City Council - Jan 04, 2024

You brought it out. 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 Gabbard, District 3, Edmonton Mary, District 4, Lisette Panowitz, District 5, and Council Vice Chair, Deborah Fig Sanders, District 6, Gina Driscoll, District 7, John Muhammad, and District 8, Richie Floyd. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. And happy new year to all who are with us today and who are watching at home. We will go ahead and call to order the January 4th, 2024 City Council meeting beginning with a roll call. Gerdes, Gabbard, Montenari, Hanowitz, Big Sanders, Driscoll, Muhammad, and Floyd. We are going to begin our meeting this morning with an invocation that will be delivered by Reverend Kenneth Irby of Historic Bethel AME Church, followed by a moment of silence to honor our fallen first responders, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Please stand. Good morning, Madam Chair, to our mayor in his absence, to chair-elect, this distinguished council leadership. I'm honored this morning to offer the invocation by way of a consecration. And as we have already risen, hear our prayer. We rise this morning to honor the Creator, God, Sustainer, and Everlasting Father. We thank you for the blessings that you have bestowed upon us this morning as we strive to be more in 24. Stony the road we trod, but by your grace and your guidance, we're still here. Thank you, Lord, for allowing us to call upon you in our times of need as a nation and a world. We thank you, Lord, for your bountiful blessings. We thank you and are grateful that you have blessed us in your holy name. Now we call upon you today to imbue this mayor, this council, and city leadership with courage, compassion, and for care for others as we dismantle racist and sexist structures in our city. Bless us with your benedictions of justice that it may roll down in our city from shore to shore, in housing, in education, in opportunities, and through intentional equity for all. Show up, Lord. You are the King of glory every day in every way. We pray your perfect peace as your people pray. Amen, amen, and amen. Please join me in a moment of silence as we honor fallen first responder Sergeant Thomas Battinger, end of watch, January 24, 2011, and K-9 TAC Team Officer Jeffrey A. Jaslewicz, end of watch, January 24, 2011. Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice of all. You may be seated. Thank you so much, Reverend Irby. Great to see you this morning, and thank you for that beautiful invocation. All right, council members, we have an agenda before us today with a request to add item H-2, which is an update on Bayfront Health, and to defer item J-1. So with those changes, I'll entertain a motion for approval. Move approval. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second to approve the agenda with changes. Seeing no request to speak, clerk, please open the machine for voting. Council members, enter your votes. Seeing all present council members have voted, clerk, please tally and announce the vote. Madam Chair, the motion to approve the agenda passes 5-0, with council members Driscoll, Floyd, and Gerd as being absent. All right, we also have a consent agenda before us today. Do we have any public comment on the consent agenda? We have no cards. Okay. With that, I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. Approval. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda, and seeing no request to speak, clerk, please open the machine for voting. Council members, enter your votes. Seeing all present council members have voted, clerk, please tally and announce the vote. Madam Chair, the motion to approve the consent agenda passes 5-0, with council members Driscoll, Floyd, and Gerd as being absent. Next, we have our declaration of the election of City Council Chair and Vice Chair for 2024. I'll entertain a motion to ratify the election. Move approval. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Seeing no request to speak, clerk, please open the machine for voting. One moment, please. Okay. Madam Chair, while we get ready, can you just announce the chair and vice chair nomination? Absolutely. My pleasure. So, for Chair for 2024 will be Ms. Deborah Fig Sanders, and for Vice Chair will be Copley Gerdas. Council members, enter your votes. Seeing all present council members have voted, clerk, please tally and announce the vote. Madam Chair, the motion to approve the agenda item passes 5-0, with council members Driscoll, Floyd, and Gerd as being absent. And now, at this time, we will administer the oath of office for our new City Council Chair, Chair Deborah Fig Sanders, by the Honorable Patrice Moore. Judge Moore, the floor is yours, and Council Chair Fig Sanders would like to have all of her family come up to the podium here and join her. Madam Chair? Well, you want me to have that? Well, you want me to have that? Yeah. Thank you. Right. In the ass that we grabbed. Stay by me. Good Lord. Let us stay by me. Be a pleasing thing. oh my goodness I needed a bigger room this is all her yes I put all that that was fine where's mom we got a long line so I'm just going to I think that's probably about all alright where did she go good morning family and friends and thank you for coming at this time I will administer the oath if you would raise your right hand and repeat after me I Debra Fick Sanders I Debra Fick Sanders do solemnly swear or affirm do solemnly swear and affirm that I am a citizen of the city of St. Petersburg that I am a citizen of the city of St. Petersburg the state of Florida and the United States of America that as an officer of the city of St. Petersburg that as an officer of the city of St. Petersburg and a recipient of public funds and a recipient of public funds I will support I will support protect and defend the Constitution protect and defend the Constitution and the government of the United States and the government of the United States and of the state of Florida and of the state of Florida that I am duly qualified to hold office that I am duly qualified to hold office under the charter of the city and the Constitution of the State under the charter of the city and the United States and Constitution of the United States And that I will faithfully perform the duties of the office of the chair of the city council, of the city of St. Petersburg, Florida, on which I am now about to enter. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you. Just like that. Everyone, if you could give me a couple of minutes before you go outside the door, if you don't mind. Amen. Amen. Today is a great day. I am extremely honored, doing everything I can not to cry. I am so nervous. Why am I nervous? I am so nervous. But I am more blessed than I am nervous. To see all of you come out and to just share this moment with me is priceless. So I'm afraid to call out people because I'm going to forget someone. So if I do, forgive me. My husband, who has put up with me. Oh, my God. God pray for him. Okay. I love him. My granddaughter and my son. Y'all know Braylon. Hey, Braylon. The ladies of NCNW. The ladies of AKA. The ladies of OES. My pastors that are here. Fisher Sites. Thank you. Pastor Sippling. Thank you. Where am I pastor at? Pastor Wayne D. Thompson. That is my dude. Thank you so much. Jennifer Griffin. Gershom. My family. I know I'm going to miss somebody. Vince. Robin. Thank you. Commissioner Flowers. Thank you. Kaisha. All of you all that came out to celebrate this momentous occasion. Our president of AKA Janae Skipper is back there. Mr. Jiggers is here from Albert Whitter. Thank you so much for coming. My Millers family. Hey, Millers. You know, I love to support the young people. But I just wanted to take a minute to thank everybody that came out to spend this time to witness this moment of where we're taking another bold step in the city of St. Petersburg to bring forth progressive change and equity and aversion and inclusion and development and affordable housing and economic development. Those things that we need to have those conversations about. So I'm asking you all to pray for me because you all know how transparent I am. And so I want to make sure that we continue to move this city forward. You have a fantastic dais. You have council members that are here to represent their district. More importantly, we're here to represent our city, but we're going to do it collectively and we're going to be, it's going to be a collaborative effort. There will be no agendas and please know my phone number will still be the same. You all have it. Most of you do. And it has been the same number since 1998. It has not changed nor will it. Pastor Irby, before you leave, thank you for the prayer and coming out because you're on vacation and you didn't have to do it, but you did. So I appreciate you for that. Pastor Buebaker, thank you for coming. I appreciate that. So I know I'm going to, as my first official, y'all, I'm going to hit the gavel and we're going to have a research, a recess for 10 minutes so I can take pictures. Yeah. Okay. Is that okay with you all? So we're going to recess for 10 minutes, but again, for those of y'all that are here, I am so blessed. I am humbled. I promise to give you the best and to do the best job that I have with all intent on serving God and this community and this city. And for that, we're going to recess for 10 minutes. Before we actually start with the open forum, there is another additional housekeeping issue that I want us to address because this will be the one and only time that we actually have to now officially thank our past chair, Brandi Gabbert, who I hope that I can only measure up halfway to be as good as she was as chair. But I really want to give you this opportunity to give your closing remarks and so that we can thank you formally. Well, thank you, Chair Fig Sanders, such an honor this morning to turn the gavel over to you. I just want to first of all say thank you to you. You have been an amazing partner in this past year. I think anyone who was watching has seen that 2023 certainly provided its challenges to this council. And I think that our friendship, our partnership, you know, we live in the sunshine, so we can't talk about issues that we're going to vote on. But what we can do is we can support each other emotionally, intellectually, making sure that you always know you have someone next to you, regardless of what happens, who has this council's best interest at heart. And you were that for me this year. And so I think really that's my closing comments is how appreciative I am that I did not have to go through it alone. And I'm so proud of you. I'm so excited for your leadership. And I had said it before, but I do want to thank my colleagues for the unanimous vote of support to make me chair last year. That meant a lot to me. And every moment that was challenging, difficult, you know, you really had to kind of stay focused and stay, you know, kind of stalwart on the mission. I kept that unanimous vote in mind. And I never wanted to let the rest of my colleagues down. I hope I didn't do that. I hope that I really held that regard of that unanimous vote at the highest level. I want to thank all the residents who were supportive over last year. Even when we didn't agree, I felt like there were times that people, you know, we could debate something, but we could still walk away recognizing that we have respect for each other. And at the end of the day, the goal is the love of this city. I want to thank the administration. I especially want to thank the mayor. Fantastic to work with last year. We did so many great things. I know there's so many great things to come. And then the last thing would just be legal staff, the clerk's office, all of our city council office and city council administrator, Cindy Shepard. Nothing that you see here happens without all of them. So if you would join me in a round of applause for our staff, thank you for the opportunity. And I wish you nothing but the best. And I'll be right here cheering you on the whole way. Before we open forum, I did fail to recognize my baby boy. You know, what kind of man mom would I be to not recognize my children? And I recognize my oldest one, Kevin, and there's my baby boy next to my mommy who rang that bell last week or was it the week before? And I'm going to always applaud those that have been suffering with that thing called cancer. And she was able to ring that bell and it means more than you know to have you here with me today. Yes. Well, with that being said, we will now move on to open forum. Clerk, can you please read the rules? And do we have any cards or speakers on Zoom? Let me read the rules first, Madam Chair. Okay. If you wish to address city council on subjects other than public hearings or quasi-judicial items listed on the agenda, please sign up with the clerk. Excuse me. Only the individual wishing to speak may sign the open forum sheet. Only city residents, owners of property, business owners in the city, or their employees may speak. All issues discussed under open forum 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 forum or 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 first use the raise hand feature button in 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. And at the conclusion of your comments or when you reach 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 meeting, and the rules of decorum. If live public comment is disrupted by violations of the rules of decorum, the chair is authorized to accept public comment by alternate means, including by email only. And Madam Chair, we do have some speakers. And as your names are called, we're going to ask you to please go to both. She's