To the January 7th meeting of the Economic Matters Committee.

Here as myself, along with Alderman Savage and Alderwoman Janice also Johnson.

So first, can I have an approval of the agenda?

So moved.

Can I have a second?

A second.

All those in favor of the agenda.

Aye.

Up next, we have election of the chair of the committee.

Do I have a nomination for a chair?

Yes.

I would like to nominate Alderman Chandelmeyer.

Thank you.

Is there a second?

I accept.

Do we have any other nominations for chairs?

Seeing none.

All in favor of Alderman Chandelmeyer as the chair.

Aye.

Thank you very much.

I am very excited to be chairing this committee again.

All right.

So we have a light agenda today.

ID 826 economic development update.

Come on up.

So I had requested that we would have a uh a recap of a fantastic presentation that you gave during our final economic matters last year.

Breakdown of city businesses.

And you went above and beyond and actually have an updated version of that presentation.

Sorry.

Anyway, I apparently had my mic off.

So uh asked you to go uh you have a recap of the presentation that you gave during our final economic matters from hearing during our last term.

You went above and beyond and actually have updated business information for us.

Uh so I am very excited, and now I would like to turn the floor over together.

Oh, can you turn your mic on, please?

And could you also uh introduce yourself for the record?

Yes, of course.

So uh my name is Adam Stroud, I'm the economic development manager.

Uh thank you for having me here this evening.

Uh what our office was able to put together uh late last year was uh essentially permitting data.

So we're leveraging the data that we have available to us to be able to uh draw inferences regarding businesses in the city of Annapolis.

So as an update in the uh the month of December.

So just going back to October, because I know the our previous meeting was was early in the month.

Uh, but we had two new businesses with seven relocating.

Now that's relocating, expanding, or change of ownership, um, which would which resulted in 26 uh full-time employees and 16 part-time employees.

Uh so one thing of note in December, I think that's uh particularly interesting, is that one employer expanded their operations in the city of Annapolis, adding 40 new full-time employees.

Uh that's the second largest event of the year, the first being in in February, where you had an employer enter the city and add 73 employees.

So um, and so that's uh that's encouraging to see.

Those are the type of numbers that we um that we hope to see more of.

Uh one and just uh I don't I don't know how much I should go over from before, but just to just a quick anomaly here.

You see, in September, there were 200 and 200 part-time employees added.

Um but uh the what actually happened was that there was a change in ownership in a law in a large employer.

So that was logged in the data that's essentially noise.

I still logged it, but it's um in in this report, but it's worth mentioning and it's worth um it's worth explaining.

So that's not actually the case.

So going down here, um, this is uh again a similar extrapolation.

It's the same extrapolation just with the that that I showed in the last meeting.

Um just with updated data here.

Um the observations that I made prior haven't really changed.

Um, you know, that ward six, there had only been one uh you can see here one business that with this is by the way, three years of permitting data.

So I should I should make that point.

I'm sorry.

So up here we do have the past six months, whereas here we have all three years of permitting data.

This is from 2023 to 2025, as the data has been logged in the system.

So the uh the one business in ward six was actually um the Head Start program with through the YMCA.

see here one business that with this is by the way three years of permitting data so I should I should make that point I'm sorry so up here we do have the past six months whereas here we have all three years of permitting data this is from 2023 to 2025 as the data has been been logged in the system so the uh the one business in ward six was actually um the Head Start program with through the YMCA so it's it's interesting to to make these observations so look at the data and make these observations because it helps inform us about the different wards about the potential for additional commercial development um and also just about uh development priorities moving forward right where can we where can we see more more commercial or maybe where you know where can we grow grow employment base so it helps it helps us to um to make those types of informed decisions um when we see what's actually happening within the wards themselves so another interesting I don't know how much value there is to it but it's still interesting to see that um you know in ward one has the total has the largest amount of um of square footage that had been permitting over the past three years however uh if you look at ward uh ward three ward three has the largest footprint right the average square foot per permitted entity so you may make you could make the um you know make the assumption that maybe the businesses might be bigger in ward three but it's worth looking into it's worth exploring for further and that's what data does it allows us to find uh find different trends and and explore them and um uh you know develop the strategies around around that so um and then finally the the types of um the businesses that were that have been permitted so I'm not gonna go through through all of these uh you should have this if if you have any questions feel free to reach out uh but you can see that um you know as one of the the largest permitted entities you know professional offices office business professional nonprofit so essentially you know you're looking at you know services Annapolis's economy I I don't I don't think that's a surprise to anybody is um you know the economic engines generally the service sector which it is for most of the country right 80 percent is the is the the figure that's always thrown around 80% of the U.S.

