25 madam clerk, good morning.

Good morning.

You please call the role.

Council President Pro Tim James Tate.

Yep.

Councilmember Fred Durhal the third.

Bill Hall did indicate he is on his way.

Clerk would note.

Councilmember Letitia Johnson.

President.

Mr.

Chair, you have a quorum present.

Thank you, ma'am.

We have a quorum present.

Good morning, Member Johnson.

Good morning.

Is there a motion to approve the minutes?

Motion.

Seeing no objections, then action shall be taken.

Thanks so much.

We're now in session.

Just want to let everyone know we have on the agenda one, two, three, four public hearings.

But one of them will uh we will open and have a few remarks and then we're gonna close it and bring it back TBD because there was a technicality.

That is uh line item uh eight.

That is the 1055 public hearing.

So if you're calling right now, general public comment, because I'm about to open it right up.

If you are calling for the 1055 public hearing, wanted to again just let you know that we're gonna open and close it today so you can save your comments for another time.

Not saying we don't want to hear from you, but we're not actually going to have that public hearing today uh again because of a technicality again.

That is uh line item eight, the 1055 public hearing.

All right, we'll now like to call for public comment.

If there's anyone from the public, general public comment.

If there's anyone from the public who would like to speak, please raise your hand now.

Going once, going twice if you like to speak either online or in person.

General public comment going once, going twice, going three times.

Collection of public comments have now concluded.

Good morning, Miss Jackie.

How many callers do we have?

And who do we have first, ma'am?

Good morning, Mr.

Chair.

We have 12 hands raised online.

Okay.

We're gonna give everyone a minute and a half this morning uh for general public comment.

All right.

And again, if you are calling about any of the public hearings, we're gonna have an opportunity to provide comments on the unit royal.

It's coming up.

We've got the biz, it's coming up as well.

But you if you want to uh I just ask if you're calling out Uniroyal, the Biz or any other public hearing um items to please uh wait until that opportunity comes during the public hearing.

You will absolutely get a chance to be uh heard.

That is uh definitely a focus of ours.

So right now, general public comment.

Who's our first caller, ma'am?

Our first caller is owner Papa.

All right, caller.

The floor is yours.

Minute 30, general public comment.

Good morning, and through the chair, Babby Heard.

Yes.

Yes, let me read something to you from uh the Detroit City chart.

It says Detroit City government is a service institution that recognizes and support this subordination to the people of Detroit.

The city shall provide for the public, peace, health, and safety of persons and property within your jurisdictional limits.

Um that means that if you relate what you have been doing in the planning department, are you planning to send us into poverty?

Because this is what has happened.

In 2017, we were better off than we are today.

We have three times the poverty rate that we had in 2017.

That includes your time, certainly, Mr.

Tate.

Councilman Tate.

I want to know how you are addressing these with the same kind of pilot programs that um um uh the late or always late councilman Durhaal um has to put forward.

How are you addressing our issues of peace, health, and safety with your planning?

You're planning for us to be gentrified, you're planning for us to be in poverty with it and and heavily policed, and we and we get the message, you know, with the huge red um uh kettle and and the and the Robocop.

Uh uh, we need we need a new direction, please.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is William M.

Davis.

Mr.

William M.

Davis, the floor is yours.

Minute 30, general public comment.

Uh good morning, can I be heard?

Yes, sir.

I was at the mayor's mandated charter meeting for district seven yesterday.

And I was surprised the mayor looked a sick and a little slow to response to stuff.

Uh I hope there's nothing wrong with them.

Uh, because normally I go to meetings and I go to a lot of meetings.

Normally there's a presentation, but it was like it like the meeting lasted basically from 7:30 to 8.05.

You know, it's like something's really wrong with him physically.

Uh also, and I know his responses is very slow, like somebody that's sick that something's going on with him.

Hopefully, not.

Uh also uh separately, I would agree, as many people have, that the city of Detroit retirees was much better off before the mayor came into the office.

Uh we've lost, you know, like I say, at least 50% of our purchasing power, especially myself.

I've lost 22.25% of my pension amount that I was receiving before he got into office.

Of course, we lost our health care.

Uh, you know, we lost a whole lot of stuff.

The C Detroit lost things.

I think the City Detroit should be more aggressively trying to recapture some of the stuff they lost because normally most people are thinking smart when you go into bankruptcy, they try to retain assets, not lose them.

So we need better management.

We need to make sure that we pick up more than what we lose.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is Cunningham.

The floor is yours.

General Public Comment.

Brother Cunningham, are you there?

313 444, 9114, 213, 444, 9114.

313, 44, 9114.

That number was made so you can remember it.

And on Facebook, put in not enemy.

Not enemy.

And better yet, you can put in my phone number for Cash App.

We'll put in my phone number to get get me on Facebook.

Um Ms.

Annette Scott from the West.

She gave me 120 upon yesterday.

Mr.

Michael Charles uh Mosley gave me 100 today.

Um giving out that number and just advocating and doing things in the community.

Um God seems to provide.

Um DOS still like luster.

Um, but uh uh it's getting better.

Next week there's a DDOP meeting at the Rose Parks Transit Center, and they'll provide pizza and a raffle of two 31-day passes.

So hopefully we get a decent turnout, and uh new faces will attend the meeting.

Well, thank you for your words of encouragement.

Councilman Pro Tim Tate.

I think we texted, I think last week.

Uh, thank you for your encouragement.

And it was good to see councilwoman uh at the last night's mayor meeting um in district seven.

Thank you so much, brother Cunningham.

Thank you again for all the work you do.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is Cindy Dara.

Cindy Dara, the floor is yours.

You have a minute 30, general public comment.

Cindy Dara, are you there?

Let's go uh put the okay.

Yeah, I I got there about 15 minutes late.

I thought it was gonna it started 15 minutes early and it only lasted 30 minutes, but I passed out my approval voting literature, and I want everybody to look at election science dot org.

There's a petition going around trying to get you to sign for rank choice.

Well, that was good idea.

It's slightly better than what we have, which is plurality.

Uh winner, whatever you get, you win.

And small if you have a lot of people running like we did for mayor, then you really don't have a consensus and know what people want.

Mr.

Are you still there?

Mr.

R, are you there?

Uh voters, not politicians are trying to circulate a petition and and to get it on the ballot, and that's it really for rank choice, not approval.

Well, go to electionscience.org and you will be convinced that we shouldn't waste 30 to 40 million dollars buying a machine for an inferior system.

And it is it's not near as good as approval.

So please look at electionscience.org.

If we can, we might need to change the state law because we've got a uniform in.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is redo zoning change hearings.

All right, caller, the floor's yours regarding public comment, general public comment.

Caller, are you there?

Hello.

Hello.

Can you hear me?

We can.

The floor is yours.

Okay, thank you.

Um, so Mr.

Tate, you really need to investigate.

I know there's a you know numerous sections of the charter that have not been followed during your tenure.

But here's one of them.

Section 6-205, public hearings.

This is why all your zoning, all these massive zoning things need to be sent back to the table.

It says the people of the city of Detroit living in areas likely to be affected by proposals resulting from any study undertaken by the planning and development department or an agency under section 6202 or 6203 shall be given full opportunity in public hearings to print present facts and arguments relative to the subject under study.

The department is required to provide notification of the hearing to any citizen district council, but we don't have those.

Citizen Advisory Council, I think that's a scriveners are in it's supposed to be community advisory council or community development corporation impacted by proposals contained in the study.

Well, the CDC in my neighborhood doesn't notify me of any of these things, and a lot of people don't get noticed.

The vast majority of people don't know these massive changes to the zoning ordinance are even on the table, and you're not allowed to just give people 30 seconds, or like what or even two minutes is not enough to for people who are likely to be impacted, which is all of us, and you cut me off last week and you didn't seem to care.

It was very resident disrespectful and charter disrespectful.

And you know, duly noted you put these things off until after the election.

Okay.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is Miko A.

Williams.

Yes, I can you hear me?

Yes, sir.

Yes.

Um, you know, I just implored the city of Detroit residents to continue fighting.

Don't stop now.

You know, what change just come to our city?

I just want people to really think about what just happened.

You know, the election's over, but the remnants and everything that we just been through a tough year.

We are so divided more than ever.

How will the leaders bring us together to collaborate to unite and to work for our city versus being against our city?

I mean, those that call you, uh, council member Tate are really trying to be inclusive, and you write them off, you disrespect them, you don't hear them, and then when they say something about you ready to respond back.

That's not good.

Councilman leadership.

Leadership has to start at the top.

It has to be shown examples uh from the top.

Mayor Mike Duggan is a fascist.

I I don't even know what to say about him.

I didn't go to that meeting last night because I would have cussed them out for built.

Ain't no way I would ever allow that man to be my mayor and to disrespect residents to tell residents you don't like what's happening, you can leave.

And then yesterday we heard a Renaissance Center got 75 million dollars.

Dan Gilbert got 75 million dollars to tear down the rents in after we said no, the city and everyone says no, and they're doing it anyway.

That's why we have to continue to fight.

We have to go harder than Baltimore.

Thank you.

All right, next caller, please.

Our next caller is Delicia.

Delicia, the floor is yours.

You have a minute 30, general public comment.

Are you there?

All right, let's put Delecia at the end of the queue.

And go to the next caller, please.

Our next caller is Tyson Gersh.

Tyson Gersh.

The floor is yours.

You have a minute 30, general public comment.

Can you hear me?

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Um Thanks for not having a crazy agenda today.

Uh let's see.

I guess uh the only thing I'm actually looking for, I see Mr.

Andre Royster.

I think he's the operator or the person assisting the the committee with um running the meeting.

I apparently he is also the person that has the recording of the October 30th, 2013 public hearing, which I am really trying to get a hold of.

So, Mr.

Royster, if you get a chance, could you please send me that?

I uh the matter's time sensitive.

Thank you.

That's all.

Uh uh, Mr.

Gersh, don't hang up yet.

You are you talking about a council hearing or what type of hearing are we talking about?

Uh it was a budget finance and audit slash internal operations standing committee.

I guess it was a joint hearing.

Um you don't see it online at all.

Have you gone to the archives?

Yeah, I have.

It's a little too old.

I see I have the agenda from it.

Um, but I have no, I'm just trying to figure out what happened at hearing.

What what year is that again?

2013.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

That's yeah, it's archive archive.

Yeah.

All righty.

Um thank you so much.

I just wanted to make sure if because that makes a lot more sense why it wouldn't be necessarily online.

Have you I would definitely um provide a uh written request, and that would go a long way more so than public comment.

Uh yes, I've I've sent a few emails, but I I will thank you so much.

All right, thank you.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is caller ending 169.

Caller ending in 169, the floor is yours.

You have a minute 30, general public comment.

Um hello, can you guys hear me?

Yes, sir.

Okay, Gray.

I just want to say I watched Mayor Douglas' meeting last night, and Mr.

Kramer answered everyone else's questions, but honey hands.

Ms.

Jenny, Jenny Jenny.

Show Cunningham from Well Got Big Love.

Thank you for my time.

Thank you.

And before we go forward, I'd like to call the 1020 public hearing and recess it to the call of the chair.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is Mr.

Ronald Foster.

Mr.

Ronald Foster, the floor is yours.

We have a minute 30, general public comment.

Mr.

Foster, are you there?

Mr.

Foster, are you there?

All right, let's put Mr.

Foster at the end of the queue and go to the next caller, please.

Our next caller is Ms.

Marguerite Scarlet Maddox.

Ms.

Marguerite Scarlet Maddox.

The floor is yours.

General public comment.

Good morning.

Ms.

Manica, are you there?

Miss Maddox, are you there?

End of the queue is getting longer.

We're gonna put uh Ms.

Maddox at the end of the queue and go to the next caller, please.

Mr.

Chair Delicia is no longer on, so we are back to Mr.

Ronald Foster.

Okay.

Mr.

Ronald Foster, the floor is yours.

You have a minute 30.

General public comment.

Foster, are you there going once?

Going twice.

Foster, are you there going three times?

Unfortunately, we're gonna have to move on.

If you would like to provide your comments to the clerk's office, they will be placed onto public record.

We'll go to the next caller, please.

We are back to Miss Marguerite Scarlet Maddox.

All right, Miss Marguerite Maddox.

Scarlet, the floor is yours.

General public comment.

Morning.

I'm not sure that thank you.

I don't know right.

I'm making it.

That's right.

I'm good.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you, Ms.

Maddox.

I believe that takes us to the end of our general public comments.

Okay, that takes us to the end of our general public comments.

All right.

Well member Johnson.

Um like to just I wanted to know from you if you wanted to take uh line item 10.3 first.

I know the first uh two public hearings we have are regarding uh the universe uh request for brownfield uh approval of the brown field plan as well as a commercial rehabilitation certificate.

Um but right now currently in terms of like the sequence of things, I believe that it would be more proper uh if we're having the conversation about the brown field plan to actually talk about well through uh me too.

Maybe you can help me out or or planning.

Uh I don't believe that we have to do line item 10.3 first, but just want to make sure because maybe we want to hear the plan first before we do the approval.

Anyone can help us out.

I think I see Ms.

Edwin King Ms.

King, are you there?

We are having some Zoom challenges today.

Ms.

King, are you there?

Morning.

Oh, good morning.

Uh good morning, Edwina King Planning and Development Department.

I think uh can you hear me?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, great.

Uh yeah, I think it was on mute accidentally.

Uh Edwina King Planning and Development Department.

Yes.

Well, I was I was checking in and I see uh Mr.

Vosberg and uh Mr.

Howell there, and it's may even be more appropriate or Mr.

Bros Vosberg as the chair.

Um Mr.

Vosberg question I have is is it necessary for us to uh and we got Miss Barcliff as well.

We got all the heavy hitters now.

Uh is it necessary for us to uh approve line item 10.3 before we uh kind uh hold and deliberate and approve uh if that is the direction that this committee wants to go in for the uh 1020 public hearing for the approval of the Brownfield plan.

I don't think we have to at this stage, but I just wanted to make sure procedurally and Miss Barcliff, if you have any additional information to add, I'll we'll take that as well.

Yeah, thank you.

Uh Mr.

Chair.

Um we uh reviewed this question yesterday at DGC, and uh there's we don't see the need to bring both of those, you know, or reverse the order, I guess, uh, to do the the um item 10.3 uh in advance of the the Brownfield plan or the abatement.

Okay.

And you the the board or the body may you know deliberate as they see fit for for those items separately.

Awesome.

Thank you.

I just thought that was the case, but always want to double check, um triple check because these things have a way of reversing if you do it the wrong way.

So all right, thanks to chair.

Uh yes, yes, attorney.

I do suggest though, when we actually vote for these items that the property transfer be voted on twice.

I mean be voted on first.

