[3:01] Referentment names,

[4:23] Let's take a look at the other side, let's take a look at the other side, let's take a look at the other side.

[4:53] Let's take a look at the other side, let's take a look at the the other side, let's take a look at the other side, let's do it.

[11:23] All right, everybody. We now have a quorum and we can convene

[11:41] counselor Jonathan Lambert Melton has an excused absence today and Mayor Pertum

[11:47] Fort is running a few minutes behind but we'll be joining us and we are here to

[11:51] talk about the 2022 Parks Bond update with Shoshin Baker and Kelly Ham.

[11:59] Thank you. Good morning Mayor and good morning members of the council and Shoshin

[12:03] Baker with Rally Parks and this morning my engineering services colleague

[12:09] Kelly Ham and I are presenting a progress update on the 2022 Parks Fund

[12:15] project and towards the end of this presentation I'll be giving a brief overview

[12:20] on the annual Parks Capital Improvement Program Supported Primarily by the Penny Tax

[12:25] Revenue. First the bomb projects there has been very extensive and intensive engagement

[12:33] and collaboration building internally and externally as you have experienced

[12:39] yourselves, most of the projects after community engagement process were brought in front of

[12:45] boards and commissions and city council for review and approval so thank you very much for

[12:51] all your input and support on these projects. And most of these projects now have moved into

[12:56] technical design phase with a very minimum interaction with the community members, however we

[13:02] continue to communicate with them through project websites and social media channels as well as

[13:09] outreach with targeted stakeholder groups or planning an open house event for spring

[13:15] 2026 to report progress and share and share project information. As presented last time a

[13:24] cross-departmental team has been working towards the development of a reporting dashboard

[13:30] to promote transparency as well as reporting on the Bond budget spending status.

[13:39] And we're going to take a closer look at the dashboard a few slides later down this presentation.

[13:45] And here's the graphic again showing the four-year rollout for the Parks Fund budget and we're currently

[13:52] in year three. Also as presented previously there was a funding gap of little over $21 million

[14:01] between the originally proposed budget and the final dollar amount that was approved by city council

[14:07] and the voters. We've been working towards closing that gap and I have a little bit progress report

[14:13] today. First we finally received a written confirmation letter from the grant tour for the $8.6 million

[14:23] grant award for Smokey Hollow Park and it's still conditional contingent upon

[14:30] US Army Corps permit and review but that was already part of the proudest scope in a ways

[14:37] and the proud team has been working towards the permitting phase and as we develop the design.

[14:43] And second we are still working on the environmental review process for the $1.5 million

[14:50] dollar hot grant for South Park Heritage Walk and recently we received a $400,000 grant from the

[14:57] great trail state grant for us.

[15:00] From North Carolina, towards the Marsha Creek Grandway Planning and the Ability Study. The neighborhood

[15:07] and community connections partnership is going strong, currently in permitting phase. We also recently

[15:12] secured pretty substantial partnership with a private developer for the Office of Renovation

[15:19] and Activision Index Park. In addition to all that, we have received over $800,000 from

[15:26] City of Raleigh, Stormwater Program for the implementation of Green Stormwater Infrastructure on

[15:32] some of the bond projects. We still have a couple in the pipeline and we continue to look

[15:37] around. With that, I would like to have as Kelly Hamd to start talking about the projects.

[15:44] Thanks, Shashin. All right, and we're going to talk a little bit about the project status and

[15:55] this slide may look familiar to you. We've used it a few times as we've provided updates. So as we go down

[16:02] the slide vertically, we have the Part 1 projects and then as we go across the top from left to right,

[16:09] we have the phases of the project, starting with early phases like RFQ, planning, schematic design,

[16:15] construction documents through permitting, bidding, construction and finally completion.

[16:21] And our progress since our last update to you all, which was in March, is shown in blue.

[16:27] And I did want to note, even if you don't see an entire phase, if anything, in blue, we are making a lot of

[16:32] progress. And we're going to talk about the projects based on their fiscal year. They were funded a little bit here.

[16:39] So for fiscal year 24, we have one project that is open to the public and wow, what a wonderful project to

[16:46] be the first one to live through the part of our founding success with the play flaw.

[16:51] We've got a couple of projects under construction and then green road is in the bidding category.

[17:00] A significant number of the projects funded in fiscal year 24 are in permitting. I won't read all of them,

[17:06] but I wanted to point out, build more hills as the farthest is the answer to the building permit phase

[17:12] and the remainder are primarily in site plan permitting. And the remainder of the fiscal year 24

[17:21] funded projects are in design as you can see here. And the fiscal year 25 of funded projects are also

[17:30] in design. So happy to report all the projects are enrolled out in a designer for their long phases.

