Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance
to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible with
liberty and justice for all. >> we are small but mighty
tonight so the three of us will commence to have this meeting, roll call please? >> chairman hudson, commissioner
broderick, commissioner johnson?
>> present. >> we have a motion to excuse
madame mayor, call the role please? >> commissioner gaines, commissioner johnson,
commissioner broderick? >> yes, ma'am.
>> the first item on the agenda, additions to deletions to agenda
and approval of agenda? >> madame attorney, do we need
to continue the item or pull it all together? >> yes, sir, I would like to pull this item, and we will
reset that to a later date. >> okay, 8d as in david is
pulled. >> I will make a motion to approve the agenda as printed with the removal of 8d.
>> second. >> call the role please?
>> commissioner gaines, commissioner johnson? >> yes, ma'am. >> now is the time for the
public to make comments to the fpra, the podium is open, you
will be given three minutes, please make your way to the front. Please state your name. >> [indiscernible] a couple
questions on the amendment for the reinstatement, it has to do
with the clause, can you address that or is that not a part of
what you can do? >> if you can make your comments
to the commission, we will receive that and at some point
that will come up, but for now, that item has been pulled for the night. So please make your comments. >> I'm worried about the parking, and it is all being
consumed by the construction people, the streets are full and the parking is full and when you get to work at 6:30, they are
going to use up all the street parking because that is just how those guys are. So is the parking going to be in the back
by the railroad tracks? Is that going to be developed into something or, where are the customers going to park?
>> please continue, sir. >> that's what I'm worried
about, and the approved timelines that you have in the amendment, it all depends upon when you get started. So, 29,
28, 25, when is the due date, when do we start with the
timeline for getting the projects completed? The items
haven't even been submitted yet, they are still working on
them, right? >> thank you mr. Bodine. Who
else would like to make a comment?
>> good evening, michelle from main street, fort pierce, 120
280 backus avenue, I just wanted to make a comment from main
street on the presentation you will be seen on the square
project. We've had the privilege of being consulted
throughout the process by your fpra team, they have been very
responsive, curious and inquisitive as well as the consultants in asking how this would impact friday fest as an
event and also feedback from main street as an organization that is devoted to economic development of the downtown
area. Just a couple quick notes, we are really excited about the kids area and splash pad, it expands to other generations and
invites another aging community. Myself, when my kids were very
young, used to make us drive all the way for those various amenities and we spent money there. It is very responsive to
safety concerns for visitors and vendors, I'm sure you don't have to explain any further, any street event has its own set of
concerns. This does maximize waterfront with swings and a
deck that goes over the waterfront that isn't currently
available. The additional public restrooms mean that we will no longer have to have portals which everybody can agree is an
eyesore. And it does give friday fest to the opportunity to
potentially be a rain or shine event. We are in contrast,
looking forward to learning more about the sources for this
project, I understand there is potential grant funding and this is what the cra is for, to fund these types of community
projects and that money can't necessarily be utilized just anywhere, it has to go to these projects. So the lighting
downtown or in the square will be very important, I understand
that wasn't a part of this portion of the project but I want to be sure we voice our concerns, and in an ongoing way
about the lighting because we produce evening events and it is a different structure. I know there are parking concerns and I
hope there will be future solutions to address them. I
would hope that the concerns about parking don't restrict a
project of this magnitude from coming to fruition. We are at the precipice of potentially growing or in some cases,
withering. Maybe that is a little bit dramatic but we see this as an opportunity for fort pierce to take another step
forward and with all concerns being addressed, we look forward to working further on it. Thank you very much.
>> thank you, anyone else who would like to make public
comment? Anybody else, yes, forward please. Please state
your name and address. >> my name is jr, I recently
moved but I hope that doesn't hold anybody against me, I'm
the micromanager for downtown fort pierce farmers market, open
on saturdays, rain or shine. So, delivering the message based on
the market board, I would like to say that it reads without
smart coordination with our existing market spaces to ensure
success, the success for market environments, I cannot put my support behind the create conceptual design from marina
square revitalization project, there's just too many unknowns that still need to be flushed out in that conceptual design.
mainly the consideration for markets and vendors. As it stands, running the numbers between the fort pierce farmers
market and the jazz and blues society craft market, but runs concurrently with each other, together they bring hundreds of
vendors and thousands of visitors each week, generating
significant economic impact. We wish to retain that, and to
sustain that success, they should provide at least 200
vendor spaces which would be about 10 foot by 10 foot spaces
with access to power and water. Parking constraints, I'm not
going to go further into that, I feel like that has already been addressed. As far as the amenities that I feel do not fit
within the downtown space, restrooms would be nice, however the cafe does little to address the existing economic output
that the cafes that exist downtown present. So I wouldn't want to jump on that. The splash pad, yes it can bring in
additional sector and demographic to the downtown area. However, I feel that might be better suited at other
existing parks, mainly like pinewood park, which would be a
great location for that. And another point of contention
would be the construction impact and economic risk, during the
construction phase. I know there are some other parks nearby to
the riverwalk center but without that proper coordination and the amenities that we need to have, that is something that needs to
be looked into. So finally, just a recap, I would like for the
city to look at a smarter approach rather than a shotgun
approach and I have less than 10 seconds, so that is it. Thank
you. >> anybody else want to make public comment, please come forward.
>> henry schmidt, 539 southeast cliff road in port st. Lucie,
glad to be here. I'm the president of the justice society
and I think the city and justice society have a fantastic
relationship for 25 years, as does the other market, we are able to do incredible things. I talked to other societies and
they are jealous as far as what the market allows us to do,
continuing with that, it is a great thing. They provide
thousands of dollars in scholarships and we provide entertainment year-round and we do big bend during the season.
and other societies do a minimal amount of that, with limited
funding and from somebody who is generous. Whereas here it is
year-round. So obviously, if you look at the picture of the
current existing thing, it is a tired parking lot. And then if
you look at the proposals, it is fabulous, okay, so if we can work that in, obviously it will be a gain to the city.
particularly with king's landing, and all of that, it
would be a sore spot. So we have been working with, where is she,
sarah, she is fantastic. A real professional. And she listened
through a couple of reiterations from the original proposal to what we have here. So my concern is, can we continue, and should
you decide that is what you want to do, how can the markets
continue? Because to us, that is our lifeline. Where would the
marketscope because during the construction of this event, you can't have both. So where would the markets go? This is a work
in progress, and I have seen it to currently and I agree with
what janice says, there are some things that probably need to be modified but that is true with any project. Okay, so you know,
it is impressive and sarah is very professional, we met a
couple times get we went through that and the original proposal
changed significantly from what we have here. So, to me, it's
the technical part of it, the funding, the timing, so forth, moving the fence, that is what I would be looking at as it
progresses before you even get into that. But I just want to
stress, the justice society and fort pierce, we just love you
guys, okay? Thank you. >> anybody else want to make
public comment? You are welcome. Anybody else? Come on.
>> my name is laurie metcalf, in fort pierce. And I am a member
of the fort pierce jazz and blues society as well and I've been going to the markets, as much as I can and I believe, I
love the quaintness of it. I understand that there's
progress and things need to move on, but I think fort pierce and
downtown fort pierce, it has such a quaintness to it, you
know people are attracted to it. Every year they had different
holidays, the horses that come through once a year, the
dancing, the christmas trees, all those things are just
nostalgic. And people flocked to them every year. And I'm
wondering, we have this gazebo that is just falling apart and that needs attention and it definitely won't be there with
these plans that are going to be going forward maybe. And I'm
looking at the jazz market, the craft market and the grass where all that is. To me, why can't we just fix what we have and
make it a little nicer and make it the gazebo bigger, have a
bandstand, or just fix it? That is how I see it. Because I just
love the way it is. Yes it needs a little bit of upkeep and
maintenance and a little bit of makeup. But, to me, I'm just
old-fashioned and I like it the way it is.
>> thank you, anybody else? Public comment is open. Seeing
no further movement, we will close public comment and I want
to say thank you to those who came and shared your comments. At some point in the agenda it might be addressed but you know
that the comments will be addressed in some aspect, so thank you so much for making public comment tonight. Let's
proceed on the agenda. >> the consent agenda. >> anything on the consent agenda that you want to pull?
>> I just want to pull a and b for a quick comment.
>> I think we corrected all of these other issues, and 8d was
pulled. >> anything else? Good on the
consent, so commissioner, you pulled these items you want to make a motion? >> I make a motion that we
conclude the agenda with items pulled, a and b.
