[2:39] By the time Doe gets up

[2:40] here.

[2:50] Oh yeah.

[2:59] I know John really wants me to share our office this year

[3:03] wall back when he was regularly in Galvin. So, yep, I know John really well.

[3:14] He's a Lake County guy living through.

[3:22] Go wherever the kid, the grandkids are at. I get it. Follow the

[3:26] grandbabies.

[3:53] Very nice.

[4:03] Work.

[4:07] Is your pad of paper? No, he left. Mayor left. It's yours now.

[4:10] Okay, I'll use it.

[4:14] All right. I'm almost ready.

[4:29] Welcome. Thank you everybody for coming to the September 10th, 2026

[4:33] redevelopment commission meeting. Everybody is in attendance

[4:36] today. It's been a while since we've had a full

[4:40] attendance here.

[4:43] But with that, we have a quorum and we can proceed with our agenda. First

[4:46] item on our agenda tonight is the approval of the meeting minutes both from tonight's

[4:50] executive session. As well as last month.

[4:54] S regular meeting. The minutes from last month's meeting

[4:58] were included in the packet distributed over the weekend or last Friday.

[5:03] And unless there's any discussion

[5:06] or corrections to those minutes, I'll ask for a motion to approve.

[5:12] It and a second motion in a second. All in favor say aye.

[5:15] Aye. Okay, the motion carries unanimously. Thank you.

[5:19] Item number two is approval of the claims register and financial report.

[5:22] George, you want to walk through that? Yeah, I will do that. I'll highlight a couple of things.

[5:28] I'm going to start with the claims register first. I think

[5:31] that's not in that same order in your packet, but

[5:35] on page one, there was

[5:38] a question that came in on American structure

[5:41] point. It's a claim for

[5:43] 8,019.85. There was no

[5:47] description noted there, so I apologize again. It's a new accounting

[5:50] software, but this was for the cultural

[5:53] trail. And so this is part of, came out of our

[5:57] grants match. But that's what that was for. And then on

[6:01] the second page, at the very

[6:04] bottom should be a claim to the city

[6:08] of Valparaiso for

[6:09] 552,589 and 89

[6:12] cents. That is for, that's our annual

[6:17] reimbursement to the city general fund of use

[6:21] of

[6:23] staff on behalf of the commission

[6:27] related work. And so that

[6:31] will be sent over to the general fund of the city. So I

[6:34] wanted to point that out. I'm happy to take any questions

[6:38] related to claims and then I'll jump into the financial report.

[6:44] Anybody have any questions or discussion on claims?

[6:48] Then on the financial report, just a couple things to

[6:51] highlight. This is for the month of August. I'm going to hit the consolidated

[6:56] claim. So that's what I guess your third column

[6:59] in. Not much on the revenue side. Most of our revenue

[7:03] came in at the last month when we got a draw from the

[7:06] county. But on the expense side, the school challenge grants

[7:09] 374,425 came in

[7:14] under utility improvements. You'll see 144,000. That was

[7:17] for the Marsh Street lift station. So

[7:21] I think that should be our final payment on

[7:24] that. Then industrial infrastructure, the 415, those

[7:27] are utility related expenses back to the thermal

[7:31] remediation side.

[7:33] And then moving one column over to the general fund.

[7:37] Under expenses. You'll see initiatives of

[7:39] 311,

[7:40] 311,707. Those are part of our sidewalk

[7:45] packages that we do with the budget is 800,000. And so

[7:48] we will spend every nickel of that. And so that's just

[7:53] a big draw that came in related to sidewalk

[7:55] packages. The last thing I'm going to point

[7:57] out, so all of the columns are correct

[8:01] except the very final column, which is

[8:05] the sum of everything. And so again

[8:08] related back to

[8:11] the The new software and some of the reporting capabilities coming back

[8:15] out. So at the very bottom it'll say a fund balance of

[8:19] $7,900,000. That is not

[8:22] correct. So I'll make sure the correct one

[8:25] is there. I can tell you as of today the fund

[8:28] balance or actually through end of August was

[8:31] $12,341, $235 and

[8:34] $49. So we'll make sure the website will

[8:38] have the right information there. Again, all of the expenses that

[8:41] you're seeing in the reporter correct is just the way

[8:44] the final column came together, the fund balance report

[8:48] was not right. So we'll make sure those are

[8:51] restated. And if you want a hard copy, I can send you

[8:55] one. Otherwise, we'll just make sure the website has the

[8:58] accurate information. Thank you. Happy to take any questions. I was having

[9:01] a hard time getting.

