[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] i' like to call this Tampa city council meeting back to order roll call please Carlson here herac glendis here Henderson via here Miranda and manao here and H council member Vieira thank you very much Mr chair so I said I wasn't be back but I am um I had met with um some folks on this uh if you all remember we had passed a motion in city council um supporting um Local 754 on this public records request and um without getting into it we're still working on it but I do believe in having deadlines on things so that we can move forward so um I do motion number one this is going to be for February 6th um and on that day because I do have one um staff report I motion well let me first I I intend to motion to move my motion for local cemeteries cleaning from February 6th to March 27th I'll do that secondly after this one uh passes if it does so I'm going to be making room on the agenda for that in keeping with our rules that's number one number two is I motion for the appropriate City of Tampa departments to come and brief City Council on the prospective resolution of the public safety records request done by Tampa firefighters Local 754 herein representative of the administration and door Tampa Fire Rescue and Local 754 will be present for this I am very hopeful that we can resolve this issue before but if we don't I want this as a timeline as a deadline so that's it and second I will be motioning to take that off so that we have time on the agenda we have a motion from council member VI second from council member Clen Denon all in favor I and thank you Council and then oh I'm sorry second was Carlson okay and then secondly um I move um my motion for report on cleaning local cemeteries from this February date to March 27th consistent with the rules all right we have a motion from council member Vie second council member clenon all in favor thank you Council and that day on February 6th you do have a number of fire items um including for for um station 24 and hopefully getting that uh by October and and a couple of other issues uh and whatnot so thank you Council I will make true to my word and leave thank you thank you very much all right be gone thank you you all right we have our 130 public hearings we need to open up can I get a motion to open the 130 public hearing motion from council member CL second council member Carlson all in favor I any opposed chairman if you can yes sir if you can just um uh a motion to receive and file the exart commun a if any that have been available I don't know no expar or verbal Communications I take it no n okay we have a motion to receive and follow those from who we got well we got to you just make the all right so motion from council member Clint council member Carlson all in favor iOS if you have not been sworn in and you will be speaking on item number 53 please stand raise your right hand and we'll SAR you in nobody else is speaking on this item yeah he's there okay uh Mr cotton do you want to go ahead and present 53 yes sir I'm sorry I'm sorry if I may yes ma'am go ahead Kamari Pettis from the legal legal department good afternoon item number 53 is a review hearing for um the application su1 2476 for the property located at 6801 North Orleans Avenue this is brought um on behalf of the petitioner Danielle Maza she filed an application with the city of Tampa requesting for an extend extended family Residence at her property staff denied the request on May 16th of 2024 on the basis that the application did not meet the the code criteria outlining 27132 which is the specific requirements for an extended family residence staff will explain to you the reason the basis of the denial but in summation they denied the application because it did not the uh the um extended family residence does not meet the setback requirements um city council I provided to you copies of code section 2761 in your packet um City staff provided you in their staff report copies of 27132 the regulations governing specific uses for specifically the extended family residence 27229 which are the general standards um and 27130 which are the conditions in safeguards I've also provided copies of the sample motion and the rules of procedure for city council to um conduct this review hearing as outlined in code section 27- 61 subsection j3 city council uh should conduct a denovo this is going to be a denovo standard of review which means you are not limited to the information or documentation or evidence that was originally provided by staff you can receive new information uh staff is pres well online to give you an overview of the application and after after city council hears all the evidence um city council can take one of two actions affirm the decision of the zoning administrator and deny the special use application for the extended family residents or city council can overturn the decision of the zoning administrator and therefore approve the application for the extended family residence and with that I'll turn it over to Mr cotton thank you very much Mr cotton go ahead sir please say your name I'm Eric Cotton I have been sworn for the development coordination I can may share my screen briefly and they'll make it bigger now it's coming there it is go ahead sir thank you again Eric cot development coordination this is as um miss ptis Ma indicated this is a petition for review for su1 12476 for property located at 6801 North Orleans Avenue um again the zoning is rs50 um Miss M already went over some of this but the zoning is rs50 so in that District well it's the corner lot corner at the corner of hawaa and New Orleans or North Orleans excuse me so this is the this is the site plan that was submitted for our for the application you can see the proposed structure is located only about a little over 10t from the front property line as an accessory structure not including the use of the extended family residence the ex the actual the structure itself has to be back 60 ft from the front property line as you can see the existing house is situated between the two trees and push towards the back of the property which limits the ability to place this in the 60 foot with the meeting the 60 foot setback so um you can see it's currently under construction you can see the walls where we starting to be put up um so what's highlighted in red is the basis for the denial again the structure does not meet the 60 foot required setback it's only at 10.1 ft um because we can't administrative you can't get a variance or any other or any administrative process to reduce the setbacks because of this code section um staff had no choice but to deny the request if Council were to overturn the denial by staff um in aen you'd be granting a I'll use the term variance to reduce the setback from the 60 feet down to the 10 feet um do you have any questions for staff council member thank you can you go back to the site plan yes ma'am from my understanding the address of this house is 6801 North Orleans so that that means the house would have to front North Orleans does it not front North Orleans no ma'am the the address that says the zoning front by the by chapter 27 is in narrowest portion of the lot that's always considered the front yard regardless of where the front door is oriented and how it's addressed but then why doesn't have a West haath address the address was assigned to it was 6801 probably because that's how the the house is oriented for its front door but that doesn't affect the front yard based on the zoning code I see so technically for the orientation of this house it's a sidey yard but because of how it was okay I get it thank thank you okay Council come Eric is there is there a way for the city to administratively declare um one one Frontage front yard versus another side of the house of front yard there is there the applicant go through a design exception for a yard determination but even if she went through that process the front if it was High um Orleans is only 38 ft for the instead of the 60 ft so regardless of which way the yard the lot is oriented the applicant still going to be in the same situation with the accessory structure well so that accessory structure though so if if if Orleans was the front yard we'd be only just talking about a side yard setback right no sir we'd still have the setback of 38 feet from the from the probably line a oh because because the lot's just not that deep got you corre okay I get I got you so we so matter where you put it on that property it's not going to meet a setb got it okay thank you thank you any other questions or comments all right is that does that conclude everything sir yes sir okay um applicant come on up and please state your name my name is Danielle Maza go ahead and I've been sworn in um okay so I'm just here for a variance request approval for the side corner LW um I basically hired a contractor who come to find out was not licensed and I relied on faulty advice um one being the location of the structure um I approved the current location since it would mirror the building construction directly across the street which I have I don't know okay which I have right here so there's my property and the structures there and then this is my neighbor so that's why I approved the location that they gave um and then as well as I have a live oak that is sitting right here which you'll also see on the site plan that I'm having problems with my primary house WID so I wanted to make sure the structure was far enough away from that um I have this survey that I can show you so right there's the the Live Oak and there's the building um so the hardship of this project is my address applies to two front setbacks the address is Orleans Avenue but the city considers high walth of the front of the property so I'm requesting the front side yard which is on hawaa setb to be reduced to 10 ft which is uh 35 ft from the asphalt now or from the pavement and then the side corner yard to reduce speed reduce to 4T um all other specific standards will be met with the structure and will not interfere with the health safety or welfare of the community I also brought a city of Tampa Adu eligible area map to show that it's within the limits um if that helps at all but I believe that if the request is approved it would at least help the uh increase the property values in the neighborhood and that's all I have any questions or comments is there anybody in the public that wishes to speak on the side it register council member P can I get uh Eric can I are you still there the prop the property across the street is that permitted and approved structure or is that how did we get there across across on the other so the applicant showed us information that what would appear to be um construction that would mimic what they're attempting to do on this property so it would be in you know in harmony with some pre Development Across the street but is the is the is that Development Across The Street was it properly permitted and approved I can't answer that question I don't know I have not done the research on that okay all right councilman Miranda in fact I was going to ask a simar question about within uh the perimeter of this Properties or any other properties that uh have the same that they can't build and they have some something in the back already or something I don't know did yall do any checking on the on the surrounding properties that they don't have something that these folks are asking for staff did not look into that staff looked strictly at the property in question and the criteria for the request that was applied for um we don't have the ability to wave the requirements based on what was has been I understand that I understand that to develop around it so I have a question legal for legal so would this be a situation that the applicant would better be served instead of app you know the theu coming through a traditional variance request so that staff would have done the research about adjacent properties and the impact they would have on neighborhoods so we' get how would we get that information um Mr cotton can answer that question I don't I can't advise what process she should go through I can't advise that but Mr cotton can explain the difference between a variance which is governed by 27-8 and the hardship criteria versus why she maybe she elected to go through an sug1 process for because this is here for an extended family residence that use right that's why we're here the application is for an extended family residence that has specific criteria that she didn't meet so that's because of the use that she's asking for and maybe she could elaborate on it but because of the use that she's asking for that's why we're here variance is just for step back require I'm just want as as councilman Miranda echoed as well I'm just curious about how this works with the other properties adjacent properties the impact that has and how do how do we as a council in what format does that come to us when we can see the bigger picture not in this I understand councilman your question but not in this Avenue that's before you would other surrounding properties come into play because this is seeing looking at her application within itself um whether or not it does or does not meet the criteria thank you appreciate it thank you council member her yeah I I just wanted to speak to that I don't I mean this is already in in a area that that allows adus so it really I mean every single house around it could have an Adu she showed the map and no I get that I'm talking about those setbacks I understand uh the setbacks for such a weird piece of property I understand why they need to be here but I just wanted to make sure I threw that out there councilman Miranda do you anything else no no I'm sorry all right is there any rebuttal that you have at this time you have five minutes no can I get a motion to close we have a motion to close from council member Clint denn second council member Carlson all in favor I would anybody like to make a motion and the motion would be to deny or over uphold or overturn yes ma'am um I move to overturn the zoning administrator's denial of su1 2476 for the property located at 6801 North Orleans Avenue because the petitioner provided substantial and competent evidence to wave the requirement and therefore allow for an extended family residents to be in a non-conforming structure or a structure made conforming as a result of a variance as set forth in City of Tampa code section 27- 132 for the following reasons um because this is at a this is a corner lot where um both front um uh setbacks are required uh that this is really acting as a side so this is more of a side setback all right we have a motion from council member herac second council member Carlson yes sir I just want to make sure that petion know this is for family only yes my mother okay thank you very much roll call vote Clint Den you know I I'm empathetic with the situation but I'm also concerned about the the the public use of the proper you know the the neighborhood and all and I say I'm empathetic with your situation and not that my vote's going to matter in this but I'm going to vote no on that because I I just feel that we don't have enough information about the overall neighborhood and what the impacts of the reduced setbacks mean to the neighborhood in general thank you Henderson yes sieras absent Miranda yes Carlson yes herac yes and manc