>> approval of property license agreement of safety camera
installation ? >> yes, I pulled this just to
talk about it because again it is on the consent agenda and a lot of people hear us say approve and move on, but this is
something that we've got in place because we had an outcry in our city for this type of system and I just wanted it to
be pointed out that when you say something to the commission, we
listen and this is an example of what we are doing. So it is much
needed, and popular belief, that in a community that is only
targeting a certain community, it is around the whole city of fort pierce so we are protecting everybody at fort pierce. So I
just wanted to make that approval, and for what it says,
the safety camera installation by flock. And what I don't do
is try to identify where all the cameras are because that defeats the purpose. It helps to police the area and track and do
certain things when crime is committed. So again, I want to
bring that to the public's attention, we are listening and
this is getting approved. >> I would add to that that this
is just a continuation of our investment which is ongoing and constant in the public safety initiatives. The perception is
that we are not investing in xyz, we are constantly investing
in public safety upgrades and looking to increase the safety based on the city overall, so I agree. It is a good move.
>> with that, mayor pro tem, I make a motion to approve.
>> second. >> commissioner brodrick?
commissioner gains? Commissioner johnson? >> yes, ma'am. >> next, approval of the award
number 2025-024 for the avenue d resurfacing from 29th street to
u.s. 1 project to cw roberts contracting, in the amount of $4
million. >> this is for the public to understand, this money is grants and stuff, money from the state
and from our board to resurface and re-approve 29th street to
u.s. 1 at avenue d. So I know we have asked the engineer in the
building, if the engineer department, when work commences,
that we put notice out for those businesses, for those businesses that are going to be affected by this project. So again, projects
are being done and what the public has to understand is that
projects are put on a list and the city gets to the project by
that list. So if you see it, go out and look at orange avenue,
orange avenue was on a list last year but it got completed this year. So the city is not picking, we are going to go here
or go there, there is a list and we go out and select and when
that project is up, that is when we do it. So all those emails I
have gotten about all the other roads, 13th street, delaware and all the other roads, that I'm getting emails about, we are
looking at and we are trying to fix every road that we can. It
is not cheap to fix a road and this $4 million to go from u.s.
one two north 29th street and I remember asking the commission
why we started the 29th street, but I guess that is where the
money stops, so we will figure out the other party and go from there. That is just me. So with that, I just wanted to bring it
up because of our commitment to the city of fort pierce, making
better roads, especially throughout our city and the
amount, it was a $4 million deal. >> just one comment, commissioner gaines , that
cumulatively over the last three months, this body and the city
commission, we have approved over $20 million with the roadway projects and that is a lot of road, that's a lot of
money for not a lot of road in my opinion but roads are expensive now, like everything else. But $20 million worth of
resurfacing less what has gone on over the last 20 years is
pretty impressive. >> and for the public's
understanding, we are also working with staff to make sure that these things are communicated. These road repairs
are going to cause major disruptions because we are used
to navigating through major roads, this is going to be quite a challenge. We approved that last night, so with these
approvals, these things are starting to take place and unfortunately it is going to be in the middle of the holiday
season. So I want you to hear that now. We are going to have a little pain this holiday season. Things are probably not going to
be the same for the christmas parade or the festivals, et
cetera, but what we are going to have is a beautiful roadway,
smoother roadway that is better for our community. So we are
going to do our job to get the communication out, but we also
ask for your patience. These roads have been reported by the
community for a number of years, that they need repair. It takes
a while to get the grants, and we are applying those grant monies along with fpra investment money to total this
up. So you will hear more from us as these projects begin, but
just know that we are going to have a little pain, okay, during the holiday season, just as we go. With that I will call for a
motion on this item. >> I will make a motion that we
approve consent agenda 7b. >> second.
>> yes, commissioner gaines ? Commissioner brodrick?
commissioner johnson? >> yes. The next item.
>> fort pierce downtown park conceptual design presentation
by inspire place making collective.
>> we will have the discussion on that presentation once it is finished and finalized. >> so, right now this is
conceptual, this is just getting some feedback after community
input and this is kind of first time most of us are seeing this, so that is why we have no major decisions being made on
this one tonight. >> exactly, just a presentation, discussion and certainly along the way we will have workshops
and stakeholder input. >> it is still a great
opportunity for the community to give input to the commissioners
looking forward. Miss delgado ?
>> you all did a good job. They are going to present the
conceptual design based off of community engagement, stakeholder interviews, so I will let them take over.
>> please state your name for the record and we'll go from there. >> george kramer, and vienna,
landscape and designer. >> thank you for giving us the
chance to share what we have collected and what we have done with the downtown master plan. Which the park we now call
marina square, and we know that this project, this site is
really significant as everybody has been sharing their comments
here, we know the importance of this area and this site was the
area studied based on the downtown master plan, in which one of the major initiatives came to design a well , a
well-designed place that would cater to the needs of the people in fort pierce. So, with that, we started this area and we put
a lot of heart into this, as we have been collecting the
thoughts of everybody. First of all, we went ahead and observed the site and saw that there were economics involved, how it works
during the weekends and how it works when it is full versus empty. We also wanted to see it in comparison with other parks
right now, where does fort pierce stand and where does the public space stand? With that, we studied through people how it
is catering to people, how it serves for the ecosystem and how
it is supporting the economy. And we used this larger framework to analyze and some of these key takeaways that we saw
from just general analysis was how disconnected the park is. There's a lot of great events happening because of the farmers
market but there is a lot of areas that you have to cross through a big parkinglot. We also saw how there is
opportunity to use this as a way to collect the ecosystem and
ecological support for the city of fort pierce, especially with
the conditions with where we are right now, and we see a
potential for this to be a year-round economic generator.
we also listened to the community and collected all of
the ideas. This has been some great progress, we did a
workshop to understand the preferences, even did exercises on understanding layouts and what people really think should be happening on the park, let them design the park and held a
stakeholder interview and provided all of this through our
website. With all of this, we were able to gain a lot of feedback as we have been working on this concept. And with this,
we have these key takeaways where we realize that the markets, as everybody was sharing today, it is a
cornerstone, it is really important in this area. With that comes also the need for flexible and multigenerational
space, one that serves all the needs of fort pierce. And for
that to happen, we understand that we need infrastructure,
power, lighting, all of this needs to be incorporated into
the park. There was also a need for strengthening the parks natural identity, educational identity that came from the
younger generation as well and understanding what's the potential of this site and we do recognize that parking right now
is still a crucial piece and something that has been discussed a lot. And for that same reason, we have to consider
again what is this space and we took that into account as we were trying to see what are the key things that need to happen
in this area. So coming back to this site, and you are all
seeing some of the bigger pieces that we need to address was
connecting, we need to connect the riverfront to downtown, to
the water, connecting the libraries to restaurants. That was the biggest step. And with that, we also need to activate
north indian river drive, that is going to be an important street, to activate the waterfront as well. And with
that we also need to restore this area, give it the
opportunity to come back to the indian river lagoon, how it used
to be. And taking into account that we have to provide access, keep the operations of the marina, so those were the pieces
that we were strongly considering while doing the
design. And also factoring in the designing elements that were highly favored by the community, so things that they shared as
having the flexibility for events, plazas, markets and
ecological experience where we can manage stormwater. Water
features was highly requested by the families as well as nature
based play. There was also a request for dog park so how can we incorporate this into the area, considering the experience
along the waterfront, vendors and providing different
opportunities for shade, openness and considering how we
can incorporate multigenerational play was another piece. And if we are going to be doing parking, let's go ahead and do it right. How can we do sustainable
parking that is going to last in the long run? A great example for fort pierce. And considering that, there's a lot of things
that people shared that we didn't know, the current trends
around the park, establishing areas where people know they can
have those. So we introduce you to marina square with a new
brand and with this brand, we are also recognizing that this
is representing the sun ray city, representing the marina
that is there, the experience along the waterfront and their
relationship to this indian river lagoon. And we wanted to
bring you to the new park we are proposing here and we could say
it's like the front porch to the water, where you have a market plaza, a stage, play spaces, different shaded
opportunities for you to walk around the area and a
comfortable manner. So I invite you all to imagine yourselves
here. Being able to take a lunch break by the lawn, or listening
to the jazz on the gazebo, or walking along, being able to
check out the craft market or getting to play some chess with
dominoes, with some friends at the tables. Were coming to
really explore the lush landscape and if it is a rainy
day, you get to see it in the works. Or you can come to the
playground with your children and then go to the splash pad while the farmers market is happening. Imagine playing
ping-pong under the existing grove, getting the experience of
the indian river lagoon or just getting to experience a concert
on the lawn. And getting to experience one of the best views
along the marina. And all of this comes with a new brand as
well, something that fort pierce could be proud of and it is repeated throughout the area, you can experience it with all
of the events and just imagine even during construction, being
able to say something new is growing along the fences. So,
just take a moment . >> [music]
>> we wanted to share that just to give you a glimpse of what
could happen in this area. We put a lot of thought behind the
scenes of this park and the reason it has formed the way it
has formed. So, thank you so much. We are going to call this
the backbone of the park and we wanted to explain a little bit
about how this really works, in terms of parking and circulation, we have currently a large parking area and we are
proposing to have access throughout avenue a and
redirection through what we consider orange avenue, on the vendors and emergency vehicles will have access, and we can
keep that activity happening throughout the park. With this,
we have gone from, we have kept 100 spaces, keeping in mind that
now we have two train stops to take people around to the supporting parking along fort pierce. Service routes do not
change. Everything has really kept the same. We have even
considered garbage dumps, so everything stays in the same
circulation. Adding the tram circulation. And for vendors and
markets in the general master plan, we were just using for graphic purposes, a couple of tents so you can see where they
could be laid out. But we left it flexible, so all of these can
be laid out to the point where we can have 202 spaces for vendors. And we know that there is high times where there could
be a lot of vendors so we have provided overflow. And even in
that time which it is the clear months, you don't want to be in
the splash pad, so keeping that area flexible so you can have vendors on top of this area that is not going to be used, we have
even considered that. We also considered food trucks and
stabilizing belts for the food trucks so they can be placed
there. And even loading and unloading areas for these
events. And we also put thought into the phasing and how this
can keep the marina moving, so one of the areas we considered,
starting with the parking, if this parking is started, then
the rest of the events can happen still along the plaza.
