Loading...
BCC Minutes 01/20/2010 W (w/CRA & CRA Advisory Boards) January 20, 2010 TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS JOINT WORKSHOP BETWEEN THE CRA BOARD AND CRA LOCAL ADVISORY BOARDS Naples, Florida, January 20,2010 LET IT BE REMEMBERED, that the Board of Collier County Commission, as the Community Redevelopment Agency, in and for the County of Collier, having conducted business herein, met on this date at 1:00 p.m. in WORKSHOP SESSION in Building "F" of the Government Complex, East Naples, Florida, with the following members present: CRA Chairman: Jim Coletta Donna Fiala Tom Henning Frank Halas Fred Coyle ALSO PRESENT: Jeffrey Klatzkow, County Attorney Leo Ochs, County Manager Sue Filson, BCC Executive Manager Page 1 COLLIER COUNTY COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY BOARD and CRA LOCAL ADVISORY BOARDS Bayshore Gateway Triangle and Immokalee O~1\ 1//1' ,,.., ,.( ".?.. J( '" \ WORKSHOP AGENDA January 20, 2010 1 :00 PM - 4:00 PM Fred Coyle, BCC Chairman, District 4 Donna Fiala, Commissioner, District 1; CRAB Vice-Chairman Frank Halas, BCC Vice-Chairman Commissioner, District 2 Tom Henning, Commissioner, District 3 Jim Coletta, Commissioner, District 5; CRAB Chairman NOTICE: ALL PERSONS WISHING TO SPEAK ON AGENDA ITEMS MUST REGISTER PRIOR TO SPEAKING. SPEAKERS MUST REGISTER WITH THE COUNTY MANAGER PRIOR TO THE PRESENTATION OF THE AGENDA ITEM TO BE ADDRESSED. ALL REGISTERED SPEAKERS WILL RECEIVE UP TO THREE (3) MINUTES UNLESS THE TIME IS ADJUSTED BY THE CHAIRMAN. 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 1 January 20, 2010 REQUESTS TO ADDRESS THE BOARD ON SUBJECTS WHICH ARE NOT ON THIS AGENDA MUST BE SUBMITTED IN WRITING WITH EXPLANATION TO THE COUNTY MANAGER AT LEAST 13 DAYS PRIOR TO THE DATE OF THE MEETING AND WILL BE HEARD UNDER "PUBLIC PETITIONS." PUBLIC PETITIONS ARE LIMITED TO THE PRESENTER, WITH A MAXIMUM TIME OF TEN MINUTES. ANY PERSON WHO DECIDES TO APPEAL A DECISION OF THIS BOARD WILL NEED A RECORD OF THE PROCEEDINGS PERTAINING THERETO, AND THEREFORE MAY NEED TO ENSURE THAT A VERBATIM RECORD OF THE PROCEEDINGS IS MADE, WHICH RECORD INCLUDES THE TESTIMONY AND EVIDENCE UPON WHICH THE APPEAL IS TO BE BASED. IF YOU ARE A PERSON WITH A DISABILITY WHO NEEDS ANY ACCOMMODATION IN ORDER TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS PROCEEDING, YOU ARE ENTITLED, AT NO COST TO YOU, TO THE PROVISION OF CERTAIN ASSISTANCE. PLEASE CONTACT THE COLLIER COUNTY FACILITIES MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT LOCATED AT 3301 EAST TAMIAMI TRAIL, NAPLES, FLORIDA, 34112, (239) 252-8380; ASSISTED LISTENING DEVICES FOR THE HEARING IMP AIRED ARE AVAILABLE IN THE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' OFFICE. 1. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE 2. WELCOME, INTRODUCTIONS & OPENING REMARKS Commissioner Coletta, CRA Chairman 3. CRA ADVISORY BOARD CHAIRMAN REMARKS Mr. Fred Thomas - Immokalee Component Mr. Lindsey Thomas - Bayshore Gateway Triangle Component 4. FY2009 OVERVIEW & FY20I0 GOALS Ms. Penny Phillippi - Immokalee Mr. David Jackson - Bayshore Gateway Triangle 5. CRA BOARD ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION - All Page 2 January 20, 2010 6. PUBLIC COMMENTS 7. ADJOURN Inquiries concerninl! chanl!es to the Board's al!enda should be made to the County Manal!er's Office at 252-8383. Page 3 January 20, 2010 January 20, 2010 CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd take your seats, please, so we can go ahead and begin the meeting. Welcome one and all, where this is the 2009 (sic) annual update of the CRA. Would you please stand at this time for Pledge of Allegiance. (The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.) CHAIRMAN COLETTA: And I've been reminded that we need to state our names as we make any kind of statements so that the records can be complete, and they know who to attribute the quotes to in the future. For the liability reasons, I guess. So why don't we just take -- COMMISSIONER FIALA: I love it when he conducts a meeting. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: -- one minute and go around the table and make all the introductions. We'll start with Commissioner Henning to my left. COMMISSIONER HENNING: Commissioner Henning. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Very good. COMMISSIONER HENNING: I'm not the grand marshal; I'm the last beret. But I am a county commissioner for District 3. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Great. MS. BARRY: Jill Barry, Vice Chair, Bayshore/Gateway CRA. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Welcome. MS. BROWN: Pam Brown. I was with the Immokalee Master Plan Envisioning Committee. I'm also a fire commissioner in Immokalee. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Glad you're here today, Pam. MR. PALMER: Robert Palmer, Director of County Extension Service, an ex officio member. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: And you're always here for everything. MR. THOMAS: Fred Thomas, retired. Page 2 January 20,2010 CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Retired. In other words, Fred is the guy that works for nothing. MR. WALL: Jim Wall, Southwest Florida Workforce Development Board and the Immokalee CRA Board. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Thank you for being here. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Donna Fiala, County Commission, District 1. And I have part of one of the CRA's in my district. COMMISSIONER HALAS: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Frank Halas, County Commissioner, District 2. And welcome you all here. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Great. So let's go right on to this CRA -- MR. THOMAS: Another member of our committee is here. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Oh, yes, please. MR. CREWS: I'm Floyd Crews right here. I'm hiding back here in the back. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay, the board recognizes Floyd Crews sitting out there in the back. And you probably couldn't hear him on the record, so that's why I repeated the name. And anyone else you want to introduce? (No response.) CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I guess that does it, no other board members here. Great. Let's go right directly to Fred Thomas for the Immokalee component of the CRA. MR. THOMAS: From here or over there? CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Wherever you're comfortable, Mr. Thomas. MR. THOMAS: Okay, I'll stay right here. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: That's fine. MR. THOMAS: I first have to apologize, because I have a conflict. I have to be -- I'm chairing the Immokalee Water/Sewer Page 3 January 20,2010 District and we have a meeting this afternoon at 3:00, so I'm going to be brief. And I'm glad some of you are going to want to hear that. I want to thank you for giving us this opportunity to shine. I'm just going to ask you to do one more thing for me: Approve the evaluation that we've done on (sic) our wonderful executive director, Ms. Penny Phillippi. Please do it as expeditiously as possible. We want to keep her motivated to stay here and make Immokalee the heart of the So.Flo mega-region. Thank you. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Thank you, Mr. Thomas. Appreciate all your time and effort. COMMISSIONER FIALA: That was brilliant and brief. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: That was. That was very much out of character, but it was beautiful. COMMISSIONER HALAS: Is that a paid political announcement? MR. THOMAS: No, sir. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Mr. Lindsay Thomas, Fred's brother? MS. BARRY: Actually, my name is Jill Barry, and I'm reporting for Lindsay -- CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Oh, okay. MS. BARRY: -- he had to be out of town. As vice chair -- MR. THOMAS: She's my sister. My older sister. MS. BARRY: As vice-chair of the CRA, I just wanted -- Dave will cover all of our accomplishments for the past year and our goals for the upcoming year, but we're very pleased of the support that you all have given to us, and we're very proud that both the homeowners and the businesses in both the Bayshore area and the Gateway have been active in the CRA. We continue to work with the community to improve the neighborhood, even though it's a tough economic time. And providing assistance to the grants I think is very important. Page 4 January 20,2010 And we're making lots of progress. And hopefully you all are paying attention and proud of what we're doing, and just we're so pleased with your support. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: We appreciate all the time and effort and expertise you give to this. It's very much appreciated. MS. BARRY: Thank you. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I think it's important to note to anyone out there that may be listening to these proceedings that the advisory board -- both advisory boards for the two CRAs within Collier County, they do this on their own. They get no compensation from the county other than the fact that they feel good about what they're doing and the self-satisfaction of doing a job that's well done. And with that, let's go to the -- COMMISSIONER FIALA: Commissioner? CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Yes. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Could we have the two new people that just came in to introduce themselves? MS. BEATTY: Karen Beatty. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Oh, I'm sorry, forgive me for-- MS. BEATTY: That's okay. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: That's why Donna's always here. MS. BEATTY: I apologize for being late. I was at work. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Well, we won't dock your pay. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Any other -- MR. THOMAS: From Immokalee -- MR. ESTREMERA: My name is Julio Estremera. I work for the University, for the Gulf Coast. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: And Julio's been around for a long time and made a lot of contributions to a lot of different efforts out of Immokalee and in Collier County in general, and also Lee County. Thank you. Page 5 January 20, 2010 And with that -- did I miss anything else, Commissioner? No, I mean, you're the person to keep us in the right line here, and I appreciate that. Overviews and financial year 2010 goals. Let's start with Ms. Penny Phillippi from Immokalee CRA. MS. PHILLIPPI: Okay. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: You need a bigger introduction? MS. PHILLIPPI: No, I need a bigger screen. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Oh. There we go. MS. PHILLIPPI: Thanks. Okay. Good afternoon, and thank you for this time that you're spending with us here today. We're very excited about this past year. This is our second full year that we've been working in Immokalee, and we feel like we got a lot of things accomplished. The first thing I would like to share with you is the missions statement that the Immokalee CRA Advisory Board and Master Plan Envisioning Committee have created and adopted formally for Immokalee. We have two more board members. MR. THOMAS: On the left is Captain Davis -- I mean Chief Davis, now that he's retired. And Rick Heers. Member Rick Heers. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Thank you for showing. Appreciate it. We just got started. You really didn't miss anything yet. MR. HEERS: Apologize for being late. MS. PHILLIPPI: So if you'll bear with me, I just want to read this really quickly so that you'll get a feel for the flavor of everything that we're trying to do in Immokalee. And those of us who live and work in Immokalee envision a future for our town. We see new business and new job opportunities in international trade, in distribution, agri-business, ecotourism, recreation and entertainment and the construction industry. We see Page 6 January 20,2010 Immokalee as an attractive, sustainable community with affordable housing, parks and outstanding schools; a place where people walk and bicycle to do their errands, and where parents are returning to school to finish their education and master new job skills. Main Street will have a Latin flavor with colorful plazas and outdoor cafes, shops, and entertainment, attracting both the local community and the tourists who come to explore our unique ecology or gamble at the casino. And I think that really sets the stage for everything that this CRA advisory board has been working on for a long time. The overriding interest has for a long time been the Immokalee Area Master Plan. And the status of that plan is through the hard work ofRW A and this advisory board. Bob Mulhere is here with us, thank you for coming, too. December of '08 we submitted our master plan. And June of '09 the Board of County Commissioners memorialized a schedule for moving that plan through the process. We've had two sufficiency reviews, and we've completed two major revisions. That doesn't mean there won't be probably another major revision, but we've had two. And in December, the Collier County Planning Commission held a workshop in Immokalee that was very well attended, as you can see by the photographs that we took. And as I said, everything we do is driven by this master plan, even though it's a draft. From that master plan come the CRA goals. The master plan is the vision and the engine that drives these goals. They haven't changed. They are economic development, housing, infrastructure, natural resources, land use and urban design, interlocal and intergovernmental coordination. And when I say that the master plan is the engine that drives these, what I'm saying to you is the people in the community laid out these goals very carefully. And what we compliment Bob Mulhere and his staff for being able to do is be true to those goals and still try Page 7 January 20,2010 to meld us into what's legally possible within the comprehensive plan amendment. So what we do at the CRA is try to start implementing those goals. They're unchanged. As you can see, your CRA staff is out there all the time making presentations. We were at the legislative hearing -- or delegation. We were at every -- I'm trying to think of all the places we went to, the -- MR. THOMAS: Farm City. MS. PHILLIPPI: -- Farm City Barbecue, many other places, and to constantly try to promote the CRA and our goals. So the first thing we did was marketing. There were five big things that we did under the economic development goal. The first thing was marketing. As you know, we published six articles in the Naples Daily News. And these articles pretty much try to put into layman's terms what Immokalee was trying to put out in this master plan, or create or develop. And it was very, very well received. We didn't get any negative comments. It was really an amazing -- you know, I was pretty much ready for whatever they wanted to throw at us, but it turned out wonderfully. No one had anything negative to say. We created a marketing department. You'll see Steve Hart in the back here, he's the one that's been doing that for us. We now tweet and we're on Facebook. We have a new web page, thanks to the PolySystems. But within this marketing department we also created a marketing plan, and that's what you see as implementing when you see us all around town. And on the front of our book you'll see the trademark. This is the new trademark that's going to go out of everything that comes out of the CRA. And down below where it says labeling, we intend to put this label on every piece of fruit and vegetable that goes out of Immokalee so people know that Immokalee is there and get the word out we're here and we're doing business every day in Immokalee. Page 8 January 20,2010 Again, we're doing all the social media that you can think of. As you see, we have our banner display and we have a kiosk out in the hallway that's in English and in Spanish so -- because 90 percent of our citizens are Hispanic. They're able to walk up and start feeling the same kind of pride in their community that, you know, everyone else does. And then the partnerships and the marketing are huge, because we've partnered with the Airport Authority in the marketing aspect, we've partnered with the Chamber of Commerce. Anyone who wants to partner with us to create economic development in Immokalee, we're going to do that. Our second goal were business development activities. And as you saw in our annual report, we documented that we actually met with 24 new businesses in Immokalee, people who wanted to open a new business. What I can tell you above and beyond that, if -- you know, in the counting widgets in our enterprise zone report, we actually provided technical assistance to about 354 instances. So there were a lot of people that we reached out and talked to. On the bottom right you can see we developed a folder. And it's what Steve calls a collateral piece. And in that piece we can put all of the incentives, the forms and everything that a new business would want coming into Immokalee. And of the 12 new businesses who opened in Immokalee, we were able to assist three of them with enterprise zone incentives. You'll see Fred down there meeting with the solar panel guys. The third big economic development driver we had is we're proposing an Immokalee business development center at the Immokalee Airport. The Airport Authority has agreed to this and signed an interlocal agreement, which we will bring to you with the CRA at some time in February. And what we'll do there is provide reasonably priced rent for a new business and have on-site technical assistance for new Page 9 January 20,2010 entrepreneurs and start growing businesses that can leave the incubator and go out into our community. The IMM I think is interesting, because that's the call letters for the Immokalee Airport. Then the fourth one of course is our commercial facade grant. As you recall, you approved it last July. We implemented it in August of 2008. And -- or October, I'm sorry, October, 2008. And in this past year we've awarded 10 grants for a total of$156,569.00. This is a really substantial effort for us. And Brad Muckel, our project manager, worked really diligently visiting businesses promoting this. And so to have rebuilt the front of at least 10 new businesses in Immokalee was a pretty substantial accomplishment. The board likes our "your penny at work", and we talked them out of putting my picture in there. When we meet with them, we ask a business to kind of look at these as samples. We have some samples of before and after of what you could do and kind of what we're looking for when we talk about building our downtown with a certain flavor. And then the fifth thing that we did was a celebration of cultures. We actually worked with a grassroots -- with grassroots folks and created a nonprofit corporation called Celebration of Cultures. And we were trying to get folks who had never been involved in CRA activities, we were trying to increase awareness about the CRA being in town and the kinds of things that we're trying to do. And then lastly we were trying to raise funds for scholarships if the students would participate in our celebration as volunteers. So I'm just going to leave this picture up for a second. You can see our County Commissioner Coletta attended the event on a Saturday night. And for Commissioner Coyle, I'm sorry he's not here, because he wanted Irish step-dancers, and we certainly had them and they were high fliers. We had a lot of civic organizations and local citizens participating. Page 10 January 20,2010 But that was a tremendous success, and I certainly wish the same success to the Bayshore's event coming up this weekend. I hope everyone will attend that one. Then the next goal was housing. And as you recall, the CRA approved a $600,000 grant to Esperanza Place, 300,000 to Empowerment Alliance of Southwest Florida and Florida Nonprofit Services, and this year we actually paid $200,000 to the Empowerment Alliance. You can see on the left they started construction. They've got -- on the right you can see they've got their roads and sidewalks and curbs and gutter and streetlights and retention ponds, and they're ready to start construction on the buildings. And then in the Enterprise Zone, it was pretty amazing, we awarded $360,000 in tax refund. In other words, we facilitated this through the state, who has the Milagro Place, through Empowerment Alliance, it was Lenor Homes Condominiums and Habitat for Humanity. And this is tax refunds on building materials. I want to say that the Empowerment Alliance, even though it could have kept those funds within their organization, actually gave those funds back to the homeowners, so it was a wonderful accomplishment. The next goal is infrastructure. And this is a really huge task