[17:36] Just wanted to briefly mention some of the ongoing challenges and this is not to alarm anybody

[17:43] just to say that we are anticipating planning for these factors and trying to work to minimize their impacts

[17:50] on our project to the extent we can. So some of those challenges are tariffs, bidding conditions, and

[17:56] contractor availability to do the work, increasing costs. There are some projects for which we have federal

[18:02] grants, so we want to be extra careful to make sure that we meet all the requirements for those projects.

[18:07] And then relocation of impacted services. So even as we are planning for design of renovation into some

[18:13] of the community centers, parks counterpart, so we're very hard to put in place plans to relocate

[18:19] some of those services to minimize any impacts to programming overall. And so now we're going to talk about

[18:27] the dashboard. And we will see. Here we go. Okay. So we last provided you an update on the

[18:38] park spawned dashboard at our last update. And we wanted to preview it for you today. So we're calling it

[18:45] the 2022 park spawn spending tracker. And I'm just going to go over it briefly. You can take all

[18:54] projects or you can pick a specific project. So right now we're looking at all of them. It has an

[18:59] interactive map here where you can click on projects that each of these dots represents the project.

[19:04] And the bigger the dot is, the more bond funding the project has. And then as we go over here, if I pick

[19:13] it, we'll do this in a minute, we'll pick a specific project. But when we pick that project, it'll tell us what phase it's in.

[19:18] It tells us what is the total budget. So this represents the 275 million of bond funds plus

[19:25] any other donations grants or other funding for a total of 325 million here. And then it shows us on the next

[19:31] line how much have we spent from the park spawned. So we've spent 55 million. And then it'll give us

[19:38] for each of the projects in the visual book. But our goal is to spend down these funds by December of 2022.

[19:43] And then as you go down farther, there's a cash flow curve here. So this is how we plan to spend

[19:50] the funding over time. So the blue line is just that that projection. How do we plan to spend this

[19:56] 275 million of bond funds over time. And then the green line here is how much are we actually spending

[20:02] over time. So the blue line is a projection based on a curve and the green line is based on actual

[20:08] invoices and pay applications. So as we go over here, we have some general information about the bonds.

[20:16] And then we have these graphics that look like speedometers. So I like to call them spendometers because

[20:23] we're trying to show how much we're spending. So you can see here, the first one is spending from the

[20:28] park spawned. So we know we have a total of 275 million. And so far, if you see this start blue,

[20:34] we've spent about 55 million from the bond. And then if you go to the middle, it's going to show us

[20:39] spending from those other sources. So we've got 50 million and we spent about almost 36 million.

[20:46] And then if we go to the far right, that's just going to total everything up for us from the bond plus

[20:50] other sources. So 325 million and we spent 91. And so we'll just go ahead then and try to preview

[20:59] a specific project. Let's just take a look at Tarber, for example. And one thing that you'll know is

[21:07] you have to unclick this elect all so that it shows you that specific project. There we go. Okay.

[21:17] So now that we're on Tarber, you see our math is focused right into our project location. Our project

[21:23] description is telling us specifically about Tarber. So we have a note about when the schedule was

[21:29] last updated. In this case, we had a contract an amendment that did schematic design through

[21:34] construction. So we're on that schedule. We have an overview of what it is. So this is redeveloping the

[21:39] park. And then some of the key features, the community center playgrounds play court, parking, and so forth.

[21:46] And improvements to Saint Monica. And then if we go over here, you can see where in the design phase,

[21:52] our budget is about 29.3 million. And we've spent about 980,000 of that. We're anticipating

[22:00] being done with construction in January of 29. And then as we look at our projected spending versus

[22:07] our actual spending down here. So again, projected as blue and actual as green. And then as we

[22:14] go over here, our spendometer, as we can see again, our budget for this project is 29.3 million.

[22:19] We spent about 980,000. And this particular project doesn't have any other funding sources. So you're

[22:25] just seeing bonds so that a spendometer over here will look just like the one spending fund bonds. So

[22:31] with that, I'm going to turn things back over to Shashi and talk about the look ahead.

[22:42] Thank you. Next up's, of course, we're going to continue implementing these projects and continue

[22:52] to pursue grants and partnerships. And this fact dashboard that Kelly just showed you. We hope to publish

[22:57] that this week unless there are any substantial input and comments from the council that we need to address.