[9:05] Appreciate the correction just in working with the clerk treasurer

[9:09] and she apologized she couldn't be here just by time we could get answers to what was going

[9:12] on. I couldn't resend it and so I didn't want to

[9:16] confuse it. Thought I'd just talk about it. But the

[9:19] website, yep, we'll have the right information.

[9:22] I just had one question on the staff payroll number. Was that

[9:26] the exact amount of the budget?

[9:29] The exact amount in the budget

[9:32] had a little bit more than that because it has stipends for

[9:36] commission members. It also has office

[9:38] supplies. But for staffing, that is the exact

[9:42] amount 557.

[9:48] I think in the budget amount was a little bit higher then compared to

[9:52] the claim.

[9:54] Thank you. Yep.

[9:57] With that I would recommend your approval.

[10:01] Any other questions or discussions on financial matters?

[10:06] Hearing none, I'll ask for a motion to approve the claims register and financial report.

[10:12] Second motion in the second. Everybody in favor say aye. Aye.

[10:15] Those opposed same sign. Okay, the motion carries unanimously.

[10:20] All right. Item three on our list tonight is the parking lot use

[10:24] agreement. With Valparaiso events.

[10:28] Yes, Mr. President, members of the commission before you is a

[10:31] short-term use agreement for Valparaiso

[10:35] events. When I say short term, I'm really talking about short

[10:38] term one, the popcorn fest is this Saturday.

[10:42] Second, we do a one day use agreement. We did this

[10:45] last year for them to use the parking lot at the old

[10:49] McGill plant up at 909 Washington

[10:52] or Lafayette Street. It's just for staging of the

[10:55] parade. They have insurance. It's the same agreement

[10:58] as last year. So in your packet is the agreement

[11:02] signed by Katie Abel

[11:05] along with, I think we had a certificate of insurance. We did not get this out

[11:09] earlier. We really just didn't know when we didn't think, we didn't anticipate

[11:13] the parking lot would be available just due to timing of certain

[11:17] activities up at the Regal building. So they plan not to use

[11:20] it. But then now that it is available, so that's why

[11:23] it sort of came together at the last minute. But nonetheless, I would certainly

[11:27] recommend your approval.

[11:30] Great. Thank you. So. This is virtually a

[11:34] carbon copy of last year. And many years

[11:36] prior. Yes.

[11:40] Any questions or discussion on this use agreement? Hearing none

[11:43] will ask for a motion to approve the short term use agreement. So

[11:47] moved. Do we have a second? Second motion in a second. All

[11:50] right, everybody in favor please say aye. Those opposed

[11:54] same site. Okay, the motion carries unanimously. We're moving quickly

[11:57] tonight. Item number four on our list is.

[12:02] The neighborhood improvement grant guidelines, Ms. Maggie Clifton is here.

[12:07] To update us on that. Thank you, Maggie. Good afternoon. Thank you for your time. Just

[12:10] wanted to quickly touch base on the guidelines we're proposing for

[12:14] 2027. Just as a reminder, these grant funds allow for

[12:17] neighborhood based projects to enhance public

[12:20] spaces, offer some community benefit and hopefully connect

[12:24] residents more to one another. Additionally connecting

[12:27] residents more with the city departments that help make these projects possible

[12:31] and just giving neighborhood groups an opportunity to turn their ideas

[12:34] into action.

[12:36] So we have been offering this program since

[12:40] 2018. As you can see, we've had a really great reach nearly 50

[12:43] neighborhoods, 160 projects, and

[12:46] 1.49 has been awarded by the redevelopment commission. And when you pair that

[12:50] with local neighborhood matches on some of the projects, you get about

[12:54] 2.25 million in positive community impact.

