for foree [Music] [Music] [Music] start [Music] back speee St [Music] [Music] good afternoon everyone and welcome to the November 4th 2024 jobs Economic Development Council committee meeting my name is Malcolm Graham chairman of the the committee and i' like to wish every everyone a uh Happy November day before the election so um we got a little bit of work to do and so let's get started by having everyone in the room introduce themselves and we'll start with my far left thank you Jeff assist line properties Daniel Molina with LaVine properties Mike Wilson with Northwood Raven s Gordon Economic Development Miss Holly I'm sorry UHC development city attorney's office Daniel Fraser office of Workforce Development Nan Peterson planning thanks and then we'll start with the dies to my far left Todd long Economic Development Tracy Dodson city manager Office Malcolm gram committee chairman James Mitch Vice chair Char barari Committee Member James Carter Economic Development Towanda Brown Economic Development do we have any council members or staff um joining us virtually if they can introduce themselves at this time we do not all right so we have a pretty um light agenda but very interesting agenda um two agenda items and I will turn it over to uh assistant city manager Tracy dson to introduce the first agenda item and we'll get to work thank you Mr chair Council isses good afternoon council member mileno you want to introduce yourself for the record I'm good afternoon council member Molina count Committee Member thank you miss dson all right thank you Mr chair um first we want to talk and introduce the committee to this Provident Square project we've been having a couple of conversations um with the development team this is a a fairly large project in in its Vision um there have also been some conversations at on the county side so we're trying to make sure that we can be as consistent between city and county in terms of timing in the conversations as possible so wanted to again introduce it to you all today get any initial feedback as we continue the conversations um with the development team and with that I will turn it over to Todd and then we'll talk a little bit on business recruitment after that great uh thank you Tracy so just before we get started uh next slide please um this is for introduction only we are not seeking any Committee Action today so please uh provide any feedback you have ask any questions we'll we'll come back to you with any answers we can we can come up with at the time um so what we're talking about today is a potential public private partnership opportunity located about 7 miles Southeast of Center City it's located near the intersection of Providence Lane and Sardis I'm sorry Providence Road and Sardis Lane you can can't really see the words here but you have Providence Road running North and South through the site and then old Providence Road as it cuts off Sardis Lane to the north of the area shaded in pink and then to the south of that area shaded in pink is the m macalpine Creek and macalpine Creek Greenway the areas that are shaded represent three different res zonings and they are coordinated resoning and this is something that while each development team is separate in its entity we're looking at them in a little bit more holistically just because of the impact that they would have in the community and the impact that they would have in terms of helping serve some of the public benefits that uh would be coming out of these three projects the coordinat rezonings do offer a unique opportunity to revitalize about 113 Acres along Providence Road the proposed mixed use or the proposed mixed income housing and increased walkability and accessibility to new commercial uses also helps further the city's objectives around 10-minute neighborhoods next slide please just a little bit more of a deeper dive into the Redevelopment and each of the different petitions the the pending resoning right now again the coordinated resoning starting with the top right the LaVine properties sits on about 85 Acres would include a mix of uses including grocery retail and office uh comprising about uh 225,000 ft of non-residential there in addition to indoor Recreation and daycare facility at about 28,000 ft then 125 units of town homes 108 units of Workforce housing which would be available to households earning up to 8 80% of Ami and then rounding it out with about 880 units of market rate multi family what's interesting to note here is that if you drive by if you're familiar with the site there are existing residents or there existing units on the site about 473 uh starting in 2023 uh they actually leine properties worked with the residents who were living there at the time which was about 400 residents who were living there to relocate them to uh more uh higher quality housing um one of the things that they were trying to do on this project was actually refurbish and Rehab some of the units but after further exploration decided that just really wasn't going to be the best option for the residents or new residents as well as for the the project itself so again all existing residents were relocated um the development will be a replacement of deteriorated buildings with a new mixed use pedestrian oriented Village uh something to note in the white area you see lightly shaded gray areas so those those areas will be existing buildings that will remain one of those is about a 19,000 ft indoor recreation facility and then there'll be another 80,000 ft of commercial space the remainder of the white area is not yet fully programmed but likely you know some type of multif family uh or some uh mixed use housing or mixed use along the way the Northwood Raven sitting on about 20 acres which should include 95 units of town homes and 650 market rate multif family units Horizon development properties is sits on 8 Acres they're looking to do 75 units of affordable housing which would be available to 30 to 60% of Ami and then uh 305 units of market rate multif family next slide please when we talk about public private Partnerships we frequently discuss needing to think about the bigger picture not just about where we put our investment or what we're investing in on these projects whether that's a road whether it's public parking the justification for us to participate in these projects isn't necessarily the reason for us to participate in these projects and this is a great representation of one of those projects that really allows us to think bigger and more broadly about what is the impact of our investment goes into these deals as you can see from the slide here there is a a list of public benefits that are derived from this project from supporting the city's housing goals through the workforce inable units I mentioned on the previous slide to nwsb inclusion which we are as a side note we're working with CBI right now to further refine what those numbers are based on our policy particularly getting into the nbe and the wbe figures um supporting sustainability environmental goals open space and park initiatives they've already looking at a 4 and a half acre land donation for a public park as well as a million dollar contribution for Park activation and constructing Greenway bridge and multi-use path and other Trail improvements also looking at partnering with cfd to support Public Safety and thinking about a fire station there's one right around the corner on Sardis Lane was built in 1974 how do we work with this group to actually deliver a fire station that's actually part of this project details are still being worked through just trying to think about how do we actually get the biggest return for our investment as we look through a larger public private partnership like this and ultimately and it also supports uh increased mobility and accessibility through allowing for greater connectivity through the site between Sardis and Providence as well as between old Providence and Providence and a number of intersection improvements along the way next slide speaking of intersection improvements all of those purple dots represent intersection improvements that would be uh that they're proposing to be reimbursed through the tax increment Grant what you see here is 2.1 miles of corridor improvements along Providence Road obviously it's gets much bigger than the 2.1 miles that are right there the new traffic signals medians Lane modifications and upgraded pedestrian Crossings will help increase safety Providence and sis and other areas in the area as well as provide opportunities for increased connectivity uh throughout uh the the area within the site and external to the site all in all it's about 27 projects that are included in that small fine print and the tig projects in that white box next slide please and we think about the allocation of funding we generally think through what are the uses of the funds and what are the sources of those funds that's going to pay for those uses as you can see here there's quite a bit of a list here on the uses really starts to quantify the cost or the the value that's attributed to say the the park land donation the multi-use path connections the the workforce housing the value of those units as well as the other infrastructure improvements again highlighted here is the fire station not exactly sure what that sits we're still working through it if we had our you know if it was ideal scenario if it was our preferred scenario we'd love to get a fire station that's delivered as part of this project we know that there's a lot of other complications that that come with that and we're trying to work through that with the development team to understand what is that best situation for all involved on the sources side of this the developer contributions of about 48.6 million they are seeking uh support from the city and county through a tax increment Grant up to $19 million and based on today's tax rates and the allocation between the City and County taxes that equates to about 6.8 million from the city and about 12.1 million from the county next slide I just kind of taking a step to the side just to remind everyone about our tax increment Grant policy the grants are made on a reimbursement basis only based on new incremental taxes within a defined increment area we do have to provide for a public purpose and through our policy we have infrastructure investment Gap financing and public assets or buildings the traditional Grant terms are 45 or 90% of incr handal taxes and have been generally up to 10 years though in the recent past because of the type transformative projects we're looking at and the benefits that are DED from those we have gone beyond 10 years based on need and priority uh overall the capacity the aggre of all projects can exceed 3% of annual property tax in in in a given year we are not close to this at least we haven't been close to this uh so we are all setting good on that aspect but these are just kind of a quick reminder of our policy and justification for deploying our tax increment Grant tool the proposed terms that have been presented to us the development they anticipate generating about $550 million of new tax base by the 2023 build down this would equate to about 1.7 million in annual incremental city tax revenue which over 20 years would uh lead to 24 million in net new tax revenue for the city this is net of any tax increment Grant payment that's based on the proposed terms uh which are 45% of incremental taxes over 15 years it would not exceed $1 million for both the city and the county but plus interest and then uh obviously as with all of these partnership agreements the developer is responsible for any cost overruns on this leverage ratio we generally have a goal of one to 10 so that means basically for every dollar that the city puts in that we would like to leverage $10 of private investment in this case for every dollar we're putting in we are leveraging $80 of private investment this next slide so the schedule Tracy mentioned earlier when she introduced this was that there's uh the county had a conversation on this that was introduced to their Economic Development Committee on a sorry October 15th it seemed to be well received from my observations they will have a follow-up presentation planned for Mid November and then a potential board decision in early December we're also trying to align this with the rezonings as much as we can uh there is a zoning committee meeting on November 7th and then resoning decision for the three DEC uh for the three coordinated resoning we're looking at December 16th from a TIG decision we will be coming back to the committee in December that's the what we're proposing and then for a future Council decision would be TBD based on follow-up conversations with the committee and with council members where you'd like to see it Go and so with that I know that was quick that was a lot is there any questions comments feedback we'd be happy to receive that today we can bring it back to in December thank you Todd for the presentation and again there's no council action on this item just for a general discussion uh I had the opportunity to meet um Mr Levain as well as his Representatives on a number of occasions I'm very familiar uh with the project and I will pivot and and just kind of ask the district rep um uh for any initial thoughts comments that he wants to share with the committee yeah nothing in a high level I think that just basically timing will be important on this so uh Todd and Tracy I'm assuming that you guys are contemplating kind of these are multiple decisions that all are kind of symbiotic with one another so one going up and another going down obviously has uh detrimental effects so just as you contemplate the timing making sure that um you do that as seamlessly as possible Mr Mitchell thank you Mr chair uh just a couple questions uh I think from the outset this is a great partnership between two companies who have been good corporate Partners in our community so let me applaud you all for coming together and say how can we change this this community a question on the Workforce Development what percentage Ami so for the workforce housing would be up to 80% of amii 108 units and then through the Horizon development they're proposing 75 units that would be affordable at 30 to 60% of Ami okay uh one of my passion is support mwsb inclusion and so uh I one I'm glad that we going to get staff feedback on the analysis and secondly I think we need to kind of raise our expectation I think 15% is a low hanging fruit for us I think you're talking about commercial and multif family that fits very well the with the CBI firms we have in our database and so we can make sure we can rise that uh increase that go I think um will be very uh perceived very well in the community very supportive I think this is a great for area uh that's been missing to be rebranded for a long period of time thank you Mr chair thank you Mr Mitchell uh Miss moleno do you have any comments reference to the presentation that was made no I'm it's all good I'm all right okay so again um I I think it's it's very transformational uh in terms of what they're trying to do at the spot um obviously it's a a bottleneck Mr bakari knows very well uh and the opportunity to provide housing and um transportation um um um in terms of realignment right and and those things that goes along with it makes a whole lot of sense for for that particular area and so we'll certainly U be listening to Mr mcari over the next couple of weeks as it's it falls within this District but obviously uh the the tag is something that we all would have to kind of lean forward with it um but I know he'll be uh in the details of this for sure and so want to thank everyone for coming um continue to communicate with the committee um and work with Mr on some of the um the um the ding the eyes and crossing the tees and and sharing um um um uh any updates obviously you heard Mr Mitchell in reference to the city's uh commitment to mwbe and his desire to kind of see whether or not you can stretch that further uh and there'll be some other topics I might want to talk with you off the line in reference to that to the same but uh I I think everyone is looking at this as an opportunity to really kind of uh redefine that section of the community uh in a in a big way uh and um so I think there's I think there's a lot of curiosity with the committee and uh we look forward to I'm also seeing what our partners with meenar County do as they move forward with this as well Mr dson right we'll move on to business recruitment um I'm going to ask Alexis to to hop up here and and and join us welcome Alexis welcome thank you happy to be here so so with this we want to take the opportunity um because so many council members are going to Germany um these types of trips for us start as economic development trips and um we've been fortunate on this trip to add in other things into the agenda like Mobility housing and other um areas of interest to the council but we wanted to use this today of just given you a little bit on the business recruitment update generally what we're seeing you can go to the next slide um but then talk a little bit more about the FDI and the foreign direct investment and then the German uh Germany connectivity um as we get prepared for our trip so you'll see here kind of overall job growth that we've had in Charlotte in the region how many projects we've won and some of the notable wins so I'm not going to read all this to you you can you can see it but one of the things that I will highlight is is that you know over the past 5 years six years A lot has happened with the pandemic with you know just kind of the the job market in general elections different things like that but Charlotte has stayed relatively healthy in our growth and we've continue to attract a lot of companies retain companies as well as grow some of those companies it's really important for you all to remember that when we talk about this we're not talking about all big companies right these are big and small companies um that we form relationships with and when we attract them here or we grow them here we also grow those relationships so it's bigger than um just the jobs it's how do they become a part of our community more broadly let's go to the next slide overall trends that we're that we're seeing um Advanced manufacturing was has been big it has stayed big there are obvious um stressors from Charlotte's perspective in the land use side of things right we've talked I think before where we've we've struggled where everybody wants to see these types of jobs come into our community but then you have the you have the business investment Grant discussion and then we turn around and end up having a zoning discussion and sometimes those are those are hard to to line up we are seeing more in the R&D and clean energy space um definitely but we're also seeing the job numbers Trend down um as we get more technology um into to these types of um industry sectors life science life science is a big one that we are growing in um in Charlotte uh quickly not just because of the Pearl the Pearl is a piece to it but you have Eli Lily right up the street we're definitely seeing an uptick in what in looks in the Charlotte region um for the life science space this one too has some of its own challenges around land use and we've been working closely with with planning um to figure out how we can solve some of the land use issues that are in front of us when we have these life science looks um Talent remains a big thing five or six years ago um we were telling companies that we could attract and we could grow the talent now more often than not we hear companies are looking at Charlotte because the talent is already here um and so I know I've had discussions with you all in the past about bringing in business which means you know more growth to Charlotte and how are we keeping up with our growth and some of those kind of stressors again more often than not companies are are looking here because they recognize the talent is already here not relocating their talent from other places but they're coming here because the talent is here um other things that we're watching closely cost of living in covid Cost of Living went up you know everywhere in in in addition to our competitive cities that we often are competing against um but we're still staying on that lower side when we're competing against cities like Atlanta or Nashville or Dallas um our cost of living still is lower than but it has gone up and so we watch that closely airport connectivity um you all know and some of you were out last week visiting the airport there's a lot going on there but many times we hear whether it's Advanced manufacturing or Life Sciences or headquarter um a lot of companies are looking because of that accessibility that the air support offers um and so that's another important one looking and keeping up with that with that growth um and the airport connectivity some markets we can compete in better than others we did a debrief last week of a company that we actually lost because they had connectivity in South America and we just don't have those flights and I don't see us necessarily getting a lot of those flights but as we're going to uh pivot and talk a little bit more um in a few minutes about Europe that is a space that we can really grow in when we talk about that connectivity with the with the airport and flights so next Slide the other big thing that we've talked about over the past year is just overall office vacancy um it is trending in the right way however we still have a significant um office vacancy issue we still have buildings um in uptown you all see the articles that are largely vacant um and what we do to make sure that we're protecting some of those issues as we think forward will be important um pre- pandemic return to work whatever you want to call that you know Tuesday Wednesday Thursday it's business as usual if you walk down Trion Street I I tested this out last week if you walk down Trion Street on a Wednesday it feels like a pre-pandemic um return to work Everything feels feels normal Monday Friday feels a little bit different and so while people have come back the the work environment for office is something that is different and so it's been slower for um companies to make decisions around that um we've seen a lot of companies that just did not they went fully remote and then we've seen other companies come back and say actually we're going to expand what we might have been searching for um I think that this will continue to be discussion Point especially as we talk about some of those um more vintage Office Buildings in certain locations it's not just in uptown um we see this across all of our submarkets so it's something to continue to think but it's trending slowly in the right in the right direction there is still the last thing I'll say on the office there is still a flight to Quality um companies want to be a new new buildings um which is part of what we're what we're dealing with in some of the office vacancy let's go to the next slide and I'm going to let Alexis do some the talking about our international business um community and I may add in a couple things here and there but Alexis I'll turn it over to you yeah just to give you guys a little bit of an overview of what our our foreign direct investment looks like we have over a thousand uh International businesses here and that can be British Japanese um German of course we have lot that is our highest investor by far is Germany um interestingly sometimes there are companies we know and use every day so the little green ahold dahas Lion at the bottom that's Food Lion uh they're owned by a Dutch company called aold and they own multiple grocery stores in the United States um but it it kind of shows that a lot of times we think of these companies not necessarily touching the lives of everybody but that's one that does um Beyond just giving jobs and giving back to our community there are more than 40 countries that are representative 880,000 people are hired by Foreign firms the other thing is too as Tracy was saying a lot of these jobs in manufacturing are becoming Advanced manufacturing this is better paying jobs because this this requires some um understanding of some of the robotics that goes into this some of the coding that goes into this so This has changed that job market of that traditional worker uh for manufacturing and you'll also get a lot of apprenticeships with these companies we have quite a strong apprenticeship field here there's over 1.9 billion Investments since 2017 um coming from these companies and 15% of US exports are from the Charlotte region so uh it's really important to remember that trade is both ways so it's not just people coming in um and investing in Charlotte but it's also American companies who are making goods and selling those abroad uh we even have a US export Assistance Center here from the federal government to help American small businesses um and mediumsized businesses those are who most of our our exporters are are medium and small businesses um and they actually just interestingly last year uh the last two years rather have been practicing um a new pilot program that they're doing to encourage more minority exporting as well uh next slide so this just gives a rundown now these numbers are are a little outdated because we probably had about 10 German companies join last year um where closer to 250 now those numbers go back and forth basically as they they move around the southeast um a lot of people joke about 85 if uh we can continue to improve it will become an autobond because if you're coming from all the way from Atlanta up to really Charlotte but starting now to expand up up uh 85 as well is really known as a big German center with a Daimler is on that BMW is on that Adidas man and hmel those are some of the big German companies you'll see if you drive down 85 and so it's really important just as we think about next week or this this week I guess and Germany why this is so important to leverage the business community that is there to leverage these relationships when Germany represents almost 25% of our foreign um direct investment and jobs M next slide so these are some of our recent I would say in the last four years some of the projects that we've announced that are foreign