that you provide in your report and you see all the contacts, uh, it does seem like things are, are spiking with our homeless population and glad we have a unit like the path unit and that we have the call, uh, call to address some of these issues also, but that's just another, another, uh, issue that we need to stay on top of. And then, uh, so I don't have a question about that. That's, that's been answered. I did want to like circle back to the wallet hub, hub story. Uh, what did, uh, what did we do about that? Was that story ever corrected or retracted or anything like that? Because that, that just, we, we have a economy that's, uh, driven a lot by people visiting here. And you don't want to have that sort of, uh, those statistics out there in the, in the media. So Bay News 9 did a story on that this week. Uh, Mr. Fernandez, uh, contacted a paper. They did put a, I would say a heading on top of that article, but it still remains out there. Uh, again, Bay News 9 tried to contact the same writer and so did we, but we haven't heard back from anyone. All right. Thank you, Chi. You're welcome. Thank you. Councilmember Driscoll. Thank you. Thank you for the report and everything that you and your team are doing. Um, with our PATH unit, it's, you say we, we've, we've had more people coming down here, but usually we see more, we see a rise in the homeless population in the winter months. So if we have more coming now, does that mean that we should expect an even higher spike this winter? I can't answer that question for you. Councilmember, all I know is the officers are doing a good job. And when they're out there talking to people and observation, they're asking people, why are you coming to this area? And they said, there's a lot of service here that's provided for the homeless. So word of mouth is, uh, come to this area. I think they were talking to some people that were from Orange County, uh, Dade County. They're just, they're just saying there's more services here. Uh, so more, more opportunity for them to get help. Mm-hmm. And, um, just the, I know that the PATH unit has like the regular spots where they, where they check and, and patrol. Um, one of the benefits that I tell people of having the PATH unit is that you have the same team working on this, um, specific challenge and that they get to know people. And, um, you know, I, I've been out on ride-alongs so I, I can, I can see, um, the real benefits of having this, um, focused group on, on the issue is, um, Grant, Grand Central. Are they, um, do they spend a lot of time there? The PATH unit works. And thank you for that. The PATH unit is not assigned to one district. They're assigned city-wide because we didn't want the officers pushing it from one district to the next district. We wanted them to really, to be involved in it. So, yes, they're, they move throughout. Sometimes they will go to Grand Central for a while. And then they're just throughout the city. It just, we, we have to find the homeless so we can try to, uh, address their needs. Uh, but that is a big hub right there at Grand Central. I know it's kind of say funny, but both assistant chief, they go by there in the afternoon and sometimes they'll, we check out there just to see if they can help out or they see the issues and they assign people to that. Good. And I know that the call team is designed to respond to calls. Have you, um, and I love the work that we're doing, you're doing on that was very happy to support the expansion. Do you ever have them work proactively and just be present in some of these areas where you might have an opportunity to do outreach and to help, um, offer help and offer, um, the appropriate services? They do. Cause when the call team first came into place, the call team worked with the PATH team, but you got to remember those officers on the PATH team, they make contact with these individuals every day. So they kind of like know their needs and they try to help, help that person. I mean, there's to be a rule. If you make contact with somebody on the eighth or ninth time, maybe they will want the assistance. So that's what we're working on right now. Just trying to keep making contact and hopefully we can get that individual, the help they need, the housing that they need. But again, we have the services here. So you're going to get more people coming here because of what we provide here in this county and what we provide here in this city. Okay. Thank you. Um, regarding the nuisance abatement, we had three non-responsive owners. Is there any detail that you are, um, you would like to share with us on that? Are there any ongoing situations that we should be made aware of? Uh, no, ma'am is, is three vacant lots, but I'm just trying to figure out how to owners and get them put it back on. Okay. So those are still in progress. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Um, all right. That's all I have. Thank you so much. Thank you. Council member Hanowins. Thank you chair. And thank you chief for your report again. Um, just to touch real quick on the path, um, some of your responses. Um, you mentioned that obviously your officers asked people, you know, where they from, and it, it seems there's a pattern where people are coming into this area. Are y'all keeping data? Is there data cap of when people are from the area and people are coming in and how does that work? I'm not sure if they do. I know when I'm talking to the sergeant, they say that, but he marked on the contacts. I don't think we keep contact where they're from this county or they're from this state, but I can double check, but I don't see good information to know. Um, just because if there, if there is a statement that we have people coming in from