[Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] N. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Hello. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Okay. All right. All right. Good morning everybody. Welcome to this May 5th, 2025 meeting of the Charlotte City Council Transportation Planning and Development Committee. Let's start as we always do with introductions. Starting in the back corner, the man with the beard. Sustainability. Sustainability. Kevin, there you are. Kathy Cornet, planning staff. Monica Holmes, interim planning director. Alison Craig, assistant city manager. Malcolm Graham, committee member. Ed Driggs, committee chair. Liz Babson, assistant city manager. Yolanda Jones, planning staff. Jessica Picolo, planning planning. Shannon, development center and online. Good morning. Renee Johnson, committee member. That's it. Good. Uh, we have three items today. uh community area planning update, strategic energy action plan update, and the UDO text amendment. So, why don't we dive straight into the CAP update? And Miss Holmes, do you want to kick that off? Sure. Uh we are excited. We've seen you several months in a row, but we're excited today to uh bring you some of the feedback that we're seeing in the comprehensive plan, community area plans. So again, this is building on the 2021 adoption of the 2040 plan and it is the 14 area plans there in draft form online. Uh Kathy and Katherine will talk through all of the different ways we've been receiving feedback as well as how we are progressing with some of the things we've heard from you all. uh you will also see provided for you which they'll talk through some of the comments that we've received to date and how we're uh looking at those comments and kind of what they mean. Um and we are excited to move this forward. We're going to public hearing on May 12th and we have our uh big engagement on May 15th and we'll be receiving comments all the way through both of those um and until we end up at adoption. Our goal for that is May 27th and uh you'll hear that again, but we just want to make sure everybody is really well aware of the dates. It's exciting work that has taken two years to put together uh and it builds on all of our goals and priorities and provides clarity for the community. So with that, I'll turn it over to Kathy to give an overview. Thank you. So, uh as Monica stated, this is an update of the community area planning process. It's just for information and it's really focusing on the comments that we've received today and as Monica said it is um just an update on the comments we will continue receiving uh comments throughout the process. So, as MA also as Monica mentioned, this is the fourth community area planning update in the past two months as we advance through review and adoption and prepare for a public hearing on Monday, May 12th, and hopefully council council action on May 27th. So, as um we've said before and it's always good to remind ourselves that in a nutshell, these plans are about creating complete communities and complete communities are places that integrate all the elements you need on a daily basis in close proximity. And as we've also um said before and just again as a reminder, it's the second major implementation item from the comprehensive plan and it's a five-step process to to develop 14 area plans over two years with key deliverables at the end of each phase. So in terms of those deliverables, I won't go into the nuts and bolts of each stage because I know you've heard that before, but the first uh deliverable from phase one was the 14 community reports that focused on the profile for each community. The second being the revised policy map and at each of each of these deliverables has been available for public review and comment on the website at the end of each phase. Phase three focused on setting the stage projects and programs needed to achieve our vision and that was a web tool that um described plan projects and could also take input on needed projects. So really phase four then focused on packaging all of those deliverables together and all of the communities great work into one document that told the complete story for each geography. So, um, also as a reminder, the plans were developed using a systematic process. So, what we mean by that is they're all developed in the same way. They all have the same components and the same formats. Those are they're consistent in that respect. You can find the information about a certain um uh assessment or uh other items in the same place in each of the plan but the content obviously for each geography is unique and reflects the individual character of that geography as well as common policy guidance that's consistent throughout that helps us achieve our vision. So when we talk about that common guidance, um it's it's a set of common con considerations for all decision makers to make sure that we're consistently evaluating options in line with the city's vision. And over time, these considerations will help ensure that our growth is accommodated in a way that it respects established neighborhoods, aligns growth with our future infrastructure capacity, and creates vibrant mixeduse community centers, and that complete community um aspect that we've been talking about throughout um the community. So plans are implemented in a number of different ways with a number of different partners. So uh future private development is obviously one of those ways, public private partnerships, uh the capital improvement process and then the resoning process and future alignment resonings. So the comprehensive plan laid out a planning framework. The comprehensive plan sits at the top of that framework as the broadest policy document, kind of the umbrella document for all of the other planning work that we do throughout the city. Then there are strategic and action plans that are kind of the next level of guidance. You've seen those with the strategic mobility plan and here today with the strategic energy action plan. Community area plans are the third level of guidance getting more detailed as as we move throughout. So they focus on the 14 individual geographies, but they are not the only tool in our toolbox. So um, Council Member Driggs, to your point, we won't, you know, be redoing all this work. We will be updating the work, but there is also another level that's more specific that sits nests under community area plans called specific plans. So that is a tool that we have if there's unforeseen circumstances um new concerns or considerations that are very targeted uh more detailed much smaller areas and more focused on implementation. So uh just to lay out that there are a number of tools in our in our planning toolbox um as we move um and as the city continues to grow and develop. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Katherine and she'll give some more details on our continued engagement and the comments that we've received to date. Thank you. So before I jump into comments received on the draft plans, I just want to start with a reminder about the engagement that's been done uh beginning in phase one at the start of the project up until the end of last year uh which was the conclusion of phase 4. So, as we've shared over uh the last few months, we have a range of constant, coordinated, and collaborative tactics aimed at reaching people in a number of different ways. And so, uh throughout those three buckets of tactics, we've interacted with over 400,000 people throughout the phase 1 through phase 4 efforts. And so this is everything from in-person to online um social media interactions, website visits, video watches, interaction with all the um interactive content that we created to duplicate our in-person workshops. So that's a pretty extensive reach. And while um in online is valuable, inperson is still really important to us. And so we've also tracked in person. And you can see that we have over 6,000 in-person uh interactions. That's discussions, sharing information, etc. And we reached this number by hosting 50 workshops where we asked people to come to us and and discuss content that we had. But we also went out and tried to meet people where they were. So we went to some town hall meetings, we went to community meetings, festivals, etc. And throughout all this engagement, we've received 1,700 comments that help shape the draft plans. I'll also add that this builds on um because this is a continuation of the 2040 work, it builds upon the 6,000 comments from the policy map as well as the 500,000 interactions from the comp plan. But before you move on the 400,000 that's not unique people, right? I.e. it's unique interactions. So it could be uh could be one person 10 times. It could be 10 visits to the website. Yes. Right. And uh but it does mean that each of the people that's being included there actually did interacted with our content. Yes. Okay. That's a lot. And the 6,000, you know, it could be the same person that came to three different meetings, but they were present three times. Okay. So, moving into phase five, uh, with the release of the draft plans on April 3rd, uh, the left side of the screen shows the ranges of notifications that we're we're um undertaking to try to spread the word about the draft plans. So, we've shared information uh on the government channel, on our YouTube live streams. A lot of media outlets have helped uh promote the draft plans. We have email blast going over to 4,000 recipients. A lot of social media uh interaction both through the planning department's um uh platforms as well as the cities uh our website updates and media interviews. And then consistent with what we've done through other phases, we're continuing to provide both in-person and online opportunities to share feedback. So, we have a virtual open house on our project website, which is kind of recreating that in-person uh meeting experience where you walk around posters and read kind of key takeaways and highlights of the planning process. We also have the 14 plan documents on our project website where people can comment directly on a specific page. There's also a function to like or you know, thumb up or thumb down a comment so you're able to see what other people are saying. Uh, and then we're holding office hours Tuesdays and Thursdays for people to speak directly with staff. Uh, you can do this online if you'd like or you're welcome to join us at the government center. We've had some neighborhoods take us up on that. Uh, we have hard copies at our libraries and then in response to feedback we received at the uh, April 28th action review meeting, we're offering a new webinar on May 15th. So the webinar is going to be uh an opportunity for residents again to speak to staff and talk specifically about their plan. So it's similar to the office hours, but it's one more grand call for for you know engagement and comments. Uh we're going to do it uh it will be virtual and it will we'll host it in the evening from 5:00 to 7:00 because we have 14 plans. What we'll do is the first hour will be dedicated to uh plans on the west and north side of town and then from 6:00 to 7:00 we'll talk to people about plans on the east and south part of town. Uh and so we have instructions on our website for how to register uh for the right hour and once people join us the intent is to share a short overview of the planning effort uh and their plan document but really then open it up for discussion and questions. All the feedback collected during that uh webinar will be cataloged as part of our comment tracking which I'll talk more about in a minute. And I'll just note that uh corporate communications is helping us advertise this May 15th webinar uh using social press release our um media releases um email blasts and our website updates. So continuing to do all the things that we can to um let people know about the opportunity. So, so far since April 3rd, we've received uh uh close to 500 comments on the plan documents. The majority of comments are coming to us through the online plans uh accessible through our website. We have received some comments through our office hours. And you can see on the the right side kind of the breakdown of the the first um way that we're organizing these comments. So about 40% of them are expressing some level of concern with the draft com uh draft content. About 38% have a suggestion for what we could do different. Uh there's about 12% that are just asking for some more clarity in what they're reading and there's 6% in support of the draft content. These two tables give us some more information uh about those 480 comments. You can see the table on the left. These are the um kind of the topics and the number of comments that we've received. Mobility continues to be the hot topic. Um and a lot of the comments uh they we've received 152 comments about mobility content within the plans and a lot of that is about the specific strategic investment area bundles the pro the bundles of projects. Uh the next kind of hot topic uh we have a lot of general comments and uh within this category a lot of them are asking or or commenting on the maps and graphics. Uh for example, we've received some feedback from council about adding some neighborhood labels to help make it a little bit more decipherable where we are within Charlotte. So there are some things that we can be uh we can do to our graphics to make it more legible for the reader. And then we have received a fair number of comments on the illustrative concepts. These are those models kind of the the um their um 3D models of what an area could look like based on policy and regulation. Uh we've provided these in other area plans, but I think people based on the tone of the comments we're reading, they seem to be a little confused about what these concepts are portraying. They think that it's um kind of a guarantee of what's happening. And so we need to tighten up our language and make clear that these are just uh concepts of what could happen over time. Um then we have a fair number of comments about the recommendations for future development uh requests for more open space and uh some of the suggestions to improve or mitigate environmental impacts over time. The table on the right gives you an idea of uh the comments received per plan. And so with the exception of the east inner and the southwest middle uh we are receiving a fair number of comments on all the documents. Uh the south inner and the west middle they've received the most comments but that's uh that high number reflects a few commenters who are sharing a lot have a lot to say about the plans. Uh so in in general we we feel like all plans are getting a fair uh review from the community. So, what we're doing with all these comments, and I'll point to a handout that you have in front of you, we are cataloging them. Um, and the the table on the screen mimics what you see in front of you. So we are um tracking what plan the comment is in relation to where the plan has been submitted either online or uh our office hours or possibly the May 14th May 15th webinar. Uh and then we have three tags. So is it that concern suggestion question? What section of the plan is it related to and then kind of a subcategory. is it you know what what's the more detailed nature of the uh comment within that chapter. Then what staff is working on right now is summarizing the content. This is really a value for both us and for you all because um you can imagine there's the whole gamut of text that comes in and so this is an effort to make sure that everyone can read clearly and quickly the tone of what people are sharing. So that's what you have in front of you. Um there's about 20 pages, but this is this is going to continue to grow as we move through the next few weeks. And then what's going to happen next is after we summarize the comments, staff is responding to them. So if it's a question, we respond with where the answer is either in the plan document or somewhere else on city resources. If it's uh a concern that cannot be addressed with the planning effort, we explain that. If it's a suggestion that we think we can respond to, we state that we'll do that. And then in the next column, recommended action, we would specify how we can or plan to respond to that comment. So the last two columns is information that will be coming soon. Our goal is to have all of the the comments summarized and responded to by uh May 19th. That's a Monday. and we'd hope to put that on the project website because the following day, May 20th, is the planning committee meeting where we hope that they'll make a referral. So, at the referral meeting, we'll walk them through the comments that we think can be um addressed with some sort of action, uh get their feedback, and then we would also make sure this information makes it to you all in your binders, and then uh walk through a similar effort uh on May 27th. So, that's an overview of the comments so far. And just a reminder as next steps, our public hearing is scheduled for May uh 12th. We've been sharing that information and encouraging people to speak as well. We have the new webinar on the 15th. Uh planning committee referral on the 20th and hopefully decision on the 27th. So with that, I'll turn it back over to Kathy and Monica for questions or happy to weigh in as well. That's it. That's it. All right colleagues questions. Don't all talk at once. Okay. Uh I just think we're moving um very steadily ahead, right? And um I know I'm out there trying to communicate to my constituents um um being actively engaged in the process and so the information is there. I think staff's doing a tremendous job trying to um deliver it to the public and um let's stay the course. Great. uh agrees. Madam, vice chair. Thank you, uh, Mr. Chairman, and my apologies. I was coming down Independence full-blown this week, this morning, uh, trying to log on. You need to call your district rep about the traffic. I know. I need to call my district rep. Every time I drive down that highway, I'm like, "Wow, this council woman need to do something about that." Too bad it's a stateowned road, right? But, you know, um first of all, uh guys, you've done a tremendous job. I think you've really listened to what we've said as far as uh getting the community engaged. I love the specific plans idea. I think that really just leaves space for us to add, you know, over time some of the feedback, you know, that's that's really intentional. I thought that was really good. Um I um I like tightening up the language idea, right? Because when we sound like we're guaranteeing something and then we don't deliver, we're breaking promises versus this is a plan, this is what could happen, this is what we see. I I like that idea. Um, but I think you've done a tremendous job. You've added QR codes, you've done you're you're doing a great job in in getting the word out there. So happy to continue to, you know, help and and be a partner and let's keep going. Thanks, Miss Johnson. I don't know if you can hear her. The computer has decided to restart itself. So, we're having a technology hiatus. Um, we are still live. However, that's all right. I like that caution. Don't do anything ridiculous. They can still see us. Okay, good. Uh, I have a couple of questions. I'd like to look a little harder at the specific plans. uh because uh I I think some people might regard that as an opportunity to kind of put patches on or uh so what would it take to initiate a specific plan process? So as soon as um we hopefully have these plans adopted our next step is uh diving into what that exactly looks like and putting more definition around it. what are the specific tools in that specific plan toolbox? Uh what is the assessment to decide how we do those plans? How are they prioritized? All of that. So I would imagine in June we'll have a few workshops to begin that work. And we hope to have um I would think we could probably have it completed by August. So by August you would have defined what they they're going to be or that you would have done some of them. No, we would have defined what it's going to be. I would imagine and again this is just based on um other tools that we've had in years past that were very similar. They're usually three to six month processes. Um, and they usually are focused on a very specific issue and or very specific location in a pretty small geography. And for that reason, they typically have uh the engagement around them would be not as not as robust in terms of the number of people as as this one was. But there's mult multiple avenues for engagement. Uh, and they are very focused on implementation. So, they're not something that um they're not intended to be a patchwork. They're really intended to be responses to unforeseen circumstances because we all know we can plan and we can have these plans, but there there's always going to be unanticipated circumstances or events throughout our community, good and bad. and we want to make sure that we are able to pivot and uh react to those in a way that is in with keeping with the overall plan for that geography. So, uh, folks have put in a lot of great work and to your point, um, last Monday night, they they need to know that these adopted plans are solid for their area, but at the same time, there needs to be a tool to react to, um, specific circumstances and that's what they are intended to do. So, I I'm thinking about the difference between amendments to the plan and a specific plan. like can you give us an example of an existing specific plan or or Sure. I mean I see them uh the like the corridor playbooks are a great example of what you might consider a specific plan. Uh in the past we did CNIP kind of deep dives which were a more specific plan like South Park CNIP for example outlined uh improvements that were on a timeline, right? So the loop and symphony park and other things that was in a specific plan document um that that built upon the adopted land use and provided further guidance as to what our investments as a city specifically looked like. Uh, our transit station areas would be a specific plan where you're looking at a half mile around a transit station area and you're identifying specific projects um issues around access and housing and specific things that are affected by that transit investment. Uh they work in tandem with the area plans. They do not replace the area plans. just provides further guidance when you know something impactful is happening whether that be a pro a new program is initiated or a big a major transit and transportation investment um you know Valentine reimagined a great example in your area where uh we might come in and do a development response and work with the team to say what's happening here because uh the circumstances have drastically changed right so uh good I look forward forward to hearing in August then in more detail. My concern is just that if there are things in the area plans that certain people don't like, they might regard the specific plan as an opportunity to to challenge that and reopen the issue. So, uh I just want to be careful with how we approach that. Uh another question was, uh it's updating the computer. Yes, sir. Yes. So, we are still live. Okay. Council member Johnson can still hear us. You can speak her. Hi, uh, Miss Johnson, we'll try to get to your question or if you want to text me a question, uh, I will make sure. Actually, we're going to try to give her a call. Okay. Um, so all the feedback you talked about, uh, in in general, would you say that this has the effect of validating or modifying? So are we is the community creating the plan through their feedback or are they uh simply again validating or giving you guidance as to whether what we've done uh is works for them and I don't know if that distinction is clear but yeah I would say that majority is either an opportunity for us to provide more clarity around for example the illustrative concepts we need to be more clear about what those are um ways that we can enhance our graphics and other components of the plan and answer any specific questions that folks may have. I think the um concerned section typically will typically there is a you start you get to a point where you're not hearing any new concerns. It's the same concern maybe expressed in a different way. So what we're doing now is kind of parsing those things out, figuring out how can we address those and if it's something that can't be addressed by the plan, as Katherine said earlier, then um is there another um some other way of doing that? Just explaining a a little more uh closely as to what that means because I'd like to be able to say this is your plan. Right. Right. Um and my last question was mobility was at the top of the list by a wide margin. Um when people talk about mobility, do they have any awareness of our 17 mobility planning centers and and all the work that's being done about that? Do you want to go ahead? The all of the strategic investment areas are included in the plan. So that there is I think there is an awareness that those are linked. So even if they are seeing it they they might be involved and understand the strategic investment areas or they might be seeing it and interacting with it in the community area plans but that's uh that information is going both directions meaning that I that what they're seeing I think they're responding to and then we work together to make sure that C do gets that feedback and that we're working with the manager's office so that they understand these are the comments we're receiving on our strategic investment areas. I will also say there's another bucket of mobility comments at least that I've seen of of people understanding that we have strategic investment areas, but we also have programs that can do things outside of strategic investment areas like the sidewalk program and other kind of um vision zero program, other programs that can make transportation investments. So, from what I've seen, you see a a bucket of comments that are um how do we get a strategic investment area where we are? How do we get this specific project funded? And so, making sure we're really clear that there are projects that are going to happen with our investments outside of just those strategic investment areas. Uh so, just making sure the plans are really clear with our partners uh as as to how that happens. Okay, we have M. Johnson now on the phone. Miss Johnson, can you hear us? I can. Can you hear me? Uh, yes, through a phone, but go ahead. If you can if you can't hear me, good. I can just wait. No, no, you're you're audible. You speak your mind. You're audible. We can hear you. Thank you. Well, thank you for the presentations and thank you for the update. Um, I wanted to go back to a slide that delineated the amount of responses per area. And I can see on Facebook, I'm watching on Facebook also. I think it's Miss Johnson, was that the slide that had the different topics on it and the number of comments received on each topic? What I see is the next steps slide. We we current we currently cannot forward the slides, but I do believe that you were speaking to the slide that has um phase five comments draft community area plans. Yes. And it was there was a breakdown by correct areas. Yes. And I'll look at it tonight. I just wanted to to see the number of comments. So, a couple things. I've mentioned the District 4 coalition since the beginning and I know during the the input phase they weren't given a presentation until after the input period was closed. So, I've I've brought them up as a group, as a specific group that I think is an opportunity to to really leverage opport um opportunities and and you know, minimal um uh effort with a greater impact in in coalitions like the Far East neighborhood and and District 4 coalition and I think this the South area has a coalition as well. So, these are groups of residents that and the information can be spread far and wide. So, um I'm glad to see the opportunity for webinars. I'm really glad because I I was the one that recommended that to the manager. So, it's good. This is that's good information. But my concern is if we're going over two area plans during one webinar, these plans are over a hundred pages. So, are we going are you going to be able to drill down and get specific for the residents to be able to ask questions and also see the changes that are going to impact them on a day-to-day basis? So, I I think there I would like to see a more granular training for residents. U I think the webinar is a a great opportunity, but I really think that I don't I think two is a lot. two area plans in one webinar is a lot if you're if you're thinking you're going to kick cover 200 pages in an hour. Lastly, I saw the social media um outreach and there was opportunities for individuals to comment on the north middle and outer and northeast middle and outer or and etc. How does a resident know where they live? And I I think we have to be do a a much better job in reaching individuals where they are and their level of understanding. There's 117 people moving here per day apparently or the estimate. We have to we have to communicate with individuals as if they don't know the the history or the broader information. And one example I think of when we when we speak in language of crescent and web you know new people moving to the city don't know what that is. So, I think there especially on social media. I saw the sign up opportunity. If there's a is there a map on the website where they can type in their address and and and learn what area they live in or or just directions on how to find out that information because even, you know, in our district, West Middle is one of the plans for for the for district 4. I wouldn't think of district four being west I wouldn't think west side when I think of district four. So I I just that there's an opportunity for residents to really truly understand if you want input from the everyday person and not those who serve on special committees and are a part of this and really understand and appreciate and value and and and enjoy this type of uh technical information. I I think we have to be a lot more detailed. I appreciate the webinars that's going to go so far. I'll let the District 4 coalition know that that's coming up, but Again, I I think it's it's going to be rushed and how does a resident really get the information that they that they need in order to ask those questions and be involved and understand what the impact going to be. Thank you. Thank you. So, um a couple of things. Yes, there is a feature where folks can type in an address and figure out which area they um are in. And there also is a map. And as far as the webinar and both the webinar and the office hour opportunity that we have with the webinar uh we we have done these uh for various phases throughout we were kind of forced into it to be honest with you with co and since that time we've gotten really good at it and I'm very confident that we know how to do a webinar um really well and we will make sure that it is well staffed and the nice thing is the breakout room opportunity that gives you a lot of flexibility in terms of being able to uh talk about specifically what each participant wants to talk about. So we feel like with the webinar if someone joins and they want to walk through each page of the plan that we are able to do that with them and we are happy to do that as well. And then um if that day and time does not work we do still have the office hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We're continuing that throughout the month and we are available um Tuesday mornings and Thursday afternoons and it is basically the same um the same features are available in those office hours as would be in a webinar where it is it is up to the individual what content is covered. They can ask questions. We we can do whatever they want to do and spend as much time as they would would like to spend. We have the signups in half hour blocks, but if an individual feels like they need an hour or an hour and a half, they just sign up for that many blocks and we're happy to accommodate them. And as Katherine mentioned, we've had a couple of groups that wanted to bring a group in and ask questions um in person and we are happy to accommodate that request as well. Yeah, I'm here. Oh, sorry. Talking over there. will have the chair of the coalition reach out to someone if somebody who should they reach out to or who should a group uh reach out to if they would like to schedule a session or would like additional information? Yeah, they could do it a variety of different ways. Uh they can um reach out through our website. They can reach out to me. They can reach out to Katherine. And I know the D4 coalition, Katherine and I have been to their meetings before. And so I know I feel pretty comfortable that they know who we are. But um any of those ways uh even if you call our general front desk number um or us can call that council member. Yeah. Well, I mean I'm Okay. So I'm on the website now and not just not just me. I'm I'm uplifting district 4. There might be other areas. I'm on the website right now. So you're saying where is that process where they would reach out. Oh under the contact information just call one of those numbers. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I will share that information. Thank you. Okay. Um concerned about time so we need to uh keep moving through our agenda. Thank you very much for the work and for the presentation today ladies. And uh our second topic is the uh strategic energy action plan update. And for this uh am I handing off to Heather or to Robert Flyers? Heather. Yes. Miss Bleck. Just a quick comment as we transition. Um, so we do not believe that we have access in the room to the presentation, but you do have copies of the presentations that they'll be going over right in front of you at your chair. And so if you're in the room, look at the presentation that you have in front of you and Yolanda is working to make sure that the presentation is available to the public and live streamed. All right. So, if you could, ladies, for the folks in the room, as you're going through, just make sure that you're telling them what slide you're on. All right. Thank you. Good morning. Uh, my name is Heather Bullock. I'm the chief sustainability and resiliency officer with the city of Charlotte, our office of sustainability and resilience. I'm here joined by Dr. Robin Buyers who has been uh the leader on our strategic energy action plan update. If you'll go to the second slide um that just goes over the council priority alignment and the purpose really today is to just go over the feedback that we've received on the strategic energy action plan and ask that uh this committee sends recommends uh me move to full counsel. Um, if you go to slide three, those are are the three takeaway items. Basically, that the CF update is just that, an update to the 2018 strategic energy action plan and that we are uh working cross-depy um very very much so across different projects, programs, and departments. Um, and finally, that there's been thorough engagement throughout this process. Slide four uh just talks about the previous council communication and then um our ask is that we review the proposed CAP update with full counsel on May 12th and then um hopefully go for proposed adoption on May 27th. Now I will turn it over to Dr. Robin Buyers to talk about the Q&A and public feedback. Yes. And um in your presentation there is one slide um I believe it's slide five that just has a wonderful skyline of the city. That's a video. We are going to post that video on our website as well and uh we'll share it with full council later. But just so you know what that is. All right. So if we move to I think it's slide seven. Um the next couple slides after that are um we had a survey that went along with our draft plan online. And so the survey was for any resident who looked over and reviewed the CAP update that they could give us feedback then um things that we could add, update, tweak, whatever. Um, and so we have a couple questions and we put the question in here and we put the responses some of the responses directly word for word from what we received. And so the first one we have here is are there any other strategies or actions that you would recommend including um you can see the bulleted points there. um a lot um similar to community area planning, there was a lot of feedback in support of mobility and focus on mobility um EV charging, using more solar again connecting transportation with land use planning um and ensuring that we have energy generation that supports our goals. We felt pretty confident that even though these were considered other things that they are wrapped into our existing strategies that we have in there. Um the next slide which I believe is eight I think. Um what is the single most impactful action you believe the city of Charlotte can take um to accelerate progress toward the municipal goals? This was just focused on the city of Charlotte's municipal goals. Um and the comments that we got promoting retrofitting of older homes to reduce power bills um hybrid or battery vehicles. Um, this one specifically talks about having them be the absolute priority for take-home vehicles where employees live outside of the city limits. Um, make transportation system more pedestrian friendly and protect green areas. And I think with this you can see that there is uh alignment with what the community area planning team also heard throughout their process. Uh, so it's consistent there. Um, the next one is what actions you can take. This is our question to the public. have you read this document and seen anything that you can do to help contribute? And so we have quite a few things there. A lot of them related to EVs, mobility, um planting trees, reducing energy uses, uh usage, and um understanding recycling rules better. That came out a lot is understanding what actually goes in the recycle bin versus what doesn't. Um and then continued advocacy. Um in addition to that, I handed out this document right before we started. This is a flyer about what you can do, different things you can do in your workplace, different things you can do at home, and things you can do in your community to support this. Um, lastly, I just want to point out that um, basically through all of the feedback that we've gotten, generally everyone is in agreement. Um, there are some concerns overall about these goals being aspirational, which we've always heard. Um but generally everyone feels really confident that we are looking to the future and and trying to strive um for improvement. Any of the specific comments that we received are either already supported in the document itself or are part of those kind of fine-tuned implementation um steps afterwards. Um the next section we have a couple more questions. This is these are questions that we've heard from you all and so we wanted to highlight them and put them in as well. And so the first question was how does the CAP plus connect with Charlotte Water? And so just wanted to highlight that Charlotte Water is represented on our SEAP operations team uh and they helped us draft the language for strategy 15 that specifically supports efforts to optimize water usage. Um the next question you guys asked us was very similar, but it was focused on solid waste. And again, our solid waste, the city solid waste staff um helped co-create strategy 11 and um were on board with making that connection a newer connection. That strategy is to promote waste reduction and diversion throughout Charlotte. So again, that's focused on internal um operations. And with that, I'm going to turn it back over to Heather to to close us out. Yeah. So, I wanted uh to talk a little bit more about um what we see moving forward in terms of investment in the CF update. And so um really the the city plans continues to uh plan to implement the cap update as it has in previous projects and then also um integrating new initiatives, new grants, new incentives that become available. Um and then as opportunities arise, larger larger investments will be be brought back to you for approval. Similarly to the process we followed for the green source advantage program. So that's the 80 megawatt solar farm in Davidson County. Again, the home of the greatest barbecue in the world. And um she feels very strongly about this. Was that an environmental observation or did we go off topic? A lot of No. Um but that that program you have committed over to over the next um 20 years to invest in that solar um that's going to get us to our 2030 goal of um 100% zerocarbon energy in our buildings electricity. So we're really excited about that. Um continuing on to um I don't have the best print because I try to be more environmentally friendly with my printing. Oh, yay. Okay, so now we're on slide 14. Um, so just just to reiterate, um, you know, truly collaboration is in our DNA. Um, we everything that we do is with other departments in the city. Um, we are really tasked with this strategic plan, but we depend on the staff of all the different departments and they work all all of our projects into their budgets. And so that's, you know, that's a really important piece. Um, and then if you go to the next slide delay. Okay. Um, so over the past year, you know, and and before our approach has really been to lead by example um and to lay the groundwork to harness federal funding opportunities to make our dollars go further. And then of course a strategic and amplified focus on equity and engagement uh towards our 2050 goal. We're going to go to the next slide. So how that how does that what does that look like? Um leading by example includes having 30 on-site solar systems plus our 80 megawatt solar project. Um getting to 19% of our our current 2030 goal. um becoming the sixth greenest fleet in the nation with 330 city-owned EV charging ports, breaking ground on our all-electric firehouse and electric fire truck, and actually I just found out that we um just received our first electric solid waste rear loader, which we're excited about. And then our sustainable facilities policy um has been modeled by many local governments and recently won a local government impact award. Uh moving forward um to the groundwork for federal funding. Um, so we really worked hard across the city with with all again all of the different departments to move forward with fund uh federal funding opportunities. So for example, the community change grant, the charging and fueling infrastructure grant, the EECBG funding, which we're using our EECBG funding to fund and incentivize solar solar in our communities. So, the solarized program, which we're getting ready to launch in June, will um basically be a group buying campaign. And then the additional grant funding will be used to um fund the LMI grant piece of our solarized campaign. Um the proousousing grant and then the reconnecting communities grant um which you all probably already know about. And then finally, our strategic focus on equity and engagement. So, I will say that a lot of our work over the past six years has really been focused on that first piece, which is leading by example. And so, we've done a lot of work internally and throughout the city on those different goals. But moving forward, we will continue to advance these very important projects like greenprints, which is a sustainable infrastructure overlay on top of our corridors of opportunity. So again, getting that synergy of investments, our EV car share, which is um at at or near four affordable housing sites um that we re recently uh cut the ribbon on our first one, which we're excited about um on the east side. Um and then of course our Duke Energy high energy use um assistance pilot which will u basically for every dollar that Charlotte spends Duke spends $2. So we are definitely um making our investments go a lot further. So what are the next steps? Again, as we talked about in the beginning, we are requesting today that we are approved to advance the CFP update from this committee to full counsel. Um, and that we'll then review the CFP update with full counsel on May 12th and uh for a proposed adoption on the 27th and then of course in June we're going to get to work. Thank you. All right. Um questions, comments, comments, whatever. Would you like to speak? Good. Um, wow. So, a lot going on. Uh, I don't even want to try to pretend to go to a slide. Um, I since I've been on the council, I've had a crash course in what was originally our Cup goals and how we've evolved as a city to meet some of these challenges. Um, I think this is great work. I think for me to see it in action recently when we were on the east side. Um, and to see some of these federal dollars now being used in in Charlotte to provide resources for um our our neighbors and community members is outstanding. I think what it's going to do um particularly the EV uh car share program um is one of many of course I see we're in action again not being able to go back to a particular slide with memory but um to be able to say that um not only are we using our dollars but we're actually partnering and using you know federal dollars that that's a large amount of federal dollars that we're using um to to bring some of these projects to to um to to reality. Second of all, I think I think it's something to be applauded to say that this is inner budget work, right? To say that we have a plan and this plan is actually being implemented and becoming a part of departmental budgets, right? To say that something that's a part of the CAP, for an example is in Charlotte Waters budget and something that they're budgeting and you know that's that's huge program planning, right? That's not even project planning. That is ginormous program planning and I think like I said this is a huge undertaking. Um from what I can see so far I think we're making great strides. Um um I share in in some concern in that you know when we say SEAP and we we have these great goals but we can really only be and and I I remain in the position that we really can only be in charge of what we can do as a city, right? and we can continue to create partnerships across our city and our region to say, "Hey, this is what we'd like to do. We'd like to have you on board." And I think you're doing a great job in incentivizing, you know, our business leaders to say, um, come be a part of of what will make our city a much better city. We're already a great city, but what, you know, will make us a a a better city as far as future planning is concerned. So, um, good job and, um, yeah, let's continue. Thanks. All right. Um, this is great work. I've said before, I think it marks Charlotte as at the forefront in terms of urban environmental uh, planning and um, I I personally appreciate the fact that we were able to do that without breaking the bank. Uh, I think it's a responsible approach with uh, well-defined objectives, attainable objectives. Um, I did have one question. People ask me, does all the stuff that's going on in Washington and Doge and so on affect Charlotte? Right. What comes to my mind is CDBG uh transportation grant applications, but has your expectation in terms of these applications for grants changed as a result of things that are going on now in Washington? So, um I would say that so far so far we've only seen um one grant that has been pulled back with that is fully encompassing our work. Um I know that there's been others, but we haven't seen a a ton of that. Um, for example, we just applied for a grant through the North Carolina Clean Tech Center that is moving forward and and so um we we remain hopeful. Okay, good. Can't do much more than that. So, and I see the different agencies and so on. So, but there is no particular instance of like a program deletion that pertains to one of these grants that we were hoping to get. Great. Good news. Um, If there are no further questions, questions and this is an item that we are asking for you to take a vote on. Ah, this is an action item. Okay. So, um is the is is the action do we have the the text of the proposed action? Um yeah. So in front of you. Okay. Approve advancing CAP plus from committee to full counsel. Second. All right. Uh I think we've discussed all in favor. Yes. Yes. Miss Johnson, has she not been able to hear what we just heard? Okay, M. Johnson, if you could text a vote, that would be sufficient, I guess. Would it? We can we count that? I don't know if we can count in committee. Can we count a virtual vote? We're we're good. Am I reading back the vote? She couldn't hear it. Yeah. Miss Johnson, we have a request to approve advancing SEAP plus from committee to full counsel. Three of us have voted in favor. Uh what say you? I say yes. All right. Way to go. It's unanimous. Thank you very much. I don't know if you heard that, but Robin, she said, "Thank you, Dr. Buyers. You do a phenomenal job." Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Johnson. We are finally getting things back up and running, so you should be able to hear. Look at that. A screen and everything. Good. Uh, advancing to our third and last item on the agenda, the UDO text amendment. And Miss Holmes, I think I'll hand over to you for this one. Sure. And I'll just start while Dave's getting um set up here. So, our last presentation for you today is to give an overview of the maintenance text amendment that was filed on April 15th. We're also going to take a little bit of time to understand and provide a little bit of a clearer picture of where we're headed with our text amendments going forward. So, you'll hear us use the term maintenance. Dave's going to describe that and explain that. Uh but I want to be clear that the purpose for us moving to this is to really be transparent with both the development community and the public and our own community members and residents as to how text amendments will work. Uh whether that's policy related or technically you know technical changes. So, uh, we want to provide really clear scheduling, uh, when they can provide feedback and comments, when their own, uh, deadlines are for when we want to see what changes need to occur, and then we will have a very clear set timeline for when that'll come to council. So, you'll be aware of it as well. So, with that, I will turn it over to Dave to give you the overview on this text amendment. So quickly Dave before you start uh we have had some consternation I think in the past on the subject of a lot of language and trying to make sure we understand. So I just want to clarify we are now looking at uh text amendments that are being proposed. If people have questions about them you can see everything you can see the text and so on. Um but I think in general the staff has represented to us that these are uh uh administrative incremental in nature that we're not making policy. Is that a fair statement? There will be some policy elements to highlight the maintenance amendments. We'll highlight some of those. We'll stay out of the technical weeds and try to give you an overview of more of the policy things and things that are broad changes uh that are a little bit more impactful than just you know changing the purpose statement of a you know I just want to be sure before we come up for a council vote that everybody does feels that they know what's going on. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um All right. So we'll go over the uh purpose. Again it's for information only. No action on this item. Uh we'll just give you an overview of what's going to be uh upcoming in this first maintenance amendment we filed back on April 15th. Uh next slide. Uh so we've talked a little bit about some of these items back in February on uh the TPD meeting. Then uh we do have some future council action that will be again the public hearing coming up in a couple weeks on May 19th. That'll be at the zoning meeting and then the council decision also scheduled for that zoning meeting in June before we break for uh the summer there. Next slide. So again today we'll talk about uh the overview of the amendment. This is 2025047. Some highlights uh what our schedule is what our engagement steps are and then any next steps with uh this amendment and upcoming amendments and of course questions and discussion. Uh next slide. So again this is our first maintenance text amendment. So as we mentioned these will be filed twice a year and they will include both technical and policy items. Uh again, as as Monica mentioned, the uh reason behind this is to get in a little bit more of a routine cadence. Uh what a lot of folks also don't realize is every time we do a text amendment, uh the staff downstairs and land development, other folks that implement the ordinance essentially have to keep the old version and keep a new version of it. So every amendment we make, that's a new element that they have to work with. So doing these in a little bit more routine fashion twice a year will hopefully uh hopefully help cut down on the need for uh folks just maintaining older older ordinances and and be able to get to a little bit more clarity when they're doing their implementation work uh down in the development center. So this addresses multiple items identified by both the community and staff. We'll have some virtual community engagement coming up on May 8th and May 13th. And then again I mentioned the public hearing uh will be scheduled for May 19th. Next slide. So what is a maintenance amendment? Uh so again these will occur on a bi-annual ba basis. Uh we'll call them maintenance amendments. They will combine both the technical and policy based items that we've seen in the past. Uh those were done again on separate tracks. These will be done in a combined uh approach twice a year. Uh they'll also combine approaches that we've used for engagement. So things like virtual engagement. Uh we'll provide the overview as we always do on our UDO website, share things with our mailing list. do intensive collaboration with our both internal and external stakeholders. Uh some of the elements that are policy based items in these maintenance amendments will go through our UDO advisory committee. Uh so we can hear feedback from them. Uh and then if we feel like we need in-person workshops or surveys or neighborhood meetings depending on what the topic uh matter is uh we certainly can deploy those as we've done in the past. Next slide. So just to give an overview of some of the items were in there uh for the maintenance uh amendment that's coming up here in May 19th. Uh the first kind of topic item that we had that's a little bit more policy based that's not as administrative is addressing the sites with multiple frontages. We've talked about this sort of some previous TPD meetings. Uh this again is for sites that you can see in the picture there have multiple frontages on different roads and different road classifications. As we mentioned in some previous conversations, this makes it difficult for uh those sites to kind of configure where back of house operations are, drop off, loading, deliveries, uh parking, those types of things. So, uh recognizing that that happens on a a decent basis, uh we came up with some flexibility for uh sites that have three or more frontages. This gives folks that are designing the site a little more room to determine where they can put those back of house operations and put their parking, where they need to front the building and how they need to uh address some of those elements. So, it helps uh again give some of that flexibility for those sites that have uh frontages on multiple roads. Next slide. Uh so, research campus is another area that we've put in uh this maintenance amendment. This is something we've worked on for quite some time with uh both internal and external stakeholders. Uh we really uh started to realize we didn't have a good uh tool to facilitate opportunities for these life science campuses that are uh becoming more prevalent that that are you know really big attractors for economic development opportunities for good job creation. Uh and so really coming up with a new term and a new use under research and development with light industrial. Uh this would help us facilitate some of those life science campuses again that we see out in the research triangle uh and actually located in some other areas uh to the west of us even uh out in Greenville like towards Greenville, South Carolina. Uh it was just a tool in the toolbox that we didn't have uh under one kind of umbrella that was kind of pieced in some different areas which made it difficult for folks trying to look to locate this type of facility in Charlotte. You had to pull from some different areas. you may need uh you know some clarification may be able to do certain things but not all things. So we feel like this gets us to a point where we can capture those life science campuses uh through either a new use and a new term uh and hopefully facilitate some of those opportunities uh that we can see from that economic development lens uh moving forward. Next slide. So another area we've talked about uh to TPD in the past and have been working with uh both again internal external folks on is to uh help to facilitate some of these office conversions that we know again as we mentioned are a challenge from a building code standpoint. So we wanted to try to remove one of those challenges which could be changing zoning because we don't allow uh residential development in our office districts. Uh and so in this scenario, if you have an existing office building that's vacant that uh doesn't have any tenants and you're thinking you want to convert it to an existing residential use, you know, you still have to go through the the building code items that you would need to in the zoning reviews, but creating that use uh for an existing office to convert to residential is something we're going to allow under some prescribed conditions in our office districts. should help remove again one of those initial barriers which could be a zoning change to get that first and then go through all the permitting process. This would allow that uh to really just go straight into permitting and be reviewed uh by the folks that need to look at it from what's going on in the building standpoint. Uh there may be some other elements to zoning that may need to be enhanced a little bit from a site design element, but again it removes that initial entitlements barrier. Uh the other step that we've taken in this and we're going to get some feedback on through our public engagement is going to be uh areas where we've got either IC1 which is institutional campus or IC2 uh OFC or OG which are office districts. Uh if those are located in activity centers like community activity center or neighborhood center uh and you've got that existing building, you can either convert it as we've mentioned uh or if there's an opportunity to redevelop that site uh you could do that under prescribed tuition now. Uh and so that just gives a little bit more flexibility uh for some of those office areas. Again, this would be uh only in those activity centers. This would not be office districts that you see uh that are located in campus place types or other place types. Uh again, it's just trying to recognize that that office market is a little bit stagnant. Uh and in some of those older campuses, you may need a shot of some residential uh to maybe start seeing some investments in some other areas and allow those activity centers to uh start to develop in the way that we envision long term. Next slide. So, some changes to applicability uh that we've made through this text amendment. This is where we get into a little bit more of the technical side or the administrative side of things. Uh we did strike some things like accompany appendices to language that was related to the NC fire code. This should allow a little bit more uh uh clarity for which codes are going to apply when fire is looking at different plans. Uh we did again modify applicability of frontages and introduce some alternative standards for lots that have multiple frontages. Uh we did update some applicability to our landscape yard requirements which we'll get into on the next slide. Uh we also clarified things on green area, tree preservation, heritage tree standards and also adjusted some of the applicability of our storm water regulations. Uh next slide. So, when we get into our landscape yard requirements, uh we had realized in some instances that residential development, if you had a residence that was next to an older or an existing uh use that might require a buffer, but that use had been existing so long, maybe they didn't have to put one in or there just wasn't one existing. Uh making sure that that residential development still sees some level of screening or buffering between that adjacent use. Uh so, we did add that as an element. of new residential development. If there's no buffers in place, uh they may need to require a buffer to let's say an industrial use or a commercial use next door. If that use next door doesn't have one, if they do, we're in good shape. If they don't, then we want to make sure that we do again provide some of that separation. We also adjusted the approach to landscape requirements uh in the UDO currently. A lot of that is based off of place type or the policy map. uh and that's a challenge at times because you might have some conflict in the existing use or the existing zoning and then what's actually on the policy map. So, we've gone back to a zoning district standard for uh adjusting landscape yards. That makes it a little bit more clear for u some instances where you might have a business uh located, but it's on the map. It's in a in one place type, but it's been a business for, you know, years. Uh and you need to go in and locate a new use next door. uh making sure that you're buffering to that use and not a future place type which is more of a policy item. Uh so we've gone back to that approach of of looking at that from a zoning district standpoint which I think is pretty much more the standard uh of how we've done it in the past and seems to work better for uh some of those outcomes that that we know and have used uh over the years. So next slide. We did update some zoning district standards. Uh one of the items we've heard from some folks in the industry is that uh they've done a lot uh with corrugated metal as a building material. Uh and so we have looked at that. We do have some certain uh conditions that you could deploy that as a a suitable building material uh on certain facades in different districts. U so long as again it meets some of those requirements. You can see some examples of of what that could look like. Uh and that could be a useful tool. Again, we've heard that from some folks that want to look at at deploying that in certain projects and we felt that was a reasonable outcome. Uh so we've we've worked with uh folks in the industry to get that in place. Uh we did update some things for where pedestrian entries can be located for multif family uh and also clarified some things on back a curb uh if that uh project requires installation of a curb. Just making it a little bit more clear for folks. Uh and then getting into some more general development standards on the next slide. Uh we updated some items that make it a little bit more uh simplified for accessory structures like sheds and ADUs. We've really clarified where those setbacks uh and simplified those. So folks are looking to do those types of projects. It's a little bit easier to move those forward. And then updates some things on parking areas and ratios for financial institutions and and retail good establishments uh for parking requirements. and then also clarified some uh driveway widths between curb and sidewalk uh when there is no sidewalk present. So uh just again some of those clarifying items that we wanted to at least highlight a little bit of but when we get into schedule engagement on the next slide you can see that we are moving into uh the engagement week uh which is this week. We've got some virtual information sessions uh on May 8th and then again next week on May 13th. Uh we'll have those open for folks to come in, ask questions, uh get some feedback from uh and also listen to any potential changes. Uh May 19th, we will have the public hearing with council. That will be again at the zoning meeting. Uh we won't make any changes based on some of that engagement or other feedback we've heard so far. uh we're in that window where we can't make changes yet, but we can also present uh some potential changes we might be making going into zoning committee again on June 3rd and then we hope to get council decision on June 16th before we break again for that uh summer month of July. Uh we did have some workshops and conversations throughout the process leading up to this filing in April. Uh those happened in 2023 and 2024 on both research campuses and multiple frontages. We did work with our UAC back in February of of this year and then December of 2024 on both those research campus and office conversions. Both had uh favorable conversations with that group and again we'll have those virtual information sessions over the next week and a half or so. Uh and then moving into what's next overall second quarter. Uh again we are right now with council amendment or council hearing for amendment one. Uh amendment two, we will start collecting some feedback on uh and start to understand what we've got slated for that uh upcoming amendment which will be in the fall uh down in the fourth quarter. Uh we will hear from we've got a lot of things on the list from staff, from uh our partners in cats, our partners at the airport, our partners in the the development industry, and also just folks in the community. So, we've got quite a list uh that we're trying to again prioritize and figure out what we want to put in that um filing. That'll come out in the fourth quarter, which will be uh the uh actually that'll be in the third