the crafts could be worked along the parking area and we could do
some artistic temporary areas in the meantime. And phase two, we
are calling at the central park, while that is being done, we
already have a parking lot so the farmers market is still
untouched. The crafts could happen along melody or along the
parking lot. So the activities can still happen, they can keep
moving with everything going on today and finally in phase three, we have that market plaza for the vendor events. And once
we have the waterfront, then we come back to the final plan. And
we can go into more detail but I wanted to bring it up to this
point and I understand, everything that people have
spoken about here, we understand how important this site is and
how much heart people have put into this area and for that same reason is why we need to address it and why we are here. To be
able to illustrate the plan based on what everybody has been sharing. In the community. Thank you.
>> if I could , if you could go back to the key take away slide,
I think it was eight or nine. I just want to say thank you to
everybody that came up and spoke tonight, everybody that has participated through this process, even the people who
aren't in support of the plan right now, that underscores the importance of this space to the community. I want to focus on
the first two key takeawas, markets and events are a
cornerstone. These are primary users today and it is important and viviana talked through that plan, but this space is too
important not to expand the number of users. So what we
didn't see were some of the kids that would be playing on the splash pad here tonight talking about what they want to
see. Unfortunately we did get some of that feedback through there. Understanding change is hard but to increase the
opportunity, you know we talk about this is a plan for the people, for the community of fort pierce. And it is also a
concept, as I think most of you are aware, the downtown master
plan which was an award-winning plan recognized by the florida redevelopment association, what you might not know is that
almost all of the awards from the florida redevelopment association are from built projects and there is a high
standard to see that ultimately implemented. This is the next
phase in the process. We have to drill down into detail to be able to get valuable feedback, so what you are seeing today is
not a final design, it is an advancement of the process and I
think we are moving in the right direction. So I just wanted to say thank you to this board for the opportunity to continue our
work here with the city of fort pierce and we look forward to
your questions and feedback and it has been a pleasure as it
always is to work here in the sunrise city.
>> commissioners, we will take some questions now. Commissioner
gaines ? >> I'm glad you are here and
you tried to address some of the concerns that you heard tonight and I would ask, because I didn't see who you talked to or
whatever, if it was now listed, so to reach out to the people
that spoke tonight just to get some of their input so they feel
like we are listening and because the farmers market is
important to fort pierce, and I'm glad your first key take away was the markets so it is important. And I didn't know
until I heard tonight about the jazz connection with year-round so if fort pierce needs to be the next jazz connection
location, let's incorporate it because I like jazz and after
this, maybe somebody can go down there and play jazz and go down
and calm down. But in all seriousness, this is a great idea and the other thing I want to say for the public, during
our strategic meeting, the marina square , it was up in the
top five that we came up with so we are right on track to doing what we said we wanted to do so I love what I'm seeing, I
can't wait to see the final project and the playground I
know when it first came up, I always said that when we are planning stuff, we have to start including the next generation.
because unfortunately all of us are not going to be here and if we build it for ourselves, all they are going to do is tear it
down for what they want, so we might as well get their input now to be a part of our city and believe it or not, a lot of
teenagers and a lot of young families do spend money. They like to eat, the kids like to go into the shops and get
knickknacks, so it's just, I'm happy to see that their input
was included is a lot of times I have seen presentations where we have talked to the youth and I appreciate that. So I look
forward to working and seeing the final project again, this is
not it, this is what we are thinking about and I look forward to continuing to work with you.
>> thank you for the presentation, certainly
enlightening and what can be done. I know that the interest
of this project, the name is marina square however the marina
is the afterthought, I reference that with the city picture in front of us, the marina is not empty, it is 100% full for the
waiting list, but the proposal as it sits in front of us currently reduces parking from 211 parking spaces to 100. There
are no parking spaces adjacent to the marina, but we have parking to transient boaters on a regular basis. I know that the
regular marina is taken from granted from perspective of the cash flow that it generates from the city, it throws money into
the general fund on a regular basis, and in addition to that,
I'm not sure if you are aware of this, there are plans moving along currently to expand the marina with another 2700 running
feet of dock area. Where are we going to park these patrons that
want to use the marina? And I recall that the marina was the third most sought after destination in the county, as a
tourist destination. Number three. Downtown fort pierce is number one, the marina was number three. And we seem to be
not taking into account, we have a 250 slip five-star marina that
is simply lost in the shuffle from the perspective of how the
patrons are going to access this facility and utilize it. I would submit that based on the plan as it exists with all the
elimination of parking and I don't have a solution to this mind you, I have a solution but it cost about $40 million, that
this needs to be revisited to determine what is our priority, is it the marina which we have somewhere in the vicinity of $30
million invested in currently, looking to spend millions of dollars more to expand it and produce additional revenue to
the city? Are we keeping that priority in mind? And I'm not
sure what statistics we are utilizing because I don't believe they exist as far as parking and downtown, that's
why I use the parking garage, people are not going to go from
the parking garage down for a day of boating, they are not going to do it, they will go elsewhere. We might see a marina
that might look like this after this is done, with those transient boats or short-term, people that use it as sporting
boats, they will move out of this area. So I have grave concerns about the what -- what the impacts are going to be to
the city, with tens of millions of dollars invested and we are just considering it, I don't even see where it is considered
in this plan. It is an afterthought, it's not even a
part of the overall scheme. If you look at the video, it doesn't even show a marina exist, yet we are calling it
marina square. My criticism, we can't damage the improvements
we have made already and look to expand our marina operations, that is critical to the city, for the functionality of the
marina. It is a five-star facility. And I don't want to see that diminished by us eliminating the ability for
people to get to the marina to use their vessels and I believe that is what is going to happen, it is going to be a matter of
fact. So the question comes up, how do we enumerate that? Do we
have a parking study? Of course we do not. So what is the
capacity of the parking garage for the long-term boater storage
of vehicles? We don't know what the percentage of capacity of the garage is because we have accounting system that doesn't
work. That has been installed for about a year, so we know
what capacity we are running the garage at. Ultimately, the $40 million solution is to build a parking garage on the second
street bistro parking lot or the old jcpenney's parking lot at
$35,000 per space for vertical construction of parking. I
believe that option is not currently on the table for the city of fort pierce to undertake. So how do we
accommodate the needs of the marina in this overall scheme? The scheme is phenomenal, it is great, how could you say no to
open green space and events and farmers market and all the other things that take place? I don't disagree with that but, the
marina is an afterthought and their requirements are not being
addressed in any capacity. That is where my concern lies and if
we are looking at investing millions of dollars more into the marina itself, to an enterprise fund, self funding
mechanism, we are going to be bringing in more boats and we are making the problem even worse than it is now under this
proposal. So I have very serious reservations about this , it's
like we are just taking this operation for granted and I will leave it at that, I think I made my point, this is a big concern
for me. And the marina management team is here, if they want to address the parking issues, they can talk about it.