yes motion carried with Clint Den voting no and V are being absent at vote thank you very much next up is item 54 for a uh historic designation or Historic Landmark like designation hello sir how are you please state your name good afternoon council members Dennis Fernandez architecture review and historic preservation manager very excited uh today to be here on item number 54 which is uh adding to our inventory of uh locally historically historic landmarks in the city of Tampa and a very special one with the Dolby house the residents of Richard and Florence Doby uh you may recall when we were here in the end of 2022 expanding uh the hi Park local historic district there was a great be deal of discussion about protecting the resources of dobyville and although we did include the Dobby house in the district boundaries at that time uh we had always intended to come back to it after that initial protection was uh applied and seek uh the recognition to the structure as a local landmark and thankfully uh Miss Teran nean who is the owner is uh was very supportive and uh accommodating in researching the property with us in order to bring it to you to you uh this afternoon um Elaine lond is here with my staff she will present a uh PowerPoint to you with the basic criteria that needs to be satisfied for local Landmark designation thank you let me ask you a question just a general question this is for local Historic Landmark designation which would protect a a property from being demolished correct correct so I know that there was a building on North Franklin Street maybe 30 35 years ago and it was a Historic Landmark building but then it was taken off the registry and demolished there's there's always that's always a possibility for this is just a general question but it's not a permanent thing the uh ordinance that's applied to these properties is permanent um there's processes for demolition even with locally landmarked um properties I'm not sure which one we're talking about on the 35 years ago uh Franklin and Harrison where they're reconnecting the street it was a corner building there it was a pawn shop I was just I have a photo of and I was looking at it the other day and and I saw that it was designated but then it was demolished so just just my own so well I can tell you you know I've been here going on 24 years and in the the time I've been here there's only been one building that has been locally landmarked that had to be demolished and that was because of condition so it definitely is a factor that protects buildings uh is it 100% effective perhaps not but it does greatly increase the likelihood that a building will be preserved can I just ask a following I won't go deep into the subject but the Bro ball had a NA national designation but it must not have had a local designation I know the city had to pay a lot of money to get to deal with that right that's correct uh that particular property or any property that's listed on the national register of historic reservation does not necessarily have any protective measures with it there is some regulatory effect from federal expenditure of dollars on those particular structures that requires mitigation and that's one of the reasons why it was reconstructed in its new site however the local historic designation does bring the protections of the local ordinances and that's why we really bring those to you because these are just much more effective for us thanks yes sir Miss lond yes ma'am please state your name good afternoon Elaine lond historic preservation staff and we have a presentation for you this afternoon yep okay there we are um so as stated this is regarding the local Historic Landmark designation of the Doby house at 1405 West ail Street um the owner of the Circa 1912 Doby house once the home of Richard Doby and his family has submitted an application to the historic preservation Commission uh for the local Historic Landmark designation of the home the HPC uh reviews properties for eligibility for local historic designation in accordance with section 27257 of the city's code local designation preserves and protects our City's historic resources and the city's Heritage the Doby house is located on ail Street between Oregon and Orleans Avenues on the left you can see the property as it sat in 1915 and on the right you can see the present day aerial of the property um just to the west and the north is the cross town Expressway and lands that are owned by the Expressway Authority uh the red line on the aial map indicates this North Boundary of the local hid Park historic district um and then again again here is the map of the greater hid Park historic district with the um local Historic District boundary shown in red the blue line that you see is for the national register Historic District boundary and then the location of the Dobby house is marked by the Green Arrow um Richard Doby was well known in Tampa during the early part of the 20th century as a successful black entrepreneur in addition to owning his own businesses and Ice delivery and uh trash collection he also bought and sold real estate with enough Holdings to donate land to serve the black community in Tampa um most notably he donated the land for the dobyville elementary school and for the Zion Cemetery um he also contributed a substantial amount of funds to build the Circa 1917 St Paul am Church which is also a local Historic Landmark the Doby house is a vestage of the dobyville neighborhood which once stretched from Swan Avenue on the South to Fig Street on the North between Albany Avenue and Willow um Avenue on the East dobyville was a thriving community in the early 20th century home to many of the black Americans who worked as domestics in Hy Park the rate of home ownership in dobyville was higher than in most other black neighborhoods and it was noted that the rent quarters were in generally good condition um in addition to housing dobyville was home to the Elementary School and several churches several factories were found along the um ACL railroad which ran diagonally through the neighborhood and you can see that here in the 1957 photograph um that's the railroad Corridor running diagonally through the picture um this picture is from just prior to the beginning of the expressway construction the Doby house is located just off the bottom of this picture so we don't see it there but we do see the dobyville school in this photo um it remained open until 1966 when it was demolished to facilitate the construction of the cross town Expressway as were many of the neighborhoods um homes and businesses so this house is a modest wood frame structure it has been covered in Stucco um it's much like other houses that were constructed throughout the dobyville neighborhood while not significant for its architecture the Dobby house is significant for its association with Richard Dobby and it is considered eligible under criteria a of the national register criteria and um in the area there of community planning and development and under Criterion B in the area of ethnic Heritage the application was made um by the owner Miss nean on April 23rd of 2024 and the HPC made a recommendation to uh that city council approve this application on September 17th the Planning Commission uh completed its evaluation of the proposed designation in October and found that the application was consistent with the city of Tampa's comprehensive plan notice for this hearing has been provided to um to the owner to nearby property owners and registered organizations staff finds at this property prop meets the um criteria for designation as summarized previously uh found in section 27257 of the C City of Tampa code of ordinances and therefore we are recommending the um Doby house at 1405 West ofal Street for local Historic Landmark designation thank you thank you very much I I love when you and Mr Fernandez present something to council because the research that you do in presentation I always learn something new like I learned a lot today so great presentation um you know dobyville is such a significant part of our history and Mr Dolby and the F because there are relatives that I I know some of the relatives uh they're they're still here and uh it's it's such a significant structure so thank you very much thank you all right do we have an applicant please state your name my name is Tara nean and I am at 1405 West AAL I am the applicant and thank you for your curiosity and support I do support the local Historic Landmark designation of the Doby home 1405 West AAL for the cultural significance to the city I'm grateful for the good work of all parties including HH PNA and hiy park Spanish Town Creek all the neighbors supporters Community activists um members of the city who put in the effort to learn about share their wisdom share their knowledge to expand the local historic district to include hide Park Spanish Town Creek and parts of dobyville now we get to designate this home specifically as you know Mr Doby was noted to have been a Pioneer in the black communities in Tampa over a hundred years ago his prominence and community-minded led the neighborhood to being called dobyville I've come to learn the land as you as you know that he donated um for a church and a school um are gone now and the Zion Cemetery was lost for decades 1405 West AAL remains local Historic Landmark designation helps to keep the Doby families Richard Doby's contributions his life story and dobyville stories a lot in Tampa's history and I'm honored to play my small part thank you very much do we have any public comment for this item come on up please say your name good afternoon I'm uh Patrick shamino I live at 604 South Oregon and I'm the land use chairman of the historic High Park neighborhood association we were very involved in the expansion of the district and was quite an accomplishment and we thank all the different entities within the city the Architectural Review commission historic preservation commission city council for achieving that and this is a missing piece and thankfully um Tara is is willing to pursue this because it comes with limitations but it also it preserves a very important part of our history and that's really what we want in our local historic district so I just want to thank all the entities and thank Tara for her interest in doing this it's been a very incremental process for years and this is a a big milestone so thank you all thank you very much anybody else no is there any question or comment from Council yeah can I I Marty said I can make a comment um this is my old neighborhood association I lived two blocks from this house for years and I I love the what's left of dobyville and I'm I'm so happy that we got the historic designation extended that was something I tried to do when I was a neighbor and we couldn't and finally we did it the last couple years but um Tara if I remember correctly when you moved in this house you didn't even know what it did you know the history of it when you moved in come come on up to the so we can get you on the mic and please state your name again sorry I'm Taran nean I knew um prior to purchasing 1405 West ail I lived just two and a quarter blocks away hpna so I was familiar with the area itself and it being a historically black neighborhood for the City of Tampa um it wasn't until the pandemic gave me plenty of time to dig into the history a little bit more walk up to the sign that's really not walkable because it's in a piece of grass but the dobyville sign itself which obviously the image of it is available online so I learned a lot from moving in and the point I was going to make is that she moved in this house and then she took on the personal responsibility and and someone said if you designate a house like this you what's happening in this neighborhood is a lot of these old houses have been torn down and there people are building huge houses there and you could easily have monetized this but you took this on several years ago as a point of personal pride and um you brought in several in the home tours you brought in several tours and you've had the doe family in and and I went on a tour with you with Rodney Kai poow a few years ago and it's just so great that we have people that want to protect um important Heritage like this because because one owner could have easily uh changed all that and gotten rid of a piece of History so thank you for your dedication and thank you to the neighborhood for for continuing to work on this yeah thank you all right can I get a motion to close motion close from council member council member R all in favor I council member Carlson would you mind reading it sure um like to move number 54 file number HL 25-10 735 HPC 24-27 ordinance being presented for first reading consideration ordinance of the city of Tampa Florida designating the Doby house located at 1405 West of ZL Street Tampa Florida as more particularly described in section three here of as a local Historic Landmark providing for appeal of all ordinances and conflict providing for separability providing for effec we have motion from council member car we have second council member all in favor I any opposed motion carried with v unanimously with v being absent at vote second reading and adoption will be held on February 20th 2025 at 10:00 a.m. in city council chambers 315 East Kennedy Boulevard third floor Tampa Florida 33602 thank you very much you all right we're going to go to staff reports these are in person we're going to start with item number 60 which is the community benefits agreement followed by a stoplight at Franklin and Water Street yes ma'am Miss fely go ahead good afternoon Abby fely administrator development and Economic Opportunity um this afternoon I'd like to give you a verbal update um or to respond to the motion concerning the community benefits agreement with the Related Group and then um the reverters that are on separate property just a little history the RFP for rard was awarded March 17th of 2021 and after that award the um First Community benefits agreement in the city was developed through a series of public meetings there were three of them one on October 13th of 21 one on November 16th of 21 and one on January of 22 and then that um agreement was brought to city council and ultimately adopted by resolution 2022-23 on May 4th of 2022 um that agreement is the one that is in place now and that we are operating under um the parameters of that agreement included a West Tampa Cultural Center Workforce Development Center 40% WMBB participation repainting of the MLK Center um and of course the affordable housing commitments that were identified um in that um agreement as well and I'd like to that was there's a total of 954 units there 180 at 185 at 50% Ami 94 at 80% % Ami 368 at 140% Ami and 307 market rate um so just wanted to share that information um there was not discussion related to the yellow jackets through the development of that CBA um that CBA has not been amended or needed to be as the project um is getting started and um they're doing environmental remediation out of the site right now prior to Vertical construction um so in terms of addressing anything additional with the yellow jackets that agreement would not be able um to to address that at this time um and then in relation to the um the releasing of the reverter Clauses on the county building there are there are the County's Head Start building is on a property that is