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BCC Minutes 07/23/2024 WJuly 23, 2024 Page 1 TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Naples, Florida, July 23, 2024 CRA WORKSHOP LET IT BE REMEMBERED that the Board of County Commissioners, in and for the County of Collier, and also acting as the Board of Zoning Appeals and as the governing board(s) of such special districts as have been created according to law and having conducted business herein, met on this date at 9:00 a.m., in SPECIAL SESSION in Building "F" of the Government Complex, East Naples, Florida, with the following Board members present: Chairman: Chris Hall Rick LoCastro Dan Kowal William L. McDaniel, Jr. Burt L. Saunders ALSO PRESENT: Amy Patterson, County Manager Ed Finn, Deputy County Manager Jeffrey A. Klatzkow, County Attorney Crystal K. Kinzel, Clerk Troy Miller, Communications & Customer Relations Page 1 July 23, 2024 COLLIER COUNTY Board of County Commissioners JOINT WORKSHOP AGENDA COLLIER COUNTY COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY AND LOCAL REDEVELOPMENT ADVISORY BOARDS Board of County Commission Chambers Collier County Government Center 3299 Tamiami Trail East, 3rd Floor Naples, FL 34112 July 23, 2024 9:00AM Commissioner Chris Hall, District 2; - Chair Commissioner Burt Saunders, District 3; - Vice Chair Commissioner Rick Locastro, District 1 Commissioner Dan Kowal, District 4; - CRAB Co-Chair Commissioner William L. McDaniel, Jr., District 5; - CRAB Co-Chair NOTICE: ALL PERSONS WISHING TO SPEAK MUST TUM IN A SPEAKER SLIP. EACH SPEAKER WILL RECEIVE NO MORE THAN THREE (3) MINUTES. COLLIER COUNTY ORDINANCE NO. 2003-53 AS AMENDED BY ORDINANCE 2004-05 AND 2007-24, REQUIRES THAT ALL LOBBYISTS SHALL, BEFORE ENGAGING IN ANY LOBBYING ACTIVITIES (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ADDRESSING THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS), REGISTER WITH THE CLERK TO THE BOARD AT THE BOARD MINUTES AND RECORDS DEPARTMENT. Page 2 July 23, 2024 1. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE 2. WORKSHOP TOPICS A. Introduction - Overview of the CRA (John Dunnuck, CRA Director) Presented B. Immokalee CRA Update (Christie Betancourt, Assistant CRA Director) Presented C. Bayshore Gateway Triangle CRA Update (John Dunnuck, CRA Director) Presented 3. PUBLIC COMMENTS 4. ADJOURN INQUIRIES CONCERNING CHANGES TO THE BOARD'S AGENDA SHOULD BE MADE TO THE COUNTY MANAGER'S OFFICE AT 252-8383. July 23, 2024 Page 2 MS. PATTERSON: Chair, you have a live mic. CHAIRMAN HALL: Good morning, everybody. Welcome to the CRA workshop. We will get started with this, and to do so we'll get done with the Pledge of Allegiance first. MS. PATTERSON: Today we have the -- oh, do you want to do the invocation, Chair, as well? CHAIRMAN HALL: We're going to do the invocation before because it -- I would love to. MS. PATTERSON: Yes. We'd like to do the invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance. So we have our invocation from Father Michael Orsi for Action for Life, and then our Pledge will be led by Dr. J.B. Holmes, U.S. Air Force veteran, VFW Post 7721. CHAIRMAN HALL: Great. So before we get started, let me remind you to silence those cell phones, because if your cell phone goes off during Father Orsi's prayer, you could go to hell. FATHER ORSI: Or at least be struck by lightning. Let us pray. Lord God, we come to you this day, your sons and daughters of Collier County, Florida, in humble gratitude for sparing our nation the near tragedy of the attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump. Let us realize your presence among us as we celebrate the victory of life over death. May we, like you, be compassionate and generous in all our deliberations and actions on behalf of the people of Collier County. Let us choose life over death. Make us always measure our actions as they affect the poor and the underrepresented in our community. We especially ask your guidance on accommodating the unsheltered, those sleeping on our streets. We pray for collaborate effort and solutions in our community with St. Matthew's House to shelter more people. July 23, 2024 Page 3 We beg you, oh, Father, to unite us in our efforts for building a veterans' nursing home on the old Golden Gate Golf Course. Let us show our love and gratitude to those men and women who have sacrificed so much for our great country. Bless Commissioner Saunders and Commander J.B. Holmes of the VFW 7721 for their leadership in this project. Guide us, Lord, in this upcoming election to choose men and women who will be faithful to the constitution and cognizant of your divine law as it is revealed in nature and in the Bible. Finally, Lord, we ask you to let this assembly today be guided by your wisdom, fill it with charity and mutual respect for all who want to keep our beloved Collier County great. We ask in your holy name. Amen. DR. HOLMES: Please follow me in the Pledge of Allegiance. All veterans, please render a hand salute. (The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.) DR. HOLMES: Commissioner Hall, with your permission, may I say a few words? CHAIRMAN HALL: Sure. Go ahead. DR. HOLMES: Thank you, sir. MR. MILLER: Dr. Holmes, please go on microphone, either one. DR. HOLMES: Okay. I come to you this morning introduced as Dr. J.B. Holmes, but really I feel more like Ebenezer Scrooge this morning because I am plagued by ghosts of the past, the present, and the future. I'm plagued by the ghost of the past in that I taught -- I retired from Collier County Public Schools, as you know, and I taught over on the Lorenzo Walker campus in alternative education. Now, I'm informed that one of the great, great schools over there, Lorenzo Walker High School, is being closed, and it has been a purely July 23, 2024 Page 4 administrative decision, and that takes me into the past of what a great, great school that was, it is, and I think we should look at that situation. We should examine that situation. Although it is in my past, it's still a ghost. I also have a ghost of the present. The ghost of the present is my Voice of Democracy and Pat's Pen, VFW scholarships, and I ask for your help in those. Every year we do those, and it's very, very challenging to get those scholarships out into the community, believe it or not. So that's my present ghost. My ghost of the future is the VA nursing home. We're working diligently on that, and I was contacted by Senator Scott's office this morning with a letter of his support for that. So those are my ghosts. And I know that within Collier County, we are founded upon five pillars of strength, five pillars that will rid those ghosts, five pillars of concrete and steel. Those pillars have names. They have names. One of them is named McDaniels [sic], one of them's named LoCastro, one of them's named Hall, one of them's named Saunders, and one of them's name is Kowal. I thank you gentlemen for your support in this community, and I ask everyone to join me in thanking them, and I salute you. Thank you. (Applause.) MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, we're going to now turn it over to Mr. Dunnuck to take us through the CRA workshop. Just so you-all know, when we conclude the CRA workshop, we'll need to take about a 15-minute break to reset the room, and then we'll pick up with the regular meeting of the Board of County Commissioners. So with that, Mr. Dunnuck. MR. DUNNUCK: Good morning. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Good morning. MR. DUNNUCK: For the record, my name's John Dunnuck. I'm your CRA director. I would like to first begin -- I'm kind of reminiscing a little bit July 23, 2024 Page 5 about the last time -- or actually the first time I presented in this room. For many of you, you already know that I actually was a former employee. I worked here from 1995 to 2004. But in about 1996/'97, I was in Parks in Recreation working here, and I was asked by the Public Services administrator then, Tom Olliff, to come and make a special presentation in front of the local delegation, and at that time the local delegation was then Representative Saunders. And my request was to go present to request alcohol at Vineyards Community Park under a special exemption or a state statute because we had hosted an event called Country Jam, and we wanted to be able to serve beer at that event. Now, what Tom Olliff didn't tell me at the time was he knew unequivocally the request was going to go down in flames, but he wanted me to present in front of the local delegation to really test me to see how I would handle, you know, a hostile presentation, so to speak, in response. And when all was said and done -- I give kudos to Commissioner Saunders because he did say some very kind words afterwards. Even though they weren't in favor of the presentation I was making, it was very encouraging to walk out of there, you know, and I wanted to thank him, you know, from the dais because those are the things beginning in your career you go through that kind of shape you for the future. And, you know, it just kind of reminds me of, you know, as I said, coming back here and, you know, being back in front of the Commission again, and, you know, some of the history that comes with that. You know, you get a little nostalgic. You know, back then you didn't have to wear reading glasses for everything you did in a presentation, but now you have to. The presentation today will be kind of in three parts. I'm going to do a quick introduction, kind of give an overall view. For those of July 23, 2024 Page 6 you who don't know, I've only been here two months, so I'm still learning the processes. I don't know what I don't know, but I'm going to add color of what I've seen so far in those two months and work through, you know, some of those challenges that we're seeing. We're going to do a presentation from the Immokalee side of the CRA as a second part, and then the third part, we'll do the Bayshore/Gateway Triangle presentation as well. And so, you know, with that, I'll get it kickstarted. Just some quick history. The Bayshore beautification was kind of the predecessor to everything. It started in 1997. The Bayshore/Gateway Triangle and Immokalee Redevelopment Areas were created March 14th, 2000, by the Board of County Commissioners, which ironically, when I went back and looked at the history, it was the day I received my five-year pin at the county and was over working in Growth Management at the time. The CRA is funded through tax incremental funding. The baseline was established in 2000. In Immokalee, it's basically the whole area of Immokalee; it's 24,386 acres. And that beginning funding in 2000 was 148,645,000. Bayshore was 1800 acres with a value of 288 thousand -- 288 million. The Immokalee lighting and beautification MSTU was created in 2002. Haldeman Creek MSTU was created in 2006. And then -- and this is the most important thing, because these are the most -- the redevelopment plans are what drive the CRAs. So in April 23rd, 2019, the BCC, acting as the CRA, approved the amended Bayshore/Gateway Triangle Redevelopment Plan with the recommendation from the Planning Commission to sunset in 2030. And when I make my presentation later on Bayshore, that's an important number to look at. That's five years, and it means we have a limited time to get a lot of things done in five years, and we're July 23, 2024 Page 7 going to be talking about why we're putting boots to the ground to get things done. On May 10th, 2022, the BCC, acting as the CRA, approved the Immokalee Redevelopment Plan with a recommendation to continue the Immokalee CRA into 2052, and Christie will walk you through, you know, all of the great projects that we have on the cusp in that area. I want to take a moment to recognize who's here in the room. Mark Lemke is the chair of the Immokalee CRA. He's to your left. Christie Betancourt is the assistant director. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Your other left. MR. DUNNUCK: To my left, so... CHAIRMAN HALL: Hostile crowd. MR. DUNNUCK: And then David Turrubiartez is here as well. On the phone, on Zoom we have Ms. Andrea Halman, Christina Guerrero, Cherryle Thomas, and Estil Null. And just for housekeeping purposes, they have activity. They're on as a host panelist, and so they can actually interact with questions as we go throughout. Staff-wise, we have Yvonne Blair and Yuridia Zaragoza here from the Immokalee team. Great contributors. On the Bayshore side of it, in the audience, you have Karen Beatty, who will be up here at the panel later, Allen Schantzen, and Maurice Gutierrez may be coming a little bit late. He had a family issue this morning. Steve Rigsbee should be here. Susan Crum are also in the audience. And then on the phone as well is James Talano; Kristin Hood; Mike Sherman; Branimir Brankov; Joann Talano; James Cascone; Frank McCutcheon; Roy Wilson; Robert Wopperer, Vice Chair; Jacob Dutry van Haeften; and Bob Bynum are all on the Zoom call. So we have a hefty group coming from the Bayshore area today. In the audience from the staff side is Shirley July 23, 2024 Page 8 Garcia and Tami Scott. So going to a two-month challenge, you know, obviously, one of the things I've seen is that, you know, we've had three directors in the last year, and that has caused some stop-and-start momentum, and that's one of the things that hopefully we're going to kind of smooth out. You know, I don't intend to go anywhere. But that's one of the challenges we've had in -- you know, in when I look at what's been going on. In the Bayshore/Gateway Triangle, it's had several initiatives, and it's lost momentum over the years. The Bayshore beautification, they were looking -- and we'll talk a little bit more about it. They were looking at a plan to kind of shrink the road size down from the advisory board side, but it wasn't in a line with Transportation necessarily, and so a cross-section was created that they were running down pathways, but the communication wasn't there, and it had to be worked out. Del's property, we started with some charrettes, worked through the community. Then there was proposals to do something else with the property. It kind of lost momentum. The 17 acres that are on Bayshore Drive that we're going to talk about with the boardwalk, there again, another proposal came in and kind of took it off track in the discussions. And when you talk about Bayshore and you talk about five years till sunset, the derailment of some of these things are going to be difficult to do. We need to be taking action and moving forward, and that's kind of what you're going to see under my direction is bring things through the advisory board, bring them to the Board for discussion, bring them for results in moving forward. Shadowlawn Drive improvements. It's long been on the books to do some improvements on Shadowlawn Drive. It's a very constrained cross-section. It's about 50 feet, but there are some July 23, 2024 Page 9 stormwater issues and some improvements that can be made for walkability that we need to concentrate on. And I mentioned effective communication with county departments. One of the things I'm all about and my team is going to be about is really how we communicate with the departments. I think at some levels the CRAs kind of got a little bit out to feeling like they had to do things on their own; and under the County Manager's direction and everything, we're working as a team. So I'm spending time talking to Trinity and her team, and a lot of them are in the audience to answer any questions. I spent time with Jamie, you know, French on the Community Development side, and we're just -- we're really kind of building that communication so that we can get things done. And, you know, I mentioned waiting for the next big idea. One of the observations I've seen is a lot of times when we're in short-term discussions, we don't think, you know, about -- we put things aside and say, well, let's wait for the next big project and not do anything in the meantime. And so some of the maintenance areas that I've seen in Immokalee and otherwise need some TLC, and we're going to be discussing those. We've had some irrigation that's been out for a number of years, and because of the -- you know, and Christie will talk to it. Because of some of the projects that are coming down the road, there's a fear of spending any money to improve them. And so we kind of want to get over those humps. At the very least, get it in front of the Board for discussion, you know, because I've seen where things have stopped at the advisory board levels and haven't made it all the way up to the Board for full discussion. And then opportunities outside, I mentioned it to you before. When sometimes somebody knows that there's government property, they come with a great idea. Maybe the funding's there, maybe the July 23, 2024 Page 10 funding's not, but there's a lot of discussion that tends to derail the projects and stay away from the focus. And so one of the things we're going to get to is kind of consistent with what you've done as a board is building priorities. Build a priority-based budget and then work your dollars backwards. So if you have your priorities aligned and you have -- then you figure out how much money you have left to work with it, that's where we're headed. Focus, execution, and figuring out other funding opportunities. You know, there's such a great opportunity for grants, and Trinity's team has done an unbelievable job in Immokalee, but there's other opportunities out there, and we want to look at how we pursue those because I do think there's always going to be opportunity there to find other money. And then I mentioned protect what's already there. Don't neglect what you already have built because, as we're talking about sunsetting in Bayshore, we want to make sure that beautification is done right. It's been a little dated, you know. It needs a little TLC, and we want to make sure we've put the funding, you know, moving forward with that. The CRA has embraced the core values of the Board, which is quality of place, responsible governance, community development, infrastructure, and asset management. And you're going to see throughout this presentation we're going to be heavy on the infrastructure and finishing what we started. But we wanted to make sure you understood that we're aligned with what the Board has created as direction and that we're going to be following directly in line with those issues and those missions. Focus areas, you know, I can go into detail. This is kind of a -- you know, got a lot of words in it, but it shows where we've aligned the redevelopment plans to the Board's missions. And so if July 23, 2024 Page 11 you kind of look at the high-level quality of place and you see those bullets below, you see those are coming out of our redevelopment plan in support of the Board's initiatives. And, you know, with that I want to introduce Christie Betancourt, who is, as I said, the assistant director, and she'll walk you through Immokalee. MS. BETANCOURT: Good morning. Christie Betancourt, for the record. I want to give you an update on what's going on in Immokalee, our redevelopment area. So in early 2024, we wanted to condense our vision statement that was put together with the redevelopment plan update in 2022 and to be a thriving rural community to live, work, and play. I just wanted to share that with you. I'm going to start off with some of our plans. Our Immokalee Area Master Plan was updated in 2019. One of those initiatives was to redo our Land Development Code specifically for Immokalee. That process started in 2022. And it was a long process, two years, but we had a lot of public meetings. We had -- and I want to be specific to this to let you know. During that time, we had four presentations to the CRA board, one-on-one stakeholder meetings, and a public workshop. Summary of the draft language was submitted in May of 2024. And now the adoption process has started. I think we have our first meeting this month and are hopeful to have that adopted at the end of this year. With the redevelopment plan, as John said, that was originally adopted in 2000, amended in 2022. And we have five specific goals that we go by: Celebrating culture, economic development, housing, infrastructure, implementation and administration. Those five goals have 26 corresponding objectives, and those 26 corresponding objectives have 109 strategies. We have a lot of work to do. So given that, I'd like to start off with community outreach. I July 23, 2024 Page 12 believe that a successful community, having community engagement, it strengthens our community. So with the CRA, we maintain to have a strong relationship with our community. So we go out there and participate in any event possible to network with our community. Whether it's a big bus event, Christmas tree lighting, groundbreaking ceremonies, community cleanups, backpack events, we're out there in the community on a daily basis. Our budget. This slide I like to show. It's in your annual report. I have copies here from the 2023 annual report. And it shows, like John said, a creation of our budget 2000 to 2024 and has a forecast for 2025. And when I met with Commissioner McDaniel and reviewed this, he pointed out that during the recession in 2008, we're just now back to that in 2022 of 391 million of our taxable value, 14 years later. And this forecast for this upcoming year is 537 million. So those numbers weigh in from 2000 until now. And I will tell you that we take -- we try to save your money. And I know John came in and said, you know, some of these projects have to be addressed. I like to save money, and we don't have much of it. But he's right, we need a lot of TLC out in Immokalee. Our funds, this is the CRA fund, 1025, and our budget is there for this upcoming year that we're working with, which is 1.3 million, and our forecast is 1.4. And I'll just go over this briefly. If you have any questions, I can go back. Our capital projects -- this is our savings pot for our projects. We have specific project funding for stormwater, sidewalks, Parks and Recreation, neighborhood revitalization, mobility, Main Street, First Street, commercial grant programs, and lighting. The total budget is a little over four million. We currently have three and a half available. Projecting three million for next fiscal year. And our capital projects funded by grants. We have two right now, 1.2 million. We were awarded an additional funding this July 23, 2024 Page 13 upcoming fiscal year for an additional million. So since we started applying for grants in 2010 -- we didn't establish an office in Immokalee until 2008, so we got right to applying for grants. We've been awarded over $10 and a half million. That's a big accomplishment for us with a very small staff. Our beautification area, we manage the beautification area, Fund 1629. Our budget is -- amended budget is 1.9. Proposed for the upcoming year is 2, a little over 2. Landscaping, we also get maintenance funds from General Funds, and this upcoming year we're proposing 237,600. Currently we have ten, twenty-nine, six hundred [sic]. And this is mostly used for the maintenance of Immokalee Road and State Road 29. I'm going to get right into economic development, land mass. I got this from the 2020 zoning designations from land-use data. Sixty-nine percent of Immokalee is still zoned ag, two percent is zoned commercial, three percent is zoned industrial. The remainder is residential mixed-use. Just to give you an idea, 24,000 acres. So a way that we use to show development or progress is -- development highlights is through permits. So we want to strengthen the economic health of Immokalee, one of our goals for a redevelopment plan, and we do a comparison of commercial from the year before to the prior year -- or the current year. So this was a comparison from 2022 permits and 2023. Commercial, we had 206 permits, over 18 million in 2022; and in 2023 we had over 231 permits, over 31 million. For residential, 671 permits, 24 million, and even though we had less permits pulled, we had over 35 million. So we wanted to show what was the permits being pulled. To show growth, building/roofs was the majority of the permits being pulled. This is a slide I like to use when businesses are trying to come in and show the growth in the community. July 23, 2024 Page 14 Going on to community development. We have a hand in the development coming in, either it's a letter of support or finding land for them. If we don't award them a grant or give them some kind of incentives, our time is crucial to making sure these developments move forward, and the right development is where it's being proposed. So to the left, we have our CMA, childcare center and community hub. This is about a seven-acre project. And I want to point out that they're -- they have about eight acres allocated for future housing, and they also have an upcoming charter school. To the right is completion of the firehouse, Fire Station 30, and the 7-Eleven. Other development, Seminole Tribe of Florida has a medical facility almost completed. We do have an updated rendering I'm going to share. Main Street hotel has moved forward with the conditional-use request on the image to the right, and the lower image is the Immokalee Community Center. This is a project that's proposed by Catholic Charities. They brought the property that the CRA owned on 9th Street, and they're moving forward with the Immokalee Community Center. The concept includes a mix of uses including urgent care facility, improved social services, community meeting room, administrative office, retail, and affordable housing, approximately 50 units. So they did do a rezone application on May 20th. We do have a reverter clause with the land sale. They have a time frame to complete the project, so we're following this development very closely. Housing, one of our goals in the redevelopment plan, provide a mixed use of housing types and price points to allow for safe, high-quality dwelling unit options in Immokalee. I'll show you a July 23, 2024 Page 15 few of the developments. I did a presentation not too long ago, and the question was asked, "Hey, what's nonprofit, Christie? What's private development?" We don't have much private development, but what we do have I want to share with you. LGI Homes at Arrowhead has 179 lots. Out of those lots, 75 have been completed single-family homes, and a little over 20 are under construction. For the Immokalee Foundation Learning Lab, that's non-profit. They are proposing 18 homes, and they've completed nine. AR Builders, they are a private developer doing isolated lots in Immokalee. They are doing 13 homes. They have completed 10; three are under construction. Habitat for Humanity, they're proposing 281. They've completed 24, and 17 are under construction. And that one is a process over a course of years. Trying to get the families approved with the cost -- the increased cost has been difficult for Habitat. Moving on to rental housing. The one on the left is the Pulte Charitable Foundation, Monarca, and that is -- was originally proposed 280 homes. They reduced that to allow for an oversized vehicle lot to 250 homes. And that is -- their Phase 1 is 69 homes. To the right is Immokalee Fair Housing Alliance. They're proposing 128 units. They've completed 16. I think they got the CO most recently, and 16 more are under construction, and that's going to be for the Shelter for Abused Women and Children housing. Other housing, rental for non-profit development is Casa Amigos. That's Rural Neighborhoods. They completed 24 apartments. To the right is the Diocese of Venice, Casa San Juan Diego, and they're proposing 80 units, and they are all including a multiuse field for recreational use for the community. We added this slide because we wanted to show progress at the July 23, 2024 Page 16 Immokalee airport. I know it's small. We do have somebody here with the airport if you want to -- have any questions during questions, for the airport. Planned projects, in 2024, completion of replacing the 10,000 gallon fuel tanks to 12,000 gallon fuel tanks. That was closed out already. Security enhancements, automating the gate on County Road 846, southwest corner of the airport and purchase and installation of 100 KW emergency backup generator. The project's 90 percent complete. It will go out for bid in September/October this year. Environmental assessment for the extension of Airport Boulevard, followed by the construction in 2026. Environment is -- assessment for the extension of the runway. In 2027, master plan update. 