[12:58] So after nine successful grant cycles, we're kind of thinking about how

[13:02] do we continue to enhance this program? How do we continue to elevate

[13:05] our neighborhood groups? And so that was really the thought behind some of the

[13:09] changes that you see on the guidelines this year is really to just kind of encourage

[13:12] some of those neighborhood organizational best

[13:15] practices. And again, I think

[13:18] that this is highlighting those opportunities and things that we

[13:22] want to see our neighborhood groups doing, but I don't think it's going to deter

[13:26] anyone because the number of neighborhood groups are already doing a lot of

[13:29] these things. But that's kind of our vision with some of the

[13:33] framing of the eligibility requirements and what we're hoping to do. So

[13:37] taking it from this HOA has an idea to

[13:40] this neighborhood is really engaging residents throughout the year, participating in our

[13:44] city programs and thinking more

[13:48] intentionally behind the projects that they're

[13:50] proposing. So trying to.

[13:54] Further develop that.

[13:57] So here you can see kind of the eligibility requirements that we're shooting

[14:01] for. So there's kind of six boxes that we're hoping to have

[14:04] checked. And like I mentioned, it's not really unusual

[14:08] for us to have these expectations, the three underlined here are

[14:11] what I would say are more new requirements. But I think a number

[14:14] of our neighborhoods that have applied year over year are doing a lot of

[14:18] this. But I think it's not asking anything unreasonable to

[14:22] expect them to have an annual public meeting and to attend in one

[14:25] of our neighborhood workshops that we offer. And hopefully that's mutually

[14:28] beneficial for both the city relationship and their own work in their

[14:32] neighborhood. So that is what we are

[14:34] proposing. A couple other

[14:36] modifications, just reorganizing the guidelines for

[14:40] clarity, enhanced application questions to better align with

[14:43] what we're looking for with our program goals and our eligibility

[14:47] or in our evaluating criteria.

[14:50] Also, we kind of push the grant application deadline back a month. It's typically

[14:54] in March, but we saw April gives people a little bit more

[14:56] time. You know, February is kind of a rough time to be

[14:59] out, getting estimates and things like that. So adding that month will

[15:03] hopefully help that, but still give us enough time to hopefully complete those

[15:06] projects within the same calendar year.

[15:11] So pending approval of the guidelines will

[15:14] get the message out there, promote the new guidelines, update our

[15:18] materials on the website, and then continue to promote

[15:21] different neighborhood workshops and engagement opportunities

[15:25] to the groups.

[15:30] Very good. Oh, you have a question? Go ahead. Yeah, I do. A couple of

[15:33] neighbors, you know, after we had that storm on August 11th

[15:37] and then there was an article in the paper

[15:40] where they interviewed our city

[15:42] arborist. And he talked about

[15:45] a tree assessment. That would probably be

[15:49] a good idea for neighbors who have like older

[15:52] trees. And this is a complaint that's been going on

[15:56] for a couple years, especially in like the older neighborhoods where

[15:59] someone, the tree is clearly on their private property.

[16:03] But it's lost branches and in different storms

[16:06] has knocked down power lines. And so what

[16:10] Matt was saying was that it would be a proactive

[16:14] measure and a $100 fee to have

[16:17] your tree assessed. Now, we can't compel

[16:21] anybody to

[16:23] chop down their trees on private property. But

[16:26] would the fee assessment, you know, because right now if you went in my and

[16:30] talked to neighbors in my neighborhood, they would have a list of

[16:34] homeowners that they think should have an assessment. So

[16:38] would the $100 fee be something that a

[16:41] neighborhood grant could apply for.

[16:46] After, I don't even know what the process would be to identify it. But again, it's

[16:49] not compelling anybody to do anything, but it is

[16:53] giving them a little nudge. Like something

[16:56] that Nipsco wouldn't chop down. But, you know,

[17:00] because we've had like on our street over the past couple of

[17:03] years, the same trees.

[17:07] Have lost branches.

[17:09] And knocked on the power lines and the whole streets been without power.