Okay.

Because if the city and your and uh developers do not come to an agreement in terms of the um transfer of of land, then we do have a problem with all of the other actions.

So I don't think that today's it it impacts today's um agenda, but I do think it would be the best course to um address the property transfer before you take on the brown field and the PA210.

Gotcha.

And and you're uh you you're talking about the formal session, correct?

Yes, I'm talking about the formal session.

Okay, thank you so much, ma'am.

I appreciate it.

All right.

Well, we look like we're on deck um for uh any if there are any taxing jurisdictions who would like to uh speak if they're present and would like to speak on the impact of the requested unroyal brownfield redevelopment plan.

Uh please make yourself known now, whether in person or online.

If there's any taxing jurisdictions that are present that would like to discuss the uniroyal redevelopment, brownfield redevelopment plan.

Please raise your hand now.

Going once, going twice, going three times.

I see no hands in person or online.

We're gonna close the discussion.

Would now like to call back to order the 1020 public hearing.

Again, this is regarding the uh request for approval for the uh brownfield plan for the city of Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority for 6,000 East Jefferson Avenue.

That's the formal Uni Royal Site Redevelopment.

With the parties who are participating, please introduce yourselves for the record.

Brian Vosberg, uh Senior Director of Brownfield Redevelopment at the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation and the Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority.

Morning.

Good morning, Mr.

Chair David Howell.

Detroit Economic Growth Corps.

Morning.

Brad Lockheed, Senior Advisor Jobs and Economy.

Morning.

Morning.

Next.

Good morning.

Richard Madad with Pistons Sports Entertainment and W Detroit.

Morning.

Stephon Welch with Pistons Sports and Entertainment and W Detroit.

Okay.

Good morning.

And we'll let anyone else who uh because I don't see any other faces on the screen, we'll give them an opportunity to speak when they are queued up during the presentation.

But before we begin the presentation, Madam Clerk, if you can please note that we've been joined by member of our chair.

Good morning, sir.

All right.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Who would like to begin the presentation?

The floor is yours.

Mr.

Chair, I believe David Howell is going to give a brief overview to uh start this off.

Um, and then I'll uh jump back in to talk about Brownfield.

Uh, and then we'll also discuss the the entirety of the project, um, not just the Brownfield specific uh questions, too.

Okay.

You may proceed, sir.

And you have permission to share your screen.

Thank you, sir.

I have just sent uh permission to share my screen.

Okay.

I think you just got a thumbs up.

Okay.

And to this honorable honorable body, I just, as Brian indicated, like to give a brief overview of the project, and then of course I will hand it over to him.

Uh we are here today to uh discuss the uh proposed project uh for the WMBA facility, uh practice facility and headquarters on the former former Uniroyal site.

Uh what is contemplated is a $50 million investment that will create 71 uh new direct full-time jobs and 129 construction jobs over the life of the incentives uh the project will generate 19.4 million dollars uh in net fiscal benefit to the city and uh approximately 363 uh million dollars in new annual economic activity that were as a result of the uh development of the site.

Uh the project details include remediation of the 42-acre uh site, which is uh severely contaminated, uh the construction of a 75,000 square foot headquarters again for the WNBA and their practice facility, uh, and a hundred thousand square foot youth development academy, uh, which will include uh multiple indoor and outdoor fields and courts.

Uh the requested incentives today are the PA210 and the PA, which is the tax abatement and the PA uh 381, which is the brown field, which uh Brian will discuss uh in detail.

Thank you very much.

And uh I'd like to hand this over to Brian Bosberg.

Thank you very much, David.

Um stated this project is uh for what's commonly known as the Uniroyal site, and um this there's a uh two tax incentives being contemplated for this project, uh the PA210, uh Steve had talked about, uh, which was discussed.

The district was discussed at a previous meeting, and then after this, uh there's the certificate public hearing.

Uh, but right now is the Brownfield TIFF request for this project.

Um so uh next slide, please.

All right.

Uh so this uh as stated, um, this um project uh is often commonly known as the Uniroyal site.

Uh and while that's what most of us know it for, the tire manufacturing um as far back as 1860.

Uh it was uh known for it had a stove manufacturing plant there, which was one of Detroit's first well-known uh industries before it became the Motor City.

Over the years, the site was also home to a coal gasification plant as well as a vehicle assembly plant in addition to the tire plant.

Unroyal stopped operations at the site in 1980.

And then shortly after that, the city took possession of the property.

The city demolished the buildings in 1985.

And over the past several decades, the city's environmental affairs division, which is part of BC, the Building Safety Engineering and Environment Department, which was assisted by the Brownfield Authority and the EDC, has led the environmental cleanup of the site.

Funds from the EPA, MDEQ, now Eagle, and legal actions against former owners and operators of the site funded tens of millions of dollars in cleanup work at the site.

While that work has dramatically improved conditions at the site, there are still considerable about environmental and geotechnical issues remaining at the site.

There's also been several redevelopment initiatives proposed over the years for the site, which did not come to fruition in part because of the significant costs involved in the remaining remediation work required at the site.

And so that leads us today to the tax incentive request before you today.

Next slide, please.

So a quick explanation of how Brownfield TIFF or Brownfield tax increment financing works at its simplest.

It's used to level the playing field between Greenfield sites out on the edge of the suburb, and then Brownfield sites that have costs that are needed to be remediated or dealt with, such as blight, demolition, environmental issues, et cetera, before a developer can begin construction at the site.

And so this is to help again redevelop these sites and level the playing field to encourage redevelopment of legacy sites like this.

Currently, with this property being city-owned, there are no taxes being paid.

You'll see on this chart here that once construction starts, the tax bill will start out at five a little over $500,000 and then rise over the years with it.

The yellow represents the developer's portion of that capture.

So the developer is paying for all of these costs up front with this for the project, all the remediation costs.

And then over time, the city is agreeing to reimburse a portion of the taxes for the environmental cleanup, the demolition costs, and other issues that they are going to have to address at this site in order to make it possible for redevelopment.

Once the project has been reimbursed for those projects costs, you'll see in year 30 here is projected to be the sunset date for the project.

And at that point, this the developer will be paying the full taxes for the property.

And at that point, they'll be paying over $3 million a year in property taxes for that property or for this property.

That is how Brownfield TIFF works, and it's why the Brown the City offers the Brownfield TIFF tax incentive.

Before we before we move forward, I'll have to interrupt you for technicality here.

I'd like to close out.

I'm sorry, not close out, like to recess the 1020 public hearing to the call of the chair.

I'd like to call to order the 1035 public hearing and recess it to the college here.

We are now back at the 1020 public hearing, Mr.

Vosberg.

The floor remains yours.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

So W Detroit Property LLC, which is an affiliate of the Detroit Pistons and the WNBA team that they're proposing for the city is the project developer of this site.

Project is one parcel located at 6000 East Jefferson Avenue, bounded by East Jefferson to the north, the Bell Isle Bridge to the east, the Detroit River Walk and the Detroit River on the south, and then Melham Street on the property boundary in the west.

And it's in the island view of the neighborhood of the city.

The property is eligible because it's a facility, which means it's contaminated.

The project will consist of approximately 75,000 square foot multi-sports complex that will be the headquarters and practice facility for the new WNBA team.

And approximately 100,000 square foot youth development academy to be owned and operated by a nonprofit organization.

And then there'll be multiple outdoor and indoor athletic fields and facilities operated by this Youth Development Academy, as well as other potential compatible uses permitted under the agreement between the city, the Brownfield Authority, and the developer.

It's anticipated that site preparation work will begin in 2026, and then eligible brownfield activities will be completed in approximately five years.

All together, the total investment in the project is expected to be 50 million dollars.

The developers requesting uh TIFF for taxing financing reimbursement of approximately 34.5 million dollars.

The eligible brownfield activities will include environmental studies, uh, environmental cleanup, lead and asbestos abatement, demolition, site preparation, infrastructure work, um interest as well as the development and uh preparation and implementation of the brownfield plan in the work plan.

Developers also seeking uh stated a PA210 tax abatement, which will be discussed next.

Um, developers estimating that 291 temporary construction jobs will be created by the project, and then 71 full-time jobs related to the WMBA facility.

Uh, there's also additional jobs expected to be created by the youth development academy.

Brownfield authority held a neighborhood public hearing on Wednesday, October 15th of this year, and the minutes from that public hearing are included in the city council's uh packet.

Uh so that concludes my uh presentation, your honorable body.

Um, next up, I would recommend uh the presentation from the development team.

You may proceed.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you to the committee members, and thank you to Mr.

Vosberg and Mr.

Howell for their remarks.

As you just heard, we were recently awarded an expansion team by the WNBA.

It was a very competitive process.

We beat out something like 15 other cities, and we view that as a great win for Detroit and a great win for this community.

And we're honored to be here on behalf of the ownership group behind these efforts to bring a WNBA team to the city and to facilitate the development of a youth sports academy that will serve the children of this community.

As you just heard, the team will start playing in 2029.

And this practice facility and headquarters is a necessary piece to our plan to bring this team back to Detroit.

And our goal in this development will be to develop a first-class state-of-the-art facility that allows us to compete with other WNBA teams, but also serves as a community asset that's open to and adds value to this community.

And I think most or all of you are familiar with our Pistons Performance Center up in New Center.

And our vision is to develop this facility as the same type of community asset in the same way that we developed and utilize the PPC in a way that's open to the public and to this community.

If we can go to the next slide.

So the goal is to give kids an opportunity to participate in sports that they wouldn't otherwise have access to.

And when you look at the broader vision here, it's to create what's going to be a vibrant hub for youth sports and for women's sports that serves as a community asset that generates economic impact and activity for the betterment of this city and its residents and transforms what's been a blighted property in a way that helps to complete the riverfront, maximize accessibility to the riverfront, and return and open this part of the riverfront to the community.

And then if we can go to the next slide, our current site plan, which you see here, includes a 75,000 square foot building for the WNBA practice facility, as well as 100,000 square foot building for what's anticipated to be the Youth Development Academy.

That building will include eight basketball courts, which convert into 16 volleyball courts.

And the site will also include six outdoor athletic fields and a total of roughly 875 parking spaces.

180 of those spaces will be dedicated to the W facility, and the remaining 700 or so are dedicated to the Youth Development Academy.

And of those spaces, as we look at the WNBA piece of it, that's highlighted on the screen here.

There are approximately 120 visitor spaces and 60 staff spaces included in the site plan.

Of those eight spaces are ADA accessible.

And we're also looking at increasing the number of van accessible spaces.

We're looking at adding dedicated drop-off zones near main entrances and enhancing signage and lighting as we work to maximize visibility and accessibility.

We're not planning to charge parking for any on site parking.

We plan to make all of that complementary and available to the community.

And as we've worked with our architects and planners to develop this, we focused on maximizing pedestrian access, maximizing the connection to the riverwalk, and also integrating this with the greenway, which you see in the middle of the screen highlighted in green there.

We've also engaged a traffic consultant to ensure that we minimize and mitigate any disruptions to traffic both during and after construction.

The initial results of the traffic study are that this will not create any significant or material disruption to traffic, and we're gonna make sure that that continues to be the case.

We can go to the next slide.

And you've heard a little bit about the environmental condition of the site.

I know everybody is familiar with that to some extent as we've worked to assess the viability of this site for our proposed development.

We spent a lot of time and effort and money to get our arms around the site conditions, around the work that's necessary to make this safe and viable for development.

And we did all of that to make sure that we go into this with our eyes open and we're at a point now where we're prepared and committed to remediate this in a way that makes it 100% safe.

Safety is our absolute priority on this and is always going to be our absolute priority.

And we have the utmost confidence in our ability to do that.

And if we can go to the next page.

One example of accessible sports and activities that we plan to include in these plans is wheelchair basketball.

The Detroit Pistons have supported wheelchair basketball in and around this community for a lot of years, and the WNBA team would plan to do the same at this facility.

We plan to exceed all ADA requirements and to incorporate universal design principles throughout every aspect of this project.

And if we can go to the next page.

We've literally gone uh throughout this throughout district five as well as throughout the entire city uh talking about this development.

Um, this is just a sample size or bite-size uh sample of the organizations that we've gotten a chance to talk with and engage with.

Uh, from our folks at Genesis Hope to the folks at Detroit Disability Power.

Uh, the list goes on and on.

Uh, we can't necessarily fit everyone on this uh, but from the feedback that we've heard has been pretty positive uh from the community meetings that we held at Detroit King High School or at Cred Cafe, it's really been a lot.

We go to the next slide, you can see uh, you know, that we've gotten a lot of letters of support for uh this development.

Um, once again, I've we've gotten a chance to talk to people who live by the area, people who work by the area who own a business by the area, uh, people who have families who actually worked at the U Royal site.

They're all excited to see something like this come to uh this this area, the city of Detroit because it brings uh this site back to the city of Detroit.

It doesn't cut off the riverfront, it does not cut off access.

Uh, we plan on being extremely accessible.

Uh people are excited about the business opportunity that there is to support the district.

Our friends over at Jefferson East and the work that they're doing.

Uh, we continue to have great conversations with them as well, too.

So uh the the engagement doesn't stop.

We have meetings scheduled all the way through February.

Uh, I'll be meeting with folks tomorrow, as a matter of fact.

So uh once again, we're we're we're definitely humbled to be able to do something like this in the city of Detroit, and we're thankful for the amount of support uh that we've gotten from our partners across the city.

With that being said, we're gonna go open up for any questions that may be out there.

Thank you.

Colleagues question.

I think I heard a voice.

Was that Dr.

Power?

That was me.

Oh, there you are.

Ms.

Barclay, there you go.

Yes, ma'am.

You have it for you, W Detroit Property LLC, which is a foreign limited liability company seeking to redevelopment the Utah Royal Industrial Site.

W Detroit has a pending ground lease for the 42 acre parcel, which is currently vacant with the exception of a one-story vacant repair shop.

The project will be a multi-phase um redevelopment plan for um redevelopment the site for a multi sport complex to be utilized as the new headquarters and practice facility for the WMBH expansion team, a future nonprofit youth academy, and an outdoor athletic fields.

The complex itself will be approximately 74,875 growth square feet and will additionally include event space, lockers, and training rooms.

This developer is requesting a $34.5 million TIFF reimbursement with the overall value of the plan estimated at 4 40,000, I mean 4 40.6 40.7 million dollars, which includes the local brownfield costs.

Um this information is not correct.

In addition to the current requested brownfield tip, the developer is seeking a commercial rehabilitation tax abatement.

The project is estimated to create 291 construction jobs and 71 post construction jobs.

The basis for eligibility is that the property was uh was previously utilized as a residential or commercial purposes, is located with this within the city of Detroit, and the parcel was considered a fit facility as defined by Section 201.