clearly, transient boaters are going down on a saturday or sunday and they can't get access to the marina without
carrying their stuff from the city parking garage. Is that a practical solution? I don't believe it is. Those are my
concerns. I'm sure they can testify the same thing. But at the end of the day, we are eliminating all the parking on
melody lane, a large chunk of the parking in the existing parking lot which I'm sure you know, you come down here on the
weekend, can you find a space in the parking lot? Nobody can. So we know the challenges that are going to be addressed and I fear
that one of our primary income producers is going to be pushed
aside for this development and just say well, fend for yourself
and they don't have the capacity to do that. If you want to look at the numbers, exclusively by the north marina,
I believe it has 90 spaces, is that correct? 44, thank you. And
we have a 250 slip marina, soon to be much larger than that with
the additional dockage. So you see my concerns. You can only
have so many priorities you can address in your scheme and I understand that. Ultimately, it is this party's decision to say
what is the priority for this area and is named marina square,
in my opinion we need to keep the marina squarely in our thoughts as to what we are doing moving forward.
>> would you care to address this, please? >> yes, there's two pieces to the comments and I would like to
clarify one piece, when we were considering the operations of
the marina and we went back and forth to understand those needs, we did consider all of the logistics that happened, for
example the drop offs like you are saying. So we have dedicated
space for the loading zones and we have left basically all the
space there including all of the parking for that area. This
whole area is dedicated for the marine operations, everything
has been left intact. Regarding the parking, the only piece that
is connecting this area, imagine if this was all full of cars right now, that's the only difference. But truly the
logistical operations, we have put a lot of thought into it to anything from the marina. Rbing- >> just a follow-up comment if I
could, on the parking. I understand parking in downtown fort pierce intimately, chairman of five years, I know every
parking space downtown. With the redo of the jcpenney's parking
lot, we had a net loss of 20 spaces, with the loss of the
lot, a net loss of 92 spaces, so now we are looking at 111,
looking at the overall parking numbers from the entirety of downtown, that is an additional couple hundred that we are
losing, dropping that number consistently again. So that's
my only response to that. >> I appreciate your comments
and I agree with you that the marina is very important to the
city, to this space, and that we need to think about the parking,
we need to continue looking at that loading zone but the only
thing I would say is that I think there's more than just parking as to how we can create a space that helps support, that
is complementary to the marina. So I heard your comments, I
appreciate your experience on the parking committee, those cannot be ignored through this concept, full stop. So I
appreciate that. But I do think there is the opportunity to work with this design and come up with a solution that benefits
the marina, and that would be my commitment to you.
>> thank you, I appreciate that and I know the ultimate solution is $40 million worth of garage two blocks that way but I don't
see that in the foreseeable future.
>> just, when we approve the jcpenney's parking lot and we
knew we were losing spaces, it was a 5-10 vote. When we agreed
to expand the marina, parking at that time was an issue and we
still agreed to do it, knowing that we didn't have the parking for the expansion of the marina. What I'm not going to do and I
will put that on the record tonight, is turn all of this green area downtown into a parking lot. I'm not going to
vote on that ever, that is not what our community has asked
for. They would not have had workshops, that is not what they asked for. So before tonight, we moved with the expansion of the
marina and how important the marina is, that we have a parking problem, when we agreed to expand it. Number three on
the list, you are absolutely right but as a commission, we knew we had a problem and we agreed to put everything into
that marina that was still going to be a parking problem. And I
understand we had discussions about a parking garage then ,
maybe that is going to have to be at because what I'm not going to do is move all of this green space and all of these
ideas and farmers markets and every thing else and everything that downtown has come into a parking lot. So I guess we have
to go back to the drawing board and look at a parking garage and look at something else but, this is not something that we thought
of. They had input from the residents of fort pierce and
this is something that the residents of fort pierce told them, this is what they wanted to see so I think, to vote on
the parking issue tonight is unfair because the parking issue
has been downtown ever since I was a little boy, it has been
that way. And yes, we lost some parking because we weren't
going to be handicap by a private owner, so maybe we need
to look at some of the spots that we have where parking is
but I would never be a yes vote on removing the green space or
removing the downtown area that we are trying to do because that is nowhere in the master plan, to remove something for
additional parking. I would never be able to vote. >> I have not suggested increasing the parking downtown,
I said don't eliminate more spaces. That suggestion has
never come out of my mouth. >> that's not what I said, what
I'm saying is, this space right now has been down there like it is. We knew we had a parking problem when we agreed to extend
the marina. I love the marina, the marina is one of our best
assets, I agree 100%, but having the boats coming in and nowhere
for people to go when they bring their boats, they are still going to pack up and leave so it is a two edged sword we are
playing with. We have to figure out, the four of us right now,
whoever else is listening, that want to join this headache, they are going to have to figure that out, so I didn't say you wanted
that, I know you don't, that has never been you. However, the
parking has always been an issue and until we make the hard
decision to address it, it is always going to be a decision in anything we do downtown or at the marina or the indian river
seaway, that is always going to be the issue. >> let me just jump in. You all make valid points, I think what
we are hearing is that, with the design we have in front of us,
we have seen basically about 100 spots evaporate, because basically it is a dirt lot right now and people just park and it
is muddy and they are sweating and that kind of thing. Have you
looked at or been updated, and maybe this is something we need to do, we are going under major construction on indian river
drive which is going to add additional parking along indian
river. >> we are losing nine spaces due to the construction at the marina, where freedom but works
is located, nine spaces that we will lose. >> so, what I'm getting at is somehow we need to -- because
there is some space even behind the museum where the city owns, it is a park per se right now, I don't know the scope of where
we are, but we may look at adding additional pieces in this
to make sure we get a total picture and what the possibilities could be because that extends all the way down to
the riverwalk center but there is a space in between that,
there is a green space in between that that we have used
sporadically for different types of things and maybe I'm looking at that as an expansion of marina square and miss delgado ,
I don't know the scope of this project but I think we probably need to look at that concept and see perhaps, could there be some
connectivity that satisfies all parties involved including the expansion of the marina, parking, et cetera and how we
could accommodate that so I think we are in the early stages
right now, I don't know if you knew about the expansion of the marina but I think we need to recalculate some stuff based on
the forecast of that and traffic, et cetera and I would
be interested to see how that impacts this project. What we
have to condense or whatever. What I do like about it is that the one piece that gives access, a little closer access to
patrons to the actual lagoon to be able to walk out past that
seashore wall is a very nice additive to that area, it gets
people a closer look at the water, maybe a greater
experience to that. You know, the concepts of being able to,
if I heard you right, expand the number of tent opportunities for that. So again, that creates entrepreneurs and people that
are looking for that, it gives them an opportunity but I think
the concern of it is that obviously more people are going to be here, we've got to get over the conditioning of people
that I used to driving right up and parking right there and not
walking. We are going to have to address that and addressed that with how do we park, where do we park and how do we move people
as a result. Any creativity there would be helpful and even
understanding any impact in other areas and suggestions. I
see a parking lot that is kind of to the north, how many spaces
is that? >> 15 or 18. >> that's what I thought. So the biggest feedback that I see,
the corporation of this expansion of our marina, I would like to see how you are going to accommodate that and understand the impact that would be, where the expansion is, et cetera,
that is going to be important for navigational expense. Anything else? >> I think you hit the nail on
the head. We have all those lands between the bridge and
cobb's landing, with the water provision, they have to remain
for public use. So we have the ability to convert that green area for anything that we wish to so if we are going to swap
out marina square for civilian traffic and parks, and I support
that, the more green area the better, clearly. We just have to
accommodate all these other needs and we have the ability to use the acreage to be able to possibly do that. And candidly,
if we put marina parking over there, I'm sure they are going
to find a way to run a shuttle back and forth to the main facility to get people back and forth. What are they going to
do, they will facilitate whatever they need to do to get their clients to use their facilities. We might want to
consider expanding the footprint of this as you are suggesting to
look at that. Because there's a ton of area over there.
>> so I'm trying to picture what you are talking about. >> it is the green space between the riverwalk and coming back to
the manatee center, we called it veterans park.