quarter. So, the fall maintenance amendment will be around September, which is still third quarter 2025. And then we'll get into the same schedule of engagement uh conversations with TPD, conversations with uh UAC uh and then move into that amendment and adoption process uh through the fourth quarter. So, uh, that's what's coming up for us. Hopefully, these will put us in a little bit more of a steady cadence for going through these rather than kind of coming at you every other every other month or every month. Uh, and we hope that that's a little bit easier for everybody to kind of get their arms around uh, and understand what we're working on for each one of these amendments as we move forward. So, we'll be happy to take any questions uh, have any conversation um, in the remaining time that we've got. Mr. Graham. Yeah, thank you very much for the presentation and um and I think it's really really important um the work that you guys are doing in terms of uh the word maintenance of the UDO errors omissions and updates were not not really impacting the policy decision. I think that's really really important and when we said that this is a living document I think this is what I was expecting that these type of um um technical corrections maintenance items would would be um ongoing throughout the document itself without changing the intent of the policy that we voted on. Uh I keep reminding my colleagues and the the public that while the council voted for the UDO, it that vote came after months and months of community collaboration, community planning, community input, um give and take among developers residentials um neighborhood leaders, uh to get where we are today. And so certainly I don't want to do anything that impacts the integrity of of the policy that we put in place. It's still really young and it's in existence, right? Uh it's different. Um this is a new policy um that we're implementing. The old one was like 40 50 years old. And so I just hope that everyone would give it time to breathe a little bit and for us to do uh the the tuneup along the way necessary to make sure that um again any errors, omissions, technical updates that we overlook are we kind of are experiencing as we are implementing the policy that we correct along the way but not really kind of uh dig into the uh any significant policy changes. One other comment. I think we um that UDO, not UDO, uh um backyard dwellings, right? I think we really need to explain that a lot further because there was a vote taken recently. Uh that really was not based on the policy. It was based on something else that while we denied it, but certainly I think that policy is still um um legitimate. Uh I think we should do it. Um, but I think we need to explain it to make sure that people understand what the rules and engagements are there. And certainly that no vote had nothing to do with the policy, but more the the lack of responsiveness from the um from the petitioner. Thank you, Mr. Molina. Um, I thought you had a quick was No, that was just a comment. I Oh, okay. We're doing what we supposed to be doing. Yeah. Okay. Correct. Um, uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. So few things and and actually I was going to start somewhere else but since Mr. actually came there because a part of my comment was going to be around one of those most recent decisions, right? I took the time to really um explain the position from a policy perspective, right? And and actually the petition was for additional density and I think we have to make sure that that's clear, right? When you say we have an existing policy standard that by right doesn't even need for you to come before the council then if you buy a pro you know a property and certain conditions are met then you can create density by right right but when you come before the council and then you act for additional density based on something that's not existing in the policy then you create a precedent that otherwise wouldn't be there but for this decision and it would encourage addition you know addition uh development in the area. So I I I can explain that from my perspective and that was the reasoning behind not really ignoring because I wasn't ignoring the policy standard. I want to make sure that I'm clear. I was taken into full consideration what the existing policy standard was based on N1A and N1B for existing um petitions that were both in my district and in you know Councilwoman uh Anderson's district uh where the no came from. But again being clear it's for and and I think those are learning opportunities for us all right that's not something that we can foresee. That's one of the reasons why additional engagement is necessary. we can't really gauge, you know, what development will do or what the interest of development will be. And so we need to be able to have some level of malleability and feedback so that we can um adjust to what those changing standards as a result of business, you know, petitions and needs would be. Um so I'll start there, but then I'll go into some of what I was kind of learning as we were going. I I um so since we're going to do this twice a year, it's kind of cumulative on two fronts, right? So we'll take at some point halfway through the year, this is what we learned and this would be a potential a potential piece of maintenance and then at another incremental point in the year we'll do the same exact thing is what I'm understanding. Yeah. So I mean conversations are ongoing on a daily weekly basis on things that need to be addressed or things that pop up that we are learning from you know either our internal folks or folks that work with the the UDO every day that what's a shortcoming or what may be a challenge. And so we're collecting that constantly. It's just how do we prioritize it and then let's make sure that we're putting it into uh you know a time frame that kind of works in that rhythm of twice a year. Uh, so, you know, obviously if there's something that comes up that's a real pressing emergency, if we need to change something because something's happened at the legislature or we've just got an issue that really needs to be addressed quick, we can always, you know, do something like that uh to address something more immediate. But this is just a result of, you know, a list that's ongoing, compiled from conversations and then figuring out, okay, how quickly do we need to address that? Can this go in the fall? Can this wait to, you know, first quarter next year? uh and getting into again that rhythm of of prioritizing and then putting things in this document that we can change like I said twice a year rather than you know four, five, six times a year on some occasions like we did in the past. Okay, that makes sense. I just want to clarify too and Dave mentioned this that it is a little bit larger than what you might see as a cleanup or just scribers there. There will be things that are in the maintenance text amendment that involve community engagement and community feedback and they won't, you know, our policy is adopted. They would be based on our policy, but they might be tweaks within that policy that are an e a better way for us to get the results that our policy outlines. Right? So anyways, I just I don't want you to think that it's all just corrections because we've been making a lot of corrections and some of them might be a little bit broader like the office conversion, you know, where we're learning from the current market and the economy and that is that is a a change but it fits within our policy framework. It it's just um you know modifying so as we're learning, right? So, I just don't want you to think that everything we're bringing is like, oh, oh, it's it's a um it's just a a quick text edit. Some of them might be a little substantial, but we want to put that on a clear schedule, right? And those will involve all the conversations that we've done for those policy items in the past, like I said. So we might have the technical things just you know get less conversation but some of the larger items if we've got to deal with you know like we talked about mark office conversions or you know other things where there's a market shift and we've got to change some ideas of how we're addressing some of that those larger items will still get folded in here. They may have another level of engagement that we focus directly on those topics. Uh and that's how we'll probably handle those. So there might be you know some meteor things in these amendments moving forward. uh but those would get the level of engagement they deserve and need to get through those conversations either with TPD the community stakeholders things like that. So okay that's good. Um so another thing that I was interested in understanding um so this touch point is one and then it's going to potentially go to the UDO advisory committee to um you have you already presented to yeah we've had some conversations already on topics that they would need to hear like the office conversion sites with multiple frontages uh you know the items that they need to look at which are more of those broad kind of policybased type items that uh you know address some of those market changes, things like that. So we've had those conversations with them back in December or last year and then February of this year on those topics. So uh and that's that's the routine for those types of things. We would go to UAC, we do that community engagement on those topics. UAC won't look at, you know, some of the technical things that we've changed, but they will be that kind of voice on those larger uh framework items. Okay, that's good. So give me and I and I love that you have an ED lens to some degree, right? like how can we take this policy document understanding the changes in the market and like you said you're learning we are having an interest now from life sciences um is would this change like what our plans would be for an example right like possibility within our plans no these would still be found mainly in our campus place types maybe in our industrial place types they kind of live and fit in both uh just depends on what kind of dynamics they need for the site if you know some of these sites have everything from you know research church campuses and and light industrial to restaurants and residential. Uh so it just depends on how much they want to have that integration of uses. Uh but this wouldn't change where we would necessarily site those. Again, those would be looked at in our campus areas, our uh industrial areas. They may fit to some degree uh with some conditions. Maybe if you had part of it in an activity center, let's think like in the university city area. Uh a lot of that is both activity center and campus. they could kind of live in in both of those. Uh but it doesn't really change, you know, anything on the policy map related to them. Okay. And my very very last question, if you'll allow me, so when we talk about um it's not really a concern, I just I I can see the questions coming from the community with regards to um the frontages. Mhm. Um, can you can you give me more just, you know, plain explanation on what that means? In other words, you're you're you're changing frontages based on multiple um, I guess types. So, tell me tell me what this is. Are you slide number seven? Slide seven. Yes. So, the example that we've got on here, and you probably are familiar with it in your area, the uh the Harris tier, let's say. I thought that was I thought that that site if it came in today under the UDO, they'd be challenged to decide, you know, where's the front of the building, where do we put all of our kind of transparency? Where do we put our, you know, loading areas, our dumpsters, where does the parking go? And all of those frontages were treated essentially the same. And so, that's really difficult cuz, you know, every side of the building is a little bit different. Uh so what we've done is really kind of create that hierarchy of basically select that frontage treated as your main you know do all the things you would need to on that main frontage but those tertiary or side frontages uh you know get treated and looked at a little bit differently and you have a little bit more flexibility with how to design that. You don't have to meet some of the certain things that you would like I said in regard to transparency or even like ground floor activation other things. Uh, and so it really just allows a site that has three or four frontages to kind of pick which way it wants to orient itself. And then we know that where those back of house operations are, we look at those a little bit differently than we would even though there's a street there. We would look at it more as the back of the site kind of thing. And not that the street doesn't exist, but kind of look at it in a way that that knocks it down a little bit, makes that site easier to develop. Yeah. And I I would just add that for a community member, the easiest way to describe it is through the grocery store examples is that when you have a large user like that that does have that might take a whole block, how you know we do we want to make sure we get grocery stores in our transit station areas in our centers and that we're not making the process more difficult for that type of user. Uh so that is really where we were seeing the rub is that when you have a whole block uh that every side can't be it can't have an equal level of detail because the trucks have to drop off like Dave was saying the trucks have to be able to unload their you know product and you have to have entrances in certain points. So, we're trying to create um a framework where we're not uh discouraging some of the types of uses that we think are a necessity for a 10-minute community. Okay. 10-minute neighborhood. That makes sense. And that's along the nine. The nine's right there in front of it, right? Um and even I pull up to the Starbucks, like right there on the ground floor sometimes to run in, get coffee. Uh so, yeah. No, that's that's good. Thank you so much. That's all I have. All right. So, uh, Mr. Pentton, I I have to say publicly, you are my hero, okay? Uh, I mean, seriously, the all the way from the monthly process and the resonings to the policy and navigating the choppy waters, uh, you've had a huge burden. Just want to say I appreciate that. Thank you. Um, couple of quick questions or comments. We're short on time, so I'm just going to kind of we're going to do this rapid fire. All right. uh every six months we have this uh update. What about in between? There are some things that are more t timesensitive than that. I know I've had conversations with some of my colleagues, Miss Johnson on the committee. Uh issues come up during zoning meetings and people are saying, "Hey, you know, why haven't we done anything about that?" So, do we have scope to to take some action in between those six-month intervals, particularly if there's a time-sensitive issue? Yeah, I think what we're trying to establish is, you know, get us input on like not from necessarily on council items, but get us topics that we've got. We said kind of a deadline for those. We look at what they are, have those conversations, get the amendment filed, and kind of create a rhythm for folks to share information, get information from us, have those conversations. But if it comes to an item where we've got something pressing that needs to be addressed, you know, quickly that we hear from either a zoning meeting or from, you know, somewhere in the industry or again a legislative item, we've got to be able to pivot and take some action on those and we're prepared to do that. These are going to be for trying to keep that as minimally, you know, necessary as possible, but there's always going to be something that comes up where you might need to take quicker action or take something a little bit more immediate. and we're certainly, you know, prepared to do that and understand that that could come up throughout. So, I I have been talking to a couple of my colleagues about trying to stabilize the process through which we have committee referrals, identify items that rise to the level of calling for action. Um, and uh so I hope we can create a smoother interface that way for our zoning meetings. Um, uh, I would suggest that the details of the text amendment be available virtually. I don't need a stack of paper, but just have a link that everybody can look at where they can sort of see uh because this is a pretty broad description. Very helpful. Uh they don't want anybody to say, "Hey, you know, I I didn't know about all of it." Uh the office conversions, have we had community outreach about those? We've had some engagement with UAC uh on that and they were pretty favorable on it. They thought that was a good approach to take. uh we'll get some input on these uh virtual engagement sessions we've got over the next week or two uh and see if there's any kind of feedback or input uh and we didn't necessarily reach out directly to folks but UAC has a good cross-section of folks that would kind of give us that kind of input and feedback u even uh I think we have somebody from university city partners on there as well right uh and so we you know I know they've got a lot of that office space in that area uh that could potentially either you know benefit or if they had concerns concerns would let us know about it. We haven't really heard much from from that group. So, we can certainly do some more outreach and and you know more direct approach with some folks, but so far it's been a favorable uh concept. And just for the uh virtual stuff, we do have a redline version on the UDO website. We'll put that virtually as a link for the agenda to everybody. Yeah. So, we can send that out to everybody. Uh I mentioned the office thing just because I I seem to recall we had one instance of a conversion and there was opposition. Uh, so I just want to make sure we're clear on what those issues were and that they've been addressed and how we're doing that. Um the uh the airport part 150 process, is that informing what we're doing at all? Does it affect our uh planning process? So, we've actually just had some good conversations with the airport last week. Uh, and we are working together. We're going to put together a small group of folks that look at what they're working on, look at how they interact with the UDO, any challenges they may have with some of the regulations where there might be conflict with some federal guidelines they have to adhere to and try to identify some changes. So, uh, we're actually going to get that group, uh, hopefully set up and established this week and start getting some meetings on the calendar that are recurring and and really partner with them in a little bit closer way, uh, so we can understand what changes and things they may need hopefully in that amendment that we see in the fall. Mr. Graham, did you have anything? I said five. Thank you. Okay. All right. Um, well, we better make sure that we're in good shape for June, otherwise things slip by quite a bit. So, uh I think we are uh I like uh what you've done and where we stand. And that was our last agenda item. So, uh if there's nothing else from committee, I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. So, move. Second. All in favor stand up. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Hey hey hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Hey hey hey. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I need you. [Music] [Music] Hey, honey. Hey, hey, hey. [Music] [Music] [Music] Are you feeling? [Music] Do you feel [Music] [Music] Do you feel Hey honey. [Music] Are you feel [Music] [Music] Are you feeling Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] I don't [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] Okay. Heat. [Music] Good afternoon everyone. My name is Malcolm Graham and I have the honor of serving as chairman of the jobs and economic development committee. Want to take this opportunity to welcome each and every one of you to our May 5th, 2020 meeting. And let's get started by just acknowledging everyone uh who's in the room u for the record. So we'll start to my far left. Christy Lloyd, economic development. Holly Escridge, economic development. Good afternoon. Adam Marie, South Park Community Partners. Todd Dong, economic development. Allison Craig, assistant city manager. Malcolm Graham, committee chairman. Marjorie Molina, committee member, city attorney's office. Nan Peterson, planning. Alexis, economic development. Toana Brown, economic development, Ben, Office of SH business inclusion, and those who may be joining with us virtually. Can't hear you. We can't hear you. Mr. Mitch, are you on mute? He talking. We can see him. Is it Is it We see him online. Can we hear Mayor Pro Tim? You can hear Mayor Prom. Mayor Pro Tim, are you with us? Uh, so we're having audio difficulties with our virtual participants. Um so um uh you can use the chat but I really would love to be able to communicate with you. Uh can turn we see you vice chairman. We see you eating. Yeah. Yeah. We we we we just can't hear you. We can't hear you but we see you. Okay, we got we got it. We're we're working on the technical difficulties now. Can you hear us? Okay, so we're going to start the presentations while they work on the um technical um difficulties that we're having. We [Music] acknowledge we acknowledge the um presence of the mayor pro Tim, Miss Anderson, vice chairman Mitchell are with us virtually and we're working on their um technical issues so that they can talk to us. I think they can hear us. Uh and so we're going to start off with u pivoting to the assistant city manager to kind of introduce uh today's agenda items. We have two items and I'll let her introduce that for us. Thank you um Chair Graham. We've got two items today. The first is Symphony Park. This is the second time we've been to committee to talk um about this topic. This is a project that has been years and years in the making. Um I was actually going back and looking at my emails back from like 2019 talking about this. So, I'm really excited to have um Adam back today to talk about what what we're envisioning uh there in Symphony Park. I do want to mention to the committee that um this is an an item that we are looking for action for a vote to refer it to full counsel. Um and then the second uh item today is a small business update. Um several months ago, staff came before committee to talk about a small business ecosystem assessment process. And so staff is here to give you a brief update on that as well. Um so with that, I will turn this over to Todd and Adam. Thanks, Alison. Next slide. So today we're following up on a conversation from our last meeting about a potential public private partnership to support a transformational enhancement of Symphony Park. This is one reflects our commitment to an inclusive economic development as well as facilitating and creating great public spaces throughout our communities. Uh the project aligns with several council priorities that you see here. workforce and business development, great neighborhoods, transportation and planning, and well-managed government. As some of you may know, Symphony Park has long been identified in the community as a top priority for South Park. And with this project, we don't see it as just improving a park. We're creating an active uh vibrant destination for residents and visitors alike. Our proposed $8 million investment leverages significant private dollars and ensures public uh permanent public access for the community. As Allison mentioned, this has been going on for quite some time. Some of you may recall initial conversations about uh Symphony Park and the need to improve it throughout the 2016 and 2018 uh allocations for the CEIPS and particularly the South Park SENIP. We also introduced the concept of a potential public private partnership during the April 7th jobs and economic development committee and then we had a subsequent conversation that night during the city council meeting during the committee meeting reports. future action. I guess today is the future with May 5th. Uh we're back in the committee for follow-up conversation and as Allison mentioned, we are going to request the committee refer the item to council consideration and recommend approval during the May 27th city council meeting. Uh I'll turn it over to Adam kind of walk through again the details of the uh the park, the project, and the the benefits that it will bring to uh the community uh for South Park and the surrounding community. Uh, thanks Todd and Allison. Good afternoon everybody. Adam Ruse, CEO of South Park Community Partners. Um, excited to talk about what we have shared with you before, which is a transformative opportunity uh, in South Park and really to create an asset for all of Charlotte. Uh, I want to build on some of the history that Todd just outlined. Uh, as you heard, this was a significant focus of community engagement during the CNIP process. uh as well as the South Park Loop framework plan city staff created in 2019. So, a number of different studies all rooted in community engagement and community participation have identified this project as a top priority for uh stakeholder groups in the South Park area. Uh as Todd mentioned, there was funding allocated specifically for public private partnerships to enhance uh this area of South Park. Uh the city investment in this public space has always been part of the plan. uh from those initial CNIP days and it has always uh contemplated uh an investment by Simon Property Group which owns the mall. Um the from the genesis uh the intent was always to do a public private partnership between the city and Simon uh to enhance this space. In late 2019 and early 2020, city staff initiated conversations with Simon for a multi-phase project at South Park Mall, beginning in that first phase with a renovation of Symphony Park. Under the proposed terms presented to Simon at that time, uh it the the project considered a 5050 split in the capital stack between Simon and the city of Charlotte uh with no other partners involved. Uh the pandemic, as you can imagine, disrupted the retail sector and put that project on pause in 2020. Uh but there was still a great amount of interest among all parties to revisit it. When South Park Community Partners uh was created and the MSD was established in 2022, uh we sort of picked up the mandate and and continued to work this project uh in partnership with city staff and with Simon. Uh we uh published the South Park Forward 2035 vision plan last year. That plan too was rooted in significant community engagement across stakeholder groups. Everyone who is living, working, and visiting in South Park. Uh and all of that community engagement consistently identified the renovation of Symphony Park as a continued top priority. Uh many of you are familiar with the South Park Association of Neighborhoods which represents nearly 40 neighborhood associations that are just outside the MSD boundaries. Uh this project is also among their top priorities and indeed their me members believe that uh the project we're sharing with you today fulfills the promise made by the city during that CNET program eight years ago. Um let me just quickly um highlight a couple of things here around the design. The concept we've developed um has been developed in partnership with city planning staff with Simon and with our landscape architects at land design and it builds off of the community engagement that started during the CNET process continued during the loop framework plan development uh and then that thread continued through the South Park forward vision plan. So there's a real direct throughine uh between the initial CNEP process and what we bring to you today. Uh it also preserves existing storm water facilities and works around a state regulated dam under Carnegie Boulevard. So lots to consider in the design of this space. Uh uh we have requested $8 million from the city of Charlotte. Simon Property Group has committed uh improvements that are valued at $8 million and then South Park Community Partners is raising $5 million from the business community to round out the capital stack. Uh we've had really strong momentum over the last month with the business community in private conversations. Uh I'm very excited about where we are in working with the business community to step up. Uh our team has had more than two dozen potential uh partners uh that we've met with uh and we have several that are actively considering six and seven figure investments in this project. So, uh, over the last month, great progress and strong momentum with the business community to step up and do their part, uh, to round out the capital stack. Uh, we hope to have those commitments come in, uh, late spring, early summer as those, uh, entities work through their grant-making processes and their board approval processes. Uh, let me share just a couple of things here on the key terms over the next few slides. Um, one, I really want to emphasize Simon's commitment to uh updating the existing easements for uh perpetual public a access to this space. Um, Simon is affirming their commitment to this space as public uh that it will effectively operate as if it were a uh public site uh and is open to the public uh through those easements. Um, the other piece that I want to make sure I emphasize is that Simon has committed to fund construction cost overages on their portion of the project. So, they've invested or committed an equivalent of $8 million to construct uh their portion of this project. Uh, but they bear the risk for anything that uh is over that. And certainly in the inflationary environment that we're in today, that is a real possibility. Um so some of the risk uh is deferred over to Simon. On the operating side, uh one of the things that we're particularly excited about in this project is the partnership and the operating agreement that we've negotiated with Simon to allow South Park community partners to program and operate the space. Um there there is a real desire from the community that uh we provide free public community centric programming in this space. Uh it is not enough to build uh a beautiful space or to build beautiful infrastructure but uh there is a desire and and we believe a responsibility to ensure that the public gets to enjoy uh that area a as we move forward past this project. And so, uh, through the partnership that we've established with Simon, South Park Community Partners, uh, will will operate the space. Um, and what we believe that will do is is really transform it from a a place that's active maybe 80 days out of the year to a place that's active 365 days a year. Uh, a real commitment to free uh, and uh, community centric programming. Um the the other piece that I want to just quickly highlight here is uh the micro retail space which we're incorporating into this into the um park. South Park Community Partners is really eager to integrate some small space that we can use to incubate uh emerging entrepreneurs, people that may have a harder time getting a foothold into the South Park subm market. Uh, think of this, you know, similarly to the the market at 7th Street where you've got space that is subsidized that you're uh incentivizing people who are early in their journey as entrepreneurs uh to get access to a to a market that they might not otherwise be able to have access to. Uh we're really excited about what we've learned from other parks around the country that have used small spaces uh to really add amenities to the neighborhood but also support emerging entrepreneurs. And that's a piece that our team will manage uh both the the leasing and the operations of. Here's the proposed timeline, the proposed schedule that we we shared with you last month. Um again, this is uh based on what what we know today. Um, and assuming that uh we are able to continue the strong private fundraising momentum, we hope to be able to be in uh advanced design later this year, close the park in the summer of 2026. Construction is 9 to 12 months, so we'll be back open in the summer of 2027. Um, and with that, I will pass it back to Todd to share a little bit about next steps. So as I as I mentioned earlier when we started the conversation we initi initiated the conversation on the P3 uh during our last meeting on April 7th. We had a subsequent conversation with city council full city council during the committee report out portion of that convers uh meeting on April 7th as well. Today, we're here for a follow-up conversation on the proposed public private partnership and then again, we are requesting a referral to city council for council consideration and recommend approval during the May 27th city council meeting. At this time, our anticipated request from council on the 27th, excuse me, would be to authorize the city manager or his design design to negotiate and execute an infrastructure reimbursement agreement with South Park Community Partners in an amount not to exceed $8 million to support the enhancement of Symphony Park. Now, I turn it back over to the chair and the committee for any questions and comments. Thank you very much for the presentation. um Adam uh and Todd. A couple comments and I'll turn it over to the committee um for their questions and hopefully we've been able to solve the the technical issues for council member Mitchell and council member Anderson so they can communicate with us as well. one, I want to thank you uh because you took one of the item one of the questions from me in reference to uh making sure that the retail space was um affordable um and that there was a a a an effort that would outreach to identify um historically underutilized businesses and those who are new to business to have an opportunity to participate uh in that. um parks as a family environment. Certainly understand the the retail giant Simon and what they do at the mall. This is a little different. Uh and if there's a way that we can make sure that um the retail space is accessible for those who want it. Um we talk about affordable housing, but there's also we need affordability and leasing space throughout the city. So, I'm glad that you mentioned that before. I had opportunity to chime in about that. That was something I was going to talk about. Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I I would just say that we we're really pleased that Simon uh was willing to work with us on that. That was a request that we made to them early in the conversation about let's find a way to incorporate space for emerging entrepreneurs into this into this park. That's been wellreceived by our stakeholders u and well received by Simon. So, we're excited about what that could be uh for, you know, smaller uh upand cominging businesses to get a foothold into the South Park subm market. I I think that makes a really really good sense. You talked about your corporate deck and others that were investing in the project. Does that include our friends um in the 11th floor, Mechanburg County? Uh we're continuing conversations with the county. Um no, uh uh firm commitments or or updates to share at this stage. Uh but we continue to have positive discussions with them about uh what a partnership could look like. Yeah, I I love those guys over there. They do a really good job and but they kind of have the ownership rights in the community for park and recreation and so would love to see them uh be a part of the um the corporate team um to help us kind of bring this to the finish line. Uh and then thirdly um if you just can walk me one more time very quickly. um the $8 million from the city just to make sure that the the residents clearly understand where the money is coming from and um and even to kind of remind council members who may be listening. So the $8 million from the city represents just over a third of the total estimated project costs. And as a reminder, I think Adam may have mentioned this in the last meeting. This is no, we're not trying to ask for existing our new funds. These are existing funds. This is we allocated some funds as part of the South Park CNIP years ago and then to help support some of the additional cost with the increase of cost estimates along the way over the last several years. We're looking at projects that were not viable to go forward and one of those was Park South Drive also just right around the corner from this site. So being able to allocate or reallocate funding from Park South Drive over to this has been really helpful for us to make sure we're maximizing the investment from the CNIP as well as for other projects like Park South Drive that is not going to be happening. Okay. Thank you. I just again I just want to make sure we put that for the record um because it was kind of very general but specifically we know exactly where the dollars are coming from. Adam? Yeah. Yeah, I just want to make one more comment on that because Todd mentioned the Park South Drive project which is not viable. You know, we have conducted a significant amount of community engagement um and have been very clear with our stakeholders about you know uh h how do we want to leverage those dollars if that project's not viable that's within the within the MSD footprint um what are the options on how we may leverage those funds and Symphony Park is the top priority. So, I feel very confident that we are fulfilling what the residents and the taxpayers have asked us to do uh in in this area uh by putting those those dollars toward this project. And then lastly, I I told Adam before the meeting started that I understand that um the district six representative is is not seated and probably will not be seated between now and the vote. And if there's any questions, comments, or concerns that he may have that I'm certainly willing to um support um those requests, um speaking for council member Mitchell, I think as vice chairman, he too was kind of step in and provide any gap. Marre as well as Ed in terms of committee members um making sure that nothing gets dropped from your perspective from the city if you needed someone to talk to between now and the 27th that we would step in and and kind of support you um between now and then. I think this is a a great idea. Um certainly I'm very supportive of it and um I won't speak for my colleagues. So, let their vote do that in a minute, but um certainly I'll step in to provide any um any gap advocacy between now and the 27th. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Uh the floor is open for questions. Um I see um I'll go to my vice chairman, Mr. Mitchell. Yes, Mr. Chairman, can you hear me? Loud and clear. Okay. Thank you. Uh let me just echo uh some of the comments that Mr. Chairman made. Adam, thank you so much. when we created the South Park MSD, uh I think a lot of us thought it was going to be business as usual. Adam, under your vision and leadership, uh this is amazing. And so, thank you for getting involved in the economic development space and partnering with us. Uh Mr. Chair, at this particular time, I would like to make the motion to uh move in favor of the recommendation of staff to for council in support of $8 million to the Symphony Park redevelopment. Uh motion's been made. Is there a second? Second. All right. Uh that's on the floor. We still have a couple of questions. Uh we'll put that motion and that second in the parking lot and we'll continue to answer any questions from any members who may have some. Uh Mr. Drakes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um I I've made clear I think from the outset that I have concerns about uh why not the county and no involvement by the county. I mean I might partner with them. Um, I don't hear the county district rep cheering in favor of this. Maybe they are. I'm not even sure, frankly. Who is the county rep for uh your area? It's Commissioner Meyer. Um, she she has spoken publicly in support of this. Well, she hasn't told me that. Um, and frankly, if they do, I'm still wondering um how is this not at least a partnership with the county? it it doesn't create and we look at other P3s and what the foundation was for them and it's uh our sports franchises it's some uh manage lane road projects and there's a certain economy around those uh that we can point to um and that helps to define the city's interest. So in this case uh I just don't know how to get my arms around it. I'm not sure what the rationale is for this city investment except for the fact that apparently the county wouldn't come up with the money and therefore it should be us. And I have to say I have a bit of a personal issue with the CNIP at the time that CNIP was approved. U there was no money. I think maybe we ended up getting $5 million in South Charlotte. Wasn't clear to me why there was an unequal allocation to the two areas. Um, and I think it was because there was this description of all kinds of uh projects and prospects in district uh six and there wasn't an equivalent list of shovel ready projects. But here we are all these years later and that scenic money has not been deployed and therefore I regard that allocation to district 6 as being hard to justify from the vantage point of district 7. I've got sidewalks I've had to fight for. And Adam, this isn't your problem, but I'm just telling you my issue. Um, I couldn't get money for sidewalks. I finally managed by leaning on the manager to cobble together from a couple of accounts a few million dollars for a sidewalk on Kaikondall. But District 7 had needs, too. And it felt to me like a somewhat political decision. But the idea was well there had been this uh planning process and there were all kinds of opportunities in district 6 and then the money doesn't get spent. What year was the CNIP that was in? Do you know? It was uh the bonds were allocated for the 2016 and 2018 bonds. So the process the planning process was probably in 2015 to 2017 through nine or 10 years. Okay. That money has just been sitting there as a blank check and it's not a blank check. I mean that CNIP decision was made based on a perception of an opportunity in district 6 that obviously didn't come true and I don't regard that as a reservation of funds for whatever at a later date and I still don't see the equivalent uh allocation to district 7. So uh I'm just not comfortable. I mean I like the park idea and I'm okay with the partnership but taking actual this is not hospitality money. This is actual taxpayer dollars uh to fund a partnership the commercial advantages of which are apparent to the uh our partner. But uh how does how does this align better with the city than it does with the county? And why has the county in spite of what I gather now? I mean, the first time we talked was months ago and there was the question about the county and no commitment has come out from the county. Um, so I'm not expecting one, frankly. And it's all very nice to talk about. Yeah. Yeah. We're still talking to the county, but right now you want us to refer a recommendation on Charlotte money to uh the full council and as it stands at the moment, I'm afraid I'm not able to join that. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Dre. Uh, Miss Molina. Um, thank you, Mr. Chairman. And man, that that's a lot. First of all, I think [Music] um I um you know, it's interesting when we hear district 6 and district 7 because they're not really the places that you hear any emphasis at all, right? Those two districts are often regarded as the districts where rich people live, right? And so when we have um overall conversations about need, you know, in the community or even want from that perspective, there's a general understanding. I I know I hear it comparatively speaking from a district 5 perspective. Um, and and I I I never rebut the argument because it's it's a multifaceted statement to say, you know, the the community members that live in District 5 will often say to me, "Well, if this was in Valentine, I bet it wouldn't happen." Or, "If this was in South Park, I bet it wouldn't happen." you know, because it it just unfortunately, you know, the the needs and the wants in in some cases are are often, especially from a a city budgetary perspective are not regarded. And I since I've been on the council, I've definitely heard my colleague here make his petition about sidewalks repeatedly. Um, and so I I feel his pain there and I think we feel it throughout. It's one of the reasons why, you know, this this transportation um tax is going to be so fundamental for our city and our region to be able to answer some of those needs um in district 7 and and across this city to be able to provide for um our community members. So, your point is not lost on me. Um on in the onset and and again, I'll tell you why I'm arriving at seconding the motion. um outside of the fact that you know my colleague here has said that the money's been sitting there right um so it it right now since it is what we would call earmarked for district 6 it's going to be spent in district 6 right and this is what you're saying based on what you've engaged that the community members that live in the south park area and the community you know uh the greater community would like to have happen with those funds um and trusting that and trusting the fact that we don't have Mr. Bkari here to speak to that directly. Um, but I have spoken to him prior to him going, you know, to to serve in federal office that that he is a proponent of this and it seems to be something that the community that he represented would like to have happen. Um, but I I can't go without saying also the same thing. I'm I'm just wondering why our county partners are not at the table and I don't know if at some point they will come to the table and and what we'll do with that. But like I said regarding the fact that you know council member Bari who is not here right now. Um but he has communicated that he would like to see this happen in the district is why I'm willing to support it. and and this is one of those things that if it was something in district 5, you know, my colleagues have been great about supporting me when I asked them for their support. Um, and so it it's for that and for the fact that you're saying that this is something that the community overall would like to have happen in that area. But I I would, you know, because what the chairman said is is very important to understand when we say parks and recreation, you know, people just tend to lend that to what our county partners, they they have a budget specifically for parks and recreation. So, I'm just wondering like, you know, hey, a million bucks, you know, put put an extra, you know, something, you know, into the park structure so that the community members can enjoy it. And and lastly, I'll say this because anytime that we create um something as fundamental as a a gathering place, although because this is one of the conversations that we had around Eastland Yards, for an example, it's in the neighbors backyard, right? So, of course, we on the east side want to be able to enjoy it, but the beauty of it is is that people will come from all over the city to enjoy this as well. they, you know, people from the city, even the region will go to Symphony Park when there's a function and we will all be able to enjoy this space that would become, you know, um a community space, right? All of the community spaces that we have are are great for the area, but then they also expand and they're greater for, you know, the community overall. So, um that's where I'm sitting. That's my perspective and and thank you for the time, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much. Um, Mayor Proam Anderson welcome. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Are you able to hear me loud and clear? Okay. Thank you. Um, uh, first, Mr. Ruth, thank you for the presentation and we've had an opportunity to to speak oneonone about this project. Um, I do think that that the aspects of the project will will bring a level of vitalization to Symphony Park. um that that will just augment what's already there. I I think it it's a great uh plan that you have and certainly leveraging uh the seventh street market um incubator process um that um Mr. Smith has has set up is is a good rubric to follow and and hope that you will very much lean into that as it relates to small business and underrepresentative business. Um, however, I do agree that um, with parks and wreck falling under the county's purview and in addition to that, you know, they are really committed to investing in parks and wrecks. Um, right now going through this cycle, uh, we we should see some effective skin in the game from parks and wreck. Um, with full understanding that these these dollars have already been earmarked for district six, I I do agree with Mr. Driggs, you know, all districts have have projects like sidewalks and other infrastructure projects as it relates to as it relates to safety and mobility that are unfunded and and we'd love to utilize these monies. I think every district rep would say, "Hey, have several projects." Um, but these these dollars, as I understand, have been earmarked for district six, unless I have unless I have a misunderstanding of that. Um, it it sounds like these these funds will be used in in district six. And I'm I'm I'm fine with that. But I I do think that a the park in that the county should have some level of skin in the game um as it relates to an investment in parks and recreation and somewhat um it's related but somewhat tangential in that you know a lot of these areas that we have established MSDS and South Park is the the latest greatest one and we have them throughout the city but there are other neighborhoods and areas, a collection of neighborhoods that don't quite um in aggregate have the financial impact that some of these MSDS do, but they do have a financial impact and they want to be great stewards of their areas um in terms of bringing skin to it to the game and asking for monies from the city to help them advance plans that they have and these areas are all across the city, you know, from the east side to the west side. I can name a couple in my district. And I'd like for us to uh just, Mr. chair think about how we can have that conversation as we are dead center in the bud budget conversation. How we can assist those areas that are already ready that have monies that they're established, they have leadership, they have plans, but they that don't quite meet the MSD threshold. how we can help those areas um advance and thrive um from a community placemaking economic development perspective. So that's all I had. Mr. Chair, thank you very much. Thank you, Mayor Prom Anderson and uh Assistant City Manager. If you can put that comment in the parking lot so we can kind of kind of talk about it later about how we kind of massage that and and make that happen. I think it's a good idea. Um, Adam, I think I think you hear loud and clear that there's support certainly for the for the item. Um, um, but I I think people love to to know where our partners stand with the county. I am so optimistic about the relationship between the city and the county. Always have been, but now they're got new leadership uh, in terms of a new chairman, an incoming new um, city county manager. Um, so hopefully there's an opportunity for us to revisit that. Uh, it would be nice to know yes or no, maybe so by May 27th. Um, I I would also would like not only you ask full certain is your project, but kind of gets a sense from staff about where the county may or may not be. If it's if it's yes, okay. If it's maybe okay, but if it's no, I think we should know that u before the vote so folks can vote with a a clear understanding of where they stand. Um so I I would think that would make sense. Sure. Okay. So, uh there's a motion on the floor that has been duly seconded um made by Mr. Mitchell, second by the rep from district 5. Uh all those in favor of the motion to forward this to the city council for its consideration um should sign by raising your hand. That's uno door stress. Uh those opposed. Uno. All right. So the motion carries. Uh with those comments made. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Our next agenda item is um a small business update. Uh welcome Holly. Um welcome Miss Floyd. Um and u come on up. Thanks D. opportunity. Okay. Well, let's go ahead and get started. Um, Mr. Chairman, committee members, thanks so much for having us. Um, we are very excited to be here with you all today to talk about um, a small business update. First of all, Christy would be very upset with me if I didn't start by saying happy small business month. Yay. That's where we are in May. Um Christie, are we still having a party like we had last year? It's tonight. It's tonight. It is. We Is that on my calendar? We got a calendar. Well, y'all y'all will have a party the same same night as council committed discussion. We're going to explain what we did. There's an explanation supportive of this. So, we ran out of space. Okay. Um, we used to do it at Heist Brewery. We had a great time and we ran out a great time and we got a lot of feedback last year that people were not able to attend because they could not park for sure. So, in an effort to be supportive of small businesses sort of collectively, especially those are um that are underrepresented, we actually worked with the Seventh Street Market to have it there because there's plenty of parking. And then we're actually using all of the businesses that are part of the Seventh Street Market incubator to provide the food. Um, and then we've got the entertainers, you know, the DJ that we normally use. So, we did it there. The only time the market can close down for an event like this is on Mondays. So, we're trying it this year. We're really sorry. We'll look to other opportunities in the future, but there's over 400 what 425 is that what you said registered. So, it is a very very popular event. Yeah. Yeah. And I think you you hear the statements from me and Mr. Mitchell as that um you know a lot of times I said this last week I forgot who I was talking to. I mean, people, you know, hear us talk about the Panthers and the Hornets and and big deals, and those big deals come across every one every 10 years, every seven years. The blocking and tackling of what we do is small business, workforce development. We do that each and every day. Uh, and I think we would just wanted to celebrate with you guys because you guys do extraordinary work and I understand the conflict in the scheduling, but um, would love to be there, work on it. This was our test. We're on the future. We're trying to show something where we're supporting other small businesses. So anyway, so yes, I get it. Um, and then, uh, Christy and her team also did the 31 days of biz campaign. So we'll be highlighting a business every day in May. So look for that on social media. So tons of really great stuff going on with us and our partners. But what we wanted to do today is give you all an update on the uh, small business ecosystem assessment. And so the council Oh, no. Sorry, went too many. The priority alignment is workforce and business development. What I just said to give you guys an update on where we stand on the assessment. And then three key findings that you'll see throughout our presentation are there's extensive stakeholder engagement. The key findings that we're initial key findings that we're going to talk about will inform measurable goals. We know that's a really big deal um here with this committee understandably so. objectives, strategies, and tactics to really enhance the ecosystem's performance. And then how the city specifically should be engaged within the ecosystem and supporting small businesses. And then to date, we've continuously engaged CBI and the Office of Workforce Development. And we'll continue to do that as we move forward on this plan. See if I can do it right this time. There we go. So, just a couple of um just summarizing previous engagement. the spring of 2023, you guys approved ARPA funding for this. So, thank you very much for that. And then you can see where we've done um including this one, four updates that just kind of talked about the ecosystem assessment. Future slides will go over kind of a little bit more background just to kind of give you some more context on that. Um but then also just to let you know um we will come back the assessment part is is um finishing up and then we're actually doing a larger strategy which has an implementation plan. So all of that will be presented to you in the fall of 2025. All right. So just to give a little bit of background here, um when we came to you and asked for the ARPA funding, what we really uh realized is and we set this up where we understand all everyone in this room knows that small businesses, you know, they're unique. The needs they have are unique, the resources they need are unique and they can vary. And there have been several strategic investments that the city of Charlotte has made in the ecosystem, whether it be in the partners or programs like Ampup Charlotte to um invest in small businesses to help them start and grow. And so we really looked at all this and while I think we've done a phenomenal job, we needed to understand what this ecosystem looked like. We needed to understand what are the strengths, what are the gaps, and what are the opportunities. and then really using this assessment to inform through data how we can best as a city organization support our small business community and our partners. So why does this matter? And I don't know you can see that that well on the screen, but I'll go ahead and just say this is some just some data points as to why we think this is so important. Small businesses employ roughly half of America's private workforce. North Carolina has over 1 million small businesses that account for 99.6% of all businesses. 94% of small businesses in Meckllinmberg County have less than 50 employees. Small businesses contribute significantly to corporate income and sales tax revenues. And then 68% of revenue generated by local small businesses stays within the community through the employment uh of community residents. So I will now turn it over I got Gotcha. I'll now turn it over to Christy who's going to go through the journey map of where we've been, what we found, and where we're going. Thank you, Holly. Thanks for having us. Um, we have been spending the last year working with our consultant TPMA on this small business ecosystem assessment. They have looked at literature. They've looked at best practices in other cities. They've reviewed all the documents that might relate to Charlotte that have been done in the past and they've done their quantitative data analysis. We've also completed our stakeholder engagement and our stakeholders for this assessment are our small business owners and our small business resource partners. Uh we had virtual as well as in-person focus groups and we also completed a small business survey. As you can see, we had 50 of our partner small business resource partner organizations um participating in these focus groups and we had over 800 about 860 small businesses uh take our small business surveys. So, how did we get the word out about the survey? We did all the typical things. We had a project website. We did um social media outreach. We did some direct mailers. Uh, one of the things that I'm really proud of is that we hired a local minorityowned vendor, Navigating Gray, to go out and canvas small businesses out in the community. So, they went doortodoor and had small businesses uh answer this survey just to make sure we got good participation. You can see some of the results here. Um, we have a a really thick data packet, which is way too much to share here, but as a snapshot, I wanted to share uh information on race and ethnicity. These are folks, small businesses who took the survey. Uh, and you can see how they broke down in the different categories of diversity. Um, just so you know, small small businesses could self- select. So, they could choose more than one of these in some of these instances. So, it may be that they felt like they fel fell in more than one category. Um, here's the the data on number of employees, revenue, and industry. As Holly mentioned earlier, the majority of small businesses in Meckllinmberg County have 50 or fewer employees. And you can see that's who answered the survey. We have seen that in the work that we do. Um those are the folks with 50 or fewer who are asking for help and who are asking to be connected to resources. So we're not really surprised that they're the ones that stepped up and took the survey. You can see that they are from a variety of industries. And when you look at the top six industries in Meckllinmberg County, um it aligns with the the participation in the survey. Where did the responses come from? As you can see, we had a diverse um response from all over the county. There was some um uh heavy in the corridors because we did have Navigating Gray out there going doortodoor. So, we have a little bit more participation in the corridors, but you can see that the survey responses came from all over the county. So these are our ecosystem key findings and as a reminder these key findings came from the data that small businesses provided in the survey. So I'm going to run through these really quickly for you. Uh one of the top key findings here and as you know and I'd love to sing the praises of our resource partners is that we have a very robust ecosystem. We meet quarterly with our resource partners. We have probably 46 to 50 organizations that participate in that. And but while we have a lot of resource partners, it's really complicated sometimes for small businesses to know where to start and how to connect into our um ecosystem. you know, you have supported these resource partners in the past like Holly was talking about with our ARPA and CARES funding for our um small business ecos ecosystem partner grants and it's just critical for us to continue that because as you can see our ecosystem partners are a big part of how small businesses connect, how they start and how they grow. Um also access to capital, no surprise, business owners often have trouble accessing capital. They don't understand what they need to access capital. they might not be aware of the alternative lending sources such as our small business growth fund. And so, you know, it it challenges us to find ways to communicate to our small businesses other opportunities for financing than the big banks. Physical space, not a surprise. You talked about this earlier, um, chairman, about how sometimes small businesses can't afford physical space. Sometimes it's limited. And so we need to be creative and thinking of ways to connect small businesses with the physical space available. Kind of like what they're doing in Eastland Yards and what you heard about just now from Symphony Park. Um offering affordable space for small businesses um to access and uh to locate in. Equity is also a big need. Our small businesses uh were impressed with uh Charlotte Business Inclusion and our Ampup Charlotte programs. They want us to continue to focus on equity. it is important to them as well as workforce development. Uh like our small business resource partners, we do have a rich and diverse talent pipeline, but sometimes small businesses aren't really aware of how to connect to those. Uh we've been working handinhand with Danielle and her team on the work that they're doing. the workforce development study and the small business ecosystem assessment go hand in hand and we will continue to work with her as we flesh out how we can address the issues that might come up related to that. And then finally we have customers and markets. Uh small businesses often find it challenging to do business with the government and our larger corporate um entities. Uh they find it challenging to connect with these big companies and how to do business with them. And so we need to help figure out ways to connect these small businesses with these larger companies and to help them to make the connection. Is it that we increase their capacity through programming? Do we offer programs to help them upskill? You know, what can we do to address these needs? This is that was just a snapshot of our key findings. Um as a reminder, that data came from our small business survey and we are wrapping that up. The consultants working hard to wrap up our ecosystem assessment. It's uh over aundred pages. I'm sure you can't wait to read the whole thing when it comes out. But we'll definitely provide that to you when it's available as well as an ex executive summary of that. But as we move forward into our implementation plan, we're going to really drill down on these key findings. We're going to come up with strategies. We're going to come up with tactics. We're going to come up with metrics and resources on how to implement some of these things. We're going to identify which resource partners might help us to do that. and then also identify funding sources as well. So, we're going to really spend the next few months uh looking into these key findings and developing a strategic framework on how we can create this implementation plan. We look forward to sharing that with you later this year. Um and so we we will come back to you probably in the fall with uh our implementation plan on how we can address these key findings. Well, thank you for the presentation, ladies. Uh I I I really appreciate it and I also really appreciate the work that you do. Uh I follow what you guys do throughout the years and so that's why and and I think I probably owe you and the small businesses owners an apology. It is not a party. It is an executive networking session where we highlight CEOs from small businesses throughout the city that come together and we get an opportunity to see the breath uh and the depth of small businesses throughout the city in one place. And so we do have fun but but but it but it's really it's not a party but it it's it's it's it's more than that. Uh and that's why I think you see the disappointment with some members because we really wanted to be a part of that and really get a an opportunity to connect with them and interface with them. And matter of fact, I think I've done business with two or three of them since the last meeting. So, it's really a great opportunity. One thing I did notice um is we the initial funding was 2023 and it's 2025. So, that's put that in someone's parking lot, right? you got to be able to kind of uh work with a little bit more momentum because this is really really important. Uh it's really an important work. One question that I'll turn it over to um to to my colleagues. Um what's the interaction between small business and CBI? I mean, how do you guys work together? Were they a part of the study? Um um help me understand how all how all that kind of worked internally. Go ahead. No, go ahead. Okay. Sure. Economic development and CBI work really closely handinand. We have monthly meetings so we can update each other and share. They were a part of the selection team in selecting the consultant to work on this project. Um we are regularly giving them updates on where we are and taking feedback from them on the process. So they are very involved and we work handinand together throughout all of this. Do you consider them one? It's a small business, a CBI business, a small business. Is there any differential? I mean, not necessarily. CBI businesses are registered to do business with the city. Not all businesses have businesses that can do business with the city. So, um, we really do encourage small businesses that we come across to register with CBI if they do have a business that might serve the city. Um, but I think that CBI focuses more on procurement within the city and we focus on small businesses as a whole, like their business, starting their business, growing their business. Um, although procurement is a part of that, um, it's part of the whole. Yeah. And I I think I knew the answer. I just wanted to make sure that those who are listening who have act had that concept or question in mind that we kind of lay laid it out there. And I also like the idea that we are working with over 40 resource agencies throughout the city. And uh it would be nice at some type of yearly event that we get the resource business uh centers together and and really have a singular vision for the community in conjunction with the city about how we deliver the services citywide. Um and so that's something that I would love to talk to you offline about how that how that happens. Um, but yeah, I just really appreciate the work that you ladies are doing and and the impact and I think that's the key word that we're making. I'm looking forward to the fall, but it's it's been a while. Questions from the committee. Vice Chairman Mitchell, I see your hands raised. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, I just want to follow up some of the on the praise report to Holly and Christie. Uh, thank you all so much for your work. uh our reputations in the community is very positive one positive one large in part because you all ladies approach this as a labor of love. Uh thank you for taking on this important initiative to identify a ecosystem and so I agree with the chairman. I look forward to reading the 100 pages uh after you all can finish. And let me just say on a personal note, it feels good to pick up the phone and call staff. And every time I call you two young ladies, y'all quickly focus on the solution. Very responsive, not the problem, not the issue. So, I want to publicly thank you until you all continue to do the good work for our small businesses in Charlotte. Thank you. Yeah, very responsive for sure. Mr. Dre, thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, Miss Escridge, you've been involved in this space for a long time and we have we had the fund that we did a long time ago. Appreciate your passion around this. Uh I was involved for a while with Packard Place and attended some meetings uh talking to small businesses and what struck me was uh there are a lot of people out there that have an aspiration and they have an idea of uh a company that they want to start and then when you talk to them you realize all of the obstacles there are so uh I think that's a uh for us to decide how exactly do we tackle list is going to be a pretty big question, right? I mean, I talked to them and I said, you need a business plan and like what's that? And I said, well, you need to have an idea as to what you think you can accomplish. So, ideally, that would include maybe some projections. And they say, well, I don't know. I see. I know you don't know but you still in order to create some discipline and encourage people to make investments in your business uh you need to demonstrate that you're accountable and that you actually have a specific idea. Uh a huge number of small businesses fail and um so uh based on my banking background I'm thinking how can we fund them? A lot of them say I can't get money and that's why they can't uh realize their dream and I'm tell them why why you can't get money and what can we do in order to help them reach the point where private sector lenders uh are willing to bank them and can the city do anything for deserving uh businesses through our resources to kind of uh enhance the credit or encourage like offer inducements because we're not going to be the source of the kind of money it takes. So, uh I think that's important. Uh I wanted to point out a little bit of a statistical quibble. Uh 99.6% of all businesses. It says I think that's a little misleading. Uh because in terms of the number of companies, if you count a hair salon and atrium the same, yes, it's true. But the Small Business Administration says that in fact in terms of GDP, small businesses in America account for about 44%. Uh, and that's a lot, right? Not to say that it isn't, but uh, a lot of people would hear this 99.6% go, wait a minute, you know what about Bank of America? So, another way to put this is if there are roughly a million businesses, uh, 4% would be 4,000 businesses. So, what we're saying is the top 4,000 businesses in in North Carolina account for more than 50%, which is no surprise. And uh recognize that a million businesses in a state with 11 million people, it's an average of 11 people per business. And therefore, it goes without saying most of those have to have fewer than 50. So, uh just want the context um to be understood and to be clear. And I guess my question was um you've done this work which is great and it's something we need to do. Can you identify yet anything that might be indicated by the work you've done in terms of the strategies we pursue? I realize it doesn't come until later but what comes to your mind based on what you've done so far in terms of where we could intervene. Uh well I always say one of the most impactful programs that you all supported and we did it with CARES and ARPA funding um was when we provided funding to partners um you know we we absolutely amp up I want to say this I can say speak to amp up but is one of the most successful of its type in the country. I mean people are constantly coming here to do site visits to learn what we're doing. So when we do things we do them exceptionally well but our ability we that's what 30 or 20 companies a cohort you know essentially 40 a year because we do two and we do it like I said intensively and well but when we go to our partners and we support them who are with these small businesses day in day out because that's what they do you know that's what that organization is set up to do um to me that's been the biggest impact we have we have stories we don't we and we get data data as well. We have numbers, right? We have, you know, the quantitative data, the qualitative data. Um, it's just a better connection too for the city of Charlotte as well. And I think it raises our brand, you know, and showing that we really do support our partners and our small businesses. So, if I had to say, um, AMPOP's been amazing. We please continue that. We love that program. Um, but I would say of an overall outwardly facing, it was the partner program. So, Mr. chair, if I may. Um, uh, that's a little bit like our affordable housing investments where we create 500 units or a thousand units a year and the need is huge. I sometimes wonder, uh, who are the lucky people that get the ones versus all the equally deserving people who don't. In this case, uh if you put money into it, then um that's great and you would hope for tangible results, but the there's so such a limit on our money like uh assuming for example it's even roughly pro pratta there are 100,000 or more small businesses in Charlotte being that percentage of the North Carolina. So um what I'm thinking is that certain resources that we can offer to them that are accessible to anybody who wants right again that's that's online material it's uh um ju just sort of lowcost broadly accessible uh resources that can help people uh the businesses I talked to didn't understand accounting so can we facilitate uh basic accounting training training. Um, and we see a lot in terms of just our financial partners applications and the things they have to do. Uh, so I just want to say I think this is great. It's critical that we do this and I want to make sure that we cast as wide a net as possible. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. DS. Mr. Miller. Um, thank you. I don't have a microphone. Um, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, and and I'll be quick. I, you know, not to belver any point. Um my focus was really on the data that we collected um with regard and and I I guess this is more a comment there's no real question but a comment in I I do have concern in how we move forward from a CBI perspective with some of the things that are happening at the state and the national level. Um and I know that's kind of playing in the background. Um, and so, um, I I first of all, as as a, you know, former small business owner, I I I lean a lot towards, you know, what it takes to actually keep and maintain a small business. It is hard work. A lot of people put their entire lives into a business. They mortgage their homes. They do a lot of different things um to to own a business. I know it from personal experience. So, it's it's something that um there's a lot that goes into it. But I when we talk about these the survey results, I see that we have American Indian, which is a race, Asian, which is a race, black alone, which is an race, um Hispanic alone, which is an ethnicity of multiple races. And I wonder I always wonder that. That's something that um I'm a little sensitive to because you have the ethnic group that is, you know, Hispanic, but that could also be Hispanic white, Hispanic black, Hispanic Asian. Uh because it's a multi-racial, it's a multi-racial ethnic group that is a subset within the United States of America. Um and I and I just wonder because it kind of would lend itself to more than one race or ethnicity, right? Because do you do you see what I'm saying? We we tend to look at that as like mixed race which we have a lot of and we don't really account for. And so from a population perspective and standpoint I wonder because take for an example um our overall population statistics for the city of Charlotte says that we are majority non-hispanic white city right with about 44% of the population being nonwhite or being white non-Hispanic. Right. And then the second largest being African-American, right? And then there's a an a of course a a dissension of of what those demographics demonstrate with there being Latino, of course, multi-racial kind of stuck in there as a third largest demographic, but it it still doesn't really deal with the subset of race and what race and ethnicity are and how they differentiate, right? Um, but I wonder does this data does it align with business ownership for an example? Right. So, we have I and I don't know what the statistics what the quantitative information says as far as who owns more small businesses in Charlotte or a particular area as opposed to what our demographics say. I don't know how they overlay and speak to each other. So, I wonder what's the rationale here. Was it rationale based on just who participated? Was it rationale based on who the small business owners are and what racial or ethnic population they fit within? Do you want to take a shot of that? I know that was a very layered question. So I want you to understand that this is something that I've delved into because of my life. I understand it very intimately. So we could take it offline, but I'd like to know basically this information. How does it, you know, how is it proportionate to what we're measuring? Is it proportionate to business ownership or just people who participated in general? You know, one thing I will say about this in the small business data, you know, um we have a consultant team PMA that we're working with on this and you know, originally when we have we're like the data is so hard. I we've got great people in this organization that know data and they will say this is the hardest type of data set for us to possibly get based on what's available. And it's it's dated. Some of it's like you can get it and it's three years old and another it's 10 years old and then some of it's not even available. Like it's all over the place. And so I will say that when this consultant I think they didn't quite understand the challenge, you know what I'm saying, that they were facing because when they got into it they were like wow. I mean the data just doesn't exist like it does in other jurisdictions that we work with. It's there's I think some reasons why that is in North Carolina. But anyway, so it isn't it's always going to be a bit um clunky and I'm not going to use the word confusing, but maybe a little bit disjointed, but we absolutely will work to get you what you were looking for as close as we can and then we'll tell you where we just don't maybe have that data. Um I think that if you've got an expert that we hired and said, "Scrub this. We need this." and they were even struggling, you know what I'm saying, to get this. Um, it kind of, I guess, gave us some confirmation and of our frustration that we just haven't been able to access this to date. But we are going to hear your question. We will get back to you with the closest thing that we can on an assessment of that. Oh, that and thank you. And and I know that this is difficult, right? Uh it it's something that like I said personally um because there there are things that are sentiment in the community, right? So, for an example, um I I'll just use my district that I represent for an example, right? It is 70% minority district, right? It is a majority African-American district, right? Um 10 percentage points higher demographically than what we have as Latino, but we we we we have business owners that are both, but we really don't know who owns businesses in the district, right? We don't I I'd like to know what the data actually says around who we're looking at, how we're looking at them, how we're emphasizing them. You know, we have 4% in district 5 specifically. So, take into consideration that I am a geek about finding out what this data is, who we are, how it fits into how we're making these decisions. Um, but who those business owners are, right? How are we collecting this data? How are we painting a realistic picture? and then how are we providing those resources and and painting a a a truthful picture of of what's actually present. Right? So, we can take that offline. I'd love to give you some information that I've delved into so that we can go a little bit deeper. Maybe not even just district 5, but city level. We would absolutely love that. Especially the perspective of a small business owner is I think incredibly important. Thank you. Can I end on one other thing? I just wanted to say thank you for your patience as we are trying to find a new location for our big you know celebration of the business owners networking event but I the networking event but what I will say is is that Allison and I last week were somewhere where it's not ready yet it was not ready for this one where I think they will be able to hold the capacity it will be absolutely lovely they are an amazing partner of ours so hopefully this time next year it'll be back on a Tuesday what time is it tonight 5 to 7 to 7 yeah talk I I know it's tough. I know the right one. I know. I know. But we are working to correct that. Well, well, on behalf of the committee, um, let me thank both of you ladies for what you're doing. I I really enjoy uh this work, and I think we really can can create a space uh in this community with this fall presentation as a launching point for better collaboration, coordination of small business agencies, small business owners. I think Ed is right. uh access to capital, working with some of our uh lending institutions to be a lot more engaging in and lending um to a wide group of people. Uh and um as we move forward um that we make sure that uh all small business regardless of of uh um racial background are are are moving forward and that we won't um we won't run away from that. That's right. It's great. Read between the lines. Oh, yeah. All right. Um, that's it. Move to second. I make a motion to adjourn. Two. All right. See everybody this afternoon. Thanks everybody. Thank you, Mr. [Music] Chair. [Music] me. Me. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] me. Hey. Hey. [Music] This is good. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] There we go. [Music] Hey hey hey. [Music] Hey, hey hey. [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Dr. Jack. D. What's [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Everything. [Music] Let's [Music] do down. [Music] [Music] [Music] down. Down. [Music] [Music] Hey hey hey. [Music] [Music] Never. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Hey, come down. [Music] [Music] [Music] Keep back. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] [Music] Hey. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I'm feeling [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Grand [Music] Hey hey hey. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Are you feeling high? Are you feeling [Music] [Music] Are you feeling [Music] Wonder. Hey. Hey. Hey, [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Hey hey hey. [Music] [Music] [Music] down. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] All right. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] Hey hey hey. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] N. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Hey. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] Hey hey hey. [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. N. I don't [Music] feel Heat. Heat. N. [Music] I need money. [Music] Do [Music] [Music] Happy [Music] birthday. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] Come on down. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey heat. Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hold on one second. Council member Mayfield here. Um studio, we're ready to go live. We're live now. You can go, Council Member Mitchell. Okay, Mr. Mitchell. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the BGR committee meeting today. Uh, my name is James Mitchell, substituting for our great leader, Miss Dimple Ashmir, what I like for us to do, those that in CH14, will you be so kind to introduce yourselves? Start with me. Yes. Council member Brown. Start with Council Member Brown. Yes, Council Member Brown representing District 3, a committee member. Thank you, Council Member Brown. Staff Sean Heath, City Manager's Office. Teresa Smith, chief financial officer. Matt Hasset, city finance. Cherry Smith. I'm sorry, Teresa. Go right ahead. Cherry Smith, strategy and budget. Uh, those against the wall, please. Monica Allen, city manager's office. Brian Holidayiday, Charlotte public relations. Carol Millan, east side leader. Nan Peterson planning. Okay. And those who are virtual, let me start with committee member first. Council member Mayfield. Hello. Mayor Pro Tim. Dante Anderson, District 1, Mayor Pro 10. So, uh, thank you everyone. Uh, today's meeting, we have one only one topic. We will hear from our CFO, Miss Teresa Smith, and our city treasurer, uh, Matthews, who will provide a debt financing update, an update on the city's hospitality revenue policy. So, I'd like to thank everybody for joining us. We apologize for being late. We had some technical difficulty, but as always, we try to make it happen. So, I'm going to turn it over to Miss Smith. Miss Smith, the floor is yours. All right. Thank you, Mr. Mitchell. We're uh getting the presentation pulled up here. Uh we appreciate uh the patience in getting started today and we will try to make this as exciting as it possibly can be for a debt financing update. Absolutely. Um so this is related to the well-managed government council priority. Uh today is just anformational presentation. So no no actions to come out of today. The takeaways that we wanted to to share with you all is just a reminder or a refresher about the those come into play for debt financing transactions and then a uh proposed calendar of financings. The future council actions that will come out of this will all be based on those proposed financing actions and you'll you will see those dates as we get to that slide later in the presentation. So again uh we'll start with a comprehensive capital planning conversation talk about the types and the uses of debt the proposed calendar and then um city treasurer Matt Hast will do a little bit on a market update. So next slide. This is a slide that we have used before. Uh comprehensive capital planning. We like this slide because of the way the umbrella represents the way debt financing is done in the city. So underneath you'll see the various credit entities and and we'll talk a little bit more about the credit entities as we go, but really when we're talking about debt, we're talking about well-managed government. We're talking about processes. uh long-term planning, thinking about our credit ratings, uh compliance with regulations and best practices. Really, all of those things happen as a part of a comprehensive program for the city. It is not related to any one specific credit entity. Uh again, as a reminder, debt is just one component of funding the capital program. Uh we also utilize PIO grants, contributions, um all sorts of funding sources. Debt is just one piece of this. Next slide. So looking at uh the various types of debt that the city uses. Uh there lot of information on this slide. uh but we'll talk about what is the financing method, what is the pledge for that, what are the repayment sources and then what approvals are required. So a general obligation bond, this is the city's full faith and credit, meaning that if we issue a general obligation bond, the city will ensure that there are revenues available to pay for that bond, including raising property tax if that's necessary. Uh the repayment sources for our general obligation bonds are the property tax and then other general revenues of the city. All of these types of debt require city council approval. But what makes the general obligation bond special is that that also requires a voter referendum. And you will recall this past November we had a referendum for streets, neighborhoods, and then our $100 million on affordable housing. Revenue bonds is another type of debt that we use. Uh this utilizes specific revenue sources. So if you think about um water and sewer revenues will support a water and sewer revenue bond. So that specific source funds the revenue bond. Certificates of participation is another type of debt that we use. This is what we use um traditionally to fund our facilities or equipment. So if you think about police stations or fire stations or vehicles, those are the types of things that we use uh certificates of partic participation to fund. The pledge for a certificate of participation is uh the actual asset. So it is pledged as collateral. So if you think about uh your like a home mortgage where your home is the collateral for the mortgage, this is the way a certificate of participation works. Those um generally are funded by property taxes and other revenues of the city. Special obligation bonds. This is a new type of financing method. Uh we have used this in the past but it has been quite a while since we issued special obligation bonds. But as we look toward um particularly the Bank of America u improvements that we are funding, we are looking at special obligations to fund um that project. And so what makes a special obligation bond different is that it is pledged by specific sources of revenue. So in this case it would be the hospitality taxes and potentially um other related taxes that would help to to bolster the credit. Uh but the repayment source would be the hospitality taxes. So we also utilize a couple of short-term uh instruments or or financing methods. We have used bond anticipation notes in the past. And generally we we think of these as sort of the construction period financing. So you're using this in the short term as you go and then you convert that to a longer term. So we may use a ban that gets converted to a revenue bond or a ban that gets converted to a general obligation bond. But this is the shortterm use of financing method. The other one that uh again we have used in the past but it has been quite some time but we are looking at using that again is a commercial paper program. The difference between the ban and the commercial paper is commercial paper is more of a market instrument. So we would sell this in the market. The ban is something that we're generally doing with one partner. So we're placing this with a bank. Uh but depending on market conditions is how we will evaluate which is the best short-term method to use. The next two slides will talk a little bit about the different credit entities. Um, hey Teresa. Sure. So, we'll make sure this a fluid conversation. Do you mind? Uh, we have a question per slide. Would that be okay? Absolutely. Okay. So, let me yield the mayor pro Tim. Mayor Pro Tim. Mayor Pro Tim, go right ahead. Can you hear me, Mr. Yes. Go ahead. Go ahead. Okay. Thank you. Um Teresa, I just want to to ask a question. You mentioned about the use of commercial paper. I'm interested in when we have done that before. You mentioned that we've done it before. When have we done that before? And does it impact in any way um our or put at risk at any way our credit rating that we currently have? Sure. Uh thank you, Council Member um Anderson. This is Matt Hass, city treasurer. Um, we can I can find the exact date we had last used commercial paper, but the city used it pretty extensively in the early 2000s. Um, and primarily went to the bond anticipation notes being direct placed with the banks that work, as Teresa said, very similarly. It's pretty much the exact same program, but the the cost of capital that the banks were or our sort of various banking partners were providing us was so much cheaper than the public market. It's why we started using bond anticipation notes as we've seen some of the new regulations that have hit some of the the banking institutions. Some of their internal cost of capital has gone up pretty substantially. So the cost savings that we were getting from bond anticipation notes is starting to erode um and now becoming pretty much on par or even sometimes more expensive than a commercial paper program. Um, so it it's pretty much going to be a market driven decision on on each time we sort of are ready to do a new program to see if it makes more sense to do a privately placed bond anticipation note program or a public market solution like commercial paper. From a rating agency perspective, there'd be no impact on um the the viewpoints on the city as a whole. These are both seen pretty much equally by all rating agencies and investors and the local government commission as these are shortterm um construction period cash flow financings that will ultimately become long-term debt. It's really just sort of what one is sort of more sort of beneficial for the city at the time. Teresa, no, I think that's great. Does that help answer your question? Yes, sir. That that that helps. And you answered my second question, which is, you know, given the the existing um market environment and cost of capital, would you lean one way or another as it relates to one of these levers? But you you just you just actually answered that question. So, thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. I don't have any other questions at this time. Thank you. And we will talk a little bit about the market a little bit later on, but um it is it is something that one of the reasons we're actually looking at the commercial paper for the the stadium as a a sort of way to sort of retest that that service or that product to us in particular. Go right ahead. Council member Brown, did you Are you talking to me, Mr. Mitchell? Oh, I'm sorry. Council Brown. Yes. Go right ahead. Oh, I thought you was talking to somebody else. I wasn't really sure. I was just asking about the the short-term goal, but uh councelor um mayor pro Tim, she kind of touched on it and answered the the question that I had, but I was wondering um how do you decide? You said that you're not really sure which way you're going to lean based off of what's going on now. And then what's short-term? What's considered short term? The the short term, we typically do the the bond anticipation notes or commercial paper for typically a 24-month cash flow period. So typically we we sort of work with our departments whether it's the airport or Charlotte water or you know Bank of America stadium is separate sports to sort of figure out what they need over the next 24-month period and sort of to try to align sort of that short term and then we typically the the term of it is typically more like three years because we want to give ourselves a little bit of time but we kind of target that 2-year period and then we convert it to either a 20 or 30-year financing depending on what type of product it is. And as far as sort of how we evaluate that, we have um we work with our municipal adviser um DEEC associates who sort of is able to sort of help us price those different markets by doing um bids from our banking partners as well as talking and sort of going out and doing research to the public market and sort of seeing what some of those benefits are because sometimes it also comes into if we have to pay for a rating for you know a Moody's S&P that could be tens of thousands of dollars that maybe isn't reflected directly into the price but ultimately sort of gets folded in. We try to look at all those factors as try to evaluate what makes the most sense and then operationally sometimes there's considerations on what could be easier. Right. So answered my question. Great. Thank you so much for that. And so we do have somebody that we work with already. Yes. Not on standby but just working with us ready to assist and answer the questions that we may have for the short-term goals moving into the long-term goals. We have an independent register municipal advisor that helps on all of our all of our financings including sort of these types of discussions. All right. Thank you so much. No further questions. Thank you, Council Member Brown. Staff, would you like to continue? All right. So, the next two slides uh is is basically just to show you what the ratings are for each of the type of instruments that we use by credit entity. So, we tried to do this in a little bit of a matrix format uh showing the credit entity on the left hand side, how each of those are used. So what's included in those credit entities and then across the top the different types of debt. So um using the the first line as the as the example we'll use general obligation bonds as well as cops and bands for funding the general government uh type of projects which would be the affordable housing streets neighborhoods and then the governmental facilities. um we note there or we highlight uh the benefits of the AAA or the the fact that we are a triple AAA. So some of the benefits there um this does provide us access to the markets especially when the markets are difficult. Um you know people are looking for that credit quality uh to make their investments. It also allows us to attract multiple investors and the more investors we have that are interested in our debt then that keeps the cost of that debt lower. Couple other things just to point out on this slide. Uh we do have our three hospitality credits here. The convention center credit is the credit that will be funding uh Bank of America Stadium Improvements. Uh again, this is where we are able to fund stadiums over 60,000 seats based on the statute that allows the hospitality taxes. Uh the Spectrum