The eligible activities are to be financed solely by the developer, and the DBRA will reimburse the developer for the cost of approved eligible activities, but only from the tax increment revenues generated and captured from the property.

No advances have been or will be made by the city or the DBRA for the cost for cost of eligible activities under the plan.

The eligible activities are estimated to commence within 18 months of the approval of the plan and completed within three years.

The activities the developer intends to conduct at the property pursuant to this plan are considered eligible activities, and they include baseline environmental assessment activities, department specific activities, due care activities, led in investments, abatement, demolition, site preparation, infrastructure improvements, interest in the implementation, development and preparation of the brownfair plan, and or the act 381 work plan.

And that concludes my presentation.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Now we shall go to colleagues.

Um before I move forward, so uh Mr.

Welch, you forgot to mention you were just over a D1 at our satellite hours uh last Friday.

And um I'll say I was I was surprised about the reception that this project received, not because of the merits of it, but because there are some folks who typically are not in favor of uh projects that uh require incentives and you know other things as well.

Umtown only want more in the neighborhood, and um this these individuals were in support uh very strongly of this project.

So I listened to the community uh and also looking at the information myself, but just wanted to kind of put that on the record that you uh, in addition to the uh to kind of put a point on it, the in addition to the uh community associations and block clubs and engagement around the area, you have now expanded beyond that and gotten feedback throughout the city of Detroit because all Detroiters are affected by this project, uh not just those who are in the area.

So appreciated the uh uh opportunity for my community to be educated and asked the questions, which they did uh in droves.

Uh so colleagues, any additional questions, comments, concerns regarding this particular project, member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and good morning, everyone.

Thank you for the presentation.

Um, Mr.

Welch, I did notice that there were a couple of organizations in District 4 that do some work in District 4.

I would love to invite you to a meeting with organizations, many other organizations that work with our youth in the community.

And so my question is really relative to that.

Can you all speak to the benefit to Detroit youth of this facility?

Will they have access?

Will there be a c cost associated with utilizing the facility for Detroit youth specifically?

Um, and I'm wondering if any of this is in writing.

Uh, I really want to kind of hone in on how this will benefit our young people in the city of Detroit.

Thank you, Councilmember Johnson, and through the chair.

Uh, we've had some great conversations with youth organizations as you heard throughout the uh entire city.

Uh yes, in District One, we had two great meetings.

As a matter of fact, last week, uh, as we continue to have conversations with uh a number of different youth organizations.

One of the things that we hear from Detroit Public Schools, from the charter schools, from the home schools, uh, from PAL, YMCA, boys and girls club, is that there isn't enough time space, uh, people and ultimately resources to actually field teams for adequately across the city of Detroit.

Uh, what they believe is this is an opportunity to supplement the work that they do and lift up the work that they do, uh, especially in the kindergarten through eighth grade range.

Uh so this is an opportunity for us one to to help with that, but also we want to make it is our goal to make sure that Detroiters have access uh and Detroiters have preference uh for this development.

Uh we're gonna do a number of different things from uh fundraising to engagement to make sure that that happens, but that is our intent and our goal.

Thank you.

And with the um advocacy and work that you're doing to um obtain donations, are you anticipating that there will be a cost associated with you utilizing the facility for Detroit youth?

Are you looking to um have those costs uh subsidized for our young children um in the city of Detroit who need some financial assistance to be able to use the facility?

I'm gonna say yes, but I'm also gonna toss it to my colleague Rich who can provide additional context.

Yes, Councilmember Johnson, it's the latter.

We do not plan or anticipate that there will be any cost for Detroit youth to use this facility.

The goal is to make this accessible to kids around Detroit at no cost, and that is the plan.

Okay, thank you for that.

And I will just share that I have been in an email thread um with an organization in District 4 that is really looking to connect with you all with the facility, and I love to connect you all prior to this establishment being built if it moves forward, uh, just to make sure that they have access.

Um I I know a lot of times our east side youth get overlooked.

People kind of shy away from the east side, but I'm gonna change that.

I'm determined to change that because we are a well-kept secret in the city of Detroit, but we're we're having our coming out party fairly soon.

Um I also want to ask there was some indication that there were other potential um compatible uses being considered.

Can you all give a little bit more insight into that?

Yeah, councilmember Johnson and through the chair on the first point.

We would love to engage with the group that you mentioned.

We'd love to engage with anyone else that you or any of your colleagues have in mind, as as Stefan said, we've done a good amount of engagement.

We're excited to continue to do that.

We're excited to work with every district because this benefits and affects the entire city to make sure that we're planning and designing and conceiving this in a way that's gonna maximize the positive impact that we're going to have.

As to future compatible uses, that is a future phase.

I can't say that there's any detail as to what future phases and plans may look like, but the goal is gonna be to continue to invest in this property in a way that maximizes the positive impact that we have for the city of Detroit and for everybody who lives here.

Thank you.

And I'm sure that will include listening to the community and understanding what the needs are from the community as well.

All right, thank you all so much.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Any additional questions, comment?

Uh, member vice chair.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and uh good morning to you all.

First, uh a huge fan of this project uh as we look at the possibility of revitalizing not only our riverfront, we're providing more opportunity uh for youth here uh in the city, which I think we all uh want to see.

Um I can speak firsthand.

Uh we love the East Side too, Member Johnson.

Uh I know Member Tate and I are from the West Side.

Um, but the imprint that the Pistons have made thus far, even in my district, uh, with the recreational facility and the community engagement.

I think you're very intentional with this project, which is why I'm supportive of it, uh, whether we're talking about universal design, whether we're talking about uh um inclusion and bringing everybody in and connecting those dots to the community that's important.

I do have a question.

Obviously, this is a big project, and we get questions all the time from community uh that ask a project of this size and nature.

Normally, when we see them come before us, there's a community benefits aspect that uh is is attached to that.

Can you speak to specifically this project?

Uh how is it affected?

Is it does it trigger a CBO?

Uh, what does that look like for this project?

We would like to respond.

The floor is yours.

Sure.

Uh so good afternoon, or good morning, rather, and through the chair, Edwina King Planet and Development Department.

To member Darhall's question, um, yes, this project tick triggers a CBO.

However, it triggers a tier two CBO, um, as opposed to what you um most people know about the tier one process.

As part of the CBO tier two process, um, and this information can also be found under section 12 8-4 of the 2019 uh Detroit City Code.

The developer in this situation will partner with the city um workforce development agency to promote the hiring, training, and employability of Detroit residents, um, if appropriate, and then also partner with the planning and development department to address and mitigate any negative impacts that result from this project.

So it is not a situation where there's a typical CBO along with a CBA, um, but but rather they're working directly with our department um to address those impacts.

So anything that they've done, especially um upon the advisement of both PDD and in support of the JET team, uh as well as the Department of Neighborhoods, especially related to community engagement, is going above and beyond what would be required by law.

Thank you.

And I just wanted to clarify that I know we talked to some residents uh across the city.

They weren't necessarily concerned as member Tate President Pro Tem Tate has indicated.

I think the response across the city has been very positive relative to this project.

I think there's a lot of excitement to bring our uh WNBA team back.

I know in my household, my wife and my daughter are ecstatic.

Uh uh, so it's a great thing.

Uh, but folks still wanted to know about the community engagement.

So I'm glad that you put that on the record, considering that this is not a tier one project that requires the normal process for a community benefits ordinance as well as a knack and agreement, but requires uh things that are a little bit different due to the partnership with job training uh with the city.

Uh and I will say it's very commendable uh that although you are not bounded to go out there and do some of the same things under a tier one project, you have still been uh uh very steadfast on community engagement, ensuring that all Detroiters, not just folks in the affected area are heard from, but uh but across the city.

So I will commend you on that.

Finally, I would say uh uh to you uh I support this project as I look at that site, which is a site that's set vacant for too long, uh absolutely too long, pass through hands uh and really uh shut down an opportunity to continue to grow our riverfront.

When we look at the cost uh to mitigate that area, I don't know many that would come in uh and try to take over a project uh of that size, uh particularly environmentally when we talk about the cleanup uh aspect of it.

And so uh very supportive of it.

Hope to see our riverfront continue to grow as we are connecting, whether it's the Joe Lewis Greenway, Ralph Wilson, uh, and continuing to go along our our riverfront, uh, but also just uh excited to see more opportunities uh for our youth here in the city of Detroit.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you so much, Member Vice Chair.

Madam Clerk, did I call the 1035 1055?

I didn't think so.

I was looking at my list is not uh noted, it's not loaded noted on my list.

Like to recess the 1020 public hearing uh to the call of the chair.

I'd like to call to order the 1055 public hearing and recess it to the call of the chair.

We are now back at the 1020 public hearing, and would like to now call for public comment if there's anyone from the public who would like to speak on the 1020 public hearing.

That's a presentation that we just all watched, witnessed, and uh participating in.

Please raise your hand now, whether you're in the committee of the whole or if you're at home.

If you'd like to speak on the 1020 public hearing, please raise your hand now, going once, going twice, going three times.

I see two hands, three hands in the committee of the whole.

Is that four hands?

One, two, three.

All right, three hands in the committee of the whole for this item.

Uh going once, going twice, going three times online.

Collection of public comments for the 1020 public hearing has now concluded.

Uh, but before we go forward, I'd like to uh recess the 1020 public hearing to the call of the chair.

I'd like to now call to order the 10, excuse me, the 1105 public hearing and recess it to the call of the chair.

We are back now at the 1020 public hearing, and as mentioned earlier, I believe we have three individuals who wanted to speak in the committee of the whole.

We're gonna give everyone a minute 30 for public comment during the public hearing.

Uh, this one in particular.

All right, we're gonna start uh in the committee of the whole.

Ms.

Cavalier, we'll start with you, then we'll move on down.

Thank you, Pro Tem Tate.

Gina Cavalier, Chief Community Impact Officer, Downtown Detroit Partnership.

I am speaking on behalf of DDP and our CEO, Eric Larson.

Um, we are very happy to support, um, provide support to both public hearings regarding the unit royal development with uh the Pistons and the WNBA.

This has been a long time coming.

This is a very challenging parcel with um, as everyone knows, a lot of environmental cleanup, and we think that the use is um absolutely perfect, and the project is coming together very well.

We're happy to support it.

And um, this organization, the the the Pistons and the WNBA have been wonderful partners.

Um, there's also alignment with our goals as far as workforce development and supporting employment of Detroiters.

So we're happy to support it and hope that it moves forward.

All right, thank you so much.

Mr.

Barnes, we'll go ahead and grab you.

Are you there?

Uh my next uh oh good morning.

Uh my name is George Barnes.

Uh I'm the founder and owner of Heritage Vision Plan and Heritage Optical, a business owner uh with a river town location since heritage optical opened up in 1975.

Uh founding member of the Biz Board.

Uh I'm sworn in on the Biz Board in uh uh 2014.

The River Fund uh Biz Board was established collaborative partnerships at all community levels.

It will provide supplementary service that will make the River Town District a safer and more attractive uh destination as well as stimulate community revitalization and development.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, good morning, sir.

Good morning.

Um Josh Elling, CEO of Jefferson East nonprofit working to revitalize East Jefferson Coral and support its family neighborhoods.

We're here today to voice our strong support for the Detroit Pistons and the proposed WNBA facility and youth sports uh facility.

Very important for us here in opening up the riverfront to more public recreation youth sports.

And I really want to applaud the Pistons for the amount of extensive community engagement they've done working with community groups surrounding the area.

So we strongly uh endorse the uh WNBA facility on the Unoroyle site, uh subject to both hearings.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

All right, we shall now try uh transfer online to our folks on Zoom.

Who do we have calling?

We have 13 callers online, Mr.

Chair, William M.

Davis being the first.

All right, Mr.

William M.

Davis, the floor is yours regarding line item six.

Uh good morning.

Can I be heard?

Yes, sir.

Okay, I'd like to start out by saying in general, I'm in favor of this.

Uh I would like to see that area finally developed and developed in a safe economic way.

Uh I would also like to hear some more about possibly being a benefits to uh I'm in District 7.

We have more school age children in district seven than any other district.

Probably more than the whole east side, but I would like to see more reach out to District 7, especially uh groups that involve in young people.

Uh also, since I'm probably older than everybody just online there, uh, I remember like when Joe Lewis Arena's being built, there was more economic incentives to the city of Detroit in general.

Um, you know, because it looks like basically that we we are the city and the state is reimbursing like over 75% of the costs associated with this.

So I think that perhaps it could be sweetened a little bit more to get, you know, like with Joe Lewis Arena, you used to get, you know, part of the concession stand, used to get some parking, we used to get a number of things.

That it seems like most recent mayors and city council uh not as effective getting better deals for the residents.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is caller ending one two four.

Caller ending in one to four.

The floor is yours regarding line item six.

Caller ending in one two four.

Are you there?

Can you hear me?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, fine.

Okay, thank you.

Well, I am a resident of the city of Detroit, and uh, you know, I'm glad we're finally using the waterfront for more than parking lots and business.

So I do live in an area likely to be impacted by this proposal.

I have um some questions and concerns I would like to present.

Um, in terms of uh it's another publicly owned site that got demolished, hopefully, not recklessly like other places, um at public expense.

And so while I think it would be great to bring in the WNBA, I also want to hear um whether the general public can use any of the recreational facilities.

Like part of it should be a public park, I think, and people have access to it.

I know you may have security concerns.

Also wondering about the parking and the parking study.

Uh the other major concern I have uh is about the dirt.

Like it's been, you know, well stated that it's very contaminated.

Um we have dirty dirt issues in other places, such as the allegations that the Gaianga demolition company was putting dirty dirt in demolition holes uh in um all around the city.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is Theo Pride.

The floor is yours regarding line item six.

Uh good morning, uh Theo Pride with Detroit People's Platform.

Uh, I have some comments of really questions.

Um, so while the sports facility, of course, is a great thing for the for the youth.

I think it's important to point out this is being built on the toxic site, um, considering how many young people use the grounds, uh, I think is extremely important to prioritize our kids' safety.

Um, could our public money best be spent for our kids by putting this project somewhere else uh in the neighborhoods, perhaps uh in safer location.

Uh so were other locations identified for this project, and could it be built somewhere else?

Also, it looks like the project is being split up in a way that won't include the youth sports complex in the total project costs, which means the community benefits ordinance tier one won't be triggered because this project, if you combine it, it'll probably be at least 75 million.

I do understand the taxes and status of the youth sports piece, means it won't pay property tax, so it's development costs is not included in the brown field.

However, I just like to remind council here that the Pistons combine the projects in the future of health to unlock a transformational brownfield to get more public money.

Uh, is it possible to combine these projects as well in a way that that kind of works in reverse of what they did in the future of health?