2028, land acquisition. And then planned projects not funded by the county, FAA or DOT, of course, is the added 20 new hangars; the readiness center for the National Guard; and the invitation to negotiate for the 500-plus acres of developable land at the airport. Infrastructure. Another one of our redevelopment goals is to maintain a high quality of life for all residents and visitors of Immokalee. So during the strategic planning session that we started in November -- and we did it over the course of a couple of meetings. We met again in December, and in January, the boards met separately, the MSTU and the CRA, but we reviewed the same. We reviewed our focus areas, what we've accomplished for 23 years that we've been -- of the redevelopment area and what was our vision and our prioritization list. In February of this year, our board recommended funding projects, or our CRA board did, and in June, most recently, the MSTU board recommended project funding. July 23, 2024 Page 17 Our goal is to finalize the strategic plan. And we really like the strategic plan for the county. We're going to use that outline to finalize our plan and to update our prioritization list. This is a short list of the planned projects: Prioritization for funding, which is First Street sidewalk Phase III; historic cemetery; Lake Trafford; Fields of Dreams parks initiative; housing development; 9th Street property; Main Street corridor; Immokalee airport; 24-hour medical facility; and Little League extension. Now, not all these projects are underway. Not all these projects have funding, but this is our prioritization list. So I wanted to give you a couple projects that we completed this year. This was the last of three monuments that were built by the MSTU, and these were done on the bookends of the entrances of Immokalee. One on SR 82 coming into 29 on Immokalee, the other one coming on from Immokalee Road, and the other one coming from Farmworkers Village on State Road 29. This was the last one. This was closed out in March, our landscape contractors taking on the maintenance of it. Some other smaller projects are pavers. We redid our pavers. We had a lot of trip hazards, so we went ahead and redid our pavers at the Zocalo Park; we did Phase 1 improvements at the Historic cemetery that we have now taken on the maintenance shared by the CRA and the MSTU; and we sold, of course, the property on 9th Street. And that revenue -- and I'll speak to it later -- was added to do our budget for First Street. One of our priorities that was added this year was park initiatives and funding for improvements to the parks in Immokalee, and we identified the sports complex as a priority. So in February, our board voted, through the strategic plan prioritization funding, to allocate 1.2 million of our capital funds for park improvements. It was identified that the sports complex was the best use of these July 23, 2024 Page 18 funds. They were -- shortage of funds. Project's estimated at $4 million, and so in June that was brought to your attention, brought forward, and you approved it. So we'll have a timeline and schedule at a future meeting. The historic cemetery on Main Street, staff moved forward with the request for proposal from Stantec to do surveying, ground penetrating radar, and mapping services for this cemetery that's owned by the county and managed by the CRA and MSTU. First Street corridor. This project is funded by CDBG in two phases. First one was for design, 250,000; second award this year is coming forward, which is a little bit over a million dollars, and the CRA has capital funds, 323,629. So the project is proposed to be a little over 1.5 million. This project is the installation of the rectangular rapid beacons at three crosswalks, an additional light -- light poles and relocation of light poles in that corridor. So we're at 60 percent design for this project. I wanted to mention that. Sidewalk Phase III, this project was shovel ready. We weren't awarded CDBG grant funding, so we went out for appropriation fundings for the CPF grant and were awarded 987,000. The beautification MSTU and the CRA will do a cost share. It's estimated at 641,378, and the estimated cost for this project's 1.6 million. And this is to provide a 6-foot sidewalk along -- as well as drainage along Eustes and West Delaware. It's about 2500 linear feet of improvements, and it's identified in yellow. Lake Trafford corridor lighting. So this project is a cost share for the CRA and MSTU. Design is 43 percent complete. Estimated cost is three million. We do have a stop work notice since April of this year to address utility conflicts. So this is to identify lighting and determine where is the best place to put the lighting along this corridor. We're moving with using LCEC poles, but that hasn't been July 23, 2024 Page 19 determined for sure yet. Main Street corridor streetscape. And so this project is -- design budget was a little over 212,000, and there is a stop work notice as well since September 27th, 2023, to evaluate the loop road project. The schedule was to process -- when that moves forward, if that gets constructed, when it gets constructed, if the CRA -- if the county's going to take on the -- road that -- the Main Street from DOT. So that project consists of design improvements to the streetscape of Main Street, .6 of a mile. Very small location from Main Street, First Street, to Ninth Street. And that -- it's the streetscape enhancements for the community. And with this project, I will say it's been on our books for a while, but this is an area that we didn't want to put money in because -- what was coming. So we're looking into making sure that we address the maintenance issues there. So we're working with DOT doing work orders for improvements in that corridor. Partnerships. As John mentioned, we have -- are having a great partnership with community departments, other county departments, the best we've ever had in years. And just having, like we said with Parks and Rec, the gap in funding with a project, and it serviced the community. And so we're moving forward with more projects, small projects with other county entities and then other partnerships with private entities as well, the Sheriff's Department, FHERO Region, Unmet Needs Coalition, Chamber of Commerce. Blue Zone, they're sunsetting in August, but we had a great relationship with them in some of our assessments with our design projects. Other community partnerships, we have a monthly walking tour, and I invite anybody to join. Walking those nine blocks, I call it, Main Street. When you're driving it and when you're walking it, July 23, 2024 Page 20 you'll have a different view of it. Trip hazards, just things that need to be addressed, that we try to address. And so our walking tour participants is Sheriff's Department, Botanical Gardens, board members, community members, county staff. So I welcome you. That's the second Monday of every month. Transportation partnerships, we help with the Transportation Network Plan that was finalized in November of 2023. We participate in TIGER grant meetings. We will take on the utility expense once that's completed for the light poles. Code enforcement, we coordinate community cleanups, best locations, dates, and participate. And then partnerships with Parks and Rec. We are having monthly partnership meetings with staff to share resources and get ideas on what is the best park improvements for those areas -- or enhancements, amenities. That's it. Any questions? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Do you want me to go first? CHAIRMAN HALL: Go ahead. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, first of all, hello. I'm really happy to see you all, except for you, David, not -- A couple of things I'd just like to call your attention to, to my colleagues, is just how the inference and prioritization of infrastructure has created value in our community. I remember when I -- when I was running for this seat. One of the comments that I made regularly was it was my goal to turn Immokalee into the economic epicenter of Collier County, and we are doing that as we speak through infrastructure, put infrastructure in, expansion of our airport, expansion of our road systems. Get government out of the way. With the -- with the master plan and the Land Development Code, Chapter 4, Immokalee proper -- Immokalee is an agricultural July 23, 2024 Page 21 community. It has different development standards than the coastal area does, and we've addressed those issues along the way. And I have to say thank you to all of you -- not you, Mr. Dunnuck. You're too new yet. But these folks are members of our community. They've been there for a millennia and been instrumental in vitalizing the community to participate. Because without community support, we don't -- we don't have anything to go on. And so I just want to say a heartfelt thanks to all of you for the time that you've donated and the effort that you've put in to move our community forward. Just -- you know, on that infrastructure alone, when the CRA was created back in 2000, there was 148 million in taxable value, and now it's tipped over 500 million, 537 million today. David, you live in the learning lab community over there, do you not? MR. TURRUBIARTEZ: The Immokalee Foundation. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, yes. They call -- it's a division that was created by the Immokalee Foundation. They donated the land. They put a million dollars in for water/sewer and street and then partnered with BCB and I-Tech to have our kids that are coming out of the Immokalee High School and then attending I-Tech to work on the construction of these homes. And then we, with the help of our County Manager, put together a grant program to offset and increase the affordability to offset the impact fees for the residents over there. And how do you like that, David? That's an off-the-cuff question. I know you weren't prepared for this. But I mean, are you happy living over there? MR. TURRUBIARTEZ: Yeah. It's great. It's peaceful right behind us. We have orange groves as well. So if you look outside your window, you'll see deer, and it's just a nice calm right now from July 23, 2024 Page 22 reality. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Absolutely. It won't be so calm once the loop road comes through, but it will -- it will -- well, I mean, with the infrastructure comes growth. It's inevitable. Growth is inevitable. But we're going to -- you know, there's close to $200 million coming to Immokalee -- well, 100 million with the loop road and then the four-laning of 29. With the loop road's completion -- and that starts over by the airport, on the west side of the airport, and goes up around Immokalee to about where New Market winds in now. And once they figure out that intersection -- I heard there was some -- I heard there was some discussion about that intersection, but then -- and then four-laning 29 north to the roundabout at 82. And then we were also successful several years ago in advancing the four-laning of State Road 82. That wasn't slated to be started until this year, and now they're starting the last segment in Collier County. Over at the Gator Slough area, there were some issues environmentally with wildlife crossings and such. But the finalization of the four-lane coming from Fort Myers and, ultimately, I-75 to help with commerce. I mean, if -- and, again, infrastructure is the key to success. We have a workforce in Immokalee, an employment force in Immokalee. And if we gave manufacturers and producers a methodology to bring their raw materials to our community, hire our people to produce finished goods and services and then ship them out either by road or by air, we win all the way across the board. I had one quick question for you, Christie. You mentioned earlier about the ready station for the National Guard. I don't know, a couple, three years ago we were successful in the $25 million bequeath from the state to help with that. Have you got any update as to -- no. July 23, 2024 Page 23 MS. BETANCOURT: Trinity's here to answer. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Ah. Oh, here comes Trinity. Okay. And while Trinity's coming to the mic, if you'll just bear with me one second. Christie talked a little bit about the loop road and the old 29 where it currently runs now. When that loop road is started or actually on the books to be constructed, the State is going to give Collier County the old 29 route that goes through town and what Christie designated as Main Street. They'll give that to the county, and that's the reason we forestalled any of the bulb-outs and maintenance and that sort of things, because that is still a state highway, and until we actually have it and are responsible for all those things, there's no reason to spend any money on it just yet. But, ultimately, the goal is to have Main Street be a walking community. So once the loop road is, in fact, in place and we have a capacity for manufacturers to bring in raw materials and ship out finished goods and services, then we can ratchet that Main Street down to two-lane -- two-lane road bidirectional with angle parking, increase our parking along Main Street, which will certainly help the residents and businesses that are along that way. Okay, Ms. Trinity. MS. SCOTT: Good morning. Trinity Scott, Transportation Management Services department head. The readiness center is working its way through the development review process. They have submitted for their Site Development Plan. They have a round of comments back. They have not responded to those comments yet. So it's working -- it's much further ahead than where we were this time last year. And then also with regard to State Road 29, Main Street, if you will, we are working closely with the Florida Department of July 23, 2024 Page 24 Transportation because they do have an initiative to resurface that roadway. We're also having them go through the stormwater management system with a fine-toothed comb so that prior to them asking to do that jurisdictional transfer, that we make sure that it is up to speed on all of the infrastructure that's necessary for the roadway. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Don't go away. And that's key as well. And the State will ultimately give that to the county, but we don't want to get burdened with an excess amount of unattended maintenance than hasn't been attended, so... And quickly on the TIGER grant, can you give us a brief update -- MS. SCOTT: Sure. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- because I know there was close to 13 million we were successful in achieving from Mario Diaz-Balart's office to facilitate the TIGER grant, and that's for a combination of miles of sidewalk and streetlighting and stormwater, and then the county put in almost another 10 million to help finish that off. How are we coming with the TIGER project? MS. SCOTT: The TIGER project is moving along pretty well. We had a little hiccup that we addressed with the Board earlier this year with regard to the Immokalee Water/Sewer District and the utility relocations. We have advanced the funding for that utility relocation to be able to keep that project moving along. We are slated to be done next spring. And, Commissioner, you're correct, it's a $23 million construction project with just over $13 million from the federal government for that project. It's 20 miles of sidewalks, stormwater -- associated stormwater improvements for those sidewalks, several bus stops, new Collier Area Transit bus transfer facility, and streetlighting. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Absolutely. Well, thank July 23, 2024 Page 25 you, Trinity and Christie and Mark and David. Again, I meet with you folks on a regular basis, and your involvement and leadership all the way across the board has been instrumental in moving our community forward, and I -- from me, I want to thank you. MS. BETANCOURT: Thank you. MR. LEMKE: Thank you. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That's it. CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner LoCastro. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Christie, how long have you been in your position? MS. BETANCOURT: As the assistant director? COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah. MS. BETANCOURT: A month. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: About a month. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: What was your position prior to that? You were still involved in the CRA? MS. BETANCOURT: Yeah. I've been with the CRA since 2008. I started as the admin and project program manager, operations manager, and now the assistant director. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I mean, it shows. It was a great overview. I'm going to make some comments that probably are going to be a bit unexpected, but showing how much need is out there in Immokalee but also showing how much has been done is really something that's almost invisible to most Collier County residents. I'll just speak for myself. I get citizens that blow up my e-mail that there's one median in front of their gated community that doesn't have any flowers in it and, oh, what a tragedy and then, yet, you know, you can take a long walk out to Immokalee and see that, you know, there's some areas there that are so inconsistent to what we do in some other areas. And so I think, you know, that reminder almost July 23, 2024 Page 26 needs to go to, you know, all citizens. One thing I'll say about these five commissioners here -- and even before I was a commissioner I was still an involved citizen watching what was happening in this room. You have five commissioners here that represent their own specific districts, but it's not lost on us that our job is to support all of Collier County. And I'll just give some examples, and I'll go right down the line. So Commissioner Kowal has the pickleball center, East Naples, you know, Community Park, gets all of the praise, all of the spears, yet we all care about that footprint. You know, it's bigger than just, you know, his district. The nursing home that's coming to Commissioner Saunders' district, no question, has led the charge for years, even predating many of us, except for Commissioner McDaniel, who's been involved in it from day one, but we all care about it. Commissioner Hall had to do unbelievable, amazing Herculean efforts after Hurricane Ian because his area of his district was hit so hard, but we all, you know, obviously care about it. And then, obviously, you're here representing District 5, which is Commissioner McDaniel. But, you know, just to reiterate, there's not separate pots of district money that we all control separately. We're all -- we're all pulling out of one pot. But one of the things that this is a good reminder is that we need to make sure there's cohesion and that, you know, while we're replacing sod in one district on a soccer field that the sod was replaced 12 months ago or we're putting -- we're replacing a playground in a community in one of -- in another district because it's time for them to get brand-new equipment, we have neighborhoods that have never had a sidewalk, have never had a playground, have never had a lot of these things. And so this is really a great reminder of what you've done with, July 23, 2024 Page 27 actually -- I won't say little money. There's some big numbers on here, but it doesn't go as far as people think. So you might get $1.2 million for something, but it goes fast. And so, you know, I just -- you know, it's -- you wish 50,000 people were watching this right now, but, unfortunately, they're not. But hopefully all of us as commissioners can help spread the word that the need across Collier County is great, and in some areas it's inconsistent. And, you know, I'm proud to serve with these four gentlemen because I think we've done a really good job making the investment, you know, more consistent. But on a regular basis we need to be reminded where the holes are, because while we're putting platinum on top of gold somewhere else in Collier County, and the citizens are demanding it, we have some areas just down the road, you know, in your community that have never had, you know, half of what, you know, we're gold-plating in certain districts. So, you know, I think this meeting is more important than just an overview of what you've done and what needs to be done, but it's a reminder of Collier County's more than just 5th Avenue, U.S. 41, Tamiami Trail. You know, in my district, East Naples, to some it's the epicenter of Collier County. Collier County's way bigger than that. And you really represent an area that I won't say has been ignored. I think Commissioner McDaniel and especially you-all have led the charge to ensure investment and make sure that these areas aren't forgotten. And so I'm really impressed to see what you've done with funds that you've received and how you have a really specific plan of what needs to be done. But, you know, like I said, the last-minute takeaway reminder is I wish, you know, this got -- was understood by the average Collier County citizen who sometimes screams bloody murder for something that they are demanding, yet, you know, a few July 23, 2024 Page 28 blocks away and down the road, literally, the thing that's being demanded in one district has never even existed, you know, in another district. And, you know, I think our pledge to you is to make sure that we're consistent in how we invest taxpayer dollars and make sure that -- you know, it's an old term -- a rising tide lifts all boats. You know, in some areas we really need to raise the -- raise the tide. I mean, we had an Immokalee citizen in here that was talking about your soccer fields. And I mean, I'll just speak for my district. I get some people that, you know, send me a two-page text screaming about a soccer field that is grossly inadequate, and then you go out there and you go, "Yeah, you know, it could use a little work, but, you know, let me drive you to some places where the kids are playing on dirt." And I know our pledge here is to find more balance. And you can see in your presentation that balance is slowly but surely, you know, starting to get there. But, you know, I can tell you, I look at it as taxpayer dollars, not district dollars. And so if we need to invest in certain areas of Collier County that often seem to be, I won't say ignored, but kind of forgotten, or maybe a better term is not known. MS. BETANCOURT: Not known. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Right? I mean, there's some places in Immokalee. The airport's a perfect example, and I'll end there. So I went on a Harley ride with a bunch of friends of mine a couple of years ago. "Oh, we're going to go out to Immokalee airport." I knew it existed. I'll be honest -- I think it was before I was a commissioner -- and didn't know where it was or what was there or anything. You know what? I wasn't alone in people -- even now when people are talking about the Naples airport and the problems and the issues, they're like, "Well, you know, the July 23, 2024 Page 29 two airports that we have, you know, the one in the City of Naples and RSW," right? And I'm like, well, we actually have two others. We have one right outside of Marco and then a pretty -- you know, fairly busy and growing one in Immokalee. So it's amazing in this one county, which isn't the size of Los Angeles, how little, you know, some citizens know. So continue the great work that you're doing, but it's really important that a briefing like this isn't sort of heard once a year. So anything you can do to sort of continue to get the word out or even feed us as commissioners -- I'd love to feature some of this stuff in my newsletter, and it has, you know, little to do with District 1 some people would say, but it has everything to do with my district because the funds that we're investing in Collier County are coming from all citizens. And also the good that we're doing. You know, there's some people probably that go out to Immokalee infrequently and then go, "Gosh, this place needs a lot of help." And it's like, yeah. "I know we've been trying to help it." But I'll echo what Commissioner McDaniel has said is, you know, thank you so much for what you and the people that you're here to represent, you know, are doing to keep this stuff on the radar for all of us. You know, for all of us, you know. And I'm here to commit to Commissioner McDaniel that when he brings something to us, I feel more aware today than I was a year ago and two years ago about the current needs out in Immokalee and how it just can't be sort of a secondary thought after we gold-plate all the stuff in some of the other more known, you know, areas of Immokalee. So keep -- keep pushing, keep beating up your commissioner, you know, as well. That helps as well. He's got big shoulders. But, you know, thank you, you know, for all that you're doing. And, David, how long have you been involved in the CRA out at July 23, 2024 Page 30 Immokalee? MR. TURRUBIARTEZ: With the MSTU, it's been about four years. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: About four years, yeah. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: It feels a lot longer, though, sometimes? MR. TURRUBIARTEZ: I'm involved in the community, for sure. I've been there my entire life, yes, sir. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: But thank you, you know, and keep bringing the needs and the priorities, obviously, through your commissioner. We don't want too many cooks in the kitchen, but once something comes here, I mean, you know, I can tell you I've -- you know, if there's something that's a greater need elsewhere in the county, whether it's in my district or not -- and I won't speak for the other commissioners, but I think I kind of am -- we look at Collier County as an -- it's an entirety, you know, and not just sort of our own particular, you know, districts. And there's an awful lot of need and a lot of good that, you know, you've done with the money and the way you've invested it out in Immokalee. So, you know, we are -- we will continue to help you, and great to see the progress, great to see the progress. MS. BETANCOURT: Thank you. Appreciate it. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah. Thanks for being here. CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Saunders. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you. I'll be very brief. I don't have any questions; just a couple comments. First of all, I think the presentation that all of you made was excellent. We get a lot of presentations, and this was one of the better ones, and I just want to thank you for the thoroughness of that. And also, I agree with Commissioner LoCastro, I think we need July 23, 2024 Page 31 to have -- kind of shine a light on Immokalee more frequently. And so maybe there's a mechanism where we can have this type of report. Instead of having it every year or how infrequently we do it, that we get reports on a more regular basis, and not just a written report, but have a presentation similar to this a little bit more frequently so that we're fully aware and that the community's aware of what the needs are in Immokalee. But my main goal right now is just to thank you for the presentation. Very well done, and I look forward to working with you in the future. MS. BETANCOURT: Thank you. CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Kowal. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you, Chairman. I'd like to echo what a lot of my fellow colleagues have said up here. You guys did a very good job in the presentation, and it shows that you truly care about Immokalee. You know, you're definitely rooted into Immokalee and that, you know, it's your life, and you look forward to continue working to better Immokalee. I can contest [sic] -- I had the opportunity over 20-some years ago, as a new deputy here in Collier County, I did my field training in Immokalee for about a month, and I can contest [sic] that over 20-some years ago and going to Immokalee now is night and day. I mean, it just shows that -- you know, the commitment and the hard work that the CRA there has done and the good people that's part of it, like yourself, that's been there for a long time, yeah, it shows. And, you know, it's -- and then it helps, too, because there's other -- like, the Immokalee Foundation and these other private groups that have, you know, recognized the -- you know, the vision of Immokalee and what it can be and, you know, its needs and the work they've done. You know, I live in District 4. I represent District 4, but my July 23, 2024 Page 32 family members and friends in District 4 participate with the Immokalee Foundation every year, you know, and know the importance of giving back. So you have -- you know, you've got a lot of different things to tap into here in Collier County. We're fortunate that way to have some really philanthropic individuals that also can team up with the public and private projects like that and especially create the homes. I believe you live in one of the homes, correct? MR. TURRUBIARTEZ: Yes, sir. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Yeah. So that's big. I mean, that's -- you know, you can't put a price tag on that type of, you know, care for the community like that, and I just want to keep seeing that moving forward as we move forward. And you definitely have our support. You know, you have a mission plan, and stick to it. I think you've got about 30-something years left on your -- which I'm not as fortunate down in District 4, but I guess we'll discuss some of our issues down there in what we're going to talk about. But thank you once again. MS. BETANCOURT: Thank you. Appreciate it. CHAIRMAN HALL: And I'll finish up by saying "great presentation." You did an amazing job of drawing awareness to us, and everyone said, it has not gone unnoticed. I do have one question. I'll ask Commissioner McDaniel so that I don't put you on the spot. But I noticed a small amount of zoning for industrial and commercial uses, and there's a lot of good people out there that really would love to go to work locally. So how much discussion has there been not only to beautify things, not only to build the infrastructure, but to actually get the invite out to the Immokalee community to invite people to come do business in Collier County out there? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That's coming. We're July 23, 2024 Page 33 working on it now. The chapter I spoke of briefly with regard to the chapter for Immokalee within the LDC, we tried to stay out of the master plan. I mean, there is a new overlay that does allow for a shift, but the next step is to review the existing zoning and then incentivize property owners to recreate what they already, in fact, have. There are some right -- you know, right there on First Street when you come into town that are not as attractive necessarily as they could be. And so the goal is, once we had this chapter within the LDC, is to incentivize property owners to redevelop what they, in fact, already have, and we're in that process. We're in the process of adopting -- I think hopefully this board will adopt the new chapter within the LDC, and then that refinement will come with the Growth Management Plan and the master plan for Immokalee. Just -- and just -- you know, Christie breezed over it, but, you know, we -- I think it was -- when did we first adopt the master plan, 19; '19, '20? MS. BETANCOURT: 1997. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah, well that was when it was first adopted. But the new master plan I think you said -- MS. BETANCOURT: 2019. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I was there. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: 2019. What did you say, Commissioner? CHAIRMAN HALL: You said 1920, and Burt said, "I was there." COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah. But there again, you know, the master plan for the Immokalee airport never jived with the master plan for Immokalee. It now does. And it was through your leadership that we actually have coordination. Because when you have two master plans that are working not succinctly, you end up heading off in different directions. And so it's with your leadership July 23, 2024 Page 34 that we've been able to accomplish these things. So that's all forthcoming. That's the next step once we have the -- and I don't want to belabor the point, but Immokalee is a unique community. It's heavily agriculture. It has different -- different priorities, different thought processes, doesn't need to be governed like our coastal communities. And so once the new land development chapter is adopted, then we'll be able to come through with the revitalization and the redevelopment. CHAIRMAN HALL: That's good news. I'll be most supportive of all that. That's what I'd look forward to the most. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, sir. CHAIRMAN HALL: Thank you so much. MS. BETANCOURT: Thank you. MR. TURRUBIARTEZ: Thank you. MR. DUNNUCK: Next up we're going to do a shift and move up our leadership from the Bayview [sic] Gateway Triangle Advisory Board. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I noticed that you didn't let Lemke talk. What's up with that? MR. LEMKE: He likes it that way. MR. DUNNUCK: So good morning again. We have with you Karen Beatty, who is the chair of the Bayshore/Gateway Triangle CRA; Allen Schantzen, who is the Vice Chair. We're hopeful that Maurice Gutierrez, who chairs the MSTU advisory board and also sits on the CRA, will be able to join us. I mentioned before he had a family emergency earlier this morning, but I think he was still hoping to get here. I wanted to kind of start off with, you know -- and I left these two pictures up here because I think they kind of capture Bayview [sic] in two different ways, the CRA. One, obviously, is the project July 23, 2024 Page 35 that sits on the mini-triangle and we'll talk about a little bit later, but it's the way that you work with, you know, assembling properties together that had been blighted for years and years, you put together a plan, you work with the developer, you incentivize the project, and you're seeing it come out of the ground today. Another subtle one that's been kind of lost in the discussion is what's happened years ago which is really the stormwater project that sits within the triangle. And if you're familiar with the area, you know there is heavy flooding in that area for years and years. The CRA worked with Stormwater and Transportation and, you know, put together a -- basically assembled a pond and pump station to be able to move the water in. And it has been tremendously successful over the years and to the point where there could be some expansion down the road, and that's something we'll talk about as well. But it kind of speaks to the idea of redevelopment through the private sector and also building infrastructure that supports the community and helps with property values, which is a lot of what the CRAs are about. You know, before I get into the actual details of this, you know, we wanted to follow the theme of quality of place and community outreach, but I do want to step back -- and this goes for both CRAs. You don't appreciate, until you're with the staff on a day-to-day basis, how much on the front lines they are. You know, from a daily issue -- we'll have a code enforcement complaint, we'll have an issue pop up where there's something that went wrong, and we have to coordinate and, you know, the team -- you know, Shirley and Tami and Yvonne, Christie, they're out in the field. They're out with the community. They are making sure that they're addressing the issues. They're working with the departments necessary to help with the cleanup. And it's -- it's not just Monday through Friday, you know, 8 to 5. It's weekends. It's Sundays. It's nighttime. It's middle of July 23, 2024 Page 36 the night sometimes they'll get complaints. When there's a storm event, they're running out there, and I want to kind of acknowledge that, that that's kind of the -- you know, the heart and soul of the CRAs, their ability to respond to the community and work -- you know, and work with the community to help improve it. And so when we talk about quality of place, we talk about outreach first and foremost, what we're trying to do engaging, you know, vision, innovation and progress, understanding what the role of the CRA is so that we can help support the community. But there is the tough side of it, and this is one that -- you know, when Al and I were talking about that, you know, in the Bayshore area basically, when the CRA was created, a lot of the blight had to do with homelessness, prostitution, drug use in the community and trying to get out in front of that. And so one of the challenges that remains in Bayshore is, frankly, the unhoused property issue and the encampments that occur. They pop up. We address them. They move. We address them. They pop up. And it's kind of a recycle. You know, there's obviously challenges. There's a lot of social service offerings in the area. But you realize that as you start revitalizing the community, that it's going to get less and less, and -- but staying out front and not accepting the as-is condition in hopes of something down the road is something that we also aggressively pursue, which is getting out front and doing cleanups. And, you know, the pro and the con of that is the Sheriff's Office will come in and say, "Can we help out?" And one of the challenges we've seen here sometimes it's on private property, too. And it's do you handle it as a code enforcement issue amongst private properties and handle liability, or do you just get out there and help fix it? And that's one of the challenges we've had. But when you see that six tons of trash and garbage are removed in a single sitting, you know July 23, 2024 Page 37 there's being an impact out there. Neighborhood cleanups, these are more of the front-end positive ones. This was the Gateway/Triangle neighborhood cleanup in May. Went out there and removed three tons of garbage. And it just goes to show ownership in the community, volunteerism, keeping the community actively engaged in what the CRA's trying to do. Countywide cleanups and collaboration. Obviously, Haldeman Creek's a waterway. It's a great waterway, if you haven't been in there. I got a chance to tour it a few weeks ago and will probably be bringing up ideas how we access it a little bit more through the CRA. But getting in there and cleaning up the waterway and taking ownership of that as well. And, you know, I wanted to take a moment to talk about crime statistics, you know, to see "Is it working?" Because one of the issues that we -- you know, when we first created the CRA back in 2000, was heavy crime areas. And to see the statistical numbers of what we're seeing between year over year, we are starting to see a drop. We're starting to see a drop in the numbers of our crime statistics. If you see, from 2002 to -- 2022 to 2023, we've seen a pretty significant drop in some of the cases. And so we want to continue to work closely with the Sheriff's Office. They're our partner. They come to every CRA meeting. They give a report. They're closely in contact with our staff on a regular basis. They tell us where the hot spots are. We tell them where we're seeing activity. It truly is a -- you know, a relationship that we work very closely with. On the positive side, art in public places. You know, you're going to hear discussions about that. And first of all, I want to thank you for the board action you took a few weeks ago. We had a sculpture that had been