going to call them two at a time. And please make sure you state your name and address. Correct. First two speakers, Madam Chair, Ron Diner and Peter Kent. Please go to either podium. As the chair indicated, state your name and address for the record. And you will have three minutes to address city council. What's the last name? Peter. Peter Diner or dinner. Excuse me, Peter Kent. Ron Diner. Good morning. I'm Ron Diner. I live on Brightwaters Boulevard Northeast in St. Petersburg. I've spent a significant portion of my career analyzing and negotiating real estate deals, contributing to the development of affordable housing on national scale. And I've also had the opportunity to learn about our community needs through my involvement in the lunch pails, the Boys and Girls Clubs, and I'm also a mentor at Mount Vernon Elementary School. I wanted to share a perspective based on a commitment to reason, logic, and fiscal responsibility, advocating for a renegotiated deal or an alternative plan for the gas plant site that better aligns with our city's best interests and the needs of our citizens. First, we have a great opportunity. The gas plant site is potentially the largest piece of developable property in a rapidly growing market. What makes this opportunity unique is that the area is already activated with existing development, providing a solid foundation, acting as an anchor. While baseball for the Tampa Bay area is desirable, it is not the linchpin for the success of this property. Second, a $1.6 billion cost to taxpayers causes major concerns. We believe the land is being sold for as much as $500 million under value, and the loan the city is taking out for infrastructure and part of the stadium is a hefty $700 million, including interest, without sharing in any of the revenue from the stadium. And we are forsaking $411 million in real estate taxes over 30 years on the value of a new stadium property. We're looking at a missed opportunity to channel this $1.6 billion into community initiatives, stormwater management, education, and more affordable housing. Also consider the impact on our city's quality of life. The increased traffic and parking congestion in the gas plant site area from baseball could hinder the development of the rest of the site and prove burdensome to residents and businesses already in the area. The relocation of the Atlanta stadium due to traffic congestion should be served as a cautionary tale. Finally, the choice of the citizens expressed through surveys can't be ignored. An overwhelming 90% of 470 votes on next door suggests the citizens should decide, and 73% of 200 votes express dissatisfaction with the current deal. In conclusion, we think the facts compel us to renegotiate a better deal or consider an alternative development for the gas plant site. And that stands up to the scrutiny of fiscal responsibility and community well-being. We must distinguish between the idealized benefits of baseball and the tangible realities before us. Thank you. And I'm sure that you are aware that myself and Tom Mullins shared our perspective in the Tampa Bay Times and our analysis available at nohomerun.com. Thank you. Thank you so much. Good morning. I'm Peter Kent, 8 Academy Way, St. Petersburg. May I wish the council a happy new year? I just want to speak today in the opposition of the current Braze-Hinds proposal because it stems from a significant taxpayer impact estimated over $1.6 billion over 30 years. This exceeds twice the city's 2024 budget. It includes considerable expenses like $700 million for the stadium and infrastructure bonds, $412 million for lost property taxes and city school taxes, and $500 million loss from selling the land at below fair market value. The need for the Rays to generate housing and office demand of the new development is contradicted by the strong demand currently seen in the surrounding property sales. Funding of the existing Rays stadium has relied on $30 million annually from the Pinellas County Tourist Bed Tax and Property Exemption. This tourist tax is projected to raise $1.9 billion over the next 40 years, currently enough to cover the entire $600 million public contribution. The new stadium is currently, should be more centrally located near the Howard Franklin Bridge, possibly close to the St. Pete Clearwater Airport, using a mix of county-owned and raised purchased land. Negotiation for a partial real estate tax exemption with the county would be key financial strategy for the proposed stadium. Following a business model by the Atlanta Braves, a suggestive approach is that the Rays, form a new Rays corporation, including both the team and the stadium. This would involve issuing stock to the Rays owners, to the county, and to the new investors. Revenue from this plan would encompass the ticket sales, naming rights, TV agreements, stadium rights, concessions, and parking fees. After deducting the operational costs, profits would be distributed among the stockholders. Importantly, this alternate plan allows the City of St. Petersburg to spend $1.6 billion on more pressing needs, including school roads, water, sewer, stormwater drainage, hurricane recovery, etc. See nohomerun.com for more information. Thank you. Thank you. Final speaker, Madam Chair, John Barquette. Please go to either podium, state your name and address for the record, and you have three minutes to address City Council. And we have no one in Zoom. Good morning, John Barquette. I am a resident of our beautiful St. Petersburg for the last 23 years. I stand before you today to express my wholehearted support for the Rays-Hinds development plan at the historic gas plant site. This visionary project marks a transformative moment for our beloved city, combining the rich history of our past with the promising future ahead. The Rays-Hinds development plan not only honors the historical significance of the gas plant, but also promises to breathe new life into this iconic location. By revitalizing this area, we are not just creating a space for commerce. We are crafting a hub for community engagement, cultural celebration, and economic growth. My background is also real estate. I have a master's degree from NYU in real estate valuation and analysis. And the 10 years prior to coming to St. Pete, I traveled the United States valuing affordable housing portfolios. And it's an important component of what we have. We're looking for affordable housing. We're looking for jobs. This is a generational project that needs a master developer that can see this through. And somebody who has done this, something of this scale, with or without a ballpark. That being said, Hinds has been very clear. They had every opportunity to bid on this RFP during the previous administration and chose not to because of the fact that it wasn't incorporating the Rays into the process. I'm glad that Atlanta was brought up. We recently toured Atlanta. Atlanta and the Battery are a great model, but that's only part of the model. You have Atlanta and the Battery, which is 25 miles outside of the downtown core. And then you've got Ponce City Market and the Beltline, which is east of the downtown core. We have an opportunity to put all of that together. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I've taken the time to tour Hinds' T3 product in Nashville. It's extremely impressive. And if you combine that and look at Atlanta as an example, Atlanta's highest rents and the most job creation that they have are in those two developments. You know, we want jobs. We want to be able to get companies here and corporations here. And we need to be able to do that. We need to step out of it. I'm also the vice president of the MLK Business District. I'm the chair of the Transportation Committee for the Chamber. We are at a pivotal point right now where we need to get out of this silo effect and start working together, even regionally. All this talk about the, you know, St. Pete, I get it. You know, the St. Pete Rays. They're not calling the Atlanta Rays the Cobbs Rays. You know, they're the Atlanta Rays and they're not in Atlanta. You know, we're working right now on a project for regional waterborne ferry transportation. We're going to bring in ULI to do a national study. And we're working across the bay with Hillsborough County and West Shore Alliance. And I just think we need to appreciate it. Thank you. No more speakers, Madam Chair. So now we will close open forum and take up report item H2. Joining us is Mr. John Moore, president of Bayfront Health St. Petersburg. Thank you, Madam Chair. And once again, congratulations. Thank you so much. And council members, we appreciate the opportunity to present to you today. Bayfront Health has had a tremendous year and has had a tremendous year in 2023 and continues the upward track that we started at acquisition in October of 2020. Again, my name is John Moore. I serve as senior vice president for Orlando Health's West Region and president of Bayfront Health here in St. Petersburg. Just to click on our mission, just a reminder, the mission of Bayfront Health is to improve the health and quality of life of the individuals and communities we serve. That's our mantra, followed by what we call the Bayfront Health way, which is, are our imperatives, which are to embrace quality and safety, earn physician loyalty, be the best place to work while driving growth and innovation, strengthening economics, and always serving our customers well. This graphic represents, really shows you the growth of Orlando Health over time. I've been with Orlando Health a little over 26 years, and the growth, particularly in the last seven years, has been pretty amazing to include now Puerto Rico. The significant growth in the West region over the past, really over the past six months, has been an acquisition that included Florida Medical Clinic, primarily based in Hillsboro and Pasco counties. It's a very large, 1,500 team members, 425 providers, 52 offices. It's a multi-specialty group that also includes surgery centers, imaging centers. And the reason I bring it up is that we see that as a tremendous base for us now to expand our footprint into Pinellas County from the physician access standpoint, which is a continual need. Again, at a glance, Orlando Health, now 16 hospitals, over 29,000 team members. And one of my favorite photographs is Bayfront Health, as it looks today. We are very proud to be in this community and very proud to call this place home. So the leadership team, I thought I would call out our senior leadership team, all of whom are here with us today. You would raise your hand as I call your name. Latasha Barnes serves as our chief financial officer. Lorraine Parker serves as our chief nursing officer. Dr. Trina Espinola serves as our chief medical officer and was previously chief of the medical staff. Sarah Gilbert, chief operating officer. And Jim Tucker, chief quality officer. So this senior leadership team, Sarah's been here about two and a half years. The rest of the team has been here since the acquisition and can't say enough about their leadership of all of our other leaders and our team members to get us where we are today. I would also like to recognize Dr. Beth Gerges, who's with us here in the audience today. She's our incoming chief of the medical staff and a tremendous leader in the organization as well. So this is a little, I think if I hit this arrow, this graphic will move forward. Let's see what happens. So this just shows the assets here in the West region. So Bayfront Health, the emergency room in Pinellas Park, the Crossroads emergency room, which is doing quite well over in West St. Pete. I'll talk about the Women's Pavilion in a moment. You can see a new emergency room in Lutz. It's been announced in North Lakeland. Also, the Wiregrass Ranch Hospital is under construction. I'll speak about Institute Square in a moment. And then Lakeland Hospital is also under construction. So a lot going on. So Institute Square. So 6th Avenue and 5th Avenue are the north and south boundaries of this. It's the entire block. It includes three structures. It's now they're putting pilings in the ground as we speak. The building to the left will be the Women's Health Pavilion. And I'll talk about that in a moment. And then the building to the right is the Bayfront Health Medical Pavilion, which will house primarily oncology and then have some space for orthopedics. It's in partnership with Florida Cancer Specialists. And then in the back is a parking structure that will have first floor imaging center and laboratory. This better depicts the block. And you can see where those facilities will be located. So again, the larger building, Bayfront Health Medical Pavilion, again, a partnership. It will include radiation oncology. It will include medical oncology provided by Florida Cancer Specialists. And then a number of surgical oncology specialists, many of whom we have recruited over the last year or so. We will co-locate them in that location to make it easier for patients. They'll focus initially on cancer related to urogynecology, colorectal, thoracic, lung, head, neck, breast, and skin cancer. The other facility, again, the Women's Pavilion with Women's Care Florida, OB, gynecology, women's health care throughout all phases of life. Also a fertility clinic located on the first floor. And then the imaging center and lab to be located on the ground floor of the parking deck. So the achievements and milestones. Beyond the fact that we have really become a very financially stable organization, we have also focused on our other key metrics. And that's quality. And I'm very happy to say on that first bullet that we've seen a significant reduction in