So instead of benefiting them, uh it benefits the Detroiters in the form of community benefits, or they can just enter into a voluntary CBA.

Uh will will they do a CBA with Detroiters?

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is Owner Papa.

All right, caller, the floor is yours regarding line item six.

Good morning.

And through the chair, Carolyn Hughes, may I be heard?

Yes.

Here here, Mr.

Pride.

Yes, we need to get look get a little bit more uh sweetener in this deal.

We've heard from Mr.

Head and now Miss Barcliff of all these pie in the sky jobs that these things bring, but we're uh seeing a shortfall for cooperations for these very same light projects that you have brought to the people.

I'd like to ask the panel, whoever can answer, what is the nonprofit that has been identified that will run the youth um academy or the programs?

And um, will some of these programs be exclusive to the residents of the city of Detroit?

And um, I heard the gentleman say that there'd be no charge to city citizens of the city of Detroit.

So, how will we have access to uh the facility?

Uh would there be some type of membership of some sort of some sort?

And I'd like to ask the table, uh, the council members.

We've spent a lot of money on cleaning up this site.

I'd like to know what was done and how much money has already been spent to clean up the site, if you know.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is Cindy Dara.

Ms.

Cindy Dara, the floor is yours.

You have a minute 30 regarding line item six.

Dara, are you there?

We're gonna put Ms.

Dar at the end of the queue and go to the next caller, please.

Our next caller is Pamela Powell.

Tamala Powell, uh, the floor is yours.

You have a minute 30 regarding line item six.

Uh good morning.

I'd like to thank the robot for including us as citizens and for holding this public forum so that we could share input.

Overall, I am in favor, but I do notice that the city is kind of on the hook for reimbursement of a lot of the things.

I think combining the abatement that you're going to receive and us also having to reimburse on top is a little excessive.

Um, I do notice that we're below the threshold that would trigger the traditional community benefits agreement.

But I'm hoping that you would be able to, in writing, not just promise us, but come up with something that adds a little more benefit to the actual city and surrounding area.

I am especially uh impressed that you've engaged their citizens and with the youth component.

Um, I just hope that we could work on that reimbursement portion and the community benefits that is not being triggered.

If we could tweak that just a little bit, and I yield the rest of my time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is Malika Lucas.

Malika Lucas, the floor is yours.

You have a minute 30 regarding line item six.

Thank you.

My name is Michaela Lucas.

I work at Genesis Hope.

I'm a project director there, and I'm speaking on behalf of our team.

Uh, we are in full support of the repurposing and then the development of the old Uni World site.

Uh, we believe that this project will address the citywide shortage of fields and facilities for the Detroit youth while also providing the city with additional opportunities to build a stronger community through community investment and economic development.

Thank you.

Thank you.

My apologies for mispronouncing your name.

Uh, next caller, please.

Our next caller is Candace Turner.

Candace Turner, the floor is yours.

You have a minute 30 regarding line item six.

Good morning, committee members and chairman.

I'm Dr.

Candice Turner, the deputy athletics director at Wayne State University.

And I am here on behalf of Wayne State to fully support the WNBA practice facility and the youth development academy.

We're thrilled to see that the WNBA is returning to Detroit.

And this sends a powerful message to our young people about what's possible.

The project represents more than new construction.

Um, it will provide safe, high-quality spaces that promote physical health, mental wellness, academic engagement, leadership development, all values that align closely with the mission of Wayne State.

We're especially encouraged by how this initiative reflects Detroit's broader goals, investing in equity, community, and the future of our young people.

It's this kind of project that doesn't just elevate sports, but it elevates the lives.

Um at Wayne State, we're proud to stand alongside the Detroit Pistons and fully supportive this vision, a vision that will help shape the next generation of leaders, scholars, and yes, our future warriors.

So thank you so much for the time, and I yield the rest of my time.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Next caller is Austin Black.

Austin Black, the floor is yours.

You have a minute 30 regarding line item six.

Austin Black, are you there?

Okay, sorry about that.

Uh good morning, Mr.

Chair, members of the council.

My name is Austin Black.

I'm a Detroit resident, real estate broker, and father.

For more than four decades, the Euro site has been one of the last major gaps on our riverfront.

A long lighted and environmentally challenged parcel that sat in touch.

This project finally gives it purpose.

It will safely remit remediate the site, cap the contaminated areas and transform it into a place that welcomes families rather than repel some.

In my work, I see every day how meaningful it is when we take a difficult site and turn it into something that truly serves the community.

As a parent raising a young daughter here in Detroit, I know how urgently we need more high-quality, accessible places for our kids to learn, grow, and play.

The Youth Development Academy fills a real gap in youth sports facilities across the city.

This exactly is the kind of thoughtful community-centered investment Detroit deserves.

And I respectfully ask for your support.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Next caller is Andrew.

All right, caller.

The floor is yours.

You have a minute 30, General.

Excuse me, regarding line item six.

My apologies.

Minute 30 regarding line item six.

Well, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

My name is Andrew Stein, and I'm excited to uh voice my support for this project, uh, both in my professional capacity and personally.

Professionally, I am the president of the Children's Foundation, uh, which makes grants to organizations and programs in the city that are improving the physical and mental health of kids across the city of Detroit.

And the the both physical and mental health benefits of facility like this are innumerable.

Uh, as a leader of a philanthropic organization, I also think this is a great opportunity for the private and philanthropic sector to go alongside with the city's investment to make this a reality for kids.

And then lastly, uh, I'm a Detroit resident, father of three, uh, two of whom play youth soccer in the city of Detroit.

And we are at Irma Henderson Park two to three nights a week for practice.

However, every weekend we are driving uh 45 minutes, sometimes an hour plus out to fields uh in the suburbs and beyond.

Uh and a facility like this not only would allow Detroit residents to remain in the city, have their soccer games, but quite frankly, be the envy of this region in terms of what the Pistons and team are trying to put together.

So strong support for this project.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is C Gina Brown.

C.

Gina Brown, the floor is yours.

You have a minute 30 regarding line item six.

Yes.

Can you hear me?

Yes, good morning.

Um, yes, my name's Cranston Anderson, and I have just a couple of questions.

Um, I wanted to know who actually helped establish the CBA for this um initiative with this project, what the partnerships with public schools and charter schools look like.

Would those partnerships differ from public to charter schools?

And I hear that the goal is to make sure Detroit youth have access at no cost, but initially the access is only for what specific group.

Will or can this facility include some academic resources for our youth?

What is the level of Toxicon still on the location at this date and time for this project before this project begins?

And it was stated that the project will cost 50 million dollars with the project getting more than half of that cost back from the city.

Do we know exactly the terms of that um cost being paid back to the investor?

That's it.

That's all I have.

I yield the rest of my time.

Thank you so much.

Uh, next caller, please.

Next caller is I believe you said Cindy Dara.

Yes, we're returning to Cindy Dara.

All right, Cindy Dara, the floor is yours.

You have a minute 30 regarding line item six.

Yes, can you hear me?

Yes, ma'am.

Uh is this the old man close to Manhattan site that they had that uranium mass that broke loose in the river?

I don't know, 10 years ago or something.

I know it seems like it was right next to the interrogator.

Is that is that part of the contamination that uh radiation?

What do they have to clean up there?

Do you know?

Well, I guess um uh maybe you can answer it when I'm finished.

I just want to say over at Patton Park, they put these wonderful soccer fields and right next to the recreation center.

Um across the street on the other side of Dix.

This all this gravel from for roads was blown when it was real dry, and the dust was blowing right into the soccer field.

So not too healthy.

You know, to be running around breathing.

I think maybe they got them to start wetting down their gravel.

But I complained about I I just want to make sure that I'd like to know what the contamination is, and like people ask how much has been sent spent, what have they done so far?

for for roads was blown when it it was real dry and the dust was blowing right into the stocker field so not too healthy you know to be running around i think maybe they got them to start wetting down there gravel but i complained about i i just want to make sure that i'd like to know what the contamination is and like people ask how much has been sent spent what have they done so far to what about the environment and the health that's the main thing our last caller is marguerate meddox scarlet this marvey medic scarlet the floor is yours regarding line item six the morning morning the day um um paper the the uh do make it my question yeah yeah uh one facility the job thing about the academy so this didn't be the use um this yeah and so and everyone to come into the city city um we asked the nature to make sure it is to come on it that the city i may go open this we don't this go in the uh this city oh to it and thank you thank you miss maddock i believe it takes us to the end of our uh public comments for line item six all right to the presenters you had a quite a number of questions here gonna give you an opportunity to uh respond to them whoever would like to begin the floor is yours thank you mr chair i'm happy to start and then we'll ask other presenters to speak to specific questions i i took notes on all the questions and we'll try to go through them in order here i think the initial question was about our willingness to do additional engagement in district seven we'll be very happy to do that as as you heard from me and from step and we have done a significant amount of engagement we plan to continue to engage as we work through this process and really going into the next few years and through the development of this project that's an ongoing process for us and that's something we'll commit to continue to do there was a few questions about the economic benefits of the city and how the brownfield reimbursement works and the tax abatement works I will ask the DEGC to answer those there were questions about the accessibility of the facility to the general public the plan is to program and operate this facility in partnership with Detroit schools with community based organizations in a way that opens this to the public and focuses on and prioritizes detroiters there were questions about parking the current site plan includes roughly 775 parking spaces and those spaces will be available to the public on a complimentary basis there won't be any fee or charge for those spaces there were questions about the types of contamination in the dirt I will ask Adam Patton who's our environmental expert to speak to those questions in a moment there was a question about whether other locations were considered as we uh thought about how to bring this to life in a way that maximizes the impact on the city and and for all Detroiters this stood out as as the best possible site because of the size of the site because of the location of the site because the accessibility of the site so there were other sites that were considered but this the site to us

I will ask Adam Patton, who's our environmental expert, to speak to those questions in a moment.

There was a question about whether other locations were considered as we uh thought about how to bring this to life in a way that maximizes the impact on the city and for all Detroiters.

This stood out as the best possible site because of the size of the site, because of the location of the site, because the accessibility of the site.

So there were other sites that were considered, but this site to us presented the best opportunity to make the biggest impact that we could through the development of this project.

And that was really why this site was chosen.

There was a question about uh CBA and a CBO and Ms.

King spoke to some of those questions earlier.

I'll ask her to speak to that again and answer the specific questions.

I I will reiterate we have complied with engaged through the CBO tier two requirements and process, and we'll commit and we do commit to continue to do that and to engage with the community as we work to develop this.

There's a question about the nonprofit entity that is going to own and operate this.

That entity hasn't been formed.

This is very much in vision stages for the Youth Development Academy, but there will be a nonprofit entity that will be formed and will own and operate this.

And we'll partner with Detroit Public Schools and with community-based organizations to operate this again in a way that's accessible for the community.

There's a question about whether partnerships with various schools will defer resources from Detroit public schools to charter schools.

Absolutely not.

The plan is to partner with as many schools as we can in the city of Detroit, really to serve the need and the gap that exists in Detroit for schools to be able to field teams and to be able to help kids participate in sports.

And we plan to partner with all of those schools.

There's a question about the types of academic resources that will be offered.

This will not be a school.

This will not be an academic facility, but the intent is to include after school programming to include wraparound services in addition to uh some of the athletic programming and services that will be offered.

And then Ms.

Maddox asked about the number of floors in the facility.

This will be a two or three-floor facility.

It won't be a high-rise.

There's still a lot of work to do on the design front as we focused on site planning, and we expect to start design soon.

But two or three floors is the current plan.

Mr.

Handad, I believe, and I'm I may have missed it.

I apologize if I did so.

We talked about it a bit in my office when we talked earlier about universal design and ADA.

Did you did you touch to touch on that in your response?

If so, if you can reiterate, I appreciate it.

Yeah, we're committed to incorporating universal design principles throughout the design of this project.

We've spent a lot of time with architects and our design team talking about that, and that's something that we're committed to do.

Give us an example.

I mean, that's so broad.

I mean, we we talked, we're at a public hearing now with the public.

We got a question specifically about that issue.

Give us a little bit more specificity on what it's being considered, contemplated or uh approved at this point.

Yeah, some of the priorities here we are focused on and are planning to include continuous and barrier-free pathways connecting the courts and the fields and the community spaces.

We are planning to incorporate smooth entry points for all users, including those with mobility devices.

We're planning to include ramps and elevators that'll be integrated to help facilitate seamless movement between levels.

We're planning to include large and generous circulation areas and lobbies and corridors and conference rooms.

We're planning to incorporate visual support with high contrast signage, with tactile cues for intuitive navigation.

We're planning to include inclusive and family-friendly restrooms with accessible fixtures.

We're planning to incorporate accessible seating areas near the fields in the courts.

And we'll continue to work with community groups who operate in this space to incorporate as as many more design principles as we can.

Thank you so much.

Uh, whoever has uh additional questions or responses to the questions, excuse me, you may proceed with your responses.

So, my name is Adam Patton with PinchN and the environmental consultant on the project.

Several environmental questions were asked.

Uh, I'll take them uh, I guess, in the order that that I can.

Uh, first and foremost, one of the the question was was this site used as part of the the Manhattan project?

And was this the site that collapsed into the river several years ago?

This is not that site.

That site specifically was the former Revere and Copper, uh excuse me, copper and brass uh foundry that is located adjacent to Fort Wayne, south of the ambassador bridge.

So that is not the site we're talking about.

This is the former Unoroyal property.

Relative to uh uh the former remedial activities that have occurred at the site, uh roughly 35 million dollars have been spent uh to date by the libel parties as well as investigation and other activities that have been funded by the state of Michigan under the MDEQ, uh, which is a precursor of the current Eagle, which is our environmental regulator.

Uh those in investigation and remedial activities occurred across portions of the western areas of the site, but uh contamination still uh exists across the property.

And those are pretty typical environmental contamination associated with industrial activities, things like metals, petroleum compounds, etc.

As we went into uh uh, you know, just evaluating the front end of this project, it was made very clear uh by our team that safety was our number one priority.

So despite the fact that 30 years of investigation have occurred at the property that had already included hundreds of soil borings uh as part of our planning process, we came in and did 1,550 additional soil borings across the entire site.

They fully characterize the horizontal and the vertical extent of contamination, the areas that will be developed.

And we've developed a plan specifically for buildings for athletic fields, et cetera, that are compatible with and protective of site conditions, and that will result in uh the implementation of response and remedial activities across the entire site to ensure that barriers and other features are installed in a way that once again are compatible and protective of site conditions.

Relative to the soils question, uh, there will be some soil removal that has to occur.

Remediation definitely across the property.

Those will be appropriately managed and disposed in accordance with the pertinent regulations.