>> it is north of that but within close proximity. The
manatee parking lot for example is utilized for public parking,
if that was capitalized from marina parking, that is changed from the mix and we shift some of that stuff from the north. So
you have the manatee center, the parking lot behind it and green
area to the north of that. >> there is some possibility
there. That technically could be flex space as well, we could use it in a lot of different ways but I think right now it's just
grass and palm trees and that is about it. It's a great space.
>> I agree with that concept, there can be an exchange because that property is protected, we have to keep it for public use.
>> and riverwalk and all that. So all of those things start to come into play when it comes to additional parking.
>> it becomes a necessity so I'm not sure how we go about adjusting this proposition to incorporate, if this body is
saying let's take a look at, too. They need to get to work but they need authorization, I'm not sure how we do that.
>> but I can tell you, there is a potential for connectivity,
I'm trying to connect literally from the bridge all the way down on that walkway so people can recreate the whole trail pretty
much. >> members of the board , you
are right on, that project was identified by them in the
downtown master plan as, I think it might have been phase one of
limitation, so we can identify some funding to look at that area in combination with this or separate from this but I just
wanted to bring up to your attention that was called out by
the community through that downtown master plan project. And you kind of mentioned it, mr. Chair, it is palm trees,
grass, there's great uses or maybe not so connected, with the
construction that is coming, maybe we look at this entire corridor come principally to address marine issues and access
to the waterfront so I just wanted to remind you, that was also identified as an opportunity.
>> with that, any additional comments?
>> just a question, how would we include this, what we need to do
mechanically, we would have to request a revised proposal?
>> right, commissioners, so this group, if we decide to go with
them, they are having continuing services with us, we can look at their current scope for the marina square project and maybe
add on, we can discuss that with them as our consultants to
identify parking and expanding that boundary area. Or we can look at that project separated from this and scope that out
with a separate consultant. Those are some options.
>> since this is here in our directory is here, come on up.
because it is his marina, that is his passion, but introduce
yourself >> my name is dean, I oversee fort pierce marina, october is 30 years so I have been here for
a little bit. I'm very pro-progress, I know change
sometimes is very much needed, I'm very pro-anything associated with kids, parks, but with that said, the city has
huge financial concerns associated with the marina in that area and the business operating here with any major
change and I think we have to look at the financial side of
this, I don't think there has been enough background evaluations really done but I'm worried about financially, overall the impacts are going to be on the south side of the marina if we go through a project like that. It will be
the marina, comms landing, the library, we have charter vessels operating there, we have water transportation, we will have
water transportation on the indian river lagoon which means
more people are going to visit the area. With that we have a freedom boat club which is around 40 boats operating at
this time. Marine expansion, that is really up to the
commission's decision whether they want to move forward with that, there is a financial ticket to that as well. So what
you are doing is looking at things, if you go down there today, there's very little use because we are off-season. On
season, there's room for parking, we have become a
destination, we are probably the most utilized public facilities I have ever seen when it comes to the waterfront. For all these
years, I've had to balance public use with business and it
has been very challenging at times and we deal with issues on
a daily basis, weekly basis down there to try to keep things
floating along. So on top of that, we have all these events
that occur around the facilities, so there is another balancing act. With that, the events are very vital to this
community, so I'm very pro-events as well. The question is, how do we balance this space with everything that goes on
down on the waterfront? And I think we hit the nail on the
head where we need to look at that area from the manatee
center north, can these components that we are using,
you guys are proposing on the south side of the marina facility, do we potentially shift some of that to the north
side as well? I think that needs to be looked at, I think this
whole project needs to be looked at as a whole coin instead of piecing it out. With that, financially, I'm worried about
the financial side of things, you are pushing people farther out, I think you said you had roughly 200 vendors set up right
now you only have 100 parking spots. And whenever there is
action, there's going to be a reaction so what is going to happen is we are going to push people out and once that
happens, it is going to move people across the street to park, now you are going to impact the businesses on second
street because they are going to say where is the parking for us
now? So be very cognizant of the moves, the chess pieces you are moving because that's what this is. So, we talked about
financially, I can see the boaters coming into the marina, we have become a destination for their vessels. Some months,
during the off-season, I think our busiest month was 240
vessels, so we have become very transient heavy, that has been our goal and objective, we turned to transient because we
had a new hotel going in across the street, then it'll get even
busier because of the use of the hotel, people want to come and buy boats, so we have that demand along the waterfront.
what I'm saying is, with that, we talked about impacting the
second street or the businesses downtown, it will impact the revenue of cobb's landing because where are the people
going to park for comms landing? With that impact, people are
going to have to walk farther but what I do see is older
people that try to walk that direction, so the question is, how can they go ahead with their walkers and so on and so forth,
how are they going to get to crabbies? With all these
revenues, this is the financial impact to the city of fort
pierce, it is positive cash flow so I think we are going to have
to be very cognizant of that. So with that, if you are down there
in the mornings, it is one delivery truck after another, after another, I know they tried to make accommodations.
sometimes I see they have to spin around and wait or whatever
until some move out of the way because it gets busy, especially during season, all of these restaurants are loading up, we
have a tanker that needs to drop off fuel, I wish there was another way of doing it but we have to deal with that aspect of
doing it. Another big concern I have, whatever you do down
there, you start to have a failing seawall on the downtown side of the square so that will need to be addressed before you
do anything major down there. And the city engineer, the new
city engineer, we've had a conversation with him and he has come down and looked at it. That needs to be inspected, to get an
estimation of how many years it has left with that seawall. And I think all in all what we have to deal with, I think we do a
fairly decent job. One thing I never forget in my head, I had
somebody that was passing through that was visiting the city and says you know what, this city and this area is so
clean, you go to plymouth rock and it's just nasty. But, you
come to downtown fort pierce and around the marina area, they
couldn't believe how clean the area is. And we are very
prideful of what we have in that area so as you can see, we went ahead and painted our buildings again this year, always trying
to upgrade the landscaping. So I don't have anything else to
say, projects are good, but the question is, is this the place?
is there a better formula that can accommodate more vehicles?
to answer this entire problem, it is the parking garage across the street. There needs to be a parking garage and it would
diffuse every bit of this which means that more businesses will
be able to accommodate more customers. Right now when there's not enough parking, and the customers are not coming to
downtown. And that's just the reality of it. Can answer any
questions? >> a couple questions, then we are going to close this out point I appreciate the input.
the question I have for you and keeping in mind that the city of
fort pierce has commissioned enough parking studies to wallpaper that wall back there. I don't need another parking
study, what I need, or what I'm is that we need you folks to do
an analysis as to determine what are your parking needs? We don't know, we are throwing a dart at the wall, if we can have
you guys with boots on the ground, dealing with your customers every day, you know how many boats are going out, if
you can compute that over a few months, including sometimes during the season, that will help massively to determine what
does the marina need? We are speculating, we have no clue.
>> is that something you think you could enumerate over some point in time? >> absolutely, we had that
conversation this afternoon, we are going to hire a code
enforcement officer for the marina and we can designate him to do a vehicle count so we do have some numbers associated
with the marina itself so we are not just talking.
>> that would be massively helpful to be able to plug this into the matrix. As far as designated parking potentially
for the marina itself, so get with the city manager on that.
>> certainly we need to keep the master plan in front of us, we
want to look at the marina and I believe that we need to broaden
the market of visitors coming to the marina and we are looking at that space as a whole strategically. You talked about
the pain points and the design we have doesn't capture the
growth of the marina but the growth depends on economic
impact, in terms of the parking and the docking spaces we have,
that impacts the economics. So I don't know exactly if that was
quantified, I just know hypothetically, but on the marina side, we can quantify that number is on the growth we
are talking about and the parking is required. So if you
are looking at the growth of the marina and expanding the docking
space, we need to quantify that and we can turn and look at the economic benefit that this project brings us, certainly it
brings, I would imagine, a number of increased foot traffic downtown and broadening the market but I think when you look
at the growth, the design and base it on the intent of the
master plan and keep that in front of us, that is where we can have our focus but certainly we have an existing business, we
want to expand the growth and we have to keep that in mind. And
look at the growth of the broader market, the children, the visitors, we want to have the jazz and the cultural
center, but how do we do that by maintaining the existing flavor of the marina and not lose the concept of it being a marina. So
we will get back together, I did mention earlier to our director
that we are going to get together next week with the planning department, the engineering department and we
will discuss internally what the needs are and we still need to
get out to the public and get their input based on what we
discussed internally because ultimately it is going to be for the public's use, we want to show we are addressing their
needs as well as looking at the future needs of the city from a business perspective. >> okay, so commissioners, I
think we have given quite a bit of time to this, with that, I
want to say thank you for presenting and receiving the feedback, I want to say thank you to the public for the
feedback, there will be many more opportunities for feedback.
and as we explore further, I don't think we have to take any
action on this, we can move on to the next item. Thank you guys, appreciate it. >> sunrise event center
schematic design presentation by architects design collaborative.