[17:13] So I guess I'm saying all that to say would the

[17:17] $100 fee

[17:20] be something that would be included in the program guidelines because

[17:23] I know tree plantings are included, but also there

[17:26] are other creative ideas. Right, yes. And we certainly try

[17:30] to keep it open. So we're inviting those other creative

[17:32] ideas. We have tried to stay away from more maintenance

[17:36] type projects, which in my mind, I've got one of those

[17:39] pesky old trees in my backyard too. And I see that more as a maintenance

[17:43] responsibility of that.

[17:45] Homeowner, but that's, and I've

[17:48] not. We've not been approached by neighborhood groups with that

[17:52] concept.

[17:54] So I'm not sure about that.

[17:57] Yeah, I'm just wondering and I'm thinking out loud here, I guess

[18:01] publicly, which is probably something that's ill

[18:03] advised. I know in our budget

[18:07] we do

[18:09] a tree match to the parks. And if this is something

[18:12] they go out and do, they made it out something just working with parks to help

[18:16] with tree health and maintenance that, you know, we provide

[18:20] funds or they can use the tree match, I guess, for that type of

[18:24] program. That might be a better fit, I think, than maybe

[18:28] the neighborhood where some neighborhoods really don't have an

[18:30] association. And so I don't know. It's more of a maintenance

[18:34] project. Well, this would be the assessment. It would be the

[18:38] assessment fee for a neighbor to

[18:40] determine. And what they want to do in terms of

[18:44] maintaining it is obviously their

[18:47] decision since it would be on private

[18:49] property. But, you know, I think the

[18:52] tree match fund is really great to use that. That reminded me

[18:56] we may want to bump that up a little bit

[19:00] because of all the trees that were lost in the storm.

[19:03] But, you know, this would be more so, I could see it being

[19:06] a neighborhood project actually because I know

[19:10] a lot of people that

[19:13] already know of the trees that are problematic in their

[19:15] neighborhoods. Well, and I know just to follow up on the storm

[19:19] related, we are promoting a couple of upcoming neighborhood plantings in your

[19:22] area. One of them is on October 3rd and October

[19:24] 10th. It just so happened that those neighborhoods applied earlier this year

[19:28] to do neighborhood tree plantings. And so we're trying to highlight those

[19:31] and invite people with the storm damage that we know so many neighborhoods face

[19:35] to kind of consider those types of projects for the grant in the

[19:38] future. But again, that would be more of a public space

[19:42] right of way type of planting. But yes, I kind of see

[19:46] that as, and I understand the

[19:49] concept, but I see that it's problematic because it's on

[19:52] private property. As opposed to public

[19:55] property. And most of these grants have been things

[19:58] done to benefit the neighborhood as a community

[20:02] whole. I do know that Nepsco has gone around because they went through

[20:05] my neighborhood.

[20:08] And they trimmed back a bunch of trees. They put notices out that

[20:12] they were going to be coming through. I know that we

[20:15] contacted them after we received a notification to make certain

[20:19] that when they were trimming our

[20:21] trees, that they were not doing

[20:25] it excessively. But we also too pay for that

[20:29] service ourselves

[20:31] because it's on our private property.

[20:34] Right, the tree trimming. Right. Yeah. I was just

[20:38] talking about the assessment fee. But

[20:42] I just found it interesting because our arborist was

[20:46] interviewed for the article in the newspaper and did talk about this

[20:50] that he thought it would be

[20:52] a best practice going forward.

[20:58] That's it. Any other questions on the guidelines?

[21:01] Great. I guess we need a motion to approve the

[21:05] proposed guidelines for 2027.

[21:08] So moved. We have a second.

[21:12] Motion and a second. All in favor, please signify by saying aye.

[21:16] Any opposed same sign? Okay, the motion passes. Thank you, Maggie. Thank you very much.

[21:20] Very great program. What year are we in now? This is

[21:24] going to be the 10th grade cycle

[21:27] wild. People love it. Thank you for your support.

[21:30] Thanks, Maggie. All right. Item

[21:34] number five on our list tonight and the last of our scheduled

[21:37] items is the. Workforce housing grant application from.