Soils that need to be brought in for infill for construction of uh dermal contact and other barriers are going to be tested and documented to be cleaned before they're brought to the site to ensure that we understand the disposition and moving a material around the site as it is being constructed.

And all those construction activities are going to be done in accordance with the due care plan that dictates and plans out how every piece is going to be constructed and what the protective measures need to be as they're implemented.

And can you describe, I know I've I've heard this uh phrase capping, if you will, of the uh uh potential hazardous uh land there where you would remove a portion, put some type of uh material over that piece, and then add on new clean field.

Talk talk to the public.

I think this is kind of a crux of what folks want to understand.

What is that process?

What does it look like?

Yep.

So that process in in essence is includes the removal of up to around two feet of contaminated material and taking that material and disposing it or managing it uh according to its its contaminant levels.

Umce those materials are removed, a demarcation barrier will be installed.

Actually, what we call it, it'll be bright orange, uh made of geotextile material that it provides separation and in other words, a visual indicator and a barrier such that we know where contaminated material is located below, and then clean, documented, tested clean material at a thickness of approximately 18 inches will be imported to the site to provide an additional barrier protective of dermal contact or other exposures to whatever material that remains that not only provides once again that barrier, but a separation from the contamination that may reside underneath the demarcation barrier, and then the athletic and other public features will be installed.

All right, thank you so much.

Who else would like to uh respond to any additional questions provided?

Mr.

Chair, uh I'd like to add to uh Mr.

Patton's comments uh as well as respond to the how does the tax incentive work.

Um I would uh I agree with everything uh that Mr.

Patton said.

Um, and then in addition to that uh for the Brownfield Authority Um and as well as Fort Eagle, the state's environment Great Lakes Energy Department is also uh participating in this project.

And so both of us will be uh reviewing the uh work uh for the environmental work in particular for this project.

Um, and we will be verifying everything uh you know that Mr.

Patton said, uh both uh the the reports uh that uh are created to guide the construction of this project as well as uh the actual uh end product of this of the visual inspections will be performed uh as well as uh the quantities we verified, we'll verify that everything was properly uh disposed of uh according to the level of contamination on it.

Um and then that leads into the uh how the tax system works.

It's uh for this particular hearing right now.

This is for the brownfield uh tax increment financing.

Uh the way that this works is that uh no tax incentive is given up front uh to the developer.

Uh developer has to complete the project.

Um, and then after completion of the project, they turn all of those uh files in to the Brownfield Authority, uh, both the environmental cleanup, but also the financial parts of it, all the invoices and construction draws, um, and then we verify that everything not only was the construction uh done appropriately for environmental conditions, but that it was also constructed according to uh building codes, it was done according to the city's executive orders, uh building ordinances, uh, everything else uh that applies to this project.

And only after that, and also too, we verify that the uh costs are reasonable, uh that there's not uh cost to being padded uh for this project.

And then we uh only after all that work is done, do we then start providing the tax incentive?

So there's a lot of verification that happens with this project to ensure that everything was done correctly uh environmental as well as all other uh aspects uh of regulations that apply to this project.

Thank you.

I know there was a question about a uh voluntary CBA.

Yes, thank you.

And so I will round out that part of the conversation.

So the first um I want to uh clarify a couple of things.

So um as Mr.

Vosberg previously stated, this is a brownfield hearing.

Brownfields are not subjected to or brownfield tests are not subjected to the community benefits ordinance.

And it's only for um only items that are subjected to that ordinance are tax abatements, excluding neighborhood enterprise zones, as well as land sales or transfer.

Um and specific to this particular project, it is my understanding that although there's the youth uh sports facility and the WMBA, only the WMBA facility is requesting an abatement, i.e.

the 210, which is your next hearing uh related to this project.

And so um with that being said, the developer um reached out to PDD to receive a determination and from us related to if they were eligible for a CBL, and if so, then um what whether it be a tier one or a tier two project.

Um, and again, it is our determination that this is a tier two project.

Um, if the developer chose to participate um in the form of a tier one, or they already technically are in compliance with the CBO tier two process.

So again, as previously stated, and I see Hassan's hand is also raised.

Anything in addition to what they're currently required to do, which is the workforce development plan, if applicable, as well as the working with the planning and development department is again above and beyond what they are statutorily required to do.

Right.

And I think that's I mean, some of that has been acknowledged, even from the speaker who asked the question.

But the the follow-up is you know, is there opportunity for things to be provided voluntarily above and beyond what's already there?

And we've had again the conversation about in my office and other uh spaces and places as well, but again, public hearing, we'd love to hear it from the development team.

Yes, Mr.

Chair.

We'll we uh as we've discussed at this hearing and in your office, and as we'll continue to discuss as we work through this process, we uh have engaged with this community.

We've gone above and beyond the requirements under the CBO ordinance for this project.

We plan to continue to do that.

We're committed to maximizing the benefit to the community that this project will provide, and that's going to be an ongoing process over the next few years as we get into the construction of this project and beyond.

All right.

And any additional responses.

Uh let's see here.

Uh we talked about and I know it was mentioned about the uh uh parking, and it was still another question.

You did uh mention it in the presentation, uh Mr.

Dodd, just once again talk about the parking, please.

Yeah, the parking plan for the WNBA facility, it's approximately 120 spaces for visitors, approximately 60 spaces for staff, which includes coaches and players for the team.

The plan is to make at least eight of those spaces ADA accessible, and we're looking at increasing the number of van accessible spaces.

We're looking at adding dedicated drop-off zones near the main entrance to enhance accessibility.

And we're looking at enhancing signage and lighting to maximize visibility.

And there were a few questions about what the cost of parking is, and would we waive fees for parking?

And the answer is there would be no cost for parking for people who use this facility, and we would be waiving fees because there would be no cost.

That's what we wanted to hear.

And then last one I heard was are there any uh possi are is it contemplated that there will be any academic opportunities possible at this location as well.

This would not be a school, so there would not be uh the type of academic resources that a school would provide, but the the vision here is to include after school services and wraparound services.

So it could include tutoring, it could include mentoring.

Um if if those qualify as academic services and resources, then yes, but I do want to be clear that this would not be a school.

Any additional responses to questions I may have missed on my sheet.

Colleagues, any additional questions, comments, concerns.

All right.

Seeing none, um I'd just like to if if you don't mind, we we we you have another question, Member Johnson.

I have a comment, Mr.

Chair.

Because what I would like to do before we uh approve and move anything, I would like to move them all together.

Um we we still have that uh one uh 10.3 uh as well.

So uh I may just ask for us to uh uh postpone the vote until um to the call of the chair, which would be certainly during this particular meeting.

Member Johnson.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um no, I just wanted to note that we have sent over to Mr.

Welch uh the list of youth organizations in District 4 that we have been working very closely with.

Would love to have a conversation directly with those organizations, just and just wanted to make sure that you were aware of them and then just want to put on the record that according to the 2023 um census, there are between 30 and 35,000 young people in district four alone.

In district seven, there are between 35 and 38,000.

So just wanted to um respond to the comment that was made and just let everyone know that I will continue to advocate for the young people in district four and on the east side.

Just want to recognize the number of young people that are on the east side.

Um, and probably about equally uh at the same as those on the west side.

So thank you, Mr.

Chair, Mr.

Welch.

Uh if you would just give a head nod, thank you.

You did receive the email.

We appreciate it.

Thank you.

All right, thank you so much.

Uh member vice chair, Mr.

Chair.

Um I don't know, appreciate I don't appreciate our coming up for district seven.

Uh we still have more.

But but I I think you started certainly articulate articulated the need.

Uh even in every single district here uh in the city.

And as um I've seen the Pistons and had the opportunity to work with them in my district as our recreation center is gonna come online.

It is it is my hope that things and projects like this increase uh and continue, and we see more.

Uh we've seen uh significant things that the business have done thus far, uh particularly basketball courts around the city uh as well.

But uh, you know, uh we hope that trend uh continues, not just in district seven, but district four and district one and all the other districts uh as well.

So with that, Mr.

Chair, I'd like to make a motion to move this line item to the end of our agenda uh today.

Okay.

There's a uh can we just postpone to the call of the chair?

We're gonna bring it up a little early.

Okay, or move to postpone at the call of the chair.

Thank you so much, sir.

There's a motion to postpone the vote uh for line item six, the 1020 public hearing.

Um to the call of the chair.

It will take place uh in this particular uh session, uh but we wanted to again group all the items together uh for a vote.

See no objections, then action shall be taken.

Mr.

Chair.

Um uh Dr.

Pope.

If I may, sir.

Yes, ma'am.

Uh the parliamentarian.

Yes, ma'am.

Um you're not clear, you're not really closing out the public hearing.

No, ma'am.

You're you're going to are you going to adjourn the public hearing to the end of the chair so that you can vote within the public hearing rather than say postpone the vote to the end of the of the uh meeting.

Is that my understanding?

Yes, ma'am.

What's the terminology?

One more time.

I'm sorry.

I I would I would recess the public hearing to uh to the call of the chair.

Gotcha.

And then when you open it up again, that's when you would do the vote.

Okay.

Makes sense to me.

Member Vice Chair, can you restate the uh motion?

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh, to to you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh I don't think no there is a motion either.

I think you just have to recess.

Right.

Thank you so much.

We'd like to recess the 1020 public hearing to the call of the chair.

Thank you so much.

Now I do know that we have another hearing that is uh dealing with Unitaro, but we've got another one that's gonna take us about two seconds.

So I think we should go ahead and allow HDAP to uh come forward with uh uh line item eight uh briefly like to now call the to back to order the 1055 public hearing.

Um and I do see Deputy Director Dichir here.

Um if you can please again state your name for the record.

Through the chair, Lisa Di Kira, Deputy Director of HDAB.

Almost got it right.

I'm sure that's okay.

I'm used to it.

No, I'm gonna get it right.

I'm gonna get it right.

So uh we we did have uh noticed a uh 1055 public hearing regarding a um uh an item that was brought before us regarding the CPA building, but there was a technicality that has now prevented us from actually having that hearing today.

If you can kind of walk us through uh briefly why that is the case.

Correct.

So uh again, thank you for the opportunity.

Um so just to clarify and apologies to anyone who was tuning in hoping to participate in this public hearing today for the CPA building.

But um, yes, it was brought to our attention earlier this week.

There was a technicality in terms of um the scheduling of this public hearing was premature, essentially.

And so um what we're looking to do is to uh we're uh schedule it as quickly as possible in the beginning of January within the new session uh of city council, and uh the owner has been informed of that, uh, as well as our other ad hoc participant who is uh a uh resident of Corktown who's taken part in this process, and uh and if anything, it also allows more time for Corktown community residents and businesses to express to us via writing, hopefully as well to city council uh their comments on the proposed historic district designation for the CPA building.

And uh for many uh who are probably familiar with this building, visually, it is the building at the corner of Michigan Avenue and 14th Street, which is um really directly across from the Michigan Central Station, so very visible.

Uh currently vacant, uh and actually last night there was an item for it in front of the historic district commission to activate it with an art project.

So very much in the conversation, uh, but we will address it in early uh January back with this committee at the instruction of full council.

Okay, thank you.

And I believe that we have the ability to uh continue this public hearing as opposed to closing it out and uh it won't have it won't harm your efforts for the next year where you would have to start all over again, so to speak.

No, not for the entire process, just what we have to do is resubmit a resolution requesting for the public hearing itself to be set.

Gotcha.

And so uh I believe I I know my my my margin orders here, but Dr.

Powers keep your ears open.

Uh so what we would like to do is I'm I'm listening, sir.

Yes, but what we would like to do is continue this public hearing um at a date to be determined, sir.

If I may, yes, ma'am.

Um I I would defer to law on that, but uh based on the writing, um that I think is not the the action to take.

I think it has to be closed and it had in the public hearing has to be a new public hearing has to be requested in January because you can't impose this public hearing um on the next council.

Okay, but again, I defer to Mr.

Anderson.

Yeah, I see his head shaking.

I see all shaking now.

So I thought I thought that we had the ability because of what you know the the type of request this was, but looks like this falls underneath the same umbrella of falling to the floor, is what it's called.

Correct.

All right, thank you so much.

So we're gonna go ahead and colleagues, I don't think you have any questions just yet.

Thank you so much.

Is there anyone from the public who would like to speak on line item eight?

Raise your hand now, going once, going twice.

Yeah, I have to do it because we opened up the public hearing.

I don't have to so Dr.

Powers, do I have to do the public hearing?

Because technically it doesn't exist, but I thought because of these notes.

Sir, it's it's not a uh a proper public hearing at this point.

So in my opinion, um that there's no need for you to even do public comment.

The public comment would occur when it's reintroduced in January.

Wonderful, wonderful.

All right, well, thank you so much.

That makes it even more easier for us to move on to the next public hearing.

No worries whatsoever.

Thank you so much.

Um I would like to close out the 10 55 public hearing because I did open it.

Through the chair.

Yes, ma'am.

Through the chair.

I I would like to say it from the place office.

We do the um, we notice the public hearing, and there is a lot of public to notice.

So if we can get that mailing list uh in a timely manner, it would be greatly helpful.

Okay.

Um team, we can just talk offline and make sure we got that done.

So, Dr.

Powers, it is appropriate to close out because I did open the public hearing.

Yes, sir.

Just close it out.

All right, thank you so much.

We're now like to close out the 1055 public hearing.

Thank you so much.

Would now like to call back to order the 1035 public hearing with the parties who are participating, please queue up.

1055 public hearing.

Excuse me, the 1035 public hearing is a request for a commercial rehabilitation certificate on behalf of W Detroit Property LLC in the area of 6,000 East Jefferson, Detroit, Michigan, uh, in accordance with public act 210 of 2005.

And before I go forward, I know we got some folks here that got some puzzled looks on their faces in the audience.

Want to let you know that every one of these public hearings has a specific time, and we wanted to make sure because we have so many people here that we could move it uh up higher, but we're we're kind of pressed because of the way that it's staggered.

And the hearing that you all are here for sounds like, according to the hands that I have had raised, is for the 1105 hearing.

But as you see, the hearings go over, uh, and we have to uh execute them as appropriately.

So be patient.

We're coming your way.

Uh as a matter of fact, after this public hearing that we're about to have right now, so you will be next up.

Just want to give you some telegraph and know what your time looks like.

All right, for the parties who are participating, please introduce yourselves for the record.

Justice Cook Housing and Revitalization Department.

Okay.

Uh David Howell, Detroit Economic Growth Corporation.

Okay.

Richard Haddad with Pistons Sports Entertainment, and on behalf of W Detroit.

Stephon Welch with Pisces Sports and Entertainment, and on behalf of W Detroit.

Right.

And Brandon Locker, Senior Advisor of Jobs and Economy Team Mayor's Office.

Good.

Patton, did you introduce yourself?