owned so alphatronics uh they just uh celebrated their ground opening a couple weeks ago uh they are an Italian company they're the number one manufacturer of those highp speeed Chargers in Europe for cars uh they are looking to partner with us on a few things as well in that space in the EV space uh Seamans of course many of you are very familiar with them and their continued growth not just in energy field but also as Tracy mentioned in the health field so seens is one of those multi-toned uh German companies where you have a couple different industries that are under them um some of the other ones of note on here kelem is a really great new company that came in which was a result of some meetings that we've had uh through FDI and visits in the past uh Bren is a is a German um Health Manufacturing Company um we've also I wanted to make sure we put Solutions on there this is a tech company from Peru that just recently chose Charlotte um and what was really great from them their CEO uh has talked to a lot of people about the reason why he and his wife themselves chose to move here was our welcoming community and the diversity that they're seeing in our community as being someone who's an owner of foreign company he felt very welcome here so I'll just add really quickly on the alphatronics mean as I said earlier when we recruit these companies bringing them into our community into the goals that we have for our community like sustainability we want to build those relationships for the long term so that is one that we keep a lot of focus on of how once you we get you here how do we build a bigger relationship and almost all of these companies I mean um alphatronics Seamans these are companies that we do expect to come back a lot of them when when they came to us they told us you know we will be looking to grow what is the expectation of us being able to work with you as we grow next slide so so this one I will jump into because again it goes with what we were just talking about is why we pay close attention to some of these companies seens Alex has has said you know they have an energy sector they have a Mobility sector they have a health care sector so we follow all of these obviously the energy side has a big presence here and is growing here here but we're looking at all aspects of cement ear CAD aad was um the first announcement within the Pearl uh this is important because this is the surgical training um company that will bring through they estimate 7,000 surgeons through Charlotte every year so I mean you look at that and not only what it does for the Pearl and what the opportunities are but think about now you have the exposure of our city and our region to 7,000 surgeons every year um and other companies will take note that ecat is here right if you're training on new equipment they want their new equipment in front of these surgeons so there's a really great thing that is starting to evolve when you look at companies like this having a presence here BMW um obviously what's in Spartanburg but then think about the growth around Automotive that North Carolina has seen in recent years I'm bullish I'm I'm very transparent about the fact that I would love to see BMW's North American headquarters in this region in this city um in the long term right it's just a play that makes that makes sense um would love to see them in in the Charlotte area while they continue to grow their presence across the Carolinas as more broadly next slide ahead take this one so um coming to that again a lot of that has to do with that connectivity not only to these big anchor companies that are already in our region but also to the people that we work with every day so uh Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina select USA which is our us commerc side of bringing in foreign direct investment of course we're working with them um and the German companies that are here and their vendors and clients so that's something that's really important to to to point out is that having those bigger names here their vendors and clients want to be here and their vendors and clients want to be here and uh relationships is like this are very highly sought in Germany being able to make those connections and as you guys well know Charlotte is really a very relationship network-based City and that is what has been something that um a lot of people are surprised by when they come here so while we're in Germany we want to try to make sure that we continue to Showcase that and a lot of our partners are already on the ground they're doing that right now um some went early some are staying late U morvin Allen Parker Poe are helping us coordinate our actual investment uh Round Table um that will be hosted along with the Bavarian industrial Association so in every case we could we tried to find a way that we were partnering with someone on the ground who has some naturally occurring connections plus people that we work with every day that have connections plus those of us that are working on active projects So currently in my pipeline I have have about eight active foreign direct investment projects five of them are in Germany um um most of them are not in the Munich region however it gave me a chance and an excuse so to speak to reach out and say hey we'll be traveling if you can have time to come to Munich we'd love to have you and even though most of them said we were unavailable it still was seen as something really important to them and I've actually heard that like come back through the grap Vine of other people that they know in our community to say you know I couldn't make it I have to be up in Medica and doozledorf uh but we were so glad that the city of Charlotte reached out to us to involve us so those are those really important connections and those Partnerships again we're also partnering with meinberg County um we have a couple larger companies that are here that are looking at whether or not they want to expand and again these active projects are competitive um and that means just hoop in the the line going to South Carolina and we've had a lot of the German CEOs give us feedback that when you are in country and you even attempt to meet us that that goes a really far away and so meinberg is also going to be on the ground working with some of our existing companies to help them see that we really do have a dedication to helping them be here and making sure that they're connected properly in for our Workforce Development especially in the apprenticeship programs and that they're getting support there do you want to hit this one or you I kind okay I'll go in the last part so another part of it I kind of Blended it all together but just to kind of highlight again it's a it's a whole Coalition of Partners from companies and and our Economic Development Partners who do this business in day in and day out Center City Partners others as well um are going many of them are staying for Electronica which is um an electronics and Tech conference that is in Munich the week after the game and then the other half of people are going up to Meda which is a medical conference that's in dorf it's one of the biggest in the world not just Europe um that one edpnc will have a very strong Presence at um Charlotte is home to over 12 uh 1,200 German born residents what's great is those are people who are born abroad and are calling Charlotte here now and their kids are part of these programs they go to our we're one of the only schools that has um an in language everyday German um um program uh our two of them are public school programs this is super important as well uh for showcasing again our talent and the opportunity for exposure for them and their families but also for our families next slide so the last thing I'll just add to that is you know we we we obviously have a big um robust trip planned but we would wanted to share um kind of how we've been working specific to Economic Development with our partner Partners here locally as well as our German Partners um to build out really good opportunity connections and relationship building while we while we're over there um as you all know we'll also be looking at housing mobility and other things while we're there too wanted to give you that perspective on economic development thank you Alexis and um Madam assistant city manager I guess my first question and then I'll open up to the committee is help me under understand from an international perspective recruiting retention attending um International conferences where um trade fairs uh working with the world Affair Council here locally working with the Alli who who's putting the puzzle together for us on a day-to-day basis from International recruitment retention and collaborating and coordinating with the other stakeholders that that does the same do you can start so I I think it is a you know a lot of people ask in this space you know who's on first yes and it is a very broad partnership is what I'll say is if you look at the state and the state will you know the state has boots on the ground in Europe and they are looking at these opportunities granted they are advocating for statewide right so it might not be Charlotte specific but there's no reason for us to duplicate on some of these efforts that we do so there's there's instances where we will let them run um in kind of the front seat of promoting the state and things like that we'll also be very specific with them about hey these are the things that we're looking for here but then I think in certain areas we rely heavily on um our German community that is here because they have a lot of connectivity and I would say that's City County and Alliance together um and Alexis you may want to speak a little bit more to that or some of our specific companies that are here and leaning on them as as Alexis talked about who are your vendors who are these other people show us who those who those are and let let's go cultivate those relationships yeah and I'll I'll riff off of the relationship's part it really is about that this is a team effort um when someone cannot be at someone at one of the other events so let's say select USA as a good example um while we were there and the alliance was there and we were at Ed PNC's booth in Washington DC there are 4,000 attendees coming from all over the world to learn about doing business in the United States and uh you know if I step away from the booth then it gets to be higho who speaks to them instead of Charlotte and even though we're pitching in the North Carolina Booth as broadly as possible the examples I use I'll lean on the examples I have their lawyers in attendance and someone had asked a very specific question that was law-based to a different municipality that was in the booth for North Carolina and they knew that I had partners that were from law firms and asked if I could help make that connection so now that connection is considering Charlotte instead of the other place based on us being there but we do try to help each other out where we can and really it is about that relationship and listening what are the trends we're seeing even when it comes to what trade show should we be attending you know there there have been times where um I will hear some them from um the gentleman who runs brox for the for the German community in Charlotte and he's like one of our biggest conferences is going is looking to come to Charlotte can you help the city of Charlotte can you guys help make sure this is a successful conference and so when our partners reach out we want to make sure we are there for them because it usually means that that conference is going to be bringing in some Heavy Hitters and some good leads yeah I'll give you one more quick example um Seuss which was a conference that was here last last week in Charlotte hosted in Charlotte which is a partnership between the southeastern states here in the US and Japan and so they alternate each year going back and forth between the US and Japan in the conference that's an Initiative for North Carolina that's really LED out of rale out of the governor's office Commerce edpnc um but we were the host City so it was all Partnerships when it goes back to Japan you will have um people from Charlotte and the Charlotte region that will go over and attend that and so again just to Alex's point it's really a partnership um where we all try to show up together it economic development is undoubtedly a team sport and we only win by all kind of working together in collaboration okay open up for questions from the committee uh council member Mitchell uh thank you Mr chair Alexis uh slide number seven under the other we have 175 number of companies I remember about 3 years ago Bishop CL alexand led a big initiative with African countries and and and time more African countries to uh us-based companies has there been any followup or what or what is our success trying to partner more African company as well yeah so the African comp continent is in the early days of of where they're investing at the moment they're still investing very much at home um but they are starting to reach out and invest elsewhere uh partially is because of some of the connections that they've made with Asia there you'll see some investments from going that way we are starting to see some in the US but they are usually smaller um a lot of times it's more of a vendor and then looking at us as a market so when they're looking at us as a market they tend to not bring as many jobs so they're really at that slower end of of starting to bring up but it's something that we watch because as as Tracy mentioned um compan companies will come in in very different forms and then once they get here you want them to grow here um so during the pandemic there was a right before the pandemic the the the project that you're talking about was going to be at the Expo things changed during the pandemic so that location did not work for what they were trying to do um I have had some contact with a few of the ambassadors so that's the other side of my job often comes into play here for uh the business side because when um a country doesn't have a lot of companies in an area they'll rely on their ambassadors or their conso generals to reach out so uh we still have some pretty good relationships with uh Ghana um and South Africa in particular just as a followup I know um Janelle uh with the international cabinet has been doing a lot of uh of strategy and how can North Carolina companies in Africa ever more in import export and so just a follow I'd be curious uh you can just send something around particularly me uh where we are in that strategy and and if if what could we be doing differently just just curious because she seemed to be pretty passionate about uh us doing a better job and connecting okay thank you Mr chair mayor protim thank you Mr chair and um thank you Alexis and Tracy for the presentation I I will say that um the presence of the tech um specifically as it relates to healthc care and the Pearl with ircad and also um Seamans as well who has a presence in the pearl is is uh critically important to us growing the tech um side of um uh attraction of uh Economic Development I also am interested in you know we mentioned BMW um and would love to see them come and uh choose Charlotte as a location but there also other um automobile German automobile manufacturers who are very much interested in research and analytics data and analytics and given that the UNCC Charlotte has uh recently acquired their R1 status for research and they are graduating more students out of that data analytics program than than many schools within the state of North Carolina there might be some opportunity there because really with automobiles there's over 200 sensors in automobiles numerous um microchips so there really are less about being an automobile and more about being a very large computer so that might be some interesting connectivity with our local University but lastly I wanted to ask a question Tracy I believe it's on Slide Five where you were talking about the vacancies Uptown yeah and you me this last dot Point here of 60% of the leases signed pre pandemic have expired and I'm I'm happy that we've you know we've lowered that vacancy a couple hundred basis points from 25% to uh 22.5 but is that 60% expiration baked into that number or is that sort of a Harbinger that will have even more vacancies in uptown over the next six months it's the lad I mean I think what we have to think about is is what is coming um what is expiring in terms of the leases where we sit right now in companies thinking about return to work you know number of days and how that changes in their in their footprint we've you've heard heard me say before we've had a lot of movement especially in uptown because going back to individually owned assets so for example Duke Energy building their own Tower Wells Fargo then occupying what Duke Energy used to occupy then pulling out of some of these other ones and and so you start to look at some of this with the leases also expiring um yes and it it it starts to you have to pay attention and and how is the decision- making some companies don't want to make long-term decisions right now so they're going to come back around and say let me renew for a shorter amount of time I'll stay or let me shrink and do that for a couple of years um you know the the certainty of the market and and kind of especially around office just isn't really strong right now so that is going to play into I think over the next several years um as these leases come up how different ones make decisions and that then mayor PM trickles into the uh stability of that particular office building and that asset yes I mean that is particularly daunting if that 60% is not fully baked in I I'd like for us I mean and it also underscores the importance of a holistic approach of addressing these vacancies and what can we do in terms of um protecting the vibrancy of up town but I'd like for us to track this and if it can be shared with Council on a Cadence that you deem is appropriate whether it's monthly or quarterly but I like for the council to have some visibility to the expiration of these leases Uptown so um thank you for that clarification y i just to that I do think we have a couple of buildings that are almost entirely vacant or will be entirely vacant very soon and so we do need to figure out do we want to lean in um to solve some of those issues or is is the attitude to let the mark wait and see what the market corrects itself um and every building is little the hard part has been every building is a little bit different in trying to figure out that that right path forward and it's a complex problem right because not only are there vacancies in uptown but there's vacancies in University City there's vacancies and and and Valen timee and unless we're Guided by a policy then we're just picking and choosing winners and losers right and I think we need to really have a a structured conversation around that understanding that Uptown is extremely important for a wide variety of of reasons it's our living room uh it's our Center of Commerce for sure uh and and U we don't want any boarded up buildings in uptown Charlotte but it's it's complicated it it really is I'll just add I mean what we have seen from a Trends perspective is some of the office vacancy in uptown and some of these buildings in uptown it's different when you're talking about a 20 story vacant building versus you know a five or six story office building that might be more Suburban in nature what we're seeing in the Suburban office a lot of times is how do we convert to make that a little bit more flexible and um attract some of these life science prospects Uptown Office Buildings aren't necessarily position positioned the same way um you talk about Valentine Northwood owning that whole entire asset um comes with its challenges I'm sure but also has the ability for them to move around tenants as they contract and grow too so every submarket is slightly slightly different but council member Graham to your point we do have to figure out what are the thresholds in which we lean in or um we think differently about the market yeah and it's some of our our friends that kind of run some of these major corporations Uptown that are leaving old buildings for new buildings and so they're they're not part of the problem but they're part of the concern right because they're they're abandoning and leaving and going in well I I will say it's complicated I will say this though in some cases they are they might leave older buildings but in some cases they're actually leaving Great Space which means okay that building actually might be positioned better than other buildings to attract a tenant so it goes It goes both ways but to your point yeah yeah okay um Mr barari yeah I just add that I'm I'm glad we're having this conversation I think it's really important and one of the main reasons is this has been a looming problem particularly what we've just talked about with uh office space and um vacancy and we typically only get involved in very reactive conversations where it's like okay how much taxpayer subsidy can we incorporate into this to renovate it make someone want to be in there or something and while certainly that is a tool in the tool belt there's a lot more than that and the thing that I've brought up in those conversations and now we're actually talking about it so kudos to everyone who's who's brought this forward is one really powerful mechanism is recruiting businesses to town um and and that brings you to what the problem is with that and especially for a market like Charlotte we love Charlotte you know we're here but the fact of the matter is especially in these International markets a lot of them just don't know who we are so thinking that a singular approach of marketing on social media and TV is going to suddenly make people think Charlotte is viable it just does not work that way it may help when they see Impressions over and over again but there has to be some catalyst so this is where the spear fishing approach of recruiting companies is so valuable going after Target companies because they're in a disruptive technology for an industry that matters for our region and then it lines with our Workforce uh assets and things like that comes into play which I think then brings us to the importance of these kinds of trips where you go to am Munich you see our capabilities there we did this deeply with the NBA and Paris and with the NFL and London before that you're going there and all of a sudden your spear fishing ability has this credibility behind it of the executives from your region and while us that are NFL fans aren't really excited about the Giants it's New York now they do know about New York and Miami every time we go recruit there so being able to have these Brands these things that they are aware of and Associate that with a spear fishing approach of have you did you know this about the Charlotte Market this is what we have to do more of and I think Alexis you made the point but it's a really good one you know when I go and recruit much like you guys are and and look at specific Industries it isn't about always the success criteria of how many people did you centralize in a room those touch points are important they're important when we reach out and we have those credible things but it's important that we do this more than once every four years so I think the big takeaway here obviously we want success and things like that we need more credible reasons to reach out to folks in the spear fishing Manner and that's the thing that we as a community have really been lacking uh and and I think we need to get more opportunistic on and I think this is a great mindset shift for us to get into I I concur with you 100% com from har and I'll leave the committee with two quotes um people do business with people they know and communication builds Commerce and and and that's the essence of what we're trying to do over the next uh several days uh as we depart uh to go to Germany um to really drill down on uh issues related to um um housing and sustainability uh and Mobility uh and retention recruitment um and there is a game um as well but even that um it's with one of our major corporations who economic impact for our city is well over billions of dollars um and that we have a ongoing corporate relationship with and a partnership and so uh it makes sense for a wide variety of reasons um and um if we're going to be an international City with an International Airport report um to some of our friends in the media we can't be acting like we're Mayberry right we got to do what we have to do to um position the city for Success long term and we're not coming back with a major corporation in our pocket when we do that would be nice it's about planting a seed uh and and watering that seed and nurturing that seed uh so that when those conferences does arise 6 months a year from now we have positioned the city in a in a in a position where we can um get a new fish um or retain someone that may be looking elsewhere so and with that I've managed a meeting for 59 minutes I'll take an inj German okay second all those in favor say I and get up thanks everybody say travels e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e e e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] what oh one is here I didn't see you H how are you welcome thank you sweetheart okay I do are we good yes ma'am we're alive thank you Marie well good afternoon I would like to start by welcoming everyone in the room and for those who are joining us online welcome to the November 4th budget governance and intergovernmental Relations Committee we'll start with introduction I'm dmle air Charlotte city council member at large and the committee chair so let's start with committee members in the room ladies first good afternoon Tiana Brown Charlotte City Council District 3 theana Mayfield Committee Member James Mitchell Committee Member no not oh he can we go around the room with introductions Mr starting with Mr Heath Sean Heath City manager's office you man Gretchen Flores planning staff Dana Fenton with the city manager office I got T Jameson with the budget governance and Inter governmental committee John easterland partner Checkmate government relations lobbyist on behalf of the city of Charlotte Phil rer