owned by the city um with a reverter that it is not used for Health Services Provisions that it reverts back to to the city um and right now there is dis there are discussions going on in relation to that but that is a contract type of agreement that are is in negotiations and if um if we reach agreement on that those items would come back to city council but at this time there has been no release of the reverter either on the Head Start property or on the MLK Center which is a county-owned property that's used by the city with a reverter that would go back to the county if we do not use it um for Park purposes so that is my update today council member head I didn't even cut on my light yet well was your motion thank you thank you chair um thank you Miss beely for your report have we ever amended a community benefit agreement so we only have one this is it um this is the first one this was the first one and it's the only one we have right now you have another one forth coming to you related to Gas Works but it is in the public meeting stage right now in fact I believe they had a meeting last night um so this is the only one that we currently um have was there a meaningful um conversation or any communication with the Related Group group regarding the yellow jackets or was this an internal decision based on us saying that it's not amendable at this time like did you present it to them at all the yellow jackets in the community benefits agreement and the rard community benefits agreement actually um doesn't predate me but I was not involved in that process um but our community benefits ordinance spells out how those agreements have to be developed with those public meetings um the developer holds those public meetings with the community and then they bring back what the summaries of those were believe they're attached to the community benefits agreement in exhibit B of that agreement um so I I cannot speak to that at this time I'm sorry yeah well I'm talking about since the motion was made you know the motion was made by me in this chamber about um the possibility of the Related Group addressing their Community benefit um agreement and making a modification to include um the yellow jackets are they aware of the amount of acreage that they received you know in terms of the Rome yard development that was the yellow jackets do they know the historical aspect I mean I'm just trying to get some understanding in context as to how did we get here where we could paint the building across the street as a part of the community benefit agreement which is our you know park and recreation facility that can be a part of the community benefit agreement but the actual land where the yellow jackets once were housed um you know couldn't be a part of an initial discussion so it's my understanding that the land related to that and and whatever took place was prior to the RFP the RFP then went out it did not specify anything in that relationship um to providing any additional amenities or or anything related to that the responses that came in and related was not the only one um you know they were evaluated on the context of the RFP in terms of the award being granted and then once the award was granted um the developer that received that award in this case related then performed the development of the CBA in context with the CBA ordinance so um it wouldn't be I don't believe and I can let the legal department speak to that um Rebecca is here with me today Miss John's um I don't believe at this point we would would have standing to go back to them to open up what was fulfilled as in compliance with our ordinance in terms of having a further discussion okay thank you I can I I'll talk to Miss Rebecca will you come to the podium please this is um I guess from a legal standpoint I know that we I know that the Related Group is not obligated um to change a community benefit agreement but since this is our first one um could there be an opportunity to amend a community benefit agreement if there were serious discussions regarding it Rebecca John's legal department if both parties agree to amend an agreement then an amendment would come back before you and who are the approval um are you DG and the City of Tampa okay we're the other part correct but we have have no ability to force them to amend this agreement they would have to agree to do it right okay so the conversation would have to take place first corre find there would have to be negotiations okay so if we're agreeable and they're agreeable to open up a conversation how do we go about doing that then we would bring an amendment to the CBA before you just like we do any agreement that we bring before you for your approval okay so but that means that you would have to ask them if they're amendable to having the so it's 50/50 if we say yes they have to agree to and then they would have to agree and then we could find out if they agree or not they we correct it would be just like any other negotiations for an agreement we would negotiate them come with them come to an agreement and then we would document it bring that document to you for approval okay so that means that that's there's two parties involved The Originators us because it's our land that we gave to them we gave it away did they buy it the yellow jackets we own it yeah we owned it but did we give it to Related Group as a part of the yard development part of it we are leasing to them and part of it we will be deeding to them the town home portion will be deeded to them deed to them but the the remainder of it is leased to them I don't know if this is a legal question or a difficult question so who benefits the most from this Community benefit agreement in terms of giving away the yellow jackets field and them building town homes on what we just finished listening to a historical um I guess we'll get a historical marker that's that's what what the yellow jackets would get at this point you know where we would acknowledge that they were once there that's what's done um in situations where you know once um African-American people lived and worked and played is now just historical markers so I'm just trying to figure out if there is an opport a serious opportunity here and it requires actually a conversation with Related Group that appears to have not have happened upar it requires a conversation with related does and it requires related to be willing to well that's great because because related really wants to do a lot of business in the city of Tampa so them opening themselves up to a conversation is not a threat it's just an opportunity and we can find out you know their position on this um and and and not be forced I don't want to twist their arms I don't want to do that it is a community benefit agreement if they're willing to paint our um Martin Luther King facility across the street that has nothing to do with the Rome yard project as a part of the community benefit agreement certainly the land where they are building town homes that was once the baseball field to the Yellow Jacket land that we owned uh that's an opportunity to look at the community benefit agreement at least that is my opinion and I'm stating so publicly because I represent the 65,000 constituents in the district where the yellow jackets were housed for many years land that was given to them after a young boy was killed and they gave it to the city gave them that land and said well we're not going to build you the baseball field we'll give you the land but you all have to build a baseball field yourselves and they did that and so there some sort of between Mayors um the Jack is ended up on the short end of the stick by being placed outside of the West Tampa Community in Tampa Heights next to a graveyard and so I'm just trying to as a council member um make the community happy with um a better decision now that there's a different Council so if there's a a recommendation just by listening to you and Miss phy is that it could start with finding out if council's interested in coming to the table or is the mayor who would be who who would have to do it first us or the mayor um well the the mayor is responsible for negotiating real the mayor and the administration is responsible for negotiating these agreements um so you could make a request that the administration look at doing this and if it's beneficial then to start those discussions because I would rather for us to paint our um our Martin Luther King Center I'd rather for us to do that and to make yellow jackets a little bit better than what it was and then also maybe even a part of this is finding out because think about it from this perspective what the yellow jackets gave up you know and all of the things that you know one particular uh very involved citizen um was saying you know he was promised and now that Administration is gone um you know they are in a tra they have a trailer over at a baseball field but they built they they had infrastructure and two baseball fields I mean it's a lot of acreage I don't know how many acres is a base two baseball fields and what have you but um for this long span period of time not only did it sit vacant and empty and it's still that way you know whereas the yellow jackets could have still been there and made whole and then moved to a better facility so so there's just a lot of stuff on our end that I I'm trying to rectify publicly and so um I that's what I would like maybe it to begin with a conversation with the mayor to see if she's interested in going to the table with Related Group and finding out if they're interested in um having this conversation because it doesn't sound like that actually you know happened um where they actually and I you know me just listen now is that it can't happen unless our side probably starts first because you know I don't see a big developer volunteering you know to do something so it has to start on our end so maybe my motion was not the right motion from the very beginning when I said to talk to Related Group I need to start internally is that what you're saying based on that is probably a good plan to um speak with the administration and get a plan on our side before we approach related okay well before I make any motions if there is comments from the deis um that would be really nice I uh you know I've learned that you got to get to four so just want to hear what you all have to say then I will add before I go to council member Carlson Miranda Clint Denon I'm happy to support you in a motion asking that the administration start that conversation because it's you you had mentioned deeded and least is the parcel that is the baseball field the former Yellow Jackets is that City owned that slee or did we de it to them you're really going to test my memory without having the agreement in front of me is that part of the agreement that is that is part of what will be leas to them so it's leas to them so we have we have we own it so we have you know I mean we have control of the property even though there's an agreement you know the conversation here is and I've heard about the yellow jackets peeled from from all over the all over the the community you know people that just care about historic preservation in general and like council member Henderson said you know so much gets demolished and we get a historic marker of what used to be that that partial is there I know the yellow jackets are you know it's another part of town but historically I mean that is the important parcel I think a lot can be done through communication and talking the worst they can say is no but um it's the right thing to do and I think if council member Henderson were to make a motion uh supported by council members saying you know we're asking the administration the mayor to reach out and have that discussion perhaps related would be open to it and we can figure something out I mean the Rome yard project is is massive uh this is a small piece but it's a very important piece of the community again I've heard this from I can't even tell you how many people hey the yellow jackets the yellow jackets you know the historical significance uh we've lost so much much of Tampa's history to the interstate through urban renewal on and on and on I think if uh if council's willing and we because I'm going to I want to support if she makes a motion I'm going to support this uh that we ask the mayor the administration to reach out and have that discussion perhaps you know related would be would be willing to talk about it and see where we can go from there so I'm I'm in support council member Carlson Miranda clendenon yeah one thing I I I agree I'm in report as well um one thing we can do is continue this this document until um until something happens um you all remember that this um this project started under the last Administration and then it suddenly got delayed for for kind of the committee was suspicious about why it got delayed and then it was punted to this Administration this Administration held an RP and uh we were not involved in the RP we were not consulted on it um um then they NE they chose related they negotiated for a year before they told us anything about it and then they brought it to us for approval um uh I don't remember discussions about the about the yellow jackets at all during that time is had somebody brought it up we would have all defended it um but but what happened is all that conversation went on um the uh the ironic thing now is that the um the former mayor who punted this is now lobbyist for the Related Group and and also I've said this before but I think the mayor has a conflict of interest because the mayor's Partners firm uh is a lobbying firm for the Related Group also and that was confirmed to me both of those were confirmed to me by related Representatives um apparently the mayor's partner does not work on it specifically but the mayor's Partners firm works on it and and I think that um that someone should be designated on staff to negotiate this that the Related Group is very philanthropic we see uh um uh they've given to Tim Museum of Art they've given bero that's on the on the on bore they give all they you know he he has two I think two museums down in Miami I mean they're incredibly philanthropic and I think they they're nice people and they would be willing to to do something and so I think we ought to have a conversation even though you can't negotiate directly I think you should offer to meet with them especially since um I know the legal department May disagree with me uh but based on the ethics rules of the city and the state I think that the mayor personally has a conflict and somebody else should negotiate it um and um I I think that at the very least we should approve a letter that would be sent by you or Andor the the chair um uh to the representative or related to ask them if they would consider this and I think they're reasonable people and they would um separately I want to talk about the request of commissioner Myers but I I want I want to tell you I support you in this um in whatever you decide to do can I I just had a thought um Miss John Okay so just outside of Related Group U cuz I met Mr Milo um for lunch some months back and um I purposely did not have this conversation because I didn't know if I had the legal authority to do so um even a conversation with the mayor where if where she's open open to putting it in her budget to make the yellow jackets whole on behalf of the