proposed as a donation about three years ago, and there was a lot of issues about whether it should move forward, July 23, 2024 Page 38 whether it shouldn't, working through that. With your support, we got that done. And so we're happy about that. But there's also discussions, too, about some of the older buildings. And I know that word "mural" has been something that's been a challenge to manage in the community. And there was pretty much a moratorium put on it in, I think, 2018. But we'd like to think about revisiting that and bringing it back as an advisory board to make recommendations. I think Karen made an excellent suggestion at our last meeting about having themed murals and murals that just aren't at the whim of somebody else. We actually have to work closely with the County Attorney's Office in how you manage that and things along those lines. But to be able to bring out -- because arts in public places was something that was a staple of the Bayshore/Gateway Triangle for years and years, and we don't want to completely lose sight of that through the redevelopment. I mentioned to you this in my opening presentation. You know, time is not -- not our friend when it comes to the sunset. So you've got five years left, and one of the things I wanted to look at in working with Chris Johnson's office is, you know, what is the projected value. And I will couch this by saying this is a very conservative number. It doesn't take into account some of the discounts of some of the bigger buildings, but it is -- when you look at historical numbers of percentage of growth and you look at what he calculated in, it's a very conservative number. But the point I wanted to make is, you know, you've got about $16 million obligated in projects. You're looking at about $18-million-plus of future projects in five years, and if we're not planning them now, we're going to lose sight of those. And so I wanted to kind of reiterate kind of the idea of priority-based budgeting is we have prioritized -- and we'll show you July 23, 2024 Page 39 some of the projects we have later on, because that's kind of the bread and butter of the Bayshore/Gateway Triangle infrastructure plan. But there's more to come, and there's going to be more ideas. But we're going to have to be very aggressive in working with the advisory board and very aggressive in working with the Board of County Commissioners to make recommendations to move forward with future projects. And I put in the number $1.6 billion because I just wanted to show in taxable value. If you go back to my opening presentation, and you were somewhere around $280 million when the Bayshore/Gateway Triangle started, now you're at 1.6 billion, you've seen a significant increase in what has happened. And when I show you some of the recent permits, you're also going to see some trends that are fairly interesting, frankly, that you're seeing that the community momentum of development is occurring. Bayshore is redeveloping and will continue to. Just from a budget standpoint -- I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this individually. My take-home message on this -- and you've seen these numbers in your budget presentations -- is we've lumped a lot of projects within stormwater and so forth. We're still working on honing in the actual numbers of what it's going to cost for some of these projects. They're in design. They're not to 60 percent or 90 percent what we typically have of opinion of probable cost, but we're really trying to get our arms around that, and that's one of the things I'm working closely with Marshall's group and Trinity's group is really kind of getting an understanding of what some of these capital projects you're going to see are actually going to cost. Because as we know, you know, projects don't normally go down in costs; they normally go up. And so we're going to work on getting this more of a project-based budget where you can actually see here's what the July 23, 2024 Page 40 value of each project's going to cost down the road and not in more general buckets of stormwater program and so forth. I can skip over most of these slides. These are just a different way. But, you know, the grants I mentioned to you before, $5.8 million, when you compared it against Immokalee's over the years, I think we can -- there's opportunity here. I think there's some opportunity in Bayshore for looking at other grants within the area, and it doesn't mean you have to hire somebody. It doesn't mean -- you know, there's different ways of getting at grants that we can do within our means that we'll be kind of strategizing on to bring back to the Board. From the MSTU standpoint, basically, this is, you know, as I said, a slide I'm not going to spend a lot of time on. It just shows that, you know, we're growing from the MSTU budget. In the MSTU specifically, there's an ongoing maintenance need. You know, a lot of the capital projects of the brick pavers and everything else that were done were done 20-plus years ago, and we're seeing it aging. We'll show you a little bit of a cross-section as a highlight, but we're working closely with Trinity's group to look at how we can do some improvements along the walkways and beautification that kind of modernize it a little bit. There again, Haldeman Creek. Haldeman Creek, you know, it was created in, I think, 2005/2006. This was kind of discussion where the County Manager at the time said, "You know, we'll do the last dredging, but you guys need to be on the hook to own your own dredging in the area." They created the MSTU. We're getting ready to start doing a spot survey of what's going to be needed in the dredging, but really, where this fund is right now, it's banking money so that when the time comes to do the dredging project, we're going to be ready. And so we're getting closer on that, but we're doing the spot survey to see what's necessary in Haldeman Creek. July 23, 2024 Page 41 Community development, economic development through private investment. So, you know, this is a highlight of a lot of -- a lot of the innovation and projects that have come along within the CRA that we're seeing in the revitalization. And this is, you know, truly the private sector working closely with the CRA. In some cases there's some incentivizations, but most of the times it's really getting out of the way of the private sector and letting them do what they need to do. We do encounter cases where they request deviations in parking, and they request deviations sometimes in density, and those are tools that we have at our disposal, but we like to use them with a measured -- with measured success, you know, and we may get some feedback from our advisory board on that a little bit later. The Gateway Triangle catalyst project, you know, purchased in 2009. I mentioned this before, you know, blighted area, you know, assembled the properties together, you know, had to deal with a cell tower, then worked with the developer and came up with an idea, you know, for a mixed-use development; hotel, apartments, and retail. What you see on there right now is the apartment side of it that's being constructed. The hotel and retail are going to come later. But, you know, from a project perspective, we did incentivize it in terms of giving TIF rebate, you know, to get that done. So there's a 10-year rebate as it addresses that project and working through it. I do want to mention -- and I might as well put it, you know, on the record that there -- you know, the mural is under discussion about what has been constructed so far and whether it's within the permit limits. And so I think that will be probably coming back to the Board in a future discussion potentially. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It's amazing -- it's amazing the opinions that you end up with when you start with these murals. Remember -- and I'm going to use our three entry signs into July 23, 2024 Page 42 Immokalee. Oh, my goodness. And so you -- when you start -- when you start with something that large all of a sudden, people come out of the woodwork to express their opinion. So good luck with that, by the way. CHAIRMAN HALL: Hostile crowd. MR. DUNNUCK: This is -- this is a really interesting number to me. And I went through some of the history -- I don't have it all here in the history to show to you-all. But when you look at 2023, you actually see that the residential value is actually higher than the commercial value for the first time. And you're seeing that truly it is a balanced approach that is going on in this CRA where last year the commercial was higher because I think it had the -- you know, it had the catalyst project budget in that number. But what you're seeing is almost a balanced trend of residential and commercial value increasing at the same rate, and I think that's a real important thing, because it used to be about 3-to-1 commercial to residential, and now you're actually seeing the residential taking off in that area, which shows you the infill is working. These are a couple of the land acquisitions the Board has made over the past couple years. Del's, obviously, was purchased and with the idea of downzoning it to making something more compatible with the community. Charrettes were done in the advisory board level and gone through and said, "How do you have a little bit of a mixed-use, you know, proposals?" And I think they had three conceptual designs. Then it was -- there was some discussion about, you know, moving something else there. You know, it was one of these where, hey, the next great idea's coming through. And we kind of lost sight, and now we're sitting on a piece of property that, you know, we haven't really pulled the trigger on doing anything, you know, with in the more recent times. And to me, this is one of those times where we start thinking July 23, 2024 Page 43 about, "Let's let the private sector help guide us." I come from a world where we did procurement, and we put things out -- invitations to negotiate and had them, you know, tell us what incentives they needed. Tell us these things that they think are going to make the project work and determine if it's compatible. Give them some guideway rails to work through, but, you know, let's get it out there. Let's market it appropriately and work through it. And so we're going to be working closely with the advisory board to kind of bring that together, you know, for some options for the Board of County Commissioners', you know, consideration. The 17-acre boardwalk, I know there's been a lot of discussions about this over the time. You know, the boardwalk is ready to go out for solicitation. It's literally -- it was supposed to actually go out this morning, but I think it got moved back a couple days because they -- we have kind of scheduled the pre-app -- prebid meeting too close to the actual release of the solicitation, so I wanted to make sure we had a good period of time for the community to look at it. I will tell you, in Phase 1 of the boardwalk project, we do not have on-street parking or on-site parking within the 17 acres. I know that was a request of the Board to look at. Our initial review of Round 1 -- and I call this Round 1, Phase 1 -- was that it was going to cost a little over a million dollars, and we really wanted to see kind of what the boardwalk value was going to come in as we procure it and figure out what the amenities are because there's, obviously, different types of wood you can select, recycled lumber, everything on those lines. We've built that into the proposal, but until we actually get those answers back and get what that budget looks like, we wanted to take a conservative approach. But then there is going to be a -- you know, acres that's developable. There's another nine acres developable in how we work in possibly interacting in a Phase 2 of public parking. And July 23, 2024 Page 44 there is public parking on the Sugden side of it, you know, as you walk through. But as you are working through that, that we, then again, think about, how do we work with the private sector? How do we work with these kind of areas? What is the best use? And so we're going to be working closely with the advisory board to make some recommendations to you-all so that we can address the property that's been on the books for -- I think when I first started here and we acquired this property, I was in public services, and we were actually thinking about turning it -- giving it to the Botanical Garden at the time. That's how old it goes. It predates the Botanical Garden, this property. So to see it go to use is something we want to do, and a walkable community is something that's very important to the Bayshore area is having places to walk, and this is why it's been such an important project for the area. You know, there again, this is one of these where having three directors in the past year have been a challenge. They started an initial planning workshop in October, had a subsequent meeting to narrow down their priorities in November, lost the previous director in December, and got to a point in March where they kind of narrowed down their priorities, and I think it came closer down to seven than 10, but it's something we're going to revisit. Because as I mentioned to you before, we're looking at priority projects that -- you know, you develop your priorities outside of a budget, and then where the numbers fall is what you can afford and, you know -- but if you've had your priorities and you're focused on that, you just have to deal with a value, you know, as you have of what money you have to work with. And so we're going to continue to work through that, but here's kind of the short-term -- one to