economy is based on services and you look at the city of Annapolis based on permitted entities in the past three years it it fits that trend so um I invite any questions on this uh it's again it's it's similar to to the other month but please so you had said that one new business had added 43 new jobs 40 new jobs yeah 40 new jobs and that was one individual business correct that was an expansion of an existing business yes do you know the business yes so that that was black market bakers their expansion on West Street so that and they're the new business unit that they've stood up on West Street's actually a large commercial kitchen they do um a sign I would even I would even posit that it's almost uh industrial scale kitchen so um it it tracks as to why they would have that type of employment because when you're putting out that much product you have multiple shifts and so um so that that's that again but it reflects the important nature of the service industry here in in the city of Annapolis.

So any of my colleagues have any uh questions Altamon Savage uh so important first question is how did you uh like the uh whole midnight madness uh you know um period of economic activity and vitality downtown yes so um I I was kind of ill for the most of the month of December I I'm still getting over a few so I I I did have an opportunity uh on the last night when I was feeling when I was feeling up to it to go out and um I spent most of the time on inner west street and it was very vibrant uh my my wife and I were out until maybe around 11 o'clock um but it's it's a benchmark event during the year for the city of Annapolis it caps off a wonderful fall and winter season um and um you know it's it's something that can continue to grow and evolve so yeah it was an it was interesting to see that this year especially there was so much collaboration between the different business associations and that's something I would like to see continue to grow so good yeah good to hear um so as far as far as like when when you we have businesses leave could be downtown could be elsewhere have you ever done any kind of like excerpt interview kind of things just to find out the reasons why they left um anything on the cities end that we can improve yeah yeah unfortunately it's the we don't have a mechanism that can alert us when a business so unlike permitting right businesses need to apply for a permit to be able to become operational use use and occupancy permit among others so we have we have that data I get an alert every time a commercial permit is submitted within the system so I know what's coming down the pipeline but when a business closes it's not required to disclose that to the city in any way there's no so we a lot of times we learn after the fact when it's a corporate entity I think one most recently that's high profile on Main Street's fact

Businesses need to apply for a permit to be able to become operational use use and occupancy permit among others.

So we have we have that data.

I get an alert every time a commercial permit is submitted within the system, so I know what's coming down the pipeline.

But when a business closes, it's not required to disclose that to the city in any way.

There's no so we a lot of times we learn after the fact.

When it's a corporate entity, I think one most recently that's high profile on Main Street's fat face, right?

Um it can become that much more difficult to follow up because now you're dealing with layers of complexity.

Um that because the home office isn't here, you can't go to somebody and knock on their door and say, I'd like to talk about what happened.

You're dealing with a with an entity that could, in this case, even be in a different country.

So what we hope to do now, and what I'm working on is developing another automated, an automated response to businesses as they apply to permits, something that I'm working on internally, so that way they know that we exist.

So we can get to them before that happens, before they close.

They know we're here.

We can run some sort of intervention and see if there's a way to ensure that that business remains viable in the city of Annapolis.

So unfortunately, at this moment, we don't have a means to act in real time as a business closes because we hear about it oftentimes after the fact is everybody else.

But when that business is struggling and needs support, that's when they come to us and that's where we can catch them and hopefully stop that attrition in the first place.

And if we can't, if it's out of our hands for whatever reason, then at least we know that there's an opportunity to follow up with them and ask those types of questions.

Thank you.

And Mr.

