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06-24-2008 CRA MeetingCity of Clermont Community Redevelopment Agency Meeting June 24, 2008 The Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) met on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 in the Council Chambers at City Hall. Mayor Hal Turville called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. with the following CRA members present: Bob Bowman, Mary Jo Pfeifer, Council Members Mullins, Goodgame, Berlinsky and Hogan. Other City officials present were: City Manager Saunders, Assistant City Manager Gray, and City Clerk Ackroyd. Approval of Minutes Community Redevelopment Agency meeting minutes of December 11, 2008. Council Member Goodgame moved approval of the minutes as written• seconded by Council Member Mullins. The motion passed with all members present voting "aye". CRA Plan City Manager Saunders provided a copy of the adopted plan. The plan was modified 18 months ago. The plan outlines goals of the CRA, financing and where funds can be spent. In order to modify the plan, it would have to be amended through the public hearing process. The streetscape project was identified as the top priority years ago. Signage was included in the last amendment to help with downtown Signage and entranceway. CRA Budget City Manager Saunders advised the CRA budget has a little over $900,000 in reserves. Last year, the Council adopted the budget to utilize $911,000 for the next phase of streetscape. AlI funds are currently budgeted for streetscape. We will receive approximately $300,000 next year in revenues and will have $1.2 million for CRA next year. Council can move forward or modify the budget. Staff is approximately 3 to 4 months away from bidding the next phase of streetscape. An option to consider is financing to do the rest of the streetscape all at once. Mr. Saunders would not recommend the city borrow money with the instability on revenue sources. Streetscape Mr. Saunders anticipates phase 2 and a portion of phase 4 would be $1.2 million. The primary cost is placing overhead wires in the ground. An idea discussed was to do all the underground work now for all 3 phases upfront then decide where to expend the remaining funds. Staff met with Progress Energy and determined it will be 40 percent less to do it all at once. Mayor Turville commented if Council chooses to complete the underground work, it would be 2 to 3 years before completing phase 2 of the streetscape project. The infrastructure will cost more if a decision is made to delay the underground work. Council Member Hogan requested using additional funds to place a water fountain in Center Lake. City Manager Saunders stated it could be funded through CRA. Council Member Ho ag n moved to go ahead and put in the balance of the under~ound wires; seconded by Council Member Mullins City Manager Saunders explained all we can do at this point is place in the budget. Mike Latham questioned how spending money on the underground wires would affect the other projects. City Manager Saunders stated it will limit the next phase of streetscape and push future phases out a number of years. It would not affect the signage project. Mayor Turville was not supportive of a fountain. Council Member Goodgame suggested looking at the Stoneybrook development to find out the cost of their fountain. City Manager Saunders noted he can check on that and commented on having information on the one in Tavares. Ann Dupee was present representing the Elks Club on the Downtown Association. She questioned enlarging the CRA or the Central Business District (CBD), a parking study and sidewalks. She suggested a trailhead sign. City Manager Saunders responded noting there have not been discussions to enlarge the CRA but staff has ideas and hopes to bring to Council soon. A parking study was done after the CRA was established. In the CBD, it has met code for new businesses. The location of spaces was the question. Sidewalks were recently completed in the CRA on Desoto Street from the Sheriff's substation going west out through the residential to 12`" Street as well as 7'" Street, Also, the intersections were modified to include a handicap ramp. Council Member Berlinsky asked if there is an effort to define a vision for downtown. City Manager Saunders explained there have been two initiatives discussed to establish a vision for downtown. The latest was bringing in the Florida Redevelopment Association and have had scheduling conflicts. It has been a number of years since we had a visioning session. The City did establish a Main Street program years ago. There was a full time director and the City provided funding for 3 years. The businesses were suppose to take over after three years but did not. Council Member Goodgame called for the question. The motion passed with all members present voting "aye". Signage City Manager Saunders commented the Downtown Partnership has been working on signage. The other signage is the gateway signage which is not funded currently. The question for Council is whether to use money initially budgeted for streetscape to do a gateway sign at Highway 50 and 8'" Street. Also, consider a gateway sign on 12`" Street and 5`" Street to bring people to Montrose Street. The sign identifies the downtown area. He recommended re-appropriating some of this year's budget money to start working on this immediately. Council Member Goodgame moved that Mr. Saunders g_o ahead with the Gateway signs as part of this year's budget and approval of the present signage program as presented; seconded by Bob Bowman.The motion passed with all members present voting "aye". Adjourn: With no further business, the meeting adjourned at 6:47p.m. Harold S. Turville, Mayor