with General Services Kathy cornette planning staff Monica Allen City manager's Office Steven Coker Charlotte business inclusion Rebecca Hafner housing and Neighborhood Services Sheila Anderson General Services Kathleen seek General Services Ashley price General Services juliia said was Charlotte business inclusion R Harris strategy and budget J strategy and budget the so for those joining us online can we please go ahead and introduce yourselves shaa Watley hen and Knight Federal Elations Joe Hall in the night Federal [Music] relations Adam fips infrastructure strategies well thank you all for joining us we have three topics on our agenda today first we are going we are joined by Miss Tanya Jameson who served as the chair for the Charlotte Equitable development commission and so while the commission was sunset in September their work and input has helped helped to shape many initiatives that we'll continue to build upon so thank you for all your work and Miss Jameson is planning to provide us a report on the work that commission has done next we have Mr Dana Fenton uh he will review the proposed 2025 Federal and State Legislative agenda items that include feedback from our committee's meeting last month and last but not the least we we will continue our work on our referral to review the city's current procurement and CBI policies including procurement practices mwsb goal setting and project delivery methods I know Mr Mitchell is probably waiting anxious on the last topic uh so let's start with Miss Jameson Miss Jameson floor is yours all right thank you uh chair ashir and uh as I was explaining to your committee members that I got up this morning and I was all dressed up and ready to present to our city council and then I turned on the TV and I realized that you know uh council member Mitchell here was in like celebrate your team day gear so I had to represent and make sure that I was like dressed appropriately for city council so uh pardon the Doug Williams love and the Washington commanders but I want to thank you all for allowing me to uh finish out Caleb's uh last remaining months of his term earlier this year and uh taking over the Charlotte equable development commission next slide please one of the Reas reasons I wanted to take uh really be a part of this commission uh after serving on Nest is because when I think about Equitable development I think about the idea that we would be able to live in a city where regardless of what neighborhood you're in whatever Community you're in you see the necessary infrastructure in that Community whether it's sidewalks whether it's lighting whether it's bus stops and so I really like the opportunity of being able to serve out the final months on that commission next slide please but before I joined one of the um these are a couple of the recommendations that were put forward that the Committee reported on previously and I like these a lot and just wanted to call your attention back to them I've watched plenty of your uh your meetings over the years and one of the things I heard so often from members were that their constituents didn't know what the city was doing they didn't hear about whatever the city was doing or whatever kind of projects were coming down the line and I really thought that the capital projects dashboard campaign and the community engagement standard operating procedures would be a way for to address some of those concerns so I was glad to see that the uh committee put those recommendations forward previously next slide please so um in our waiting months we had a joint committee meeting with the nest commission uh at Late July just trying to figure out where we had some alignment between the two committees and so one of the things that uh we lifted up was uh prioritizing the um it was called the housing and lens framework for affordable housing investments back then I understand now it's called Beyond The Bricks but the important of really um looking at people and the needs of affordable housing uh residents more holistically and providing them the support and through the framework of what they need whether it's Workforce Development whether it's Transportation so looking at particular projects um that really have more wraparound support um and services to members of the uh members of the uh Community uh the last one that uh we also agreed on was unlocking the potential of our public own land we know that you all have been working on this over the years um and we just wanted to emphasize how important it is that we can figure out a way to use uh publicly owned land that's near Transit that's near um areas with amenities High opportunity areas to give people um affordable housing in those zones too and so we sent these recommendations to the full Council via email and we also sent them to the mayor earlier this summer after our two committees met so that was a nest and CE EDC joint recommendation next slide please so specifically to the um Charlotte EDC cedc our recommendations were around um accelerated zoning and rezoning for affordable housing so trying to figure out how we can move these projects through the pipeline faster so we supported the uh City's application for the pro housing uh Grant I know we did not receive it last year but hopefully we'll be able to submit again and eventually get money so we can have an and maintain a dedicated team to review these types of applications a couple of weeks ago had the opportunity to attend Allison Craigs Roundtable looking at affordable housing and how we can get more affordable housing projects built faster and how they could get developers to take advantage of the incentives that are out there and so one of the recommendations that were put forth that that Allison also shared was this idea of expedited um review which is what we were recommending through the uh cedc commission as well and then also next slide please we wanted to see how we can also expedite applications for child care facilities too as you all have heard uh between and I know I think Dana will probably talk a little bit about it as well arpa money Federal money has gone away for um affordable I mean for child care providers and so we really are looking at the closure of about 150 121 centers and 33 Child Care Homes in mecklinburg county and so we're impact that'll be 14,000 children that won't be served here in me County as a result of these closures and a result of the loss of uh funding and vouchers to make it more affordable so we have to be able to fill that Gap as these centers close and so being able to push these applications through quicker so that we can get more centers open to serve the needs of our community is going to be critical as an infrastructure as well next slide please then our last uh recommendation was around Equitable development for um standards for upcoming Transit projects and so when we were first put these recommendations together there was a lot of talk about the o line um there was talk about the goal line extension and so we uh really wanted to make sure that when you all are talking about these projects whether it's the o line the go line the managed Lanes uh coming out of I77 South that we're ensuring that we have Equitable development infrastructure that's being put in place that's meeting the needs that the residents who are going to be uh living in those areas are have access to in the future and so I'm going to turn it over to Gretchen to talk more about the catalog of elements of Equitable development I said it right gr thank you thank you Tanya so one of the outcomes of the CDC work as uh Tanya just mentioned was the catalog of Equitable development um the elements of Equitable development it's a report uh that memorializes the outcome of a workshop that took place last year and I'll give you more information on what that is in the next slide um the catalog itself shares information about cedc and their connection to the Charlotte future 2040 comprehensive plan it defines and describes the key elements of Equitable uh and vibrant centers and it also provides guidance on how to use these recommendations um and for background um I sit on the long range team uh who coordinated the um um Workshop that that the CDC uh undertook uh next slide please um for background in October of 2023 the cedc conducted a workshop to explore the elements of uh complete communities in the context of Equitable development um the commission members engaged in Hands-On exercises and discussions around what um mixed use centers and neighborhoods that are vibrant really look like what are the elements that they have present in in uh in each so there were two discussion topics that uh during the workshop the first was the key elements key elements of Equitable and vibrant centers those included neighborhoods and Community activity centers and then the second um topic was around Equitable uh development around Transit centers so what does that actually look like um the first bucket um is equity and centers and these are the elements that the CDC came up with they ranked them into tiers in U magnitude of importance um I I will preface this by saying that all of these elements are important is just given the um realistic nature of uh finite resources they had to rank them in tiers and so the first tier um in terms of what what uh equity and centers looks like are elements that are primary and necessary to the success of uh Equitable and vibrant sensors and those include um walkability Transit options mixed use uh mixed income housing uh as well well as inter agency coordination and then Community engagement and that that last piece really speaks to the um different the teams from different disciplines that are uh needed to make sure that a center is as vibrant as it can be tier two are elements that are secondary uh but still important in relation to tier one and those include uh parking parks and Gathering spaces bike friendly um areas creative lighting that really speaks to uh some of the safety concerns and uh then natural elements which really speaks to um the placemaking aspect of uh centers and then tier three are tertiary elements and uh those include educational um facilities public art housing options Health Care uh space for health care providers and then small businesses really um looking at realizing that there's a need for small businesses to locate in some of these centers uh in order to have them be diverse um next slide please then the second bucket is um that the CDC really reaffirmed that Equitable and vibrant censors also integrate Transit options to support the mobility of residents and so to accomplish this the following elements and these are not listed in any order of priority but these are the ones that were identified uh housing options intentionality of location so making sure that we're really um intentional about locating uses that are complimentary to each other um in close proximity trees and Greenways um limit lot sizes and that's really speaking to uh giving more of an opportunity for smaller businesses and not necessarily uh large box um retail developers um Regional connections uh in order to promote mobility and then varying Square footages again to this to the same um effect um it's important to to note here that um in terms of housing diversity this really talks about different housing types so single family multif family uh as well as different price points um in order to provide uh choices for a diverse diverse population so this really um points to uh the recommendations bolstering the comprehensive plan and in terms of what is intend um to be used uh for this report it's really a guide to inform and Advocate and collaborate on the work around Equity uh and from a staff level perspective we just want to um acknowledge the um the cedc as well as the current chair Tanya and I'll turn it back over to her for any closing comments no I just want to thank you all for the opportunity thank you for bringing me back even though we didn't have a chance to present last time but I appreciate you all letting us to come back as well and then if you all have any questions thank you Miss Jameson I appreciate your patience and I appreciate you coming back to present this report and thanks to all the Equitable development commission members we appreciate all your work and recommendations um based on the recommendations that Miss Jameson had presented I certainly appreciate uh Child Care being uh one of the recommendations because we know affordability and availability is certainly uh an issue and it it is certainly something that we need to address as part of our legislative agenda and I know we have already included that as part of our legislative agenda so it's great to see that also Mobility because we know that how important that is for a lot of uh residents uh we got to make sure that uh people can get from point A to point B in an efficient and effective manner so I would like to hear from committee members as to their feedback on those recommendations provided by Miss Jameson Miss Mayfield thank you madam chair thank you for this very detailed report I have a couple of questions for clarification so you gave us some pretty startling numbers they're not in our PowerPoint regarding the closures of child care centers I want to get a better understanding of how you see the city in our role assisting because I'm thinking it's really around land usage even though we have language in our uh upcoming legislative agenda I want to get an understanding from the committee's perspective how you see us really helping with that yeah language is is huge and one of the things that we've been looking at and talking to the county about is how can we streamline this process of zoning where where are the Hang-Ups when it comes to zoning we when we had a uh we hosted affordable housing developers and childcare developers earlier in the summer to talk about what are the challenges you're facing when it comes to being able to open up a new facility and one of the complaints they had was that they would have one inspector or person come out one day and then the next the next week when they tried to address those challenges then they were another set of challenges as well and I just had a phone call it's probably like two weeks ago from a friend of mine who's got some friends who have childcare facilities and they say that now um unfortunately under the uh Udo like the designation has changed and so they are facing challenges around that as well so getting some clarity and consistency when it comes to zoning land use regulations around it would be uh very helpful thank you for that because that additional information I believe will help us as we have the as the conversation move forward and really for staff when we look at the new recommendations regarding the Equitable development standards for the upcoming Transit projects we also need to make sure that our regional partners are at the table because they have the same concerns regarding access to land and whether or not we have we being government have an opportunity to make investments so can we learn from the lessons from Blue Line and other areas with ensuring that our Udo language and other language codifies diverse Price Point housing along the rail for the entirety of it so you all bringing these recommendations just help strengthen what I believe council is attempting to codify for staff when it comes time to that living document that we are trying to up dat thank you madam chair thank you council member mayf I appreciate you clarifying that so did I hear Miss Flores uh Miss Flores are you from planning department no I'm from the long range planning um division so that okay so do we have anyone in the room from Miss Craig's Department who can address council member mayfel's question around planning and zoning and some of the R tape that we are hearing from small business owners who operate Child Care Centers we we'll we'll include are you prepared to talk about that Kathy I don't know if that's your area expertise or we can include it in a followup yeah let's do that okay thank okay yeah that's fine if we can get a report on that um because council member mayel is right you know we we are trying to figure out what role is Council playing in this conversation we all can understand that availability affordability of childcare centers is certainly an issue uh but I think addressing this regulatory issues permitting uh addressing red tape and that's not just uh childcare centers I hear that even from restaurant and bar owners but that's for another day but I think if we can get a report out a presentation on that that would be helpful rather than just a memo a because certainly Miss Jameson has raised some valid concerns that I've also heard from small daycare operators and Miss Brown had some questions please okay council member Brown no I have comments I definitely second what council member Mayfield said Thank you madam chair and how are you today hope you're doing well uh the presentation was excellent amazing and I just want to go on record with saying that yeah we need to move forward B with there's a lot of Confusion And we need to be able to fix it and whatever that looks like and whoever we need to start with so we can begin the process so we can move forward with these great recommendations and your team thank you for coming back today you did a great job presenting it's clear precise and very understandable and people listening should be able to understand as well that we do care our hands are tied because we got some confusion with the the living document I had someone reach out to me over the weekend about the udio and some things that need to be addressed so we really got to get on it because people are projects or things that need to move forward that are a necessity and that we cannot live without in this community to be able to move forward we need to do that so I hope we can get the ball rolling sooner than later so that's all I have but I did want to commend you for coming back your patience and your expertise and how you present it so thank you so much thank you Mr Mitchell uh thank you madam chair uh let me first Echo turn thank you for coming back and and giving this presentation uh my first question is for staff the capital uh project dashboard have we implemented that yet yes we have yes sir we can send out a link can you send us a link yeah that's why I asked the question I didn't know yeah I didn't know it was implemented so if you can send out the link to us and I think that's something we can share with our constituents the council member Brown question uh I remember she brought up in Retreat a lot of constition don't know what we have accomplished and you know we policy makers didn't know so that's that's great number two uh we've been trying to do this and Tanya thank you for highlighting this again the C the cedc and the nest prioritize incentivize implementing housing lens to prioritize I remember we went on inner city V inner city visit of San Antonio Texas and we met with a planning department and they talked about how they make affordable housing as a priority when it comes to resoning and I know seem like we have tried different iterations but I know I have my home run hitter here Rebecca and so if you all can have that conversation Vice chair in housing how we can make that a reality that when it comes to resoning and it's affordable housing it it gets in the top uh instead of the bottom uh let me just Echo Madam chair you say the same thing and and and I play in this construction space Tanya you're right we hear often about the inspectors you get one on Monday it's a different one on Wednesday you got a whole new set from Monday he gave you seven items the person on Wednesday gave you 21 it is frustrating to our business culture the way we are conducting business and time is money to them and so somehow I know we have tried if we can have a group discussion when the city and the county when it comes to permitting and an inspection I think the whole Community would benefit from that honest conversation sure uh last but not least so I feel like this is you all are leaving us so is the cedc finished yeah cedc we wrapped up in August and I think Nest is wrapping up if they haven't wrapped up they wrap up pretty soon too so so let let me put this out Madam Tre of the committee uh when you noticed the first sentence they had uh they talk about infrastructure infrastructure is very important in this count we had a meeting last year in December about infrastructure I I I see the need to keep this Talent engaged and so I I I would rather us have some discussion maybe we can do at the committee break out and see does other council members see the value value you all continuing infrastructure is not going away as the 15 ler city in America we have an infrastructure challenges right and to have experts still engag and guiding us I think I think it's a great opportunity for us so I I hope you all not too tired that this Council want to pull you all back in you all be ready to serve and and if I may that's that's a great idea to to harvest them as a work group similar to we did for the community input group okay so when you have specific targeted things to um pull people together and then activate them um thank you Mr Mitchell my last comment if I may I shut up uh Tanya thank you for speaking about the transer we had a whole conversation about the red line your comment was very um it was what I say what we need to hear from those who would like to participate and you talked about mixu's development at our station I know uh my colleague here she's passionate about making sure we have affordable mixes at our Transit stock so that's what I'm saying you all expertise and guidance to us need to be continuing and with that Madam chair I will shut up oh no no la oh I'm sorry last thing go to tier one tier 2 tier three yes uh so Tanya just for me uh one thing I did not see was jobs can can you talk about why jobs didn't score high we got we have small businesses but I I think one thing we heard from some citizens they want to work where they want to live where they jobs are so can you talk about why jobs didn't make tier one tier three oh I'm sorry I'm sorry think yeah I'm sorry Ty over the bus I was looking I was going to jump in I'm Sor can you just curious why why jobs didn't come up yeah it's not that it didn't come up it's just that it came up in a different um sort of in in the capturing the small business aspect jobs in small businesses um that doesn't yeah I don't think that that was a a not a priority it's just something that didn't get teared basically okay it's definitely a priority for the committee we have committee members who talk all the time about wanting to have jobs and economic development in various neighborhoods and communities so yeah just one yeah I just looked and I said who I thank you madam chair I would be quiet mad thank you Mr Mitchell so uh great feedback from committee members uh Miss Brown I had another comment please Madam chair I'm sorry madam chair have another comment at your convenience yes uh let me just quickly uh um let me just quickly uh summarize a few things before I forget so one thing I definitely agree with uh on coun uh when council member Mitchell mentioned about having a group discussion with the county on permitting issue I think that be important um I I mentioned this earlier I have heard from many restaurant owners bar owners um just small businesses in general including daycare centers that permitting it's taking way too long and um there's just lot of uh red tapes that I think we got to address we got to make sure there is streamlining um there is streamlining happening uh also I know that we are trying to figure out a system with Rebecca's help on affordable housing that my colleague had mentioned uh if we can also do something similar for child care centers because I know that is an issue because I have firsthand experienced that um it it would certainly help us move the needle in the right direction so I look forward to a followup report on that a presentation on that uh but you know this committee is also not just budget and governance but also intergovernmental Relations Committee so I know we all have talked about having a joint meeting with our County Commissioners so if we can have a meeting specifically on the permitting process and what has been done to streamline what uh what are the recommendations that the staff has from the county and the city to streamline the process to address some of the concerns that Miss Jameson had raised along with myself and Mr Mitchell I think that would be a great way to collaborate on and work with the county uh and I see I I see thumbs up from council member Mitchell um and and council member me Phil and council member Brown so this this seems like a no-brainer uh so if we can have a joint meeting Mr heat if you can just uh give us an update on that that would be great so with that uh let's turn it over to council member Brown thank you so much Madam chair well State I just want to make sure that I'm clear um when I hear that um this member of talented and intelligent individuals are going to be leaving they ended in August and so for me I heard mauce say activate and I know that most of the time um everybody's intentional we are all busy our hands are tied but from a council member standpoint and sitting as one of the members of the body we need to be intentional about making sure that this happens and we need to move forward with whatever we need to do for them being a working group what does that look like and when can we get that started because so it would be more informal not like a not like when that has to go through the clerk and replace people on the seats it would be a formal informal work group group that when you had an issue that you wanted to capitalize on their expertise you could ask them for their feedback on but is that in place or is it something we have to ask because I know that they're saying that they so as as a group they're here for us they or they were as of August but now we're moving forward to an informal how does that look what does that look like is that going to be something that's going to be dormant and collect dust or we're going to be able to really do something for it with so that's the point about collecting dust so they don't want to just