Chair, if you want me to put a pin on pin in this and just let me know how to do so.

But since you mentioned permitting, um I'm curious.

Are there does your office act as like could you act as an advocate advocate for and and to help assist new businesses?

But what about existing businesses?

Like if they have if ones are having, I don't know, if what they perceive as a difficulty in internally with maybe a permit delay or uh some other discreet with staff, is that something that your office assists with?

Or is that kind of fall outside of your a large portion of what we do, in fact, yes, whether it's a new business or an existing business that's applying for a permit that needs some either facilitation, a lot of its facilitation, our office doesn't have the ability to review anything on its own.

Um and I wouldn't necessarily frame it as dispute, but um sometimes because the sta at for a city the size of Annapolis with um the amount of development that just organically occurs, the staff can get over the staff on the permitting sign can get overwhelmed, right?

They they work very quickly, you know, as a permit gets assigned.

I don't want to speak for them, and that's not what I'm here to do.

But as they get assigned, they generally have a two-week window.

Um so what what we do is that when sometimes there are complexities or other issues that require an internal voice to help move things along, that's what we do.

So we act as that internal liaison, we act as that advocate, and um, and we help we help push the process along when we can.

It's very common.

Yeah.

And if there are if there are processes that you see that you may be familiar with as being typical barriers to businesses, I would I think we would definitely love to hear about them.

You know, one thing that top of my mind is I know our special exception process can be a bit burdensome um as far as time commitment, but also just the resources, um, you know, the planning, uh, the legal fees that have to go into that.

And I think um we're not a we try to be very cognizant, especially the chair, um, but I think the rest of us aren't always necessarily queued in on some of the impact they may have on small businesses.

You know, I think we all want to have and support small local business as opposed to like a big chain, you know, restaurant or whatever uh business, chain restaurant.

And so I think we need to make sure we are processes support and encourage those local businesses, and so and just to say that because I know that's at the top of some of our minds as far as that special exception process, but just as an example of the things we might want to do.

And I'm going to piggyback off of my colleagues' commentary.

I think that some of our not your part of the department planning zoning, but there are others who can use their own biases and opinions to come up with arbitrary rulings and ideas on what is best for a small business when the small business owner knows what has worked and has created a really good thing for Annapolis.

And oftentimes when the city puts some of these arbitrary guidelines down, it ends up harming our local owners and favoring big out of towners.

I like to point to there's a reason why Atlas Restaurant Group is the only one that seems to be opening up lots of new businesses in our downtown area and not local uh local mom and pop shops.

That's not me criticizing the Atlas restaurant group, but it is me pointing out a larger outside entity is able to navigate our process while someone who lives in the city of Annapolis may not have those same resources.

Yeah.

To wait it out.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um so I mean on on your first point regarding special exception.

I haven't unfortunately I'm not able to speak confidently on that because I haven't been uh party to that process yet.

Most of what I've been doing has to do with fairly mundane just businesses that don't even know how to start the process.

And that's where we hold their hand.

We walk them through it.

We make sure they sign up for a pre-application meeting.

But what's very important is for them to even understand what's required for that pre-application meeting.

They can't go in there empty handed.

So a lot of it is um, you know, understanding what the um you know, the un the unknown unknowns are.

They don't know what they don't know yet.

And that's what we do is we help them understand what they need to get to be able to get in front of whether it's you know, whether it's site site plan review or whether it's a permitting issue, whatever it might be, that they need to know what they need to submit.

So that's part of the challenge there.

Um, you know, regarding the ease of permitting for larger entities that might have they have more capital, therefore they can hire, you know, they can get more technical assistance, they can hire more expertise versus um you know, smaller businesses.

I take the I take the mindset of um, you know, almost the I I don't kind of quote other uh of a c economist, but um you know the economist Jeffrey Sachs, you know, he said, you know, you should take a clinician's approach, each one is different, right?

So that's kind of how I look at it.

Sometimes small some businesses need to be in triage and pushed up with others because of what's happening for them particularly with the permitting process.

Hey, I've been stuck in limbo for three months because there's been a disconnect somewhere, and we need to get open now, right?