different areas, it would be good to have data that shows if there is a pattern, uh, that we're seeing that's happening. Um, and then the other question. Council member Hannah, which we do have data. Um, that's a point of the point in time survey. Uh, and the majority of people, um, who are homeless in our community have been residents of our community for a long time. I'd say about 10% of our homeless folks have come here in the last year. And that has been consistent for many years. So if y'all like an update on that council member fig Sanders sits on that board and can provide that data to you, or I'd be happy to give a report at a committee meeting. Yeah, I think, I think it would be helpful. Cause it seemed like a lot of council members were interested in it. And then the more questions were asked and I was like, oh, okay. I had, I, then I started having more questions and I think it may be helpful. There, there's some really great for the first time this year, there's some really great data heat maps that were created as a part of the report. And one of the trends that I would share from looking at those heat maps is no surprise. You see, um, homelessness kind of traveling along our CSX line. Uh, and so they move throughout our County along, um, that, uh, train line. Uh, you know, there are just yesterday, there was a huge, um, sex offender encampment that was broken up in Pinellas Park. We were immediately notified in case they, um, come down to St. Pete because it's a transient population. We do have a social worker who spends part of their time with PATH and part of their time doing other outreach that, uh, Ms. Rimes, um, helps coordinate based on the, um, constituent complaints that we get in the city. And right now they're spending a lot of time in our libraries because of the heat, but they do go to the bus station regularly. And PSTA has also been partnering with directions for living to add additional outreach, um, in the grand central area. And we secured that earlier this year at no charge to the city or to PSTA. And then this is information also that would be available to, uh, the PATH, I guess, social workers are the, they have access to all this information. All of it's public. It's been, there's been press releases on it. Okay. Yep. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, chief. And then the other, the other question I had, um, on in terms of the, I thought you said traffic homicides. There were 14 traffic homicides. Is that all the fatalities? When I think of traffic homicides, I think of criminal cases versus just total, uh, traffic fatalities. Um, is that just the total traffic fatalities is 14 this year? Yes, ma'am. So last year we had 28 traffic fatalities. Okay. This year we only have. Okay. Cause I thought you said homicide. So I wasn't sure. I just wanted to clarify it. So the, okay, so that's good. Okay. That's, that's good to hear that those numbers are, are down. Are there, are the hotspots that we've had, you know, intersections that, you know, have had, you know, traffic fatalities, are those improving? Um, do we see areas that are of concern recently with the traffic fatalities or obviously the increased, um, uh, traffic enforcement is helping in that? Those are improving. And again, when we put out traffic detail, the, the majors, they'll put their units out there to work those intersections. So again, that may be one of the reasons why we're seeing our fatalities that are decreasing. Okay. Well, thank you so much, chief. You're welcome. You see, I only have one question when we're looking at the average response times for calls for service. And you have listed priority one calls, priority two calls, priority three calls for those of us that don't know what examples of those are. Can you give an example of two or what a priority call one probably one call is or what a priority two call is and what a priority three call is? So priority one call is so to speak, a hot call, a person with a gun, something that's happening right now. We need an ulcer there right now. Priority two call is, I would say, something in a middle shoplifting. Priority three call is, is somewhere like someone broke into my house and, but there's no one. All right. That's all I have. Having, seeing no other requests, what questions? Thank you, chief Holloway. We appreciate the report. You're welcome. Thank you. Now we will take up our new ordinance. Um, council members, we do have with us public administrator, Claude Tankersley. Um, however, they do have a presentation. If we are requesting for that, if not, I'll ask the clerk to read, uh, the titles. We have three that we need to vote on for E1. There are ordinance A, B and C. Are we requesting the presentation? Yes. Chair, just a reminder to city council. This is first reading. So we'll be prepared on second reading to make the full presentation. If that's okay, the city council. Okay. Oh, are we still requesting the tail down? Be clear. So we don't have a full presentation? No. First reading. Okay. First reading. So no. Okay. Very good. Can you read the title for ordinance A, please? Proposed ordinance number 550-H, an ordinance relating to sanitation rates and charges. Amending chapter 27, section 27-557 of the St. Petersburg city code. Adding rates, amending rates and charges for sanitation services. Providing for severability provisions. Providing an explanation of words struck through and underlined. Establishing date to begin calculating new rates for billing purposes and providing for an effective date. This item, the public hearing is scheduled for September the 7th and we do not have any speakers. Move approval ordinance A. Second. Now that we've received a motion for approval and