that we've undertaken. The Immokalee Stormwater Master Plan was commissioned, the South Florida Water Management District, the Big Cypress Basin and handed over to the Collier County Board of County Commissioners. We've created another partnership collaboration with the Stormwater Department within transportation and brought that to the Board of County Commissioners. They accepted it and approved it. And just this past week we released a request for proposals to get those projects shovel ready, and we've completed an application for a DRI grant funding to start that project in Immokalee. It requires two Page 11 January 20,2010 big stormwater retention ponds: one to get the water off the downtown and one to get the northern part of the town. And of course we're doing the downtown first. We're putting emphasis on economic development. Another project of infrastructure that we're working on is expanding the airport event park. We were actually going to have our Celebration of Cultures at this park. And when we got there the day before, that whole section there on the bottom right hand of the picture had three-and-a-halfinches of water on it. And we thought oh, my God, what are we going to do? So we had our little event over on this side in the park itself. So we realized something pretty dramatic had to be done and we contacted the Collier County Park and Recreation Department, and they happened to already have some other plans. They had leased that seven acres from the Airport Authority and they said, you know, it's 200 grand and we only have about 99,000 for this project. And we said, well, here's the perfect opportunity for us to partner. So what we intend to do is close off 29, it's not a real road, where you enter into it. It's been used as a road but it's not a road. Provide some handicapped paving, some impervious paving, put a walk around the interior and a fence around the entire thing, put -- fill in a turf. And it could happen within 90 days, they tell me. The Airport Authority's providing free fill for the project. So we're excited that our next event will be a beautiful event park in Immokalee at the airport. The last goal that we worked on was land use and urban design. And we had so many influences that we had to deal with. And just running through them quickly, of course we have the Lake Trafford tourism section, we have a beautiful agricultural community to deal with, we have the market community, of course we have residential. We have the Pepper Ranch for another ecotourism opportunity. You can see Commissioner Halas visited with us this past year. And then Page 12 January 20, 2010 we have the grand casino and hotel plans that the Seminole tribe has. And of course we still have the ranching community. There's still that whole section. So when we decided to start designing Immokalee, the Land Development Innovations worked with RW A. And they had a real challenge to try to meet all of the things that we were trying to accomplish out there. So the first thing that they did, and it was a long hard task, we created a public realm and a town design. And in this town design we had two book-end plazas. And they had more purpose than just looks. We did need an entryway into the town proper, but we also need a slowing -- we needed something to slow traffic because we had 16 injuries and three fatalities on our Main Street, and so we needed in our design, both landscaping and beautification, to think about how can we prevent more harm coming to our pedestrians and bicyclists. So we created the plazas with a public space, the intermediate and long-term landscaping plans. And as you know, we then partnered with the MSTU beautification. We asked them to change their ordinance to include more than beautification but sidewalks and stormwaters and lighting and all the things that need to be done, and we asked them to expand their boundary to include the entire CRA district, which they did. That was brought to the Board of County Commissioners and approved. Then the last thing that we had to work on were form-based guidelines. If we really are going to get our interim Land Development Code done and ask for deviations from the Land Development Code, we had to have an idea what we're going to ask for. So this is a detailed set of guidelines for form-based codes in Immokalee as we -- when we get our master plan approved we can then work on land development codes. And then the last piece of that is land acquisition. We've started looking at those two parcels that we want to acquire for those plazas. Page 13 January 20,2010 The central downtown business district is what we were talking about from First Street to Ninth Street. And just to give you a look at our plaza on Ninth Street, we're going to use the existing trees and put up perimeter fencing, a lovely amphitheater, interactive fountain, bio-swale. Weare writing a program currently to make Immokalee a green community. We're working on those things. We kind of thought we should put our money where our mouth is and do some of that ourselves. Restrooms and bike lockers and then lawn tents. And these are wonderful tents that can pop up in 10 minutes. Currently we have no place to have a Quinceanera or a wedding reception, so this would be a perfect public space for that. And then at First Street, we're talking about Highway 29 and where it crosses First Street, have two plazas, one on each side of the street. It's really just one plaza with a fountain and art wall. And have columns so that you actually have an entryway into Immokalee, decorated pots and specialty paving. And when we're talking about what we're going to do at the center of the road there, we're putting this therma-paving that goes down and makes it decorative with the bollards and the columns, and of course the decorative paving. Then as I said we have a long-term and -- an interim and a long-term landscaping plan. Again, these plans are designed to address pedestrians and bicyclists by elongating our bump-outs and placing them in different places. It makes it easier for the pedestrian to see cars coming and for cars to see the pedestrian and the bicyclist. And as you see, in the long-term plans we're looking for angled parking. And this is down the road after the bypass comes in. This is very long term. So there's -- MR. THOMAS: Hopefully not too long. We're going to get that Page 14 January 20,2010 bypass in soon. MS. PHILLIPPI: So this is again that First Street and Main in Immokalee. And what do we have to do? We've got our conceptual plan down, we've got our public input. We now need to work on design development and construction documents, and of course search out grants to get these things done with. Lastly, the interlocal and intergovernmental coordination is a curious goal that's in our master plan. And we have to be really clear about what the community intention was. They were certainly thinking about we need one central place where you can go in and get a building permit and you can do all the governmental kind of things that you need to do. And it isn't a goal that the CRA can deliver tomorrow, budget being what it is and income being what it is. So what the CRA has done to try to accommodate this goal is by creating these partnerships with other county departments and working with them to bring those services to Immokalee, even though we don't have a place we can go in and apply specifically for those things. So with the Airport Authority, with Parks and Rec, with MSTU and stormwater departments, with the private citizens, business and civic organizations and the Florida Department of Agriculture -- as you know, we got the good news that they're rebuilding the State Farmers Market in Immokalee, which will bring tons of revenue back into our community. For our future goals, we had an operational planned workshop, as we do every year. So we have a written operational plan. The priorities that came out of that plan were really clear and really specific. We're looking to continue doing marketing and branding Immokalee, attracting new businesses and retaining existing businesses. We're thinking about advocating for major road projects such as moving the time line on the Highway 29 bypass -- Loop Road, Page 15 January 20,2010 excuse me. We're going to continue looking at stormwater and drainage, and an "Improve Immokalee" campaign. When we go to the public and ask them what exactly would you like to see changed in Immokalee, a lot of times we hear we want to improve Immokalee, we want to clean up Immokalee. We don't know clearly what that means. It doesn't necessarily mean litter, it means that we need to do some surveys and do some work to be real clear about what people are expecting us to do when they say improve Immokalee. So those are the 2010 operational goals. Quickly, over our tax increment revenue, as you can see we're down slightly from last year. It's anticipated that next year we'll only have about 560,000, which will put us way down, as you can see, just above that 2006 mark. So we're thinking hard about grants, we're thinking hard about finding other funds to shore up our work in Immokalee. Our revenues. As you can see, the tax increment revenue, the carryforward is just over two million. And the total revenues are 3 million, 610 for 2009. Our expenses. Were a million, one for 2009. And this is just a bulleted summary that I wanted to run through very quickly. What the Immokalee CRA really did this past year, we have our draft master plan and our interim land development code working its way through the system. We have completed our public realm, town design and our form-based guidelines. We assisted many new businesses and other businesses with the enterprise zone facade grant and many other incentives, as well as a great deal of technical assistance. We've created and implemented an aggressive marketing plan. We've laid the groundwork for a business development center at the Immokalee Airport. Page 16 January 20, 2010 We continue to help residents with the Red Flag Program. This has turned out to be one of our strongest programs. When folks are trying to figure out how to deal with zoning issues or code issues or those sorts of things, the CRA has become a strong liaison for those kinds of issues. We gave a facade grant to 10 different businesses. We've started our infrastructure projects and used TIF funds; Esperanza Place, the stormwater and the airport expansion. We partnered with MSTU and got them to expand. We started the acquisition for the land for the plazas. We awarded tax refunds to 104 housing units last year -- or this past year. We created a nonprofit with the Celebration of Cultures and had a successful event. And we've completed an operational plan for 2010 that we are ready to implement. Thank you. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Yes, Donna. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes, I just have a couple questions. Do you have a grant writer to help you in these seeking of grants? MS. PHILLIPPI: Yes, we do. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Great. And what is the Red Flag Program? MS. PHILLIPPI: A Red Flag Program is one we had to establish early on for our residents who, for example, had a code issue. Do you remember the 80 signs, the sign violations that -- so we worked closely with code enforcement staff one by one going through each one of those and trying to help them resolve that kind of an issue. Or offer them a facade grant to help them build. The Lozano sign was an example of one of those. But many times folks don't understand a zoning or some other Page 17 January 20,2010 issue that is associated with government. I mean, lay persons don't typically deal with those things. So we help them work through them. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you. MR. THOMAS: Can I add to that? I want to add to that question. We're in the process of developing -- CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Fred, mention your name. MR. THOMAS: Oh, Fred Thomas, Chairman of the Met -- of the CRA. This Alzheimer is kicking in. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Too many titles. MR. THOMAS: But we're in a very long process of trying to get our master plan approved so that we can develop a new land development code. You've got some businesses that want to start doing some of those things now that will be approved later but can't get approved under the existing rules. So they will come to us and we'll get staff to look at it and make sure it's consistent with our future goals and where we're planning to go so that they can get started now and then begin to do some things. Okay, those are the kinds of things that come up. COMMISSIONER FIALA: I see, thanks. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: And I might add, it's no accident that the CRA is located in the same building as the code enforcement group. And there's been quite a -- MR. THOMAS: Thanks to you, Commissioner Coletta. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Well, there's been a lot of interplay. And, I mean, you've acted on behalf of a lot of people to resolve a lot of issues, and it's appreciated, especially the businesses. If! may, just a couple of things I'd like to touch base on. COMMISSIONER HENNING: Can I go after you? CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I'll tell you what, Commissioner, you can go first. COMMISSIONER HENNING: No, no, go ahead. I just -- Page 18 January 20,2010 CHAIRMAN COLETT A: Yeah, of course you can. The -- back a number of months ago we had a delegation from Immokalee come before the commission, or before the MPO. We had some funds that were available, but Immokalee didn't apply for them at that time. Do we have some sort of interconnect now to make sure we don't miss any opportunities in the future? MS. PHILLIPPI: Oh, we absolutely do. I mean, we were always connected with the MPO staff. They were letting us know. It was -- truthfully, on our part we didn't understand the system. It really was no fault of the MPO staff, that was purely us not understanding the system. But we're keyed in now. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: And the -- I wanted to mention also about the Farmers Market. We've got to give due credit to Representative Matt Hudson and his aide, James Mullen, who put a tremendous amount of time in keeping everybody on track and moving the thing forward, and we appreciate their efforts greatly. One of the things that I want to bring up, and I don't want to make anybody uncomfortable, but hey, wait a minute, that's my job, isn't it? The MSTU that you have in Immokalee for the beautification, how does this interact with the fact that we also have a county MSTU, and generally the whole county that taxes are paid towards the MSTU, when you've got one in Immokalee? Is there any kind of way we might be able to put in for a reimbursement for the money that's spent to be spent back in Immokalee? The justification in the past was, is that if you've got an MSTU that's county-wide, everybody in the county gets the benefit by the improvements that are made. But I believe you're about 40 miles away from the next improvement, so I kind of wonder if the benefit is there. Has anybody ever explored this possibility that maybe this Page 19 January 20,2010 double taxation might not be beneficial for the -- MS. PHILLIPPI: I don't think you want to get Fred started on that one. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Oh, is Fred aware of the subject matter? MS. PHILLIPPI: Yes, he is. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Maybe I should address the question to Fred Thomas. COMMISSIONER HENNING: What's this have to do with the CRA? CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Well, it all figures into it because they're interplaying with every single element of the community. MR. THOMAS: You're absolutely right, sir. We formed our own MSTU to get the same kind of beauty in Immokalee that you have on the coast, okay? We pay into Fund 111, we pay into the overall MSTU, and we still don't get our fair share back. In fact, the impact fees, the road impact fees that we collect in our district was used to do Immokalee Road up to Orangetree, but not any further. We're trying to get back something and get back so we can be what you all want us to be, the commercial hub to the big mega-region, a tourist zone and a business development zone, okay? But we cannot do that unless we begin to get our fair share back. If you look at the tax rolls, the average millage rate on the real estate taxes across the county is about 14.8. In the five districts in Immokalee it's 15.6. And you can't look at our streets and say there's an equitable return of the dollars that we put into the coffers. Thank you very much for -- CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Aren't you glad I gave you that opportunity? But Commissioner Halas would like to respond. COMMISSIONER HALAS: I think it all depends upon the community. And Immokalee I think is on the right track. Page 20 January 20,2010 I can tell you that in my community we have an MSTU for beautification. That's because the residents there wanted something more than was available in the county. So we're getting double taxed because we wanted to double tax ourselves. And I think that where Immokalee's going, if you want to bring yourself up from shoestrings, that sometimes you people there have to bite the bullet and say hey, we want something better than what other areas have. So-- MR. THOMAS: That's why we want to expand the MSTU to be the full size of our urban area, so we can look at some of the outlying areas, help get the roads in, help get the swales in and whatnot, so everybody gets a benefit in Immokalee. I agree. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I do have one more question. Commissioner Henning, then we'll go right to you. Unless you want to address something that has to do with -- COMMISSIONER FIALA: Just MSTD. And I was going to -- CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Let me go to Commissioner Henning first. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. COMMISSIONER HENNING: Can we stay on the CRA? That's what this meeting is all about is the CRA, right? COMMISSIONER FIALA: But actually, I think in both cases the MSTU is now being run by the CRA; is that correct? COMMISSIONER HENNING: No. MS. PHILLIPPI: We are not operating the MSTU. We've-- COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh, really? MS. PHILLIPPI: -- partnered with the MSTD. MR. THOMAS: And Bayshore, I think they operate the-- COMMISSIONER FIALA: They do. Yeah, okay. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay, great. COMMISSIONER HENNING: The question is, what are you hearing out there from the business? What percentage down from the Page 21 January 20,2010 previous year? MS. PHILLIPPI: You mean as far as retail sales, or -- COMMISSIONER HENNING: Just overall. You know, retail -- MS. PHILLIPPI: As far as rental, we're down exponentially on rental units. The -- there's fewer farmworkers coming to Immokalee. I mean, historically everything -- we've lost up to 70 percent of the farmworkers. And farmworkers aren't coming as families; they're coming as single males currently. (At which time, Commissioner Coyle enters the boardroom.) MS. PHILLIPPI: So yes, we have a reduction in rental income by all the people who are historically landlords. And what we're finding out with the businesses on the Main Street is that they're having to diversify because they've historically served strictly farmworkers. So they sold the kinds of things that you would buy in Mexico, because that was what came naturally to those folks. And now that they've started to diversify, they're leaning toward now talking about the kind of things that we're talking about, changing what you're marketing on your downtown, changing to restaurants, changing the goods that they're selling. So how much are sales down? I don't know. We had 12 new businesses open in Immokalee last year. They are small businesses, yes, but they are thriving. Each one of them have found a market niche and are being very successful. Our little Cebien Bakery now markets all of the Haitian bread all over the coast. I mean, they -- I mean, when they opened they sold 300 loaves a day. Now I can't even guess how many they sell. So each one of these new businesses have a niche in the market and are able to thrive. They're actually thriving. COMMISSIONER HENNING: That's good to hear. Is there any way to promote the diversity of the downtown through the casino? Page 22 January 20,2010 MS. PHILLIPPI: Well, it's a tough call-- it's a tough assignment. But what we've tried to do is include in all of our marketing the casino and the Chamber of Commerce, and as we said earlier -- COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, you have a lot