city of Tampa and Park and Recreation where there is money um funds set aside you know it doesn't have it I it doesn't have to be related group um from from some perspective you know Community Goodwill I think it should be but that's a personal opinion not a mandate and I want to make that clear because I know these developers do watch Council meetings um you know I'm just open to us making an effort um a sincere effort um to not just keep kicking the can on the yellow jackets um whereas we could at least have an opportunity um to bring parks and wreck in and say hey what can we do um and you know to to improve the situation over there the the the um one thing and is this probably I'm going to go ahead and say it now because I know um that my report the reporter may just take the blurb of what I said about this entire area um and go ahead on and say it's now on record that when when the nor Boulevard homes was demolished we did it all at one time and a wonderful person in my community who is a licensed clinical social worker said that that was genocide to the black community because we could have done it in phases and what's ironic about that is in Miami a major development Housing Development that the Related Group actually is still constructing they did it in phases and so that is um one of the the I think the The Faults of the past administration in dealing with this because I did ask the previous mayor you know why did you move the yellow jackets and he said because there were no kids there and so my immediate thought was yes because you tore down the entire Community you tore it down all at once you demolished it and so now we're here as a new body to try to you know Rectify this and not you know look so much at politics but at you know um doing what's best for the City of Tampa especially especially because um hands down a historical marker would be the easiest thing for us to do that's that's that's going to happen because the yellow jackets is real and they were there for a very long time it it it originated there so that's the easy part of us moving em motion for that a little bit of effort to uh because they moved outside of the community is something that we we need to rectify and I want the administration as well as city council to be a part of that um and not make it so what I need from the staff is for you all to come up with the yes instead of me months and months of this coming back and just me still you know trying to address it you you all know how we can get here and we can get here faster if the staff and city council are on board and that so that's what I want that that's that's what I want and I I I'll leave it at that Council Miranda then Clint my fan you know I've said it earlier many times and u i I think what they did they they promised them something at Plymouth Park I think it was and um that's a long way for them to travel and we said that I think at during the meeting way back but I I don't know what happened after that I know that they played or practiced at Plymouth Park I don't know if they were successful or not I don't know if they broke up or not I don't know if they still have a baseball because there was no one there so I don't know I don't know then what happened to the yellow jackets I really don't so I think that's the first thing we got to carry the cross for and the second thing is about the uh the park and maybe Mr Moy who's the head of the uh Parks and Recreation can lighten us as to what how what size is the park where's what's coming up and what any plans for it whatever and I hate to put you on the spot but I'll saw you in the audience that's what I'm here for good afternoon Tony Maly Parks and Recreation director uh councilman and rest of council thank you uh so the the move was made in 2019 to Calvin Taylor Park as everybody knows uh that park has uh two smaller size Fields the one that Plymouth that you're were talking about is Doc Nance and that has um has the larger field but uh from what I've researched on this and found that there was a lot of negotiation on which site that that they wanted out of the two that was offered and and it was settled on the Calvin Taylor park at the end of the day because they had two fields and some infrastructure that that the other one did not have at that point uh at the time that they were transferred the administration allocated $250,000 for improvements to the space the fields were redone with regrading the dugouts were rebuilt and since then internally we we have focused some resources towards there and we continue to do so and and really would like to look at the big picture of what we can do like you said you know we'd like a road map we would like to kind of take a look at that and and leaving here I'll I'll have our Athletics team really take a look at that site and see what wholesale improvements can be done as we prepare our budgets but that is that is one of those things that we've recently engaged with the Rays that installed new uh screens around the property we we we understand the dynamic with that portable trailer we're bringing in higher end Portable Restrooms instead of portal so that they have a place to to um you know go to and the reason is that I remember going over the North Boulevard Bridge or whatever you want to call it to the right was heading heading south was the park the yellow jackets Park and there was uh it looked to me like it was like a a major small kids park with one big field and I don't know if it had a couple of smaller Fields but I remember the big it looked like a softball field which was a size of a 12y old baseball player boys and girls uh area to play so I don't know about the other Dynamics if there was anything bigger than that uh I'm sure it might have been but I don't remember I just remember seeing one park there one me really neat little thing neighborhood two fields on that site one was a larger field that that's comparable to that Plymouth site and realiz all that but uh and then I I'll talk to you lat about Henry and Ola when you have a chance it's not now we this not on the agenda for today thank you very much I appreciate it welcome I support that too council member CL yeah some of um what councilman Miranda just spoke about was what I wanted to talk about one some of this makes me uncomfortable that one this was an agreement that the question was asked and answered I mean not just in not in this Administration but even the previous administration so it's like it puts us in a really difficult position because it was not even this mayor it was a previous mayor that negotiated this with a private entity and reference the possession of the property a lease is a lease just like a transferring control I mean it is transferring control of the property if you have a a binding lease when you had a you had a meeting to the minds of two parties and you signed an agreement that's a binding agreement I mean so I mean so we're we're left with that reality I don't even know how comfortable I am and then I'm going to contradict myself when I finish this I I think that we have an internal City thing where we have just like in many parks in this but specifically because of the the sensitivity of this of this particular property because of the Yellow Jacket league and what it meant to so many people in the community we have an obligation to bring this up to standards that's a city responsibility has nothing to do with this private entity it's something we need to do we're going to we're going to go in we're probably just about ready to start in the next fiscal year budget cycle we need to make sure that that budget cycle has enough money in there to put permanent restrooms to put the the facilities in there that people that the community demands the community wants you know make sure that that stuff is there and that's that's a city responsibility now I'm going to contradict myself because I also have a question and I don't mean to be revisiting something the question that has been asked and answered but I I keep wondering is it is it too late because now we have County Commissioner Gwen Myers has been a strong advocate for this Center which is across the way which is a substantial investment on you know history and it's going to be it's going to be an amazing project hopefully fingers crossed and it seems as though what we're trying to do and what we did with the benefit agreement is kind of like pointless at this point because of what commissioner Myers is doing and is there better use of that resources and are we just because we bought a car that you know we bought a 1970s Plymouth and now there's going to be a Rolls-Royce I mean is are we are we wasting money taxpayer money and is there better use of that money for the community and is that a conversation a broader conversation that we should be having about this project the world changed from the time this benefit agreements was negotiated we're in a different world we probably need to have that conversation otherwise we look like the government people hate like why can't we pivot why can't we at least have that conversation I and I think that is the and obviously you know legal staff said this is something that it's not this Council it's the administration but I'm just saying that for the public that you know I'm sorry go ahead I I I do just again Rebecca John's Lego Department I do just want to point out that because this is a community benefit agreement and this came about due to discussions with the community and now there is a community benefit ordinance that requires public meetings right any amendment to this agreement I think really does need to involve discussions with the community also because you're amending a community benefit well I I concur 100% but I mean that's kind of apples before the you know the is I think what we have to do is somebody has to have the discussion and obviously the administration is listening to this so I think it's probably wise to have that broader conversation I mean again and I'm uncomfortable with it too because I get the fact that we have agreements and when is when when do you keep revisiting things you know every time that you think I mean I get that I totally get that but this this because of what the commission is doing and this project across the way I think the scale of it just went tipped it over a little bit to say maybe we could revisit this and again separate and apart from that we need to we have a lot of improvements that need to be made in the city and I think that Park is one of them and we need to have that we need to have that um we need to have that discussion and give it the resources that it deserves and done council member her attack thank you in in my opinion this is what amendments are made for that's that's what an amendment is I mean when things change you amend and I agree um wholeheartedly with everyone else that this has that we have to at least have the conversation about amending it because yes do we want two competing community centers across I mean what's the value in that and in in theory at the community benefit agreement when everyone came to an agreement that was a great idea but now the county is going to do a bigger more I'm I mean based on the designs I've seen more comprehensive so why are we you know replicating so can we turn and take that money and use it for the yellow jackets instead my only thing is and if we have to end up doing it ourselves I'm fine with that I just don't want it to come out of the park and wreck budget as a whole because it's already low I want us to find the money um within the budget somewhere else that's the only thing I would want because but again I don't think we should start there I think should be the last thing I mean I think we should just say that we're going to make them whole whatever it takes but the first thing I would love to do is see if we could take that money that was going to go toward a cultural center that is now the County's going to do and help and as you said the mural we don't I mean we could do that ourselves and just and do whatever it takes to see if we can move that money to make them whole I I think that's absolutely the right thing to do uh you're you're on the right track 100% support you and it sounds like the entire Council supports you so um however we need to go forward um I will I will back you in that well the the other part of this is is that um and I commissioner Myers um you know yes we didn't talk yesterday she did call me U because this is two different entities the commission and you know if they're if they're on board with her the the cultural center um there is a reveral La in place and I don't know if the city is necessarily I don't know if staff is you know willing the mayor's office is willing to give that up um because we're building a cultural center that could also be a part of what commissioner Myers is trying to do I know that at one point it was offered to her and she declined um so that's why that's why this is so complicated and also let me just say this what can happen at the Yellow Jackets field is really in terms of in my had a a smaller much smaller budget than building a 20,000 foot cultural center it's just just totally different this is this the Simplicity of making the Yellow Jacket hole in my mind doesn't really take a lot of money and you're right the parks and R's budget is tight so it would require you know for the um you know the budget to increase in order to do that if it was our responsibility see that's what makes this tricky because I don't know if I ne necessarily want to support you know get get um releasing the revera Clause what we getting if we give that up that's not fair you know it's supposed to be used for health services and um you know for us to to to give that up what are we getting from the county you know I mean I don't know that is so today is for okay what I would do I would end with this um you know how I I need a moment of reflection before I even make a motion so I I don't want to rush any even make a motion today I really appreciate the conversation I I will come back at a different time um because it was just a report presented um we're not required to do anything with it in terms of you know um but we we we can only talk up here so I'll I'll give it some more thought um because of the nature of even the the cultural center um that Gwen Meers is proposing really it doesn't have anything to do with us I don't know if she's raised all the funding um at one point um you know I heard it was going to cost about $50 million you know construction cost probably I mean sure has changed quite a bit since she probably even initiated the idea and so that could be so much longer down the road and we're still trying to you know um we're still talking about the yellow jackets and this and and so I just need to think about it I really appreciate the conversation because the um the cultural center that the community decided upon with Rome yard I don't want to step on those toes either you know what I'm saying they because there are people on that side that want it to to be exactly how they indicated it with all of that conversation so I'll just end it with that um and I appreciate the conversation I'd like to see the cultural center built and I'd like to see the yellow jackets field restored to the original location that's my goal so whatever you decide and and I I I I rather I know I'm a little bit different I