hospital-associated infections over the last three years. And currently in most of those metrics, we're at the level of the top-performing hospitals nationally today. The other accreditations, certifications, et cetera, some of those are recertifications and some are new. We've seen the American College of Radiology for our cardiac cath lab, the hip and knee replacement program through the Joint Commission, and then our pursuit of bariatric surgery accreditation is ongoing. We've also seen significant improvement in our patient experience scores. How do our patients rate us? All of these metrics feed into national scoring, which is delayed over time because of data lag. But we think we will see a lot of these national scores increase this year in 2024. And then from an HR perspective, we've talked about that a lot in the presentations that I've done here because of the pandemic period in particular. But we've seen the registered nurse turnover really stabilize, and that trend is continuing downward. You can see there we've hired over 600 new nurses since October of 2020. We've seen a tremendous reduction in open recs that sit out there that haven't been filled. And then really a nice reduction in overall open positions. The last time I presented to you all, I think it was you, Madam Chair, who requested a demographic look at our team member complement. So you can see we have a little over 2,200 team members. This shows by ethnicity and by gender the breakdown of our team members. And each time I come before you, I talk about recruitment. So we've recruited well over 25 to 30, probably more like 30 physicians in the past three years. This past year, we've created what's called the Digestive Health Institute. The three physicians across the top make up that institute with a fourth coming in the spring. We saw a real need in the community where people were waiting 8 to 12 weeks to be able to schedule a colonoscopy, for instance. So we brought this team together. We brought in Dr. Therian, who offers even more advanced endoscopy than is offered in the community currently. And it has been the volume that we've seen from that has been tremendous. So there was certainly a need in the community. And we're happy that that has worked out well. Dr. Huang was brought on as we added two state-of-the-art mammography units to Bayfront 3D mammography. He is a specialist in breast radiology and performs procedures as well as reads the images. And then Dr. Askew comes to us from George Washington University, well known in the colorectal surgery field. She joins Dr. J. Ryan Williams in that area of specialty for us. Dr. Askew actually will now be the leader of that for the entire region based out of St. Petersburg. With that, with the financial performance and all of that, we never forget that we are part of this community. So our team members love to volunteer for the various activities that happen across the St. Petersburg community. And these are just a few of the examples. We've also been able to start some community grant programs. I'll talk about two of those here in the next few slides. So the first one is the Bayfront Health Community Grant Program, begun in 22. Since that time, we've awarded a little over $500,000 in grants. And you can see, for instance, the 10 grants that were funded this year. The other unique part of this is we allow team members to come up with grant ideas that can help our community. And two team member grants were funded in this last cycle. See some of the photos of the groups. One of those groups that was funded created the call program, Community Assistance Life Liaison. They saw a need and asked us if we could help them create this program. And here is an example of how they're helping in the community. So they use the example of the client called Todd, who came to his physician's office and said he wanted to be admitted for detox services. At the time, he did not have any of his mental health medications and could not afford to pay the copay and decided he wanted to go to the emergency room to move the process forward. Call was able to get the prescription, pay the copay through the funding we provided, get his medication, avoided an unnecessary admission to the ER, and then he was transferred by that staff to the detox facility and is undergoing treatment there now. So it's just one example of how you can take some funding and be able to really make a difference in the community. We also this year came up with what our investment priorities are. As we, you know, we have the community grant program, we also support various organizations in the community, and then we have started another grant program I'll talk about in a moment. But you can see how our priorities across the bottom marry with the imperatives that I mentioned earlier. So that's how we focus, that's how we look at how to invest. From a community relations standpoint, we, in this past year, 314,000, we have multiple organizations that we work with, which are depicted here on this slide, and many of which we have provided funding for. So I'm most excited about the partnership with the Foundation for a Healthy St. Pete, and this is new. We worked with them to develop a mental health and community wealth grant RFP. This is focused on South St. Petersburg. The areas of focus are mental health and wellness for Black, Indigenous, and people of color, and economic equity and justice. So we've had two funding cycles so far. We were overwhelmed with response in the initial funding cycle. We had 125 responses. So we were able to fund 20 of those and then decided to go ahead and take, from that same pool, fund 11 more in the 2024 cycle. So you'll see who these groups are right here on the list. So with that, I would just like to say that this team, the physicians that provide care at Bayfront, are extremely proud to be able to do so, proud to call this area home, and look forward to continuing our relationship with the City of St. Petersburg. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Moore, for the presentation. We do have council members that would like to speak, and Council Member Martin-Ering. Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Moore and your team, I'm glad everybody could be here today. Back before, thank you for the presentation. Back before Orlando Health came into the picture, when we used to have these updates on Bayfront, I used to dread them. I mean, they were just bad. I mean, and we received information. You just didn't know what was right and what was wrong. And since Orlando Health came into the picture, now I look forward to these presentations because now you can see what's going on with Bayfront Hospital, and it's exciting. It's exciting on multiple levels, and the way that you walk through all the different priorities of the mission of your hospital, the community involvement, your staff, physician recruitment. By every measure, all the trends are positive, so I'm very thankful to see that. I've spoken about this before, and I've had my own medical history and have had to be hospitalized multiple times for major surgeries, and I know quality is always job one in a hospital. And I'm glad when you, in one of your early slides, the Bayfront Health Way, one of the first things you talked about was quality and safety. And Mr. Tucker, I think you've got one of the, everybody has important jobs, but the chief quality officer, to me, is a focus when it comes to medical care, because like the Ford Motor Company used to say, quality is job one. And so, I'm glad that you have that focus. I also wanted to point out that, and thank you for the update on the Bayfront Health Institute Square. That's just exciting. I mean, and the investment that Bayfront's putting into our community and Orlando Health, that's just, it's going to be a game changer for healthcare in not just the city of St. Petersburg, but the region. So, that was very good. I think last year, I talked a little bit about the nursing problem and what a difference a year makes. It sounds like you all have identified the problem and addressed it, and now things are getting a whole lot better. Is that indicative across the whole organization? It, Central Florida is a little bit more challenging. I think we've had the opportunity to partner with St. Petersburg College, USF, technical schools. So, we've really worked to use the resources that are available to us here in the community. That's helped us. Good. Good. Well, thank you. The last thing I just wanted to address, and thank you for the investment that you all make in our community also, because I feel that Bayfront is just a true community partner, and I see Bayfront involved in a lot of different aspects of our city. But that one slide that you have, a community partner snapshot, I mean, that just tells the story about how deeply you all care about our city and our community across the board. So, I wanted to thank you for your leadership, and thank the whole staff for being here. You all are doing wonderful work here in the city of St. Petersburg. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. First of all, thank you, Mr. Moore and Bayfront Health team members for everything that you do. I can't emphasize how important it is for the community to know what you do for our city. And this is what this meeting does and this presentation does because it puts it out there and lets everyone know how hard you have been working to be a good member and a good community partner to our residents. So, I want to thank you. It is clear that you've been investing in our community since you've taken over. I wasn't here, thankfully, for those horrible meetings that Council Member Montaneri mentioned that happened before you took over. So, I'm thankful for that. But since I have been here, it has been wonderful to hear all the work that you have been doing, your help with the call program, which is incredibly important to our community, is critical, partnership with the Foundation for Healthy St. Pete. It was wonderful to see all the organizations that you have impacted in that slide. And I can't emphasize that. Those are really important organizations that are in our community that do important work and you're part of that. And those nonprofits really rely on other partners to help them. So, thank you for that. It is good to hear about the Institute Square work that's happening. I'm sure it's been happening. You've been working on it for a long time and you want to see it come to fruition. And I cannot wait to see it finally come to fruition. The Registered Nurse turnover, I know Council Member Montaneri mentioned it. That has been something that we've talked about before. And it's good to know that it's coming. It's being stabilized. It's something that's important. And if there's anything that we can do to help out, please let us know. So, just thank you again for bringing WorldCast Health Care to our citizens and to the region. I really appreciate it. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you so much. And thank you, Mr. Moore, because I don't know if I was one of your longest intros when you first came and you wanted to talk about some things and a lot of things that I totally concur with my colleagues in regards to your community partnership snapshot. We didn't have that initially a while ago. And you've heard us and you especially heard me with the breakdown of the demographics and how these other organizations. I do have one question. Is there a way that we can get how these organizations can see you about additional partnerships? Because I put out a newsletter. And there's one thing that we definitely want to do is to keep our constituents informed, and especially those that can benefit from a valuable partnership like this. I would love for my colleagues and myself to know when those opportunities are available for those that would like to include that in sending our newsletters out. But, again, I want to thank you because when I look at a lot of the organizations that you have partnered with, and thank you to the foundation as well for their grants, it is much appreciated. And I am very, very, very appreciative of you listening to the concerns that we had initially when you came. So, having no one else to speak, thank you, Mr. Moore. I appreciate it. Thank you, and happy new year. Thank you, happy new year. So, now we'll take up our public hearing items, bringing up, beginning with G1. Joining us is procurement and supply management director, Stephanie Swenson. Clerk, can you please read the title? Madam Chair, there are two ordinances with G1. Yes. Can I ask them back to back, please? Okay. Can they vote on as well? Yes. Okay. Are we going to vote both together? We can. It's your discretion. Okay. I propose ordinance 568H, an ordinance amending divisions 1, 2, 3, and 6 of Chapter 2, Article 5 of the City Code, excuse me, related to purchasing contracts, et cetera. Moving the procurement code to Division I, modifying the types of purchases exempt from the procurement code, modifying and adding definitions, modifying provisions regarding approval authority of the mayor for certain contracts and renewals, modifying the criteria for sole source procurement, setting forth processes for requests for qualifications, small purchases, requests for information, and protests, establishing provisions, prohibiting certain communications during competitive solicitations, clarifying provisions, creating a new Division II, establishing a business equity advisory committee, reserving Division III, deleting Division VI in its entirety related to grant opportunities through grant writers, and providing an effective date. Proposed Ordinance No. 569H, an ordinance amending Chapter 2, Article 4, Division IV, related to the Small Business Enterprise Assistance Program. Article 5, Division IV. Article 5, I'm sorry. Division IV, related to Small Business Enterprise Assistance Program, updating findings, setting forth a procedure for modifying annual goals for small business enterprise participation. In city contracts, modifying thresholds from $50,000 to $100,000 for bid, documents, sheltered markets. Discounts. Discounts. Discounts. Bid discounts, sheltered market. I need new glasses. Shared market. And required participation percentages. Removing references to the SBE committee and establishing the authority and responsibilities of the POD. Clarifying provisions, providing an effective date. And we have no cards for either item, Madam Chair. And actually, Madam Chair, we do have a correction to the first ordinance, which Sharon will read. So if we can, take those separately because we'll need to approve G1A as amended. Okay. So you want to go ahead and read them? Should I read the whole sentence or just the correction? So in Section 2185B, the very last sentence had a typo. So it's going to be modified to read, otherwise, the procurement, contract, disposal, or expenditure must be conducted in accordance with the requirements of this division instead of must conducted fee. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning. I do have a presentation. It's the same presentation from BF&T and our one-on-ones. Would you like me to move forward with the presentation? What is the pleasure of council members? Move approval of both. Well, we have to do... Or a separate of the first. Okay. So we're actually, we have a motion of approval on A. Did I hear a second? Yes. Is that G1A as amended? Yes. Thank you. Okay. Who was the second? I'm sorry. Council Member Muhammad. Okay. Okay. Can you go ahead and... Do you have a speaker? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'll get used to it. Council Member Hannon. That's all right. I have a question. On Section 2-236, the annual report, there's no designated committee for the annual report. Should we make sure that... Do we have to make a separate motion right now or have a resolution to designate that to just already have that committee? I mean, I would think that economic workforce and development is where this would go, but I was just wondering. Traditionally, it's been at BF&T, but if you choose to move it to the new committee, we're open to that as well. And having the flexibility in the ordinance allows you to move it to whatever committee that you find is appropriate. I was just wondering if it's something we want to do now that we wouldn't have to worry about it because it's not going to have a committee, right, at this point. Correct. So we should designate a committee. So, I mean, afterwards, maybe I'll make the motion on the committee. And that doesn't have to be decided today, but it is within your discretion. No, I'm just wondering when it would be decided. Whenever you all decide. Right. Okay. Thank you for that. Council Member Gavrit. So regarding the committee, I mean, to legal's point, if it traditionally would go to BF&T, but let's say BF&T was backed up, then we always have the discretion within our council policies and procedures to move it to another committee. So I don't know that I would really want to lock it into the ordinance because I think that lives really more within our policy and procedures and gives us that flexibility to take that item up sooner rather than later if that opportunity presented itself. So I would like to leave it as is and just work off of our policy and procedures. Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Gavrit. I wasn't suggesting to change the ordinance. What I was suggesting to do is do a motion separately to already assign it to a committee if it's not. Right now, the language is shall make a recommendation to designated city council committee. There is no committee. There's no BF&T. BF&T is taken out. So at this point, there's nothing assigned to it. So that was my suggestion to that. That way it's already done. Thank you. Council Member Montaneri. Thank you, Madam Chair. So I've got a couple of questions on this ordinance. And the first one is on page 17, Section 2205, under contract security, the exemption of the bond requirement for public construction projects. Can you give us a little more information why we're making this change? I can explain that. So if you want to, I don't know if you have a specific question, so let me know if this doesn't answer what your question is. But the statute, Florida Section 25505, it requires that there be a public construction bond for any project that's over $200,000. But it allows for an exemption for projects that are under $200,000. So some of this wording is changing because we currently had it as a waiver of the requirement in the code. But the statute calls it an exemption. So whenever we had anything that was under $200,000, city council had to waive it and it was exempt under the statute. So it's just making the wording consistent. And the other change that we made was just to change, let's see, for the difference between if it's less than $100,000 versus whether it's between $100,000 and $200,000. So if it is, if it's less than $100,000, then the POD is the one that has the authority to exempt it. And if it's between $100,000 and $200,000, then city council has the authority to exempt it from the bond requirement. So it just splits up who has the authority to exempt a construction project from the public construction bond requirement. Okay. So you've referenced a state law in the wording there and under Section B, it says, unless prohibited by any applicable laws. Are there like federal requirements that might come into play here? I'm not sure that there would be those. I mean, I really don't know. I think we just like to have that catch-all just in case. Right. There's not a direct law, direct federal law that is applicable. However, if one were enacted for some reason, then we wouldn't have to change our ordinance under the all applicable law standard. Okay. All right. Well, thank you for that clarification. Then on page 19, and I forget if I brought this forward, under the protests and all this language is new, where did this language come from? Is this language that other municipalities have used in their procurement ordinances? Or like, I kind of want to know where this all... In our current instructions, there was some very generic protest language, but we worked with legal and researched using other agencies, other municipalities, to see what is consistent and what works for us, and that's... This language is what we determined. So what we've had before is that instead of codifying this, which really codifying it is much better to put everybody on notice of what the requirements are, is there was language that has always been... or has been in our solicitation documents for I don't know how long, and I don't know where that came from, so I'm not sure the answer to that question of where that original language came from. So what we did is we kind of took what we already had in our solicitation documents and then talked through what we thought would work for us based on current procedures, based on protests that we've gotten, some of them maybe that don't have any basis, and so this is trying to kind of make it more clear what is required to submit a protest, so that when the POD is evaluating the protest, that the protester knows what it is that we need in order to make that evaluation. So previously, somebody could submit a protest and say, I think I should win, and the POD would have to look at that and evaluate it and put time into that. So this puts some requirements on, if you're going to do a protest, you have to at least give us enough information so that we can evaluate whether we need to do anything about your protest. And then it just sets forth the procedure that we thought would clarify exactly what to do when we get a protest. Okay. And then in subsection D, it talks about the protest. If the person or entity is dissatisfied with the POD's response, they can appeal to the city administrator. Is that current policy? Is that what we currently do, or is that something new? That would be a question for Stephanie. What exactly? In the past, the appeal has gone to the mayor. So we decide on the city administrator, since we work closely with the administration to make that determination. We thought it was better suited for the city administrator to make that determination instead of the mayor. Okay. Can you give us, give me a sense of how many protests we have? I mean, is this something that happens frequently? It does not. The last year, probably two. We've received two protests. There was no validity to either one of them, so they were dismissed. But it does not happen often. But we just wanted to make sure that everybody knew the process and everybody was aware of the procedure that would, how we will handle a protest. But it does not happen often since in the last year that I have taken over. Okay. Thank you. I'm getting to the end of my questions, but I have just a few more on page 20, section 2, 209, the Cone of Silence. Where does the Cone of Silence come from? Is that something that the city does, or is that codified in a state statute? Well, there is no state statute applicable to the city. There may be a state statute applicable to the state. I'm not sure about that. But this is really to protect the city to make sure that there's no communication between a vendor and maybe, say, somebody on the selection committee who's making the decision on who's going to be awarded. So we don't want any unfairness where there's anything that's, I guess, not in the sunshine because these committees are meeting in the sunshine and making decisions that everybody in the public is supposed to be privy to. And so this is to clarify that we don't allow any kind of outside communications other than that. Stephanie, did you have anything to add? This is universal across all procurement agencies because to preserve the integrity of the procurement process, we cannot have any outside influencing and lobbying of the selection committee or city council, the mayor, administration. So this is universal with all agencies, the Cone of Silence language. Did this move from someone because the language is all underlined, so it all looks like it's brand new. It is brand new. It was not in the code previously. It was in our operations manual and our policies. Okay. Okay. That helps. Okay. I'll leave it there. Thank you. Thank you. So we currently have a motion that has been properly seconded on the floor to approve G1A as amended. With that being said, can you please open the machine for voting? Council members, please give your votes. I'm on this side. Can you please tally and announce the votes? Yes. Madam Chair, the motion to approve G1A as amended passes unanimously with Council Members Driscoll, Floyd, and Curtis being absent. Thank you. Next we have item, well, no, we need to have a motion for G1B. I'll entertain a motion for approval. I'll admit approval. Second. Now that we have a motion in a second, can you please? Oh, no. Well, you keep sneaking that in there. Council Member Hanowitz. Council Member Hanowitz. Thank you, Chair. I'm just going to bring up again the issue of the committee because this is coming from staff and they need to find out where they're going to set it on an annual calendar. And right now, as it's written, there is no designated city council committee. So I would like to hear from others in terms of where we should, who we should, I mean, administration, you know, do you have a preference and where we should put this? So that way we make sure that they can calendar the annual update. We do not have a preference, either committee. We are just looking to combine all of our Office of Supplier Diversity reporting under one committee and at one time to better serve you and to better provide more information for you. So we have no preference. Thank you. Council Member Montaneri. I'll weigh in on Council Member Hanowitz's item on the committee. To me, this has always lived in BF&T, so that's a logical place for this to be. So I did want to point out that I've been against a lot of the provisions in this ordinance before and I'll be voting against it. Thank you. So with that, I'll make a motion at least to designate BF&T as the committee, so that way staff, after we vote on the next one, this motion. Okay, are you done? Well, I was just. So, because what I wanted to do is I wanted to also provide my input on that. I understand wanting to have a committee designated, but I don't know if I want it in the ordinance because it can't go to any other committee, correct? Or how does that work? Hopefully I can get some guidance from legal because if we designate it to BF&T, that's the only committee we will be able to get any updates, have any conversation, any reports, if we put it in the ordinance. That's correct. If you put it in the ordinance, I don't think the motion maker was asking to put it in the ordinance, so it may be better, just a suggestion, to go ahead and vote on the ordinance if you want to do that first and then have a motion. And if there is a second, a vote on that separate item. Okay. All right. Thank you. So, do we have a motion and a second for G1B? Councilmember Gabbard and Mohamed. Okay. With that being said, Claire, can you please open the machine for voting? Councilmembers, can you please catch the vote? Claire, can you please tally and announce the votes? Madam Chair, the motion to approve agenda G1B passes four to one with Councilmembers Fig Sanders, Gabbard, Hanowitz, and Mohamed voting yes, Councilmember Montaneri voting no, and Councilmembers Driscoll, Floyd, and Gerd is being absent. Okay. It is coming. Okay. Councilmember Hanowitz. So, now I'll make a motion to designate BF&T as the City Council Committee for the annual report. Second. Okay. Councilmember Gabbard. So, my request, and actually it would be a friendly amendment, that the verbiage be changed to BF&T and or other relevant committee. Accept it. Accept it. Okay. That's fine. Thank you. And the second. Second, accept it. Thank you. Seeing that we have no one else to speak, Claire, can you please open the ballot for voting? Councilmembers, can you please? Okay. Councilmembers, will you please cast your votes? Seeing that all present Councilmembers have voted, Claire, can you please challenge and announce the votes? Madam Chair, the motion passes unanimously with Councilmembers Driscoll, Floyd, and Gerd is being absent. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Wilson. Thank you. Next, we'll move on to Item G2. Joining us is the Real Estate and Property Management Director, Aaron Fish. Clerk, can you please read the title? Yes, ma'am. Opposed Ordinance 570H. An ordinance in accordance with Section 1.02C3, St. Petersburg City Charter, authorizing the grant of the permanent non-exclusive utility easement in favor of People's Gas System, Inc. The Florida Corporation, with a portion of the St. Pete Pier for the purpose of serving the St. Petersburg Museum of History, within city-owned property located at 335 2nd Avenue Northeast, St. Petersburg, authorizing the mayor or his designee to execute all documents necessary to effectuate this ordinance and providing an effective date. And we have no cards on this item, and we have no cards on this item as well, not sure. Thank you. Hello, Mr. Fish. How are you? Good morning, Council Chair. Thank you. Good. How are you? Fine, thank you. You're ready. Yes. Good morning, Council Chair, members of Council. Happy New Year. This easement is required for gas service to the St. Petersburg Museum of History. There is gas service within the area. However, with the renovations to the museum, there is a requirement for gas service, which needs to be teed off of existing service in order to serve the building. And that is essentially, there was a previous easement to TECO that was approved for the gas service in the area. This is just an extension of that service. Move for approval. Second. Thank you. It has been appropriately motioned and seconded. Clerk, can you please open the machine for voting? Thing that all present Council members have voted. Mr. Clerk, can you please tally and announce the votes? Madam Chair, the motion to approve agenda item G2 passes unanimously with Council members Driscoll, Floyd, and Gerdes being absent. Thank you, Mr. Fish. Thank you. I appreciate it. We'll now take up report item H1. And joining us is Chief of Staff, Mr. Doyle Wash. Good morning, Council. Good morning. Happy New Year. Chair, you all have the memo, excuse me, in the background materials. We also have a short slide deck. So the plan was to run through that and then take any questions after if that works for you. All right. Perfect. Thank you, Chan. So thank you, Chair Fig Sanders, and thank you, Councilwoman Driscoll, who is unfortunately not able to join us today for the opportunity to speak to you about this. So leading up for this discussion and really over the last year or so, a lot of discussions have been had with our marketing team, and they have consistently shared that this is a perfect marketing and public relations case study for elevating our destination. And the deal hasn't even been finalized. We wanted to show you some examples of the national coverage later in the slide deck that's already happened for our city and will continue as this project comes to fruition. As you know, since January 30th of 2023, city administration has been regularly meeting with the Tampa Bay Rays, Pinellas County, to negotiate the new stadium. And through those negotiations, the city team has continuously engaged in conversations regarding ways to enhance the visibility of St. Pete. So I want to take just a moment and thank our marketing department, Logan Smith, Aliza, Punzlan, Randall. They consistently won awards, national awards, in the marketing department. In fact, one of those awards that we won last year was for our very own Councilwoman Hinowitz for her historic election to the city council. So thank you to Logan Smith and that entire team. All right. So this is highlighted in your memo, but I will run through the included elements. We've broken this out into four different sections, and I want to provide a little bit more context in some of the conversations around each of these. So beginning with signage, the city will have the right to display promotional and public safety announcements on stadium facility signage, including the new marquee. We've had multiple conversations about this, both internally and with the Rays, and we're incredibly excited about that possibility to elevate the city of St. Pete. With regard to strong branding requirements, the city and the Rays will mutually agree on a marketing promotion and branding plan, which will include the location and frequency of signage, again, based on quite a few conversations and interaction with the Tampa Bay Rays. Uniforms, as was discussed at the last meeting, and I'll hit on this just a little bit in more detail. So the Rays will work, are working with MLB to allow a St. Petersburg team uniform to be worn at least one home game per season. The administration, Mayor Welch's administration, has requested that the Rays' leadership also go back and look for ways to increase opportunities to wear these uniforms. They've agreed, and they're working with MLB on that. These will be sold year-round. They would build momentum as more and more are out there, and the awareness will grow from these. And we're incredibly excited about what that means for the city of St. Pete to elevate our branding as well. And then special promotions. I will take a moment to focus on this one. This one is incredibly important. So just as a bit of background, the Rays will mutually agree on a hospitality and marketing plan. So working with Visit St. Pete Clearwater, and for those that might not know, I know everyone up on the dais does, Visit St. Pete Clearwater is the destination marketing organization that operates out of the county. They are working with the Tampa Bay Rays to develop a co-branding agreement to promote the team, the stadium, and the destination jointly at the new historic gas plant site. This is new for this proposed agreement that's going to come before you in a couple of months. This is not something that is currently in the agreement. We're incredibly excited about this. I actually had a discussion with the CEO of Visit St. Pete Clearwater this morning, and they are working on that and excited to bring that back to you in the coming weeks and months so you can get some more information on that. I want to touch on the broadcaster's piece of this because this was brought up in the last meeting. The Rays are working with the broadcasters and the media to reference the stadium location being in St. Petersburg. The new use agreement will also include additional items that support driving visitation to the destination, including a physical presence of Visit St. Pete Clearwater. I think this is a really important piece of this. Visit St. Pete Clearwater's job is literally to market the county. It's all they do. All their money that they have with that organization goes towards marketing. Our name of our city is in Visit St. Pete Clearwater. They use the different data and metrics to best position our county and our city as the largest city in the county on a global stage. And it's, I think, important to touch on that civic asset component of the entire discussion. We get a lot of value out of having the team in the city of St. Pete, but it is also critically important to the county. And they are critical partners, as you all know, moving forward. And so while the St. Petersburg being a part of the team name is not an option on the table, as was discussed at the last meeting by Mayor Welch and Brian Aldo the Rays, any integration of the city into the stadium name itself, as was indicated last time, would be handled through the naming rights process, as indicated in the term sheet. But we are hard at work with the team on the broadcaster component. And those were, I know, three issues that were brought up last meeting. Fortunately, Councilwoman Driscoll is not here, but I wanted to make sure I hit on that. And I also wanted to make sure I emphasize that we hear you. We are listening to you. I think that it's a priority. I know it's a priority of the administration to highlight the city. And so we appreciate this dialogue and appreciate the opportunity to speak on it. And I want to take you back as a case example here to show just the power of the Rays being here and what that means for our city. So take you back to announcement day. The Rays were incredible to work with just a few days before the announcement. Our marketing team wanted to really highlight the city of St. Pete. We were able to put this incredible sign that is still up in Tropicana Field today. It took just a few days ahead of time. The Rays were incredible to work with, and it ensured that St. Pete and our city branding and the name of our city was prominent for the community and the national media to see. And the numbers reflect that. So just to take a moment, these are numbers just from digital impressions from the Here to Stay campaign provided by the Tampa Bay Rays. And essentially, this shows the excitement that people had around this announcement. So you'll see that St. Petersburg is tagged in the social media posts as referenced in the actual posts as well. These numbers, and I won't go through them, but they came from the newsletters, website, social media accounts, paid ads. All this adds up to close to about 5 million impressions that just came from the digital side of it. And the media audiences obviously are huge as well. And this is a little bit different than the one I have. There's a little bit cut off on here, but I can run through some of the other numbers. They're huge when you look at the platforms that cover the Rays. Here's a flavor of just some of the audiences from the announcement. They'll continue to be plugged in to the overall development of the gas plant in the new stadium. And these numbers reflect people consuming information about our Tampa Bay Rays. And importantly for this conversation, our incredible city. And I want to point out these are not paid media. This is all generally interested media in the story. You see some of these audiences. Don't need to tell you that 4 billion is a very big audience for AP. Some of the other ones that got cut off of here that we're highlighting, Washington Post, 58 million Major League Baseball, 35 million readers. And then our very own Tampa Bay Times, a million readers. And then when you look at some of the headlines, this is also reflected. So I want to pause here for a moment and look at some of these. Obviously, as you can see, St. Pete, St. Pete, St. Pete. I won't run through all of them, but you see St. Petersburg and all of these headlines. Our Tampa Bay Times use Tampa Bay to reference a team, but that's great. It's a regional asset, and we are a fan of that as well. But the national media coverage headlines listed here are intended to show just by announcing a deal in principle, we elevated the city of St. Pete. We're excited about the possibilities over the life of the 30-year project to continue to amplify and elevate St. Petersburg. And we are excited about having this discussion and continuing to work on this on behalf of the city. So thank you, incredible partnership. Partnership is a common theme here. I end up with that picture on purpose. But you think back to two years ago, Mayor Welch takes office. New discussions begin about the future of the Tampa Bay Rays. And I think it's that genuine partnership that council and the administration have had that has led us to this moment being so close to an actual deal. So with that, Chair, happy to take any questions. We've got some members of the team here as well, and I appreciate the time. Thank you so much for that presentation. We will start with Councilmember Hanowitz. Thank you. And thank you, Doyle, for your presentation. Unfortunately, the council member who asked for the presentation is out sick, so she is not here today. What I just want to focus on is one of the things that really irked me when the news came out. And I think the national media coverage, and you're smiling because you probably know what I'm going to get to, the national media coverage, it kind of shows you when you read headlines, and they're not really accurately describing what has happened. ESPN reported, Ray's complete deal. Washington Post raised Reach deal to stay in St. Petersburg. And what had only happened was the first step. The second step is city council has to approve the deal. The first step happens behind closed doors. The second step requires public scrutiny. It requires transparency, the public to understand the deal, so that way we can answer questions and make the right decision. And I want everyone to understand that. And that's the most frustrating part about the media coverage, was that it wasn't accurate. And when I went to neighborhood meetings, and I've spoken to residents in my district, they thought the deal was done. And if we want engagement from