We need to get open, we're paying bills.

Um, and a lot most of the times it's a small business.

We want to make sure that they receive the attention that they deserve and get their permitting.

It's a lot of times once we intervene, it moves very quickly because it is oftentimes a communication error, and we can we can facilitate that quickly.

Um, but it doesn't, I'll spend as much time as I need to with any business, regardless of its size to make sure that it gets what it's the permits that it needs to become operational and operate safely within the city of Annapolis.

So um now to do that at scale, that's where it gets difficult, and that's what we're trying to do right now in um and sort of reorienting our office.

How can we do that?

How can we provide that personal approach, but do it in a way that's scalable so that way we can we can pursue other initiatives as well to help diversify the economy um and help grow the quality of life here within Annapolis.

So is it is it kind of typical?

Because that I've heard anecdotally just about some business point at some businesses, just for example, downtown, um one of the new sandwich shops that it took them a very long time to open.

And and again, anecdotally, people like to blame the city for that, and maybe it is, but do you have exam you know any information?

Is that really a city-driven delay, or is that an applicant delay?

Well, it's hard to say on No, no, I just I'm just um I want to be careful because I don't want to, I don't want to use any everything that we do is confidential, right?

Which is why I was a little hesitant to even mention that it was black market bakers that had the expansion, but they but they've been celebrating it, and it is something to celebrate in the champion.

Um so I I don't want to again have any actual examples and expose anybody because I want people, our businesses in the city to feel confident that they can come to us.

Having said that, um to your question, there's just like anything else, there they're very easy permitting, you know, permit applications that go through, and my director, Chris Kubiak can tell you some great success stories, and then once you know once in a while you do have issues where because it's a comp it's maybe might be a complex scenario in the way that the code is written, makes it somewhat more difficult to find the right permit or to understand the right process.

So I just want to be clear that everybody in the department um, you know, everybody wants to see these applicants get their permits in a timely manner, but um everybody's following the code, right?

It all goes back to the code.

So um I don't I don't know if that's a satisfactory answer for you right now, but um the best that we can do in economic development is to ensure that each business gets the attention that they that they need to get through.

So yeah.

Well, thank you.

And and that gets to my one of my points is I think we we do we would love to know when the code is in hindrance.

Right.

But in any case, that's all I have, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Alderman Savage.

And uh Alderman also Johnson.

I just want to ask um what causes a business to close like overnight, you know.

Because I have noticed a lot of business.

Like I had one, I went to a location one evening, and the next day I was going back and it was closed.

I was like, wow, what caused that?

You know, yeah.

And people were parking and they were very upset that it was closed.

I was upset.

And I always wonder what causes a building to close overnight.

Well, I it's I don't think it's anyone.

It could be many, yeah, it could be many things.

Could be mismanagement, could be location, could be an issue with marketing, could be competition.

I mean, there are many factors that put pressure on a business.

Um, you know, could be how they're leveraged, right?

How much how much debt do they have?

Cash flow is always going to be what closes a business.

They're not making enough money.

Um, you know, not enough uh revenue as it pertains to how much debt that they might have, right?

How much how much debt and and you know other operating expenses.

So it's never really one um one issue or one thing.

It could be a variety, could be many, could be an individual one, but out of that larger bucket.

Um, but a lot of times it always comes back to cash flow.

It could be personal, right?

Maybe something happened, maybe it was a family business and the proprietor might have passed away, and that the heirs and assigns, right?

Could be the children decide not to.

We don't want to run a you know, uh uh uh steam cleaners or something.

It's just so that is allowed to just close like that without knowing find the people in the areas.

I mean, there this was a restaurant that was everybody was going to.

Yeah.

Yeah, I can't I can't speak on the legalities of how bit but businesses are shuttered.

Worked in restaurants, they keep that close to the chest so the staff don't that's that's why they don't advertise.

Okay.

Yeah.

There's some sticky fingered syrups out there.

You're very welcome.

All right.

Uh any further questions?

Nope.

All right.