second for E1A. Mr. Clerk, would you please open the machine for voting? Council members, will you please enter your vote? Seeing that all present council members have voted, can you please tally and announce the votes? Madam Chair, the motion to approve agenda item E1A passes unanimously with council members Floyd and Gabbard absent. Thank you. Can you please read the title for E1B, please? Proposed ordinance number 551-H, an ordinance relating to utility rates amending section 27-405, subsection B1 and B2 of the St. Petersburg city code. Amending the stormwater utility fee. Amending the tier rate structure fees for single family residential parcels. Providing for severability provisions. Providing an explanation of words struck through and underlined. Establishing a date to begin calculating new rates for building purposes and providing for an effective date. The public hearing for this item is scheduled for September the 7th and we do not have any speakers. Move approval ordinance B. Second. Having received a motion and a second for approval of E1B. Clerk, can you please open the machine for voting? Council members, please place your votes. Seeing that our present council members have voted, can you please tally and announce the votes? Madam Chair, the motion to approve agenda item E1B passes unanimously with council members Floyd and Gabbard absent. Thank you. Can you please read the title for E1C? Opposed ordinance number 552-H, an ordinance relating to utility rates and charges. Amending chapter 27, subsection 27-3B, 27-6, 27-109B, 27-109D, 27-113B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B, 27-109B 250E, 27-250F, 27-283, 27-284A, and 27-284D of the St. Petersburg City Code, amending requirements for customer deposits, amending method of determining adjustment to accounts, amending connection charges for portable water connection, amending charge for meter relocation, amending charges for portable meters, amending base and volume charges for water service, amending various utility water service charge rates, amending wholesale water service charges for the City of Gulfport, amending the definition of combination fire service, amending charges for irrigation-only accounts, amending rates and charges for commercial water-only accounts, amending the calculation of time for determining when an account is considered delinquent, amending rates for charges for reclaimed water service, amending charges for reclaimed water hose connection assembly, amending circ connection fee, and changing name to circ capacity fee, amending wastewater service charges, amending wastewater service charges for wholesale customers, providing for silver billy provisions, providing an explanation of words struck through and underlined, establishing a date to begin calculating, new charges for billing purposes, and providing for an effective date, and we do not have any speakers. We'll have approval. Second. Nice job, Clerk. Having properly received a motion for approval and a second for E1C, Mr. Clerk, would you please open the machine for voting? Council members, would you please enter your votes? Seeing that all present council members have voted, can you please tally and announce the vote? Madam Chair, the motion to approve agenda item E1C passes unanimously with Council Member Gabbard being absent. Thank you, Council Members. Now we will move to E2, amending the city code concerning earnable compensation for the Supplemental Firefighters Retirement System, and we have with us Human Resource Director Chris Scuella. Julie? Hi. How are you? Madam Chair, can you read the title? Okay. Can you read the title, please? Proposed Ordinance No. 553-H, in Ordinance of the City of St. Petersburg, Florida, amending Section 22-196 of the City Code, to include certain overtime hours on or after September 26, 2022, in the definition of earnable compensation for the Supplemental Firefighters Retirement System and providing for an effective date. Public hearing is scheduled for September the 7th, and we do not have any speakers. Move approval. Second. I have received a motion of approval and a second for E2. Mr. Clerk, would you please open the machine for voting? Seeing that all present Council Members have voted, can you please tally in and ask the votes? Madam Chair, the motion to approve Agenda Item E2 passes unanimously with Council Member Gabbard being absent. That was easy. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. So now we will continue with our reports. F2, the purchase of unimproved property located on 2375 66th Street North. Pinellas County School Board. And coming to make the presentation is our Real Estate and Property Management Director, Aaron Fish. Welcome. Good afternoon, Council. Yes. The item before you this afternoon is the acquisition of land from Pinellas County School Board to serve as a permanent location for fire station number two. For background, in 2016, the St. Petersburg Fire Rescue Department requested funding from the 2015 Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response, otherwise known as SAFER, to hire 13 firefighters necessary to open a temporary fire station on the city's West End. As a result of a demand analysis, which revealed the number of calls for emergency service in the West End, supported the need for an additional fire station. On March 2, 2017, City Council approved an execution of a lease agreement for the use of an improved property at 3166th Street North, which serves as the temporary location for fire station number two. The lease for the temporary location expires in March of 2024. Upon the expiration of that lease, the city may continue to occupy the building on a month-to-month basis. In conjunction with