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Minutes 07-24-03M~'NUTES OF THE COMMUN~'TY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY WORKSHOP HELD I'N THE Li'BRARY PROGRAM ROOM, BOYNTON BEACH, FLORI'DA, ON THURSDAY, 3ULY 24, 2003 AT 6:00 P.M. PRESENT Larry Finkelstein, Chairman Jeanne Heavilin, Vice Chair Don Fenton Michelle Hoyland Henderson Tillman ABSENT Doug Hutchinson, CRA Director Al DeMarco Chair Finkelstein opened the Budget Workshop at 6:07 p.m. New Business A. Workshop on 2003-04 CRA Budget · :, Mr. Fenton inquired about page 1, Retirement Match 5%, and it was determined that this figure would have to be recalculated based on the new salaries. · :, Mr. Fenton questioned the word "d~cor" in a line item on page 3 in Festivals and Events, and Mr. Hutchinson explained that this meant holiday decorations and lights. On page 3 in the Budget Projections, the Awards Program line item was questioned since the Board had not approved an awards program. The direction to staff was to come back to the Board with a simpler awards program. (Later in the meeting it was decided to remove this as a//ne/tern, pending presentation of a simp/er program to the Board.) Mr. Fenton expressed the belief that putting the Police Program item in the budget was premature. He favored having a walking policeman in the CRA area from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m., but questioned whether that would cost $175K. Mr. Hutchinson responded that they had reduced Zone 3 to half of what the Police Department presented because they did not want the entire CRA area to have bicycle coverage, and wanted coverage at peak activity times only. Hr. Hutchinson expressed a desire for increased police presence now, and referred to employees working late downtown who were walking late at night to surface lots. He explained that the CRA could not underwrite general police, fire, or emergency medical service coverage. Any services it pays for have to be over and above a general level of service provided in the area. The expenses include uniforms, equipment, and bikes. Mr. '~llman thought that the Fire Department could make the same demand and probably would. Meeting Minutes CRA Budget Workshop Boynton Beach, Florida July 24, 2003 Mr. Fenton suggested using private service providers instead, such as AHF for ambulance service. Also, the downtown businesses could contribute towards services such as police, fire, garbage removal, and emergency medical services, with probable participation by Coastal Towers and Sterling Village as well. A Downtown Authority could also be put together to oversee this. Mr. Fenton believed that once construction had begun, there would be more need for extra police and other services. Chair Finkelstein did not want to hire guards for parking lots for employees at this time. When the CRA starts inviting people downtown to events, this could be discussed. Mr. Hutchinson stated that the parking issue was part of the Marina litigation agreement and would have to be addressed. Chair Finkelstein wanted to see a definite parking study for the downtown area, with a timetable showing the various construction projects and when they would be on line. The parking study could examine which responsibilities were private and which were public, for example. Mr. '~llman agreed, saying that there had to be some definitions and rules. · :. Mr. Tillman questioned the money in the Expenditure section, page 3, for the High School Project. Mr. Hutchinson explained that the project would be to finish out space for a CRA office (in lieu of rent) in the old high school. The Board asked that this item be moved to the Office line items in the Expenditure section. · :. A considerable discussion ensued about the use of trolleys in the downtown area. The Board members were lukewarm to cool about the idea, mentioning the small size of the downtown at the present time and the negative experience of surrounding communities. Mr. Hutchinson stated that having the police and the trolley were items that would have to be addressed since they were called out specifically in a settlement agreement. Chair Finkelstein disagreed, saying he had seen the settlement agreement and there was nothing in there about trolleys. Mr. Hutchinson asked him if he had seen the new one. · :. Chair Finkelstein asked where people would be taken from and to in a trolley. Mr. Hutchinson replied, 1) the church at the corner of Boynton Beach Boulevard and Seacrest Boulevard, 2) the Sea Mist Marina, 3) and the Banana Boat/Two Georges. Chair Finkelstein thought that the Sea Mist, the Banana Boat, and the Two Georges would want to make a major contribution to the trolley. He did not think that Boynton Beach had the demographics, with only three restaurants, to justify an investment