five years. There again, there's your number of five years of a 2030 sunset -- is stormwater issues. And Danford Street road maintenance improvements, Shadowlawn July 23, 2024 Page 45 corridor improvements, dealing with some of the minimum roads that have flooding on them and have issues and see what we can do to work there. Safety and community cleanups, you know, and lighting projects, sidewalk projects, things that help the walkability of this community, and then street designs and implementation. And now I'm going to kind of walk you through kind of the highlights of where it is we're putting some of that investment. If you've traveled on Becca, Pine, and Weeks in a storm event, you know you're sitting in about eight to 10 inches of water driving through. I watched, frankly, the mailman's truck get stuck one day. And it floods tremendously. It has nowhere for the water to go. There's constrainments on the roads and everything. We've been working closely with the stormwater department initiating design and working through it. The delay has occurred a little bit on the fact that -- you know, to Transportation's credit, they work closely with the City of Naples, and a lot of the times the lines overact [sic] where maybe -- outside the city boundaries, but they may have some of their -- their water issues and some of their pipes that run through it. And so as we've been working with them, we're replacing these things together. And so there's a change order in the process of working through because the city's going to contribute their portion of it, but we're going to do the project and dig up the road once. And so we're working through design. But this is one where it definitely is a bottleneck in terms of moving people around in the community that we wanted to address. The Linwood Avenue alley area, there again, is one that has heavily [sic] flooding. It's in a, you know, industrial area, and it's -- you know, as I said, there's nowhere for the water to really go, so we're working on piping and working on a project there. It's like July 23, 2024 Page 46 everything else, when you're dealing with constrained alleyways and roadways, you're stuffing a lot of utilities into those areas with not a lot of access. And when they're as old as some of these areas are, there's a challenge. And so Transportation and Stormwater have had to try to figure out how they handle all of those deviations and challenges along the way working closely with George Yilmaz's team to see what we can do because, you know, I think the Plan B is we'd have to acquire some easements otherwise, and it's -- as I said, it's a constrained area, and it's very difficult. Danford Street road maintenance, there have been many iterations of Danford Street improvements, and this is -- if you're familiar, it's the road that leads to Bayview Park. And, you know, the -- I think where we're at right now is let's just -- let's get the maintenance done. They tried to present to the community about doing some other projects in the past. Not a lot of consensus in what needed to be done. It's a very low-lying area in the area and so -- and so -- but there is a dip in the road, and I think they're looking at a cross-section where we can do some stormwater improvements and some roadway improvements as far as maintenance goes to improve the viability of that road. Short-term, you know, safety, you know, obviously, some sidewalk projects to ensure that the kids who are walking in that area who are going to Shadowlawn Elementary have a safe place to walk. That's in the books. Minimum road projects, Andrews, Pine, and Woodside. There again, these roads are right at grade. They need to be lifted up. Stormwater improvements so that the water flows in the right directions. And those are things that the CRA can help, because what it does is at the end of the day, when you improve the July 23, 2024 Page 47 infrastructure, you improve the ability of the property value around it. And that's kind of the take-home of handling some of these projects. I will tell you there's other roadways that have a lot of nonconforming-use approvals that are more of a challenge, and we're going to have to see what that return on investment lift looks like to improve some of those for the greater good. But there is some challenge in some of these older roads that basically have allowed nonconforming uses in the past that are difficult to work around. Another sidewalk project, Captain's Cove, Areca Avenue, Pineland Avenue. As I mentioned, you know, this is about, you know, making walkability in the area. We have a lot of commuters, just like Immokalee do. We have a lot of people who walk to where they need to go. Solar, you know, pedestrian. We're trying out a pilot project, have pedestrian, you know, streetlighting or walkway lighting. And it's a lot cheaper. You don't have to build quite the infrastructure. So we're actually going to test pilot that. I mentioned the cross-section. You know, this is about, you know, preserving what we have. You know, Bayshore is going to be -- you know, the CRA may be sunsetting, but the MSTU won't -- but to get in and do some improvement, because the capital side of the CRA and the MSTU have kind of intertwined over the years. So they kind of work together in their projects. They don't say, "This is an MSTU project, this is a CRA project." They collaborate. And so there could be, you know, some additional collaboration of the CRA's investment to making sure Bayview's [sic] set up for the future of the MSTU. And so that's one of the things -- this is not a finalized. This is just a sketch, but these are the type of things we're going to be working with the Transportation department and bringing back recommendations to the Board. July 23, 2024 Page 48 Simple things like the bus stop covers in the area. Public transportation, obviously, is heavily utilized in this area, making sure we build out those in a proper way. I mentioned Shadowlawn before. You've got a road that has basically a 50-foot cross-section. You're not going to build a lot of beautification or things along that, but you can improve the stormwater, and you can improve the grading of the road. And that's something, you know, we're going to be looking at and working with Transportation on in putting a budget together. And then I mentioned Haldeman Creek. This is just letting you know that we're getting ready to do the survey following the hurricane. You know, it doesn't show that it's an absolute need yet in the main channels, but we're getting to the point now where we need to do the survey and get the ball rolling. As you said, you mentioned the last dredging. You know, you've got, you know, 20 years in between, and so we want to make sure that we're staying on top of that as well. Just recent accomplishments, this is one of those areas, when you talk about tools in the toolbox, where, you know, you purchase some lots. You then put in new housing. You have to deal with some of the on-street parking versus off-street parking issues and make maybe some deviations in some of them, but those are some of the concessions that you work with when you're the CRA and you're working with the Growth Management Department. You kind of work collaboratively, say, "What's the best bang for the buck?" And this is one of those successful projects that took old, dilapidated units and turned them into cute little houses. I mentioned Hamilton Avenue improvements. You know, if you haven't been down there, I mean, we basically doubled the capacity of boat-trailer parking from Bayview Park with this roadway improvement. Whoever created that, I have to commend them, July 23, 2024 Page 49 because it's a great idea. You know, I'm going to mention to you before [sic], Bayview Park is a challenge for the CRA because of some of the -- how the park is utilized in terms of, you know, special events, weekends, holidays. We get heavily utilized traffic. Bayview, obviously, is one of the -- you know, the top boat ramps in terms of activities in closeness to where people want to go, whether it be Keewaydin Island or around. And so there is a heavy burden on that, and it burdens the community. But this beautification has been very successful. We had to, before Memorial Day weekend, put bollards out on the parts of the area that were grassed because we had so much trailer parking coming over the top. And we do see evidence -- on heavy holidays, people are actually parking at the Del's parking lot now. They've actually gotten innovative, and there's a person who will drive them down in a golf cart, pick them up, and drive them to the park. And so we've been working with Parks and Recreation. Ed Finn and I have been talking to -- you know, about other alternatives in working with James' group. But, you know, one of the things we're going to have to catch up in is -- and I know they're working on it -- is the AUIR Parks and Rec needs a little updating to show the demand, to show what you're dealing with in terms of the impacts to the community. But there is a little bit of a pain factor for the CRA. Projects and progress, you know, this is one where we had the green-laning, and it didn't work. And the fact of the matter is there's new technology now that in the striping you can actually put the loud bumping sound into the striping that keeps people from straying off. We did have somebody hit by a car riding their bicycle, you know, I want to say, what, a little less than a year ago. And we've been working on this, and it does make a big difference. If somebody's not paying attention on their phone and they hear that bumping July 23, 2024 Page 50 sound -- and aesthetically it looks a lot nicer. And so that has been a project that has been completed underway -- or underway and completed. I mentioned to you before the challenges in the CRA sunset. You know, time is not our friend. We need to be executing, executing, executing. We still have unhoused issues that require coordination with non-for-profits in the area and with law enforcement. As I said, we keep a pretty good handle on it, but it's a little bit of a moving target. I think redevelopment is the key in the area. Working with Parks and Rec to address community concerns of the operation of Bayview Park, we've had some really good conversations with the team over there. And so we're going to be coordinating some recommendations down the road for you-all to review. And land acquisition necessary to support stormwater expansion off Francis. You know, we've had some opportunity to purchase -- I mentioned and I highlight that project in the Triangle, the stormwater project. We had some opportunity to purchase, and we bought a couple properties. But the question is, are we going to go all in and buy a property and have it ready for the expansion that stormwater would need for the future? And those are the kind of big-ticket items that -- you know, we're already dealing with property values increasing because of what we've done in the area. We have redevelopment requests coming around in that area. And so do you get out in front of it and buy the land now, and, you know, reserve it for the future project, or do you just say, it's too far gone and we're going to let it go? And so we're going to be addressing that issue and providing some recommendations. And then I mentioned to you before, the future of Del's and the July 23, 2024 Page 51 17-acre properties. You know, I don't think the key was to keep those things on the tax rolls -- or keep them off the tax rolls and sitting there in abeyance. It was to redevelop them and bring something back to the community, and we want to get that done. Special thanks -- and we mentioned to you in the Immokalee before, this takes a village, and so, you know, there isn't one area. We have to work with everybody, and they've done a great job. The team has been awesome in my two months. As I said, I've had incredible conversations with my peers and -- strategy-wise, and everybody's supportive, and we just need to continue to work -- work with that. And then as I finish up, I just want to, you know, reiterate the staff, the staff, the staff. You know, I have an incredible staff. Poor Shirley has been running around with me, you know, asking for data on certain things here and there in, you know, the past couple weeks. And, you know, they've just really done an incredible job in support of both this and everything we do. So with that, I'll open up for questions. CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner LoCastro. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Good presentation. I've got one question about the boardwalk that connects Sugden to the other side. I heard what you said, and we all know about the -- still the discussion about the parking. But what is the very latest on -- because we've talked about it sort of in fragmented pieces here at times. And it's not in my district, so maybe there's been several, you know, meetings with maybe Commissioner Kowal, and I'm just not up to speed. But for the group, what's the very latest on the plan, the timeline, the loose ends, everything? Just give me a little bit of a deeper dive, because I actually get a lot of questions about it. That area used to July 23, 2024 Page 52 be in my district, and some people still think it is. And so, you know, they're very supportive of it but feel like it's just a hypothetical idea, and it hasn't really come together, and, you know -- so what can you tell us in a nutshell as to where it sits right now? MR. DUNNUCK: No, it is. It's engineered. It's designed. It's packaged in Procurement and ready to hit the -- this is budgeted. It's ready to hit the street. We actually thought it was going to hit the street this morning. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah. That's what you said, yeah. MR. DUNNUCK: And we delayed it two days because in the discussions when I saw the last procurement package, it basically had us putting it out today and having a prebid meeting on Friday, and that's typically -- you normally give about a 10-day buffer because, you know, somebody interested in bidding on the project may not open it for the first three days, and you don't want to already have the prebid meeting. So we intentionally pushed it back, and I think we're releasing it, I want to say, Friday. I think we're releasing it this coming Friday with that 10-day buffer. But after that, it will be on the street till early September. We will review the bid package. It's a straight invitation to bid. It has, basically, quantities and qualities of, you know, different types of finishes so that we can see, you know, where it's coming in at and where we are. But our intent is to be able to bring award to you in the fall and start construction immediately. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. MR. DUNNUCK: And so that is -- that's -- yeah, it's a very real project, and it's coming. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. Thank you. CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Kowal. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you, Chair. July 23, 2024 Page 53 I'd like to applaud you guys also because I've tried to attend as many meetings as I can from time to time, and I think you even caught me in one of those pictures at our workshop there. I was standing at the podium there talking to -- MR. DUNNUCK: That picture was intentional. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Oh, okay. Document it. No, it's been a challenge. I mean, I came into this position, and we had one director and got another one, and he was a ball of fire, and then woke up one morning and somebody said he left. So I was like, "Oh, this ain't good." But, no. John, so far we've had several meetings in my office, and they've all been good. I think you have the same vision I kind of have for the district in moving forward. I know we don't have much time in, you know, getting -- like, Commissioner McDaniel said, like, in Immokalee, when you have the infrastructure in place, you have those -- those things done and -- or either slated to be done, and we know it's going to happen. That helps some of the other investors wanting to take -- get a piece of the pie and move into the area and then make those investments. And just like I said -- once again, you know, you guys know I came from the Sheriff's Department. I spent many years on the Bayshore area, you know, and the issues we had over 20 years ago and, you know, 15, 20 years ago. And it was, it was one of the toughest areas in Collier County. I mean, people tell their kids to avoid it. But that's not what it's like today. I mean, today's totally different. People seek to go there. I know people pay thousands and thousands of dollars to belong to certain clubs along the roadway there, you know, just to be part of it, you know, to wind -- and that's due to a lot of private investors willing to take a chance on that area because I think they see the vision and where it's going and what it July 23, 2024 Page 54 can be, you know. Once again, the mural on the building, I must admit, I was driving down the road a few weeks ago, and I saw it, and at that point it was just a bunch of, like, black lines. And as I'm getting closer, I'm, oh, my God, the concrete's cracking. I thought the building, the concrete was cracking on the backside -- on the east side of the building. And as I got closer, I'm like, no, somebody's intentionally putting those things on there. And then a few weeks later I see this -- I call it urban camouflage painting with these multicolors looking on it. So I did ask some questions, because that happened a long time before I came on the Board. I just want to know if that was actually what was picked and approved. So I know we're still waiting to research some of this stuff and move forward on that, because I did get some people call me right away, and it was like, "Do you know about this?" I'm like, "Not really, but we're going to find out." So that's good. You know, people have to understand our CRA is probably some of the oldest infrastructure and some of the oldest properties in Collier County. I mean, they've been there from -- this is where it all started, and it branched out east and north and, you know -- and south from this area. So it is a challenge. It's not like -- in Immokalee, you have some blank palettes up there to work with. You know, you can say, all right, we can put something beautiful and new here. The problem we have in our CRA down in District 4 is that a lot of these properties are owned by other people, you know, and you can't hold a gun to somebody's head and say, "Hey, we've got to do this or that." You know, we have to get the community all involved and get these people to have some of these older blighted properties willing to participate. So I think this -- in my opinion, I think we need to really work on the PR, you know, and putting it out there what we are, what we July 23, 2024 Page 55 intend on doing, and get people involved, and then those properties that are owned by, you know, the taxpayers -- and I know I've told you, John, you know, I think it's -- it would behoove us to use some sort of marketing to get it out there. Because when we get that boardwalk done, I want the people in Sugden Park to walk on that boardwalk and have something to go to other than just coming into, of course, Bayshore itself and the other thing, but it would be nice to have, like, something in the park saying, "Hey, go this way. There's a restaurant and a coffee shop, and this, you know, you can walk to, you know, and participate in and then go back to the park or vice versa." You know, I think that's important that we get out there and market this and have a vision of what we want there. You know, put it out and say, "This is what we're looking for," to the private sector and say, "Hey, let's invest your dollars, because look what's going on." We can show them what's going on. And I know -- I know there's some big plans for some of the marinas improving, coming in the future here. I've spoken to some people, individuals that own the marinas that want to invest a lot of their own money in coming real soon. So these are things we have to, like, have open minds about as we move forward, and then keep that a vision and keep that look, you know, throughout the whole community. But, no, I'm looking forward to working with you, John, and the rest of the Board as we move forward, because we've got a lot of heavy lifting to do in the next five years. But I think we have the staff in place and the people and the Board up here that, I know with my other colleagues, that they understand the vision and what it takes to improve this community the way we want to see it done. So thank you. CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. You know, I'd like July 23, 2024 Page 56 to -- you know, I have a couple of suggestions. Number 1 -- and I don't know whether -- and I know the MSTU and the CRA pretty much joined together, but the dredging of Haldeman Creek is imperative. That manages stormwater. That manages tidal surge. That manages an enormous amount of commerce for navigability for the waterway itself. I can -- I used to keep my boat at Gulf Shore Marina there back when it was Kelly Road, not Bayshore Drive. And I remember dodging appliances and things in that crick when I was coming through with my boat. So moving that forward, I think, is huge and instrumental. On that note, do some investigation. In Bonita there is a bioreactor that Bonita Springs has installed as a community to manage stormwater on public land, and it's an amazing water-quality system that's in place, removes phosphorus, nitrogen, nutrients that leach into the stormwater, and it's very successful. It's just off the Imperial River, and they have had an enormous amount of success. So I heard you talk a lot about stormwater management, and we all know when you're dealing with a mature community -- not aged, but a mature community, you have construction that's been going on there for a millennia with elevation changes that have shifted over the years and caused a lot of flooding. So managing the stormwater is critical. I'd like, at some stage -- and I know we talked a little bit about it with Immokalee -- to have maybe a more regular report as to what's going on. We talk -- we've talked a lot about the end of the CRA, but the MSTU isn't going away. The community involvement isn't going away. We've talked about the new $1.6 billion worth of taxable value within the CRA bounds. I'd like to have some discussions with our board about appropriating proportionate share of resources, which is July 23, 2024 Page 57 revenue, back into the ongoing maintenance, the replacement of matured infrastructure that's, in fact, there already, and making sure that the plan is in place when -- when the CRA is done, that we're still carrying the vision of the community forward as a community that we've got the necessary budgeted resources. And while we're in that process of our priority-based budgeting for the entire county, that we utilize the priorities that are already established by the community to make sure that the funding is, in fact, appropriated. So -- and last but not least, I've been -- I've been knowing you folks for a long time, and I thank you for your service to the community and what you've done for that revitalization. I've lived here almost as long as Commissioner Saunders, not quite, but I -- the revitalization is off the chart. MR. DUNNUCK: Thank you. CHAIRMAN HALL: So we're almost finished. Hang in there, Terri. We'll go to Commissioner Saunders. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Yeah, I'll be brief. First of all, another great presentation, so thank you. And thank you for all the folks that have worked to put this together and have been working over the years for the redevelopment of the whole Bayshore area. A quick question for the County Attorney and then a comment. In terms of the ending date, it's always nice to have a deadline to get stuff done. Right now you have a five-year deadline. But that's not cast in stone. And my question is: In renewing and extending CRAs, is there any limitation on that in terms of can you extend a CRA for a year, for two years, or does it have to be larger increments than that? MR. KLATZKOW: I believe we can extend it as far as the Board wants to. July 23, 2024 Page 58 COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: So if we decided that in five years you need a couple more years, we could add two years to the extension; it wouldn't have to be another 10 years? MR. KLATZKOW: Yes, sir. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: All right. And I mention that because a few years back there was a discussion about extending the CRA. I didn't feel at that time, because you had 10 years left on it, that that was an appropriate time to extend it; that it would be more appropriate to get closer to the ending point. We're going to get fairly close to that pretty soon. And so I think my message would be, you've got a five-year plan, because that's the deadline, but if you need to -- if this needs to be massaged so that -- if you need another year or two, I would say, "Go for it," because we do have the ability -- and I don't know that the Board would object to an extension for a year or two or three. I would not entertain a 10-year extension today, as an example, but maybe next year, the year after, if you've got a plan that takes you a little bit longer than the five years you have now, then I think this board would be more than willing to extend that to give you that flexibility. So it's a hard deadline right now but one with some flexibility, I think, that can be worked into it. And I enjoy going down to Bayshore. I go down there frequently, and so I really -- and I do remember going back to Bayshore back in the old days where you really did have to worry about whether you were safe during the day and at night, especially. And so things are so much better, and it's really a credit to all of the folks that have been working with this Bayshore CRA over the last time period that you've been working on this. So thank you for that. It's a great success. CHAIRMAN HALL: And, lastly, you know, on the five-year July 23, 2024 Page 59 thing, to quote the Grinch, "One man's trash is another man's potpourri." And I personally like you being under the gun to get it done, and, you know, if you know you've got two years extension, you'll take the two years. So I like the fact that you're under the gun, and I look forward to seeing what's going to come out here in the near future. And with that, we'll adjourn this meeting and take a 15-minute break and be back at 11:05 to start the commissioner meeting. ******* July 23, 2024 There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 10:50 a.m. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF SPECIAL DISTRICTS UNDER ITS CONTROL CHR1 ALL, CHAIR AN ATTEST ...'' / ` c__w rt :,. "I _' ?-/ - Awl CRYSTAL K. K i L �� s as t, airman's ' ;h_ signa ure only These minutes appre I b the Board on qi3 ° as Y , presented or as corrected TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF FORT MYERS COURT REPORTING BY TERRI L. LEWIS, REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL COURT REPORTER, FPR-C, AND NOTARY PUBLIC. Page 60