of people come to the casino. MS. PHILLIPPI: Oh, we had hundreds. COMMISSIONER HENNING: And my point is, you know, that's at the edge of the town. Are they really seeing -- are they really getting a benefit from visiting Immokalee? Just like the Farm Workers Village. I mean -- MR. THOMAS: Maybe I can help you, sir. COMMISSIONER HENNING: Hang on, let me -- MR. THOMAS: I can answer your question. COMMISSIONER HENNING: Let me finish. MR. THOMAS: Okay. COMMISSIONER HENNING: Just like the Farmers Market out there, what an asset you have. I don't know how many people realize what assets or diversity you have out there. So -- okay. MR. THOMAS: The casino has a representative on our chamber of commerce. We do cross-marketing just like you suggest. That's why we're trying to develop a downtown so it's like a central American -- a visit to the Caribbean, where you can get a Haitian tam, a Mexican sombrero and a Puerto Rican -- I mean a Panama hat. And they also, they buy the fresh vegetables from the Farmers Market and they share that information back with the people that come into the casino. So we're trying to encourage the people to make the extra stop. See, they're getting ready for the hotel. And some people are going to want to have other things to do other than just go to the casino. And we're trying to give them a regular tour all the way up to Roberts Ranch where they can shop and meet people and feel like they're in this foreign country. COMMISSIONER HENNING: Every time I come out to Page 23 January 20,2010 Immokalee I always stop by the market. MR. THOMAS: Yes. COMMISSIONER HENNING: And what I see is locals or restaurant shop in there. I think it's a -- MR. THOMAS: You must come out in the morning, sir. Because if you come out in the early afternoon, you'll find a lot of silver-haired folks in Mercedes Benz. COMMISSIONER HENNING: Great. That's good to hear. MS. PHILLIPPI: If! could add one thing. We -- this is part of that marketing plan that we've put together. And we've had long conversations with the owner of the Farmers Market where we're actually talking about how to create a facade and make it a little more user friendly for folks other than small market, small businesses and restaurants to shop at while still maintaining that, because it's a valuable income for those folks. COMMISSIONER HENNING: Uh-hum. MS. BROWN: Commissioner Henning, Pam Brown for the record. COMMISSIONER HENNING: Hi. MS. BROWN: Hi there. I have -- I'm concurring with Mr. Thomas. In the afternoons and when you have your season here, a lot of people come. Minnesota, I see, you know, Indiana, Ohio tags there. And they seem to really be enjoying the experience of the market. And I've also been working with us having a harvest festival with the Chamber of Commerce, and I've been going to some of the restaurants there, and they have been telling me they are actually getting some of the business from the casino that, you know, they want to have some other flavor of food, like our Havana and Roma is getting a lot of business there. COMMISSIONER HENNING: Good. That's good to hear. MS. BROWN: Yes, sir. Page 24 January 20, 2010 COMMISSIONER HENNING: Thank you. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Fiala? COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you, I have a few questions. Do bus loads -- and I think you've kind of answered it, but one of my questions was do the bus loads of people that are transported to the casino get to see some of the progress that is going on, and do the bus drivers -- MR. THOMAS: Some of the buses-- COMMISSIONER FIALA: -- narrate it? MR. THOMAS: -- go by the Farmers Market. Some of them. Not all of them, but some of them go by the Farmers Market, okay? But most of them do not do that. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Could you forge an agreement? I mean, just thinking, could you forge an agreement with the casino buses that they could just do a little roundabout, possibly? MS. PHILLIPPI: That's an excellent idea. COMMISSIONER FIALA: That might be fun to do. When is the hotel slated to begin? MR. THOMAS: They just had their -- the compact (sic) turned down, so the tribe can do what they want to do. Their biggest concern the tribe has had all along is competition. Because several international gaming houses, for example, Harrah's, had an option to buy the Bonita tract. Had they got parody with -- if we had -- had they gotten parody in Lee County, with what they did over III -- CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Miami-Dade? Palm Beach? MR. THOMAS: Fort Lauderdale, that county -- Broward County, you understand, they would have gone vertical with a hotel there and people would not maybe come here. So we're going to have to deal with that as that comes up. But they're going to start going vertical pretty soon. If you ever drive out -- and I think I took you out there. Page 25 January 20, 2010 COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yeah. MR. THOMAS: They've got the roads in, the underground utilities, they got a new church going in so folks can go to, and all they have to do is start going vertical with the hotel. And hopefully during this year they'll start. MR. WALL: Jim Wall. We keep hearing from work force that about 300 jobs. COMMISSIONER FIALA: That's just great. And so they really plan on moving forward with that. The last question I have is do you have any type of brochures, you know these rack brochures that you have that talk about Immokalee to be distributed on buses, at visitors centers, at the TDC? The TDC can include in their material that they've sent to others, they could even include on-line when people are looking us up on-line. And in tourist racks in general, like at Tin City, for instance, they have all these tourist racks. Do you have -- MS. PHILLIPPI: That is part of our marketing plan. That's part of the plan we're going to start imple -- that we've started implementing. But all of those collateral pieces, as Steve calls them, aren't completed yet. And I do want to just say one more thing. Three of our commissioners visited Immokalee this year, and we're so pleased every time one of you folks show up. We really appreciate it, thank you. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: And if I may dovetail on that. The other two haven't made it yet, whoever they are. Fred Thomas will take you on a personal tour and show you Immokalee that you've never seen before. MR. THOMAS: I will do that. COMMISSIONER FIALA: And I got to taste -- MR. THOMAS: But to answer your question, to answer your further question, the Chamber is presently doing a map of Immokalee Page 26 January 20,2010 that highlights businesses that people will want to stop by that show where they are on the map. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh, that's great. MR. THOMAS: And that will be coming out pretty soon. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh, and I got to taste that Haitian bread. MR. THOMAS: It's awesome. MS. BROWN: Commissioner Fiala, we've been working with the TDC. The little VIP card that they give out during the off-season, we have two or -- CHAIRMAN COLETTA: That's Pam Brown. MR. BROWN: -- three businesses that are going to be participating in that this year. And I was talking to Debi DeBenedetto, and she said just to let her know, give them a press release and they will put that on their calendar of events that are going on with the TDC. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Wonderful. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Yes, Rick. MR. HEERS: Rick Heers. And I just wanted to bring to your alls attention that in case you haven't heard directly that the agri-business is under extreme stress right now. And our farm laborers especially are going to be in a very critical situation over the next two months because of this recent extended cold weather. And it's kind of been a negative impact on the awareness factor because of the horrible circumstances that have happened in Haiti and all of the attention and focus there. But I do want to make you aware that there is a definite, definite negative impact for probably two to three months where the farmworkers are not going to be having employment. And so that's a circumstance that we are -- I'm meeting with a number of the pastors in the area to see if there's some way that we can organize help. I've contacted World Vision and even FEMA Page 27 January 20,2010 and seeing if there's a way that we can kind of work immediately to provide some resources. Because our community is really -- our children and our families are going to be hurting. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Would it be possible for you, when you get this together, to make a report to the Commission at one of our meetings? MR. HEERS: Yes, sir. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I think it would be very beneficial for the public to be aware of what's going on. There's really non-profits out there that can intercede in many different ways. If any public knows that there's a need there also, we could get a great response. MR. HEERS: Sure. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay, let's -- we need to keep moving along. We're going to still have a roundtable discussion. Why don't we go ahead at this point in time and invite Mr. David Jackson up. And what I'd like to do is break tradition at this point in time, and I'd like to turn the meeting over to Commissioner Fiala for this part of the meeting, since she represents that particular area. MR. THOMAS: I do have to leave. I'm very sorry. COMMISSIONER FIALA: I think Commissioner Halas has to leave too. COMMISSIONER HALAS: I'm going to be leaving here shortly. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Oh, I'm sorry, you're the co-chair? COMMISSIONER FIALA: No, no, no, he has to leave. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Oh, that's fine. But I'm going to turn it over to you during this part of the -- COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh, you do such a good job with all your humor. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: No, no, no, but you're more familiar with the subject matter. Page 28 January 20,2010 COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I want to think of you more as a co-chair rather than a vice chair. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Partners. Thank you. Hi, David. Thank you. MR. JACKSON: Good afternoon. David Jackson, Executive Director of the Bayshore/Gateway Triangle CRA. (At which time, Commissioner Halas exits the boardroom.) MR. JACKSON: For our presentation this year, it will be relatively brief, but I will also take a little bit of twist on it is that I won't be the only face you'll be hearing from, because in order to do a redevelopment project or an area, you need a team. And I've got a good team and I've got two of my project managers with you here to talk about the things that they accomplished over the last year. Up on the -- in your books there that we gave you as a pre-read, and up on the screen, some of the highlights of this last year. The Board of County Commissioners gracefully (sic) gave us two MSTU's acquisition: The Haldeman Creek and also the Bayshore Beautification MSTD. We accomplished a Brownsfields cleanup; we purchased a catalyst site up in the mini-triangle up in District 1; we've reduced crime, which has been an ongoing and continued effort. Residential stormwater master plan has been accomplished and we are about ready to go forward with that plan; and we have renewed interest in grants. It goes without saying, it takes a team to do this type of work. And besides my project managers, who will be speaking shortly, the CRA works hand in glove with Collier County Manager's Office. We work with the office of budget and management. We couldn't do it without them, especially in these tough times, Mark Isaacson and John Y onkosky. Transportation, we are very closely working with them in Page 29 January 20, 2010 transportation. Stormwater with Jerry Kurtz and Shane Cox. Road and Bridge with John Vliet and Romiro Ponce, who is one of the men that have helped us out in our area. Alternative modes transportation with the MSTU: Pam Lulich was instrumental in helping us get the Bayshore Bridge lighting project done with a grant from FDOT. Code enforcement: Tom Keegan and Joe Mucha have worked our area to the point that they only come and visit us once in a while now when we have issues. We used to see them every day, now we see them once in a while when we have an issue. County Attorney's Office: We've been working closely with the County Attorney, Heidi Ashton-Cicko, Steve Williams, Jeff Wright and Jennifer White. Purchasing with Lyn Wood, which is our contracts agent, Steve Carnell; Parks and Rec with Annie Alvarez. And communications/customer relationships with Lavah Hetzel, which keeps us on track in keeping all our public meetings noticed. So moving on, as you all know, that there is a certain TIF district that we've got, but we are suffering the same things that you are suffering and Leo is right now coming to grips with. Our proper -- taxable property value was almost a billion dollars three years ago. We're seeing a downturn in that as property values go down. But along with that, so does our TIF. We're going to be suffering under the same things that Penney's looking at. We get less and less money each year, and this next year we're looking at somewhere with another 10 percent reduction. This is where I'm going to turn it over to one of our stalwart project managers, Jean Jourdan. And just to let you know, she turned 29 today. Today is her birthday. So we're going to let her give a presentation. And she assured me it was 29. Page 30 January 20,2010 Jean? COMMISSIONER FIALA: Happy birthday, Jean. MS. JOURDAN: Thank you. Good afternoon. Jean Jourdan, Project Manager with the Bayshore/Gateway CRA. Happy New Year. I can't believe it's 20 I O. I just can't believe that the years go by so quickly, and especially it being my birthday and him just mentioning that, he reminded me of it. What I'm going to do is I'm just going to take you through a few of the projects that we're working on that are coming to fruition. The first one is South Bayshore Street improvements. This is a project that we're working on with the MSTU, because we are now managing the Bayshore beautification MSTU. And the CRA staff is managing that. What we're going to do is this is improvements which will be south of Thomasson. It's a 10-foot multipurpose pathway, landscape and pedestrian lighting. Actually 60 percent construction plans are under review at the county right now, and the bid for construction will go out sometime in 2010. This is the stretch of the street. It's eight-tenths of a mile. It's south of Thomasson and it goes all the way down to Holly Avenue. If you see on the west side there, that's Botanical Gardens up at the start there. This is the existing conditions. On the west side is Botanical Gardens. This picture was taken actually when they were underway doing a lot of clearing and stuff. And this is what it will look like in the future. There will be a 10-foot multipurpose pathway on the east side with landscaping and some pedestrian lighting. The people south of Bayshore Drive have been asking for this for years. So they're very excited. We had a lot of community input and they're just waiting for it to go forward. So we're really excited that hopefully this project will start this year. Page 31 January 20,2010 Next is the Gateway Mini-Triangle Catalyst Project. There were seven parcels that the CRA had been in negotiations to acquire for almost two years. We finally got all seven parcels under contract. We have closed on six of the parcels. The other parcel, the seventh parcel which is highlighted there in yellow, we haven't closed on. However, there are some contamination issues, and once the owner has gotten a clean bill of site, then we will close on that property. And this is what could possibly go on the mini-triangle site there. This is something we're looking to put in in the future. We've had a lot of interest from different developers, but of course we're still in the process of acquiring the property in the site. But I thought you'd like to see these pictures. It's really spectacular to see what could possibly go on that site. The next site is the Bayshore Catalyst Site. This is the site that is located by our Bayshore office, and it backs up to Sugden Park. It's 17 acres. We actually are going forward with this. We have chosen a master developer. We selected Pizzuti Solutions and Bellomo Herbert. They actually did a conceptual plan and had a neighborhood meeting on December 10th. The public meeting went very well. There wasn't one negative comment that came out of any of the public. They really loved what they saw. They have a pre-application meeting scheduled with CDES. Initially it was February 2nd, but we just found out it was canceled and changed to February 10th. The proposed uses are artists live/work village, galleries, some residential units, a public performance, outdoor amphitheater, 340 -- 450 community seats, and classrooms and administrative offices. This is what the -- this is the master plan that actually Pizzuti Company presented to the public on December 10th. As you can see here, there would be a portion in the back which Page 32 January 20, 2010 would be the public performance and participation area. This is where you would have your public venues, your amphitheater, the playhouse, whatever. All of the uses haven't really been decided, but these are just some of the uses that could go on the site. Then the front part of the site would be more of live/work villages, cafes, some retail on the bottom and then some residential on the top. Also, a portion would be a recreation area with a boardwalk and a possible connection to Sugden Park. That's one of the things a lot of the people in the area have really been wanting is some sort of connection to Sugden Park. And then this is -- they actually -- we have some architectural style plans here. This is very cute. It's sort of like a Florida -- old style Florida vernacular style that I thought I would bring to show you, with a village character flair to it. Another thing that we just completed was the Bayshore Lighting Project. This was also a partnership with the MSTU. They wanted to put some lighting on existing power poles to promote security and safety in the area. There was actually 68 lights installed. And these were all along side streets, which are located on the east and west side of Bayshore Drive. Initially when the lights started going up we did get some complaints, but overall we had five complaints out of 68 lights that were installed. Where the people -- it's change, you know, they don't like the change, they don't want it. So we're working with them to lower the wattage and also actually install some shields on the lights for the people who did have the complaints. But other than that, everyone's loved it. The CRA takes opportunities that we find out there to work with other departments. There's a site on Becca and Pine that -- it's a three-way intersection and there were some sight line issues, some Page 33 January 20, 2010 swale and drainage issues that the area had been complaining about. Well, the property just so happened to go into foreclosure. And we try to keep apprised of everything that's on the market there, things that like in the area. So when it went into foreclosure, the CRA put an offer on the property and actually purchased it. The house was very dilapidated, it had a lot of improvements that had never been permitted, so we demolished that site and so it's a beautiful empty site now. But we're actually working with transportation in order to do some intersection improvements that are needed to help the sight line. And then also with the stormwater department to make some swale improvements on that lot. And this is where we've already been working with transportation. They've actually done some conceptual plans of improving the intersection. Last but not least, we're working on our Bayshore Cultural Festival of the Arts. And we hope you all will attend January 23rd. This is our first big really marketing tool. And we're really excited about it because what we're going to do is we're actually using local vendors, local restaurants, local artists. We want to get people to the Bayshore area, because so many people have this perception that Bayshore is Kelly Road, and they haven't even driven down it. You go down it now, it's beautiful. Families walk up and down the road. So we want them to be able to see this. And we've done all of the promotion and marketing and everything in-house, everything that's coming out, from the brochures to the advertisement. We've worked really hard. And so we'll see Saturday