meet when they don't have a current charge but if you have something that you would like them to look at we can work we can work that around like we did with a community input group and I'll get you some more on the logistics or how that would actually work the way the way if I if I may interject the way we did it when I when I uh co- facilitated one of the Committees that um you all did looking at cmpd it was around safety looking at the rec at cmpd so we had an official I don't think I was here yeah you weren't on the council then it was like a couple of years ago it's called safe that's what the recommendations around um violence interrupts and all that came out of so we had a set certain set amount of time that we were supposed to be meeting and we did all of that okay and then once uh that concluded we put out our report Chief would call us up he would call us up through Willie every now and then and say hey we would like to get your recommendations on XYZ and so he would basically call the meeting as he needed um recommendations or he wanted some citizen input so was more of an as needed basis which worked out really well because one of the things with these various um commissions and committees uh that are citizen L to is that if we have like monthly meetings or bonly meetings attend we just don't have the participation consistently so when um but when you all call us and say hey we really want your input on this specific thing then we have a lot more participation it's a lot more active that you do virtually would you reach out to people through email or you trying to get yeah we would this committee met more virtually the next Commission met uh they had a system where they met one month virtual the next month was in person so it just kind of depended on people's availability definitely I just want to make sure that we could actually have yeah there's a there's a there's a model for it it definitely it works and we can get out real feedback all right so Marie she answered my question so that's great I just want to make sure that we do have it because this committee is going to be trying to move forward with some things and make sure that we can get some solutions and move forward and get some action going because we don't just want to keep coming back and circling around and running around the block and get nothing done thank you council member Brown um and Miss Jameson uh I was on the Safety Committee when you had l a group with recommendations on safe Charlotte and that worked pretty well so I think if we have a similar model here where it's on our it's needed basis that would be great um I do see here because we are talking about looking at the process the permitting process between the city and the county I think that could be part of the um your I I see this as one of the agenda items where what part of the process that we can improve on uh while working with staff so uh more to come on that once we have this joint uh session with the city and the County um and we'll hear more about that I know we have a second item which is Federal and State Legislative agenda and we have Mr Fenton who had provided us an overview of what that looks like at our last meeting I know we had given him a lot of feedback so today Mr Fenton will provide an update on uh on all the questions um that our committee had asked uh so Mr fron uh the floor is yours thank you madam chair and congratulations on your anniversary today that's a very special event and committee it's uh it's good to be back with you again today today we had a good meeting last month uh Madame chair is correct I received a lot of feedback from you all so I decided this time uh maybe this old dog has learned a few tricks maybe maybe one trick I learned I'm put all the feedback into the PowerPoint slide this time around so hopefully I won't forget anything here so what we're going to do is um uh just do a little bit of refresher here and then we'll get into the federal and state agendas then we'll going to ask you all to to go ahead and and make a motion to propose a set of legislative agendas to the city council and then tonight um uh would be the time to report it out and then fall later this month on November 25th I would be making a presentation to the council about uh the proposed agendas and then uh then we' be looking for a vote of the city council in December December 9th I believe it is so anyways we're not through by any stretch to imagination so put your seat belts on and we'll get going with this um uh we yeah yes ma we do we do all right did you go to the the uh two more slides in the yeah one more uh yes to stay right here for a moment just a little refresher I'm Sorry Miss Lou go back yeah right stay right there again we talked about this last month and you all have seen this before and simply legislative agendas are communication vehicles for you to communicate with our delegations in Congress and at the general assembly and uh in terms of the staff request that we brought to you last month uh we try to stay with uh your established strategic priorities and we look at things that are achievable in this political climate that we're in in the economic climate that we are in from time to time or the different climates we're in from time to time and that we try to look for things that are actionable through legislation budget requests Grant requests Etc and then we Al always look for things to try to strengthen our relationship through the legislators so uh with that uh then last month of course we presented and go to the next slide please start with the federal agenda um the first issue we had was mobility and again this this position would continue your support for the federal program that provides local matches for local Road and Highway public transportation passenger rail bicycle pass estrian and safety projects which is up for Renewal starting this coming session in Congress that law actually expires on September 30th of 2026 about a year a little less than two years away but it takes a long time to get to U legislation being passed a lot of work goes in by the 30 2026 yes September 30th of 2026 so it's a it's definitely a two-year process at the very least for the Congress so it's it's it's it's it's it's really vital that you all be U talking about this with your Congressional Delegation in March uh when you're there for the Congressional Delegation briefings and of course there was no followup from the October 7th meeting that was noted so with that I'll go on to the next one Aviation um same thing here we didn't receive any followup from the October 7th meeting and what we we do foresee you continuing is your support of the destination CLT Capital Improvement program uh you all may remember just recently that the Federal Aviation Administration did approve the letter of intent for the building of the fourth parallel Runway and what will need to happen now in the forthcoming years or the coming years not sure exactly how many but you need to ask for an appropriation for the project uh of Congress uh when you're at your Congressional Delegation briefings and this is something that was done for the Blue Line project you all may remember that I'm looking at Mr Mitchell and Miss Mayfield when I say that youall may remember from those years that we had the blue line extension being built that we had to ask for an annual appropriation of our delegation and again there was no followup noted from the October 7th meeting uh moving on the talent in Workforce Development uh this position continues your support for supporting uh changes in Immigration policy and regulations digital inclusion in corridors of opportunity and we are recommending adding in uh two things uh one is support for the reauthorization of the of basically what is what we call the Workforce Development act uh and that this is the act that directs funding to local areas to support your talented business needs and the second one is support the funding for child care resources as Miss Jameson noted in the presentation a lot of money came through from arpa and other Federal programs during the pandemic now that money is running out so there is a need a real true need out there for additional resources and there are no follow-ups noted from the October 7th meeting either uh moving on to uh Public Safety the on the federal side uh there this would enable the city to um to advocate for additional resources for uh services that are provided at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport as well as all airports around the country the Transportation Security Administration which we all have to uh go through at times uh as we know the the Staffing at those areas U can be a little bit um low at times and then of course at your your border security Crossing at the international rals terminal the Customs and Border Patrol Staffing is sometimes has an issue with that too because of officers are being sent around to different parts of the country for other needs but anyway so that's been problematic sometimes last few years so uh that would be a good thing to talk with your delegation about next year and there was no followup from the October 7th meeting that was noted and then on the federal environment issue we have um uh pretty much the same thing as you saw before we talked about the environment uh is to um support policies and funding so we can Implement and meet the federal forever chemical mandates that are coming up then we did have a discussion about uh the request in here to uh advocate for uh protection from unreasonable liability uh for uh for municipal Drinking Water waste water storm water utilities airport fire other services in relation to posos and uh on that one I know that Miss asir asked for a memo that the City attorney um Was preparing and um and I know that Miss James uh Deputy City attorney is here and she'd be glad to answer any questions about that uh and then another clarification that was needed Mr Mitchell you asked about the landfill regulations and city attorney's office has that one as well for a response to you and clarification from staff uh since your last meeting uh we've taken the liberty of changing that uh position statement to support funding to build sustainable infrastructure and for communities to meet Federal mandates um there was a uh a reference in there to um to lead service lines before and there was a memo that came out uh from I think it was from probably the Communications Department to council but Charlotte water had had finished inventory very very recently of the lead service lines in our community found virtually nothing out there in terms of lead service lines that need to be replaced so request came in from the director of Charlotte water to remove that from uh the proposed legislative agenda and we've U taken her up on that uh before I move on to the next one uh were there any questions on the environment yes uh thank you Mr fron I see council member Mayfield has raised her hand I just wanted to provide an update to committee members I did have an opportunity to review a memo that was sent by the city attorney's office and Mr Baker did reach out to me as well earlier today and that memo does clarify the rationale behind the need for protection uh but I know that um not all of my committee members have had an opportunity to review it so since we have Miss Lena James from the attorney's office if she can just get the committee up to speed uh that would be great uh but let me make sure I get to council member mayfel's question thank you madam chair so Dana maybe I missed it but when we go back to slide seven under our legislative agenda under the public safety support initiatives to reduce Community violence improve disaster preparedness and administer Justice fairly and quickly I do not remember us having any conversations regarding supporting additional funding for border security provided by Customs and Border Patrol including at us international airports I don't remember this committee or hearing that we've had any challenges with Charlotte Douglas internet International Airport regarding border control and I'm very concerned about us adding legislative language into our policy that possibly could contradict what we have said as far as Charlotte being a welcoming City so when did a need for additional border control Customs and Border Patrol come to the Forefront this came to me from my discussion with airport staff uh with their um with their the person there who's responsible for intergovernmental relations okay so I had my meeting last week with staff and we were together at the airport for about 2 and a half hours and this was not something that came up so if we're going to be making a recommendation tonight and as was mentioned our Madam chairwoman is she's celebrating their anniversary today so she will not be getting to report out I would like to hear from my colleagues cuz I'm not comfortable with that particular language in here when we as a committee have not had anyone actually present any data or any information to us asking for additional customs in Border Patrol I do know that there is a request for potential additional TSA agents just for the overall growth but adding this specific language regarding Customs and Border Patrol I have concerns about thank you madam chair thank you so Mr Fenton I do remember additional funding for TSA the this second bullet point was it was it there when you did a presentation at our last committee meeting yes ma'am you remember correctly we had a presentation we went over this uh but uh I don't think I had these in separate bullet points they might have been in the same bullet point and everything can run together I apologize for that that may have it is so council member may feel this correct so this is a new item or maybe it's just a I guess more explicit than it was before I'm I'm trying to I'm trying to remember what we had yeah I I've got it right here it it was one bullet that read advocate for appropriate levels of funding for airport security services provided by Transportation Security Administration and border security provided by Customs and Border Patrol including at us international airports so I I want to make sure I understand the second bullet point um so when you say support additional funding for border security so by Customs and Border Patrol and since this item since this bullet point request came from the airport I'm assuming this is just for the airport or is just airport is just one of the beneficiaries this is this is yeah what happens that with Customs and Border Patrol and I'll get down to the to the real uh I think what people are probably thinking um when there are problems at our Southern border Agents from CBP postings around the country at international airports may be sent down to help out with that situation so there is probably there is probably a need to have additional uh funding for for that as well but we certainly need to have um at Charlotte Douglas we need to have additional Staffing so we don't have those issues with with weight times for people come flying in from overseas uh well I understand that we need to make sure there is not a long wait time especially for folks that are traveling uh from international flights because I've seen that um so that's great but I guess if you can just get more better just clarification on what does this mean uh because water Patrol means a lot of things right and unfortunately it has become politically divisive so if we can just get a little bit more uh Clarity around it that would help help all of us okay yeah the reason I use Customs and Border Patrol is because that's the name of the agency and I didn't want to uh I wanted to make sure I just stayed consistent with that but I'd be glad to get more data from the airport on this yeah that that would be great if it's just to address the Staffing shortage I I understand um but I I just need to better understand to council member me's Point okay uh any other questions on this on what's been presented so far I got a question Madam chair council member Brown yeah so with the with is that Federal I'm just curious because Aviation would that be Federal uh Dana instead of State funding would that be Federal yeah for uh for the staffing those are federal employees who are Staffing those areas so that would have to be a federal reest okay that's what I just want clarification on there CU I know dealing with the the Airlines and the airport that's more Federal I don't see State at all with me you you'll see estate role in a few more slides okay we'll we'll yeah we'll get to that at that point so all right no problem Madam chair I yield thank you Mr Mitchell Madam chair I'm fine I I just Echo your comments as well as Council Mayfield on that second bullet okay great so Mr fron we can Contin yeah thank you madam chair we'll go on we'll get to the housing position under the federal one that's slide number nine Miss Lou thank you um there we go great uh support the creation of more affordable and Workforce housing opportunities that meet Community needs we talked about this last month as well continue your support your for continue your support for reforms of the housing voucher programs and then we we do need to have uh greater Financial Resources for various Housing Programs which I've delineated there just as some examples and again there was no followup from the October 7th meeting that was noted and Madam chair right there that ends the Federal agenda portion okay of the presentation so Madam chair just one question if I can for go ahead uh and Dana I think we have holl in the night ju ju just a curiosity because I know Workforce Innovation so it say support reauthorization what's the funding level for the workforce Innovation do do we I don't I don't have that that that those figures with me okay but it's something that I can get for you if you want to thank you thank you madam chair just information on okay okay so let's move on to our State Legislative agenda okay thank you uh Madam chair um next slide is uh mobility and this would be essentially to advance the draft legislation that was approved by the city council um I guess two months ago now um to enactment we continue to start continue working with legislators stakeholders including the counties the towns the business business communities and all the other folks who are helping us out with this and then of course at the same time we would continue working on access to the portion of the o line that runs from the meinberg ardale county line to downtown moresville and there was no follow-up noted from the October 7th meeting next slide please and Miss Brown this is where Aviation comes in at the state level yes sir there's a program at the state called the North Carolina airport Improvement program that provides dollars that are needed for Capital Improvements at all the uh commercial service airports here in North Carolina all 10 of us and uh Charlotte Douglas receives a pretty good chunk of money each year about 33$ 35 million thereabouts and most recently the funding was going for the opening of that uh new Concourse expansion at Phase uh phase two I can't remember what we call it now but anyways it was it was just a second 10 second set of 10 Gates that was just recently opened so so that that's been a great program they've been able to use that for other things as well and the agenda would continue your support for that okay and again there were no fallouts noted from that meeting and then uh the next slide environment um here we go we made a change a staff clarification change in the position statement support growing communities and securing Water Resources you may recall last time we had this specifically addressing the Charlotte water interbasin transfer request and we learned since then that the town of morisville just north of us is requesting their own similar transfer request so we thought we there was an opportunity here to be able to support theirs as well as other growing communities so hopefully we'll all be together at that big pool no pun intended of course uh and that was the only that was the only clarification we need to make from that meeting there was nothing noted from the October 7th meeting um and the next slide please Public Safety yeah we talked a lot about this and we've done a few things here uh one thing just let me just say right right off hand is that we've taken anything that could be construed as supporting the justice system move that to a separate slide a separate position statement so uh we don't need to get into that here but Miss Mayfield you did have a question about the local authority to enact zoning restrictions around arcade gaming parlors and the planning department I know is putting together a memo to send to the city council on that hopefully this week uh at the same time their staff did take your suggestions and put into the hopper the idea of increasing the separation distance of these things from uh from housing from Child Care Centers from uh religious institutions Etc so I think there's more to come on this Miss Mayfield a lot more so and uh and again you had a request about the Imp PS of hurricane Helen we talked about that a few weeks ago and you're you're all good and very glad to hear that so anyways let's go on to the um uh next one next Slide the court system and this is where we put in a separate uh uh slide in separate position so that you all can uh uh discuss this uh in more detail and craft it the way you want it and uh in staff did re reach out to the court system specifically the district attorney uh chief Mr Court Judge into the public defender office for their 25 2025 legislative agendas the only one we received back was from the district attorney and um and he's looking for additional prosecutors positions in in the new year and also I need to have some more resources to go along with that uh for um prosecutor Staffing um they have a lot of different things that they're trying to solve for they have increasing case loads that got turn over and then responsiveness the victims as well he did note that the that the uh legislation of the pre of the last several years concerning victim's rights that does require a lot more notification of people who have been victimized by crime that does take a lot more time it's nothing he's complaining about it's just that it it's the reality of reaching out to all those people is um it it takes time and it takes people to do it so uh but other than that uh Madam chair I think I might stop right there for a moment to see whether you have anything you'd like to say about this yes a couple of things thank you so much for including all of this questions so let me get my notes Here hold on just a second so can we go go to the previous slide where we had archade games I'm sorry madam here can you repeat that yeah so on this slide where we discussed archade games it's great to hear that our plan planning is looking at separation distance and that's something we can do at the local level uh can we look at also our state ask because currently there is a loophole into the system which is based on skill and I know we asked specifically to look at that as to how we can close that loophole and have some sort of um uh Clarity around how these businesses are operating uh thank thank you for the question um on on that on that loophole around uh gains of skill they become gains of chance um and i' I've heard a lot of different reasons for that uh one is that uh is that there may not be enough regulation you're right at the state level but also at the same time is that uh a lot of The Operators of these parlor will change the machines themselves and make them into games of chance and I know that there was a state supreme court decision on this stuff last year which is uh which is muddied up the water somewhat I guess but but one thing that the general assembly has been looking at frankly has been trying to legalize these things to to put uh regulation around them tighter to bring in Prof uh to get rid of The Operators who try to pray now that's kind of like um several year thing that the general assembly is probably looking at before it were if it were to become law to regulate them it would take several more years probably but there has been legislation filed a few times in the last uh two sessions at least once in each of the last two sessions that has not uh gone too far because of the U aversion to gambling from from some folks here in the state a sign to Mr Fenton that this legislation hasn't gotten a lot of traction in rally um but we know that it certainly has had an impact on our low-income communities because this businesses prey on uh very marginalized communities and we have seen where we are investing so M we are investing through our corridors of opportunities in this areas uh however I feel like um because of this arcades and fish shaes and some of this businesses it's um it's undoing what our investment uh undoing our investment I I I think even though we may not get traction this year but I think it's important to show our community that we are taking this issue seriously uh I tell you from my home to the government center I at least passed by two arcet tables with neon lights um and it is it is a nuisance for many of our neighbors because of this businesses other businesses are not uh want to stay out of this areas because they don't want this kind of businesses nearby um so when we are trying to bring economic opportunities and jobs in our corridors but where these businesses are located it really makes it difficult for us um so I I am appreciative of what we are looking at at the local level a POS possible solution uh but I think we do need some support from Raleigh to address this persistent issue yeah Madam chair i u i i too whenever I go home at night I can see the flashing lights of these parlors there's at least three of them on my way home so yeah I I get it and I and I know that they they do pray on marginalized communities I don't know what the impact is frankly dollar impact but uh nonetheless I do know that again the planning staff is putting together a more comprehensive memo that explains more of it to you so it it it may be helpful to receive that memo back but in terms of what we would put into the State Legislative agenda for this uh we certainly we we could change that line up there that says monitor