>> this is the design for the rooftop of the parking garage which gives us a beautiful view of the city and we have a
rendering of that and that will be presented to us for
discussion. We have been talking about this space for quite some
time and we think we have a beautiful asset, I know certain commissioners have certain wads of what they would like to see
it become. No more parking, we want a rooftop spot. What do we have, ms. Garcia? >> yes, good evening, per your
request during a previous conference agenda meeting, we are pleased to present the next step in the fourth floor of the
sunrise center, possible event center, to be in the process ,
we hired the architects to develop the conceptual plan which outlines the possible layout and the use of this space. The proposed event center has potential to bring several
key benefits to our community including increased revenue
opportunities, through rentals and private and public events,
enhanced community engagement and activation of the underutilized space of the sunrise center. We have invited
danny and the team toshare the concept and the vision behind
the proposed layout, so they will be taking it from here.
>> thank you, good evening, members of the commission, members of the board, the architects design collaborative
with me tonight, and jasmine is also on our design member team.
we are going to go from the macro down to the micro when we talk about the event center. It is a small space but
has great potential, certainly for the city and the activities that have been planned and I think you have been looking
forward to this for a long time, so I'm going to turn it over to danny and jasmine and they can give you the presentation we
have for you tonight. Thank you. >> I'm danny diaz from architects design collaborative,
thank you for the opportunity for us to present our shared vision for the event center. This presentation is going to be
in three parts. The floor plans that we created, the material
selections and finally the renderings. First, if jasmine
can share the floor plans, as noted, this is located in the
sunrise center and it is the fourth floor, 7200 square feet,
and the floor plan as you can see in the middle of the pdf,
sorry for the jump to that page, but I figure it would be best to
show this first, the floor plan where we will have four meeting
banquet hall spaces that would be approximately 900 square feet
each, accommodating approximately 50 to 60 occupants
per space. So with the four spaces, we have the flexibility
of expanding them to one huge space combining all four spaces
as one. This would be the vision for a large wedding event,
talking about weddings in this space, we have the bridegroom.
we have the bridal room change provided, as you can see next to
the bathrooms, they will be up to the lobby space and
additionally, we have space for the furniture's that will be provided as well for the project. You will note that in
the material selection portion of the presentation, also additional to that would be the bar area, next to the warming
kitchen. So we have a warming kitchen and stays pretty much
next to the four larger spaces in the floor plan. This is the
layout, some examples, the one to the left is the overall -- is
the sound popping? >> know, is -- it's okay.
>> okay, in the larger space, you have a dance floor and the
roundtables and here right, you have the spaces individually
segmented with movable partition walls, acoustic movable
partition walls, so that space is more so for your classrooms or meetings. You have conference layout, you have pretty much
three concepts there, the small venue, wedding venue, a
classroom and a conference set up. This is quickly are
reflected ceiling plan, I'm showing the division of the lighting. We have a -- acoustic ceiling tiles. So this is the
first presentation or access point into the space which is the reception lobby area . You have your seating area and your
reception desks . And you can see with the wallpaper, the
concept we are trying to tie into this project which is getting a little history of fort pierce. This is the start of the
history of fort pierce on the left and if you go to the next,
it will carry into the corridor space as a linear element to the project, also adding to the pot -- concept is the motif of the
train tracks which you will see on the ceiling where it creates these rail tie designs incorporated there. So we are
planning on wrapping up that service area pretty much with
the wallpaper and adding these features, you have the floor with a nice wood tone, and your lighting fixtures. And the bar
area next to the warming kitchen, the warming area is adjacent to the bar and vice versa, so they can go back and
forth, the service team while a wedding venue is being conducted
to serve the guests. And interesting, that image shows of
a historical image of the lagoon in fort pierce, which I thought
was a nice touch. >> you have been to that area
before. >> yes, I have. >> this is the open space where you have the movable walls and
the full space configuration opens to all four spaces. You
have carpet flooring and acoustic ceiling tile of course
for sound. And we created a wing around to give protection with
the chairs on the walls. Of course you can see very lightly
the ocean horizon off to the east, or rather straight ahead
on the image, on the screen. >> so each of the partitions
will have the ability to have drop-down screens and lcd.
>> yes, I forgot to mention, the east base has a projector and
scroll down screen. You will see in the rolldown screen, it is
concealed, so it is very minimalist, contemporary look we
are trying to achieve. A little bit of the material selections
that we are suggesting, of course we could modify it and tweak as we go along, this is the schematic design phase and
little highlights of the tones of wood in the ceiling. The
flooring, you have your wooden flooring and carpet tile, we are
trying to create a swath of florida coastal colors.
>> what is a carpet tile, you mentioned carpet and I had a
concern with that with the amount of volume and perhaps
that versus a wooden floor that could be maintained easier than having to steam clean or whatever. I'm concerned about
this, what did you call it? >> it is squares, you use them
in heavy traffic areas, you can take those and replace them. It
is made for high-traffic areas where you will have that type of
potential. And it solves that problem.
>> I learn something every day. >> and the tile portion is
easily replaceable. A little bit of the lighting selection that
we have, in the lobby area, some down lighting, creating the
overall environment for this space and the corridor we have
linear lights again, going back to the train track montage and history of fort pierce . A little bit of the wallpaper,
this is conceptual, but again, we collected the historical
images from the archives and we are looking forward to actually
putting more information and studying into the wallpaper and
installation. And a little bit of the wallpaper, the wallpaper
is vinyl but wallpaper which is not your typical wallpaper is
very durable. The furniture, this is a little taste of the
furniture, we have furniture vendors in house that we coordinate with andy's art, just for an example, a selection of that to match the motif in this space. Same with the tables
within the meeting and banquet hall, there's some stackable
conference and classroom style tables and your standard brown banquet foldable tables for weddings. And now a little bit
of the rendering portion, this is a layout with the classrooms with those same tables and the closed acoustic movable walls.
this is a conference layout. This is the dance floor and the
banquet layout . And we will show you our final renderings of
this space with people to give a sense of scale. This is the
reception area. The corridor space. The bar area and the
banquet, that is it. Thank you. >> so I'm guessing the
schematics, the restroom layout was probably the end of the
hallway. >> if I can show you quickly on the floor plan, you will see next to the warming kitchen,
there is a public restroom, men's and women's.
>> okay, I figured it was there somewhere.
>> and next to that will be a bride room.
>> okay. Questions? >> my only comment is, we don't
get to talk about a lot of fun things up here. This is fun and this is a project that has been talked about, first off I find
being involved in commercial space, I find your design to be very efficient and excellent utilization of a small block of
space and context to what it is utilized for. I like the idea of the room separation so if you have an organization having
multiple functions at one time, they can have different classrooms and presenters and things of this nature, I find it
to be very flexible and a ton of possibilities. So you guys did a
great job. I have no criticisms. I will look at the plan in much more detail to see if I can find something that I would look to
change, but I find it to be highly efficient and I think
precisely what we were targeting when we started down this path so the question is, you are at a conceptual stage right now, we
would subsequently have to get into full design, correct? Have
we seen any proposals for a full design?
>> we have not. We did get probable cause within the
schematic plans but we have not gotten full design. >> I'm going to ask the multimillion dollar question,
how much to build this? >> approximately 215.
>> 215 per foot? And that includes sphincter systems,
chiller units, all that stuff? All the mechanicals are
included? I'm surprised it is that low, I hope your number is
correct. I'm just saying realistically, I hope your number is right. So I would advocate just from my one seat
here, and see what my fellow commissioners have to say, I would suggest moving to the design phase of this but let's
see what you guys want to do. >> yes, this is something that
I've been talking about since I've been up here, we need it,
as you all know, my fellow commissioners know, the
riverwalk is booked through next year so unless there's
cancellations you cannot go to the riverwalk and the garden center is closed, it is out of operation right now so again, in
the city of fort pierce, a meeting space like this where
you could go out and look and see the water and see everything is just fun and like I said, I love the idea. One question, I
must have forgot it, when you open up all four, what is the
total number, what is the total number of people we could get in
the floor? >> we are looking at 250 to 300.