would go ahead on and have this conversation with the mayor um and see you know what her position is um rather than make a motion h and have to wait for staff to come back it's just easier you know to Hash it out and because I can talk to her without breaking Sunshine whatever you want to do so I'll start there I want to I want to be supportive you know if it but you know you you have the conversation and then reflect upon it and when you're ready to make a motion council member from Dennis yeah I just want because of people listening I just want people the the the property on the the Rome yard property I that's that again that question has been asked and answered as far as development where as far as making whole and is the because that property swap was done a long time ago for the we need to we need to make sure that the facilities they are currently utilizing are up to standards and they have everything they want in that facility I think that's a realistic goal of this Council and the administration I mean revisiting like taking back property that's been leased away or sold away is UN oh that was never I I just I I was I was listen I heard something I go oh no we can't do that it's just so just make sure we we need to and everything you said yeah no I found out a long time ago that we cannot that's extortion to get the property back so but I I do I think it's I think it's appropriate that we request yeah that the administration um you know address the two issues that we've just discussed one is what are what what's it containing is that what's contained in that uh Community benefit agreement is it pertinent to 2026 and Beyond I mean or has has time moved past that is it is it worth revisiting that stuff and also how we can maybe possibly reopen that Community benefit agreement so that I don't think related wants to throw money away either you know I don't think they're because they're they're obligated to spend M I don't think they're they're not going to want to spend money that's not going to be appreci that's that's going be not going to be appreciated I mean they're doing this because they want to do for the community and you know obviously so I mean I I would have to think that they would want to spend their money wisely all right anybody else no yes sir yeah I just I want to follow up on commissioner Myers's request um I know council member Henderson kind of addressed it and Miss fely kind of addressed it but um this is what I've talked to commissioner Myers and her Aid and what they're requesting is a mutual release of the reverter Clauses for the County's property on 2103 North Rome Avenue where the future African-American Arts and Cultural Center will be built so they say that they've been going back and forth with the city uh with some language but um miss fely or somebody could you just tell us one more time is that it are are you saying that this will be an amendment once that is is signed that that will be an amendment and this is specifically the thing that you're working on or is this different than what you talked about earlier I'm not sure I understand your question the the the paragraph that I just read that they sent me um about the reverter Clause um in regard to 2103 North Rome Avenue um is that is that um they the commissioner Meers Aid said that there's negotiation going on between the county and the city um I think specifically in regard to this language um was that what you were referring to at the beginning of this conversation that is being negotiated and will be an amendment or is this different than that it would it would not be an amendment to the CBA in any way the reverters are a separate issue it is being negotiated and so there's nothing in the CBA that prohibit the reverters from is is no they're completely unrelated okay now that being said if if an agreement is reached or something happens where it appears that the other Cultural Center is moving forward clearly we would not have two cultural centers and then we would I look back at the CBA in order to reappropriate or to have that discussion but I don't know that we're at that point yet in where all of this is in order to take it out of the CBA and any I don't know that we have those assurances yet um so those negotiations um Mr Massie did send over some language for the county to consider I believe they're reviewing that right now and then if that if we were to come to agreement on that I believe that those reverters or the release of those reverters would come before Council yeah yeah what one last last thing um further to what council member uh Clint Denon said um uh related as a private company uh one of their areas of investment is affordable housing and uh you know they're a for-profit organization but they're very philanthropic but a deal is a deal the city cut a deal with them several years ago and now what we're asking uh for them to do is to work with us or negotiate with us uh but we don't have the right to go in and just change a deal that was signed several years ago so that's that's all Council woman Henderson yeah just one last question um do we do we have our own plans for the um land that GW Meers is interested in for a cultural center do we have plans for it as well that's possibly in place not that I'm aware of I mean right now it is the Head Start Center and that's when we leased it or conveyed it to the county for that use that is where we said I think the intent was given in the conveyance that um that land is to be used for that use and if it is no longer used for that use then the city would like it back so isn't it a possibility that we still need that because of the all the Housing Development that's there that we would still need that facility or or or Head Start I mean would they the would still need those services in that location anyway you can't answer that that's their question that's for them Miss beely thank you very good is there anything else nope not for me thank you staff that was rough it was not it was not it was interesting no 300 people here to 3 in the morning is rough yeah that's true that's true very good okay so we're going to move on to item 61 didn't no this was the uh no good afternoon Council uh Brandon Campbell mobility department I did uh upload a brief presentation for item 61 uh into onbase if that can be brought up there we go okay thank you um so the question that you all had asked us to address was uh what was the justification uh for installing traffic signals at the intersection of Franklin and water as well as uh Franklin Street and the dick Recco Plaza uh uh pedestrian Crossing so a little background I know some of this was addressed even in public comment this morning uh but in January of 2020 um Vic and I and some other staff members met with Harbor Island stakeholders at the Tampa Convention Center uh to talk to them about what their concerns were uh on the Franklin Street and Harbor Island Boulevard Corridor uh specifically between Brine and uh nights run um there were several things that came out of that uh the overarching theme uh was uh conflicts between pedestrians and vehicles and and more particularly during special events um so we engaged with a consultant uh it's it was stantech um if you're not familiar with stantech they have 450 offices uh across six continents um and one of them happens to be um on Harbor Island uh directly on Harbor Island Boulevard uh so we thought they were a great fit uh considering that they have the combination of uh the daily user experience uh with the expertise in traffic engineering to take a look more closely at the problems that that or the concerns I suppose I should say uh that that the residents brought up uh and make some recommendations uh for mitigating some of those concerns uh they made several of them uh among them uh one has already been been implemented uh that is um noteworthy and and uh easy to see the the progress on that is the right turn lane off of Channel Side onto South Franklin um it previously was a shared through and right uh we converted it to a right turn only lane uh and gave it a uh separate signal head and a dedicated right turn phase to help uh reduce the number of conflicts between those right turning vehicles and the pedestrians across the south side cross uh they also uh recommended installing the two signals in question today um I uploaded also into onbase uh this the complete study um it's it's fairly lengthy so I don't want to get into too many details on that uh but they looked at the uh signal warrants that are outlined in the manual on uniform traffic control devices uh it's a mouthful it is a federal document uh that sets forth uh a lot of rules and expectations uh regarding all types of of traffic control devices uh and uh specifically signals as well um there are nine warrants within the uh McD's uh warrant analysis guidance um and they are meant to address different types of conflict so uh some of those are vehicle and vehicle conflicts some of those are are uh crash experience some of those have to do with school traffic uh the one that that uh really applied most uh closely here was warrant for which is the uh pedestrian warrant there are a couple of different measures um and and the study took uh counts at different times to compare the conflicts between the the vehicles using uh those those intersections uh and the pedestrians using them as well um and and within that study there were um so there's the warrant itself uh uses a graph and uh has a minimum threshold for p pedestrians but that that minimum threshold is it changes depending on how much vehicle traffic is there so uh just to to simplify it if there's a a whole bunch of pedestrians but no vehicles to conflict with them um that threshold is going to be much higher because there's just not that much conflict um so uh the there's a little text on here I don't know if you can read it but um they they the study itself uh talked about how traffic should flow more efficiently uh by organizing and separating The Pedestrian movements from the vehicles um and in short uh it brings more order to uh the expectations of all users uh so both uh pedestrians uh currently as it stands there's nothing telling any pedestrians uh to to wait for a vehicle to go through as as Florida state law outlines um and as should be the case uh vehicles are required to yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk and there's really no there's no order to it in in the way that uh pedestrians may be bunched together and and cross um in a group uh we we intend uh as we signalize these two locations to uh to to time those signals and to uh set up detection so that uh they remain in green uh for Franklin Street when there is no conflicting demand and and that's uh a little different from the constantly cycling signals throughout most of downtown however um there is a good analog to that uh if you go down Jackson Street uh in front of the Hillsboro County school um uh the district building uh there's there is a a signal there that remains in green for eastbound traffic unless someone comes up and pushes that button or if someone pulls up on the side street um so it it is something that that uh we do on occasion as the as the circumstance chances um allow for and and dictate um I did want to also share the graphic uh a graphic that we brought to the community uh there has been some feedback some some uh concern about the spacing of those signals uh and I think it's helpful to zoom out and take a little higher level uh look uh to see that the spacing of the signals U that would be installed at Water Street uh and at the the crosswalk itself it's in in the range of 250 ft which is the block spacing throughout downtown uh and while they are on the the edge of the urbanized signalized corridors uh it does fit in the context of of what we have all throughout downtown um I I also I did not put in the presentation but I wanted to address a couple of things uh that were brought up in in public comment this morning um just so that that uh we all sort of are on the same page with that um there was one thing that was that was um mentioned about the potential for a mini roundabout there uh I have some concerns about space requirements of a mini roundabout it's only about 55 ft uh from corner to corner diagonally across that intersection uh and so additional space would would have to come from uh the adjacent sidewalks most likely uh and I don't know that we have the right of way there uh but even more fundamentally than that um it solves the wrong problem uh right now what is happening is that again there's there's nothing telling pedestrians hey let's wait let's let cars go through and then you can go as a group um at a roundabout the the crosswalks themselves are treated exactly as they are now which is to say that when a pedestrian wants to cross they're they're allowed to do so uh the other thing that was brought up this morning that I wanted to address was the timing of the traffic counts that were taken for uh the Stant Tech study um I mentioned we we initiated the study in early 2020 um just before the pandemic hit uh you may notice that in that slide about the stantech study it was completed in 2022 uh there was an interval there where they held off on taking those counts because of uh the lack of events uh in in downtown um they they specifically looked at two separate events one was a preseason game a preseason Lightning game at the arena uh and the other was a Convention Center event uh if I remember correctly I believe the estimated attendance was about 6,000 um and and so they're pretty good measures of what we expect to see On Any Given night with an event at either of those facilities um we we believe that the time frame that those counts were taken um is is only a conservative measure of what's going on down there since then uh the number of events and the number of pedestrians has only increased uh thereby increasing the number of conflicts uh so with that um I would open it up to any questions you might have council member Carl yeah thank you for going through do this um I'm the the bottom line with this is that the Harbor ising community doesn't want either light either additional light um a year or two ago they said okay since you all aren't budging we'll accept the the Marriott the light at the Marriott at the base of the bridge but we absolutely won't accept the one at Greco Plaza and the city kept moving forward and the city frankly played really dirty Politics on it and it's the same kind of dirty politics we saw on the on the South Howard project that when somebody's making $65 million so you can understand why they would push that uh but this is just a red light and I asked the lightning more than once did you all ask for this and they said no yeah Thunder Alley is through there but they didn't ask for it they don't need it and so why would somebody push so hard for this I don't understand is it just that the administration wants to be proven right or is it that some engineer wants to be proven right um a Cory is that there are a lot of erratic decisions being made in the mobility department now and storm order to some extent but in Mobility on on um east of Wilson High Middle School on Swan about a year ago the city went in and suddenly put uh bike Lanes in place of um cars and so the residents all called me and said why did they do this they didn't tell us anything about it and and the