how well we've done. But we've learned a lot. That's one thing about the Bayshore/Gateway CRA is all of our staff wears many hats, and to try to keep things budgeted as low as possible, we do a lot of the work ourself and hit the pavement. Page 34 January 20,2010 COMMISSIONER FIALA: I've got the beer booth, don't I? MS. JOURDAN: Yes, you do. So Commissioner Fiala is volunteering time. If any time of the other commissioners would like to vol -- I'm looking at you, Commissioner Henning. If you want to volunteer sometime. COMMISSIONER HENNING: Is the boat ramp going to be open on Saturday? That's where you might find me. MS. JOURDAN: Well, okay, okay, we'll drive down there and just pull you back. But with that said, our next presenter will be Project Manager Sue Trone. MS. TRONE: For the record, Sue Trone, Project Manager for the Bayshore/Gateway Triangle CRA. Thank you for the opportunity to go over the rest of the projects that we've been working on in 2009. I'm going to start offby telling you about the CRA's TIF Grant Program. You probably know this program in its earlier incarnation as the Site Improvement Grant Program. In 2002 the CRA created that with an ordinance, we called it the Site Improvement Grant, that's what we had. We spun off a few other types of grants. When I was hired by the CRA in 2007, I walked around the community, spent a lot of time talking with residents and businesses, what's working, what's not working. We tweaked the grants that we had going, created a few more grants to respond to unmet needs. So in 2009 we rolled them out, and what we had to offer was the Commercial Building Improvement Grant, the Landscape Improvement Grant. Those were the two new grants. With the Landscape Improvement Grant we partnered in Collier County Extension Services, and the Naples Botanical Garden. These are two people -- two entities that were very willing and interested to partner with us, to offer support to help us help residents who really wanted -- they're very interested in landscaping. Page 35 January 20,2010 And then with the Commercial Building Grant, there are a lot of businesses that -- the Gateway Triangle especially has a lot of vacant commercial properties that could really benefit with some grant money. So we really worked hard on that. And we maintain the other grant programs. When we rolled them out in 2009, we ended up having nine grantees approved. What was really interesting was we actually had a dollar amount of$51,000, so this was a real anomaly, because in years past we averaged between 10 to 12 grantees, but we awarded almost our entire budget, which would be between 90 and $100,000. But we all know what happened with the economy. All bets were off in 2009. I'm looking forward to coming back next year, because we've been very busy with our TIF grants. So in any event, that's a summary of what we did with our TIF grant program. It was a very different kind of program that I think as time goes on we'll see as being very responsive to the needs and wants of the CRA community. In addition, the CRA has become quite proactive in trying to leverage its TIF with outside money. The most obvious way to do this is to look for grant money from funding agencies outside. The two main programs that the CRA has tried to use to look for outside money has been stormwater drainage, our Stormwater Drainage Program and Brownfield Program. And we applied for two grants for -- to try and fund our Stormwater Drainage Program. The first one was a FEMA backed grant. That was the Pre-Disaster Mitigation Grant. And we also applied for the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Initiative Grant that is a HUD-backed grant. Those were both for a stormwater drainage project. And then the other program that we have going in the CRA that we've looked for outside funding is our Brownfields program. In 2009 we applied to the EP A for a community-wide assessment grant to help Page 36 January 20,2010 entities in the CRA who need funding for Phase I, Phase II environmental assessments. And these are useful when you're looking to redevelop your site. The Brownfield grant was unsuccessful, we have yet to hear back on the PDM grant, and we have very hopeful prospects on the DRI grant. You will actually be -- on January 26th as the BCC, when you sit as the BCC, Housing and Human Services will be coming before you with recommendations. So I hope for a favorable vote on that one. And I will be going over our stormwater drainage program shortly, later in this presentation. But first I want to address our Brownfields program, because I think that's something very unusual in Collier County. The CRA did designate a Brownfield area on Bayshore Drive. And that was done, thanks to a resolution passed by the Board of County Commissioners. That was done in November. We went ahead and wanted to pursue this designation on the 17 -acre piece that we have on Bayshore Drive. As Jean mentioned in her presentation, currently we have Pizzuti Company working, doing their due diligence in the early stages for development of this site. The one area that is the out-parcel, used to be a gas station, it has trace amounts of petroleum contamination. And what we were able to do was to pursue some Brownfield incentives, and we'll get to that here shortly. There are some other sites in the CRA that have some potential that we may be able to pursue Brownfield incentives that are available through the State of Florida. And we might be able to access things such as the Voluntary Cleanup Tax Credit, Job Creation Bonus and Redevelopment Bonuses. When you're using the State of Florida's Brownfield designation, what you're doing is -- you're not necessarily saying my site is Page 37 January 20,2010 contaminated. You're acknowledging that there may be the perception of contamination. And in doing this, you make yourself available for these kinds of incentives. If you do certain kinds of redevelopment, the State of Florida will make you eligible for tax incentives or rebates if you redevelop in certain ways. Now, with the 17-acre parcel, the piece that we have, this area here is approximately where we know we have some trace amounts of contamination. It is -- that is where we executed the Brownfield Site Rehabilitation Agreement. This has an acronym, BSRA. So we executed a BSRA with the Department of Environmental Protection. We spent about $60,000 cleaning up the site in 2009. And we know we basically have this vision for that site. So in the top we see what it is today. In the bottom we see what we want to have for tomorrow. We execute this BSRA, and now we've set ourselves up for the Voluntary Cleanup Tax Credit. We're getting in line for that. We're in the process of filing the application, which is due on January 31 st. Since we've spent $60,000, we're now eligible, pending DEP's approval, for a 50 percent return on that and a tax credit which we can sell to some corporate entity that will -- its incentive to buy this tax credit is it becomes a write-off for them. We can probably get somewhere on the order of 70 to 80 cents on the dollar. Which means approximately 20 to $25,000 return to the CRA. That makes for us, what we spent $60,000 cleaning this site will actually be $40,000. Because we'll probably recuperate 20 to $25,000 on that because we went through this process. In 2009 we completed our process with the community, discussing the possibility of creating a passive park, a walking path around the stormwater pond in the triangle. That was finished in the spring. And this was something that the community has been aware of. I found it in documents that have been in existence since before Page 38 January 20,2010 David worked for the CRA. But I don't think people could really wrap their minds around what it would be like until the pond was actually dug up. And when it was all said and done, surveys were handed out and people filled them out, and there's definitely a majority that is in favor of having something kind of like what you see on the screen in front of you, just some neighborhood amenity, not a regional park, but just something very small, very passive, like a walking path. And the neighborhood seems to be very much in favor of having something like that in their neighborhood. Now the tertiary stormwater improvement plan for the residential area of the Gateway Triangle. This was a pretty significant project that the CRA took on. It lasted pretty much the entire year. We took on Q. Grady Minor to conduct a pretty elaborate stormwater study. They studied the hydrology of the Triangle area. They focused on the residential area. The Triangle, the stormwater pond that is in place at this point seems to be working quite well with the commercial area. We saw that with Tropical Storm Fay. It was high tide and the water couldn't get out of the pond. The residents had a real problem during Fay. And our response was to get Q. Grady Minor and tell us what do we need to do so that the residential area can derive some benefit from the stormwater pond. So we did this study. The study comes up with some pretty practical implementable recommendations. The CRA engaged the Collier County Stormwater Department, as well as the South Florida Water Management District. There's already a conceptual permit in place with South Florida that says this kind of thing can be implemented. The CRA also became a member of the Collier County local mitigation strategy working group. Projects that are recommended by this plan are on the project priority list. That is -- that's one of the Page 39 January 20,2010 requirements to be able to apply for FEMA grants. And this is a project that since we've got it pretty well figured out, this is -- we've got -- this is a plan that we've made that's not collecting dust on the shelf, basically. Now we're just waiting -- we're working hard to find outside sources to work with our TIF so we can actually implement it. And this is the plan that is behind the proposal on the CDBGDRI grant that you will be seeing on January 26th. Another project that we had was Jeepers Drive swales. Back in April we had some residents on Jeepers Drive approach us. They were saying they felt a little bit neglected and they wanted us to discuss what kind -- have a discussion about streetscape improvements that the CRA might be able to work with the residents to implement. We had a public meeting on May 7th. We handed out a survey. This meeting, by the way, was very