identifying the temporary location, fire requests a real estate and property management to identify a permanent location for the fire station. Due to the limited number of sites available to purchase within the service area, city administration initiated discussions with the school board of Pinellas County to utilize a portion of Tyrone Middle, which is located at 2375 66th Street North. The city and the school board identified a portion of land at the northwest corner of Tyrone Middle at the intersection of 66th Street and 26th Avenue North. The property is approximately 183 by 281 feet for a total of approximately 1.18 acres with the zoning of NS1, Neighborhood Suburban Single Family. On October 15, real estate obtained an appraisal for the property, which indicated a market value of $1,425,000. The market value of the 2021 appraisal was based on the highest and best use of the property as a commercial development site due to the appraiser receiving some input from the city in support of a potential zoning change and due to the fact that the heavily traveled 66th Street corridor is primarily zoned CCS-1 and other commercial zonings. Using the 2021 appraisal as a basis for negotiations, the city and the school board commenced initial negotiations on a 50-year ground lease for the city's use of the property. But after several discussions and revisions to the proposed lease, the school board and the city determined that in both parties' best interest, it would be best if the city acquired the property through a purchase. Subsequently, administration and the school board negotiated an agreement for sale and purchase. which includes the terms of a purchase price of $1.6 million. The city shall have 90 days of due diligence for surveys and inspections. The city shall have 180 days to get a special exception on the property for its use as a fire station. And the transaction shall close 60 days after the conclusion of the special exception period. The city shall pay costs associated with obtaining appraisals, surveys, inspections, environmental audits, title policy, and closing fees. With this contract, the city has agreed to provide the school board with a first right of refusal to purchase the property back from the city. But this is only in the event that the city declares the property surplus after the city determines it no longer needs the use of the property. Real estate did obtain updated appraisals in January of 2023. These updated appraisals were solely based on the property's value as a residential site and produced values of $870,000 and $1 million. They did not contemplate in the appraisals a rezoning for commercial. The plans for Fire Station 2 will be based on prototypes developed for Fire Stations 7 and 8 and will include two apparatus bays and will include approximately 8,000 square feet of building area. And with that, any questions are certainly invited. Yes, we have Council Member Gerdes. You took your hand. Council Member Driscoll. Thank you. And thank you for that presentation. This is another project that I have asked about and advocated for since my first year on City Council. And I understand, Chief Bassett, that you have really taken the lead on this. And I appreciate all the work that's been done to bring it to this point. Erin, can you tell us a little bit more about this appraisal and maybe help us understand the difference between the appraisal for residential versus commercial and why we're at this number that you're asking us to approve today? Sure, sure. Yeah, the initial appraisal, the appraiser took the approach of highest and best use for the property due to the area being a heavily traveled commercial corridor and also due to the fact that he reached out to city staff to see what the possibilities of a rezoning would be. And he got favorable responses on that and a potential rezoning. So he appraised this based on its highest and best use as a commercial site. And that was also based on what would be defined as market value. And market value would be determined generally between a ready, willing, and able buyer and seller on a property that is offered in the open market. This has the unique situation where it was not offered on the open market. It was just a conversation between the city and the school board. However, if the property was offered on the open market, it is believed that there would be significant amount of activity and competition for the city to acquire the site. And that competition would likely come from commercial retail developers. So the use of the property as a residential site was highly unlikely based on the valuation. So the contract price is $1.6 million, which is higher than the $1 million market value that we have from one of the appraisals. Yes. So this sort of, so it looks like we're overpaying. So if I just want to make sure that the correct, accurate story is out there of the why behind this particular number that we're going to pay. So if I could, Aaron, and help correct me if I'm wrong, but I think council member, if you look at the 2021 appraisal for the $1.4 million, and then you build in inflation from that point, I think we're pretty much right on the money. That's our, that's our take on it. That's, that's what I was looking for. I just want to make sure that we're in charge of the narrative here. Tell me about the rezoning and what's the timeline for that? What can we expect to see on that? So the rezoning is not required in this case, but a special exception is, and the, the special exception, we have 180 days built into the contract period to obtain that special exception. Um, so that will include also some, some community outreach, um, during that process for the neighboring, um, area. So the