Center is funded from the tourism fund, which is the uh the one there that has the arts and the sports kind of together. Uh so that's where we're funding the Spectrum Center. And then we also have the NASCAR Hall of Fame credit uh in our hospitality credits. The next slide is our four enterprise funds. And so here is where we utilize revenue bonds for the most part. And we also use bands uh historically. And then for cats, that one is typically funded by cops, uh which is where we're funding, you know, um rail cars and buses and things like that using cops. I will point out here you'll you'll notice that water and storm water are both AAA rated entities. The airport is not rated AAA but that has nothing to do with their performance. They are a very strong performer. Um some of these ratings are dependent on the market. So airports in general um are just historically rated lower. So this that's not a reflection of the airport in any way uh because they do have um a high rating when it is considered for an airport. So I'm going to pass this now to Matt and let him continue. Thank you Teresa. And and maybe just real quick even just on the the credit entities even going back to the certificates of participation on the some of the other um uh sort of uh the hospitality industry or even sort of the city's general sort of cops. Those are typically based off the AAA of the city and then sort of one step down because it's not a referendum. So again, it's not that the our governmental facilities are any way less off than sort of our streets or affordable housing programs. It's simply the way all rating agencies sort of notch one below because it's not a full faith in credit. Um that's a great explanation for me. So this uh as we sort of get into now a little bit of because one of the reasons we want to sort of we like to do this sort of on an annual basis because the city is is large and growing and we have a lot of capital programs. Um so we come quite frequently for council approval on our debt um programs. So, I wanted to sort of walk through a little bit of sort of a little bit of that the timeline as sort of a sort of a general overview of sort of sometimes how these work and then also kind of look at some of the specific ones that we anticipate coming to to city council over the the coming months. So, I know this information on for this particular process and this project that you're showing this presentation is once a year. You said we we typically do this presentation once a year. Are we looking at maybe doing it twice a year so big? I'm just asking. I mean, we can certainly sort of Mr. He was like, "Don't put that on me, Councilman Brown." I was just asking cuz we're growing so fast and at a rapid pace like the airport we know we're already operating in 20 as if it was 2029 and we're only in 25 like four like three and a half to four years ahead of the expectancy growth for the airport. So very valid point that you just made. Okay. So go ahead. And I think one one of the really good good points there, Council Member Brown, is that, you know, a lot of this really ties back to to the budget overall as you know, we're we're coming up now because all the projects that sort of ultimately financed by debt are projects that city council has already approved. Um whether it's a Bank America stadium improvement or a CIP for water and sewer or airport or storm water. These are all projects that city council has already approved. This is really about getting the financing in place to to get the project sort of in there. Um so actually that's sort of why we sort of start on the the far left with project budget approval by city council. Again this is starting with council has already identified that this is a project or a series of projects that they want to move forward with. Um so at that point city finance would work with the you know responsible departments again Charlotte you know aviation Charlotte water storm water to try to get an idea of sort of what the project's needs are what the cash flow again sort of going back to the sort of that two-year cycle on sort of those short-term financings and really get an idea of okay what are the immediate needs what's ready to move forward to a permanent sort of bond financing at that point would come back to city council to get authorization to actually allow us to go out and issue the debt on behalf of the city. Um, and throughout that process of getting city council approval, we're also working with the state treasurer's office um, which is through a part of their office called the local government commission. We I think we refer to them quite a bit. But under North Carolina statute for any municipality or county to issue debt, we have to get the state treasurer's office through the local government commission, which is a um, body of elected officials and appointed officials that actually approve any financing that occurs in North Carolina. So we actually have to get their approvals as a part of um that process and then we would actually go out and issue the debt by going out into the market working with various banking partners and and underwriters to actually get the funding into the city and then would start our our debt service after that. So this is um you know starting to look at what we actually have in in 2025. Um, and this Yes. Hey, sorry to interrupt. Go back one slide. I think you bring you brought up a valid point and for us council members, sometime it's hard for us to connect the dots. So the LGC, so we have to get their approval to provide the funding for the Bank of America stadium, for example. Yes, we would. So we we've already had some conversations with them, but it is a process for us to actually ultimately issue that debt. we would have to to get their approval just like when we do um a you know fire station or police station we get their approval as well. Okay, thank you. Um and and often times the these can have a pretty long tailwind. You know, one of the the examples that I think is is really sort of illustrative of that is Spectrum Center. You know, city council approved that project back in June 2023. I think it was about a year later that we had all the documents finalized. So we did our first financing for that sort of the first two years of construction in June about June 2024. We're actually about to about um shortly at you know it's one of the ones we'll have up here in a second. Um you can actually see here that we're actually have spent through that that first bond anticipation note. So looking to convert that to permanent financing and start the next draw um bond anticipation note for the the construction that's going to occur at the Spectrum Center over the next year to two years. You may have seen some stuff I think in the news about them sort of shutting down again to sort of start a lot of that major construction. So, you know, this is, you know, June 2023 to first financing in 24 to, you know, 25 now. So, it it really can have a pretty long time sometimes, but um a couple of the the ones that we have already knowing in in 2025 is uh we have our airport revenue bonds that have uh both actually two actions that have taken by city council to prove that. We anticipate that uh selling actually later this month in in May. Um that's to help fund the part of the fourth parallel runway and part of the concourse D renovation that's ongoing. Um we have a water sewer revenue bond refunding. So a refunding is typically um a basically a refinance. Um so if you think about if you if you you know maybe you know bought your house a year ago and rates de decreased there there are certain cadence that we can actually go back and basically reissue new debt at a lower cost to to achieve savings. So we have a current refunding that's a available for us for water sewer that could uh provide some significant savings for for us. So we want to take advantage of that. So I mentioned the arena cops. We had a a bond anticipation note for the first two years of financing on that that we're ready to take out and we do anticipate asking for council approval for the next bond anticipation note to to fund that. So I I just wanted to mention uh we were talking about the LGC approval. So as an example, the airport revenue bond is on the local government commission's uh agenda for tomorrow. Uh so we anticipate that approval from them tomorrow. you all took your last action on April 28th. Uh so that's sort of that combination of city council approvals and then local government commission approvals before we issue the debt. Um and then still in uh later this summer and to go into to the fall um we anticipate doing a not about $75 million of affordable housing bonds. And these are actually just to sort of um sort of tie this back to sort of the actual process on the referendum and the project the housing trust fund. Um these are actually I think tying back to the previous referendums that city council had approved and the Charlotte voters approved in 2022 and 2024 because it does again take a little bit of time for you guys to to do the RFP to identify projects to have them actually coming out of the ground for us to need the funding. So, this is actually a look back to some of the previous referendums that that voters have approved. Uh, this is actually not part of the $und00 million bond referendum that was just approved by voters this past fall. U, we currently have a draw program for our streets and neighborhood programs that we'll look to take out in the fall as well for 200 million and start another program. And then uh one of the exciting projects again that Teresa mentioned with the special obligation bonds is we anticipate sometime this fall doing the first part of the construction period financing that commercial paper product for Bank of America Stadium because we're you know we're still working through some of the the finalizing the agreements and and getting NFL approval and some of the other things to make sure we have everything we need. Uh so we've been working very closely with City Turner's office and TER sports and entertainment to sort of sort of walk that through and make sure we have that all ready. But we anticipate again about the first two years of financing to to seek approval for from city council. Um and then did want to highlight that we have actually already done one financing and completed it as as well is that we did do the financing to reimburse the redline purchase that city council approved back in September. Uh so we were able to do a direct placement on that for you know just about um $93 million um just to reimburse the the city's sort of fund because because of the timing of that when we actually had to sort of uh pay that in cash essentially and then had to reimburse with that that debt program. So you can see we've had a very bit or we have had a pretty busy year already sort of getting these ramped up and and this is becoming a pretty regular for for the city as as many programs and CIPs as we have. This is a pretty regular cadence for us. And this is why you know Teresa said that one of the really important things is making sure we have as many investors come to the table as we can um to keep the city's uh debt attractive. Um so that's why we do regularly speak with rating agencies. We readily try to engage with the investing community to sort of let them know what's coming up. We've we've already this information is available online for our investors so that way they can have an idea of when we're coming to market regularly try to meet with them and sort of tell the story of Charlotte and make sure that they sort of essentially keep some some funding available for us cuz you know when going back to I think even the umbrella slide that Teresa did was sort of that umbrella of Charlotte and all those credit entities the management AAA that's a really big part for the investors and the rating agencies is that is the strong management practices that council has whether it's the BGR committee or city council as a whole. How you look through things in the budget process that gives investors and rating agencies and the local government commission a lot of comfort and knowing that sort of we're taking a lot of due diligence on how projects move forward when we bring things to to actually get financed and then did one. Yes. So Matthew if I may. So, uh, I think a couple things. One, this this is great work and I got I got to respect my two colleagues who are on this call. Council member May and Council Member Brown always talk about transparency. So, I think we should use an opportunity here. Uh and it would be nice to show the projects that are in each bucket and so the citizen understand how our finances work as we do capital projects in the community. So just like you got the one for the red line reimbursement. I think one in fall 2025 you have the football symbol but it'd be nice to show Bank of America Stadium. That way when citizen asking us how we going to fund this, we can truly articulate where the money is coming from in the schedule. Yeah, that that's a great point, Council Member Mentor. We can definitely look to sort of make sure we include that information to to to help sort of because it is a very good point that these are a lot of different funds. You know, we were talking about water sewer revenues that are coming in. It's airport sort of operations money. It's hospitality funding that's coming in. It's property tax and sales tax that are helping the the general obligation. it is there are a lot of different sources happening and a lot of different repayments. So, and I definitely I think that's a great point that it could be kind of overwhelming to sort of see where all these things are happening and sort of thing that they're all vying for the same money where they're all all of these have their own long-term financial debt model plans. They all have their own sort of intensive sort of review. But that's a very very uh a point that we need to sort of probably do a better job clarifying that. Well, it it it just helps us inform our citizens even more. And and secondly, let me endorse Council Member Brown because I think even your calendar articulates her point. So this is now May. You laying out the calendar. It'll be good we do get an update like uh November the end of the count calendar year just to kind of remind everyone these are the projects have been funded and we just doing a a review update. Uh because to see it once a year I think it's a little intimidating to us but I like council member Brown. Here we are in May and then maybe at our last meeting in December we kind of give a update. Absolutely. We can work. Sean, I don't know if you had anything you want to add. Yeah, you're muted Mr. Mitchell. You're muted. Oh, y'all didn't hear me at all. No, we heard everything up until like like December and then from there. Okay. You know, Councilman Brown, I'll just echo I think you brought up a great idea. And so, if we can come back at our December meeting and kind of give a update while we are in the calendar, I think it just keep us all kind of connected and a breast of of all the all the finances that are in place. Yes, sir. Sounds good. Yeah, that's an easy ask. We'll make sure to take care of it. Thank you. And then the the last slide I think we have before just any other sort of questions and discussion. Did just want to sort of do a bit of a market update. Not sort of trying to to do a deep dive, but really wanted to sort of to sort of acknowledge that we have a lot of market volatility right now. Um, and one of the things that that does happen the way because we go through the local government commission, we're often uh this the time it takes from starting a a a debt sale to actually going to market is typically at least probably 90 days on average at a minimum. And often times we're planning very far out. You know, 6 months to 9 months sometimes. And and we really kind of pick a day and that's the day we go to the market. And we're hoping obviously to have as as strong of a day as we can. But, you know, one of the things I think is really important is that because we have so many different issuance and so many different projects, Charlotte's not trying to at any time play the market. We're trying to go in with the best team we can and have the best execution on any g day we can. And while there is always going to be a little bit of volatility, you know, as as things can happen, our focus is making sure that we work with our again our municipal advisor and and sort of making sure if there's something that's so dysfun, you know, broken in the market that we can't price effectively that puts us at risk, then we're to value it maybe stepping away. But for the most part, you know, we're, you know, whether it's today, tomorrow, 6 months from now, kind of the market is kind of a, you know, obviously a living breathing thing that sort of has its own sort of life force. So, we're trying to do our best job of sort of having the the best partners we can on on all of our financings to make sure we get the best cost of funds for the city, but we're not trying to say, "Oh, we think in a week it's going to be better cuz things could be better worse in a week, they could be better in a week." We're really trying to we don't ever try to time or beat the market. We're just trying to do the best we can on any given day. And the I don't know if you wanted to add anything to to that part, but I think uh I see council member Anderson, I see I think Mr. Mitchell, yeah, it looks like Mayor Pro Tim may have a question. I'm sorry, Mayor Pro Tim. Thank you, Mr. uh Vice Chair. I I just wanted to underscore that last statement that you just made because I think that's a great message to our taxpayers and our residents that, you know, we are not we're not playing the market as it relates to any of our financing for any of these major projects and issuance of debt, etc. We are really trying to be great stewards of the dollars that we have and make the best decisions possible. Um, and and not really trying to take on any additional adverse risk that would expose the city and therefore the operations and the taxpayers of the city of Charlotte. So, I just wanted to make sure that we had that statement underscored for the record. Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. You're welcome. And and I would just sort of conclude I guess by saying that's sort of the thread that ties all of this together. Um that meetings like this, Matt said this earlier. You know, meetings like this where we're sharing with council, you all have an opportunity to ask questions and to understand the planning process and the approvals. All that is important to the rating agencies. That's important to the investors. And then all of those things are what help us when we go into the market. uh you know no matter what the market is doing we are doing the best that we can on at that particular time and being the best stewards of the city's dollars at that time. Well thank you so much you guys did a great job explaining this is complex and it's hard um you know to follow. So given the breakdown that you provided, the folks that that are watching, if they have any other questions, unanswered questions, sure we have the information to present it to them and show them, but you you all did an an amazing job um just breaking it down for me. Still learning and it was pretty simple for me to follow. I know I've been in council now and been doing some research, but this is not my lane. So I was able to follow it and understand specifically what needs are the needs that need to be addressed and how we plan to meet them. So thank you so much for your presentation. It was really really a good presentation for me. Thank you. Thank you council member. Next next slide that that is actually for questions and discussions. I was just giving I should I should have gone to to that one but yeah it's just I mean if there's any other questions but you know I think to you know this is just our opportunity just to sort of bring some information and because there is a lot we we do feel like it's really important to try to engage in these conversations as you said maybe even more frequently. Yeah it's it's amazing. Um, so I just made a statement, um, Council Member Mitchell, about the complexity of what their, uh, their presentation was and how they broke it down for people like me, the bird brain on this this subject, to be able to understand it. So, it's a great presentation that they presented. So, let let me try to ask Council Member Mayfield. Council Mayfield, do you have any questions, ma'am? Okay. I don't think so. Uh I echo what Council Member Brown just me uh just mentioned. Staff, thank you uh Matthew and Teresa. Uh this was great. I do think some of the recommended changes we mentioned and we can incorporate that. We'll make the process process even better and then allow us to educate the citizens as well. I just want to remind everyone that because of the city manager budget presentation, we will not report out today. We will report out from the BG on June 2nd. Um so Sean, Terresa, Matthews, do we have anything um else on the docket? That completes the agenda for today. Okay. Uh I will entertain a motion to uh uh to adjourn the meeting. I second that motion. Council member Mitchell. Okay. Council member Mayfield made the motion. Council member Brown second. Staff, thank you so much. Thank you very much. Thanks, Council Member Mayfield. Appreciate [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] [Music] [Music] me. Meow. [Music] [Music] [Music] me. [Music] [Music] [Music] me. [Music] Me. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] N. Heat. Heat. [Music] N. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] N. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Okay. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] [Music] [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] N fun honey. Let [Music] me tell you. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] water. Hey Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Dick. [Music] Thank you. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] N. Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey hey hey. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Nat. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] down. B down. [Music] [Music] [Music] Hey la. [Music] [Applause] Hey hey hey. [Music] We like queen. [Music] [Music] [Music] I'm [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] You [Music] never feel [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] me. [Music] me. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] me. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Carolina. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Hello. Heat. Hey, Heat. We're Good. Now, good afternoon. Good afternoon. Oh, hi, Council Member Brown. Welcome to the housing safety and community committee meeting for the month of May. Uh we have two topics today. Uh hopefully that will hopefully these topics are some of the things that some of you if you are watching have heard of before. Um, and I hope it's good news for you that we've been working on these and that we're going to get an update on some of the items that have been out for a little bit. Um, one of which we've heard a good bit from our business owners over in NOA about. So, um, we will start with a quick round of introductions. I am Victoria Watlington. I serve as your chair and council member at large. And then we will, um, turn it over to ACMP. Do I have any other uh, C um, committee members online? Renee Johnson, committee member. Thank you so much. And then in the room, I am council member Tim Brown representing district 3 and I'm a committee member. Thank you, ma'am. We also have a host of staff uh in the room as well. Um if we could start at the end of the table and go around, then you can go ahead and get started. Gail Whitam, Housing and Neighborhood Services. Harold Thompson, Housing and Neighborhood Services. Janine Simmons, Housing and Neighborhood Services. Sean Heath, City Manager's Office. Anthony Trotman, Deputy County Manager. Mora Quinn, Charlotte, Center City Partners. Katherine Ferman Sellers, United Way. Welcome, welcome. Um, looking forward to this conversation. Um, I appreciate you all being uh here to join us today. It's always good to hear from our county counterparts. So, uh, ACM Heath, I'll turn it over to you. Thank you, Chair Watlington. We can jump right in. So, the non- congregate emergency shelter topic. This would be a new asset in the community focused on the unhoused population. This is something that we talked about very briefly about a year ago in the April May time frame, both at the committee level and with full counsel. And at the time, I promised that we would provide updates as things were progressing. So this particular opportunity has progressed far enough along that we felt like a committee conversation was ready. Today's update will be anformational briefing. Let's jump to slide two. The non- congregate emergency shelter. This connects with multiple council priority areas, great neighborhoods, and safe communities. In terms of the purpose of the presentation today, you can see provide an update on a potential opportunity to establish the city's first non- congregate emergency shelter as a tool to address quality of life issues associated with the unhoused population. This is just a five slide presentation. And what what we hope to do is cover three basic questions. Why does this topic matter? Why is it important? Why is it relevant? Number one. Number two, what do we mean specifically by non- congregate emergency shelter? and how do we distinguish it from other shelters that are currently here in Charlotte Meckllinburgg? And then third, how would we go about activating on this vision going forward and and what that would entail with community partners including the county and the private sector in terms of key takeaways, two that I would underscore here. The first bullet point really gets at the idea that this is a quality of life issue both for the members of the unhoused population as well as for residents and and people that work and play in Charlotte. Uh so it's really all angles of quality of life in that regard. And then second just acknowledging there's no simple or single solution to address this particular challenge. This is just one piece of the puzzle. Next slide please. So this is the Y slide and we wanted to start first with a little bit of data at the top here. Communities across the country do a point in time count every year and and we're no different here in Charlotte Meckllinburgg. The point in time count last year indicated that there were 384 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in Meckllinmberg County. It was a 33% increase from the prior year. And it's probably fair to refer to the 384 as at least 384 because generally speaking these numbers can be underounted a little bit. It's always hard to get the full universe of individuals uh even though it's a fullcourt press effort to to do the very best we can. But obviously it's approaching 400 and and it's been on the rise in terms of a survey that was done last year. UNC Charlotte and Meckllinburgg County partnered on this survey and it was a survey of 180 unsheltered residents here in the community. Among other questions that were asked, one question was, "What are the factors or what are the most important factors that would result in you as a member of the unsheltered community being more likely to use shelter services?" And the top ranking answer was more privacy. If they had a shelter opportunity with more privacy, they'd be more likely to access shelter services. Moving to stakeholder feedback. Kind of bundling the first two bullet points here together under that heading. Residents and employers. We've consistently received feedback at different times in different ways from different sources. Residents and employers continue to point to to challenges related to the unhoused population. There's certainly a perception that these challenges have intensified uh since compared to prepandemic times. And the third bullet point here that makes reference to local stakeholders identified the non- congregate emergency shelter as the best starting point to address unhouse challenges. If I could just quickly breathe a little life into that. So in late 2023, this was after the home forall plan was articulated with certain pillars, areas of focus, and the unsheltered community was identified as one. The United Way convened a conversation with members of city staff, county staff, local nonprofit organizations, service providers that are engaged in in services related to the unhoused community. And we asked oursel one fundamental question and that was what do we think is missing in the community right now? What do we think could best help address some of these issues? And there were two answers that emerged. One was additional investments in street outreach. And you'll recall from previous conversations we've had that the county and the city have now been collaborating for quite some time to to elevate the street outreach that's happening here locally. Hearts for the Invisible is an example of a local nonprofit partner that is doing work with case workers literally on the street cultivating relationship cultivating relationships and trying to support this community on on a daily basis. That was one item. And then the other area was the idea of a non- congregate emergency shelter. something that would be different and it would complement what we currently have in the community with our great partners like Roof Above and Salvation Army. The simplified snapshot at the bottom here, it's it's very simplified. Uh Warren and Rebecca might cringe when they see it. It's so simplified, but but um the whole idea here is just to convey a couple simple points. One is we we know as we've had conversations on these topics before addressing housing and homelessness challenges requires an integrated set of activities. There's no single one thing that's going to solve these challenges. Uh we typically don't have time to talk about all of them at the same time. So today we're we're laser focused on one particular item which we've got shown here in red font. That's the you are here icon on this slide. So once again, the idea of a non- congregate emergency shelter would be intended to to address a void. It would be intended to be complementaryary to other things that we the city are already directly involved in in partnership with others like Meckllinmberg County. So it would really just be one piece of the puzzle. Moving on to slide four. This is the what slide in terms of what do we really mean by non- congregate emergency shelter? How would it be different? So the defining attributes here, each one of them is important. So I'm going to very quickly rattle through the list here. So first on the list, the design of this shelter would be non- congregate. So what does non- congregate mean? That means that any individual or couple at this shelter would have their own room. It's a straightforward as that, which which would be distinct from what we have in the marketplace today. We don't know exactly how big the shelter would be, but it's fair to assume it might be in the 50 to 60 room kind of capacity. This would be a 24-hour shelter. And by that we mean there would not be a daily check-in or checkout process for the shelter guests there. Low barrier entrance requirements. So minimum requirements for entry is important. Keep in mind once again each of these attributes is connected to something that we've learned, right? So the non- congregate nature gets back to the survey. What's the one factor that individuals indicated would make them more likely to go into shelters? More privacy, low barrier entrance requirements. We're we're really thinking this shelter would would help us focus on members of the community that are dealing with significant challenges. These may be among the hardest to house individuals in the community. Could be substance related issues. There could be severe and persistent mental illness related challenges. So having low barrier entrance requirements would be important to ensure that we're able to get the very people that most need these services into the facility. The concept here is that it would serve adults. And that could include a single adult or a couple, but not minor children. That's not to say there aren't needs in the community associated with minor children. It's just to say that we're trying to have as pure a focus on this particular facility as we possibly can. And we think focusing on adults as we think about some of the more pressing challenges in uptown related to homelessness is the right place to be. Next item here, very important that this would have embedded medical care, mental health services and substance use treatment opportunities on site. The next two items really go hand inand the the idea