discussions occurring at the general assembly is uh not sure what we would put in there but uh but anyways I I guess I could we could wait until the memo is done before that is done for that yes yeah that's fair enough I think the memo will probably address some of our questions and maybe with this new language we might be able to address over concentration of arcade tables in certain parts of our city um and if there is a gap we can address it so who is the staff resource that's working on this well I know it's coming the the member is coming from the planning director Allison Craig uh I'm not sure whether there's a a certain person who's been assigned to this as of yet okay because I know that cmpd has advocated um for some sort of regulations for these businesses because uh cmpd had put out a statement how this businesses are crime Sports where they have reported um rapes Grand C I mean I can go on and on about a lot of uh crimes that have been reported so uh this is a public safety issue that cmpd also has vested interest in addressing so if we can make sure that we loop our cmpd team so that if there is a gap they can help us address it and maybe come up with a lang language for our State Legislative agenda after we received the memo from yeah and great yeah yeah Madam chair yeah that's probably a good idea the um I did talk with the chief last week about this um and in and certainly these I read the articles I saw the statistics and but I I don't know what the answer is frankly um I guess that's I'm struggling a little bit uh so yeah yeah because what I was Mr fron as I was researching this issue more um what I learned this is just based on cmpd's report that this because there are no regulations surrounding arcade gaming parlors they are operated just based on skill what is happening is that even if there are there is a a payout they don't have to necessarily pay um send this payout um and and some of this business owners are holding the payout from Community from so that community members will not speak up uh and and we have also heard from cmpd where some of these businesses are operating um they have so many violations whether that's quote violations fire quote violations I mean just the number of violations that business continues to operate under so um I can certainly say report that cmpd had provided U with all list of uh certainly a laundry list of uh items that we got to address around this issue so I I appreciate council member Mayfield for raising this um and really highlighting this issue um because it plagues our low-income communities that's all I have on this item Madam chair uh Mr easterling uh from uh checkm government relations is here he's one of our state lobbyists he just wanted to say something that might be able to uh clarify the situation yeah so yes please uh Madam chair thank you um this is an issue that the state has been um aggressive in trying to reach a resolution to um this is a business that as it currently exists provides billions of dollars in um unchecked um unregulated Revenue that goes God knows where so I think you're echoing a concern that we see from multiple municipalities local Chiefs uh local County Sheriffs and we've really have our team been involved in those conversations I suspect we've had this past legislative session more movement on this conversation that we've had in the past 10 years and um you know with this um discussion and as we continue to monitor it I am confident that the state is going to reach some kind of resolution when it comes to updating the statute about in terms of prosecution where these kind of games would be legal I think you'll probably see a bill where you're not going to see these arcades existing anymore that these Gaines would be attached to um an institution's liquor license or their ability to sell Lottery and so they would not be popping up in all different parts of the communities but I imagine that there will be some kind of response and update to the statute and um during the course of the next uh legislative session oh that's great to hear I appreciate apprciate you providing an update on that and um so you know I'm not advocating for completely shutting down this businesses what I'm advocating for is finding that middle ground where our community feels safe where these businesses are located uh whether there are regulations around how this businesses should be operated and how the payout should go out and so on so um if you can provide language uh when that becomes available for us that would be great but in the meantime um I would like us to include this in our State Legislative agenda before we adopt our uh before we adopt our federal and state legislative agenda uh by end of this year because we will have our mammo from planning this week so that gives us sufficient time for us to include this because I hear from neighborhoods and it they feel like we haven't done our part uh so we may not get a lot of traction but at least we we need to show them that we are advocating for this at the state level and that's all I have on this I I do wanted to ask you about resources for for the District Attorney's Office can you go back to that slide please Madam chair just quickly we still have uh least three U five more slides in this and it's 3:15 and we still have another item I know but the thing is Federal and State Legislative AG legislative agenda we had a lot of questions so I want to make sure that we do get these questions addressed and we can go we can go past 3:30 up to 3:45 is that correct if you are all okay with it yes ma'am 3:45 is the latest we need to evacuate the room so the other committee can set up okay so the next question I have is about the DA's office can you go back to that slide yes I think we're on that slide right now okay so did we get okay right here so are we including this in our State Legislative agenda if uh the committee so desires yes I I would like to add this to our State Legislative agenda I would love to hear from my colleagues so that we are supporting our district attorney's office because we have heard from Chief jannings as to how they are having to deal with uh the backlog at the DA's office and that certainly impact cmpd's resources uh but that's all I have so committee members if you could also provide uh your recommendations on this item if you're okay with us including it um so Madam chair I saw one thumbs up I see two okay all right so I guess we do have the majority all right anything else committee on this items okay so let's move forward all right thank you the next slide uh Madam chair from a discussion I had with uh Miss Mayfield just a few weeks ago she wanted to uh have some consideration of additional position related to housing in the State Legislative agenda there is one in the federal legislative agenda but there is not one in the state agenda and I've outlined kind of maybe a long way here but uh that the the general assembly has never really been too friendly to the needs that generally local governments believe are needed to bring to the housing issue and they have focused more on Marketplace reforms that are brought forth by the development industry and so forth so that's why we didn't have anything in there but I know that Miss Miss Mayfield wanted to talk about that for a few minutes go ahead Miss Mayfield Madam chair for the sake of time I'll defer all right next all right um Madam chair uh that we've gone through the Federal and State Legislative agendas and um and now is the time for Committee Action and you have no amendments to what was provided uh you got the First Amendment at the top at the first motion at the top and if you have some changes to make U we can we can use the second one there and uh but let me go real quick we we have before I'm sorry can you go one more slide Miss Lou um let me just take you through the next steps and then we'll go back to the Committee Action um tonight is the report out then again November 25th is the action review where staff presents and then um December 9th is when this Council considers and adopts the legislative agendas but uh you have one more crack at this probably on December 2nd if there's any feedback from the council at at the November 25th action review then it would probably come back to the committee on on December 2nd Monday December 2nd so and Miss Lou you just go back one slide thank you very much Madam chair I think that completes my part U and I'd be glad to turn it over to you thank you so much for this detailed presentation and for addressing all of committee's questions and concerns I appreciate it welcome so the item about additional resources for the District Attorney's office would that be considered an amendment no no ma'am I it's in here uh it was okay it was um yeah I I'll just clarify that you know we we thought we were addressing it through the previous Public Safety position you all didn't you all didn't see it that way so we put in there as a separate one we did on our own poition so it's basically a staff recommendation so it's um that's no amendments required for that got so with that uh do I have a motion Madam chair Okay so so the question that I asked earlier which I think would fall under the category of the amend of an amendment is for now for us to remove the support additional funding for border security provided by Customs and Border Patrol including at us international airports on a federal level since that's part of our 2025 federal legislative agenda for us to remove that until we can have further communication for why we would be why that would be a part of our legislative I believe that one would be an amendment uh Miss Mayfield mam chair we'd be glad to take that out voluntarily um but um you know I'm I'm exing it out right now from from my slid so so whatever way you want to do it we'd be glad to go along with so miss mayfeld uh well I was going to suggest that since we do have a couple of outstanding items where we are waiting to hear from staff with additional information and clarification border patrol is one second is a hearing from the planning on uh archade games and I know we have two uh pending items so would it make sense Mr Fenton for us to just come back on December 2nd once we have uh MOS from staff members so that we can study it and adopt it all together but in the meantime we can provide an update to our colleagues later today on what we discussed mam chair may I ask a clarifying question before Mr Benton answers and help me understand if I'm understanding you correctly Mr Venton you want a Committee Action for from us that day you gave us one or two if no amendments or if one or more amendments what we identified regarding the da is not an amendment you stated that you'll remove the piece even with us moving with a Committee Action say it was if no Amendment and we motion a second we still have an additional opportunity what is say December 10th to make further adjustments yeah need to clarify that Miss Mayfield I'm glad you brought that question up usually we reserve the the meeting after the action review to to focus on issues that have been brought up by the city council basically non-committee members generally at the November 25th action review it could be committee members too there may be something that has come up in the meantime but generally we get the things that we usually take back to the committee after the action review are things that non-committee members have brought up so we need what again for clarification you want us to actually from committee so that we can get it to full Council to have the discussion you would like for us to actually vote move on a Committee Action today yeah that that's one all that's yes that would be the preferred way to do it but at the same time uh you know if if you wanted to wait until December to make a recommendation to council that will put your your calendar back uh for a adoption in January and that that'll put you really close to the beginning of the state legislative session Madam chair um Sean Heath also had a comment Mr Heath thank you I'll be brief I just wanted to suggest One path forward would be for you to recommend the proposed state and federal legislative strategies as presented tonight with two qualifications one is additional information on the one component piece related to Customs and Border security where you need additional information to decide if you want to keep it in and the second qualification is additional information related to Arcade gaming parlors because with the additional information you want to decide whether to add something to your agenda so that that may be the cleanest path forward to keep this moving along but to be responsive to the two items that you've expressed questions about thank you and I could just say the follow up to what Mr Heath had to say about the arcade gaming I've I list Mr easling behind me to try to come up with a new position statement there to help to help incorporate that um so um you might be seeing something like that from us but yeah I agree completely agree with Mr Heath what he had to say okay committee members are you all okay with the with the path forward that Mr Heath had suggested I think you had three yes okay perfect well thank you Mr he no wonder you are the ACM and and the point of contact for this committee I appreciate um I think we have a path forward uh council member of Mill will provide an update today to full council with everything we discussed and specifically highlight those two items thank you madam CH do I have a motion do I have a motion do I need a motion yeah I I'd like to make a motion with no amendments and uh uh let me go to the exact motion I'll move that proposed 2025 2025 Federal and State Legislative agendas be adopted as the budget government in government relation committee proposed for 2025 and with addition information about the arcade and the custom um the US International Airport information provided to the committee second all right all in favor please raise your hand all right good so we have it unanimous Perfect all right [Applause] let's thank you Mr Fon I appreciate all your hard work and thank you Mr for being here all right last we have enhancing mwsb participation in our capital investment plan so I will turn it over to Mr heat to introduce the staff and um and then at the end of the presentation let's let's um write down all of our questions so that we can go through this presentation and address all the questions at the end thank you chair azir and chair we have a decision Point here that we need some guidance on just given that it's 3:25 and even if we extend the meeting for 15 minutes it wouldn't be possible for us to get through all of the prepared content so uh option A and I'm just going to give to but option A is the preferred option there's one piece at the beginning of this presentation related specifically to the earlier engagement of CBI which is something we know the committee has expressed a real interest in uh we believe that Steve Coker could cover that in about five minutes or so um and then we would just stop there for any questions that you might may have option b would just be to punt the whole thing to next month so I'm in favor of option A but obviously we're at your direction committee members are you all okay with option A let's read if you can raise your hand if you're okay with option A Madam chck can ask a quick question can we have a third option hit option A but be prepared to be number one for our next meeting so that be the compromise because we want to get into this but we keep running out of time and I don't want to miss the good information that you all are doing how do you feel about that Madam chair I think that's fair because that's what we have done previously at last committee meeting if you all remember uh we had this topic as our second topic so yeah I'm fine with keeping it as our number one topic for our next meeting but are you all okay with option A yes ma'am all right so Mr he okay good well having said that just real quickly joined here by Monica Allen new assistant city manager great to have Monica here with CBI among other departments are in her portfolio Steven Coker leading our CBI efforts Phil rer with General Services which includes procurement and construction ruction etc etc and we also have Adam fips who you made at the beginning of the meeting with infrastructure strategies he's been involved in the mobility efforts and just so happens he has a good background and some expertise in these areas as well so he's been kind enough to jump in and help us with our thinking along these lines so with that I'll hand it over to Steve Coker thank you Sean uh Madam chair congratulations happy anniversary of course uh esteemed committee members uh pressure's on five minutes um you know we've uh you know outline an agenda that we think is going to give you a good sense of what we've covered over these last few months uh specific to today we're going to talk about the progress to date opportunities and actions the capital planning and project delivery Workshop that we just did the road to growth uh with the general CIP pilot framework and project delivery methods and then what's next the path forward next steps next slide please uh this uh seed was planted with the mayor she uh referred us to this committee and in June we presented the road uh to growth with a pilot framework and I'll say one thing about framework when we talk about all the best practices that are out there many of which you've asked for uh and I think you'll see that we've delivered that framework is really what will separate us from other cities and and make us a model for m wsbe uh engagement and participation uh we introduced the general CIP uh as far as nwsb Master util utilization plan concept and then over the summer uh we initiated the pilot uh we targeted 10 projects uh we learned a lot of lessons we made some significant progress we held a CBI Outreach event and webinar which was very successful and then in September we had as you may recall a small uh committee group meeting with uh uh a couple of the committee members and then we engage with our minority trade associations namely mmca which is the uh black contractors and then hcac which is the Hispanic contractors and of course uh our very capable CBI AC members we we engaged with them and gave them a sense of what's happening and how they could support the effort then in uh October uh we uh met with you and it seems like that was just last week we reviewed the CBI and procurement policies and procedures and a lot of this stuff that we talk about is baked into that but we we wanted to really move it to the point of implementation and then we reviewed the road to growth pilot framework and the preliminary results next slide uh opportunities and actions if I could stick with the opportunities uh column there early engagement project development targeted Outreach remove barriers you hear this all the time but what's the action that follows that actions column we integrated CBI in a in a better place as far as project planning phase uh we administered the uh pilot project framework uh that focus on increasing project opport unities and then we uh engage with our consultant Maryweather who administers our contractor development program we use them in so many different ways and they supported us with a major strategic Outreach to better connect the opportunities to our nwsb removing barriers we've been working really hard to make sure that happens improving the procurement process uh thank you very much Sheila Anderson for your support uh We've offered uh the bid opportunity uh preparation training which is crucial providing bonding support with our contractor development program and encouraging licensing a and certification which is a necessary element to the work that we're doing next slide early engagement so the goal here was at a in a workshop was to identify and establish strategic entry points uh for CBI involvement to enhance departmental guidance and enable early engagement opportunities this was a workshop that was uh administered by our consultant Adam fips uh we walked through the mwsp best practices and effective strategies for inclusion uh of course there's that word again or multiple word early CBI engagement uh Adam demonstrated where CBI currently exists and he recommended a place where we should go you'll see how that's Illustrated uh again that's something you've asked for and then we offered a clear point for CBI to guide departments at critical project Milestones you see that uh picture uh that was taken by Adams he's conspicuously missing in the photo uh but this was represented by uh our city manager's office Aviation cats of course CBI cot Charlotte waterer uh the city attorney's office General services and strategy and budget a nice Gathering we met a couple hours and Adam walked us through uh a very nice and solid presentation Adam if you can just kind of chime in if I'm missing anything uh like to hear your voice on that Workshop uh yeah happy to you Mr Coker and uh committee thank you for uh having me here today um it really was an effective Workshop I mean to Mr coker's Point um we had engagement across the city um I think it's always important to recognize that when we talk about the small business Community when we talk about the disadvantaged business Community they see the city of Charlotte as a single client and all times we often look at ourselves as multiple different clients whether that be Charlotte water whether that be Aviation whether that be Charlotte Department of Transportation uh we had everybody in the room uh a couple uh really great takeaways that I had from the workshop was one we got to a consensus we got to alignment around uh where this early engagement should take place and specifically how that aids in the capacity building conversation that I know this committee has talked about uh in the months prior and is uh certainly uh critical for continued success as it relates to Capital project delivery uh into the future for the city of Charlotte um other than that one item that I really want to bring to everyone's attention uh that was a strong takeaway that has really excited to hear is everyone agreed that we want to create an environment where the city of Charlotte is an owner of choice where industry has the opportunity to engage across different sectors of government across different sectors within uh the private realm we want them to look at the city of Charlotte as an owner that gives that opportunity gives that visibility into the pipeline of opportunity that has reduced barriers and is really an incubator uh specifically for disadvantaged business and so it was exciting to hear that uh this was not a workshop where we talked about things um without getting into the depth uh we there was times where there were some uncomfortable uh conversation um I was happy to see every Department truly engage and and and speak uh their concerns speak the opportunities that they saw and uh was very excited about the outcome uh thank you Mr Coker thank you Adam uh next slide please and I think our shot clock's running so this may be the last one okay okay really quick uh next slide this slide right here is just a a a good solid illustration of what would I I'd call a project timeline uh starting from initiation going all the way to program closeout and if you can focus your attention to where that green diamond is at the uh top of the page there that's where we currently sit Adam uh really took a deep dive into all of those components and suggested or proposed that CBI engaged much earlier at the planning stage as you know that's where you know assessments uh can happen at a a very critical level uh we can gather data we can uh look at the preliminary budget and schedule and then of course CBI can engage in the most meaningful way to to get a better result for our our certified firms and make our program much stronger I'll leave it at that chair azir that concludes what we can really reasonably cover today she it looks like we lost it count okay is they figuring out go ahead okay so I know we got I'm GNA be sensitive to the time oh we we lost a chair yeah I think so okay what they trying to bring this slide okay so can we bring up the last slide Mar we'll we'll start there we never have time to do that I mean that's the hard part only have two hours I know it's based on our questions can't getting that done though so frustrated so I like the motion we we made that we'll make this the first topic and in our December meeting so let let me just stick with the CBI engagement So Adam uh thank you sir for taking something I think it was important for a lot of us to put CBI up front uh and so instead of number four they in between initiation and planning so they like 1.5 as oppos to four so uh that's tremendous progress how we feel how CB CBI need to be important so Steve here's a couple of questions uh just so I'm clear an initiation identify projects Define the purpose of need uh who determines the construction method are we doing it in initial ation or we doing that in planning and what I mean by construction method are we saying this is hard bid CM atris or design build bid so which box is a construction method determined now I'm not going to give you a definitive answer but I can uh take my uh partner here Phil uh and talk about where it typically happens and perhaps in light of what we're talking about here where it should sit right so um planning is where that really happens think of planning like this is where your advance planning for a project occurs you're starting to get into the very preliminary design and as you're starting to understand that project um and what the project scope is you're starting to think about delivery method and the best way to deliver that project uh to meet all the project goals just um project initiation is happening in the Departments these are like when the I the they're they're let me take C do as an example because I used to work in C do okay this is where they're evaluating crash data or traffic um counts and they're starting to look at the entire system and conceptualize where do we need to make improvements okay and they do some very preliminary feasibility testing very early okay right very early on they're not really projects yet their ideas yeah they hit planning they're project and