[23:06] Of course, I mentioned earlier that we're going to plan, we are planning for an open house event

[23:13] for a spring 2026. And this event is intended to be a community event with the fund and food and music and

[23:20] family activities. And once that data finalized, we'll definitely share with the Board's and

[23:25] commissions and city council and the broader community. The next two slides, I only have two slides

[23:33] left. The next two slides are about the capital and the annual parks capital improvement program.

[23:38] Again, primarily supported by the penny tax. Back in fiscal year 2022, city council authorized

[23:45] to implement a one penny tax increase to support maintenance, different maintenance and life cycle

[23:52] replacement. During the first year, if by 2022, one penny brought us $7.6 million and that amount has

[24:00] increased with current year being $11.6 million. And since then, staff has been working pretty

[24:07] hard with the penny and we have completed over 120 projects through the execution of well over 200 contracts

[24:16] and we have expressed $28 million and currently there's just shy of $9 million under contract waiting to be spent.

[24:25] And here's some snapshots of the projects that are covered under this program,

[24:31] Dix Park Building Abatement Demolition and Site Stabilization. We also have security system,

[24:37] expansion and upgrades at locations where there was none or locations where there were analog

[24:45] old outdated analog systems to keep them upgraded and we completed about 40 at about 40 facilities so far.

[24:53] And then ongoing parks savings, stream their anguish duration and play more innovation

[24:57] than park system upgrades. So those are targeted for again, focusing on maintenance,

[25:04] deferred maintenance and life cycle replacement. And with that we're happy to take questions.

[25:13] Yep, council branch. Definitely thank you for the presentation information of the 4.187

[25:20] that is short between that 21 and that 17. I know you said yet three opportunities.

[25:26] Excuse me, coming forward yet to be secure. But what's the touch point are the date,

[25:34] kind of on the calendar that says, hey, if we don't have funding for this 4 million by this date,

[25:41] then projects may be in jeopardy. Okay. I wouldn't say our projects are in jeopardy and the grant

[25:49] funding is really to supplement. We're not counting the projects are not designed,

[25:53] accounting on the extra funding. At the extra funding we'll just provide extra cushion,

[25:59] extra confidence for us and also if there's any low hang for during the projects that come up that

[26:04] could be covered with additional grant funding that will be helpful. So we're not counting on that money.

[26:12] Okay, perfect. This is good to hear. Thank you. Thank you.

[26:15] How's our patent and then silver? Hi. My question is around. I think there's a budget gap on

[26:25] news of our park. And that between what was approved in the master plan and what's available. And I know

[26:34] like funding opportunities are being pursued, but I don't see them reflected here on the slide. Are those

[26:41] still looking optimistic or how's it going there? They're not on the slide because we have not

[26:46] secured them. We're only reporting back the dollar amount that we have secured 90%. And for news

[26:53] we're apart. We did, we complete the master plan and we're looking at phasing to see what we could

[27:00] accomplish with the funding and also me while looking for other opportunities. One of the

[27:06] the grants I caught out on the slide was the state park's grant and that's something we're

[27:11] eyeing on and hopefully to apply for for this project. And we're also talking with our partners and to

[27:17] hope to bring some private dollars, but they're not secured yet. And if we go back to Mr. Grenches

[27:26] Mr. Grenches question, if we fail to do everything there, we will face the project and to have a fit

[27:33] within the budget. And then a broader question is it fair to to characterize that these

[27:40] did bond projects currently are on time and on budget? Have you fair characterization overall?

[27:48] The short answer is yes without getting to each project. There has been some council directions

[27:55] to ask hope to certain projects that impacted funding and schedule and staff has been strategizing

[28:02] every time we receive directions from council, from the community to, again, the hope is to get everything

[28:09] under budget and on schedule. But there has been some adjustments based on additional input during the process.

[28:20] Question, thank you for the presentation and very excited to see how this project is moving forward.

[28:27] I know on our presentation and it's, I guess, in beta version before you roll out the

[28:31] tracker and certainly appreciate it. I know we had talked about a very effective tool we use in

[28:38] your city capital tracker. This is a suggestion for the future, but I think the public should be where

[28:44] there's always three stages of a project, there's design, procurement, and construction. And so whether

[28:50] in the future, I know you want to roll this one out, would there be an ability of just showing which

[28:56] stage it's in, so the public understands what's happening, always in the design phase.