[21:42] Poor, sorry, almost at Porter community homes. It's paradise

[21:46] community homes. Kevin Cornett is here to talk to us about that.

[21:49] And I'm going to step out. Thank you.

[21:55] I'm here for.

[21:58] Our proposal tonight. I didn't with Paradise Community Homes. I'm on the technical committee for

[22:01] them. And we are seeking a positive outcome for

[22:05] our grant request. Hopefully. We're

[22:08] requesting $500,000 for our infrastructure cost at

[22:12] our Cumberland crossings project.

[22:17] Pretty sure everybody knows what we're doing over there. Everybody should have got a copy of the

[22:20] packet and everything. So I'm here to answer any questions you have.

[22:24] We're building 17 attainable houses over there

[22:28] and nine lots that will be sold in market value. We believe

[22:31] when the project is finished, it'll probably have upwards of.

[22:35] A $20 million value. So a $500,000.

[22:40] I guess you could call it investment. For us to help pay for the

[22:43] infrastructure.

[22:45] I think is a pretty good return.

[22:51] Any other.

[22:53] Pardon me? Further presentation or is this open for questions?

[22:56] Just go ahead and hit me. Any questions? What do you got? All right. Let's open it up.

[23:00] Let me maybe put together a staff report based

[23:04] on the grant request that came in. So I think I had

[23:08] 18 attainable new single family homes and

[23:11] you're 17 or is it 18

[23:16] that would be sold at market, which is above the

[23:20] 300,000. And I think there was

[23:23] an estimated infrastructure cost of about

[23:26] $1.75 million in the

[23:29] request, which is in our budget. Was

[23:33] $500,000. So in our budget, I think we had.

[23:36] 500,000 for infrastructure

[23:39] related expenses. And so

[23:43] maybe you could speak a little bit, Kevin, on the timeline. I know

[23:46] it's in your grant application, but it seemed like you were hoping to start

[23:50] maybe this fall. Yes. And again, the infrastructure, again, just

[23:54] to be clear for the commission members per our guidelines is only for the

[23:57] public infrastructure. So it's not private driveways and

[24:01] stuff like that. It's really meant to be for public

[24:06] development cost

[24:09] water, sewer lines, curb gutters, sidewalks, that kind of

[24:12] stuff. But not driveways. Right. All of it built

[24:16] to city standards. Yeah, we hope to start, well actually we should be removing

[24:19] trees. We started actually removing trees the day before the storm. So our

[24:23] tree trimmers had to pull off the job to go take care of all the emergency stuff that's going

[24:26] on in the county. So they should be back

[24:29] there. I think they started back up today. It'll take

[24:32] about.

[24:34] A week, maybe 10 days to get the trees off of there. We have not

[24:38] signed a contract yet with our excavator, but we're in talks with them right

[24:42] now. He's ready to start in October.

[24:45] So hopefully we'll have all the infrastructure in depending on

[24:49] weather. This is all weather related when we get to Slate in the year. So you have

[24:53] that and then we get as much as we can done. Hopefully we'll have all the

[24:57] infrastructure in and then we'll just start digging holes in the

[25:00] spring as soon as the weather breaks. And just like I say, it's all weather dependent when you're

[25:04] doing dirt work. So we're looking at that.

[25:09] 190 to 120 days after that that we should have some houses ready to

[25:13] sell.

[25:15] Have you received bids yet for the actual or just proposals?

[25:19] We got proposals, but we're narrowing that down to an actual

[25:22] bid, which you haven't selected anybody yet.

[25:26] Is that correct? You haven't selected anybody? Well, we haven't made it. It hasn't gone through the

[25:29] board, but yeah, we had two contractors. One of them will not be able to

[25:33] start until the spring, so we're going to go with the one that can actually start

[25:36] at this October. Just so we can kind of push this along.

[25:42] Thank you. Sorry. That's all right. That's right. I had a couple questions.

[25:46] Kevin. If I'm looking at the preliminary.

[25:51] I think that's what this is called.