city pushed back and said no we're just going to keep this and I called Vic and said this is crazy you can't do something like that without letting people know and so Vic said okay I'll look at it the next day started getting emails from walk bye Tampa and so I called them and I said what happened what how did you guys even know about this and and and and you know this didn't exist until a few days ago and they said a member of the of the mobility department called them took them on a tour a walking tour and explain to them how this is a dumb idea and I was a bad guy because I wanted to get rid of bike Lanes which is absolutely not true I'm in favor of bike Lanes but there's this erratic dirty politics being played in this case also the neighborhood association have been representing the The Neighbors the mayor's office has had two or three public meetings where they didn't even invite the neighborhood leaders and I don't understand we know in hindsight and probably there'll be lawsuits about the South Howard project it's absolutely insane and irresponsible that we pass something like this but the fight over a over a a um a traffic light when we need potholes filled all over the city do we need more traffic lights on Bayshore we need traffic lights in other neighborhoods I don't understand I'm not asking a question I'm just making a stat I do not understand why this ad is it somebody in the administration or somebody in the staff we've seen erratic behavior from some of the staff but we also see this um this the the community absolutely doesn't want it um the other thing we know from because I go through there myself and it and it backs up all the way to Howard Avenue by the way is we have a pedestrian problem um what happens is when you're turning right underneath the the the convention center there's pedestrians Crossing there and and I've asked many times to ban having the police haphazardly shut things down because the traffic lights can handle everything what we need to do is is stop the pedestrian traffic on on the north side of that street and have it all to the South side because people can't turn right it's blocking it's it's causing gridlock in South Tampa because of that one turn and the second turn is up at at the next Street near Pam or garage um we need to protect pedestrians we need to get pedestrians the right away but but the way it's being handled again is halfhazard the whole downtown traffic system is messed up I've talked to all the major players they're all upset about it and we seem not to be able to get fixed this but I don't understand why this and it's not again it's not a question why this Administration is playing such dirty politics over a traffic light it doesn't make sense just give it up and let's move the money to potholes and and give Harbor Island what they want oh my goodness I want to hit a bunch of those things some of them in concurrence some of them maybe not um yeah that intersection at um you know coming in off of The Bridge coming into downtown making the right on Franklin is a mess I find it terrible policing and their traffic control there is just terrible it's just it's just terrible um I experienced that all the time in fact I've actually made commentary to some of the police officers guys you guys got to do a better job of policing that intersection badly they need to do a better job um you know what this is this is one of those things that we're having to suffer the consequences of councils and administrations of of of a bygone era you know they they have completely overdeveloped without the infrastructure and that's why every time we push back all the time on sometimes people come with these what looks like a good project but the infrastructure doesn't support it and and then now some you know here we are as a as a living example of a lot of development you know we've got some you know things that are happening on Harbor Island um much to some folks displeasure and you know it's going to contribute more to this problem uh infrastructure issues something tells me that none of this none of this is the solution I mean nothing that we're talking about this is all lipstick on the pig or Band-Aid you know whatever euphemism you'd like to use nothing that we're talking about is going to solve any problem and it's going to create just as many problems as we attempt to solve I mean obviously the the solution would be for the Tampa Convention Center to expand over the road and have egress on the east side of Franklin so that we don't have all this pedestrian traffic going back and forth you know that's the solution this is the this this is not the solution but you know liability I don't know I'm going to I'll talk you know I have I've never said anything about it because I have a vested interest in it because I live in front of those bik Lanes you just talked about on Swan uh but now that you opened it up I will tell you that in the exchange for just a couple of parking spots bark bike ride ride bikee whatever the organizations they're right I mean when when the the public pressure from a handful of people ended up creating that made the mobility department go back there and restripe that property we now have a much more unsafe situation on Swan with bikers and Walkers and car traffic we've compressed uh We've compressed Lanes people can't back out into out from their driveways because the the traffic is right there up against you um and literally just in exchange for a couple of parking spots when the mobility first went in there and restriped that I understand the art center I live right there there I see it every day I get it I get the impact that it has but for the greater good for the greatest amount of people for the City of Tampa we should have left well left alone and let those bike Lanes be where they were with and be protected and be safe because it is a highly used Corridor for Walkers and bikers highly used Corridor and and and and also cars by the way not so much parking it's I mean there literally a handful of parking spots so anyway I digress um you know we we we've got to do better so I'm trying to understand so the the traffic roundabout because I just spent last weekend before last in Sarasota with a plethora of roundabouts what does it solve and what problems do would it create a small roundabout at the intersection by the Marriott uh so roundabout as it was presented this morning I know that that um a mini roundabout was was discussed uh if I remember correctly I believe that uh the engineer who who brought it up said 80 ft in diameter um and so I I'm not certain that it it even fits so just for for clarity there let's just say we could get the property so if if hypothetically property wasn't the problem so a roundabout would reduce the conflicts between turning Vehicles specifically um but because there's no additional traffic control for the crosswalks at roundabout as opposed to what's out there there now um the the targeted issue but which is conflicts between pedestrians and cars is not really mitigated by a roundabout um roundabouts slow traffic I don't know that there's truly a a speed problem there but they're good at at slowing traffic and at uh separating conflicts between cars just between cars so if you were if we were looking at this from a purely how we're going to design the best system to resolve conflict between vehicles and vehicles and vehicles and pedestrians and you're going to design with the layout we have now with the hotels the arena the convention center the Riverwalk and egress and Ingress to Harbor Island how would you fix this if you weren't using a traffic light okay that sounds like a Vic be equation sure I think I think you hit up on a really good point and there is an asymmetry between the kind of land use and the intens it that we have in downtown and the kind of transportation system we're lent to because of circumstances so ideally the kind of land use that we have in our downtown today is best served by significant transit services and a much different mode mix we are still primarily cars and when we say we have a pedestrian problem most of those pedestrians are driving ders as well but we're still but but we we except that we have so many because the hotels and tourist and lightning games and so we have a high density of pedestrian traffic in this particular area and then we have a major residential mixed use residential community on an island with only two bridges that have to transition through this area why aren't we talking about elevated pedestrian transitions from east to west primarily because they don't work the data shows what if what if you BL what if you blocked off access that is not the best design treatment right now based on the state of the practice what I can share is there there are two aspects here one is we've suddenly got this land use that did not exist before and now there is traffic that's something that our community has not been used to no doubt about it when you look at the amount of traffic there is relative to ourselves 15 years ago there's a lot of traffic when you look at it compared to other cities with similar land use you go to Miami you go to uh downtown portions of even Orlando and similar cities it's similar traffic when you have special I don't know I think sitting on Bayshore from like from Howard Avenue all the way to get under the convention center is not similar to any place I ever traveled I've traveled extensively all over the world you've driven in Miami oh yeah but for something so simple now you usually when you have traffic like that it's a much more complex problem and a much bigger scale problem rather than people walking across the street I mean you know I mean it's absolutely so that's I think that's the thing is we have some very what should be simple I mean so what so what about having the convention center entrance on the east side of the road so that that would be the entrance to the convention center is that is that what's driving the pedestrian traffic is the convention center so it's driving the pedestrian traffic traffic is multiple things we've got the Riverwalk the convention center the street car which has a lot of traffic and then uh the the garage uh the aoria garage and then the arena so there's traffic in both directions in the area and I'd also like to share that when we had the community meetings and we informed all community members when we had the community meetings we did share that there is a longer term Vision here that's moving slower than maybe I anticipated and that vision is the first phase of Water Street included what you saw right now but there was a garage plan which was was now being built now at Cumberland and Morgan that will automatically take the parking energy further up to Cumberland that's what creates the biggest challenge right now is people waiting to park and queuing out and that creates a lot of the backups so once that moves up then once the ramp from Thea goes all the way to Meridian it's going to move a lot of that traffic out of the Channel Side area and more onto Cumberland and Meridian and distribute that traffic and then we also had another plan for some signage improvements and all for parking which I understand was deferred for good reason but it's a combination of these things that will make uh the situation a little bit better I guess I'm confused because I you you went down a totally direction that I cuz I was focused in pedestrian vehicle separation and safety and you went down about moving cars so I guess I'm I'm I'm not I'm not I'm not catching the so they're both related where people Park once they Park they're walking to these destinations and Crossing intersections that's that's what's happening so once those people are parking elsewhere within downtown you're not going to see those pedestrian and vehicle conflicts okay I see okay yeah so do have we done a a pedestrian traffic a study to to where people coming from and where they're going has that has that An Origin destination study we haven't but what we've observed is most of the traffic is either foot traffic from hotels during events that come to the convention center or the arena or people that park there during special events and then they're going either to the convention center arena or the river I swear one last question and then I'll shut up um have you pursued any other Solutions besides which as before us today what we're talking about today uh we have looked at a few options on what to do I I don't remember specifically in the report what was mentioned what we have put forth is a continuation of the went maybe a thousand rooms well Tampa was ranked one two in hotel occupancy for the last year or two that doesn't include I know people in other areas want to bang their chest we filling the rooms no everybody's filling the room mouth the world when you go out you speak people where you from I'm oh thank you for visiting Tampa visiting Tampa by the way done a marvelous job in bringing conventions maybe you would have blamed them but the other ones that are taking bringing in the the casola to make people have jobs in downtown in different areas of town and and growth is something that's beautiful but it's also very dangerous because you take away a lot of things that you took for granted like the freedom to get from point A to point B in 15 minutes instead of an hour and these are the things that we have to try to change now so it's not I'm here to point fingers at no Administration I'm not here to point fingers at the council but united we made Tampa different and we made it more complex and we've made it more difficult to live in thank you thank you very much if I could add real quick I think what you heard also in public comment was that I think everyone recognized that we need to do something and what we're proposing is that something is with the resources that we have the most suited to our context today there are many ways to address this challenge if we had the land we could you know maybe look at other treatments and things like that but today since we're growing fast and everyone agrees that we need to do something here and nothing is not an option what we're proposing is with st studied consideration council member herch thank you um I think every single one of us has seen a lovely pedestrian crosswalk and then see somebody 20 ft forward just cross in the road mhm happens all the time mhm and that is exactly what's happening here right in front of my house it happens everywhere doesn't matter where you are and you tell you you yell to the person in your car why aren't you using the crosswalk because people are people and they do what they want to do and in the State of Florida as long as there's a crosswalk you are allowed to cross unless there's a signal is that the correct so I actually you repeat that statement again if if you are pedestrian in the state of of Florida as long as there's a crosswalk that is that is signalized or that is not signalized you can walk whenever you want and the cars technically have to stop for you and have the right of way pedestrians have the right of way but once it's signalized then people are supposed to stop supposed to being the imperative part of that so I actually asked a police officer during I don't know maybe it was a gymnastics anyway I was down there and I was watching this officer help people across and I stopped and I just said hey you know what do