So uh I believe you have some city doc business updates.

Thank you.

All right.

So I want to give everybody an update of so you may have heard in uh there's been some a little bit of press around this, but there's also been updates to this the city's web page.

The construction fence, and I wanted to take the opportunity here to explain explain the situation and what we've done so far.

Um so the construction fencing on the city dock is scheduled to expand from Craig Street where it currently is down Dock Street, which will take up um I believe roughly 50 parking spaces.

Uh, and that will be used for, and I'm this is not a technical, by the way.

This is just from what I've what I recall from our conversations, which will be used for like a materials laydown area.

So while there won't be any construction occurring in that corridor, for the remainder of the phase one of the project, which um the schedule right now goes out until the summer of 2027.

So the remainder of phase one, that will be occupied as a materials laydown area.

Therefore, Dock Street will effectively become a one-way street.

So I don't know if this is news to you.

I hope this isn't news to you tonight.

I okay, I just want to the good.

Then I'm then I'm just giving you a background on that on what what is occurring so that way you understand what our what our office in partnership with public information office um has done to to mitigate this in the short term.

We have longer term planning that we're working on as well.

But we were told about this on December 17th.

The initial date for the expansion was scheduled for January 4th.

We were able to convince uh the contractor to extend it another two weeks so we had time to plan as well as to alert the businesses on Dock Street so that they were aware of this change.

On third the follow that that was a Wednesday, so the the next day, Thursday, I organized meetings with all the businesses along Dock Street so that I could explain to them in person what would be occurring.

That Friday I met with all the businesses, and I documented all the feedback, concerns, questions, suggestions, recommendations, all of that was documented.

Um we had some great, we had some great response.

Obviously, the businesses were very concerned about this and how it would affect um foot traffic, right?

You now you have a what is a I believe an eight, I believe an eight-foot construction fence, but it could I I can't remember if it's six or eight, so I do apologize.

Foot construction fence occupying that space.

So we wanted to ensure that we were responsive to those needs.

So first, though, so what we've done immediately with uh through the public of uh or through the public information office, I should say, is that we we've essentially come to the conclusion that we need a dedicated campaign to inform the public that Dock Street is in fact open during construction.

The the fence there might convince visitors or residents otherwise, so we need to have a messaging campaign around um around still going to Dock Street when it's still there.

You can go, you can visit the businesses, you can get to the Naval Academy through the Barrie Gate going up Craig Street.

So I want to share with you some of the um the initial signage.

So this is everything I'm sharing with you today has already been produced.

We have it.

We're ready to deploy it on day one on January 19th when the fence goes up.

So this first item here is a sandwich board that we're going to be placing at the um at sort of at the entrance of Dock Street, where you have Randall and Dock Street to draw foot traffic, especially foot traffic looking to visit the Naval Academy, go through Doc Street, up Craig and use the Barrie Gate.

Umce the you know, major, there's a major assets being taken offline in the form of City Dock, the Naval Academy is still there.

We want to capture some of that foot traffic for Dock Street.

So you can just to get an idea here.

This is sort of the the branding that we're using for the overarching campaign.

The assets have already been created.

So we're repurposing what was done prior so that um you know we have a unified visual identity for this as we build upon it.

So uh following signage here is uh construction fence signage.

So again, this then this was all Mitchell developed all of this.

Um she just asked for my opinion, which I'm not sure how much that's worth, but I gave it to her.

Uh and you can see she did a wonderful job.

She did an amazing job with this.

As you can see, their QR codes in the corner, so that'll push um traffic back to the City Doc website where they can learn more about the project.

Visitors and residents who who capture it can learn more about the project, learn more about the businesses there, and just City Doc in general.

So these will go along the construction fencing on the north side facing the businesses.

So that way it'll provide some color and some life.

It's not just going to be uh, you know, a silt fence blocking blocking the view.

So at the very least, their renderings of the project that can maybe draw curious visitors down to see what's this going to look like in a few years and help visualize.

And then finally uh parking way finding.