and and so let's stay with the construction delivery method so once at the planning phases there's a determination we're going to do c m RIS the department signs off and this new process with CBI signs off sign off as well or we going to leave it at the department level no no no that'll be happening collaboratively we're going to uh CBI is going to become a part of the team okay during the pl during the planning stages um a team is formed okay and um so it is either if we're talking about horizontal projects it's either c. General services and CBI coming together and looking at the components of the project in the cases of a vertical project it would be our client department whether it would be police fire or any other department where we might be building a building and again a team is formed and we start to do that work but but Phil when you have five Cooks in the kitchen you need one Chef one person this Council going to hold responsible for who determined that method so I like the team concept I like the collaboration but when we sit down there and we're going to have problems with participation we need to be able to point the one person who made a decision so will that be CBI or will that be a department no no I I it's it's you put me in a position where there's really not an answer it is a it is a collaborative and it's not necessarily the department because General services and CBI together General Services is ultimately responsible for the delivery of the project in other words making sure the project gets delivered the way the project was scoped right so CBI and general Services would work together to make sure that we choose a delivery method that would maximize across a lot of priorities including uh utilization so for stormwater c. in Economic Development General servic is still responsible for the participation General Services is responsible for seed do projects what about Economic Development Economic Development those like Spectrum like Spectrum the the Panther stadium so uh those are a bit special um the the the rules and the laws around how we what latitude we can give our tenants in some cases um differ for the stadium and for the arena um for the for the arena the arena has to follow our procurement rules right and and those and and the the deal defined for the arena is a development deal that is a collaboration between economic development or city attorney's office or city manager's office working with the Hornets or the Panthers General Services role right after the project is defined is is really to facilitate getting the contractor paid or in this case the Hornets paid they do work right we review the work make sure that work really happened right help them either get reimbursed or paid okay so I I'm just sticking on participation yep I understand the work um it end end of the day we this Council need one person who gonna stand up there before us on city council and explain how did the 10% goal was established and we only had 3.5 is that CBI or is that General Services well I will say from a compliance standpoint we own it and so CBI will walk you down the path of what's happened every step of the way uh I so you own the go participation I I own the uh goal setting and the the the compliance leading up to the result okay the whole department that you as one person well the entire uh office of CBI gotcha okay all right Mr Mitchell yes um I've been sensitive it's 3 it's 3:44 so I'm going to be quiet and wait to December no if I may suggest um I I know this is a topic that is that you are certainly very passionate about is it possible for us if Mr Cocker and Mr Heath and others if you all can meet with Mr Mitchell ahead of time and get some of these questions addressed uh we can use the committee's time more effectively um alternatively we can have whole committee meeting just on this topic uh because what I what I sense here is that this topic we have been discussing it for almost three to four meetings now uh and we haven't been able to provide recommendations out uh so either we need to have one meeting just on this or second have a separate meeting and address lot of this granular questions and then bring this presentation to the committee and other committee members can join into this meeting with Mr Mitchell uh but I understand some of his questions are very detailed because Mr Mitchell has the industry knowledge um and understands the intricacies behind the whole process um so if I can just quickly hear uh from what do you suggest Mr Mitchell uh and some of our other colleagues counc dominate I was just saying that you and I okay okay so Mr Heath if you can set up a separate meeting with Council M council member Mitchell and mayfeld on this topic um and if they can at least see a copy of the presentation ahead of time and uh get some of their questions addressed us so we can use this committee's time more effectively uh I'm learning a lot about the industry through this presentation but I'm not an expert like Mr Mitchell is correct so I like you know for an example a lot of the Auditors meetings I I tend to meet with Auditors separately because I tend to have a lot more questions so I think this would just help uh that sounds like a wonderful idea and we will put it in place for this month all right well that's great so hopefully we'll cut we'll have a short meeting at our at our next session so with that uh do I have a motion to adjourn yes you do so second third four thanks everyone thank you thank you e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e e e e e e e e short meeting at our at our next session so with that uh do I have a motion to adjourn yes you do e e e e e e e e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e e e e e e thank you everyone apologies on starting a little late I am Lana Mayfield I serve as Vice chair of our housing safety and Community Council committee we are going to quickly go around the room starting with to my left once we go around we will jump right into those online council member T brown Committee Member Sean Heath City manager's office Rebecca Hefner housing and Neighborhood Services Justin harlo Nest commission Stacy Bridges and livan meum and livan Allison Craig planning director Aaron chantre planning design and development waron housing and Neighborhood Services Simmons housing and Neighborhood Services Harold Thompson housing and Neighborhood Services Gail wicom housing and Neighborhood Services can you all hear me okay yes yes ma'am um almost get to you I got four more people council member Nan Peterson planning department Lindsey reer greater Charlotte Apartment Association Anna schinus city attorney's office Daniel Frasier office of Workforce Development those members online Council M Johnson we heard you a minute ago it seems like you may have lost your sound is showing muted on our end hold tight no cuz we've seen her so we can still identify the council member Johnson's here we just need to give her some assistance to help with getting her online all right so we have we are going to be very respectful we have two very important discussions today we are going to get an update from our Nest commission where we have joining us today both Kim Graham and did I see Kim no we're going to have Dr Justin harlo former council member thank you for joining us and is going to be led by our fearless leader Rebecca Hefner and then we will go straight into our choice neighborhoods and the olivian partnership update that will be led by both our team lead Warren won and Mr F mein of Libyan so with that I turn it over to you Miss Hefner thank you council member Mayfield um excited to be here today to um have uh Justin share with you all the final recommendations from The Nest commission Kim Graham uh who was co-chair along with Justin um had a family emergency today and um is unable to join us but she sends her regards to uh Council committee and um I would just uh confirm that she was fully engaged throughout the process and know she hates to not be with us today um so the nest commission has uh finished off its threeyear assignment and uh I know you have heard a lot about the work they're doing along the way but we are excited to be able to present the final report uh and today some final recommendations from The Nest commission so I'm going to hand it over to Justin harow for the presentation and I'll make a few other comments at the end Dr Hollow before we get started I think council member Johnson had the ability to come in councilman Johnson did you want to check in and I know we have a delay no internet still out all yours all right uh well thank you for having me um it's been I think maybe I don't know six months since NES reported back to to the uh HSC committee and this is our final report um as Rebecca mentioned uh this term for the nest commission was started in late 2021 early 2022 uh born out of the adoption of the uh comprehensive 2040 plan the I do want to acknowledge I don't see any of our commission members in here but our 15 member uh commission um was meeting every other month uh we met in smaller subcommittee work groups uh on the other every other months but in person collectively every of the month over the past three years um and we are proud of the work we've been able to uh recommend and present and we thank the council uh this committee first in the full Council for many of the uh adoption of the recommendations um we'll go through kind of all of that in a summary with a few recommendations a few final recommendations at the end just say next slide and next slide thank you um so I I know there's a lot of uh a lot of paper here uh we've got some summaries and some uh recommendation reports uh very nice color stuff but uh so today we'll kind of just map through uh kind of where we started and where we're finishing up uh walk you through kind of a journey map and then some final recommendations and some closing thoughts uh these pictures are just from various kind of workshops and you know City loves the term shetes right uh over the course of these three years uh that that top left photo as uh most of our commission there um and so again just just proud to have worked with these uh hardworking community members volunteer community members uh we thank them for their time over these past three years next slide uh we were charged with uh establishing and reviewing and recommending specific anti-displacement strategies uh and tools to help prot protect residents um from that are particularly in moderate and high vulnerable areas of displacement um and so we we've made many of those recommendations over the p uh the past three years next slide we first met in February of 22 um and we kind of used that uh first few months as really a way to kind of get everyone on the same page we did a big udio Summit um we kind of developed work plans over that that uh late spring and early part of the summer and then we presented that networ plan here in August of 2022 and then kind of really got to work pretty much all of last year and this year uh in 2023 in developing a true anti-displacement strategy um kind of a policy document we hired hrna uh consultant uh that that helped us through the the early part of 2023 to kind of get all of our work plan thoughts and our our our you know ideal strategies also bringing in other you know work plans and and policy documents that the city is already um kind of adopted to make sure we weren't Reinventing the wheel but also not stepping on any toes um with with policies that the the council was already working under um and that final strategy was uh presented and adopted by by this uh committee and presented to the full Council in June of 2023 uh we then came with our first slate of recommendations last year uh late last year uh that was really looking at uh the arpa dollars that were remaining uh so we appreciate the $6 million uh arpa dollar investment for various anti-displacement programs uh that included House Charlotte plus uh expansion uh kind of recapitalizing expanding the acquisition rehab and repair program um implementing kind of a a revamp accessory or Pilot accessory dwelling unit program um and then some other uh kind of technical assistance things around access to services for uh neighborhood associations and also Community groups that were already doing some of this anti-displacement work uh most recently let me skip over the tax relief portion um from last January too uh everyone knows I like tax relief but $4.2 million there uh we do appreciate that that was kind of trying to get ahead of the 2023 revaluation um and and linking that to the uh meinberg County homes program uh which you see now the County's really kind of running with that as they have you know the bulk of the property tax uh burden and so uh you know senior citizens over the age of uh 60 I believe or 65 uh and in certain Ami level are able to benefit from from that that tax relief option um earlier this year uh the one of our most recent recommendations uh kind of just changing and amending a little bit the the transit oriented development the to fee andl program I'll talk a little bit about that um in future slides and then of course uh tomorrow the housing Bond hopefully will get adopted and uh we were we and many others uh many in this room other community groups um other city city uh groups and things were were big advocates for increasing uh the bond asked to $100 million and we also do hope that somehow in the future um understanding budget constraints and all of that that uh the city can find a way to continue uh continue funding housing bonds um all right uh let's go to next slide so uh we've got a few final recommendations uh that are that we feel are really kind of can can supplement what the city is already doing you know our whole goal in this three-year process was really about you know can we add new tools into this large toolbx that we reach into for for a variety of housing needs um can we improve the sharpen the tools if you will that are already in the Box um and so some of these final recommendations are that uh the city is doing a lot of investment we know that Charlotte is really at the Forefront we know that other cities look to us for the best practices um particularly around affordable housing and um and so we want to continue to uh be a part of that and be a leader uh as for a municipality uh mixed income communities we we talk about this a lot we know often that the focus has been on you know sometimes the focus has been on just you know below 30% Ami or you know the workforce part of it the 80% and above but truly uh mixed income communities are what make for vibrant communities uh to steal from your term councilwoman Mayfield uh diverse price point uh I haven't heard you say that a long time uh I think I heard that first in this room a long time ago like five years ago but uh all that being said uh advancing opportunities to to just collocate housing with Municipal facilities uh the nest commission truly believes that all of our government entities Municipal entities the school board the county and the city just aren't doing enough um and that's not to to say we're not doing anything but just not enough when we look at you know our school board is one of the largest land owners in the city or in the in the county um and you know we know that they're doing some pilot things right now with housing with teachers and we we commend and applaud that uh we do believe that uh all of these Municipal entities should be uh really really intentional and if there's one thing I can leave you with it's that it's the land often is the the hardest part right um and you know that that whole housing formula uh the land is is is sometimes the toughest thing to make the whole thing pencil um but when you've got municipal agencies and entities that own the land already um and we all are out to kind of for the most part support the same goals around around housing and mixed income communities uh we would highly encourage uh from from a nest commission recommendation to First conduct a feasibility analysis to establish kind of a public development model uh the city kind of has its own kind of model already um I think the school board is trying to move into that entity of looking at a model particularly for teachers only uh right now but overall uh know taking those synergies together uh as different public agencies or public entities to try to advance Housing Development ac across multiple fronts um and then possibly Implement a POS a property tax incentive for market rate developers uh this is a conversation we've had with with the development Community people who wouldn't mind building uh you know various you know market rate and affordable components in their developments around other uh you know other things like schools or like fire stations and and things of that nature we think that there is some room there uh we and this is not from us this is from listening to the development Community saying hey this is an opportunity for us here uh tax credits uh you know tax incentives I think are always you know a little carrot that we dangle so uh something to consider that has not been done uh with market rate developers particularly if if the land component can be not of consequence anymore um thinking of you know County owned land or Schoolboard land or even other City owned land uh next slide please um so uh regulatory uh and pro and process recommendations uh often right we hear of oh the red tape is is in the way what what's preventing us what's slowing us down time is money right um and so we we know that the city has done some consolidation over over many years uh trying to find ways to help make it more efficient approval process from a permitting standpoint uh we support that as a NES commission uh and certainly recommend embracing pre approved plans that allow for more efficient approval processes um the Udo we know we we talk about all the time it's it's cons consistently a working document um various text amendments continue to to come up but uh overall we want uh we we believe that looking at uh some of the RightWay requirements um to help kind of bolster or catalyze uh the development that the city wants particularly around uh you know high density areas and and and affordab ility related to those requirements specifically um what we're hearing we have a few developers on our commission um they gave a wonderful presentation somehow we need to get that shared with you all um it it really breaks down you know let's look at a project you know theoretically right of you know hey 70 you know 70 Doors 100 doors and go through the not just the math equation of it but also hey here's all the other things that no one sees in the background right the planning and design component of it the the right of w requirement components of what the Udo requires Now versus what it didn't before the Udo um was adopted um and we think there's some opportunities there to prioritize affordability um by maybe creating various exceptions in certain areas we're not saying have no trees on any development that's not what we're saying uh I want to be very clear about that but we are saying hey you know if if if a if an undeveloped lot is sitting in a weird kind of parcel shape is there something that can be done that doesn't necessarily require the same amount of tree save or open space that would require that would be required elsewhere in like a traditional rectangular paral format particularly if that developer or Builder is wanting to help the city meet some of its affordability goals um and place some affordable units um in those things often particularly when we're talking about not just rental but home ownership as well and building you know subdivisions and then what what we already have listed in the subdivision ordinance uh we believe that there's some opportunities there to evaluate um to to just create a smoother and more efficient process and then also uh this is more of a budgetary item but we we support the uh Charlotte Equitable development commission's recommendation around funding and implementing a dedicated review team what they're calling kind of a concierge model if you will so I know the city's kind of tried to move to this One-Stop shop space a little bit uh but that that can help uh developments incorporate affordability fast or create a FastTrack process when someone does come with an affordability component next slide [Applause] please uh final recommendation on small business displacement this was one of the last things in our work plan um there could probably be a whole Commission on just this uh we focused a lot on housing uh the you know 90% of the work that we've done over the three years have been around housing affordability and and displacement as it relates to Residents in their homes um but uh we can't speak to Residents you know being in their homes without also talking about the businesses around them that they support are the businesses that help build these and help sustain these communities um there is a there is a thing as small business displacement uh it's not just about you know single family homes being demolished and and other you know things being built on top of it uh the business you know plazas and and and uh shopping centers you know age out and and get redeveloped as well and then therefore small businesses are displaced uh I think the city's done a really great job not just me but the whole n commission feels that the city's done a great job as it relates to um promoting those small business resources the corridors of opportunity and the the resources that have been you know pumped into the corridors to help support not just residents but also businesses are great we think that there could be a better marketing activity towards that to help uh bolster more small business resources certainly for those that actually need it the most um in these are businesses in high and moderate areas of of displacement but these business owners still see some they see value in these neighborhoods often before other businesses see that um and so we should absolutely uh be supporting those businesses to stay where they are and not just be displaced once you know neighborhoods uh develop in different ways and or gentrify um prospectively even uh we're actually recommending expanding some of the geographic eligibility for some of these small business assistance programs that already exist um again often a lot of the access to Capital programs and things are just for businesses in the corridors of opportunity currently so it could be hey let's expand these corridors of opportunity um you know street names change and then we cut it off sometimes right seventh street is Monroe road but it's the same street um so you um in a in a in a driving scenar scario it is the same street let me let me say you that uh I don't disagree with you trade street is batty forward as well uh but they aren't necessarily the same so I acknowledge that um however uh we do believe that there there's sometimes uh just like there's a missing middle in housing there's a missing middle in the business as well uh and so the first price point business can we say that I is that a thing you have the trademark on this so we have to but uh again this there could be a whole separate commission to make recommendations on this but NES did feel it necessary we had a few business owners myself included on this commission that said you know explore other initiatives and strategies to to address uh and mitigate some of the pressures that small businesses feel the same way that you know homeowners or renters feel um when you know various development pressures or gentrification pressures um come to uh to those to those communities uh and that that sits right in line with our uh the full uh adopted anti-displacement strategy in fact there were four goals this was the fourth goal that said hey you know while You' got you're targeting you know rooftops and and making sure people have roofs over their heads but we also want to make sure that people don't lose jobs and um people don't lose opportunity because that that affect how how the workforce is affected also affects uh affects housing um next slide please uh so a few programmatic recommendations we know we've come over the past two and a half three years to you all with a variet think about um you know family inheriting property right yes exactly that's exactly right and so when we think about these uh you know families aired airs in inheriting things unfortunately people will pass away that's a guarantee right and property gets passed on what happens things get tied up in Probate Court and all these and you know multiple family members half of them didn't even know they were owning property anymore all this stuff and we end up with a tangled title right how do we clear someone wants to sell others don't um and so there's I we think that there's a space there for the city to get a little bit involved um it intentionally with implementing a tangled title P Tangled title pilot program say that five times fast but and I'm looking for my um I highlighted something in here on that but let's find it sorry where am I Rebecca help me out here we go yep Air's property pilot program program um it we could uh providing more assistance and resources to uh to affordable housing developers some who might even help facilitate some of these things they're trying to you know buy those properties but also just for individual family members who are looking to don't don't know don't know what to do maybe they could acquire rehab repair and Rehab the home participate in the cities in the city existing programs that exist maybe they want to build an accessory dwelling unit on their property but they got to get through the the the the Tangled title part of it um and so we have existing programs we have people acquiring homes that they might not ever live in that they will be they will rent out but they don't know the resources to use that already exist um and so we want we want we would like and recommend that the city look towards uh providing more assistance for that uh implementing a tangle Tyler program and moving down the slide here expanding the that Adu program to maybe include some permitting costs uh for those rental property investors as well or rental property heirs uh I should we should say um and then you know even