[25:54] Going east-west there's like, I'll call it rows of how there's three rows of

[25:57] houses. One face is the east-west street

[26:01] there. Not Valparaiso. Bullseye-like Bullseye-like, yeah.

[26:05] And then there's an alleyway, and then there's going to be a new road.

[26:10] On either side of which there'll be homes. That wraps around and then connects back

[26:14] up with Burlington Beach from Cumberland. Or

[26:17] Bullseye Lake from Cumberland.

[26:20] If I'm talking about these three rows of houses from north to

[26:22] south, which of these are going to be

[26:26] the attainables versus the market rate?

[26:29] These will all be attainable.

[26:32] Okay. These two right here. Okay, so this southernmost

[26:35] part, the southern third, two-thirds rather. These right here on

[26:39] bullseye. And these two right here.

[26:42] Okay, great. Thank you. That's helpful.

[26:45] All right. And while we have you here,

[26:48] Kevin, this is a bit off topic from the current

[26:51] request, but do you have any updates that you'd like to share

[26:55] or can you share any updates on the project over by

[26:58] Valparaiso University that you started last year? That one

[27:01] there, we have acquired the land. There is a project going on

[27:05] at the corner of Linwood and Bound Street, and that's the interfaith.

[27:10] Building that they're doing. And what's kind of holding us up on that is

[27:13] they have to replace the water line through there of which we have to

[27:17] pay for part of that too. So part of the waterline that's being replaced on

[27:21] mound is ours. They have not made

[27:24] any, I don't even think they've got anybody to bid the thing yet. So they're

[27:28] kind of dragging their feet on that. So when they get that

[27:30] established, then we can start establishing up. We are

[27:34] under, we do have most of the engineering done on it. And after

[27:37] that, we'll put that out for bid as well. So if I remember, the purpose of

[27:40] that grant that the RDC provided was for land

[27:43] acquisition. And so you have acquired the land. It's just not

[27:48] developed yet. Yeah, the land is ours. Yes. Okay. All right.

[27:53] Any other questions on this current proposal?

[28:00] Three sections, right? Pardon me? It's reimbursable basically

[28:04] at a 50% completion rate. Yes.

[28:07] Yeah, that'll work. The other dollars to use it so it gets started out. That's coming from.

[28:12] Other funds that you all are raising to be able to pay for that now before

[28:15] we actually start reimbursing. So, yes, we're, you know,

[28:19] we're like everybody else. We're looking for donations. And other

[28:23] avenues of money.

[28:27] We're new at this and we have everything. We're in our right mind about doing

[28:30] this and why we're doing it, but we really had no idea how

[28:34] much all this stuff really cost. You know, the infrastructure

[28:37] cost for this is just astronomical.

[28:41] You know, for a small project like this upwards of $2

[28:44] million. So when you're trying to build an attainable house

[28:47] and you wind up with a lot that cost

[28:51] the actual cost is, you know, upwards of $70,000. I

[28:54] mean, it's hard to keep them. It's hard to keep them without some

[28:56] help. You have to, I mean, it just takes a ton of money.

[29:02] So when you received the

[29:05] 564,500 from the RDC for

[29:08] the purchase of the 5.41 acres, I thought

[29:12] that at that time

[29:16] Paradise Homes was looking to raise money

[29:19] for this prep for that project. Yes. And so

[29:23] what this request is

[29:26] for the other project for an amount of

[29:32] 500,000. Of which you're looking for funding for that

[29:35] as well. So to me it seems like there's two big projects going on

[29:39] which are great. I mean we need more attainable housing in

[29:42] this community. But you didn't really have the money.

[29:47] For the first project. Yet. But now

[29:51] you're moving forward and asking for funding for the second

[29:55] project.

[29:57] Has the first one stalled? The first one is stalled. But we had to

[30:00] purchase the land when it's available. You know chunks of land like this don't come

[30:04] up very often. And if we cannot move on it, they go away.

[30:08] You know, and working with the university.

[30:11] Is probably most everybody up here has, you know, when they do make a decision

[30:15] and when they're not in transition with new administration or something, it was

[30:18] a perfect time to do it.