in a trolley system. Mr. Tillman thought this could be handled between a Downtown Development Authority and the business owners in the area. A potential pilot program was mentioned with a joint venture between the CRA and the private business owners for the trolley system. Chair Finkelstein asked Mr. Hutchinson to include a section in the parking study for a trolley, with a plan showing when it would be desirable to bring it on line. Most agreed that money should be put in reserves for this but no one wanted to start it up immediately. Some of the business owners feel that foot traffic is better for their business anyway. Chair Finkelstein asked Mr. Hutchinson to bring in a plan that Meeting Minutes CRA Budget Workshop Boynton Beach, Florida July 24, 2003 discussed when the demographics would reach a point where increased essential services would be required. When the Promenade and Marina are under construction, there will be someplace to take people to. It is much too early now. Jeanne Heavilin thought that the Board had disapproved the Realtor Society under Memberships and Subscriptions. Chair Finkelstein agreed, saying that the Board had voted against it because they did not think it was of value. Jeanne Heavilin asked for a dollar amount on the bonds mentioned on page 9. Mr. Hutchinson did not know what the financial advisor was going to suggest about this item. If the proposed expenses and revenues are accepted, in order to maintain a reserve of $:[.5H, there will be a shortfall of $2M, which must somehow be funded. Ms. Heavilin and Ms. Vielhauer will get together about several grammatical issues in the budget document. The comments were discussed and noted by Ms. Vielhauer at the meeting. Mr. Fenton wanted money allocated in the budget for fa~;ade grant advertising, including testimonials from happy recipients. $2K was a suggested amount. Mr. Hutchinson suggested putting it in Printing and Promotional Programs. Mr. Fenton had heard that people were saying that the CRA was not giving out any fa~;ade grants and he wanted to dispel this rumor. It was suggested that this be included in the CRA column in the Chamber of Commerce's newsletter, Horizons. Chair Finkelstein commented about page 3, Budget Projections, and mentioned the $2rvl coming in for a proposed bond loan debt and asked where it went back out. Mr. Hutchinson responded that payments are made under debt service in operating, page 2. Chair Finkelstein said there were a lot of costs associated with the programs and he asked if the developers would be paying back the costs. Mr. Hutchinson responded that they would. Mr. Hutchinson said they would also make interest on that money. Chair Finkelstein did not want to borrow $2M in this budget if they were not paying it out in this budget. Hr. Fenton wanted to borrow $3M and pay off the existing loan. Chair Finkelstein mentioned the $550K prepayment penalty that ate up all the savings and then some. Ms. Hoyland asked about the asterisks in the forecasted projects. Hr. Hutchinson explained that these were projects on which they might ask for direct incentive programs. Chair Finkelstein said he had the same feeling about this as he did about the money under the Police Program. :If potential expenditures are shown in the budget, the proposed recipients are likely to see it as an "entitlement" when it is really only an option. He thought that with the density and height issues now in place, there might not be a need for subsidizing all these projects in the future. He did not want to label them as potential qualifying projects in the budget without knowing anything about them. Hr. Hutchinson will take the asterisks off. Mr. Hutchinson spoke about 'I'[F issues, saying that Ms. Vielhauer had worked with the Tax Assessor's office to get the figures; however, he was concerned with the level of appreciation that they were forecasting and hoped that it held. After some adjustments, Meeting Minutes CRA Budget Workshop Boynton Beach, Florida July 24, 2003 the budget forecasts were $200-300K under the figure given by the Tax Assessor's office. Staff tried to stay on the conservative side for the entire budget. Chair Finkelstein questioned the $100K for a garage in the Heart of Boynton shown on page 3 of the Budget Projections. Mr. Hutchinson replied that the garage would be done later and that the $100K was for an engineering study on it. He alluded to a possible opportunity this year to make some traffic calming improvements to MLK Boulevard. Mr. Hutchinson stated that the CRA was going to be asked to look at streetscape-type elements for that area also. Chair Finkelstein agreed with that but would not want to get involved with widening the streets and putting down new asphalt, for example, since that would not be a CRA function. Chair