special exception will stay in place beyond the 180 days. That'll just be correct. The special exception will be required for the use of the property as a fire station. Okay, great. Thank you. And, um, what will be the next, I'm looking forward to supporting this and keeping the, the ball moving on this project. What will the next step be? So the next step is, uh, engineering is currently working on, um, the design phase for the fire station. We do have, um, the city architect Raul Quintana here available so he can answer some questions regarding that. Yes. Thank you. And I'm hoping you're going to tell us since we have a couple of relatively new fire stations that we're, uh, working from that, that could, uh, save us a little bit of money. We have gone through a selection and we've, uh, the city selected Wanamaker, Jensen Architects for this fire station. They, they did do the prototype seven and eight, and we've negotiated an agreement with them and we're bringing that to council on, uh, September 7th. Uh, and so, uh, would have liked to have brought it concurrent with this one, but just to finalizing the negotiations took a little bit longer, but we're ready to start design. Okay. Okay. Thank you. And chief pass it. Did you have anything you wanted to add or just here for questions? In case you had any questions, but I'd like to, again, thank city administration as well as the council for supporting this. It'll be a great location for the, uh, for the fire station, uh, and, uh, having control of the light there on 26 allows them to go north and south very easily, uh, rather than the location they're currently in. So thank you again. Thank you. And I encourage any of my colleagues who have not visited the current temporary station to, uh, please do so because you'll clearly see why this is, um, uh, a great project and something we should all be proud of. Thank you. Your council member. Grotis. Thank you, madam chair. Um, I would agree with that. Yeah. Um, uh, council member Driscoll. Thank you. Thank you, um, for your questions, just to give a little bit more context. Um, cause I think it's important. There is not a single residence on the East side of 66th street between central Avenue and 38th Avenue. So this isn't a residential property. And so I just, uh, I think that that viewpoint makes it glaringly clear, um, that the best and highest use with the appraisal. And so I very much appreciated, uh, the questions. Um, chief Bassett, I, I do have, I do have one question and, you know, normally I would say, I would, I would ask this one-on-one, but I think it's important, especially for the holiday park neighborhood to, to hear that they at least got asked. Do we plan on entering and exiting the station from 26th Avenue or 66th street? And have we decided that yet? Nothing's been set in stone yet, but it would be beneficial to us to enter and exit from 26th Avenue only because, uh, we'll have that control, that light that goes on to 66th. Yep. So we can go North and South, uh, like old fire station said, and if you remember when it was on 72nd Avenue, there was a light right in front of that station. We can control that from the apparatus and that allows us to change that signal as we pull out of the station. Um, and it's a safer act for the apparatus to get out on the 66th street. I would prefer that too. I will just share with you a concern having lived three blocks from here, uh, pretty much my entire life. Um, now that the traffic from the school has changed, there are cars in front of this property two times a day, five days a week. And we've, we've talked with engineering about that. We have some ideas in order to make that a little bit easier. I know they are moving the bus lanes to the, uh, to the 22nd, 22nd side. Yeah. Uh, so that'll alleviate alleviate some of it. And I know in the design phase and probably we can speak to that, but they were talking about putting a separate entrance in. So the line that goes for the pickup for the children will be in a separate location going down the, going down the property line on 66, which will give us a clearer way out on the 26th Avenue. Okay. And I just want, again, I think, uh, and rightly so the neighborhood and, and frankly me too, because I want to make sure that our apparatus can get out timely. Right. And the neighborhood is worried that the traffic shifts from being on 26th Avenue to being rather than being on 65th street, which then would be a line of cars down the middle of the neighborhood, which I don't think anybody, any of us want those phone calls. Um, so anyway, I just, I just wanted to make sure it was brought up. I'm, I am super excited for this. Um, just quickly. I want to thank, uh, you know, administration has kept me, um, up to date on this constantly. I want to, I want to thank them for all the hard work. I know this has been a lift. If you look at the background, I know council member Driscoll, uh, mentioned it too. This has been a long time coming. Uh, our firefighters deserve it. Aaron, thank you for all the, uh, the work as well. Fire command on making sure that we're looking at all these things. I very much appreciate that. Uh, and then I, I, I appreciate our men and women that have been in station two waiting for this. Uh, if you don't know, there was a house fire just the other day, almost, almost directly behind two, and they had to go in a big circle to get there. Um, and so I, I, they, they do amazing work. Um, they protect the West side of St. Petersburg, which I know I am selfish about. Uh, but I'm just, I'm very thankful we got to where we got, um, to all, to everybody that's been a part of this. So, um, thank you very much, Chair. Thank you. Council member Hanowitz. Thank