Oh, sorry.

Thank you, froze up, but ladies and gentlemen, that's Adam Patton.

That's Adam Patton.

All right.

So we're going to uh allow the presenters to move forward.

Uh and Mr.

Cook, the floor is yours.

Thank you.

To the chair.

W Detroit Property LLC is requesting that commercial rehabilitation exemption certificate in the area of 6,000 East Jefferson Avenue, Detroit, Michigan.

This application is for a certificate.

And this is the final public hearing currently scheduled on this matter before this honorable committee may vote and approve and issue a certificate.

The petitioner is present.

The petitioner is present to answer any additional question.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You may proceed.

Thank you, Justice.

Uh to the chair.

May I share my screen, sir?

Yes.

Thank you, sir.

Mr.

Chair, and to this honorable body.

Uh again, my name is David Howell, uh DGC, and I'm here to present uh a request on behalf of uh the sponsor uh to uh with respect to a commercial rehabilitation act certificate.

Uh commonly known as a PA210.

Uh as uh previously uh indicated uh in the past uh hearing there's a uh 50 million dollar project.

Uh this is the construction of the MBA uh headquarters and practice facility, uh totaling 75,000 square feet.

Uh again, uh projected to create 71 full-time jobs and 129 construction jobs.

Uh the uh PA210 provides a reduced tax rate on the value of the commercial uh improvements and uh by statute uh can uh last up to 10 years.

Uh we were before this honorable body uh 1030 uh 2025 uh requesting the uh for a request for the PA210 commercial rehabilitation district.

We received a letter from the assessor's office on the 9th of October uh suggesting uh that the district was certainly eligible, or the site was certainly eligible for a district uh with respect to the certificate.

We received uh similar letter from the assessor's office on the 17th of uh October.

Uh DGC is conducted uh its diligence uh and underwriting with respect to the uh certificate request and our uh we are recommending uh a 10-year uh certificate approval.

Uh as it stands today, there are no uh real estate taxes being paid on the property uh as it is publicly owned.

Uh if if after the development of the uh WMBA practice facility and headquarters, uh if there is no abatement approved, the uh developer would pay nearly 1.3 million dollars in property taxes.

Um and if in fact uh an abatement is approved uh after completion of the improvements, uh the annual property taxes are estimated to be uh $542 uh thousand dollars.

Over the life of all the incentives, meaning the PA210 and the uh Brownfield plan, uh the 33-year uh net fiscal benefit estimate is uh 19.4 million dollars.

Just want to go over uh part of our analysis uh with request to the uh uh uh with respect to the request.

On the far left, you will see over the 33-year period.

Uh if nothing is done on the site, uh, meaning no development activity occurs, uh, there will be obviously no property taxes, uh, income taxes, utility users tax, and the like.

Uh the far right demonstrates or illustrates uh the net fiscal benefit to the uh city of Detroit over the 33-year period, uh, should the uh development move forward, and this is net of any property taxes, uh uh net of any property tax abatement.

So the uh developer would still pay uh 2.4 million dollars in property taxes, uh nearly 17 million dollars in income tax revenue would in order to the city of Detroit, 200,000 uh in utility users tax, miscellaneous fees uh in the amount of nearly 540,000, uh less the cost of city services, uh additional city services required uh because of uh as a result of the development, and uh you get to the 19.4 million dollars of net fiscal benefit to the city, which is uh five nearly 590 uh thousand dollars a year.

In addition to that, we are projecting that there would be nearly 37 million dollars of new economic activity generated in the local Detroit economy, comes in the form of uh hotel stays, uh new restaurant activity, uh, which we'd like to believe that uh that translates into uh actually more jobs.

So uh, sir uh Mr.

Chairman, that concludes uh my presentation.

Uh and I am here with the petitioner uh to answer any questions that this honorable body may have.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Um I believe Miss Ms.

Barcliff, are you here on this one?

You have before you didn't see on the screen.

W trade property LLC seeking a PA210 commercial rehabilitation certificate.

This is abatement is only to support the Marty Sport Complex.

The estimated total capital investment for this project is 50 million dollars.

The source of funding for the project are equity and permanent financing.

The project is estimated to create 71 developer jobs and 200, I mean 129 temporary jobs.

The total value of the 10-year commercial rehabilitation tax savings is estimated at 9 um.1 million.

This property is estimated to provide the city of Detroit with a net benefit of 19.4 million dollars and a total net benefit for all taxing jurisdictions combined of 227.1 million dollars of the combined 10 years of the crucial rehabilitation tests abatement.

The net benefit calculations are strictly for activities.

Um activities deriving from the WMBA team's usage um at this site and not at the LCA.

So I wanted to make that too.

So there will be additional benefit to the being this team being in the city for forced usage at LCA, but that is these numbers do not include that.

And that um concludes my presentation.

Okay.

Uh who do we have queued up next?

Or is that it?

That is the conclusion of the presentation, sir.

Okay.

Uh, any questions from members?

Okay, seeing now we've already heard a little bit more about this.

We'll go directly into public comment.

I believe Pro Tim gave a minute and 30 for public comment.

Uh, if you wish to participate now regarding uh our 1035 a.m.

public hearing, please raise your hand now and indicate that we are closing off public comment, public comment going once, public comment going twice, public comment going three times, public comment is now closed for our 1035 a.m.

public hearing.

Uh who is our first caller?

Our first caller is redo zoning change hearings.

Redo zoning change hearings.

You have a minute and 30 for our 1035 a.m.

public hearing.

Please state your name for the record and proceed.

Can you hear me?

Yes, ma'am.

Um, so well, first of all, point of order, folks.

Um, you're violating on the regular charter section 6-205.

Ms.

Warwick.

Ms.

Warwick, I love you.

You got to remain germane to the 1031.

No, you don't love me.

No, you don't love me, or you let me speak about this, sir.

So please don't just lie to people.

Because that really you don't love me.

If you're not gonna listen to my concerns, next caller, please.

Thank you.

Our next caller is owner Papa.

Owner Papa, you have one uh minute and 30 seconds for our 1035 a.m.

public hearing.

Through the chair.

Good afternoon, Carolyn Hughes.

May I speak?

You may, ma'am.

Thank you.

Um, Miss Warwick was making a great point, but you you will not let us speak on it.

But let me say this to you.

Um, the Pistons are uh rich organization.

I never I never heard.

Usually they say but for.

So this isn't this isn't a but for.

This is people who want to use abatements unnecessarily.

There are people who actually could make some good in the neighborhoods or in the communities without and need this abatement.

I'm not sure if this is an organization that needs me to abate their taxes.

Um, what it does is it it takes money from the general fund and then it offers as Ms.

Barcliff keeps saying, jobs, but as we know, we're paying into a fund, a relief fund to cover the whole of the money not generated by these pie in the sky jobs that keep being offered to us as a remedy for the tax abatements that people are receiving.

Um, I believe this organization does not need an abatement.

That's the reason why they none of the presenters said but for so why are we offering this abatement?

And what are we specifically, Detroiters receiving?

What benefits are we receiving from this, other than having um activity at the site?

I'm pretty sure we can uh we have enough money.

We got 42 million uh in excess that we could do something ourselves.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Our last caller is William M.

Davis.

Mr.

William M.

Davis, the floor is yours.

You have a minute 30, General Public.

I'm sorry, just minute 30 regarding line item seven.

Uh good afternoon.

Can I be heard?

Yes, sir.

I'd like to ask a couple of quick questions.

One, will this facility have to pay a drainage fee?

And what is the estimated cost of the life of the abatement that they would be paying to the drainage fee?

Uh two, uh, what type of water management system is it gonna have?

And will it will they do something with the wall that this reclaim from that area instead of just pouring it directly into the river?

And will this properly contribute to contaminating the river in any way?

That's it.

Quick.

Have a good day.

Thank you.

Uh next caller, please.

That brings us to the end of public comment.

All right, that takes us to the end of our public comment.

Want to give the speakers an opportunity to respond to the questions that have been provided.

Whoever would like to begin, you may proceed.

Uh, to the chair, uh David Howell, I would like to address uh Ms.

Hughes' question with respect to uh the but for uh question.

Uh the but for analysis uh is actually the cornerstone of our diligence uh when we consider uh a tax abatement request.

So by the time a request gets to this honorable body, uh the but for analysis has been uh conducted.

Uh the uh what we look at uh in mo in all cases is uh the cost of construction, cost of uh financing a project, uh and if uh it is feasible uh without those uh without the abatement.

Uh so I do want to just uh make it clear that the but for this this development uh actually meets the butt for test, and that is uh again actually the cornerstone of our our analysis.

Okay, any other responses to questions provided by our public.

I think there was a uh question with respect to uh water drainage and runoff uh that might be addressed by uh the environmental consultant consultant or the developer.

Yes, sir.

The chair, I can answer that question.

Uh specifically, the stormwater system at the property will be designed and and installed uh using uh environmentally contaminated, excuse me, contaminant compatible materials.

It will be of a fully sealed design to make sure that contamination, both in terms of soils and groundwater, cannot get into the system, and more specifically, such that it only collects surface water from parking lot and other surrounding areas, uh, and and ultimately ends up discharging that.

So it is engineered and will be constructed in a way such that it only receives stormwater, and that only storm water is discharged from that storm system.

Any additional responses?

All right, colleagues, I stepped away.

Don't know if there was any that may have been missed.

All right, looks like we're good.

All right, any additional questions, comments, and concerns by colleagues?

Seeing none, colleagues, this item here.

We've got we're still awaiting the um the compliance report from PDD on this particular item.

Uh, have not received it yet.

I do have some questions on uh uh this one here.

Don't have uh, I think it's imperative that we have the compliance report as well, along with this one.

This is not a matter of slowing it up, but a matter of having uh both documents uh at the same time while we have an opportunity to review and CPC has to, if I'm not mistaken, uh provide some site uh plan approval as well.

I see uh Ms.

King's hand up, Ms.

King.

Yep, so thank you.

Um and through the chair, there is no compliance report um from PDD related to this item.

Okay.

Um I was told that there was one that was necessary.

Uh, member vice chair, you may have some insight.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

And that was kind of the crux of my questions earlier, just to ensure that we are following uh everything uh to the T.

Uh it is my understanding there is no compliance report necessary because this is not it is not a tier one.

This is a tier two.

Uh and inside of the compliance report that is generally required under a tier one, the report contains the necessary engagement or community engagement uh and activities that take place within the NAC.

Uh and seeing that this is a tier two project, that does not qualify it, and that is from my understanding, uh, which is why I did not believe uh into Ms.

King's point that that is required for for this specific uh item.

All right, so let me see if I we got someone from CPC uh online.

They can uh tune in for us, please.

And Mr.

Chair, if I may follow up, I know uh Mr.

Todd uh will submit or CPC will submit a site approval, but that is not connected to an ordinance the simple resolution.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

All right, uh Director Todd.

Um good day, sir.

I know that we have my team and you and your staff has been in communication.

Talk to us a little bit about the um we had uh been advised of a uh an approval that was needed.

Uh I it now it sounds like there is not one uh on behalf of uh CPC.

Good afternoon, Mr.

President Brook.

Uh to you and through your chair to the members of this honorable committee.

We um in this instance, um the property in question is zone destiny four, which is special uh development riverfront.

And any site that is in excess of three acres in size goes through a legislative site plan review and approval process uh after having been reviewed by the building and safety engineering department.

We have in fact conducted that review, and this matter was before the city planning commission at its last meeting a week ago today, and a report has been generated.

In this case, this is not the same as what you would find in a typical case with a PD plan development district or SD5 or casinos.

Uh this is a little bit more like what you have with your public center adjacent or public uh center uh approvals in the in and around the downtown, where there's just a design review that to which uh the planning commission and other city agencies have uh have contributed to, and the matter is pres is approved via resolution.

No public hearing is required.

So that document is uh scheduled for uh referral to your honorable body at tomorrow's formal session.

Uh and will it and and thereby we would expect it to appear on your calendar for next Thursday.

Again, no public hearing would be required.

Everything that is in it is consistent with the various presentations that you have had thus far on this project.

Uh so this is I'm not going to call it a formality.

It is not a formality, but it is a requirement for the fiscal uh side of the approval, if you will, as it concerns the site plan and general design of the proposed facility.

Okay.

Member Vice Chair, so you certainly want to get that document before so we can take a look at it first.

Yep.

And to you, Mr.

Chair, I I guess my question is as we're talking about the site plan.

Uh is that uh again connected specifically or required because it's done via resolution, is not done under that ordinance per se.

Um is it required for this to move forward?

That's yeah, doesn't sound like it's required or requested.

Is that correct, Mr.

Todd?

Mr.

Chair, I want to be sure of the context of the question.

Uh certainly for zoning, it is required in order for permits to be issued when it's time for construction.

I do not believe that it is necessarily required as a component or in direct relevance to the tax abatements that are before you, but it is a requirement in order for construction to uh be carried out for this project.

And and and to you, Mr.

Chair, that kind of is is my point as we speak, you know, germain to the certificate.

Um the site replant or site plan review uh is another component, however, not necessary specifically for this line item, the abatement or the certificate uh to be issued.

Um and honestly, if we were able to take that back because it it will be referred, um the project could not move forward anyway without that site plan review or that resolution uh to be spent.

So uh there is certainly opportunity that if we pass through this through today, Mr.

Chair, and again there are two separate things.

Um by the time that comes back to us and we move that resolution.

Uh I think it would be more simpler in my opinion, uh, if we are able to move these out together, and that the only last piece that we have is when we come and uh uh finish that resolution uh because it's not specifically required or directly connected to the commercial rehabilitation certificate.

Okay, so but but we're no what is the harm?

That's what I'm asking.

What's the harm in in waiting for us to get everything together?

Uh I think right now there's there's no shovels going in the ground right now.

There's it's before us, and we have the ability to I mean I plan on getting this thing out in the next meeting because we only got one more left.

So that's the goal.

So I'm just trying to find what if there's any trepidation.

Um I don't think there's been any resistance from this committee in terms of trying to hold it up just to make sure again, just we have everything.

This was be a lot our last time actually having an opportunity to um to to address this particular project.

So I just want to make sure we have everything before we vote.

And certainly, Mr.

Chair, uh again, as the you being the chair of the committee, if that if that is your desire to do that, fine.

Um how I'm looking at it, I know we are going to be coming back on the 20th, and so in my mind, there are a number of items we're going to be dealing with on that day as well, and the opportunity of that becoming conflated with those other items was a concern of mine.

Um, just to speak honestly.

Um and having this before us now and having these hearings and the opportunity to move them out so they can hit our next session and be taken care of by then.

I I think would be a good idea.

But again, I'm one person uh Mr.

Chair, uh, under that.