if someone wanted to buy the home out right from their family members uh if depending on the price point and all that if it falls within the you know the down payment assistance uh kind of categories perhaps they can participate in that as well that's a bucket I think sometimes we don't look at we're looking at new home new home buyers only sometimes and not necessarily those inherited homes that people get and then don't know what to do with might become blighted when they could actually be activating that home and also supporting some of the affordability goals that the city has um so uh that is next slide please oh last slide uh so sustainability uh you know we know and we appreciate that the the this Council particularly and I could say for past counsels is using you know a variety of different lenses when we're looking at you're taking a displacement lens you're taking a equity lens taking a sustainability lens um and so we we we highly encourage that to continue to prioritize and invest in uh anti-displacement efforts uh for the implementation for you know just cross transformational Mobility so everything has this kind of intersectional component uh sustainability kind of Falls in in almost any bucket that you want to put it in uh and so we we continue to recommend that you prioritize that in any decision making you're making particularly around housing for sure um next slide all right so this is uh this is the summary you this this Council has already funded you know a variety of things that NES has recommended again I'll list them again just from House Charlotte plus uh reinvestment you know Adu pilot programming acquisition rehab resale uh small landlord assistance you know so often it's all about the who are the big developers coming in right who's coming to get all those HTF funds right and everything but what about the you know the the the landlords that got a smaller portfolio you know they're not building the 300 unit apartment complexes everywhere but you know they hous that's right they're providing affordable housing and might have eight doors 10 doors or whatever um in a neighborhood that is already experiencing you know moderate and high displacement um and so those Investments have been made we we will continue to ask and um that you continue to make those Investments uh for for those programs but also for these final recommendations looking at you know trying to uh make the process easier certainly when people come with affordab affordable component um and not forgetting about small businesses as it relates to that um I see our new Workforce uh higher over there in the corner so we we want to be able to support businesses support employees uh the the the live workpl model the 10-minute neighborhood model that that that the city is all about uh making sure that those businesses can stay there and that is it's more likely that those businesses then hire from those neighborhoods as well um from those communities and then of course taking that sustainability lens um there's no there's no action to take here immediately um these would be things I imagine that Rebecca will continue to come come forth with and we continue to remind you of the anti-displacement strategy that is a policy document for the council uh but no no actual like money ask in this one today uh but this is our summary um the next commission uh next slide I think there's one more is there not oh that is it oh thank you yeah all right so uh I guess we'll go f final co-chair thoughts on it um this was at our final meeting uh last month uh this group is is really amazing across every Community you can think of in Charlotte uh South Charlotte West Charlotte Howe Acres um you know there's our our Optimus Park one coming in right now uh Angela arros is uh been been a a full-time or three-year committed member thanks for being here uh also an olivian board member I believe so abolutely correct she's she's everywhere uh um but uh this group I I will tell you uh you know I have worked with a variety of community groups and neighborhood associations and um you know there neighborhood leaders and and City appointed board members um for various other commissions and stuff this was just a true Delight to work with these members um this group was committed to coming in every other month really you know getting to the nitty-gritty of it getting away from the minutia and the fluff and saying how can we make an impact on this community um and then we I want to thank the the housing and neighborhood services staff as well um I won't try to list them all because I'll forget somebody but Rebecca and you and your team um and the well-deserved promotion that we'd like to take credit for at Nest as well but uh but um to have the staff support and to to have what I like to think a pretty amicable commiss uh uh Committee in here for the most part y'all grilled us every now then but uh the three years went by quickly but to be able to say hey there's do you tens of millions of dollars of Investments that that have come from this uh there are people that are benefiting from it and I know the the Gob channels doing some video stuff to help document these things um and so that that will be archived and um and um I guess for the history books but again we thank you I thank you for the appointment um I think all the committee members can and I speak for Kim Graham as well my co-chair um who I think is going to take a break from committees for a while because y'all have been seeing her for years but thank you um and if there's if any questions happy to entertain them I'm quite sure there will be questions but I do want to give my colleagues a chance to introduce themselves who are online we both have both council member azir who has a question as well as council member Renee Johnson who has some technical difficulties earlier and was not able to hear us so before you ask the question if if I can get council member Johnson just uh introduce herself if you're able to and then I'll come to you council member asme where you can introduce yourself and ask a question Council M Johnson hi this is Renee Johnson with District Four and thank you for that presentation and the work that you all have done thank you council member as thank you Madame Vice chair Justin great presentation and thank you for all your hard work uh thanks to you and the entire commission this feels like it was just yesterday and the nest commission was appointed but what it's been three years now and look at all the work that you all have done I mean this is a legacy of starting with $100 million in bond referendum to anti-displacement commitment and so on I I certainly appreciated how you how the nest commission have have really uh looked at this from uh outside of the box right we are looking at some of this very I mean I've never heard of um I never heard of uh Twisted title or am I tangle yeah I mean that's that's really creative uh I think we got to explore that um but two things that I I definitely would like us to further explore is regulatory uh constraints that lot of businesses are operate under in fact uh at our earlier meeting U council member May Phil Brown and I are part of the budget committee we discussed that from the child care perspective and from affordable housing so it's great to see we are pretty much hearing the same thing where when we are out in the communities when we talk to small business owners like yourself Justin we often hear red tape right we often hear about the permitting issues and so on so I think if we can find way to look at this holistically uh that will not only address affordable housing crisis but also Child Care Center uh availability and other businesses that are struggling with this so we in fact discussed uh having a joint uh committee meeting with the county because as you know permitting it it is a collaborative effort with the county so we can figure out a way where we can look at this holistically and address some of the regulatory issues and if you can eliminate uh red tape as much as possible I think that will be a big win not just for housing but also for small businesses across the across the city um and certainly I Justin nailed it when he said that uh we got to do more for small businesses right um we often talk about the big developers the big companies but let's be honest majority of the jobs that are created in the city of Charlotte it's it's it's because of the small businesses and we got to figure out a way to support some of the small business owners who are actually providing affordable housing in our communities a lot of these are small housing providers that have less than three to five units so let's figure out a way as to how we can support them because that helps us preserve uh affordable housing stock that currently exists um so I'm open to all of uh I mean I'm open to this recommendations um and implementing them as part of our next steps so great work uh n commission um one thing we did uh talk about at our budget committee uh because Tanya Jameson who is the who is the chair of the Equitable development commission she actually did a report out on behalf of the commission and we talked about uh just having you all uh informally as part of like our advis team right I mean I see you all as an extension of of just helping us make our policy decisions right so whenever we are looking at for an example changes to the Udo how would that impact affordable housing stock I think having that um expertise and uh would certainly be helpful as we are looking at uh making changes so we talked about how this informal group will help us if there is a charge so I think I would like to hear from you Justin if if that's something you all would be open to from time to time when we have something come up we want to hear from the industry and I get it you all have I mean you are a small business owner you have Kim Graham who represents apartment community and then you have Angela who is actually a real estate agent and her I mean she's a small developer so having that um expertise is certainly very valuable as we are making making some of this policy decisions I would love to have your input along the way and hopefully you know this commission um it doesn't I mean the expertise doesn't end here yeah no doubt um I can't I won't speak for the other 14 of them but um in their time commitment but uh I we thank you for uh for receiving this um personally I'm I'm happy to continue to you know be a part of anything that that helps kind of you know just make our city better um I I love this city this is my adopted home for sure um you know me personally I know many of you all personally I would want to continue to help anyway that we can for sure thank you thank you Madame Vice chair thank you council member Bown Mr harlo thank you madam assistant V prayer I appreciate you very much all your hard work that you doing this committee Mr harlo thank you so much this um documentation was well presented but the anti-displacement that word um is used a lot and from a perspective of community and constituents they don't think we're doing enough and so uh just over the weekend I heard this word being used and we like to say that we're putting in anti displacement so that we can make things better but we got to push a little bit harder and do a little bit more so thank you so much for your presentation I just wanted to say that that word is used a lot but what are we really doing to make sure that we are making sure that that does not occur thank you thank you and I agree with you so I want to be respectful of our time because we do have one other item but there Mayfield may may I make one closing comment yes cuz I was getting ready to come to you I don't I don't want justtin to leave quite yet I just wanted to take a moment you don't leave yet for um staff to um thank the nest commissioner um as Justin mentioned this group was incredibly engaged um creative um and a lot of fun I've worked with a lot of uh resident Commissions in my nearly 15 years at the city and this was an incredible experience to be able to make changes and impacts along the way this this report and if I could this report is not you know here's here's what we said after three years now go see what you can do um with council's support and investment we've been able to activate so much of this work along the way I want to just mention um that uh you do have an invitation um in your inbox to the nest commission reception uh that we are hosting to thank the nest commission members and all of the staff who participated so please take a look um we would love to have you join us if you're able to attend 13 November [Laughter] 13th thanks was that was that any additional information Miss he okay so a couple of things that jump out for me one I want to thank the nest commission for the work that you all have done you're going you're helping us create the language that we need the manager and I had our meeting last week and without me even knowing several of the things that you have in here are things that about we were talking about and CU there are things that fall in line of conversations I've had for a number of years I'm happy to see you carve out the space for small businesses because that is a challenge every day we're hearing of another small business that is having to close its doors because they are being priced out of the building how do we create more opportunities including the fact that we have identified some areas like alone right off Wilkerson Boulevard we have the new co-working co-housing spaces and we're looking at other ways of supporting that but recognizing that it is very important that we look at that missing metal for business as well the manager and I also had specific conversations regarding air property because as you mentioned you can have grandmother passed away one family member took care of grandma took care of the home did all the maintenance repairs everything on the home but Grandma never a Granddad never updated the paperwork so now other family members are saying well we both own this even though I've never put anything into it so how do we keep that because still for us in the United States other countries they figure out other ways cuz other countries it's heavily rental versus home ownership because they figure out ways for people to build wealth that is still the main way we build wealth so I'm glad to hear that there is a clear recommendation of how we help you maneuver especially if you're interested in having that property stay in the family but be a rental property because it's in an area where that home they may have paid X for 50 years ago but is now surrounded by homes that are triple the cost and already has no investment that has come in so I'm really excited about how housing and Neighborhood Services how we're going to work together and I'm also happy that some of these recommendations tie in with what Rebecca Warren miles and I have already been talking about regarding our faith and Housing Initiative when we talk about who has access to land for us School land is more difficult cuz we have to buy it outright but when we're working with our religious partners and our religious institutions that have access to land we're having some very good conversations and if the community comes out overwhelmingly tomorrow and it's added to what's been happening the last two weeks to support the recommendation of the 100 million we also have recommendations of not doing 50% more of the same thing we've been doing we have some very creative opportunities moving forward to try to address some of these but I second council member as's comments of having you all close by to help us with the language is going to help cuz this isn't to open a space for a power grab it's really the opportunity to build the type of community that we know we want and need unless there's any other questions council member Johnson did you have any questions on this I did not see your hand up but I did not want to miss this opportunity I appreciate it uh council member Mayfield um I would just Echo what what council member adir and all of you have said it's been an honor to work with this committee um I appreciate the Creative Solutions and I look forward to continue um collaboration are these issues keep reoccurring when we talk about the need to support businesses we talk about that at zoning meetings so um these issues are just all of the same so these are our priorities I think the nest commission has done a great job in supporting our priorities and I'm looking forward to supporting continued support of their recommendations thank you thank you council member and with that for the commission members that are here thank you so much for joining us and we are going to jump right into our choice neighborhoods and in livian Partnership update thank you for coming Mr to bring an update to us as you make your way to the front and I am turning this over to Mr Warren Wooten yay thank you for that very excited introduction um thank you uh committee members for having us um you're going to hear from us a a two-part Pro uh presentation on uh just an update from our uh great partner at inan Mr mechum uh and then we're going to go into an exciting uh Grant opportunity that the city in olian have been working on together for some time so with that thank you my partner in crime Mr me good uh afternoon uh committee thank you so much for giving olivian the opportunity to present today um elivan has been provided affordable housing uh to the most vulnerable residents of Charlotte North Carolina for the last 85 years um it is indeed an honor to continue that Legacy uh of working with the city to ensure Charlotte uh truly truly does have H housing for all we go to the next slide so our mission uh create Innovative Housing Solutions in desirable communities for residents of diverse incomes and facilitate access to services to help help them succeed what does that really mean I want to focus on a couple of things so first desirable communities when you think of that I really want you to be thinking about housing of op I mean uh areas of opportunity right how are we helping our families move into areas of opportunity or how we creating place-based strategies to uh kind of change and and create more opportunities than areas that don't presently have them the second one I want you to think through is diverse incomes most people have thought of the Housing Authority as only for low-income families right this this public housing model uh of the past it used to be concentrated poverty everybody that is in one uh specific socioeconomic group living together we have seen what that has done right the cheddy study has talked about it very specifically from the standpoint of basically putting people in that situation uh really limits their uh ability to economic Mobility so which changing that model from public housing now to more of a divers priced uh Price Point housing that we talked about or mixed income housing and then finally uh services to help them succeed at the end of the day that's what we want our residents to do is succeed that but it does require supports right now we have life coaches that help our families kind of work through uh issues that maybe prevent them from going to work that might be Child Care education Transportation you also have seniors that we work with right and those are things how do you how do you live uh and age with dignity how do you age in place and nutrition programs and those type of things is what we provide next slide so talking about the people we serve this uh various backgrounds with diverse incomes and needs there breaking out our demographics right now we have uh roughly 11,990 families that we serve um as you can see uh they range from market rate to the extremely low income that would be the 30% and below income 75% of our population is uh the 30% below we are not getting out of that business this is our Focus we're actually serving more 30 percentage than we ever have before but we want to make sure that um this Council knows is that we are really focused on how to create more 30% but just in a different capacity a different way and the reason why we need to do that uh if we can turn to the next slide uh presently right now in Charlotte uh about 46 % of the population is paying more than uh 30% of their uh rent as well as utilities um in rent right um roughly $62,000 a year cost to actually be able to afford an apartment here and why is that happening basically you have 105 uh people moving here a day uh demand is extremely high show is a great place to live no question about it but when you have done you don't have the supply that just pushes up the cost right if you're a minimum wage worker here in uh Charlotte you need to have a rent of $386 a month you cannot find that anywhere in Charlotte unless it is a subsidized unit right and guess who has the most subsidized units in Charlotte in livian okay next slide please but even with those subsidies that we have right predominantly the housing Choice voucher there are barriers to this right the federal government has in the last couple of years increased the number of special purpose vouchers right what are those those are for specific populations like veterans uh persons with disabilities maybe homeless families but there hasn't been an infusion of a large scale voucher uh issuance in the last 50 years so Charlotte is growing and has been growing but we've been stuck with roughly uh 5,000 uh housing tourist vouchers for the same length of time over the last 50 years okay and so again what does that mean that means at the end of the day that probably about one out of four people that actually need a houseing to voucher can actually get a housing tourist voucher next slide so um the olivian strategy housing redefine first this is our um um acting secretary uh secretary toddman uh and we were at a conference and this conference with residents across the country resident councils across the country uh and she came came and and visit us we also had maybe more importantly a guest speaker uh councilwoman uh Brown uh who was a keyot speaker there who did a fantastic job I just want to thank you publicly for giving us your time that day and really inspiring a lot of the residents that were there um next slide if we can go to the next one because I think this is not in order yes so our strategy so build a healthy housing Continuum uh with our family of companies so right now um when we're talking about the unhoused we're housing right now through our housing TS vower program about a thou 1100 1100 uh families that were former formerly unhoused okay that's a part of the strategy as we continue to move up that affordable housing uh Continuum again the lch model and thank the uh Council for the Housing Trust Fund that we definitely hope gets to um aund million again that's one more step in the the link of the uh housing Continuum that we think needs to be shed up because again people need Pathways out of poverty so I heard earlier when we're talking about the nest commission that we started talking about this missing mle right and people are sometimes asking and livan why well why are you in the development of uh maybe market rate housing and housing at 80% well people need Pathways out of subsidized hous housing if you don't have a pathway or a healthy Continuum and no Workforce housing it just bogs down the rest of it so I have residents right now that are working right uh making $40,000 a year but they still really can't afford a market rate unit if we have Workforce housing it gives them a pathway out of that when we're doing the development we're also making sure that uh families uh that that have our housing tourist voucher when we do development they also accepted in those apartments that we build I think we know there's still source of income discrimination in the city and and again that only continues to bottleneck that that flow of uh families being able to choose truly where they want to live and move out of subsidized housing um again to market rate housing and then finally home ownership okay home ownership we have 180 families that we've helped through uh to to receive home ownership through our destination home ownership program uh and all of these uh programs are supported by our core Supportive Services because again asking individuals to go to work is one thing but making sure that they have the skill set to go to work is where the r needs to R right and we help families with again the things we said before childcare education Transportation what are your barriers right to help them actually go from in some cases homelessness to being the American dream of home ownership so uh next slide just uh talking through some of the uh let's go back one yes talking about some of the uh strategies that we're using that that incorporate this um housing Continuum this healthy housing Continuum and supports the city's goal of housing for all uh again we're preserving we're developing and we're partnering with others to create uh affordable housing opportunities for families here in Charlotte uh since 2019 uh We've created uh 1273 new apartments uh for families that are um uh living here in Charlotte we have a preservation of our first Ward which was our first uh hope 6 project we've done phase one of that uh again uh all of the projects here um roughly the city has given a nine 9 million doar in Housing Trust Fund that make these particular deals work we want to thank you for that the gas in the North End which was formerly Delah uh courts um 144 Apartments there that are standing right now trell Uptown is being bu so hope you see that on uh North Tron and 8th Street it's going up right now uh we should start occupying it in the end of uh 2025 again this is a true mixed income deal where you have 353 Apartments it's a 7030 deal 70% of it is market rate 30% is Affordable we have 30 perers in there as well really creating what we're talking about when we're saying this housing Continuum and creating housing for all right in one building in uptown that's close to it's close to the rail close to job centers low crime Great Schools that's what that's where we're focused um and then finally uh partnership with uh cross and Southeast East with uh evoke living and Valentine again a high opportunity area that we're working with uh Crossland in in creating there 