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Minutes 03-14-01 MINUTES OF THE COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY REGULAR MEETING HELD IN THE CHAMBERS, BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA, ON WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2001 AT 6:30 P.M. PRESENT ALSO PRESENT Larry Finkelstein, Chairman Nancy Byrne, Assistant Director of Develo pme nt Jeanne Heavilin, Vice Chair Lindsey Payne, Board Attorney Jos~ Aguila Don Fenton Michelle Hoyland Henderson Tillman ABSENT Alexander DeMarco I. Call To Order Chairman Finkelstein called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. I1. Roll Call The Recording Secretary called the roll and a quorum was declared present. II1. Approval of Minutes of February 14, 2001 Motion Vice Chair Heavilin made a motion to accept the minutes of February 14, 2001 as written. Mr. Tillman seconded the motion that carried unanimously. IV. Director's Report A. Project Update Ms Nancy Byrne, Assistant Director of Development, delivered an update on various City projects. 1) Ocean Avenue & Gateway Boulevard Ms. Byrne reported that Ocean Avenue and Gateway Boulevard were open to traffic and each was in a substantially complete state. Gateway has temporary striping on it and the Contractor has a punchlist of items he is completing. Meeting Minutes Community Redevelopment Agency Boynton Beach, Florida March 14, 2001 2) Marina Project Mr. Greene, Development Director, met with Bruce Jarvis last week and considered some proposed minor changes to the Site Plan. Mr. Greene should have color renderings for this Board in a week or so of the proposed changes. 3) Intracoastal Park & Boat Club Park Both of these projects will be kicked off on Monday, March 19, so construction will soon be visible. The Senior Project Manager in the Engineering Department, Paul Fleming, will start on Monday also. Ms. Byrne stated that Mr. Fleming would be at the Board's April meeting. B) Financial Report Ms. Byrne reported that, as Mr. Greene mentioned the previous month, the City had removed the $50,000 that represented the County Core Grant and that now the report reflected the true funding that was available to the Board. There was also a deduction of $1,751 for another legal bill that came in. Ms. Byrne stated that the Board members would have the bill for the CRA contract in their packets the following month. There were other costs that had been accumulating but had not been charged to the CRA. The bills for January, February and March had been pro-rated. Beginning in April, The Board will be paying the current monthly bill. They are anticipated to be detailed enough that if the Board wished to look at independent services, it would have a good idea of what the expenses had been. Chairman Finkelstein did not believe it was appropriate that the $50,000 for the County Core Grant just disappeared from the budget, especially since the budgets from October to the present had been reprinted without showing or mentioning the $50,000 in any way. He believed that it was important that the item be put back and shown as a deduction with an appropriate notation and asked that this be done. Ms. Byrne stated she would follow up with Ms. Reese to either' have a transfer notation or some other means of allowing the money to be visibly tracked. The other Board members agreed. Mr. Fenton asked why there was no interest income for January? Ms. Byrne stated that she would follow up on that. Chairman Finkelstein commented that Mr. Greene was going to give the Board cop~es of the legal bills and they had not received any to date. The Board has a budget with numbers but no back up. Ms. Byrne offered to see that copies of the bills were given to the Board members as soon as possible. Ms. Byrne continued, saying that there were two charges for work done on a site that was being considered for purchase by the CRA. In answer to a question, Ms. Byrne stated that the purchase was by the City but through the CRA. She spoke of the 3.5 acre site on the Intracoastal and said this was incorporated in some things the CRA was doing. The question was posed as to what this meant exactly? Ms. Byrne stated that it had probably been Mr. Greene's decision but she would ask him for clarification. Chairman Finkelstein thought the purchase of the 3.5 acre property was a City purchase 2 Meeting Minutes Community Redevelopment Agency Boynton Beach, Florida March 14, 2001 that was going to be developed in concert with the Intra¢oastal and Boat Club Parks as a City project. He did not believe that the CRA was ever going to build on or buy this properly. The Board was interested in knowing the thought behind the decision and the size of the bill. Ms. Byrne stated she would ask Mr. Greene to respond directly to this question. C) Future Agenda Items Martin Luther King Corridor Study The Request for Proposal is out on the street and pre-bid meetings were held the previous Monday. Five firms came to the pre-bid meeting. Bids will be opened on April 2 and the consultant recommendation should be presented to this Board on April 10. The community is also participating in the selection of the consultant, led by Dan DeCarlo. Chairman Finkelstein asked if the consultant was being paid for by the $10,000 grant money and Ms. Byrne replied that this was so. Federal Highway Corridor Study The consultant for this project, Michelle Mellgren, will be presenting her recommendations to this Board. Ms. Byrne concluded the director's report and stated that there were no new development projects in the pipeline at this time. V. WORKSHOP Chairman Finkelstein distributed a summary report he had prepared of the Board's goals and objectives from the recent workshop. This report is attached hereto and made a part hereof. For purposes of the record, only those items generating further comment were included in these minutes. 1. Funding Chairman Finkelstein asked Ms. Byrne if she had any update from Mr. Greene's discussions with the City on the funding for the CRA? Ms. Byrne stated that Mr. Greene would be returning to the office on the day following this meeting for the sole purpose of meeting with the City Manager on this topic and would be able to provide an update following that meeting. He was expected back to work full time on the Monday following this meeting. 