But uh seeing that we have heard the hearing and had the hearings, if we bring these back, we're adding more items to our agenda, which is definitely under the purview of you, Mr.

Chair.

I was only talking about this one to be honest with you.

The other one I was looking to move out because we're strictly talking brownfield.

Um in addition to line item 10.3, my request would be to move uh line item six and line item 10.3 out today, if that is what the committee uh body would like to do, and then uh bring back line item seven in one week uh to allow everything to catch the the rest of the uh documents to catch up uh uh again I Mr.

Chair, we're looking for Eastide.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yours.

So to you, Mr.

Chair, uh, because I don't view them necessarily the the doc those documents dependent on one another.

Um I'm not comfortable making that motion because the certificate is a certificate.

The site plan is the site plan, uh, and they are not necessarily dependent on one another.

Um I I I would like to move them based off of what their merit is and what has been heard.

So got you.

So thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I say in jest east, but D4, you are closer than D1 uh to this particular project.

What uh what say you, ma'am?

So move, Mr.

Chair.

I I personally don't feel like it's going to matter one way or the other.

Um I'm not sure uh the the time we're consuming having this conversation.

Um and so if you would like to bring this particular item back, um I move to do so.

Okay.

There's a motion to bring back line item seven, the 1035 public hearing uh back as a line item in one week.

Any objection?

Objection.

Sorry.

Objection.

One objection.

So uh one objection, member Durha, member vice chair, that action shall be taken.

Thank you so much.

And we shall now close out the 1035 public hearing.

Colleagues, is there a motion to discuss and or approve line item 10.3?

So Mr.

Chair, move to send line item 10.3 the former with the recommendation to approve, and that is the request to property transfers of city hall land at the former uniral royal site.

Thank you so much, sir.

There's a motion to move and approve line item 10.3 and send a formal with a recommendation to approve.

See no objections, that action shall be taken.

Would now like to call back to order the 1020 public hearing.

Uh Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Council President Pro Tim James Tate.

Council Member Fred Durha Third.

Councilmember Letitia Johnson.

Mr.

Ch you have a quorum present.

Just this point of order real.

Mr.

Mr.

Chair, we're calling back to order the public hearing, correct?

Yeah, I mean, uh I got you, sir.

All right.

Yes, for the 1020 public hearing.

So is there a motion to approve and or discuss further line item 1020?

The 1020 public hearing, excuse me, line item six.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I move to send line item six to formal with a recommendation to approve.

There's a motion to send line item six to formal with a recommendation to approve.

See no objections.

That action shall be taken.

Thank you.

This now closes out the 1020 public hearing.

Madam Clerk, if you can please note that we've been joined by member waters.

Clerk was a note.

Thank you so much.

And Member Warren's I think you're here for the biz.

All right.

It's a packed house, as you see.

I've now like to call back to order the 1105 public hearing.

This is again online item eight.

There we go.

It's a request nine, pardon me.

1105 public hearing to for the Biz Business Improvement Zone under Section.

No, he's fine.

He's fine.

Section 10, Chapter 2 of the Public Act 120 of 1961.

Will the parties who are participating?

If you're online, cue up, but I believe that we've been joined by at least three members that are before us in the committee of the whole.

When you get situated, please feel free to introduce yourself for the record.

When you see the button in front of you, turn uh push that button in front of you and let the red turn green.

That means that your mic is active.

Hello, Gina Cavalier, Chief Community Impact Officer Downtown Detroit Partnership.

I also serve as the executive director of the downtown Detroit Business Improvement Zone, and we are providing technical support to this effort.

Thank you.

We've been working with stakeholders, property owners, and residents to move the Rivertown Business Improvement Zone forward over it feels like the half the past half decade.

So also, Mr.

Chair, if I could um I have a presentation if I could share my Zoom screen as well.

Please uh feel free to share.

Good morning, I'm in Faruki, um CEO of Banyan Investments, resident of the front uh Rivertown uh neighborhood, uh, and a member of the team working with this presentation.

Yeah.

You have anyone joining online as well?

We have several commenters that are online, uh, but they'll comment during public public comment period.

And Mr.

Chair, um Commander Fulgenzi is online from the Detroit Police Department.

Okay.

You may pre you may begin your presentation.

Thank you, uh, Mr.

Chair.

Um sharing my screen here.

Um so yeah, uh just uh a huge thank you to uh everyone who's been involved in in this process.

Uh you know, in addition to you know the the the great collection of the advisory board members is have had a wonderful time meeting with residents, business owners uh over the past year, actually.

Um but more recently uh over the summer months since we uh had ahead of the first hearing here back in back in April.

Um, as you know, you know, we're here for the hopefully to receive the authorization to go to the formal property owners vote for the Rivertown Business Improvement Zone.

Uh a business improvement zone uh is enacted by state law under the Michigan Biz Act and must be established by a vote of property owners uh to fund priorities that are set by those property owners.

The BIS will be overseen by a volunteer board of directors elected by property owners.

And decisions that are made by the Biz are made by the board of directors at public meetings and have to be subject to the open meeting act as well as as independent annual audit.

And of course, the services provided by the Biz uh can only be used to supplement, not replace city services.

Uh but really, you know, in Rivertown, it's a growing neighborhood.

There is a great future in Rivertown, and we want to make sure that all residents, business owners, property owners benefit from a clean, safe, and vibrant environment.

One of the things that our latest round of outreach we've heard from uh from property owners is the need for more safety services.

We've really been effective over the past several years in pushing crime rates down, but we could do things like expanding the project lighthouse program that's been very successful in downtown to Rivertown.

We can do more homeless and unhoused outreach uh to to folks that are struggling to get them into shelters, um, as well as mental health outreach.

The visibility and safety of our hospitality teams to defer crime and create a welcoming environment.

And of course, you've all seen our clean ambassadors up and down Jefferson removing more than 180 tons of trash annually from Rivertown to keep the area clean and safe.

But most importantly, what what uh property owners have told me, I was just at a great meeting early in the week with the Faroe group and Mr.

Pop's detail shop as well as the owner of Channel 1 event venue, a collective voice for the neighborhood.

How we can advocate for our our residents, advocate for improvements.

So where we are at on this process is we had to submit a a zone plan in the petition.

This sets the boundary of the Biz Board.

Uh it proposes a slate of board of directors and specifies a scope of services.

We then had to achieve a minimum of 30% of signatures by those representing property ownership within the Biz Board.

In the the latest petition that we submitted, we submitted uh 47% of people that represented the district.

Right after we submitted, we got another commitment who signed the petition, but we couldn't include it in the petition because it was a little late, representing another 10%.

So we were north of the 50% marker that this body had been concerned about in the in the for the first hearing.

Now what we then need to happen would there would have to be a a uh public hearing, which is today, and then followed by a city council vote which would authorize uh the election to commence uh in the zone.

Following that, property owners uh would receive ballots in the mail, and the uh the voting would be opened through January 6th once the uh once the election date is set.

And we need to receive a 60% of approval threshold by property ownership.

I'm very happy to report that after extensive outreach and conversations with individuals.

I was just on the phone with our our great uh board member Moussa Bazi, who owns the new Shane Square gas station there, um, voicing his support for the Biz.

Um I know some of his cousins are here today from the mobile station as well, too.

Um but anyway, we're we have locked in a sort of hard commitments of a vote, 60% of the yes of the yes vote.

In addition, there's another 10% of property owners that have were really reviewing the information, are looking at it and are want to be supportive, but they're waiting for it for the public vote.

So we're confident now that we would have uh all of the votes if if the election was called and held permitted by this August body.

Now, we heard feedback, and I want to thank individuals that really shared some great thoughts with us.

I want to thank uh even those who have been opposed to it.

I want to thank Penny Duval who great gave some great feedback on the map to us.

And we made modifications uh from the last time we were here in April.

One of the uh the big things that uh we heard was that there was too much public parkland in in the zone map.

So if you recall the the previous uh plan that we had talked about in April had boundaries that went jumped on the on the east side of Grand Boulevard and included all of Irma Henderson Park.

So we removed uh the majority of Irma Henderson Park and the properties that were north uh of uh Grand Boulevard or north of Jefferson and Grand Boulevard to tighten up, tighten up the boundaries.

Um, one of the things we've also really heard was um ensuring that we've got good representation from not just the larger property owners but smaller property owners.

So we were very intentional about seeking out uh new owners of of smaller properties to sit on the um on the biz board.

So you'll see here, these are the uh the group of individuals and stakeholders in Rivertown that raise their hand to serve on on the Biz board.

You already hope uh heard from the Barnes family, of course, Roger Busmati and Chris Bonnell of Curlin Electric, um, Amir Faruqi, of course, uh Princeton Enterprises, Vince Little is here who owns a great the UPS builder where the UPS store is, Bob Maxie Ford, very proud to have the support of one of our great car dealerships that's investing in the area and creating jobs for Detroiters, as well as um uh Parkstone development partners with Tanya Stapleton and of course Ryan Sullivan and Jacqueline Young who lives uh in in the area.

Of course, this is a uh a public body, the city of Detroit will receive an appointment to the board.

So much as normal council appointments on the mayor elect uh or will uh uh nominate someone, council will approve the representative will sit on the BIS board.

And it's very important because this is the body that oversees the funds that are raised, right?

So it's not Jeffersonese, it's not Riverfront Conservancy, it is uh the Biz Board, and it's all subject to open meetings act, public meetings, very good public oversight of these of these funds.

This is just a list from the Civic Zone Plan uh that will be voted on and mailed out as part of the ballot, just describes what we can do.

We've heard from individuals that safety is a key component, um the the ambassador services, but we've also heard from a lot of of small small business owners was talking with with cred cafe uh the other day about this and marketing the area.

So we can do marketing and identity to drive more businesses in business into the area.

And so this is a list of services that could be provided by the Biz, but of course, these actions will be determined by the Biz Board of Directors with feedback from a public meeting from all of the stakeholders in in Rivertown.

Now, we don't take this lightly.

We are asking people to assess themselves and make a contribution in the future of the Rivertown neighborhood to pay for services that not only benefit them but benefit the entire community residents as well.

You'll see from we're anticipating with the biz assessment, which is based upon a combination of the field area of the building as well as the assessed value of the building so that those with larger, more valuable properties pay more.

So there's equitable component into this.

But you can see most property own uh parcel owners will 62% will pay a thousand dollars or less a year, right?

We have a few large owners, many of which have signed up to support this initiative, will be paying substantially more than that.

But again, uh that was by design.

We wanted the larger property owners to pay more to relieve the burden from smaller property owners.

And again, everyone would be assessed in the district, with the exception of single family condominiums, nonprofit or affordable housing owned developments, as well as things that are not publicly accessible.

Residential homes.

Oh, and residential homes, of course, are not accessible with this.

Now, I I do want to say something that's important.

Uh we became aware this morning of some misinformation that was circulated to residents of one apartment complex, claiming that their rents would go up substantially if if the biz was enacted.

Um what we've witnessed in in downtown Detroit and other business improvement zones around the country is that typically apartment owners, because they benefit so much from the services they no longer have to pay for themselves, like exterior cleaning, public safety, there's typically a reduction in operating costs at those apartment buildings, and therefore, whatever the additional assessment would be, is typically not passed on to renters.

I will say two things.

The information that was circulated to residents of one of the apartment buildings just had the math wrong.

They had claimed there'd be a $300 a month rental increase.

If you did the math on what the assessment of this apartment building would be, it comes out to about $10 per month potential increase if the owner chose to pass that on to everyone.

Number two, we take displacement very seriously at Jefferson East.

We have built affordable housing in Jefferson Chalmers, we've supported eviction defense, property tax exemptions.

Demetria Stinson, our housing council will be joining us uh shortly to talk to folks if they need help with eviction, they're concerned about their rents, so we can help people if they are feeling threatened by displacement.

But the Biz will not support that and not stand for that.

And Jefferson East stand here to help prevent displacement anywhere it happens in the East Jefferson corridor in the city of Detroit.

Stand by that.

So back to the Happy Warrior.

Um where we're at right now is we've we've got we've done a lot more engagement, you know, thanks thanks to the chair and Councilmember Jonathan and Durrhall.

We've done a lot more engagement.

Um, you know, we did uh two four-hour open office hour sessions, had a at a great time the other day sitting with with Miss Duval for several hours to hear her concerns.

Um we did we had also two more public meetings with Chip Roadie at the Rivertown Detroit Association.

Jefferson East hosted two virtual meetings as part of our corridor update meetings.

Uh we did direct mailing twice to every single property owner.

Um I want to also thank Robin Twee, our economic development senior manager, and uh Sabrina Underwood, our engagement director, who also went door to door to drop off information, set up meetings.

Um, and then want to thank you know great organizations like like the Faroe Group for hosting small group meetings in different parts of the area.

So we basically, with support of staffers as well as Chip Rhodi did a lot of door knocking, we canvassed over a hundred properties and dropped off information as well, too.

So we heard feedback, we have commitments uh to get this passed, but now is a time where we just want to have have the vote.

Um but again, Jefferson East, no matter what happens, we're gonna be here to support residents, support property owners, and support moving the district forward.

And I commit I committed that to Mrs.

DeVall to meet with her to help her craft a redevelopment plan for her properties.

We'll be right there with our friends at Jefferson Chevrolet to help bolster and improve safety and business development there, and we'll stand with every resident that may have a concern about the business improvement zone to show them how it's going to improve their quality of life and move the Rivertown business uh neighborhood forward collectively.

Last thing I'll share with you, one other thing which was brought up.

Had a wonderful meeting with Shahida Mousey, who's been a longtime supporter of Jefferson East, supporting extra police patrols and trash pickup.

And they have committed to making, since they're in Shane Park, they're not accessible.

Now the parking lots they use are, so there'll be some some contributions from that.

But Ms.

Mousey and her team have committed to making an equitable contribution voluntarily into the Biz, realizing the amount of benefit they're going to get to build the safety and security for their patrons around there as well, too.

So I am super excited about this.

I want to thank everyone who gave feedback, even if we disagreed.

But Jefferson East will always be here, door open with our support team to move Rivertown forward.

And I just wanted to thank this body as well as all the council members for your great feedback in this process as well.

That being said, um, I don't know, um, Amir or Gina, do you have anything else you'd like to say?

Or the chair, I guess, sir.

Give you an opportunity to give your comments before we open up for ours in the public.

Thanks, Josh.

Um Mr.

Chair, Honorable Members, good morning.

Uh I speak as a member of the team working on establishing the River Town Biz.

I will just speak as someone who lives in the neighborhood, has his office in the neighborhood, and over the last 10 years or so has invested in the neighborhood.

Uh we've worked with the city, with the Riverfront Conservancy, with with JEI in developing uh the Dennis Archer Greenway and have brought some buildings online uh which previously had been abandoned.