you. This is a good meeting for you attend, Chief Bassett. There's talk of new facilities for training. There's a new station we're talking about. This doesn't happen every day. Well, well, first of all, I want to thank my council members for clarifying some of the issues with the appraisal and questions that may be, um, brought forth. Aaron, thank you for so much for the one-on-one. Very helpful. Um, cause I know you had to walk everyone through it. Like this has been going on going for a long time, but just to make the record crystal clear. Okay. I have a map of the area. I want to put on the record across from this is home goods, Chick-fil-A, Bob Evans, the vitamin shop, Joanne Fabrics. On the other side, ABC wine, Apple, uh, Applebee's, Casita Taqueria. Yeah, it's commercial. And so that's the reason why it ended up at this. Oh, I forgot Kobe, Japanese steakhouse. You're right. Um, any, anyone else I should mention? There's a lot of businesses in this quarter. So I just want to make it crystal clear for the record. Um, if there's any questions on the appraisal, that's it for me. Thank you all. I'll move approval. I was just going to. I'll second. I'll move approval. I don't want to. Thank you. Now that we've received a motion of approval and second for F2, Mr. Clerk, will you please open the machine for voting? Council members, would you please? Seeing that all present council members have voted, can you please tally and announce the votes? Madam Chair, the motion to approve agenda item F2 passes unanimously with Council Member Gabbard being absent. Thank you. Next, we'll move on to F4, the local government verification of contribution loan form for Pinellas MT housing and Palm Lake Urban Sanctuary. And joining us is our Senior Housing Development Coordinator, Ms. Stephanie Lamp. Good afternoon. Hi. Chair and members of City Council. The item before you today is related to an annual competition for 9% tax credits that's held by the Florida Housing Finance Corporation for affordable housing developers who wish to construct within what is called the large six counties of the state. That's Broward, Duval, Hillsborough, Orange, Palm Beach, and Pinellas. Miami-Dade, of course, Miami-Dade, of course, is large, but they give Miami-Dade their own competition. Each year, the state will only fund one development using these 9% tax credits in each of those counties, six counties. For several years in a row, in order to best position our developer partners to be able to win the competition, we needed to designate a priority project, providing a local amount of 610,000. In certain rotating years, the state designates an area within Pinellas County or within the county and provides that we can support as many applications as we'd like within that area. As soon as the state issued those areas, we released a request for developer proposals, and we received two developer responses, and we are proposing to use the 610,000 from last year's unsuccessful attempt and split it between these two developments to allow them to allow them to compete this year. One of the developments before you, you're very familiar with. It is Palm Lake Urban Sanctuary to be located at 5401 22nd Avenue North. It is to be 86 units. 72 of those one- and two-bedroom units are in the three-story building to the east of the church, and 14 units in the casitas that will be a mix of duplex, triplex, and quadruplex, tricky, containing one- and two-bedroom units. The units will be a mix of 13 units at 30% area median income, 14 units at 50% area median income, 42, the majority, at 60% of area median income, and 17 units at 80% AMI. The second development that you have not seen before is the residences at Muir Tower to be located at 747 4th Avenue North. These 80 units are to be located within a 13-story building consisting of one, two, and three bedrooms. The units will be reserved as four units per household at or below 30% of the area median income, 51, or the majority of them, at 60% of area median income, and 12 units per households at 80% AMI. As a quick reminder, we will be very lucky if one of these two applicants wins the competition, but there's also the possibility that neither could win. But there is not a possibility that both could win, and that's unfortunate. We do not like to miss this competition, as it's the best leverage of the city's money to help construct affordable new construction, affordable units. And with that, I would like to request approval of the attached item, which authorizes us to sign the local government contribution form so that both developers can compete this year. Applications are due to the state on September 13th. Thank you. Council Member Driscoll. Thank you. With the Muir Tower project, like you said, that's new. So, where are they? Have they submitted grants or anything? So, they have, this is the beginning of their process. They placed an offer on that site, which had a previous DRC approval for an 18-story development. So, that will not be 18 stories. They'll be reducing it to 13 and making the 80 units affordable. They have not completely redesigned that yet. They won't do that until they know if they win the competition. Okay. And so, during that process, at some point, it sounds like that is a project that would come before council, or would it be streamlined? And maybe you don't know because they're not far enough along yet. I believe since they already have approval for the 18-story building and units being able to be constructed, I think 113 units are what's eligible on that site. I believe they still have to, I mean, they could go under that approval, but they probably have to have the site plan go back to DRC. Not sure that that requires it to go back to