>> okay. That is a good number because you can work with different tables, set that up. Okay. That was my question. I
actually love the wallpaper idea with the history of fort pierce tied into the railroad tracks . That is kind of personal to me
because that's how my family came to fort pierce in the 30s,
because of the railroad tracks. And established residence in
fort pierce so I would suggest, she's not here tonight but if
you really wanted a history to make sure your murals are right,
and she will let you know every history point, everything that
you want to know. I love that idea.
>> thank you for that. I think we are at a point where we kind
of like what we are seeing as far as the renderings, I don't know what the next steps are with this but I do want to echo
that not only events, but this is going to bring business to
downtown fort pierce, we are going to be able to host small
workshops, homebuyer sessions, whatever we need to do to communicate to the public, this provides a great opportunity and
it allows for the outside businesses, if they are looking for meeting space, they may not have meeting space, this allows
us to generate some semblance of revenue and provide professional
upgraded standard for entrepreneurs in our community who are looking to entertain clients in a very professional
environment down here. So I really like it, thank you for
pulling this together, I think it really resonates with what we are trying to do and creates an opportunity for us revenue wise
and it gives us a very functional space for us. So, how
is it hearing this information?
>> I would talk about next steps, you mentioned 250 per
square foot, I would like the itemized cost on that to see, when we move toward the design stage, we can get a real cost
estimate and see what that looks like and we can discuss it more internally and talk about time frames and project schedules and
just going forward with the project. I think the next stage we will talk about the design, the conceptual design and we can
discuss it internally to see if it does change. We can bring it
back based on specifics and also the project cost.
>> one more thing I wanted to mention with regard to the cost and that is this cost does not include reroofing which is a
problem on the building as it sits today so there's a pretty
good possibility you will have to add some money to the project to get some roofing work done on that fourth roof. It is a tpo,
it is a particular style or material, a rollout type of
roofing. It may have a warranty in place because is generally come with a 25 year manufacturer's warranty, if it
was installed by a roofer , but my only comment was going to be,
this is the perfect case scenario where to get accurate numbers, we need full design drawings. We need mechanical,
electrical, anything, we don't want any variables, we have the opportunity to get this right one time and before everybody's
head explodes, we are not going to have change order upon change order so I will incorporate up-front and I agree, go with
the team and see what is going to take to do that. So we keep
it in-house, they have the concept plan, they know what they are dealing with here. The roofing issue, 4000 square feet
of roof? >> thereabouts.
>> okay. Well we have an empty space right now that is just
sitting there after 20 years and we are looking to make it a functional space, so I think we have clear direction on that.
thank you, thank you for coming. Item c.
>> consideration of continuation of fifth standard tesla vehicle
in freebee fleet and approve execution of a second contract
amendment to the master service agreement. >> we have an option for renewal related to the freebee service
we are receiving and also option to add a fifth vehicle. And I
believe ms. Delgado has the presentation. >> mr. Chair, one second here. As you know in december we added
the fifth standard tesla vehicle, this was to help
alleviate the wait time so we are revisiting, if we are going
to add it for another fiscal year which would be one year or
the remainder of the contract term which is until may, 2027.
it's going to provide the two options again, the expansion would start october 1st, 2025 and be ending within 12 months
time period, the cost would remain the same, and where we
have option two which will start october 1st, 2025 and and the
contract term, may, 2027. The contract term would be the same
, $8822, from what I can tell with the wait times, I'm going to make this sound as not complicated but because we added
the fifth standard tesla vehicle, the ridership increased but the wait time remained the same.
>> that means the demand is still high. We have more vehicles moving the people but the wait time is not coming
down. >> the wait time is usually 20 to 25 minutes. >> what is the customer feedback
as a result of wait time? Are we getting any type of feedback?
>> we haven't received any complaints.
>> okay. I think people are not happy with the wait time, they just are reconciled to it, they understand it is a free service
and they are taking advantage of it, which is great. So I think
we hit the nail on the head, we have a successful program here, and we should keep going. >> yes, these two options are
what you are looking for feedback from us on, to me?
>> yes, you can choose option one or option two.
>> it's the same cost. >> I would run it through the end of the term. >> I was going to say the same
thing because if we stopped that fifth vehicle next year, wait
times are going to go up because we are going to lose a car so we might as well keep it going for option two and then come back in
2027 to see where we are. >> I'm okay with that. Do we
need a motion of this, madame attorney?
>> I think a motion giving direction would be appropriate.
>> okay, I will make a motion that we choose option two
regarding the fifth vehicle to extend it till the end of the
original contract in may of 2027.
>> second. >> commissioner gaines ?
commissioner johnson? Commissioner broaddrick?
>> yes, ma'am. >> please keep us apprised, I
don't know if we are doing quarterly updates. >> we just had a recent one, for the six months, and we can do
another six months. >> we are getting ready to get
into the season right now so as we get past the season a little bit, it would be good to get some feedback. Okay. We are now
to 8e. >> fpra resolution 25-14
entering an interlocal funding agreement between fpra and the
city of fort pierce for the indian river drive corridor improvements project in an amount not to exceed $3 million.
>> we dealt with this yesterday, so it is just a matter of formalizing it to the fpra. >> I just wanted to point out,
this is a new approach, there are several partnership projects, you mentioned avenue d earlier tonight, between the
city, sometimes the state grant funds and it is important for us as a board and to really identify our funding and how it
is going to be used and create that in a formal interlocal agreement so this will be our new approach moving forward.
just wanted to point that out. >> thank you. Motion to approve
point you mexican. >> commissioner gains?
commissioner johnson? >> yes. >> next item. >> resolution 25-15,
redevelopment agency , a special district certified in the
appointment of members to the community redevelopment agency advisory committee and providing for an effective date, I have prepared the written ballots for this, or if you prefer, we could
do a voice vote. >> and how many candidates do we
have? So we have to get one person out of how many?
>> eight people on the list, sir. It is 7:00 right now, at
least send a list over so we can have that in front of us and we can look at that and -- >> this is about to be very
interesting. >> yes, one person on this list out of the eight, okay. So I have two pallets and I will only
use one, okay. So could you read the names please? For the
record, please. >> anthony adams, quincy, dennis
beach, lucienne lewis, janet marty, jessica sampson.
>> okay, so if you want to do five one time and we can go from
there? What do you want to do? >> we have three different
names. >> well, we will see. >> commissioner gaines , charlie. Commissioner johnson,
the st. Louis. >> okay, I can keep this simple
unless you want to hang out here for a couple more hours. I will change my vote to charlie to match commissioner gaines, so
that will make it 2-1. >> okay, that is appropriate.
>> we are going to take a motion. I will take a motion on
this appointment for the committee redevelopment advisory committee. >> I will move.
>> second. >> this is for resolution 25-15,
to the appointment member of the community redevelopment agency.
item g. >> number 25-16, authorizing or
denying a second amendment to the grant agreement for the commercial facade improvement located at 207 orange avenue
related to the request for an extension of time providing serviceability cause and providing for an effective date. >> staff, anybody? >> yes, our recipient who is in
the commission chambers is requesting a six month extension, that will be the second amendment to the facade
agreement. >> who is the applicant?
>> miss einstein and staff is recommending granting the
extension. And from a legal perspective, this is with in accordance, and we didn't challenge anything written
legally? >> commissioner johnson, members of the board, the deadline to not amend that, but it is within
your discretion to extend those deadlines so that is what this amendment does. You are not required to do it, you have the
ability to do it or not, it is completely within your
discretion. >> commissioners, any comments on what you read? Second to approve. Call the roll please?
>> commissioner gaines, commissioner broaddrick , commissioner johnson? >> yes, ma'am.
>> review and accept fiscal year 2026 fpra operating budget and
capital improvement plan. >> we have the cit cfo and we
have the fpra operating budget and capital improvement plan so
we have seen the capital improvement but I know for the public if you want to review anything, that's fine but this
is a part of the fpra operating budget that ms. Morris will
cover. >> somebody is playing tricks on
you, maybe they moved it. >> it is attached to the agenda,
but not the powerpoint, so we will go over the operating budget and just hit the hotspots, how's that?