So knowing that one of the big concerns that the businesses had going back up to the initial image here, uh was the loss of parking, not only for their customers, but their employees themselves, they have you know, they're coming from other areas.

Um so to mitigate at least on the part of visitors not having parking, right?

The who are coming from outside of the city of Annapolis hoping to enjoy downtown.

We wanted to make sure there are ample signs directing people back to the Hillman Garage, which was again built for that purpose.

So we're using the same branding campaign, same visual identity here, and these will be placed uh downtown.

So you can see this one circles back around.

This will be placed at the circle of compromise street.

Uh one side will be would will be this will be the front side here, showing people where the garage is through the circle, and then if they miss the garage for whatever reason or coming back down Green Street, this will show them how to get back to the garage, and then um this one, I believe will be on Randall.

Uh showing people how to get to the garage coming from down Randall from Prince George.

So uh a few other items that um of note.

So there were and there was an extent extensive list of questions that were generated by the businesses, both for the city of Annapolis for the contractor.

Um those are being circulated.

The city and whiting turner are working to answer those to provide um you know to provide responses to the businesses as to why this is occurring.

Importantly, all the stakeholders in Doc Street are being um being included in regular communications.

I have an email, I have multiple email threads with everybody in the list is growing, right?

We're including not even just the businesses, but we we want to ensure visit Annapolis is there, right?

They have the visitor center, uh the mobile visitor center right now, but any other stakeholders that want to be a part of that, we're bringing them in so they feel included, not only in the communications, but in parts of the decision making, such as the content of the signage.

We made sure to share that with everybody.

I put out a survey to understand because we have limited time and resources, put out a survey of different options of what we can do right now prior to the fence being extended.

And from that feedback, we were able to select those items that seem most impactful to all the respondents.

Um the direction of the street will be coming north if you go north on Randall, then you take a right on Dock Street.

So now you're going west on Doc Street one way, and then you take a left on Craig, that's one way, and then another left on Prince George, that's one way.

So there was some question on which direction would be better.

The businesses made it clear they preferred that um that schematic.

That would be better for for them.

And as such, the parking that's existing there will be restriped.

So public works is committed to restriping the parking so that it goes head in, as well as to uh restrict the parallel parking so it's clear which direction cars would need to park, given the change in um the change in direction of the street.

So again, that came directly from the businesses.

We're we're attempting to respond as best we can in um in and getting them those those items that um that we can do unilaterally.

And that's where we are right now.

So um this will this will continue, we'll continue to work.

This is essentially the the base of a larger um, you know, a larger strategy of including all you know these businesses in uh mitigating the um you know the the construction that's occurring there.

So uh I open up to questions from the committee.

Yes.

So do you have um is there a way for frequent communication from the businesses if they feel like there's uh something has come up that we didn't foresee in advance, which we cannot foresee everything in advance.

We're not omnipotent.

Yeah.

Uh so like let's say something comes up like uh, hey, we need to change the signage because this is proving ineffective.

What's our plan of attack then?

Yeah.

So I as I mentioned, I have what what's what I call stakeholders' lists, uh comprehensive contact list of multiple contacts through all the different businesses, or like I mentioned, visit Annapolis is on there as well.

So right now, what I'm doing is I'm sending out an email, not as effective as I like, but I'm looking at other solutions on how we can have real-time responses.

So I more digital messaging systems.

So will there be periodic like in-person meetings, periodic phone call, like conference calls, or is it they have my number if they need anything type of situation?

I so the in-person meet I had based on the responses that I've had, many of the businesses found those to be ineffectual.

Okay.

Um I I'm more than happy to have them, and I can I see can suggest them when I I can suggest them when I feel that is prudent, but for right now, the the cadence that we have via email and text message and sell, they all have my cell number.

They could call me, they some text me, we go back.

So it's it's more of a case-by-case basis again.

But I make sure to include everybody when when it's decision making time.

I'm not gonna ask you to do a thing that the businesses are finding to be ineffectual, uh, just to satisfy a checklist.

If what's working is working, let's stick with it.

Okay.

Yeah.

Almost I'll go ahead.

All the time.