our citizens and our community, we want to make sure that they understand the facts as they are. The deal is not done until city council approves it. That's the only thing I wanted to make clear to everyone. So thank you for your report. Chair, if I could, I just want to comment on that and say how much we agree with your comments. And, you know, whenever the mayor and I are out, we try and make that clear, you know, that we're bringing this material to you, ultimately, for final decision by city council. So I just, I understand where you're coming from, and some people don't understand that. But I just want to assure council that when the mayor and I are out making comments, we do show that respect to city council that you're the ultimate decision makers. Thank you, Mr. Curtis. Thank you, Council Member Howes. Council Member Monteneary. Thank you. Doyle, thank you for the presentation. Um, I, I do want to say I'm, I'm a little disappointed in what's been brought to us because I, I expected something more. Uh, we, when this, uh, item was first brought up, it was to change the name of the team from the Tampa Bay Rays to the St. Petersburg Rays. Uh, and then during the course of the discussion, we backed off of that, of that a little bit and then look for other, other options to, to market the team, uh, including, including the, the, the name of, uh, our city in the stadium and, and other options. Uh, I'm always looking for a positive solution to a problem. And I think I, I like the uniform idea. Uh, I like putting the name of the team, uh, of the, of the city of St. Petersburg, uh, on, on the stadium idea. Uh, but I think it's, uh, you could create a win-win situation, not just for the city of St. Petersburg, because there's a lot of value to us to have the name incorporated in some way, uh, with, with the team. Uh, uh, and I'm, I'm glad you had some examples of signage within the stadium. Uh, but I'm, I'm looking for a lot more of that just so people that are watching, uh, on, on TV, uh, know where they're, you know, where, where the, the stadium is. Uh, and when I, when I said, uh, about creating a win-win situation in the, uh, current proposal, there's, uh, and, and you've had it in your presentation about the, uh, you know, I think there was one game where the, the Rays would play, uh, in, in a uniform with the St. Petersburg Rays, uh, uh, local, uh, jerseys. Uh, I think that opens up, uh, because I, I know with my family, uh, people are going to want to buy those sorts of things. And that's where I think there's a marketing point, uh, win for both the city and the Rays. And I want to expand on that. And I want to see more opportunities. And, uh, I know council member Jessica couldn't be here today, but I'm sure when she comes back and we have more discussions on the Rays that this is going to be revisited. Uh, so, uh, I appreciate what you have shared with us, but I'm looking for a lot more. Um, and, uh, this is our opportunity, uh, to keep the Rays here in St. Petersburg, redevelop the gas plant district, create a lot of jobs and economic opportunity, not just for the city of St. Petersburg, Pinellas County, and the whole Tampa Bay region, but also, uh, market St. Petersburg in a, in a stronger fashion. So that's what I'm looking for. Thank you. Chair, if I could just, uh, respond to council member Montaneri's comments and thank you for those comments, council member, um, you know, on the issue of seeing more, um, you know, that we're working on a number of agreements right now with our attorneys in the Rays. The first agreement that we're really focused on is the development funding agreement. The next agreement that we'll be focused on is the use agreement. Um, and that's where you're really going to see a lot of the particulars, um, about the signage and the marketing programs. Um, so these conversations are helping us because we're working through those documents now, and we're hearing from city council and hopefully there's some things that we can add into that. Um, the other thing I would say is that historically, in my opinion, the Rays have been very willing to work with the city on different marketing campaigns. And I know that council members, um, um, some, all, I'm not sure, uh, have individual meetings with the Rays. Um, I would encourage you to talk to them about, uh, your ideas, um, you know, related to how we can elevate the St. Petersburg brand. Um, you know, I think that there's some things that they're going to be concerned about contractually obligating to, but that they might do, um, regardless. So for, I could just give you one example on the current, uh, official logo. Um, it does say St. Petersburg, Florida, uh, underneath Tropicana field. So, you know, that's just one kind of thing that the Rays have done historically. I think there's some other things that they would probably be willing to do. And, um, I would encourage council members to have some of those conversations with the Rays about your ideas. Thank you. Thank you for that. Thank you, Doyle, for the presentation and my colleagues for your questions and administrative girders for your responses and seeing no other requests to speak. Thank you for the presentation. And we're going to now move on to our new ordinance items, beginning with I-1 and joining us today is event recruitment and management director, Mr. Tony Lito. Clerk, can you please read the title? Yes, ma'am. Opposed ordinance number 571H, an ordinance designating a portion of the downtown as a clean zone in order to regulate commercial activities during the WWE Royal Rumble event, designating geographic boundaries for the clean zone, regulating temporary outdoor uses and temporary structures, prohibiting certain portable structures or vehicles and signage, providing for inspections and permits, providing for increased penalties, providing for conditions and restrictions, prohibiting commercial activities in the right of way, regulating locations for the consumption of alcoholic beverages, providing additional regulations for existing businesses in the clean zone, and providing an effective date. And the public care for this automatic chair is on January 18th. Thank you. Greetings, Mr. Lito. How are you? Good morning, Council Chair. Great. Great. Oh, as is customary with large events at Tropicana Field, we typically introduce a clean zone to protect the businesses and also give businesses an enhanced opportunity to take advantage of what we hope to be. It will be a sellout crowd at Tropicana Field on January 27th for the WWE Royal Rumble event. Um, that's pretty much it. It's customary. We do it during the Grand Prix annually for the same reasons. So the last time we did it at Tropicana Field was when the Rays were in the playoffs. And then prior to that, when they were in the World Series. Move approval. Second. Seeing that there are no further requests to speak, we have a motion and a second. Clerk, can you please open the machine for voting? I'll leave to cast your votes. Seeing that all present council members have voted, can you please tell and announce the votes? Madam Chair, the motion to approve agenda item I-1 passes unanimously with council members Driscoll, Floyd, and Curtis being absent. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we'll have item I-2. And joining us is our deputy zoning official, Scott Boylan. Clerk, can you please read the title? Yeah. Opposed ordinance number 1158V, an ordinance approving a vacation of the southern 30 feet of 40th Avenue North between 73rd Street North and 74th Street North, generally located at 3801 74th Street North, setting forth conditions for the vacation to become effective and providing an effective date. The public hearing for this item is also on January 18th, 2020. Move approval. Second. Thank you. Seeing that there are no requests to speak, please don't appreciate your voting. Council members, can you please cast your votes? Mr. Cohen, can you please tally and announce the votes? There's one council member. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see you. Can you please tally and announce the motion to approve agenda item I-2 passes unanimously with council members Driscoll, Floyd, and Curtis being absent. Thank you. And Mr. Bolin, you're still here for I-3? There are two ordinances. Can we do them? There's an A-B. We're going to do those together? You may. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Proposed ordinance number 1159V, an ordinance approving a vacation of five feet of right-of-way on the north and south sides of 87th Avenue North, generally located at 420 and 429 87th Avenue North, setting forth conditions for the vacation to become effective and providing an effective date. In both of these ordinances, the public hearing is on January 18th, 2024, and we have no cards. Move approval. Second. Seeing that we have a motion in a second, so clerk, can you please open the machine for voting? Council members, place your votes. It's not working. I'm sorry. Thank you. Can you please tally and announce the votes? Madam Chair, the move to approve agenda items A-3, A, and B passes unanimously with council members Driscoll, Floyd, and Curtis being absent. Thank you. We will now recess the city council and convene as the CRA. We will now take up item CRA2 with our zoning official manager, Corey Maleska. Good morning. Good morning. I just have a PowerPoint presentation to share with you. Thank you. Corey Maleska is zoning official with the Development Review Services Division. As you can see from the area above, the subject property is located at 332, 340, and 344 4th Street South, and is currently developed with three buildings. The one building is a two-story, two-unit apartment building built in 1920, located on the north side of the property. There is a four-unit condominium built in 2003, which is in the middle of the subject property, and a three-story, 19-unit apartment building built in the 1920s along the southern portion of the property. The applicant is proposing to demolish the existing improvements to construct the proposed 25-story building with 152 dwelling units, 4,800 square feet of commercial space, and 130-space parking garage. Projected cost of the project is valued at $55 million. A proposed site plan before you today consists of a development that will be a hybrid between a residential and condominium and a hotel use. The hybrid use will allow flexibility for the owners to offer their units for short-term rental or reside there for permanent occupancy. The arrangement is facilitated by a dedicated management team to 24-7 on-site staff. The owners can choose to opt in or out of the rental program based on their own personal requirements. All rules and regulations, including those pertaining to schedules, noise levels, maintenance, and other relevant issues, will be outlined in the condominium government documents. The proposed 25-story building will be sited towards the north side of the subject property with a large uncovered plaza along 4th Avenue and 4th Street, as well as a covered plaza as well. The upper portion of the proposed tower overhangs the ground floor, which will create this covered courtyard, and that courtyard also will be visible along 4th Street and 4th Avenue South. This is a rendered site plan that I'll just show you. In the lighter gray is the open-air plaza. The hatched yellow area is going to be the covered courtyard, and then the yellow itself is the interior. And then you'll see the two entrances into the garage, one coming off of 4th Avenue South and one coming off of the rear alley, which is also referred to as Charles Court. The lower portion of the garage, which will be accessed from Charles Court, will occupy 36 parking spaces in a basement. The entrance off of 4th Street will provide parking for 94 vehicles. Floors 5 through 24 will be devoted strictly to the residential units and any amenity space. 