council again, but it will go to DRC. Yeah, sounds like it's still pretty early. Right. That one sounds very interesting and something that would be very beneficial if, hopefully, one of them will win. Oh. If one does and the other doesn't, or if neither do, are you already looking at how else might we be able to help them? Like I said. This might be a question for Administrator Curtis. This is the best leverage of our funding. Yes. There is another competition at the end of the year that is for 4% credits and sale dollars. It does not provide as much money, so the city would need to subsidize more on those type of applications. So we're hopeful that this attempt is the best attempt. And otherwise, we would look at one of the other application cycles that the state holds later in the year. Okay. All right. Good. As long as we're, no matter what happens, we should be looking for ways to help bring these projects to fruition. We're trying. All right. Thank you. And I'll move approval. Second. Having received a motion of approval and second for F4, Mr. Clerk, will you please open the machine for voting? Council members, will you please place your votes? Seeing that our present council members have voted, can you please tally and announce the votes? Madam Chair, the motion to approve Agenda Item F4 passes unanimously with Council Member Gabbard being absent. Thank you. Thank you. Now we will move on to our Council Committee reports, and we do have H1, Council Member Hanois. Thank you, Chair. And that was the Acting Committee Chair back on the August 10th, 2023 Public Services and Infrastructure Committee meeting. At that meeting, we had a motion, and I am respectfully requesting City Council approval of a motion to move the referral item regarding the quarterly report on Grow Smarter Sites from the Public Services and Infrastructure Committee referral list to the Economic and Workforce Development referral list. And I so move. Second. Having received the motion of approval and second for H1, I'm sorry, can you please open the machine for voting? Seeing that our present council members have voted, can you please tally and announce the votes? Madam Chair, the motion to approve Agenda Item H1 passes unanimously with Council Member Gabbard being absent. Well, thank you. We have two hours that we are going to now recess. Council meeting to prepare for Public Hearings 501. Yep. You know, everything was turned off. You guys are talking about all the stuff I've done wrong. It should have taken longer. It definitely should have taken longer. You guys have been here the whole break? I mean, I studied engineering. I mean, I got, I have a bachelor's in master's and I did that because, like, I didn't really test. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're going to call council meeting back to order for our public hearings and we have items J1 and J2 preliminary assets presented by our co-host compliance assistant director, Mrs. Joseph Wall. All welcome. Move approval J1 and J2. Second. We have, now that we have a motion for approval and a secondance for J1 and J2, Mr. Clerk, will you please open the machine for voting? Council members, will you please cast your vote? Knowing that all present council members are present, can you please tally and announce the votes? Madam Chair, the motion to approve agenda items J1 and J2 passed unanimously with council member Gabbert being absent. Thank you very much, very much, very much, very good, good seeing you, welcome, thank you for coming. Now we have items J3 and please read the title. Proposed ordinance number 541-H, an ordinance of the city of St. Petersburg, Florida, amending its comprehensive plan, amending chapter 3, future land use element, objective to LU3 to approve application of the comprehensive plan to certain affordable housing projects, approved pursuant to sections 166.041516 and 166.041517A Florida statute, updating MAP 25 height limitations for airport imaginary surfaces, replacing MAP 30 with MAP 30A Albert Woodard Airport existing facilities, providing for severability and providing for an effective date. The public hearing for this item is September 28th and we do not have any. No speakers. No speakers. No public hearings. What it's worth today is a public hearing. Yes. Yes. So thank you. And now we have with us our urban planning and historic preservation planner to Miss Brittany Wilson. How are you? Good evening, Council. If Council wishes, I have a quick presentation on the comp plan portion of the Live Local Act that was the topic of last month's committee of the whole meeting. Do you want first reading? I'll move approval. Second. Oh. Was someone requesting? Yes. I would like to see it. Second. I'm sorry to keep you all here. No problem. All right. Thank you, Ms. Wilson. You're welcome. I'm presenting the first of two required public hearings for text amendments to the city's comprehensive plan pertaining to an update to the existing alternative housing affordability development process and updates to the existing Albert Whitted airport maps. And the purpose of the text amendments is to bring the plan into consistency with the new statutory changes related to Senate Bill 102, known as the Live Local Act, and the recent adoption of the airport master plan update adopted by Council on June 15. In 2020, the state legislature passed House Bill 1339, which included a provision permitting a municipality to approve a workforce housing development on any parcel zone for residential, commercial, or industrial, where then in 2021 the city adopted three ordinances that permitted Council to review and potentially approve development proposals in various zoning districts without having to go through the land