5. Boynton Beach Boulevard Promenade Chairman Finkelstein spoke to the City Manager, who was behind the CRA on this project. He stated there was $991,000 still available from the Promenade set-aside and $624,801.48 still available from the parking set-aside. Chairman Finkelstein did not know where the rest of the money went but these amounts were in the budget and 3 Meeting Minutes ' ' Community Redevelopment Agency Boynton Beach, Florida March 14, 2001 available to move this project forward. The Board would be taking a look at working with City staff on this project. Mr. Aguila asked Chairman Finkelstein what he meant by "...ask City to allow the CRA to oversee this project." Chairman Finkelstein said it was one of the last major infrastructure projects for which money was set aside and approved for the downtown area. He said the Board would like to see this project move forward and finish connecting the area so the Board could move on to other areas. He said there were engineers and project managers on staff now. He envisoned the CRA making sure the project did not get lost as it did over the last two years, bringing it forward to the Commission. The exact details were not firmed up yet but the Board said it was an important project and they wanted to check to see that the money was still there and it was, or at least the majority of it. The Board could also take it on from an overview- planning standpoint and determine what properties were involved and what features were involved, and turning it over to City staff for RFP's and implementation. Mr. Tillman believed that the Riverwalk feature and the Boynton Beach Boulevard Promenade should be addressed as separate items. The Board agreed and decided to discuss it in more depth at the workshop. Develop ideas for a realistic entry "gateway" feature at the intersection of 1- 95 and Boynton Beach Boulevard. Chairman Finkelstein mentioned that the Parks Department had the new plans from FDOT for the intersection. The plans will tell the Board what areas remain suitable for putting in a gateway feature. The Board needs to see the plans, decide on a feature, and get FDOT approval. The Board also needs to get with FDOT on redeveloping the streetscape on Boynton Beach Boulevard and adding medians to make them look more like Ocean Avenue. Chairman Finkelstein asked the Board members to take his summary comments home, study them, add to them, and bring them to a workshop which the Board decided would be tentatively set for April 7, hopefully in Conference Room C, West Wing from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. or until their business was completed. After the workshop, the Board should have a set of finalized Goals and Objectives. Chairman Finkelstein also presented a Draft Agenda format for the Board members to consider and make comments as appropriate at the workshop. The Board agreed that Conference Room C would be a good "home base" for the CRA and asked Ms. Byrne to look into that possibility for their meetings. If they had development projects on the agenda they would go to the Chambers. VI. PUBLIC AUDIENCE Brian Edwards, 629 N.E. 9th Avenue, Boynton Beach, had a question on the Goals and Objectives, #2, Identify Core area and the MLK grant money. He wanted to know if the CRA was talking about east of Federal Highway to the Ocean? 4 Meeting Minutes Community Redevelopment Agency Boynton Beach, Florida March 14, 2001 Chairman Finkelstein stated that the grant had been given to the City and the City was using it to go out for RFP's and plan that area. Since Chairman Finkelstein had not seen the RFPs he could not answer Mr. Edwards' question. Ms. Byrne stated that the MLK Corridor project did have a community element and that she would ask Mr. DeCarlo if the area east of Federal was to be included and if so, she would have Mr. DeCarlo contact Mr. Edwards. VII. ADJOURNMENT Motion Mr. Tillman made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 7:10 p.m. Ms. Hoyland seconded the motion that carried unanimously. Res pectfully submitted, Susan Collins Recording Secretary (one tape) 5 Goals & Objective ' 1. Acquire funding 2. Identify Core area: SE 2nd Ave on the south, NE 3rd Ave on the North, Federal Highway on the east, Seacrest Blvd. on the west and a triangle parcel bordered by Federal Highway on the east, FEC RR on the west, Boynton Beach Blvd. on the south and Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. on the north. 3. Assemble/purchase property - emphasis on the core area but consider opportunities as they arise in other areas of the CRA. 4. Research and promote the annexation of the county pocket at the southern border of the CRA and contiguous to the City limit and expand the existing CRA to include this area. 5. Boynton Beach Blvd. Promenade - ask City to allow the CRA to oversee this project. Capture the $1,000,000 set-aside by the Commission for the Promenade and the $750,000 set aside for parking. Acquire property as necessary. Add a "Riverwalk" feature to the project and seek all available Grants. (City Mgr. reports there is $991,000 still available from the Promenade set-aside and $624,801.48 still available from the parking set aside) 6. -~dentify a character for the core area. 7. Develop ideas for a realistic entry "gateway" feature at the intersection ofi-95 & Boynton Beach Blvd. Get the intersection improvement plans from Parks Dept, locate possible site and seek approval from DOT. Also speak with DOT about redeveloping the streetscape of Boynton Beach Blvd. and adding medians. 8. Talk to the post office about moving or upgrading their property at Seacrest and Boynton Beach Blvd. Perhaps moving to "Town Center". .9. Establish the CRA as the Parking Authority. COMMUNITY REDE VEL OPMENT A GENCY DATE LOCATION TIME II. Iii. OPENINGS: A. Call to Order B. Roll Call C. Agenda Approval: 1. Additions, Deletions, Corrections 2. Adoption D. Approval of Minutes CONSENT AGENDA: ADMINISTRATIVE: A. Director's Report 1. Budget 2. Project Updates 3. Futm'e Agenda Items 4. Commission Action Update ANNOUNCEMENTS & PRESENTATIONS: A. Announcements: B. Presentations UNFINISHED BUSINESS: NEW BUSINESS: Ye Agenda page two: VII. PUBLIC AUDIENCE: PUBLIC HEARING: A. Development Proposals OTHER: A. General comments/questions from Board, Director, Staff, Board Attorney B. Schedule next workshop meeting ADJOURNMENT