[30:20] But like I said with the Mountain Street project, the interfaith

[30:24] thing. So this all kind of backed us up. This one over here

[30:28] was ready to go. So as opposed to just waiting.

[30:32] It's better to move than to wait because everything is going up

[30:36] the whole time. That's another reason that we want to get started

[30:39] this year on the infrastructure because we've already been told

[30:43] after the first of the year. Everything's going up because of fuel

[30:46] costs and wages. So the bid right now that we have for

[30:50] this, if we don't move now, it'll be more after the first

[30:53] of the year. So then when are you anticipating that

[30:57] this water line will be

[31:01] completed so that Paradise homes can move forward

[31:05] on that Linwood Park project? Well, like I say,

[31:08] we're kind of waiting on the other developer down on the end and that's been

[31:12] kind of a, it's been kind of an odd project because

[31:15] we really didn't know what it was going to be to start with. And

[31:19] it's changed scope a couple of times.

[31:22] So they're kind of waiting on the water line. I believe, I'm

[31:26] not sure for their funding. But with when we get our

[31:29] engineering done, which should be wrapping up sometime here in the next couple of

[31:32] weeks, then we can come back and start our process of going through

[31:36] plan and BZA and everything like that to start selling property off of that

[31:40] too. Okay. All right. Because we're going to have, we'll have some market rate

[31:43] lots there as well. Right. And that's going to be phase

[31:46] one, if I recall correctly. Yeah. So that'll help fund

[31:50] that. And by the time we get that done, and believe me, this

[31:53] is not how we had it planned. But, you know, other people

[31:57] have other plans too and we have to work within it. Everybody

[31:59] else's world too. Ideally, we could have

[32:03] worked over there and then put this on hold.

[32:06] But as opposed to doing nothing, we figured we better do something.

[32:09] All right. Thank you. Sure. And I just want to point out that addendum two had

[32:13] the uses of funds for this current project in addendum four had

[32:16] the sources of funding.

[32:19] $720,000 would be from the sale of the market rate lots on.

[32:24] And that's the only way we can do this. You know, we sell

[32:27] the nicer lots or not the nicer lots, but the ones with better

[32:30] exposure, they're a little bit bigger so we can have some of

[32:33] our, some of our builders build what they want to build

[32:36] on there, then that'll be up to them to incorporate

[32:39] those. But we believe we can get a fair price for the lots

[32:42] because lots are at a premium in town too. Yeah. And then there's another

[32:46] line of sources of funds that says savings and assets of

[32:49] $742,000. Are those real hard assets

[32:53] you already have access to? Yeah, we have, yeah, we have

[32:55] that. You know, we're in partnerships with the welters to sell

[32:59] part of the old frat house to them. So that was money coming back

[33:02] from that to help pay for the land. Okay. Great.

[33:06] Any other questions? Okay, I just want to clarify the reason Bill abruptly. Stood

[33:10] up and walked out is he is the president and CEO of Paradise Community

[33:13] Homes. That's no surprise to anybody up

[33:16] here. Probably not a surprise to anybody in the community

[33:19] either. But I just wanted to clarify the reason he is

[33:22] no longer seated here. He's recusing himself from this matter.

[33:26] I would just say I was on the same page with you, Barb, as we were doing this. And

[33:30] we have two major projects in play and either kind of stalled out. And so I just want to

[33:33] make sure that the timing. Was there and get the delay. We use the money

[33:37] to buy the land and now you're waiting to be able to

[33:40] access. So I appreciate that that's going to happen. And then this. With

[33:43] the property, the land's available. We're ready to go. We've got a project that you can

[33:47] get around. By selling those marker rates. So I appreciate that clarity

[33:50] there because it helps me too. Sure. I can understand

[33:54] that. Sure. But I mean when the property comes up

[33:58] and George knows that if you're not ready to go, somebody else will have

[34:02] it. And believe me they wouldn't put. Those types of houses on

[34:05] that property if they had the opportunity to do it. They'd be building something different.

[34:09] So that's the things that we're trying to fill. And I

[34:13] appreciate your concerns as well.

[34:16] As playing that waiting game and then the cost will go up exponentially.