use and zoning amendment process. And this process and right review criteria is found in chapter 17 point five of the city code. And is implemented by the housing and neighborhood services department. This past legislative session, Senate Bill 102, known as the Live Local Act updated the House Bill 1339 language shown here and strike there an underline where it removed the ability to approve a workforce housing project in a residential zoning district, but now allows a project to be mixed use if at least 40% of the units are affordable. As shown in the staff report here is the requested amendment language to objective LU three to reflect the Senate bill one or two changes. And this slide just shows the draft language that will be proposed in the land development regulations, which reflect the company language, and then the details of the process will be addressed in chapter 17 point five. Which staff is still in the process of crafting also noted in the staff report, the proposed amendments are internally consistent with many goals objectives and policies of the comprehensive plan, such as calling for incentives for the private sector to help meet the community's housing needs. Additionally, the amendments include updates to two maps associated with the recent update to the Albert Whitted airport master plan, which required replacing map 25 shown here, which is the existing height limitations that were increased by one foot. And map 38 which shows the existing airport facilities and map 30 B, which shows the proposed airport facilities with that staff recommends approval to transmit the proposed amendments to the state and other reviewing agencies for comment. And that concludes my presentation happy to answer any questions you may have. Council member Muhammad. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Just one really quick question. And the reason we're changing the map is because the regulation says that we can't really do anything about height. Is that accurate? No, so with the update to the airport master plan a couple months ago, because they were shifting, I think the location of the runway, it also shifted the height limitations. And I'm not fully qualified to speak on the airport master plan maps, but we do include them in a comprehensive plan and so they needed to be updated along with updating of the master plan. So the maps change and I remember the presentation on the change of the maps, but I'm also just thinking the connection between 102. Oh, it's not we're just doing while we're already doing a text to the comprehensive plan, because it requires so many public hearings and it has to be transmitted to the state. We are often include some like administrative housekeeping items like this map. So since the airport master plan was updated recently, we needed to update the maps. So we added it to it to include it. Okay, but yes, good point. The two are not related. Okay, thank you. Thank you, madam. Thank you. Do we have a motion? So having a motion in a second for J3, Mr. Clark, would you please open the machine for voting? Council members, please cast your vote. Seeing that our present council members have voted. Can you please tally and announce the votes? Madam Chair, the motion to approve agenda item J3 passes unanimously with council member Gabbard being absent. Thank you. So now we're going to move to open forum. Do we have any cards? Madam Chair, we do not. There are no cards. Sounds good. Well, now we're moving to announcements. And does anyone have any announcements that they would like to share? Council member Gerdes. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. We've had, we, we had a couple of birthdays. And we're having a couple of birthdays. The mayor's birthday was on the 15th. Chan's birthday. Notice he's not here for this one. And Rita is on the 18th and Rita's birthday is on the 19th. So as we do. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, Mayor Rita Chan. Mayor. Happy birthday to you. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. Any more announcements. Well, I want to announce. Last week, I was not here because I attended the National League of Cities Women and Municipal Government summer meeting or conference. And I just would like to say that when you have the opportunity to go and see how other municipalities and villages and towns do things. I just want to applaud the city of St. Petersburg, because we are doing some fantastic things when we can. And I shouldn't say compare like this competition, but we really are the best right. And to be able to see other things that they're doing and to probably introduce some of those concepts. But I share with my colleagues the love and commitment that we actually do have for the city of St. Petersburg. But I do like that we are leading in a whole lot of different areas in regards to other municipalities in the states, in the nation. But I really did enjoy that conference. And so thank you guys for holding it down. I wasn't here last week, but I much prefer to be in the beautiful Charlotte, North Carolina, although my packet did not come with a Beyonce ticket. She was she was like two blocks over from my hotel. But I did want to announce the reason for my absence last week, and it was really worthwhile and very beneficial. Seeing any more announcements, we will officially call Council meeting adjourned. That's been we I'm. Thank You very much, Michael Greg. Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. Thank you very much, Michael. Thank you very much, too. I'm going to end some take now. Bye, mate I'll see you soon, will. Bye, bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye. Bye-bye. z counseling , bye-bye three-bye. Bye-bye, bye-bye.