you think about putting a light here and all this stuff and he was like that's not going to make any difference and I said why he said because people are going to walk anyway it's like even with a light people will still walk so I don't think it's a bad idea to even consider just even pedestrian lighting that particular part and see how that goes but the problem is and and the way I see the actual problem is if we want to be able to close off pedestrian access we also have to close off car access to the roundabout at the convention center that's the only way to do it that's the only way and I don't know how to reconfigure the convention center to have the drive up ENT entrance be somewhere else but but I think the long-term solution is that um the short-term solution I think we still have to figure out but the long-term solution if we want to move cars cars from that area is to take them out of that area which is just such a waste for cars when it would be such a beautiful prominade for people to use I mean we we see it all the time anyway also as a cyclist it is near impossible to cycle that part of the Riverwalk it's very hard so that's going to be like my um for push forward to the convention Setter staff who happens to be listening and parks and you all um if that's not coming already to really consider what else we can do to have a better spot for for cars to enter because that will help us with pedestrian access in this area and I don't know the answer but having having the officer there uh all the time has also got to be not the greatest answer so I I don't really know where to leave this today um council member Carlson left quickly but I I just and as as far as the um Convention Center going across to the other side I mean there's nothing wrong with adding the convention center on the other side but there's still going to be doors here and people are going to take the path of least resistance every single time and if it's easier for them to go down or open a door go down the stairs and cross the street that is what they will do I mean I see I see it in front of my house I we have that that problem attic crosswalk people won't walk mid block cross yeah and it is human nature it is just human nature and you know I I see where you've tried to solve that by putting the fences but we can't continue the fences because there's that driveway so that might be the that might maybe that's the solution that's what I'm saying that might be the area we need to look at next is how do we move the convention center car bus whatever traffic what can we do there to really help move that out of the way is there a better solution in in that regard because that is way too valuable of a real estate to keep for cars yeah so when the convention center and they're in the process of doing uh kind of a master plan and all that was feedback that we provided relative to that Plaza and all so if there is a a next iteration to redevelop the convention center or expand the convention center that would be a strong consideration at that oh oh it's coming the the the renovation of the conven is coming we've been I mean they're working on it we've been in discussions yeah so uh so that's but that's a good to know to put in the back of our hat for um thinking about that going forward when we're really looking at the convention cation is pedestrian um yeah okay well do you need both where you need both well but but that's what I'm saying like I mean even just starting with a pedestrian light seeing if that is actually I I was I mean I even asked you in our meeting uh yesterday if there's a way we could just simply do test lights to see if it even works and that's like not really feasible because of a million reasons but but even the possible test of a pedestrian light at just at the dick Greco Crossing to see if that could help uh I think you'd still need an officer there for quite some time to really get people into the mode of it but well if if an officer was disciplined wouldn't that just replicate a light I mean the officer's there there was a disciplined like procedure I guess so it's the so what I meant yesterday was like it's we know how the signals will work in effect what we're doing by signalizing water is moving the queue where it's not like if you get off of Har Harbor Island you don't get to a point and you stop and you aren't queuing we're moving that queue up 300 ft up to the bridge so that we can organize pedestrian activity and vehicle activity better between the bridge and Channel Side Drive that's what we're doing so in effect that's what's happening that queue where it starts right now at because anything coming any vehicle coming off of Franklin uh bridge and uh Harbor Island Bridge and onto Franklin Street is a random arrival until it gets to Channel Side Drive so that signal doesn't know whether vehicle are coming or not so people are queuing up there what we're doing effectively is moving that queue 300 ft back up to the Harbor Island Bridge because the activity between the Harbor Island Bridge and Channel Side Drive pedestrian and vehicle conflict specifically is very erratic and and so simulating that is pretty straightforward because the rest of the grid Works in a certain way this is just extending that grid back I lied I lied I'm one more question go ahead if we invest in the cost of installing this and in 12 months we find the unintended consequences is just not doing the intended what was intended or as problematic how difficult is it to reverse course so we can always adjust signal timings it depends on what the unintended consequences I mean what how how difficult of a how one how much money is installing these two lights cost and how much and how much would it take to uninstall them uninstalling them costs much uh lesser but the cost what is our cost right now for the two we we don't have a design yet but I would I would suspect it'll be in the neighborhood of $500,000 okay okay thank you I um I'm so cheap and I hate to pay for parking that I I walk through here all the time all the time um because the first I don't want to pay for parking second I need to walk and third I'm not adding to you know if we're going to promote a walkable City I want to set an example of it but you know having a what having a a light there I don't know how much difference it's going to make council member herch talked about that um I mean that those have worked four-way stops or three-way stop however we can we can put it here if that would help it's cheaper alternative um you know I don't know it's we're a victim of our own success council member Miranda mentioned that you know and that bridge going on and off Harbor Island is just narrow two lanes you know it's a very tricky spot and when Harbor Island was developed you had the convention center coming in but you didn't have everything else there you know you might have had Convention Center Traffic uh and some people that were you know living on Harbor Island and whatnot but now it's just gotten so busy with Water Street and everything else um I mean I'm not supportive of a of a traffic light we've heard from residents on Harbor Island a couple people this morning um I think it might cause more havoc and gridlock perhaps we need to look at other Alternatives before there I like the roundabout idea you know the small roundabout I like putting stop signs if that works uh having an officer there 24/7 or at Peak time I mean that's the old way of of doing things you know maybe it works maybe it doesn't it's going to be expensive you know to have a person there it's a lot of time so I know we're not making any motions today and you're just giving us a report but I mean I would avoid putting a uh a street light there so councilman Miranda I can tell you that the it one item that you that you spoke about that makes sense is additional parking where you going to put a parking area that that takes some traffic out and I don't know and I'm not an engineer and I don't want to be one uh but where the parking garage is at just on the North part of the of the convention center I don't know if you can build because of the weight going down couple of more two or three decks higher that would take a lot of cars out that are at the convention center that don't have to move so it's a I I think parking is one of the main things when there is an event at you know where and you know how they're successful and thank God they are but that creates an enormous I would imagine that all the parking in Downtown is taken by that one way or another including the city parking lots so there's got to be something to be done either they got to take the trolley and move from eore City to here I don't know but there's got to be something done to get it to get it because it's dangerous real dangerous for both no one in the car once they hit somebody walking yeah and uh I don't believe so anyway and these are the things that that we we're dealt with success has costed our problem thank you very much have a wonderful afternoon all right item number 62 okay I don't know if I need to say my name again for the record but Brandon Campbell mobility department uh I have some maps to distribute miss van loone are you here for 65 and 6 no sir okay because we we got rid of that so not got rid of yeah yeser go ahead is this the last one no we have item 63 and then we have a lot of new okay I'll go I'll go quickly um I I uh distributed a map with all the different RightWay uh and um parcels and and easements as well uh that are related to the uh West River Walk and the West River multimodal Network project that is building most of that uh but but before I uh address those specifically I did want to share I did not um I did not distribute this one but just just as a reminder I know you all have seen this map uh several times uh but there are some segments along the Riverwalk itself uh that are not part of the uh build project that was Rec recently approved um so I just wanted to make sure that there is a an understood distinction between uh those that are part of of the build project and those that aren't though they are all on that map uh that I did distribute to you all um there were 44 different Parcels or right easements or or uh segments of right of way that are addressed by this most of them are uh finished in terms of any sort of negotiation um but I did want to talk real quick about those that are in the gap uh on your map that would be 5A and 5B uh six and seven uh each of those is in some stage of uh modification or negotiation between our legal department and the attorneys of the respective Property Owners there uh and and that again is a function of them not being part of the build funded project um so the without getting into the the details of those ongoing negotiations I did want to mention uh that we are planning for interim connections uh within those should the uh separately pursued segments uh timeline not completely match up with the build project uh and that's Illustrated pretty well I think by uh the existing um configuration from the arabel property which is 5 a 5B uh there is a a connection right now that was built to that Riverwalk segment um from the Cleveland Street uh Corridor and so uh whether we end up needing to uh connect in those sorts of ways uh to maintain continuity post build project for an interim configuration uh remains to be seen did did you have council member herch what does that mean in in in layman's terms so the because those 3 segments are not being pursued by our contractor by hasell um the timeline is is parallel but separate so if there's a say a month here uh between or six months most likely not six months but uh if there's a a short interval um where we are waiting for them uh the the completion of say the related segment which is SE seven um to to be completed after our build project we will connect via Keller Avenue or or Parker Street or um as more or less anot uh similar to what was done when the convention center uh renovation and addition was under construction and we signed for it around uh on on channel side and then down Franklin Street so just wanted to be wanted you to be aware that those are separate Pursuits but certainly related to the Riverwalk itself um as far as the parcels go that are part of the bill project um on your map you will see oh uh on uh segment or or parcel number eight that's plant Park uh as well as um nine a b and c the the easement across the utampa property um those are uh currently right now the the ground lease for plant Park uh is planned to come before you next week um I know there's been some discussion among Council about what the hourly restrictions uh have been or will be uh moving forward uh previously the previous lease had a Dusk to Dawn restriction there uh and the uh the the current arrangements are for a midnight to 5 a restriction and I do believe that councilman Clint dennon had had uh asked uh utampa about particular um events that might might allow for Access during those hours I don't know if you sure yeah um so I did have a very intense conversation it was a very interesting conversation um um and so yeah there there's U it would be midnight to um 5 a was it 5 a.m. I midnight 5 a.m. restrictions and we would also have the ability to have utilize the entire uh portion of the Riverwalk for special you know special events like Super Bowl comes to town and we wanted to activate it you know it was late let's say it's on a different time zone and stuff special events yeah exactly special events so that so we'd have that caveat out in there as well I believe that legal and UT Scott there y'all are discussing it or somebody's discussed it to make sure that's incorporated into the agreement Rebecca was in here but re Rebecca from legal is is discussing with it very good but uh it's it it seems to be reasonable a reasonable approach to that property yes so the so the ground lease that will come before you does cover parcel 8 uh Parcels or or um I guess I should say ements 9A and and B um uh have already been approved for execution by you all and I believe they're waiting for the remainder of discussions related to utampa to to get that signed in back over to us um also uh moving North Parcel or easement 10A is in front of Tampa prep uh you'll note that it is uh hashed out because at one point there was an hourly restriction uh that is no longer in place uh what we have recently installed a fence along their property you will see an amendment to that easement uh come before you in the coming days I don't know if it's on on your agenda yet uh but no part of that uh will address hourly restrictions because those are no longer in place andless the city wants to true fair enough council member Miranda did you have I'm sorry I'm sorry anybody else anything else to your presentation uh just just one last note uh the the properties also along U the Blake High School school and and Stuart Middle School Frontage are are shaded out but those restrictions are no longer in place either so I just wanted to clarify that yes I I'm const I'm and I should know this answer because we've been briefed on it so many times I get asked about this Riverwalk constantly and it's the staging and the first the the elements of construction what's coming in first second third and fourth in kind of a timeline uh Vic or somebody else have Nina our project manager uh who may be able to speak to to the order of uh construction