that we would locate this facility within Meckllinmberg County but not in uptown within the 277 loop. That would be for a couple reasons. One would be potential cost implications of finding a site uh in the center city and then also the notion that we already have a bit of a concentration of human services and facilities in the center city and we'd like to avoid having a further concentration in that regard. So transportation of course would be important if we're talking about a facility that's a little bit removed from center city. So for instance finding a location that's that's very adjacent very close to a bus route would be important. The last item, uh, certainly last but not least would be the idea that some of the shelter capacity would be devoted to direct referrals from the city and county street outreach partners. This is very, very important because once again, what we're trying to do here is introduce a new asset that creates a bit of a pipeline in the community. So, if we have our great partners doing street outreach and there's a very in the- moment kind of an opportunity to get somebody into an emergency shelter, we'd like to have some of the capacity with this facility devoted to those sorts of scenarios so we can stabilize them in the emergency shelter and then hopefully over time they could access other housing opportunities, transitional housing, permanent supportive housing, whatever the case may be. The other important facet to this idea is the idea is the notion of a public private partnership. So you can see what's contemplated here is the city and the county would lock arms and collaborate on the acquisition and conversion related costs in order to enable this facility to exist. And then the private sector would step in and fund the first three years of operations is the vision. And I'll have a little bit more to say on that on the next and last slide. And then it can't go without saying that it would be essential that we identify a qualified, experienced service provider that could operate the facility on all of our behalf. And among other things, that entity would be responsible for developing a sustainable funding plan once you get to year four and beyond when the private sector funding would taper off. Moving to the next and final slide. This is just a little bit of a dosage around the how and and what's going on and what could be around the bend. So, in terms of current activities, Meckllinmberg County is on point, but we're involved in their efforts related to finding a location that could be suitable for an emergency shelter that we've described here. United the United Way has has been tremendously helpful in this journey in many ways. One of which just last week they released a request for interest which will go out and be available for any local, regional or national firm to respond to. And this is really the opportunity to initiate the search for a qualified operating partner. So this is how we'll test the marketplace, get a sense for who's interested and what their capabilities look like. And then finally on current activities and Katherine will have a little bit more to say about this in a minute. We're not waiting until these other pieces come together before we initiate conversations with the private sector. We're having conversations with them in parallel and they have identified this particular issue as a priority challenge to be addressed in uptown Charlotte. So we think there's an alignment here across public and private sector. Those conversations have been positive thus far. Desired timeline I would underscore desired just to give you a general sense for what we're striving for. The idea would be to bring clarity to those three component variables before the end of the year. the private public private sector funding collaborative site control for for a suitable location and then identification um possibly full selection and and kind of standing up an operating partner as well with next summer being the rough target for when the the emergency shelter could be in operation as far as okay what would this mean next steps for for city council once again back to those three variables each of those variables would need to advance a little bit more and in each case it would need to advance favorably in order for us to be in a position where we would be ready to have a conversation with full counsel in an action review. And those would be the request for interest. We need to see very positive response to the request for interest and and have real comfort that there are are one or more uh possible providers out there that could really deliver on this vision. The site site identification would need to move forward where where we really felt like there was a location that would meet our needs. And then we'd need to have some uh clarity on the funding coalition. So all of those things are moving forward and we feel positive about it. They need to move forward a little bit further before we'd come to full counsel. Not a single dollar would be spent on an acquisition and conversion of a facility or operating a facility of of city funds until we have that kind of a conversation with council and ultimately council would have to obviously agree that it was worth doing and vote to approve it. So, with that little whirlwind tour, some of our partners that have been actively involved in this work are here today, and I've asked each one of them to come in and share up to two minutes worth of context on why they're excited about the opportunity. And Anthony, if you can take it away. Great. All right. Good afternoon, Chair Member Wattler, Councilman Brown, and Johnson. Great to see you all again. And I wish I could see you all on the screen, but I know you're there. Um, Building off, we're with you in spirit, Mr. Trotman. I really appreciate that. I appreciate that. But building off of what Sean just shared, the county is committed to addressing uh the unsheltered homeless um issue, and we are fully supportive of the home for all initiative led by United Way. We've invested more than $15 million to support the United Ways work, which um Katherine Ferman is here, and she will share more about that shortly. Uh this includes uh $7 million to create a non- congregate shelter, which Sean just described. Um we realize that the lack of low barrier shelter of this kind is a long-standing problem of our community. um and many of the individuals that we're talking about. Um I've received many calls from uh the mayor's staff and others before we had street outreach um to um deal with um and this issue u became of particular um interest um during uh co um when there was the um encampment site uh on the north end. Um what we have done since then is uh we have purchased a hotel um for seniors um that have uh chronic health conditions. But this particular population that Sean talked about is still an issue and we talk about it often uh with our partners at u at city center partners as well as the chief Sean and others um trying to figure out solutions to address this issue. And so we definitely um um as our city continues to grow um we need more solutions um to deal with um problems such as as this and this um shelter again that Sean described is definitely one of the tools that we believe um this partnership that we're discussing today. Um um we believe um that it is an answer to one of our problems. We have several other issues um that's part of the home for all initiative. Um but this is something that we know these uh individuals that are unsheltered um that are on our streets uptown um they do not desire um to go into uh the congregate shelter settings. And so we appreciate your continued partnership um and we look forward to um finalizing this effort. Yep. Thank you. Chairperson Watlington, Council Members, Assistant City Manager Heath. Thank you for the opportunity to represent our CEO, Michael Smith, and our team at Charlotte Center City Partners. I'm pleased to be here. We believe that a non- congregant shelter is a vital addition to the mix of shelter and housing options. We believe this connects to the crucial work of a home forall initiative. Center City Partners was there at the start helping to convene the 250 partners because we believe strongly in the mission to create a community where homelessness is rare, brief, and non-recurring, and every person has access to permanent affordable housing and the resources to sustain it. We've need to have a mix of congregant and non- congregant shelters as the first step toward life off the streets for our unhoused neighbors. Many of our most vulnerable on the streets will not go to a conventional congregant or dormatory style shelter just as Shawn said, but many would go to a non- congregant shelter. A home for all calls for both. This is a necessary addition to serve our most vulnerable neighbors. There's a crisis on our streets. We all know it. We like you, all of everybody in this room. We hear from visitors, residents, workers, and employers that it's unacceptable for our caring community to have so many people living on benches, in parks, parking decks, and stairwells in the cold, in the heat. It can also make our safe community feel and seem unsafe. A non- congregant shelter supports our public safety goals while helping address many of the most acute mental health issues of the chronically homeless. Providing non- congregant shelter beds can help move our most vulnerable neighbors off the streets, out of the elements, out of harm's way, and behind a door that closes and locks. Where there's heat, cooling, a bed, a home, at least a temporary home. We believe in this initiative and in the work of a home for all. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. Uh, and I would echo thanks Sean and council uh, chair chair Watlington and council members Brown and Jo Johnson. Uh, thanks for having us today and and hearing us talk about the work that we've been doing. Um, from United Way's perspective, I think the first thing I want to underscore as to why this is so important to us and to this community is to focus on the people that it would be serving. You know, as Mara has said, this shelter would be built for and tailored to the needs of some of our most vulnerable residents of Meckllinmberg County. Um, those who are living outside, many of whom have complex health and mental health needs, many of whom um struggle with addiction. So, we will prioritize those individuals in this shelter and it will be for them a safety net that can very literally mean the difference between life and death. I think you all may have heard during a point in time count uh one of those who is experiencing unsheltered homelessness was found uh deceased on the street of Charlotte um in the cold. That is not a dignified end for anyone. I think we can all agree. And so what this shelter does is offer a resource for those like Abdul Wright who are unable to find a house or a home in Meckllinmberg County. The second thing I think I want to underscore about why this is important is, you know, Sean mentioned that we have been in conversation with the private sector and they have expressed interest in supporting the shelter operations precisely because they realize that this is a priority for our uptown business community. Um, so I'm very pleased and can confidently say that the private sector has expressed strong interest um and is working towards the creation of a public private partnership. I believe that if we can launch this initiative successfully, it would be the first um and a catalytic investment, the first of many transformative investments in a home for all and in the long-term effort to create the vision that Mora rec uh articulated a county in which homelessness is rare brief and non-recurring and everyone has access to affordable housing and the resources to sustain it. That is a bold goal. It is ambitious goal and it Charlotte is good at public private partnerships. So, it's one I think that we can pursue together. Um, those with whom I've been speaking are quite clear that once again we get this investment, um, my intention is to go back and continue the conversation with the private sector about what's next in terms of their investment in and support for this effort to create um to address housing instability and homelessness. Thank you. Thank you, Katherine, and everyone again, Chair Watlington, that concludes the formal presentation. Over to you for any additional comments or questions. Thank you. Um, I'll open it up. I see that we've got uh Mayor Bip Anderson on the line as well. Um, I see council members Johnson and Brown in the room. Do either of you have any questions? Comments. Yeah, I have comments. I don't really have any questions. Can you hear me? Sure. Yes. Go ahead. Go ahead. Council member Brown, you acknowledge and I can speak. Absolutely. Floor is yours. All right. Thank you so much, uh, Chair, Madam Chair. I really appreciate that. Amazing. This is um I'd like to see it come together and just see what we're going to do to um overcome the challenges that we have for the people who I love and care about dearly. Everybody know that. um meeting them right where they at and bringing them into an environment that's not um like their home. You know, we can create an environment where they can call home. So, I'm excited about this project. I heard um we go back over to the very beginning. What's the word? The only concern I had was um the process. Uh can you talk a little bit more about the process and who our partners would be cuz I that that is going to be a main focus and a main concern for me like who would we appoint to do this work? It has to be someone very very special. Sure. Hands-on um making sure that we could just resolve the concerns cuz a lot of times when I'm out there on the street and I see people that are unsheltered, I don't call them homeless at all. Um they're unsheltered for a reason. one for another and one for you just falling on difficult times. So I'm concerned about the process and what that looks like. So but you know thank you so much all of you wonderful folks that came in and spoke about it. This is long overdue way before I came into office. So to see it even being entertained and um we're starting to move forward with an agenda to support the people that deserve the support. I'm very excited to see this, but I just want to know what would the process look like. And I think we got it simplified and ecosystem snapshot, but can you talk about it just a little bit more for me, Mr. Heath, if you don't mind? Or you may not be there yet, but that's what I'm It's a good question. So, let let me provide a little color commentary and then I'm going to ask Katherine to jump in as well. So, we agree, right, one of the most important considerations is who would run this facility and the request for information that was just released last week is the starting starting point for us to really understand the marketplace. Um, you know, we're not confining this just to local service providers. We we would hope and and encourage outfits from across the country that have capabilities to do this sort because while there are certain attributes to the shelter that would be new to Charlotte, um there are other entities around the country that are doing similar things. So that's really step one in the process is understanding what's who who's in the marketplace is interested in pursuing this and then that would grow into hopefully a full-blown request for proposal and then we would go through a competitive process to select the best partner with the mix of attributes that we're interested in in terms of quality and cost and service and all of those things. The city and county would both serve on a review panel and the city and county would both have a seat at the table in any selection process around a particular provider. Katherine, any additional comments you make? No. Well, yes, because I took the mic. Um the the request for interest that is out now will be used for two purposes. One is to assure ourselves that there's somebody who wants to operate the shelter that we do have a qualified provider out there. And then the second reason is that it would help inform what we put in in a request for proposals, which would be the process we'd use to identify the shelter operator. As Mr. Heath said, we would certainly identify that shelter operator um with community input um with county and city input as well as um nonprofits, service providers who are experts in this space, but who are not competing as uh not submitting an application themselves to to run the shelter. So, broad community input, but also city and county as well. All right. So, just to follow back off of that, thank you so much for that. I greatly appreciate that. So, when we speak in terms of requests for entrance or proposals, are we saying that we're going to go outside? We're open to have someone come outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, and the surrounding areas. I don't think I like that at all. I think we have very qualified providers here in Meckllinmberg County. There is not anyone in Meckllinmberg County who has the experience in both the health and mental health space as well as um the experience of operating a shelter. So it is a fairly um unique skill set that could be delivered in partnership or could be delivered by an outside provider. I think it's important that we um because we're looking for something so specialized that we do um take advantage of what the market has to offer outside the the city. Okay. All right. So, I don't like that piece, but okay, I get it. Um, I just think we should take care of our own. And I like the piece where you said partnership where folks can come in and try to navigate together how to resolve this. Um, have we ever thought about a COB, which is a community advisory board, which would be folks that have experience being unsheltered, sitting at the table telling us what works and what does not work and what they may want to see. Is that a part? because I haven't seen the requests for intent or proposals and is that something that we could take a look at and if I can just see um what's been put on there and who put this together? So, United Way put it together. Okay. United Way is good. Kudos to United Way. I like United Way. Um we did it in, you know, partnership with others and and uh service providers had a chance to review it as did the city and the county as well. So, the RFI was vetted um quite broadly. the the perspective of those with lived expertise is embedded within a home for all on all of our teams and would be on this one as well. All right. Thank you so much. And last, I know y'all know I'm excited about this. Very, very excited about this. Have we identified like a location and a building or that's something that's still very broad and in the back? We go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. So, we had a conversation about this last week and I think because this has the potential at some point to be a real estate transaction, we want to be sensitive to how much detail we go into today because it could actually influence the marketplace. So, I would say the county has identified a possible location. Okay. And if we get to the point where all three of these variables come together, the funding coalition, the RFI, RFP for provider, and then we then everything would come into council possibly through a close session if it's about a real estate transaction. So we would demystify all of that at the right time. But today we want to we don't want to really go too far down that path. Well, I understand but I got my questions. So I appreciate you and this I promise you this is last. So is this safe to say that this is intergovernment working together. What we've been wanting to see for a very very long time coming together for a common cause a great cause. I got so excited I interrupted you. Yes. Yes. Intergovernmental. You going to take a picture? All right. Give [Laughter] me a picture. All right. Let's do it. Sean, wait. This makes you look short. There you go. There you go. You're on the record with that picture right there. Okay. But no, no, Mr. He, thank you so much for um keeping me in line with um perspective and policy the way that you should. But those are questions that I know people that are watching or will watch will say that those are fair questions and people will be excited about this. So, as you can see, it's one of my favorites, right? So, thank you so much for all of the hard work, all the partners coming together to put this together. So, yeah, check mark from Council Member Brown. Thank you, Council Member Brown. Council member Johnson, did you have uh remarks or questions? I do. Thank you, Council Member Watlington, and thank you for the presentation. And it's good to see you all. Good to see you. Um, so I wouldn't be me if I didn't say at this point, uh, when we talk about the unhoused, the statistics show that one and two of those individuals have suffered a head injury. So, I hope that we're incorporating that question into the assessment so that these individuals are getting the appropriate treatment. Um my question for Sean is how much how much money is the city proposing to um to add to the plan? So at at this point we we haven't committed a particular dollar amount because we we don't have a final proposal that would identify total acquisition and conversion cost that would theoretically be shared between the city and the county. So we have funding sources available. For example, within the housing trust fund policy allocation decisions made by council in September of last year, there's one bucket related to supportive housing and shelter capacity, uh, $9 million, and thus far that hasn't been tapped into. That's not to say there aren't other great opportunities out in the marketplace that are going to come our way, and we hope they do. Uh, so I'm not trying to give a non-answer, but I would say there's funding available and when this is ripe enough to be really ready for a formal proposal, that's when staff will receive it and evaluate it and it would go into an action review discussion with full counsel. Gotcha. All right. Okay. So, is there a timeline? Well, if you go back to the the desired timeline up here, right now we're looking at calendar year 2025 for these component pieces to all come together. I'm reluctant to be a whole lot more specific than that because there some things that are out of our control. And how does this differ from Hill Charlotte? From Hill Charlotte. Yes. Because that was transitional housing for families, non- congregate and supportive services. Let me ask Katherine to provide some distinction on services there. So this one's emergency shelter. It is not transitional housing. And so we would need exit strategies from the shelter into such places as Hill Charlotte for transitional housing. So that would be it's it's this is further downstream than um Hill Charlotte would be. So this is emergency shelter like Yes. And how long um could a family or individual stay? So I we don't know yet. This is a short version, but the goal of any shelter is to have a housing first philosophy from when day one, the first day you enter that shelter, you're trying to get them out and into the next housing option. So for someone, for some they will be long stayers because we can't find a housing solution for them. For others, the stay could be quite short. Okay. Okay. I just want to want to say when we talk about um taking care of our own upward mobility small business, you know, Hill Charlotte was doing the work and that I know that that was funded by one-time funding, but at the end there were families that were, you know, displaced. So for them to be displaced and then this plan to come before us, um there just seemed like we it seems like we missed an opportunity to keep that going um and to to work on a solution, an immediate solution for the for families um instead of a a plan that may or not may or may not pass. Um when we talk about home for all we as a committee talked uh discussed the home for all plan last year about home for all since then. Yes. This is the first time we've had a committee conversation on this topic since May of last year. Okay. And since that time we have not devoted new city money be it from local or federal sources to the home forall initiatives. We committed that we would ensure there were full conversations on that before we did. Okay, that's all the questions I had right now. Thank you. If I could just interject that we sent the RFI out nationally, but that does not preclude anybody locally from applying. Like, we're not saying we don't want anybody local or that we wouldn't choose anybody local. We're just saying we cast as broad a net as possible. Thank you. Thank you, uh, Miss Anderson. Thank you, Madam Chair, and and thank you for the presentation. Um, I I just want to say my experience being uh throughout District 1 dealing with the unhoused community, this is a void um within our playbook to address the issue of the unhoused. So, an emergency non um non- congregate shelter is something that's needed. Quite often we're hearing that um residents are afraid to go to the other shelters due to just past experience, trauma, etc. So very excited to see that at least this is a project that's um I've been hearing about it, but I'm glad to see that it's now in motion and we can we can shape it um as we move forward. So very happy to hear that and also that we're working intergovernmentally with the county because I think that's critically important too. We're this is a big issue and uh the city can't solve it alone. The county can't solve it alone. We we are going to have to work together. The the last portion I want to say as we talk about this being emergency um an emergency shelter and having a transition plan from from from day zero of entering into stable housing. Just two points. I want us to also think about um other other formats of housing such as tiny homes um and other different formats that can allow an individual to transition out of this emergency shelter into stabilized housing um that that provides a sense of um you know independency. Um and and lastly with u the comment around dealing with mental health, dealing with health issues, um and then dealing with just life navigation services. I always like to highlight um you know the the importance of of leveraging community health care workers in this type of activity because they have that unique experience and breadth of experience um in dealing with all of those issues and helping residents move forward to a better life. And I'd be remiss if I did not uh shout out um Arts of the Invisible. They do in incredible work. We've partnered throughout District One. They need more resources, but I know they are fantastic partners in this effort. So, just wanted to shout out their work in the community as well. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Uh, and with that, we will move on to the next item. Thank you, Council Member Watlington. So, we may take 30 seconds to transition here with our panelists. And I'd like to thank them again for everything over the last year and today. Appreciate it. Yeah. Thanks. So, if I can ask my CMPD, City Attorney's Office, code enforcement folks to come on up. Yeah, I'm going to move over one. Yeah, you can go right there. Yeah. [Music] Okay. Chair Wallington, are you okay if we transition to the street vending topic? Yeah, please. Thank you. Great. Thanks. If I could please ask, how about if we do some quick introductions here? We could start down at the end. Charlie, good evening members of council. Charlie Jones, deputy director, Charlotte Department of Transportation. Good afternoon. Jessica Battle with the city attorney's office. Christian Wagner. I'm the captain of the central division, CMPD. Julia Martin, city manager's office. Thank you everybody for being here. I didn't get a hug during the last presentation. So, just setting that as the bar here. Okay. So, with street vending, this of course was a policy referral from Mayor Lyles a week ago today. This is anformational update on an important topic. Next slide, please. This topic also intersects with two council priority areas, great neighborhoods and safe communities. The purpose for the conversation today is really to set the table and in a couple slides we'll go over the overall timeline, but today we're setting the table with a discussion around the current regulatory framework in the city of Charlotte related to street vending. Uh it takes a couple times to go through it for it to to really soak in. So I'll do my best to explain it today. We're going to share some benchmarking work that was done. We've looked at other cities, large cities across the country, as well as other large cities in North Carolina to better understand how they're handling street vendors from a regulatory perspective. And then we'll also tee up a couple policy related discussion questions. In terms of takeaways, two key takeaways to have in the back of your mind. First, I think it's fair to say that stakeholder concerns on this topic have intensified over the past three to six months. We have many examples of stakeholders in NODA who've expressed concerns. Stakeholders on Trian Street related to the Center City Partners administered program, the Trian Street Mall vendor program. Uh some bubbling concerns in Southoun Spectrum Center. So I just use those as examples of areas where we've heard concerns. And the second key takeaway that will be highlighted in the benchmarking is when you look at what other cities have in place today, I think we are a bit of an outlier. And I can use the example of the fines that we have for illegal street vending where it's applicable in Charlotte. It could be anywhere from $10 to $50, which is quite low compared to what we saw in other locations. So, we will dive into those things today. Next slide, please. This just summarizes the policy referral from last week, cherrypicked some of the key items. The description is worth reading, so I'm just going to just read it out loud real quick. As the city continues to grow, densify, and attract large events, there's a need to evaluate existing street vending related policies to better ensure a safe and welcoming environment that balances the interests of street vendors, residents, business owners, and pedestrians. I just wanted to pause for a moment on the word balances. It won't be easy. Uh so I think we want to acknowledge that going into this conversation and we could look to NA as a perfect example going back to late 2023 when a lot of community concerns in NOA. was it was clear then and it's clear now. There are a number of small business owners in that community that have faced challenges asso associated with street vending. They've been very vocal about those challenges and they would like to see a change and they would like to see it quickly. Uh I would expect there would be other members of the NDOK community that would make the case that street vending is part of what gives that community its character. It's part of the DNA. Uh I would expect the street vendors themselves would say this is their livelihood. uh they count on this for the for income. So there are different vantage points on this issue. U balancing will be where where all the hard work is done uh today and over the next month or so. In terms of the policy questions, one is kind of a micro narrow focus on the fine structure that I alluded to before $10 to $50 relative to other communities that that have fines that can be at much higher levels. And then maybe starting with like zooming out on the broader policy questions around the regulatory framework that we have in the city of Charlotte and how the committee feels about what we have today, which by and large has been in place since the mid 80s and and where you may want to go going forward in terms of the committee charge, reviewing the applicable ordinances, reviewing tools utilized in other cities across the country, and then determining if any ordinance changes or policy recommendations are warranted. Next slide please. So you you'll see uh in a subsequent slide that we do intend to do some intentional stakeholder feedback gathering in the month of May for sure. But uh we've received a lot of input in the last few months and I just wanted to acknowledge that upfront here. Let me pause for a second. Council member Brown, did you have a question? No, I'm sorry. Okay. Sorry. Okay. Um if you think about the feedback and complaints that have been received thus far, they generally fall into one of two categories. So category one is the upper part of the slide here and that would be illegal vending and exhibit A for illegal vending would be unpermitted vendors on Tryan Street. So you know a certain span of Tryan Street in Center City falls under the center city partner administered Tryan Street Mall program and in that span of Tryan you have to be permitted in order to do vending. Uh, but if you