[34:22] And then you will be looking for more money. Yep, we don't

[34:25] do it now. It either won't get done or.

[34:29] It'll just be a lot more.

[34:34] All right. And I just want to, again, I probably should have said this at the

[34:37] outset, but just as background again for anybody who may be watching at home.

[34:41] Keeping track of what we're up to, this is the second year we've had.

[34:45] Housing related grant program from the RDC

[34:49] last year. Biggest grant was awarded to Paradise Community Homes for the land

[34:52] acquisition we just discussed. This year the budget was increased.

[34:58] But the amount for infrastructure was half a million dollars. This project alone

[35:02] requires at least half a million dollars. So we're seeking to

[35:05] provide that to Paradise Community Homes here on the second project.

[35:10] With that.

[35:12] Hearing no other discussion or questions, I will ask for a motion to approve this request.

[35:19] Second. Motion in a second. All in favor say aye.

[35:25] Those opposed same sign hearing none. Motion carries

[35:28] unanimously. Thank you very much. Thank you.

[35:32] All right. Item six takes us to other business. Anything George? Yes, I have three

[35:35] items. I'll update the commission

[35:38] on. First is that they last meeting

[35:41] I updated the commission and notified you that after the storm

[35:45] on August 11th there was a small portion of the roof that collapsed

[35:48] at the Regal Building in 909 Washington Street. We did

[35:52] file an insurance claim. We did meet with the adjuster out

[35:55] there. And so they sent their report

[35:59] and now the insurance company has hired a structural

[36:03] engineer to come on site and further evaluate

[36:07] the cause of damage and necessary

[36:10] repairs. So we did meet with them on site this week

[36:14] on Tuesday. I anticipate they will have

[36:17] their report done in the next two weeks

[36:20] and then that will get sent to the insurance company and hopefully

[36:24] they'll make a determination on coverage

[36:28] and so forth so we can get going with the

[36:31] repairs. It is holding up the remediation that's taking place

[36:35] in the building. So I just wanted to update the commission on

[36:37] that. Item number two is just for the

[36:41] commission. We're at that time of year we start working on

[36:45] our budgets and nearing completion. So as in

[36:48] years past I will present the draft of the budget at the

[36:51] October meeting for final approval at the November

[36:55] meeting. So in between now and the

[36:58] October meeting I'll probably sit down with one or two of you at a time

[37:03] and just kind of go through sort of where we're at with the budget

[37:08] and again it will present it in detail at the October

[37:11] meeting. Item number

[37:13] three, just one new I got notified

[37:17] yesterday

[37:19] and this has come up I think about a year ago with the city council

[37:23] but in so some city council members already have a copy of it.

[37:30] On the agenda I think for the meeting on Monday will be

[37:33] a proposal an evaluation proposal, a dynamic impact study

[37:37] of the Valparaiso redevelopment commission. And so

[37:40] I wanted to one this as a public document. And so I just want to make sure

[37:45] since it's dealing with the redevelopment commission I wanted to make sure you get a copy

[37:48] of it. So that will be on the city council

[37:52] meeting for discussion and

[37:54] consideration. And so if it moves forward we

[37:57] look forward to working with the city council

[38:01] and however this proposal moves from there. But I just didn't want you to read about

[38:05] it or hear about it. And since there's two city council members here

[38:10] this is not a discussion item but just want to make sure you had a copy of it

[38:13] and was aware of at least what was going on related to the

[38:16] commission. So with that, that's all I have

[38:21] there under other business. Okay. Great thank you

[38:24] yeah on that last point. I mean this is a topic that's been kicked

[38:28] around for several years by members on council.

[38:31] And so I will be waiting with bated breath to hear how

[38:35] that goes.

[38:37] And based on the proposal at least that I see here in front of me

[38:40] now. It looks kind of interesting. So we'll see what they do.

[38:45] Let's see.

[38:47] At this time I'll open it up to anybody from the public who wishes to address the

[38:51] commission.

[38:53] Seeing none I'll adjourn the meeting. Thank you.

RDC Meeting 09/10/2026

Transcript