[29:01] Procurement I imagine is very short here. Unlike New York City, which was 14 months, but here I think

[29:08] it's shorter. And then design, there are some complexity just adding that one feature about what

[29:14] percent completes, so the public understands, oh, designs expected or estimated to be completed in this

[29:20] quarter, the project's expected to be delivered. So I think that would just be a helpful

[29:24] innovation, but the fact that you have this tracker. Thank you. It's very helpful as we go out

[29:29] and members and community access about it. We could either tell them go directly to the tracker,

[29:34] or we ourselves could look this up on the dashboard. So we just want to thank you for this addition

[29:39] to understanding how our capital projects go from design to completion. Thank you for that input.

[29:46] When we, when the team worked down this tracker, this product is intended to be a living document or a

[29:53] living product. And based on it, because we'll have not rolled it out yet, and once it's out there,

[29:58] I'm sure with the passionate people.

[30:00] Global in the committee, we're going to hear feedback and input on the track. How to use it? And from, in

[30:06] both, they elect officials, as well as the general public. So we do intend I improving it,

[30:11] as needed. And currently, there is a phase as Kelly presented. There is a phase showing what

[30:16] face were in. There's a field showing what face were in. Design, construction, but we do not have the

[30:23] rainbow or the speedometer to show that, but we could not work with ourselves. I just couldn't play with it

[30:28] because in the slide, it was static and so I kept clicking. So, but I understand it's in beta,

[30:32] you're going to roll it out. So, I will certainly take a look at it. But thank you for that addition. Very helpful.

[30:40] So, I'll just second council or silver. I mean, this is fabulous. This is going to be such a great tool.

[30:45] When do you think it's going to go live? I mean, just ballpark.

[30:49] We have things set up today. Hopefully tomorrow, we'll have the links on all the project websites,

[30:55] including in the main park spot website. Why have a set up? Just read to roll.

[31:00] Okay. Well, I mean, just the interface, the diagrams, the interactivity of it's really, really great.

[31:07] I mean, I do think this then begs, if the park's department does this, you know, the affordable housing

[31:13] bond, the transportation bond. We're probably going to need to develop right tools to assess

[31:20] those projects in those departments of the city so that we're treating all these big bond issues

[31:27] equally. So, I don't know whether we've got plans to do that, but I think that's going to immediately

[31:32] beg the next question. I have to say there has been a lot of efforts to this season to give

[31:40] things and presentations. I do want to thank IT staff and for a nice and weak work to make this happen.

[31:47] And to answer your question, it would be, it would be a shame. It would only use this one time for this

[31:52] park's department. And we're doing 10 on. Hopefully, I'm not speaking for Marshal, but hopefully to use

[31:59] something similar or future bonds and to help with transparency. Second question, which kind of goes to

[32:07] some of Kelly's comments about, we know there's been tariffs inflation, all these projects, the

[32:13] dollars have gone up. And so, this sort of suggests that the 2022, when these things were bid,

[32:21] that that was the total number and we're just tracking against that number. I mean, at some point,

[32:26] you also need to show where there are inflationary increases, how we're trying to address that.

[32:32] I mean, maybe that's too much to put into the tool, but I also want to acknowledge the amount of

[32:37] the city's stretching. And in the case of Dix Park, of course, where you had philanthropic dollars put

[32:43] an additional $1.5 million to cover some of the inflationary overruns. And you sort of want to

[32:48] recognize the muscle and flex that the city and philanthropic partners are putting in to make sure

[32:55] these projects are actually brought to, you know, to fruition.

[32:59] Appreciate the thought. Most of the very complicated, large scale projects, so we did have a

[33:06] different delivery method like construction managers at risk and who help us with the cost

[33:11] estimation from real construction market time and hopefully. And we're also tracking escalation as

[33:19] while every step of the way we have certain percentages of escalation built. So we're hopeful,

[33:25] I don't want to promise anything, but we're hopeful that most projects will be delivered

[33:31] budget. But that's why the GAM back to Mr. Grinch's question and we're still looking for additional

[33:39] funding opportunity for in case situations. But we're not necessarily increasing scope,

[33:45] even with additional funding, which is hopefully one bit time comes. Everything is workable.

[33:52] Okay, any other questions? All right. Well, I think that is the right only item we had on our

[34:01] work session. And we appreciate it. And we are adjourned until the regular session at 1 p.m.

[35:46] I'm Robert Hanson and this is what I'm doing.

[35:58] Whether you're a rally native or new to the area, you've probably been to Poland Park.

[36:03] It's a magical place for kids and adults. I work for the city of Raleigh as an attraction specialist

[36:09] been doing that for about three and a half years and what I do.

Raleigh City Council Work Session

Agenda

Transcript