go there late at night on Fridays and Saturdays, 11:00 p.m. 3:00 a.m. time period, you'll see examples of vendors that are not permitted. So, I've listed out um a number of concerns here that have been noted among among stakeholders. Um, I won't read each one of these, but I'll just pick one. I'll pick the very last one. These illegal vendors are directly competing with the permitted vendors on Tryan. And you think about if the permitted vendors, first of all, they're paying an annual fee to participate in the program. They're required to have a health department certificate. They're required to have general liability insurance. There are a number of standards that they must meet. Uh so from their perspective, you can imagine it's unfair when there are other folks on the street that aren't being held to that same standard that are eroding their business. The second generic category of complaints would be quite different and this is areas in Charlotte and most areas in Charlotte street vending is in fact legal. Uh but there are areas where the legal street vending has created community challenges and that NA would be an example of that. Southoun would be an example of that. Uh many of you all all council members have received emails from members of the NA business community over the past couple months. I've cited some of the concerns that they've included here. Uh, dozens of members of the small business community from NOA signed a petition not that long ago further articulating all of their concerns with a lot more words than I could fit on this slide, but it's a long list of of grievances that they've cited. Next slide. Normally, we would do the timeline at the end, but we thought it might be helpful to just have this front and center before we get into the meat of the conversation. Now, this is an aggressive timeline relative to referrals we've worked on over the last few years. So, I I want to be careful. I'm not guaranteeing this timeline, but it's what we're striving for. So, here we are today, May 5th, we're introducing the referral to committee. Hopefully, we'll have a good conversation. Then, during the balance of May, we'll we'll gather stakeholder feedback. Charlotte Center City Partners has agreed to help us identify stakeholders relevant to the Tri Street program as well as in Southoun. I've already been connected to some of the small business owners in NODA and then somehow someway I think it's also important to have the voice of some of the vendors themselves in this equation as well. So I'm going to make sure that we do that in the month of May. Then if all goes as planned staff, we would come back on June 2nd and share some specific policy recommendations for the committee for a vote if if you were ready at that time. Um, and frankly, that's really the only way that this item could stay on the tracks and have a policy outcome before council's summer schedule where you do not have business meetings in July. So, if committee voted on this on June 2nd and was out of committee, then theoretically June 9th, there could be an action review conversation and June 23rd, there could be a request for council action on a policy item. Next slide, please. So this gives you this this is an attempt to get you oriented to the current regulatory framework around street vending in Charlotte. When you look at your code of ordinances, there are two specific ordinances related to street vending. One is article 8 and these are both within chapter 6. One is article 8 related to peddlers and the other is article 10 which is specific to the try and street mall vendors program. As I mentioned previously, this chapter was most recently updated in the mid 80s. So, it's been roughly 40 years since these ordinances have been in place as they exist today. City of Charlotte's obviously changed a lot. So, that's why we're evaluating whether there's an opportunity for an ordinance tuneup. Uh, as I'd mentioned before, depending on the circumstances and the location, the fines for quote unquote illegal vending can be anywhere from $10 to $50. Okay. The geographic summary. This is really important. Julia explained this to me five times. I got it on the fifth time. Uh so if you think and on the next slide we're going to have a visual where I'll reexlain it because it might be a little bit easier with the visual. But think about the city of Charlotte right now. Generally speaking citywide across the entire city street vending is legal legal without a permit with the exception of what should have said congested business district. My my fault um on that one. So it's legal without a permit except for the congested business district which I'll have a map of on the next slide. the stadium district, which is referring to Memorial Stadium. Like I said, these are from the 1980s, so some of this starts to feel a little bit dated. And the Coliseum district from the old coliseum on on Tybola Road. I I would mention for clarity that the congested business district does include Panther Stadium and the Spectrum Center. So So those two have been picked up in the congested business district. Then if you kind of narrow your your lens to just the congested business district, street vending in the congest congested business district is illegal except for the trying street mall vendors program which is all under article 10. And then the Tri Street Mall program, it's legal, but only with the permit as I mentioned before. And Charlotte Center City Partners serves as our administrative partner. They do a lot of close to all of the heavy lifting associated with administering that program. It's not all of Tryan Street. It's just between Brooklyn Village and up to 8th Street. And then it does include the 100 blocks of East and West Trade. So the next slide is the visual which maybe can better explain what I just explained with with the words. So this map with the red lines is the congested business district as it exists today. So on once again you can see we're you know generally speaking in the center city. Everything outside of the red lines on here would be areas outside of the red lines would be areas in the city of Charlotte where vending is legal without a permit once you get in the congested business district with the red lines. That's where it's illegal everywhere with the exception of the Tri Street Mall program. Um a few highlights on the congested business district itself. The most recent expansion to the business district was in 2016. The the ordinance grants the city manager the authority to amend the business district either expanding it or reducing it uh which is which is the way that it was done in 2016. Uh the ordinance does not have uh criteria uh that that either inform or dictate how expansion or reduction decisions are made. So it's really leftfully at the discretion of the city manager. And then as I mentioned before, the TR street mall program within the central congested business district is governed by a separate ordinance where you have permitted vendors and only permitted vendors. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Julia. Thank you, Sean. Um, good afternoon everyone. Julia Martin, city manager's office. Um, next slide, please. Thank you. Um, so we took a look at how some of our peer cities both nationally and in North Carolina handle street vending. Um so this included 20 peier cities um that our economist is list our economist produces and um the five largest cities in North Carolina. Some of the highlevel um uh highlights for you up there. We are really an outlier in terms of how we manage street vending compared to our cities across the nation. Um most of them start with street vending is illegal with exceptions and that is citywide. And that really boils down to two types of exceptions. one um are site or location based. So for example, you can vend on the corner of this street and the corner of this street or site restrictions in terms of you can vend but you have to be uh within or outside of 10 ft from a business, 50 ft from a fire hydrant, those types of things. Um and um the the second thing is when we looked at um the fines, as Sean had mentioned, most cities include fines that both start higher than Charlotte and have an escalating component, which is something that we don't have here. Um and so there's only one city that we found when we looked at our pure cities that did not have an escalating component and started at $50 like Charlotte. Um again, these um this ordinance was largely written in the 80s. Um, and what we're hearing from CMPD and some of our um, partners who work to enforce these things are where the fine is currently set today is not necessarily a strong enough deterrent um, to get the the safe behavior that we're looking for. And so that was certainly something that we were looking at to see does our fine structure need to be updated and modified um, in order to get those kind of behaviors that we're looking for and have some more um, enforcement around the program. One thing I'll uh really highlight here is where they do have legal vending that is a permit program that is largely managed by um someone in the city. So that is we saw it in the rightaway division um the finance department um public health um it depends what kind of vending is allowed in that specific city. Um but it is a permanent program so you cannot have we did not find legal vending without some uh parameters put around that. Um and then just a a quick uh deeper dive into what it looks like in North Carolina. Um all um all five cities we looked at had um except for one had an up to um fee structure that that let you go up to um $200 or $500. And so even with our peers in North Carolina, which are smaller cities than us, um have a fines that starts above $50. Next slide, please. Um, so Sean put together this um, helpful slide which I think lets you get kind of a lay of the land of again when we looked at nationally in our peer cities here in North Carolina um, from least stringent on the left to most stringent on the right, we definitely fall on the uh, less stringent component. Um, with that weird mix of illegal vending and legal vending again is not something that we found anywhere else in the country. legal vending without having having a permit program. It's not something that we found anywhere else. And again, you can think about when that ordinance was written in in 1985. Um in Charlotte, there wasn't much probably thought to we would have these neighborhood nodes where we you would be having vending occur. Um and so um I'll I'll just note and then we can go to the um final slide here. There are some criminal components. there's fines, but then some cities also include criminal penalty options in terms of misdemeanor and things like that. Um, and then actually and then in a couple of cities, I don't think this has been said, but vending is often looked at as different than food trucks. And so that is a separate kind of process. So the note of vending, for example, is more merchandise-based. Um, is not a food truck program. And so that's just something to keep in your mind when we say vending um is not allowed. They're not talking about those specific uses which are governed separately. Um, next slide please. I think Sean to round it out for us. Yep. This is the last slide. So, obviously this is your discussion to take wherever you want. We did want to put up a few things for you to react to if it's useful. Uh, at the on the upper section of the slide, these are just a few generic questions consistent with the referral. If you've got big picture thoughts on the regulatory framework currently in Charlotte, then we're ready to hear them all. or if you have specific thoughts about enforcement options like higher fines, we're ready to hear that, too. Or if you want to use a what we're referring to here as a modernization example, as something to react to, we we pulled this together. And so, this is not being brought I'm sorry. So, the lower section of the slide here, this is this would be an example of what might a set of actions look like. So, we're kind of like trying to think around the bend, but without providing you a formal staff recommendation yet, just something specific to react to. What might a set of actions look like that could help address the issues that are currently being faced in the communities I mentioned earlier? So, in 30 seconds, I can go through these. One potential action would be the notion of higher and possibly escalating fines for any violations. And in terms of the desired outcome, why would that matter? Then this would of course create a stronger deterrent in those areas that are subject to fines because, as we've said before, there are a lot of areas in Charlotte where fines aren't even applicable. But if we're thinking about specific locations like Tryan Street or the Spectrum Center, the idea of higher and and escalating fines and maybe even a criminal penalty option would be the types of things that could help solve for that just potential. Uh going on to number two, this would be an example that would really focus more on South End. So like I said, Charlotte Center City Partners is administering the Tri Street Mall program. uh they've expressed a willingness to extend their work and administration into parts of Southoun if we'd have an interest in having them do that. They're very experienced with program administration. They of course have full-time staff resources. They can do this sort of thing. Uh we know Southoun has changed tremendously just in the past 5 years, much less the the last 40 years. So, this could be an opportunity to maybe get ahead of some things there a little bit in terms of having more focus on regulation in Southoun as it relates to street vendors. And then third, this would be an idea, just an idea for how to address a challenge in NODA, for example. So the concept here would be a new administrative process where in every word kind of on this slide matters, but where communities with high concentrations of small businesses and pedestrians could petition the city, which in this instance would mean really the city manager's office to include a multiblock segment in the congested business district. So multi-block segment. The whole idea there is uh wouldn't really be fair from an enforcement perspective if we had, you know, dozens or hundreds of street corners across the city of Charlotte petitioning to to be part of the congested business district. So we wanted to try to think about how might this really work in practice and what would this what would this do or what would the desired outcome do? It would ena this would enable communities that demonstrate broad community support to formally request the CBD designation in whereby street vending is legal. It wouldn't obligate the city to do it, but it would it would put the burden on the community itself to demonstrate this broad community support. You might ask, what is broad community support? That would be up to you. Of course, if you think about the way social districts are done and social districts are the opposite of this, where communities are saying they want something, this would be a community saying they don't want something. But with social districts, broad community support is considered 51% of the property owners within that span. Uh you could pick 66%, 75%, right? Whatever your whatever your desire would be, but we just wanted to use that as a specific example of what could be done in an area where it's legal. Uh but there's a strong strong uh position by property owners that they'd like to see going a different direction. So with that, I'll stop and we're open for any questions. Do we have any questions from the committee? Go ahead, Council Member Johnson. And then Council Member Brown questions. Okay. Yeah, we have questions. Thank you for the pres Thank you for the presentation. Thank you. Um I I why currently why is there a range for the fine uh the violations? What what determines the amount of the fine? So if we could go back to the slide that had the ordinances and this can this will be a quick answer. So I think it's slide yeah there it is the benchmark. Uh no that's right. Yeah. So slide six. So, for violations in article 10, the Trian Street Mall vendor program, there's explicit language in the ordinance that that indicates it'd be a $10 fine. Whereas in the Peddler ordinance, Article 8, there's no explicit reference to what a fine is. And when there's no explicit reference in an ordinance, there's a completely separate city ordinance that indicates that in those cases, a $50 fine would be applicable. Did I do a reasonable job of explaining that? Okay. Okay. Who who would enforce the u this ordinance or this new policy? Who would enforce it? So So you're not Are you referring to what we currently have in place today? No. If we change the rules where uh where it's illegal in different areas, who who's enforce it and who's enforcing it now, I guess. Yeah. Maybe if I could ask my C do DOT and CNPD partners because the who I don't believe would change whether something new was added or not. So if you can comment on current state who does the enforcement work. Yeah. So I've been in uh central division for 5 months. So I'm learning a lot about this. And what I'm hearing is that when we get calls about uh folks that are blocking this the sidewalk, maybe they have a grill set up, um we we will go and and the thing is, let's say we issue a ticket. It's a parking ticket, but most of the people that we issue the ticket to accept that as like a a tax on because they may be making $500 that night, so they they'll take the $10 ticket and and just keep doing what they do. Does that make any sense? Yeah. So, CMPD, we do have a role in that. So if we increase the number of places where this is illegal, that increases the number of officers that would be needed to enforce it, right? So it's a hard question to answer because I think it would depend on how big of a footprint is contemplated and that is one thing that we tried to take and like I said, this is really just an illustrative example. If there's an addition to the congested business district, um I wouldn't I wouldn't be qualified to comment on how this would impact CMPD resources and calls for service. Okay. Um I would not support any criminal charge. I feel like it's See, I know council has to deal with so many conflicting priorities, right? And we know that the AMI in this city is $112,000 per year. We know that people can't afford housing. So if they have a a small business, a side hustle, I mean what what people are doing what they have to do to be able to afford to live in this city. So I would never uh support anything that criminalizes or further criminalizes poverty. Um that's the way I see it. What what's the difference between this and food trucks? Why is there a difference? Or can you tell me what the difference is? Because I've seen food truck festivals almost it seems like in different places and I wondered about the permitting process. So I was going to ask Charlie or so basically we have six locations in the city that are identified as part of a food truck pilot program which I think COT can comment on. And then but then separate from that for festivals when we have street closures, there are also opportunities of course to have food trucks participate in those events. But I'm sure Charlie can provide some more info. Yeah, Councilman Johnson, uh the food truck pilot program we have mainly regulates food trucks within the street right away. Um, our enforcement efforts uh would be, you know, if a if a food truck decides to park on Davidson in the road blocking the road, um, our parking enforcement operation could issue tickets. CMPD could issue a ticket for blocking the rightway and being within our rights away without a permit. Um, most of the food trucks you see are typically on private property and they're permitted through the health department and have to have the sanitation scores, uh, which falls outside of the city's purview. Okay. I'd like to see that policy. If I could take a look at that, that would be good. So, I can understand that. How how easy or or difficult is the permitting process for vendors to get a permit? Are you are you referring to food trucks or are you referring to the Trian Street? Try Street. Yeah, Charlie, I need to look to you for that one as well. Unfortunately, I don't have a good answer for that. Uh since Center City Partners administers that program, um we've kind of let them take the lead on that. I do know that they they have expressed that they have a wait list. There are vendors that want to be in that program. Um but once a vendor gets in and gets their spot um as long as you know they have a yearly renewal for their permit. Okay. Thank you. Is there an option to perhaps relocate these vendors or um a process where we could support vendors such as a swap meet or some type of area city property or something so that when you talk about that balance so that we are supporting the small businesses in Nota and places like that but also supporting or encouraging these these entrepreneurs as well if there is an option for that. um when we and we know we've talked about this numerous times supporting grassroots and small businesses to help them so that they one one day could also have that brickandmortar location. I think this is an opportunity to embrace these entrepreneurs um instead of penalizing them and and excluding them. I think this is this if if there's a problem there's obviously a need. So, I think it's up to us to respond to the need as well for them. Thank you. Get out of my head, D. Um, thank you so much, Madam Chair. Are you there? Yes, ma'am. Okay. So, you are conducting accordingly. Do I have the the Oh, no. You got the floor. All right. Thank you so much, Madam Chair. And so, yeah, I I hear you. I thank you so much for putting the um presentation together, but I going I'm going to align with Johnson pretty much on on this and take her stance. One, I'm concerned about I'm definitely not supporting anything that's going to cause anybody to um have anything criminally put on their background and have them not be able to even flourish their business. I know you said that that's just a possibility. And then I'm concerned about the fines. Um there's nowhere to park downtown. When we went through there and looking at all of the signs and how expensive it is to even just be in downtown Charlotte, I was down there trying to park at the federal uh courthouse and just was a whole different topic uh topic discussion for another day. But me being on council, I was wondering why all those hurdles are downtown for that. But if we talk about higher escalating fines for the violations, uh, Council Member Johnson did ask, "How do we get to the base of what the fines are already?" There's a lot of fines already associated with being downtown with parking, with towing, and coming outside in your vehicle, you know, is gone and how those parking when the guys take your car, how how expensive it is to get it back. I will look for an opportunity for us to try to see one I want to see what the waiting list looks like, who's on the waiting list, the demographs of the Democrats, the demographic makeup of the waiting list, who's on that waiting list, the process of the waiting list, and I'm not supporting anybody doing anything illegal. I definitely do not support that. We do have to have some type of law in order and in order for us to navigate through downtown Charlotte and to do it safely, but I don't want us to be aggressive and to the point where we're going to push somebody um in a deeper hole that they may already be in if they're out there and they're, you know, trying to do uh make money for their families, feed their children, pay rent, which is all unaffordable measures. I'm glad that this was brought out for us and the agenda has been set forth so we can look at the policy and see how we can dig deeper and what that may look like. It's just um puzzling to me that we're already jumping out there with fines and escalating fines and then I hear the process uh is ran by city center partners. So, for me, the jury is still out on that piece, and I would like to know why um we don't have a major role in it. Um as far as how we're going to organize and make sure that people get to move into the process a little quicker than have a waiting list because people want to make money. They want to be a part of the downtown experience. And to me, the scale seems unbalanced. And that's where that's my take on it. Understood. And maybe one clarifying thing that that I might have created a little confusion on my understanding of the weight list. It's not because center city partners doesn't have the capacity to work through the applications but there are defined number of locations in on try that are kind of designated as street vendor locations and right now every one of those has a street vendor assigned to it. So people are on the wait list because they're have they're waiting for someone to free up a spot. Okay, no problem. So then I'll go back. Thank you so much for clarifying that piece, Mr. Heath. I still would be interested um to see who has a spot and who is on the waiting list. Okay. So, that is what I would like to see. Okay. And got and how long they're able to stay in the same location and how long those vendors who are currently there are able to stay in those location. Is the weight list moving? Understood. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. because if it's not then maybe we need to look at something else that may not be working. Okay. Okay. Chair Watlington. Um Mayor Prom has a question in the room. Okay. One thing I did want to add in um just for my own clarity. I may have missed this piece of it and so forgive me Mr. Heath if um you're repeating but I want to understand just listening to the enforcement mechanism and that people will pay the money and and continue because it makes more sense for them to just pay the fines so that they can continue to generate income. I would like to understand what specifically is is the behavior we're trying to avoid. Is it street vendors period or is it something in particular that is happening as a result of street vendors? Because this feels like it's not as it's written it's not changing a behavior in particular and it sounds like in most areas in the city this behavior will be perfectly legal. So I'd like to understand just so I'm clear what is it that we're trying to solve? I guess I would give one maybe specific example then I'd invite others to to weigh in as well. So, if you think about Tryan, um I've I've seen pictures and examples of open flame cooking late at night on Tryan um by individuals that are not permitted. So, you know, we wouldn't expect that they would have gone through the process to have liability insurance and to have a health department certificate. And if they do that and there's an enforcement action, they could pay a $10 fine and then they could do the exact same thing again the following weekend and it's just a business decision at that point and $10 really isn't much of a deterrent. So that to me is one example. Yeah, I think maybe we chew on this a little bit more. think about what we're trying to get out of it cuz to uh my committee members points we don't want to create a lot of extra resource needs for very little output. Um Mayor Bar Thank you Madame Chair. Um I just wanted to um I think I'mma lean on Mr. Heath's word of balance and the right balance uh of this because several of these locations are in district one and so I've heard directly from constituents who are impacted by it. U there's there's a couple of things. One is with the ordinance being on the books as long as it has been with little very little um opportunities to be updated and touched. Conversely, during that time, you've had increased densification in these areas. I can use South End and NOA is a great example. If you go if you go to NOA and Davidson, you've had incredible densification of high-rise apartment buildings. Um, but no increased area for sidewalks and there's no increased area to expand um the roads. And so what was uh an interesting aspect of a neighborhood some 20 years ago because it wasn't as dense, it was primarily uh single family detached homes and there was street vending and it was a part of the neighborhood. Now you have hundreds upon hundreds, thousands of new residents that are still using the old um sidewalks and the old the old um streets with parking on both sides. And so you have street vendors who are blocking the way um on the sidewalks. You have street vendors who are setting up in front of small business brick and mortar small business owners who have gone through the process of standing up their business legally. And um it it it has created an environment that is um unsafe for residents and unwelcoming for small business owners who operate in that space. If we go to Southoun, you see a little mix of both, right? So the parts of Southoun that were legacy. I'm a Charlotte native born and raised. Those streets and sidewalks look the exact same when I used to walk them as a kid. And then there are other parts of Southoun that have had expanded growth and the and the and the roads and the sidewalks have been expanded. And yet again this activity is occurring. And so we have a situation where we have small business owners in our city who we support who are saying this type of environment is hurting our business. Um and it's also be become a quality of life issue for some neighbors. Nah's a great example. Southoun's a great example from a ADA compliance. If you go there different parts of the day in the evening, you can't get across the sidewalk if you're in a wheelchair or differently aabled. you have to go out into the streets because the vendors are set up um pretty expansively. And so I think there's an opportunity as Mr. Heath said, as the as the uh committee sees fit to to look at the ordinance and touch it because it's an old ordinance over decades that hasn't been updated relative to our growth as a city. Um the other aspect of it is um the enforcement mechanism because from a from an uptown perspective uh city center partners is our MSD who administers that program but in South Bend they do not administer the program and in NOD there's no one to administer the program because there's no MSD we only have a few of them throughout the city. And lastly, I would say from the fines, um I I I hear uh my council, fellow council members talk about um undue burdens on individuals who are trying to to make a way in the city. But I I think about other areas opportunities where we have increased fines. One is the uh tractor, trailer, trucking, parking um because it was a quality of life issue. And so we we've looked at at those increased fines. We've looked at setting up um different signs throughout the city saying no parking on the side of um of entries and exits of highways and different roads. I think this is right in line with that from what I'm hearing from residents. Uh because it is a quality of life issue. It is a safety issue. Uh at times it's an ADA compliance issue. And from a small business ownership perspective, I can I can point you to a list of at least 20 small businesses in NODA um who have really leaned in to try and um uplift that community over the decades. They're saying it is a business issue for them as well. So, just wanted to offer that perspective um on on an ordinance that has been sitting on the books uh relatively untouched for over decades. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Um, with that, I believe we've reached the end of our um our agenda. Uh, Mr. Heath, unless there is any other topic that's on the list that has come up. Uh, we sure we are good to uh well, I will um I entertain a motion to adjourn. Council member Johnson, before we do that, Madam Chair, can I just respond uh to to what was to Mayor Pro Tim? Yes. Sure. Sure. Sure. Thank you. And thank you for those points, Mayor Pro Tim. I mean, you made some great points. the ADA compliance and the safety and comparing it with the tractor trailers. You know, I was a a champion for the parking, but one of the things that I also did, I met with the the truckers and I also suggested a space for the truckers. I mean, I asked city manager about there's a way station off 85 uh a while ago. Maybe if I could get support from the rest of our council members, maybe we can move that or push that forward or find out more information about that. So when you talk about balance, I understand that 95% of our goods and services are transported by truckers. I know that we have to do something for them and that was one of the things that I I said we needed. So the same thing goes with for for this. we we have to offer or try to offer these small business owners an opportunity and a space. So, thank you. Thank you, ma'am. I'll entertain a motion. Second. Motion to close and second. All those in favor? I I That is unanimous. Thank you so much, ladies. [Music]