>> yes, I can see it now, thank you. >> good evening mr. Chair, and members of the board, we have
the fpra budget we are presenting tonight for approval and the total budget is here, the 14,634,000, the highlights,
we have 14,275,000 in ad valorem cost andndnd it is about a -- $
million, I'm doing this by memory, increase from this current fiscal year, all other revenue remains constant but the
major thing is the ad valorem and that is because we saw the
10% increase in the ad valorem tax. As we look at our
expenditures which would be on the next slide here. The major
thing is in the capital, we have that $1.9 million in capital,
the only other thing is in our projects, special projects, we
do remain with the $350,000 for our school resource officers,
the $500,000 for the community policing as well, we have the
debt service payment of $3.5 million, we have continued with the 500,000 for the sunrise theater and to the transfer to
general, we have that $1.5 million transfer to general for the amount that is owed for the years, the general debt service
payments, we have a remaining balance of $1.9 million that we will transfer next fiscal year, hopefully we won't have to use
it for any unforeseen's this fiscal year but we still have that option of that money that is owed, the last remaining
transfer we will have and we have the $1.1 million for the f
pre police officers for those. So that is what is making up the
fpra, this $14 million budget that we are asking to have
approved tonight. >> can you flip back to the first page, please? Just slide over to the descriptions on the
revenue side. There was a line item for the lease. I see a net
decline in revenue, okay, it has increased from 370, the
component that this makes up is all real estate owned by fpra
within the boundaries, correct? So it is not incorporating all
real estate owned by the city? That was my only question, I
want to be sure of that because I know there is a delineation, we have assets outside of the fpra boundaries , clearly.
>> any other questions? Okay. Thank you ms. Morris, do you
want to review capital? Okay. It is back to us to take a motion
on this and move forward. >> I moved to approve. >> moved and second to approve the fiscal year budget.
>> commissioner broaddrick? Commissioner gaines?
commissioner johnson? >> yes, ma'am. We are down to
staff comments. >> I have no updates.
>> okay. >> mr. Chair, the report is attached to your agenda as it is every month, if you have any
questions, let me know. It is good to see some of these
projects tonight advancing to the next stage, calculated approach is the key, we are measured with community input,
conceptual design, schematic design and then moving into the bid process, so looking forward to advancing this and thank you
for your time. >> I want to say thank you to
staff for working through this and taking the vision that we have at fpra and utilizing this to better the community. I think
the public is going to be excited about some of the things we are looking to try to do here but I also want to encourage
that we have to have a lot more engagement. There was quite a few comments, questions, concerns so we know we have a
lot more work to do to make sure we bring the public along and hear from them. And there were some other projects we heard
from earlier from a young man that spoke that got pulled from the agenda so I'm sure his concerns may have been
addressed. But we will take that up at a later date with the city
commission fpra. Any board comments?
>> commissioners and mr. Mayor, we are going to have to have a
real serious conversation about a parking garage.
>> a parking garage? >> another one, we have to have
that conversation because we keep kicking the can down the road but I don't care how many palm trees we try to combine, we
are never going to catch up with what we all know is something about parking, so we have to make that hard decision to look
at this space and try to come up with some grants or whatever, however we can do, to come up with some type of parking
structure downtown because if we can do it, it will solve a lot
of the problems and headaches that we have. So I wanted to say
that because you know, sometimes the commissioners here, we get
adamant to where we have positions but to the public that's listening, trust me, there is no animosity here. This
is normal to go ahead and vote or say something different, but
we both love the city of fort pierce and it would be
beneficial, to have a parking garage. And I know nobody wants to talk about spending money on a parking garage however, it
would be beneficial to everything we are trying to do
downtown. It would be beneficial for the downtown businesses and everything else. The second part is, I asked a favor for staff,
going forward and I don't know if the invitation was sent or
not, but when we have anything dealing with downtown, can we just make sure that some type of notification or letter, email,
something that I can trace, at least go to these businesses
that they can have an input, where we can say we sent you an
email or invitation and you didn't show up because I don't
want anything going down there without at least them having some type of discussion or input. Even if they emailed to
us, that is beneficial because everything we are trying to do on our side is helped downtown grow and downtown businesses who
are putting in their time and effort to make it what it is and
for them to have input again, I don't know, I didn't see it,
if they were that's fine, I appreciate that, let's just keep them in the loop because they are there every day. I
walked down there every now and then and I see what is going on but they are there every day. So other than that, everything was
great tonight, thank you for staying. You know, making sure
we get everything but mr. Mayor, again, we are going to have to
have a serious discussion about a garage or some type of parking
solution to help all of us, thank you. >> a follow-up on commissioner gaines's comment, and probably
the parking czar of fort pierce, I need to get some hobbies or
something, I believe we had four studies done and like I said, could wallpaper the wall with them, they have all come up with
the same conclusion, we are short parking by the hundreds
and before I was on the commission, when I had a little bit more free time, obviously I have no hobbies because I did a
complete analysis of every parking space under the city's control and downtown and all we have done since that is reduce
that number, all for good reasons , the determination of
all these studies was to centralize the parking utilizing city-owned land right behind the bistros, jcpenney's parking
lot. And the numbers differed as far as quantity of space is
concerned that the cost factors, somewhere in the vicinity of
$35,000 per space to go vertical. However, in some of the earlier plans, it was pretty dynamic they had retail on the
first floor, parking above, so you developed this concept to
generate revenue to offset the bonding cost of building a garage so there were alternatives to offset the cost
but $35,000 per parking stall, you don't need a calculator to
know you are in the $15 million range to build a garage. It's
ultimately the only solution available, to increase parking.
I have had debates with the head of the planning department about
the future development of downtown area, and he disagrees with my assessment saying it is the municipalities
responsibility to provide parking, the central business
district runs the entire corridor , indicating where we
have to provide the parking. I don't agree with that assessment but that is a discussion for another day. So
having said that, I agree with your assessment completely, it has stopped at the point of getting the recognition reports.
I remember sitting right where cheyenne is sitting and speaking
to the commission at the time about moving this forward.
let's move forward to the cost estimating phase and come up with some revenue streams, that is why we are looking at paid
parking in the downtown area, to be able to produce some type of revenue to cover the cost of those bonds. It is a very
complicated issue. The only part that is not complicated is to say we have a significant shortfall of net parking
downtown and the only way we are going to address it is to go vertical, that's the only solution. On that note, talking
about income stream, it is relative to point out, indeed fpra district, we have $370,000 of gross revenue coming from
city-owned property. That is not the entirety of the portfolio,
we have a lot more real estate that is generating revenue and cost my due outside of the fpra boundaries. So we discussed
this, at length, the need to enumerate those numbers and define, what are we doing with it, are we losing money on these
properties or generating money? This was a perfect case study of
this. So I'm excited that it's going to be adopted soon and we can bring that in-house, I'm excited for that, that is my
business and I'm looking forward to getting into the numbers on that extensively but commissioner gaines, you are
right. There is a stack of reports like this we could dust off and say okay, somebody is recommending 450 parking spots
or whatever and go out and find what it is going to cost because we don't know. >> that's what I'm saying. We
need to know because as I'm sitting here, that is the only
way, we don't have so much land downtown, unless we start
building another island out there which we can't do, that is the only solution we have, to make the decision to see what it
is going to cost and build it and see if we can do it.
>> I have a suggestion, we take that last report we have
authored which is probably about three or four years ago now, circulate it back to the commission and board members and
we can see what their recommendation was. There's a bunch of nonsense in the report of this piece of land as a
potential site, we don't on those so how are they incorporating those into the report? Let's focus on the
recommendations and see what the gross number of parking spaces
they are recommending and bring it back for discussion. At least we enumerate what the consultants say we need and at
least we can have a true discussion about it. I would support that immediately. >> okay, we've had an
exhaustive conversation. >> I could talk about parking until midnight. >> we are not going to do that
but I think we all agree, we are willing to look at creative
solutions. So through this, I think we have to also admit that we are going to have people living downtown in fort pierce
and I have seen these creative designs and other communities where we have wraparound parking and retail and other things to
be a part of that and I really think it is about time that we look at that, I think we have to have that concept to understand
it first, the cost, then we can figure out the other parts of
it. But I think we need to look to these other communities, delray, et cetera, and how they've done it and bring
something forth. That is the sentiment that you are hearing from us. >> one further comment, you look
at the bravado of prior conditions, tens of millions of dollars it took to build it, that was a bold move. It is
going to take a bold move from this commission to do the same thing to fix the problem and I'm prepared to say let's get
on it. >> I don't think you are hearing any disagreements. So, we've had board comments so I
think we have exhausted this agenda. So with that, ladies and
gentlemen, we will adjourn