that's in anticipated I know we're about to 60% uh design submittal but I don't know if phasing has been completely the on land sections are probably going to proceed the what's your name for the record hi I'm sorry Nina Mulo I'm the uh River West Riverwalk uh project manager from our mobility department the uh onland segments will be constructed first that's probably going to be the plat Street rideway Rome Avenue Columbus Drive due to the fact that the permitting for with the Army Corps of Engineers for the Riverwalk itself the two underpass pedestrian Bridges at plat and Brine and the living shorelines in the river that permitting is going to take longer so this is a design build project uh we're constricted by the life of the uh funding which expires in 2027 so they're going to be designing and building all the multiple sections at multiple times I did did bring the schedule with me today and uh so so basic basically what we should anticipate by 27 is through the Ridgewood Columbus Rome and is plat part of this project correct it is okay so it is it is fun it is part of this funded project okay flat street from Rome to Bayshore okay it's virtually five miles and it should all be complete in early 2027 okay very good that's that's very aggressive and very nice I like to hear that um one of the question I know we Vic you and I have spoken about this and and it's about Place making to ensure that we have if there's uh some type of ability to have concessions or you know correct Trail like you know with the Str has or something like that so that people can have um a place to grab a soda or a slice of pizza or something Al you know periodically along the way when we have food deserts um also restroom facilities is there any accommodations for that so not as part of this project there aren't uh but with the concessions we'll also discuss restrooms with uh the parks department or Economic Development okay but um so is is there any in the design in this design element of creating placemaking for concessions at all so there is an element of placemaking in that at certain uh Parts along the Riverwalk to the extent you can call it placemaking there are overlooks and things like that there's living shorelines I mean I sure would like to see them I mean have at least as they're as they're designing this have something at least reserved in in periodically along this sure I mean because this is the time to do it it's not going to get any easier than right now and if you're only if you're 60% in man go through and for find three or four places along this route that maybe you can bump out or have a place that sometime in the future we could we could we could plug something in if we needed to council member herch thank you uh I was told there were going to be no outlooks because we couldn't afford them overlooks so the overlooks that were presented in some of the uh uh some of the renderings we wouldn't be able to afford those so but as part of the Riverwalk itself there are going to be sections that are wider parts that are not as wide as well and so they but in terms of the placemaking piece of it that's something that we would have to partner with parks on and speak to the concessions and all there are several opportunities we don't really have a concession this is my turn I let you have your turn you jumped into me I wasn't finished you he called my name did she okay go ahead go ahead yeah we don't called my name it's all good it's all good uh sorry chairman Maniscalco called my name so uh additionally I'm hoping I'm going to I'm going to lay it down right now and say I don't think that this is an appropriate um I know that we have wet zoned the other side of the river I don't think that this is an appropriate side to Wet Zone um Main mainly because of the schools and the the private entities there's not a lot of um consumer areas along here so um I just want you to consider keep that in mind because I will not support alcoholic zoning along the Riverwalk on this side um as far as the plat Street in Rome are these separated divided bike lanes because if they're just sherrow the The Pedestrian underpass bridges are 15 ft wide between the railings they're for pedestrian bicyclists only no I'm talking about the streets themselves plattin Rome those streets protected bike Lanes correct plat Street correct uh where possible there are small segments where uh there won't be raay separators uh on Rome that is on Rome and Rome is the most dangerous so I don't know how you're going to make that safe cheros are not safe on Rome period so there's definitely not going to be sherrow there's going to be bike Lanes whether they're separated median separated or not or if they're separated by some other type of tactical urbanism we don't know that is primarily un roome plat Street already has the room and the ability to redesign for a separate yeah and that I'm fine with that but again if you're saying this is a familyfriendly uh Riverwalk then you need to absolutely so the way I like to visualize it and the way I will expect you to visualize it is a three-year-old walking in the bike lane can a three-year-old walk in the bike lane would you look at that and scream and run toward that child or would you say uh you know that's okay there are off-road uh wide sidewalks for pedestrians there's one small area on Plat Street near the railroad tracks where the bikes and Peds would share the separated facil and and sharing this up sharing is fine I just want to make sure that in no place where we're considering this to be a Riverwalk that we simply have a line for a cyclist I just want to make sure that this is as familyfriendly I mean as the other side of the river sure as as possible because this is um I'm thrilled that plat Street will have it separated I just I would love to personally see when you have the design done for Rome I'd like to look at that and my other curiosity is how you're across Columbus I'm fascinated by this because that's a really tight bridge and I have no idea how you're going to do that safely for a cyclist family yeah uh south side of the Columbus Bridge there's going to be a shared uh bike imped facility and the existing uh pedestrian path is going to remain there along the railing on the South Side there's going to be Lane reduction with one lane eastbound one lane westbound over the bridge okay okay so that that will solve that so Sim similar to how Cass is done yeah okay and separately as part of a separate but concurrent effort will be signalizing Rome and Columbus OH that that'll be a great addition yeah well thank you that answers several of my questions but I still when you're done with a Rome design I would really love to see it if you could just send me an email so I can just take a look because Rome is really scary I have written it as a cyclist during covid I wouldn't do it now yeah the bicyclist will be uh protected everywhere where we have adequate width and we're not um we're prohibited on the federal project from obtaining additional right away right away was not included council member CL I just want to be clear I wasn't talking about W Zone and I'm talking place to buy a Coke or piece of pizza oh no I understand that but I'm just I'm just saying I don't I don't think this is the appropriate side for I agree with that but I just again is just just the deserts of you can't find you can't find a place to drink or something or have a piece of pizza you're deal with human beings so human beings have needs all right thank you very much thank you the last item of the day Mr muli is going to tell us why trees were cut who ordered it why they ordered it and how much tree cutting was done afternoon again Council Tony M Parks and Recreation director um I know you gave a written report but it was requested that you be here in person so I don't know I'm glad to do so so uh just want to come in and respond to the the motion I'm not sure we we necessarily capture all the activities that have been observed and reported but from the city's perspective with the urban forestry uh division the activities that are happening through there are all work order generated after an inspection so those are the things that are directly dealing with the life safety issues of hanging limbs of trees that are failing uh we do not cut down healthy trees and sometimes people are disappointed Ed by that but we do not cut down healthy trees so provided some information about what work has has been accomplished and what work is still scheduled out there through the work orders both with hurricane response as well as our traditional uh service that we provide so I'm happy to answer any questions related any questions council member I can tell you this right at West hampa uh just out between uh Lincoln and spru there is a tree that luckily no one was there when it fell but it had to be truck this big and the branches when they fell they broke off and you can see inside it's still there by the way the branches have been taken off but it since about 6 feet tall and the only thing that was holding that thing up was air cuz the whole inside of the tree was gone it was it rotted out inside nobody knew that but I maybe there's a way we can find out have people check them around especially Parks and Recreation areas that these trees are solid inside because if not I don't want to face with what's coming it's it's a a fair request we try to check them out because I I believe that those are there was four or five of them there the only one that's standing now is the the big trunk of the big one that fell that was completely at up inside yeah council member her thank you I think any of those trees that were slightly Hollow Milton took care of those but I could be wrong um so that was we did we did get a lot of upsets that we weren't aware of in terms of trees coming down and I asked Mr M this during my prep meeting and I'm just going to do it again in public is just making sure that I mean looking at the numbers in your report of how many tree calls you get and then add on what what happened during Milton and so I asked you do you have enough people in your department and enough resources to handle the tree trimming you gave a very diplomatic answer but I'm going to let you try again all right so I I'm happy to report that during this fiscal year we were awarded additional funding for equipment and Staffing for tree trimming uh that moves us towards our goal of being a little more proactive in our services we supplement our in-house Services either for the scale of the project like if we we don't have cranes and things like that but our our tree contractors have easier access to that so we do have contracts with three different tree providers uh that during the storm obviously that amount has gone up so we we do supplement what our capacity is with that and we've been able to grow our capacity this year we're working on it and we were approved but we're still trying to recruit and and uh procure that equipment so we are we are working towards growing uh we we do realize we're very reactive on a lot of our our response now uh we do have some vision of being more proactive and and being able to serve the the um Urban Tree canopy a little more effectively and we've taken a step excellent and obviously everyone is reactive right now I mean Milton there's no other way to be but now that we're as we're coming out of it we do want to be proactive and one area is trees so I would say that with the addition that you've gotten about how far are you percentage wise are you 30% to where you'd like to be eventually are you 50% to where you'd like to be eventually well well part of that's going to be determined once we are able to recruit those positions we we've had you have them okay um I I would anticipate we're probably 30 to 40% closer to where we want to be so then as this next budget comes up we need to consider more is just basically I just like to file that away um and I know that the community is really talking about trees so if they want to show that energy and Um passion toward trees that's an area where they can Advocate and we do have a an internal strategic plan that we're kind of following and seeing where we can tick off some of those goals within there and this this brings us closer so we we are making progress wonderful thank you thank you very much Mr Moi that concludes our agenda all right we're going to go to new business I'm going to pass it off to the vice chair protim chair protim chair protim recognizes chairman Mano thank you very much when he get it does he activates yeah I would like to present a commendation make a motion to present a commendation offsite to the state attorney's office Victim Assistance Program recognizing National Crime Victims week which is April 6th through April 12th this year we have a motion from chairman Maniscalco a second from councilman Miranda all those in favor say I I opposed I have it thank you and I would like to present a commendation offsite to the city of Tampa black history committee on their 37th anniversary on February 17th 2025 at the Tampa theater we have a motion from chairman m scalco a second from councilman Miranda all those in favor say I I opposed eyes have it that's it councilman Miranda thank you chairman I have one motion for accommodation to be presented to run Rotella who had been a development official for six Tampa Merit between 1965 and 1983 before mayor Grio hired him to be his development coordinator in 1995 Ron also served as executive director to the West Shore allines for many years I would request that set combination be presented at City Council on March 27th 2025 under ceremonials we have a motion from council member Miranda second council member CL dennon all in favor I how's how's he doing sir yeah he's a he's a legendary guy so yeah uh anything else he really is that's it yes ma'am sir yes sir yes ma'am okay I made a motion on January 15th uh and this is the motion I move to have legal amend section 15-14 code to add the North Franklin Street Corridor to the existing code boundaries are East K Street to the South North Florida Avenue to the East East Oak Avenue to the North and North Tampa Street to the West Staff has requested more time so I'm changing the date for first from for first reading from February 6th 2025 to February 20th 2025 and I have um spoken to Folks at Tampa Heights in that neighborhood association they know this is this change is coming all right we have a motion from council member herch do we have a second second Council Miranda all in favor I any opposed anything else Mr Shelby yes thank you uh a reminder to the council um and we'll pass it along to those people who are not here and a reminder to the public there are four Council meetings next week you have you have a special call workshop on Tuesday at 9: you have a uh settlement agreement to consider uh a 70 Florida statute 7051 at 5:01 p.m. and then you have your regular meetings on uh the 28th on um that Thursday a um excuse me that would be the 30th excuse me the special calls are on the 28th the regular Workshop is on the 30th at 9:00 a.m. and then you have the night meeting the uh alcoholic beverage night meeting and also uh lease agreements with uh the University of Tampa at 501 so just a reminder to you and to the public thank you we have motion Anderson do we have a second second for Council Manda all in favor I we are adjourned [Music] wish it was it