Finkelstein thought that the $4.3M total for the Boynton Beach Boulevard Riverwalk/Promenade project was Iow and wanted to be certain that enough money was set aside for the project, which they had just contracted to build. Mr. Hutchinson indicated that Marina Village had been part of the $8M estimate to which Chair Finkelstein referred. Also, if the Creatures Complex does not move forward, the money could be transferred to this project. Mr. Hutchinson discussed the parking issue in some detail, saying that staff was looking at putting an additional deck on the garage in the Marina area - 70 spaces at approximately $15,000 per space or $:[.050M. Chair Finkelstein wished to know if the spaces were public or private and Mr. Hudson stated that some were valet and some were first-come-first-served. Chair Finkelstein believes that it is critical that the parking spaces be unrestricted to the public and open at all times. Chair Finkelstein would be amenable to looking at a program that paid for developers to add additional parking to their parking garages, over and beyond their Code requirements, to facilitate public amenities. He would be amenable to paying a fair price for this. ~[n this instance, the CRA would not be paying the insurance, would not own the garage, and would not have maintenance responsibilities for it. :It would be a one-time fee. Mr. Hutchinson said they were looking at managed parking and part of that was to make sure that the cars could be gotten off the streets and into parking. IVls. Hoyland asked whether there were a valet agreement where the restaurants would have to pay the CRA and Mr. Hutchinson replied that there could be and that an agreement was being drafted at this time. Chair Finkelstein still maintained that public money should be spent for public usages and he was against subsidizing any kind of valet parking. He thought that another option would be to build a parking garage and charge people to park in it, but he did not want to get into the parking business. Ms. Hoyland stated that the parking garage should not be built until the money was banked for the in-lieu spaces that people were buying. She mentioned seeing an interesting arrangement in Gatlinburg where there was a public garage but the public pays $5 to park there. The businesses around the garage deduct $5 from your bill. Ms. Hoyland stated also that the businesses would always offer valet parking. Typically, businesses offer parking in a municipal lot and lease the spaces from the City or the CRA for a certain amount. This could be paid monthly, or in advance, but it would be the only place that their patrons could park. 4 Meeting Minutes CRA Budget Workshop Boynton Beach, Florida July 24, 2003 · :. Mr. Hutchinson stated that the public perception on driving into the area had to be kept in mind. He did not want the perception to arise, "There's no place to park," as happened recently in a neighboring city. He believes that the downtown area is short about :1.50 -200 parking spaces. Also, the Marina will generate SiM in new TJF funds. · :. Chair Finkelstein liked the idea of adding additional spaces spread out over several areas instead of having one big tower that would take up a spot where a good development could go. Mr. Fenton commented that there was an advantage to the parking structure with spaces going for only $12K a space, which would save the CRA about $2M. Mr. Hutchinson explained that the plan for parking in the CBD was in two phases. Phase one was the acquisition of parking rights in the surface lot for $1.750M. They did not wish to purchase the real estate. This parking lot would handle approximately 155 spaces. When the garage is needed, the CRA would contribute to the developer to build the extra spaces in the developer's parking deck. The CRA could also own it all but would have to go through the condemnation/relocation process. This plan allows the CRA to save about $2M in a public/private partnership that provides free public parking. Mr. Hutchinson will present this project to the Board in more detail. Summary Chair Finkelstein summarized the budget discussions, saying that the proposal for additional police and the trolley would be taken out of the budget. The trolley will be included in the parking study. Mr. Hutchinson will bring the Board more details about: 1) the building of an office in the old high school, and 2) the parking proposal. Awards will be removed as a line item, pending presentation from staff of a simpler system. Mr. Hutchinson referred to the Direct :Incentive Program package that was included in the agenda backup for the budget meeting and asked for input from the Board. The meeting was duly adjourned at 7:56 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Susan Collins Recording Secretary (072503)