60 Apartments there that are uh between 30 and 8% of very many income again in a high opportunity Community it does matter where people live it does matter and so we have to be focused and intentional about creating housing and these higher opportunity communities and or creating more resources in some of the areas that may be impacted uh next slide uh and now um what you're seeing here is a depiction of uh the former Hall house and what trail Uptown will be but this is where I'll uh stop and uh open it up for some Q&A before I turn it over to my to my partner I start with my colleagues online do I have any hands up okay Council Johnson I'm soor Council Brown I'm looking at you and still saying I love council member Johnson but it's okay but I'm council member Brown for the she knows who I am it's just a joke thank you so much U Mr meum it's a it's a joy to hear you talk about and liviing for me because I come from Charlotte housing authority and I know what it meant um the con trated areas all of the language that you use plus working with you and being tough with you up close and personal um being at meetings with you interacting learning what olivian has done and just to learn all the work that you're doing so I'm impressed with it um with the work that I see if there's a question you know I'm going to come to you send you an email call your phone whatever but I love what I hear I love the word that's happening this is what I truly said when um I ran for office I said I want people to be able to live wherever they want to live in our city and I think in livian gives them an opportunity to do that we just need to continue to expand of course there's always a need for more money but I I would love love to see that because it truly gives people the opportunity to live in whatever zip code they want to live in so thank you thank you Mr thank you for the presentation I do appreciate even though we haven't gotten to that slide yet you adopting my language for many years ago yes sir for many years ago and I appreciate you touching on the question that has been asked in community Regarding why in Libyan is stepping into the St space where there is Market rent in there and recognizing that to have a truly diverse Community then you need to have the different price points in there because what we're not trying to do is what was done so many years ago and that is creating a building that has only lower income wage earners in there it's not sustainable long term and I appreciate the fact that you recognize that we got to have long-term commitments if we're going to be contributing I know a ask is coming I you know it right but I also need you to recognize one we wa on the community to overwhelmingly come out and say yes to 100 million but there are a lot of ask out there so even with 100 million what will be great is for our corporate Community to come to the table of which the conversations are starting so those who are already at the table having these discussions I want to publicly thank you but just as we once had the corporate Community step up when we initially went from 25 million to 50 million they matched that 50 million we're now saying hey we need you to this 100 million because we can get a lot more done that way and it frees us up some I do also appreciate you breaking down the numbers and letting us know that 180 families through destination home ownership cuz some people don't know that you can use your vouchers to go toward purchase a home now here's the question I have since the federal government really has not expanded over now 50 years plus additional vouchers for those families that that are able to purchase and utilize that voucher does that voucher stay with them or does that voucher come back into the system it stays with them for the term of the mortgage and then comes back into the system oh wonderful so if they were to pay off their 30e mortgage early because now they're in the ownership because also we've given them the ability to combine down payment assistance programs and we possibly have worked to get them in a house that is not at today's market rate so they very well could in 2025 years or even the 30 pay it off and then that voucher can come back into the system correct that is really great information we do not lose the vouchers just because somebody bought a home got you so the voucher does stay with them but it stays with them through the life of their mortgage and then once that mortgage pays cuz now you are a homeowner with no mortgage exactly then that voucher comes back into the system my colleagues council member ashir I see you have your hand up Mr meum again thank you and to all of the staff that may be watching and who are joining us and board members for in liya thank you for the work that you're doing I'm going to be cautious when I hear what this ask is council member asir thank you madam Vice chair Mr mum it's great to see you I appreciate the work that in livian does to help provide housing to over 25,000 families in our city um as a former board member I have seen firsthand the work that you have done and the leadership that you have provided to help us tackle our affordable housing crisis I appreciate it uh I look forward to reviewing your ask um as council member mayfel has said uh council is constantly trying to balance multiple priorities right multiple ask of our Housing Trust Fund and and other funding sources so I look forward to reviewing that um I I also would like to highlight that um I I appreciate a level of transparency uh where traditional funding has disappeared for housing authorities AC Across the Nation when it comes to rehabbing or improving existing housing stock where housing authorities have to come up with have found innovative ways to help fund some of those uh projects so I appreciate how uh under your leadership the agency moved uh to moved to work agencies where we have provided Supportive Services um I I would like like to encourage you to continue to do that where there are um a creative ways for housing authority to continue to produce and renovate our existing affordable housing stock through development fees that you have done in the past um i' would like to hear if there are any other uh ways that you all have found to continue to increase funding for affordable housing okay um for affordable housing the main mechanism right now is the low-income housing tax credit uh so we've really utilized the low-income housing tax credit I will say most housing authorities across the country that is the way that we've been creating or in a lot of cases preserving affordable housing um but we are and again the Housing Trust Fund I can't say how important the Housing Trust Fund is uh to en livian I think and all all of the developers that are doing affordable housing uh because there are some cities don't have that there's some municipalities that don't have that and without it there's no way for us maybe to cover the Gap so we just want to thank you for that CU I tell people all the time affordable housing isn't affordable to create right there's no such thing as afford affordable bricks affordable concrete right affordable wood I mean all that is market rate so it really does take you know public investment to cover that Gap and make sure that really uh in a city as prosperous is is Charlotte we really do have housing for all so thank you for your support thank you Mr M thank you council member as mayor councilman re Johnson thank you madam chair uh and Mr meub I just want to thank you for the work that you're doing um when we talk about Creative Solutions I I just want to applaud you because we know that you carry the burden uh it's hard to be creative when the the facts are what they are the numbers are what they are we can't pretend that minimum wage is not $725 in this state or that so that SSI is not more than $900 in a city where the average rent for one bedroom is what $1,400 so I applaud you for the work that you do know on this Council that you always have a yes vote for me because your work is so important thank you for the work that you've LED and and done on the source of income discrimination you are housing our most vulnerable population that 30% and you know I'm always going to fight for those um I I know that the goal is is the mix used housing but we have a deficit and you are the number one solution and driver in meeting that deficit so thank you um your work is a blessing to so many people and I'm honored that you're here and um continue to do the work that you're doing thank you thank you thank you council member so now I feel like we're getting ready to step into this ass yes would you like so the next SL the next slide we had uh well it's the city's goal it's not our goal it's the city's goal right neighborhood neighborhood diversity and inclusion and a great opportunity that we have for a choice neighborhood Grant application uh that the city and the Housing Authority can work on and I definitely want to turn over to my partner in crime Warren Wen thank you Mr me thank you thank you council members the good news M Mayfield is that there is no there's no ask tonight tonight we're just providing information tonight yeah absolutely absolutely well thank you for having us go ahead and go to the next slide um and um as Mr meum uh said uh we're we're now going to drill down into a specific Grant application that the city um and um and Livi in in Partnership uh equal partnership have been working on together um I think that we first started talking about this maybe two summers ago um these are very large applications to put together and they take um many months to to to work on um and so let's let's talk about what we've been working on it's a choice neighborhoods Grant application um and The Branding for it is the next in North End you can see that logo up there talking about what is next in north end for the Delah court site so next slide please so so what is Choice neighborhoods and um I think many people in the room and listening online um will be familiar with some of the great work that happened in Charlotte around the Hope 6 um program we we have several uh great hope 6 uh projects that took place in Charlotte and really Choice neighborhoods is kind of the next iteration of the of the Hope 6 Grant uh so that that's that's what it is and it's primarily focused on the Redevelopment of severely distressed public housing sites um creating new uh inclusive neighborhoods mixed income neighborhoods um that provide value not just to that public housing site but to the entire Community um around around that area uh next slide please so so why um bah and why now um and I think that there's a lot of um overlapping goals and objectives that have happened over the last several years that make um the the iron hot to strike on this project um we we're all aware of this area of the North Graham Corridor area and what's been going on out there and what we've just seen is is a lot of change there's a lot of change that's been going on out there um there's a lot of investment that's going been going in um and there are a lot of overlapping uh goals and objectives that can be achieved um by combining what you're already working on out there with your um with your corridors of opportunity with um a uh Choice neighborhoods uh Grant application so so what have you been working on that's on the next slide um so this is your quarters of opportunity approach an approach um that council's really trying to drive economic and social Mobility through the stacking of our uh Capital investments in these corridors so these are your business Investments that you've been um working on in these corridors these are your infrastructure this is Vision zero um and this is your affordable housing investments along with um those anti-displacement Investments um that councilwoman Brown pointed out that we we need to be do doing more of so that's what's been going on with um with your corridor's approach and next slide just want to give a a quick overview I know that some of that's hard to see uh to to see and and we have zoom in on these so that you can see them the large outside uh boundary there that's your Corridor boundary so that's where you're doing the corridor investment um what you'll see when I zoom in that the yellow highlight Parcels that is the Delah courts location and then the blue boundary that's around that that's the choice neighborhoods geography and you'll see that they all over o overlay and so um the the corridors and the C geography not only do these geographies align um geographically but they also align and approach the things that you are trying to do inside of your corridor's approach is exact ly the things that score you points and get you funded in doing a choice neighborhood um application uh they're looking at a focus on people they're looking to focus on mixed income and affordable housing they're looking at what are you doing around economic Mobility so it makes a lot of sense to apply for this now because you were already doing those things inside of the Grand Street Corridor um through through this work um go ahead and go to the next slide so again this is the uh Del court site this is the the program site this will be the primary focus for housing investments um through the Grant application um I I just like to point out that um along with the Delah sites you have the Gaston that's that that's right there North to the site that's a built project that's that's that's an investment that you've already done and really is a phase one investment into the choice neighborhoods approach and then um I also wanted to to show you the atrium uh site um that site is a site that uh in livian in partnership with Atrium has worked a land swap deal that would be come part of the housing investment into this um approach and then if you'll go to the next slide um so what is Choice neighborhoods uh in detail so you see the choice neighborhood's geography uh you may ask well Warren how did that geography get selected um Choice neighborhoods is very prescriptive and they have a mapping tool that lets you see how your uh site will score when it is assessed by Hud and that is the highest scoring geography that City staff along with our consultant was able to identify um and it's a great location because you are already doing a lot of in investments in this area um it's a three-part plan it's the housing plan that really focus on the specific housing investments in terms of the numbers of units the types of units and the location that they'll be um placed and invested in there's also a community plan so it's not just the site it's what are the other things that you're doing um in this project location already so these are your street alignment projects these are your economic Investments these are all of the work that you're doing around intersections all of these things would be part of your neighborhood plan which is really uh focused on how do you create both public and private spaces that uh connect people and places and that create social economic mobility and provide a healthy living environment that's what your the neighborhood plan piece of this is and then finally it's the people plan um because we know that um places are places because people are there right um and so the people plan focuses on on investing in the economic Mobility components um of of the entire neighborhood but with a specific focus on those past residents of Delah specifically identifying them and meeting needs to help them with economic mobility and um fton and the livian team have already done a great job of having several um shetes and meetings with that group moving up to this to get their feedback um not only on what we're doing on that site but ways that they can be supported through economic and social Mobility next slide P please so again I think I started off by saying that this is a uh a partnership uh these grants are designed to be applied for in Partnerships between um housing authorities and um their partner local government so it would be an a joint and livian city of Charlotte application ejp P um is the lead consultant uh contracted under in livan ejp is nationally recognized for a successfully writing uh these types of choice neighborhoods grants and then you'll see that we have several subc Consultants under this uh just want to stop here and say that um while you often see me up here talking um I do not do all of this work and I certainly um uh don't do any of it myself um Aran Chantry and Aon Gillespie um with corridors and planning are here who have been primary leads on bringing this project forward um Allison was here earlier supporting us along with Monica it's truly on the city side it's been a um collaborative um approach with corridors uh planning and H&S staff all working on this project together along with our great Partners um from in liian next slide please all right Miss Mayfield here here it is um so the the opportunity in front of us is that if we are awarded the maximum amount from HUD um is a $50 million award uh to move a project like this forward uh the cost to to do business to to put application in is between $150 and $250,000 um and then as you can see there's considerable leverage that is needed um on the bottom of the slide so it's when you add that together it's over $100 million so it's like a two for one match um and there's just two things that I want to point out to you here um a lot of this match you've already provided through Investments that you're already making through your CIP um this is not all new dollars although some of it would be new uh dollars because there would be new housing investments um a lot of what you see here and again why we're bringing this to you now is because of the approach that we've been working on where you're already making investments in this Corridor and those Investments are eligible for these types of of match what these specific projects will be and what those specific asks will be um we're still working on all of that we're we're just not there yet the other thing that I want to point out is that um this is not a one year or 2-year or 4year program these are these are large long transformational uh uh programs and and the typical period for investment is an 8-year um investment just to give you some idea of size um we've been talking with our Consulting Partners around the housing investments and I believe on the on the low end we've been talking about 600 units with a possible of a much higher number of unit Investments so that's not one or two or three housing in uh developments that is that's six seven or eight housing investments over an 8-year period that you would be looking at through this type of approach um but you know not not sugar coating it it is a it is a large investment that's um that you'd be looking at so what are the next steps that's the next slide so um there have been several Community workshops that we've been working with with um many of those have been focused on engaging specifically with the Delah residents um that were last on site as a requirement of the grant applications again I wanted to point out that these this grant is a very large uh Grant with lots of requirements and we've been working through those requirements systematically um starting in January and through uh spring of 2025 um we would start having larger Community conversations about um what the community would like to see there what kinds of public spaces uh they'd like to see how these Investments would look and what would be the key Partners on the development and on the community side in terms of uh services and construction that would go on so a lot lot of conversation to happen um in the first part of 2025 and then going into the summer finalizing that final uh housing density and unit mix again that's something that we've been working on on with our um with our Consultants but putting together those three pillar plans the housing plan um the the people plan and then the overall plan for the neighborhood uh that would all be com combined into a single Choice neighborhoods application and our uh our earliest option to submit would be summer of next year summer of next year yes summer 2025 and final slide there is just some links um to get more information you can follow those uh QR codes to find out more information about the choice neighborhoods uh program and the website that we have set up talking more about the next in North End application our specific application that is my last slide and I will back much for that this time I'm going to kick it off if we can go back three slides back to 19 I want you to explain it a little more for me Warren so this no that's the right slot this 81.25% developed out the housing plan but as we do that we will then identify you know what the ma what the match amounts will need in possible sources and there are lots of different things that can go into these it can be existing match it can be um low-income housing tax credit leverage that there are a lot of different ways that um that these can be uh brought together but we were showing you what the what the maximum levels of match that we would need to score on this application would be so again that's why there's not a specific ask to the city yet because uh we don't know what the specific ask will be okay so for clarification the 81.25% 9% Pro different projects not one but what we're seeking is this $50 million Grant knowing that the probably the actual cost to redevelop Del Del court is going much higher to a lot more than that yes okay how many current units and this question is for you Mr meum how many current units do we have at Delah Court none so Del we it's been completely V we have no current no current units but just to answer uh councilwoman's Brown's question about displacement when when we um raised Delah we made sure that those families knew that they had the right to return as well as we gave them relocation assistance normally through the Housing chice Voucher Program so so families were able to find housing throughout the city we also had some of our own properties that we made available to them the biggest thing here is though that residents have choice right they can choose to come back or they can choose to stay uh with their housing Choice Val in a lot of cases families choose to live with the housing Choice voucher cuz basically they move into a single family home in most situations but the great thing about uh when we're doing development is those families really for the first time in their life get an opportunity to choose our board believes in that uh making sure that they have those type of opportunities um and so when we come back here uh those families all there'll be a hundred so just giving you a number rough number uh a hundred of those families that were there will have the Unity to come back but this it'll be their choice so will they have first right first rights of refusal yes thank you so we got about a 100 cuz the other thing of which it is all in how you create the process if we were to move forward and meet all the requirements and receive the 50 million to get started I have always had a concern of making sure I to many Ren cuttings over the years where I have a conversation and the person just moved here six months ago right so talk about both jobs as well as the opportunity to live there yes and when we're looking at the opportunities I appreciate the fact that the families and I am making an assumption which you should never do because if it's not inviting it's not real the family members so the tment members of the family the child that may have grown up there but was still there as a teen that may be a little older that it flows to them as well being that first right because some of our residents who in Del ha courts were are not with us any longer but their children or their grandchildren are and we have in my opinion and again opinion do what you will with it we owe the Legacy we need to take responsibility and accountability for what was once created so it will be helpful to know if if not that individual who was once there if one of their family members were able to be relocated and if we reach out to them for them to have the ability for that same first right of return I'll look into that because that really would speak to the Legacy and the history of deah and the impact of what government once did that created the challenges in Del Court other than that I do appreciate the transparency on what we would need to do for that match and that we're having the beginnings of the conversation and it's not really a ask today it is really for information even though I know my colleague is ready to say yes we don't need that yet right now we don't need that yes just yet but I do appreciate you all bringing it but I do think that we have our hands up do I have council member Johnson okay you a have your hand up you ain't have your hand up they have go ahead council member Johnson no I'm I'm I'm kidding but I'm serious I'm I'm I'm supportive I trust um Mr meum and also Mr Woon they've they've led us and um our and our success in being able to provide the solutions that we have so um I look forward to reviewing and supporting this as well thank you thank you she council member azir you are a trooper you need to get off and go enjoy your anniversary again Happy 6th anniversary thank you for to staying in with us did you have any questions or comments regarding this piece no I'm good thank you so much uh Madam Vice chair I appreciate it enjoy your anniversary night council member Brown I'm good thank you gentlemen for the information we look forward to receiving an update Mr meum did you have anything additional I just want to say thank you for the opportunity uh thank you to Rebecca Sean War you have a phenomenal team it's easy work with them uh I don't I don't hear that from all my housing authorities across the country so I want to thank you for that they're a great resource thank you for my uh my board member uh for being here tonight as well as Stacey Bridges uh who's our strategic uh analyst CU we can't do this alone so thank you so much I would love to entertain a motion to adjourn so move second thank you all for those of you that are on the road for our 6:00 please be safe and thank you for attending today's housing safety and Community thank you meeting [Music] [Music] [Music] for