Do you have any questions?

But thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Yeah.

So uh you answered, so it's gonna be in place till summer 27.

Uh is Dock Street actually going to be one way, or were you just that's the plan, yes.

Yeah, it would need to be one way.

Yeah, so it's going one way down City Dock to the east.

Correct.

Well, for to going, yeah, going to the wet to the west.

Going west or west.

I'm sorry, going yes, from from the west going east.

From west, west to east.

Yes, you're you're going east.

Yeah, going to the street.

Going down, I'm sorry.

Yeah.

City dock.

So it's going to city dock.

And then it's right.

It would make less that uh Craig Street, left from Craig.

Yeah.

Okay.

And looks like there's going to be one row of parking still on Dock Street.

Yes.

How many spots?

I believe it's uh I believe it's like 12.

I believe it's 12, maybe.

I can, I mean, it's hard for me to see.

I don't know.

But it's let's just say proxy.

A baker's dozen, right?

Somewhere maybe around 12 between 12 and 14.

And then plus the parallel parking as well.

So I'm glad to hear the businesses are concerned about foot traffic.

Um I'm gonna throw something out there because when I was listening to you, why don't we just that's what their concern is, and I love it because I want more foot traffic.

Why don't we just close down Dock Street to cars, close down Craig Street to cars and just pedestrianize the whole thing, bring in some kind of amenities like I don't know, anything games, fire pits, anything, get people down there to hang out to get more traffic, and because that would visually open it up.

We could put in more planters down there to get some little trees or something.

That seems like a more compelling way to bring people down there because we really need to save 14 parking spaces just for because most of the businesses when I was looking at Google Maps, most of them are restaurants.

Restaurants, yeah.

I mean, look what we could do.

If we do that, we could have outdoor dining down there.

Imagine that, right?

I mean, that would also bring quite a bit of foot traffic for the businesses.

And I know it's different for retail stores.

My my understanding is a little different for retail stores, and that I think they do have a perception that they need the parking.

Correct me if I'm wrong, if you're hearing otherwise, but are you hearing otherwise like from the retail stores?

Um the it was pretty universal that one of the largest concerns was the loss of parking from ever from the businesses that not that I can't bring your suggestion to them.

I'm more than happy to do that, but um just from the qualitative data that I gathered, the loss of the parking was serious concern, which is why the the parking signage that that we're working, not only the parking signage that we have here that's sort of branded, but we're also collaborating with public works to put actual part directional signs to the parking garage as a means to that's all good.

We need to be doing that ultimately.

But were you hearing that from all businesses there?

Because it would surprise me just because well, I guess on the one hand it's surprising, the other hand it doesn't, because I know American businesses are just so R oriented, it's shameful.

But I bring, for example, I think was it this committee when we were talking with the businesses on Market Street, the restaurants, yeah, and they said we don't need parking.

Our businesses are flourishing without this parking here.

We want to keep using it for outdoor dining.

Yeah, I would be willing to bet that those restaurant owners would help outreach to those other restaurants to say, look, this is gonna be a boon for you.

Um maybe we could even get so we could probably at least get the restaurants on board.

Um but the the retail businesses might be a different story, but uh maybe there are other things jurisdictions have done around the world to help like retail specific.

But I just think pedestrianization, like why would we we're about to go into the not about we're in the middle of the winter, but before we know it, we're gonna be going into the spring and summer.

Like this would be a phenomenal opportunity to actually try outdoor dining experiment down here.

Um, and I mean, to your point, that's exactly why we built the garage is to have park offload the parking from City Dock.

Yeah, and um we have every excuse here to kind of try it.

Um I don't know, but there's an another idea would be if people really need parking down there, is you could still close pedestrianized dock street, but then keep Craig Street, make Craig Street into a little make that into a little parking lot.

People can park in and do diagonal parking and park, but then you'd still have fasterization out front on City Dock, which ultimately is what we want to some of us would do anyway.

Yeah, you know, so I think there are a couple different ways to possibly do it.

And I think, you know, I don't know, rather than before we spend all this time on well, we're probably gonna do it anyway on signs, but I don't know.