well attended by residents who live on Jeepers Drive. When we collected all the surveys, the number one improvement that residents wanted was swales. And I really think this picture is very telling. This photograph -- I took this photograph after a 10-minute rainfall. So this is just one example of just a casual little rainfall. So these people wanted swales. We didn't have time to implement an all-out proper drainage project, but we got together with our friends over in the Collier County Transportation Maintenance Department and within a month they did this. So what happens now is when it rains these ditches are able to catch a lot of the rain, and it's not coming up to people's stairs, at least certainly not unless it's like a super substantial rainfall. We've had a lot of luck in that we didn't have major storms. But our next hope is to do a study similar to what we've done in the residential area of the triangle for these streets off of Bayshore and look for outside funding to do a genuine drainage project for these places, something that's a little bit better than a Bandaid like this. And that wraps up our projects. Page 40 January 20,2010 MR. JACKSON: Dave Jackson again. Thank you, Jean, and thank you, Sue. This is the wrap-up portion of it for the Bayshore/Gateway Triangle CRA. The local advisory board has four main themed goals, you see them up in your scope there, for 2010 and 2011. Community character, public safety, economic development and land development and growth management. At the back of your booklets that we've handed out to you, there are more detailed objectives and strategies. We don't have to go through all those, but each one of those things is very accomplishable deals for us. Looking forward to tomorrow. Our goal is sustainability. We've come a long way in five years, we've come a very long way in 10 years. Our goal is to become self-sustaining, continue to identify funding sources and encourage economic revitalization and actively work for the public/private partnerships. Because as we come out of the doldrums of the economy, there's going to be business people looking for partnerships, and we want them to grow and we want them to grow in our area. So basically are we going to get there? Sure. I've got -- my standard comment is that if you're patient and persistent with dedication and you keep your eyes on your long-range goals, you'll accomplish them all. This concludes the Bayshore/Gateway Triangle CRA portion and the Immokalee portion. I believe on your agenda the next item here is CRA board roundtable discussion in which advisory board and elected officials can exchange thoughts and ideas. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Let me ask the commissioners if they have any questions for you or any of your staff. Commissioner Henning? COMMISSIONER HENNING: (Shakes head negatively.) Page 41 January 20,2010 COMMISSIONER FIALA: Commissioner Coyle? COMMISSIONER COLETTA: (Shakes head negatively.) COMMISSIONER FIALA: Commissioner Coletta? COMMISSIONER COLETTA: No, I'm fine. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay, fine, thank you. MS. BEATTY: I would like to tell them about the historical documentation. MR. JACKSON: This is Karen Beatty, a member of the advisory board. The chairman for this portion, Karen, is Ms. Fiala. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. And I also have some questions, so you can come back, David. But go ahead. MS. BEATTY: Sure. I just wanted to share something that wasn't mentioned that was brand new. Weare starting to document -- THE COURT REPORTER: If you could please get on the microphone. MS. BEATTY: I'm sorry . You can tell I'm not used to this. Karen Beatty, Bayshore/Gateway Triangle Advisory Committee. Weare starting to document historical data for the Gateway Triangle and Bayshore Drive area. We have some wonderful people that are working with us, namely Lois Bolin from the Olde Naples Backyard Museum. So I just wanted to let you know that that's underway. And there's a lot of information coming forward of the history of Bayshore Drive as a maritime village. So I just wanted to share that. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you. David, I had some questions about your presenta -- not about your presentation, but that arose from the presentation. The side light street lighting, the side street street lighting -- boy, that's hard to say, isn't it? Has it reduced crime any and has it actually stopped some of the homelessness that's in there? MR. JACKSON: There's two portions. A year or so ago the Page 42 January 20,2010 CRA put up seven lights on south Bayshore Drive, and it was mostly for vehicular safety because children were going to the bus stops, it was dark on the corner and -- depending on daylight savings time. That was over a year ago. And they were in the major thoroughfare, so we didn't see any impact to crime or homelessness because it was in a very public space. The side streetlights have just been completed this month, so it's too soon to tell. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay, thank you. Do you have a kind of like a drawing of what the Pizzuti project -- other than just a site development plan, you know, what it's supposed to mainly look like? Do you have an idea of what, you know, the buildings are going to look like or anything? MR. JACKSON: That was in the presentation, and it's in your handout there. The buildings are low-rise two-story. There wasn't anything about the art and cultural venture, if you're looking at that part of it. That's still conceptual as far as a site plan, but nothing in the way of elevations. Because we don't know exactly if it's going to be -- for what size it will be and for what type of cultural use will be in it. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Are you going to continue to try and light more of the side streets? MR. JACKSON: Yes, ma'am, we will. We're going to wait and get evaluation on this impact and then go out with Florida Power & Light and resurvey the area and pick up more lights where needed. We -- correct, it's a good point, because there are some lights that they're a little spotty. Sometimes you end up with a light spot and a dark spot, and we're going to go and try to fill those. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Great. You mentioned something about trying to connect Sugden. And the way it was mentioned, I was just wondering, has there been resistance to connect to Sugden? MR. JACKSON: No, ma'am. It's just we needed a place, a location. Page 43 January 20,2010 COMMISSIONER FIALA: To make the connection? MR. JACKSON: Yes. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. And then the last thing, you were talking about Brownfield, and I must have misunderstood. I thought when you initially started talking about Brownfield it said we were denied, but then we're going on and getting other dollars, so I was confused with that. MR. JACKSON: Okay. Simply, a year or so ago we applied for a Brownfield grant for funding up to $200,000 to assist people to assess their site. Somebody has an old gas station, somebody has an old auto mechanic site that we, through this grant, would fund the phase one and phase two environmental, which could be up to $10,000 to discover whether it was contaminated or not. We did not get that grant. However, what we did do was with the old Bevin's site off Jeepers next to Windstar on the 17-acre site, on our own we did that voluntary cleanup and designated that area as our brown site development for the future, and that's where we get our tax credits. So it was two things with the same type of name, but they were two separate concepts. Does that help you? COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes, very much, thank you. Now we can go on to the next portion. I'm going to turn this gavel back over to the chairman. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Thank you. Okay, and this is the roundtable discussion. Anyone care to start it off? MR. WALL: Certainly. Jim Wall, Southwest Florida Workforce Development Board. And our agency has been involved in the CRA for a long time. I'm fairly new to it as a member. And I'd just like to share with the Commissioners the tremendous partnerships that I've been aware of just in a short time with Florida Golf Coast University small business Page 44 January 20, 2010 development. Even with the Sheriffs Department in a Weed and Seed program where we administered the funds. And it's just amazing what's going on out in that community. And I just want to share on behalf of our executive director, Joe Paterno, that we fully support all the efforts that are going on out there and continue to see a tremendous opportunity for job growth and high job -- high-skill, high-wage jobs. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Great. Any other comments? COMMISSIONER HENNING: Nothing from me. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Commissioner Fiala, anything else you want to add? COMMISSIONER FIALA: No. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: At that point in time, is there any public comments? (No response.) CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I have a large assembly out there of people. I'm sure somebody might have some comments to make. Seeing none, that probably concludes this meeting, unless anyone has any -- COMMISSIONER COYLE: Motion to adjourn. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Do I hear a motion to adjourn? CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Yes, you do. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Can I have a second? COMMISSIONER HENNING: Can't take a vote. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: That's right, we can't. COMMISSIONER HENNING: Not at a workshop. CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I'll take full control of this situation and turn this meeting off. ***** Page 45 January 20,2010 There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 2:34 p.m. Board of County Commissioners as the Community Redevelopment Agency ~~d/# JIM C TT A, CRA Chairman A TTES'}i;"'. '. . ., " of',.:t DWIGflI E. BROCK, CLERK L;)Jj (- ~. ../".,!.,~~ . '-'" ";i:,,-,,^,j,:. "."... ",.-', ," - A~ttlt. .,tS"'"'-' t "911&" ...t" These minutes approye6 by the Board on cQ, \ d ~ l \ 0 , as presented ~ or as corrected Transcript prepared on behalf of Gregory Court Reporting, Inc. by Cherie' R. Nottingham, CSR. Page 46