25th floor will have an amenity area that is being referred to as a sky bar. The residential mix includes studios, one-bedroom, two-bedrooms, and three-bedrooms. The applicant proposes 57 of the residential units to be above 750 square feet, and 95 units will be at or below 750 square feet. Pedestrian access to the residential lobby will be from the 4th Avenue side of the building, and the commercial space will be accessible from the 4th Street side of the building. The loading areas and dumpsters will be accessed from the north side of the building, again, along the alley, which is also referred to as Charles Court South, as well as the east 10-foot wide alley, which is along the eastern side of the building. This is the proposed elevations. On your right-hand side is the front elevation along 4th Avenue, and on your left is the north elevation visible to Charles Court. The style of the building, as described by the applicant's architect, is casual contemporary. The residential tower consists of a simple tall volume cladded with a clear glass and stucco envelope wrapped with corner balconies on every floor overlooking the city. This sleek, lightweight-looking building sits on a semi-transparent cladded four-story podium that displays movement on the facades that relate to the 4th Street and 4th Avenue corridors as a metaphor of the city's progressive and art-related spirit. The elevation here, this is the elevation that will be visible to the 4th Street, or excuse me, the alley side of the property. This elevation here is what will be visible to the 4th Street side of the project. This is just a rendering looking northeast if you're standing on 4th Street near the sage. We are here today before the CRA for a review with consistency with a redevelopment plan. The redevelopment plan consists of four focus areas. This includes the core, Webb City, the stadium complex, and surrounding residential areas. The proposed development is located within the residential area of the in-town. The residential area of the plan is intended to implement a 24-hour work and live environment, which is an important component of the plan. The IRP also includes design and development guidelines to ensure compatibility between the types of developments that are desired in the downtown and how such developments relate to the environment of each other. The design guidelines do include compliance with the land development code. Also, developers shall submit for CRA review. Development should provide design elements that include trees, canopies, street furniture, and entries so that the building is scaled with the human dimension. Also, developers shall provide appropriate architectural variety to the area. Parking structures shall provide for a decorative facade. Open space shall be directly linked to the pedestrian. Open space shall relate to activities and buildings within the block. In-field development should create a sense of place. All new developments shall relate to other buildings scale mass within the surrounding areas. Development shall be consistent with the permitted uses. And zoning intensity and uses shall be governed by the underlying zoning district. With respect to the land development code, the subject property is located within the DC-2 zoning district. Multi-family, hotel, and commercial uses are permitted with a maximum floor area of 7.0. Proposed development has a proposed FAR of 7.0. Pro's building will fit in with both older and newer developments in the redevelopment area. The building is urban in scale with pedestrian-oriented features, including ground-level commercial space, lobby entrance, floor-to-ceiling, storefront, windows, and covered open space. The proposed building height, placement, and massing are consistent with other and proposed developments in the immediate area. Site improvements include a 10-foot-wide sidewalk, street trees, and landscaping, large uncovered and covered open space, bicycle parking, and a new drainage system. Pedestrian improvements will contribute to a pleasurable walking experience, which provide wide shaded sidewalks and covered open space. The existing development pattern downtown does contain a variety of types of buildings, styles, heights, masses, setbacks, and orientations. The building form and the relationship of the proposed building is consistent with other buildings within the redevelopment district. Other multi-story buildings within the immediate area do include the Sage, which is located at 400 4th Avenue South. This is a 13-story residential building. Camden Peer District, which is located at 333rd Street South, is an 18-story mixed-use building. Salterre at 301 1st Street South is a 35-story mixed-use building. The Evo Apartments, recently completed at 334 2nd Avenue South, is a 24-story mixed-use building. The building design did take into consideration the relationship with these newer developments in the immediate area by creating a continuous street edge, integrating open space and landscaping, and concealing the parking garage. Lastly, the applicant is proposing to contribute $550,000 to the Capital Improvement Trust Fund for Workforce Housing. This is just another view looking north on the building facade. And the last view, again, if you're looking from the Sage, looking northeast. In summary, staff recommends approval of the attached resolution, finding the proposed plan to construct the 25-story building with 152 dwelling units, 4,800 square feet of commercial space, and a 130-space garage located at 332, 340, and 344 4th Street South, consistent with the in-town redevelopment plan, as reflected in the attached staff report. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Seeing that I have no... Okay, there we go. Council Member Montaneri. Thank you. Thank you for the report, Corey. I like what I see here. Oh, do we have a public... If we have somebody from the public, I'll make my comments afterwards. Thank you. Thank you. First two speakers, Madam Chair, William Herman and Don Mastry. Please go to either podium, state your name and address for the record, and you will have three minutes to address. Good morning. Happy New Year. My name is Bill Herman. I live at 134th Avenue North. I want to start by congratulating Chair Fick Sanders. Madam, you are the right person to be sitting in that chair for this point in our history. I wish you well. Regarding the redevelopment, amazingly, Rick Kreisman and I agree on something. We agree that we should, and I quote, continue growing, but in a smart way that honors the character of the community. End quote. Stated differently, if we're going to allow very tall buildings, they should have a design that matches the character of the area and lessens the visual impact of the height. How is that done? Anyone who's ever done any redecorating knows that if you have a long, narrow hallway, if you put a striped carpet along the length of it, you accentuate the height, the length of the car, the area. In a circus, clowns on stilts wear vertical striped pants to accentuate their height. We take that visual representation, we apply it to tall, box-like buildings like we're looking at with floor after floor of uninspired design. You start to see the eye picks up a repeating pattern that accentuates the height, much like that circus clown. There are numerous examples of these uninspired designs around the city. There are a few where the architect has avoided those vertical stripes, and the signature comes to mind as probably the most obvious. There are also two or three recent designs of buildings well over 300 feet where they broke up the verticality of the building to make it more aesthetically pleasing. If we're going to allow the maximum height map to dominate the question of mass and scale, which I disagree with, but that's a whole separate issue. If we're going to allow the maximum height map to drive things, then we need to insist that architects continue to develop inspired designs that break up the verticality of the building and make them more user-friendly, more pedestrian-friendly. Finally, it's been said as the CRA, you can just approve these projects as the DRC is going to look at them. I respectfully submit that that is inappropriate. As the CRA, you are obligated to review these projects for compliance with the IRP. As the CRA, and when you turn your hat around as the city council, you have a strong voice in preserving the character of St. Petersburg. I respectfully ask that this less-than-inspired design be denied. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Herman. Mr. Mastery. I, too, congratulate you. Thank you. That's about the only thing I agree with Mr. Herman in his remarks, though, and I will. My name is Don Mastery. Our address is 200 Central Avenue. I represent the applicant, and Corey has accurately described the project, and our application in the staff report before you has determined the following. The proposed development is located in the residential area of the in-town redevelopment plan and helps implement the 24-hour work and live environment. The staff sets forth 11 design and development guidelines this project is consistent with. Staff determined the project is in compliance with the zoning district standards and, therefore, consistent with the in-town redevelopment plan. And the proposed building will fit in with both older and newer developments in the in-town redevelopment plan. And it's building height, placement, and massing are consistent with other nearby existing and proposed developments in the immediate area. And Corey went through and named the ones. He missed one item that you approved recently, and that's one block to the north at 3rd Street. And it goes from 3rd Street to 4th Street on 3rd Avenue. That's the echelon development, which is 33 stories. The applicant will contribute to $550,000 to the Housing and Capital Improvement Trust Fund. And these are the determinations your staff has made, not me. That's your staff. Now, the Preserve the Berg has sent you a letter, basically wants the existing buildings to be treated as if they're locally designated as historic landmarks because two of the buildings are more than 50 years old. There is a process to designate buildings, and if they're not designated, they don't receive the benefits of a designated building. If the Preserve the Berg letter is correct, our downtown would never have been redeveloped. We demolished many buildings that were 50 years old that were not historic for redevelopment. And the recommendations of Preserve the Berg letter would be a whole new process for designating buildings, and it would be done at the CRA. That's not what our code provides. And it would circumvent the code provisions as they – there's a process today that you go through. You can ask Mr. Deeman right there, and he can confirm what I'm saying. And both of the uses of this building are permitted by the D.C. 2 Zoning District, and this is a no-variance application for permitted uses. And clearly, the project is consistent with the in-town redevelopment plan. I urge you to follow the staff's recommendation and approve the project, which is very similar to approvals for similar buildings, which this council has given to other nearby projects. Thank you, and I'd answer any questions. Thank you, Mr. Mastery. Can you read the next card, please? Final speaker, Manny Leto, please go to either podium, state your name and address for the record. You have three minutes to address city council. Good morning, and thank you for your time. Happy New Year. Congratulations to Councilmember Vic Sanders. I do in some ways agree with Mr. Mastery. He's correct. Oh, I'm sorry. Manny Leto, Preserve the Berg, 233 3rd Street North. I do agree. This project will affect several multifamily units that are older than 50 years, and the code makes no provision for a requirement to save those buildings, absolutely. But I thought that we would maybe start off the year with an opportunity to just address some of these larger issues that may be applicable perhaps to this project or others in the future. And highlight a couple of items in the in-town redevelopment plan and the 2050 vision plan that I think are applicable here or at least deserve your attention. The first, of course, is that there are sections of the IRP that speak to the importance of historic resources in the downtown core. So we need to look at both parts or all parts of this plan. In particular, section or page eight, section C directs you to, quote, ensure that the form of new development promotes, reinforces, and maintains the historic cultural and aesthetic integrity of the redevelopment areas. That is part of the IRP plan. The 2050 vision plan, which I know is not your purview here, but also it also directs the city to proactively, quote, proactively identify and protect historic resources within the city. We also want to raise the issue of affordability. Page 28 of the IRP under Residential Development Program states one important aspect of residential development is the utilization of existing housing stock and to ensure that infill housing is compatible with the surrounding neighborhood. You know, we've spoken with many of you about a forthcoming study that we're pretty excited about. I'm going to run out of time here, but the study highlights several things that almost half of all buildings in St. Peter's were were built before 1960 and that 81 percent of the city's small multifamily buildings were built before 1960. The point is, the more of these that you demolish, the less affordable things are going to become. One other stat, because I got 22 seconds, is that monthly housing costs for owners and renters of historic properties are lower than for renters and owners in the rest of the city. So what that's showing in plain English is that this existing housing stock is providing a level of affordability. Thank you. Seeing no other. OK, Council Member Monteneary. Thank you, Madam Chair. Corey, thank you for the presentation. I appreciate the people that came in and spoke on this item. I had a question for legal on the this hybrid residential model in our short term rental ordinance. Is this the first time that we've done something like like this in the city of St. Petersburg, this hybrid type of ownership? As far as I know, well, excuse me, we can't have potentially the mint. Thank you. I think Corey might have some some better knowledge of on the ground instances of this. It's novel, at least. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So the mint house was originally approved as apartments. It did come before the CRA and the in-town west redevelopment plan. And then it was converted to a hotel use. So they're almost like studio apartments that the mint house rents out. And there's 24-7 on-site staff because you comply with our hotel regulations and the definition of a hotel. They have to have that. In other areas of the country, the mint house is actually fully digital. And there's actually no on-site staff. So in this case, this use is a condo that will be sold to private individuals and they can decide to do a short term rental, which for us, the only way you can do that is if it's a hotel. And by definition of a hotel, you have to have on-site staff 24-7. So it cannot be a bed and breakfast. It cannot be an Airbnb. Okay. So I just want to make sure, because I believe the city of St. Petersburg is grandfathered in with our short term rental ordinance. That's correct, council member. And this would not, would this have any effect on that grandfather? No, again, because it's the land use here, as well as the, you know, so calling it a hotel is what directs it away from the short term rental and transient accommodation definition and the protections that residential neighborhoods get with that. Okay. All right. Very good. I just wanted to check on that, that, that one aspect of this. Thank you. Thank you, council member Montenari. Council member Hanwitz. Thank you, chair. And thank you, council member Montenari for the condo tell, because that caught my attention too. It's a new term that I had not seen and it's innovative and different. And I had my concerns about our, our, our ordinance preventing short-term rentals. And then as soon as I started, I realized it's a hotel and it wouldn't apply. But one of the questions I have, um, I know that, uh, preserve the Berg is here and another speaker mentioned, you know, historic properties. My understanding is the standard is the development should be sensitive to adjacent historic or archeological resources. Are there any historic or archeological resources adjacent that we are aware of? The property to the North, um, is on the Florida master file. Um, it's North of the existing alleyway. Um, it was built probably around the 1920s as well. Um, it is not within a local or national district. It is not, um, considered eligible from the city on the city code, um, as well as, uh, potentially eligible, but the master file did consider it eligible for designation of someone move forward with that. Okay. And, and council member, I believe that standard that you just set forth actually comes from the site plan review criteria in the LDRs, which is a bit more granular than the purview that you have based on the criteria and language set forth in the redevelopment plan. No. And I, and I appreciate, I appreciate you clarifying that, but even in a broader. For sure. And it will be something that the DRC would have, um, next week when this item goes. Okay. Before them. Okay. That's helpful. Well, thank you very much. That's all my questions. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman. I'll move approval. Second. I actually had a question. I didn't push my button. Um, before we take the vote, can you answer, answer a quick question for me? The 550,000, how did we come up with that dollar amount for the housing trust? So that will be based on the construction cost. So the construction cost is estimated to be $55 million. And so the contribution is one of 1% of the construction cost. And at the time of permitting, that may change depending on construction costs and materials. All right. Thank you for that. That was my only question that I have. So now the motion in a second, um, to approve the item CRA to clerk, when you please open the machine for voting. Council members, please cast your votes. Seeing all present council members have voted. Clerk, can you please tell in and announce the votes? Madam Chair, the motion for the crew agenda item CRA to passes unanimously with council members Driscoll, Floyd, and Gerd is being absent. Thank you. I'm going to ask if we can take about a five minute recess before we take on the next item of CRA three. It says five minutes. We can't go nowhere. Um, oh, I'm sorry. All right. So thank you, council members. Now we will take up item CRA three with urban design and development coordinator, Adriana Shaw. How are you? Should I say good morning? Is it still morning? It is still morning. Morning. I have a, I have a presentation. Thank you. Good morning, Adriana Puente-Shaw, urban design development coordinator with development review services. We're here today to discuss a project located on the northwest corner of First Avenue South and 11th Street South and reviewing the plan for consistency with the in-town West redevelopment plan, also referred to as IWRP. One of the objectives of the redevelopment plan is to establish a cohesive development pattern and visual identity that creates and reinforces visible intensity activity nodes of retail along Central Avenue and First Avenue corridors. The subject properties are located on the block bound by Central Avenue, 11th Street South, First Avenue South, and 13th Street South. The block is currently developed with multiple buildings, including a hotel, office space, various commercial uses, and surface parking lots. On December 12th, 2019, the CRA approved the redevelopment of the western work portion of the block with a seven-story, 161-room hotel with 4,500 square feet of commercial space. The unified property is 2.77 acres and is zoned DC-1 and is within the Edge District. The Edge District met with the applicant and provided a letter of support, which was included in your packets. The development will provide 360 dwelling units, a 356-space parking garage, and 24,000 square feet of commercial space. With respect to compliance with the land development code, the proposed uses are allowed in DC-1 District. The site plan application will be heard by the Development Review Commission since the applicant is requesting height bonus. The project is valued at $98.5 million and has a primary objective to provide pedestrian-level activation while respecting the existing neighborhood and established context. The development serves as a connection between Central Avenue and the historic gas plant development by incorporating arcades and strategically placing activated commercial and retail uses. The major aspect of this strategy, which aligns with the Edge District master plan, is the vacation and improvement of Commercial Avenue. Commercial Avenue is located between Central and First Avenue and shares similar characteristics with Baum Avenue. The proposal transforms the street into an activated shaded pedestrian experience. The back-of-house functions will be consolidated and shielded from the public, while incorporating hardscape greenery and commercial activation to create pedestrian spine with direct access of the block between both Central and First Avenue South. The arcades at these connection points will serve both residents and public, encouraging a mix of users and creates opportunities for new activity. The proposal before you today intends to unify the development on the 1100 block by retaining the existing hotel and buildings with offices and commercial spaces, as shown in yellow, and it proposes the demolition of the two most eastern buildings, shown in red. The new structure, one building consisting of a 20-story multifamily tower with 360 dwelling units, a six-story, 356-space parking garage, and a mixed-use six-story building facing Central Avenue, providing a combined total of 24,000 square feet of commercial space. Highlighted in yellow is the new building footprints, demonstrating the presence of the development at the pedestrian level, and in the darker shade are the existing buildings that are being incorporated into the development. The multifamily component of the mixed-use development is provided in two locations. The first location is within the mid-rise infill building, located currently in a vacant lot on Central Avenue. The building scale provides sensitivity to smaller pedestrian-focused fabric along Central Avenue. The second location is a tower which places the majority of the use along First Avenue South. The portion of the tower that extends towards the north provides presence at the intersection of Central Avenue and 11th Street. The placement of the tower parallel to First Street South further recognizes the future development of the historic gas plant district. The north elevation is a view of the development from Central Avenue. The proposed project is designed with a modern architectural style, while incorporating some of the historical architectural elements and scale at the pedestrian level along Central Avenue. The frontage massing pattern proposed on Central Avenue promotes existing fabric while providing a visual connection on First Avenue South with the tower's placement of mid-block arcades. The east elevation provides a view from 11th Street. The proposed tower sits on top of a six-story garage. The vehicular ingress for the parking garage will be from 11th Street onto Commercial Avenue, which, as previously stated, is proposed to be vacated. The south elevation is viewed from First Avenue South. The ground floor of the buildings will be defined with glass doorfront system with projecting awnings, and the podium along First Avenue South includes some of the architectural features incorporated on Central Avenue, horizontal elements, and a mix of screening materials on the facade. The architectural screening helps mitigate the appearance of the garage onto the streetscape, and the tower is defined with the extended floor plates and a staggering pattern of materials changing the glazing and stucco. The west elevation abuts a adjacent hotel. The first floor is comprised of commercial uses, residential functions, and back-of-house facilities, and egress and ingress into the garage. The second through sixth floors are dedicated to parking. The seventh floor will be residential units and residential amenities, including a pool deck. And the eighth through 20th floors of the tower will be residential units. The development is consistent with other multi-story mixed-use buildings in the IWRP, and the block includes a local landmark building located at 1180 Central Avenue, the Smalley Green Auto Building currently occupied by Bodega Restaurant. This unified redevelopment of the block preserves the historic structure and allows associated development rights to be shared within the entire block, which is consistent with the incentives in the city's land development regulations. The development is urban in scale, with pedestrian-oriented street-level features, including storefront window system, streetscaping, including planners, and street trees. Side improvements will include widened sidewalks, open space, and bicycle parking. The pedestrian improvements will contribute to a pleasurable walking, with retail entrances on Central, 11th Street South, as well as 1st Ave South, and residential lobby fronting both on 11th Street. Staff recommends approval of the attack resolution, finding that the proposed plan is consistent with the in-town west redevelopment plan. This concludes my presentation. I'm here to answer any questions. Thank you. Do we have any cards for the comment? We have one card. Tom Mastery, please go to either podium, state your name and address for the record. We have three minutes to address city council. My name is Don Mastery. My address is 200 Central Avenue, and I'm representing all of the property owners that are the applicants in this matter. And I will be much more brief than I was in the last one, and that Adriana has done a thorough job and an accurate and complete job. And clearly, I think she has proven and the staff has proven that this project is consistent with the in-town west redevelopment plan. And it's going to tie Central Avenue to the historic gas plant district development. It's going to also result in activating the ground floor with arcades, and it'll accommodate small businesses as well as the large. And you may or may not have picked up, but this is being developed by the same people that developed to the west half with the Moxie Hotel that's about to open and so forth. So it's going to end up with a cohesive unified master plan for the whole block, which is presently fragmented, underutilized, and not in good shape. The other thing I would point out is that this has the total support of the Edge District Business Association, and they are really thrilled because there's parking being provided in excess of the code requirements, and that surplus parking will be made available for public parking also. There's a real need in the Edge District. And I would urge your approval and answer any questions that you might have. Thank you. A little approval. Thank you, Mr. Mastery, and thank you, Michelle, for the presentation. Seeing that we've been properly motioned and seconded, can you please open the machine for voting? Council members, cast your votes. Brooke, if you can please tally and announce the votes. Madam Chair, the motion to approve agenda item CRA 3 passes unanimously with Council Members Driscoll, Floyd, and Gertis being absent. Thank you. We now adjourn as CRA, and we convene as City Council. Do we have any additional cards or anyone on Zoom for open forum? Okay, so we are here now for announcements. Does anyone have any announcements? Council Member Montaneri. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just, downtown on New Year's Eve, and First Night seemed to be a great success. I want to thank everyone from the First Night organization who put that together and our whole city team. We had a lot of support all around our city, and it really is a testament to what we are as a community when you see so many happy people enjoying our beautiful downtown and our waterfront. Thank you. Well, I'm not really an announcement other than the fact that, thank you for bearing with me today, because I was extremely nervous. I was, it is different being in this seat than being anywhere else on the dais, and I was extremely nervous, so thank you for putting up with me today. I promise you, it may be trouble once I get used to it, but I am just so grateful to be here, and thank you for your patience and for having no other announcements, and thank you to the City Administrator Gerdes and Mayor Welch and all the support that we have, and I'm looking forward to a fantastic 2024. And thank you so much. Thank you. And with that, our meeting is adjourned. Great job. Thank you.