I'm just trying to think outside.

Is that crazy?

I think right now with the trains already left the station on the city dock plan and trying to radically redesign things is this is just for the construction though.

Yeah.

I think folks are a little nervous, and let's get this part done first before we have some fun playing.

So the eventually dock street will be taken up by construction.

So for phase two, it'll from curb to curb, it will be construction fencing.

So there will be, yeah.

So when the phase when phase two goes underway, the construction fencing that is there now will engulf um all of Dock Street.

So there will be it, but but the presumption is that the city dock project would be phase one would be completed, and you have a park, you have a reason for people to go down the sidewalk, go down the promenade.

It pulls them down that way.

Yeah, I'm I'm just saying like I mean, you said this is gonna be a space at government schedules.

Although we did meet the schedule, I think for the parking garage, but we didn't turn it up with they're good, yeah.

But more often than not, I would say government work often runs over.

And that's but you know, regardless summer of 27.

I don't know if that's gonna be the middle of summer, end of summer.

That's it could be essentially two summers that we would have an opportunity to kind of you know open the space up and do something more creative with it.

Well, if yeah, if if you have uh have any ideas or proposal, I'm more than happy to share them with the businesses there to see um you know kind of gauge the response.

Um I know one thing that they they did mention was that they love to see some programming down that way to bring more people down.

So yeah, that'd be great, but we can't have a beach yeah, uh a road right to uh and parking lots to have program, and that's where you know I get it, but ultimately this is it's a public it's public street, public right of way.

It is not owned by the businesses, right?

And I mean, regardless, I'd I'd I'll I'll talk to my ward one colleague about it.

Sure, yeah.

He'd be the one to push this or not, but um anyway, just popped in my head.

Thank you.

Like we could do get somebody to do a conceptual sketch of and bring it to the businesses to say, look, here's your your outdoor because you all the businesses are right next to each other.

They could have a giant outdoor dining area, uh-huh, and then maybe we could do sketch for some other kind of here's where we can get people to hang out, yeah with a couple of uh I don't know, bring in a fountain or something.

Maybe it's something to get people what stage perhaps, you know, and that would bring in the foot traffic for the retail store, right?

Um so there to so the retail side you have so if you look at the the businesses, so you have um Admiral's Cup, which is you know, it's it's not open yet.

It's it's going through process to get its permits and under construction.

But so Amarals Cup, Dock Street, Armadillo's.

Um, so the first three are all you know, like food service essentially.

Yeah, uh, and then you have uh you have Storm Brothers, again food service, Biddy and Bows, Blowfish Poke, food service food service, Eagle Souvenir Pips, um, and then you have Harbor Square, which then so Eagle Souvenirs retail, like more like retail goods, um, and then and then Harbor Squares Retail, Annapolis Marine Art, and that's retail, Sophie's Crapes, food service, latitude 38.

And then you have a new you have a new firm that just moved in next to Latitude 30 38, that's a wealth management company.

So to your point, most of what's there is an indie restaurants or food service, more experiential types of businesses.

Yeah.

All right, well, thank you.

That's yeah, I'll talk more with the city manager about it tomorrow.

Thanks.

Any further questions?

Seeing none.

All right.

Well, thank you so much for this fantastic presentation.

And um, we look forward to working with you during this term.

And uh I guess for good of the order questions, um you wouldn't have to have any updates on uh how our maritime apprenticeship programs going, would you?

That sounds great.

From last I heard they already had uh one apprentice going through it or that that was selected and it's going through the program so uh they move pretty quickly on that excellent yeah well I am uh very excited for the continued success so folks seeing no other questions for uh the good of the order on this idea let us move on to our final item which is ending the meeting so uh do we have anything else for the good of the order for uh the rest of this meeting no sir seeing none uh I would just like to say that I am very excited to be working with you all last year we accomplished some really remarkable innovative things with this committee and I am uh quite excited to keep going on that streak.

So do I have a motion to adjourn?

So moved.

Do we have a second all those in favor say aye.

Aye