We've been able to attract commercial and retail businesses to the air, creating around 40 permanent jobs in in uh in that neighborhood.

Most of the people who work there live in Detroit.

I'm proud to say, not all of them, and everyone I found out who's not living here.

I I take a minute to buy them a cup of coffee and try and attract them to moving.

Uh Detroit's a great place to live.

We consider the stat the establishment of this business improvement zone to be super important to the continued success of the residents and business owners.

And therefore I strongly urge you to support our IFOT, which has taken a minute or two to bring to you.

Thank you.

Any further?

I'm here for technical support.

All right.

Colleagues, questions, comments, concern, we'll go to members of the committee first.

And if there's none, then we'll go to Member Waters.

Member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and good afternoon to all of you.

Um can you did you have a graph or a map showing the boundaries of the Biz?

If you can pull that back up, um, just for me to be aware.

And then I'd just like to ask if JEI has been performing the uh work that you plan to undertake with this biz, and if so, are the resources coming from grants that you apply for?

Yes, no, no, thank you for that, that council members.

So since 20, oh geez, 2010, Jefferson East has been doing funding the clean ambassador services down all of East Jefferson, from your district to at Altar Road all the way down to Rivard.

That's historically been paid for through a combination of private contributions of people that raise their hand to contribute to the Clean Ambassador services, and occasionally we'll get some some grant sponsorship.

So, for example, in Rivertown, we had a very small group of property owners, uh you know, the the Strove family, uh, you know, now Bedrock, uh, you know, Atwater Brewery, Presbyterian villages that contributed funds to maintain those clean ambassador services up and down Jefferson Avenue.

And it was a struggle every year to go in there and raise those funds.

In addition, we've we've done a lot of public safety work uh in the Rivertown neighborhood, as we do across the entire 5th and 7th precinct.

As you know, we fund the 5th and 7th Comstat process, which convenes residents.

We have public safety Americor through Wayne State that we can do safety organizing, apartment safety assessments, things of that nature.

Um, and then for a long time in Rivertown, we got private contributions from stakeholders from the Aretha, from uh from uh you know the the Stroh campus to fund extra police patrols.

So we would use DPD's secondary employment program and and run second police posts.

So, but to your question, if the BIS were to come and come into effect, jeff the the funds that were raised by the BIS would be able to, you know, uh fund efforts like that.

They they could fund the Clean Ambassador Program, they could fund secondary police patrols, they could fund more safety work.

Jefferson East wouldn't have to then raise funds for those individually.

So there is a there's an advantage here to us as an organization in that if the BIS were to if the BIS were to take over these services, as if the Biz board would elect to do that.

I don't want to get ahead of myself here.

I don't want to get ahead of myself here, then Jefferson East could deploy some of those other privately held funds to go deeper into our neighborhoods, uh to go deeper into district four with our safety work.

One of the things we're talking about, uh council member, is doing more safety work in the morning side East English Village Cornerstone neighborhood.

And so the BIS would reduce our cost a little bit, and then we could deploy those those privately raised funds in other parts of the corridor.

It's also very important now for us too, because like everyone else, we face some fiscal federal cutbacks.

For example, um the statewide AmeriCorps programs were killed by the Trump administration.

That meant what used to cost me about $17,000 a year to fund two domestic violence advocates in the fifth and seventh precinct, now cost about 130,000 because we have to pay those can't be AmeriCors.

So I want to look to be able to recreate those services and make sure we can maintain those vital domestic violence recovery services for all residents of the fifth and seventh precinct.

Having the Biz will free up some of our resources, we can ensure that can that can that can happen as well too.

The last thing I'll show you about the Biz is there's not just the raising of funds, um, it's a coordination.

So the Biz provides the body in which you know the Biz manager, uh, which the BIS would contract with.

Um we're anticipating most likely if the bid would have it, it would be our friends at at the downtown BIS, because they have the infrastructure and the experience, we can coordinate safety services between Riverfront Conservancy, between Jefferson East, as well as coordinate a range of other services that can benefit uh residents, property owners, and business owners.

Thank you.

Can you just share publicly what the east and west boundaries are here?

Excuse me.

So the the southern boundary is the Detroit River.

Um on the western boundary, we trace the boundary of the uh of the downtown Detroit biz.

So we go up Rivard, uh, then we jog over to 375 to capture the the corner of Jefferson and 375, run down Larnard Street uh to Mount Elliott, and then we have to jog this is where it gets a little weird, and I've had a lot of conversations with folks on this.

Um what we had to do here was try to find what's called a natural boundary, since there was no Larnid Street and there's no Congress Street, and we had the challenge of this little, we call them bowling alleys, uh a parcel on Beaufay, the long parcel at the uh the the condominium development.

We had to we couldn't you can't you can't split parcels.

So we we had to go up the east side of Beaufay, uh just up to Lafayette, then back down uh the alley line uh between uh the seats there, and then we run over uh tracing what would it used to have been the old Congress Street down to uh Jefferson and then over to just beyond the Bell Al Bridge, and those are the boundaries.

We had a lot of discussion about this, the the eastern area of this.

It's primarily all zone single family residential, so parcels in there would not be accessible.

The parcels on Jefferson are zoned commercial, so they would be accessible.

But in in conversations with the advisory board and looking at this, we wanted to create an area that would be large enough if there was future development that would be you know, benefiting from the biz services, we'd be able to capture that entire area that's that's there.

So this is the current boundary based upon feedback.

There's a lot of other legal advice you had to go to because in the statute you can't split parcels certain ways and things like that.

We had Gina and her team, you know, spent multiple hours with attorneys looking at the boundary.

And so this is where we landed on here.

But basically, you know, our friend uh our friend Moosabazi and his family own the corner there uh at East Grand and um Jefferson now, so they're interested in being supportive because if they build something, they want to be able to contribute further into the biz as well too.

And so that's that's how the boundaries were, and that's how that that western, northeast, sorry, northeast corner area got established.

Can you specifically share why not just Jefferson?

Yeah, so it has to get in where the parcel boundaries would fall.

So if we just did Jefferson at, like took it from just north of Unoroil to Jefferson, it would have to run on the center line.

Um, Gina, would you be able to maybe talk a little bit about the the legal requirements on on the BIS boundary setting?

Sure.

I mean, they need to be contiguous, so you can't gerrymander or keep any individual parcels out in from an urban planning perspective.

You also look at what's there today, but also what's anticipated in the future.

So we spent a lot of time looking with our attorney at what was a legal description that would be understandable so that we were open and transparent and clear with people who were voting, but also what makes sense long term.

So looking at at the parcels, the attempt was made to have a line that was about as straight as it could be, considering that the parcels are not even and there's not a natural boundary there.

Um we knew that it did not make sense to go further to the north in inning in capture more residential property that we know will likely stay residential, but the goal was also to look at these vacant areas that, while they're currently zoned residential, are likely to be combined into commercial properties and commercial projects as the area grows.

So it was looking at today, but also looking at the growth and evolution of this neighborhood.

Thank you.

And just for clarity purposes, so west of Mount Elliott, um, where we see East Larnet and then Jefferson.

All of that is commercial property.

So that's essentially Jefferson.

Yes, exactly.

Yeah, everything south of Alarnett is commercial property.

When you go north of Larnard, you get into residential zone, plan development area, things like that.

Okay, and then just for clarification, because I know the last time we were here, um, there was a percentage of support that you had already garnered.

Um can you speak to where you are today and the required percentage of support in order for this to move forward?

Right.

So the we've already hit the threshold uh that we need to move forward.

The the way that the biz statute is written that you need to be able to submit the submit a petition, uh, you have to submit a 35% of third, sorry, 30% of the ownership.

Um that triggers a petition process that brings that brings it here.

We originally we submitted that with basically almost 50% this this latest time around.

Subsequent to the petition submittal, we've been able to wrangle in another 10% of support uh from from some owners.

So we're at 60% sort of committed support for the business improvement zone.

So what would happen now is of course, until people vote, it doesn't become real, right?

So now we would go to the vote, and in the vote we would have to get the 60% of the ownership to vote yes for the biz within the Rivertown billets for for it to be adopted that has to be done via the the vote of prop accessible pro accessible property owners within the business improvement zone.

I will say to you, we have that sort of that really good support at 60% now.

Mentioned so they're 10% of folks that we've been meeting with that, you know, want to be supportive, but they're still looking at it and they want they want to be able to vote.

So we're going to continue to meet with those folks uh, you know, so that we we don't just pass with just 60 percent, we'll pass with 70, 80 percent.

I also would like to know too.

So yeah, that's that's kind of where we're at, and so we're we're feeling good.

We're feeling good about the uh the support level.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

You and my question is what what type of work is going to be done between now if it's approved today, and I mean we're talking about a vote that's been proposed for January 6th to get it from that 60 to 70, possibly 80.

Yeah, maybe higher.

Yeah, no, I'd like to be higher too.

Um so um, you know, the the election is I believe is it a 28-day window?

It is from the from the time the city clerk mails the notice and opens the election, um, the maximum that can be opened from that date is 49 days.

So we set the the proposed date at January 6th, because that is 49 days from the earliest time the city clerk could could mail out ballots, so that gives the the widest window possible for voting, you know, continuing with that commitment to access and openness and transparency.

And I plan uh, Mr.

Chair, to continue our team continue to meet with property owners uh during that whole period.

Uh we have several more meetings set up next week with folks that wanted to sit down to fully understand the assessment, understand the benefit.

So we're just making a commitment to continue to do that outreach through the election process to make sure that people understand what they're voting on as well too, as well as deal with concerns that may bubble up from residents so they can understand the potential impact and what supports that we'll be able to provide to them as well, too.

So not going to forget about the residents as well, too.

That's what Jefferson is here to do.

Gotcha.

Mr.

Chair, if if I could add, this is this is an effort has been similar to many, where until it's actually happening, people who have received notice multiple times are now paying attention to it, saying, Oh, this is really happening.

So we're getting a lot more traction now, too, on people actually setting aside the time to commit to a meeting.

Gotcha.

And so uh you because this is a public hearing, I think it's imperative for folks to understand uh who actually uh verifies the threshold, right?

It's not you all.

Um you you provide the information.

Talk to the the community, those who are watching who verifies that you've reached those thresholds, and it's not just council just taking your word for it.

Um I know the answer, but I want you to be able to tell the folks.

Um, Mr.

Chair, this is an election that is conducted by the city clerk.

So the city clerk accepts the the petition, the city clerk verifies the petition, works with the council, the city's legal department.

So there are many, many people on the city side who are verifying the information that has been provided.

And um, you know, this is considered a city election.

The election would be conducted by mail, so the city clerk would mail notices.

She intends to mail a notice of election to each property owner separately mail the ballot, enabling, you know, inviting somebody, you know, the property owner to vote.

It also gets published in the legal news, just like any notice of election at the city, and then the ballots are returned by mail to the office of the city clerk, and the city clerk would be opening those ballots and then certifying the election.

Gotcha.

But to get to this point where we are today, I know that the clerk's office uh did validate the the the first tranche, if you will, but you've now eclipsed that 40 uh percent or so uh has the clerk off clerk's office also verify the additional 20 percent or so that you now have acquired of in terms of support.

Mr.

Chair, those those we um have have forwarded, but they don't count as because the petition all needs to be submitted the same date.

So we we more than met the statutory threshold on that date, and um at this point, those are are more of you know public comment offers of endorsement as opposed to a formal part of that petition.

Gotcha.

But I would add if I could, Mr.

Chair.

Um we did have you know from McCormick Barron, they actually did sign the petition paperwork, it just didn't make it in time to submit it into the thing, and that gave us another sizable percentage that got to those those those hard numbers that I had had laid out and stuff too.

But as as uh my colleague here did did point out, a lot of these were you know support letters or or just uh verbal pledges of that as well, too.

But they want to get to the vote because it doesn't matter until people vote.

You know, I I appreciate that, and I'm glad that we did take some additional time um and didn't just move forward the first time around because again, it it never feels good when you have a divided community.

Uh and it and it may not have been as divided, but the big question mark of you know how is this going to impact me was looming over a lot more folks than it sounds like that is happening today at this moment.

So give you credit for certainly going back out and having conversations with other business owners uh and addressing their concerns and um you know look forward to hearing uh additional engagement to see where those numbers lie.

All right, with that being said, I want to turn it over to Member Waters.

Member Waters.

All right.

Thank you.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Uh course, I've been um the first thing I just want to say is that I don't like the use of the word overseer.

Uh it reminds me of Sarah's oil uh in today's time.

Um I am concerned that this could be a land grant.

Uh I don't understand why we have to include vacant land in this um in this footprint.

What we ought to be doing, especially for those that are residents in the city, and when I say that, I'm specifically talking about those who are PREs, primary residents in this city, and they're already paying high property taxes just to live here.

And they've been holding on to their this their land, hoping to get some assistance to develop to develop that property.

And it hasn't been uh happening for them.

And shame on us for not assisting them.

And that's that's that's one of my major problems uh with this uh proposal.

So you um you're not going east of uh of the boulevard at all.

And it is I believe that there could be some properties uh on Jefferson that were zoned residential, and in fact.

Uh so and so you've you've taken the time to exclude um various uh people from this, such as the Detroit Land Bank.

I mean, they're not in any of this footprint that I can see because they certainly need to be paying their uh fair shares.

And you know, I did stop down the other day and I asked you for a list of those businesses uh who are part of this footprint.

I want to know uh who are who's residents.

I heard this gentleman here at the table said he's a resident, but in addition to that, uh not just a a a resident itself, but but a a primary uh resident uh because now we we're taxing them like double triple.

And I and and and I don't like that um at all.

So um I want to um Mr.

Chairman and and and I I've already submitted it um through uh via e-scribe.

Uh I want to ask that my colleagues consider offering up an amendment to exclude vacant properties.

I don't understand why we have to have to include them, and they're already being taxed.

Now we're going higher, and I just want us to be a little bit more sensitive and not drive out legacy legacy detroiters in particular when it comes to what we're what we're doing.

Give me an opportunity to respond.

Um Mr.

Chair, those are very good questions.

Um, the assessment is based on a formula that looks at the building, what has been developed on the property, and vacant land.

So vacant land um is assessed at a much lower rate than any any property with improvement.

Um, this isn't in and we we need to to really stress this.

This is in no way an assessment on homeowners or single family homes.

This is a commercial assessment.

Um the the statute requires that you have a zone that is contiguous.

So because this is a neighborhood that has a mix of commercially assessed parcels and residentially assessed parcels, there will be residential parcels that are in the zone, but that does not make them subject to the assessment.

They are not accessible.

Um I'd also like to add that through the engagement that we did, we were able to connect some of the the property owners, particularly legacy property owners who have had some legacy issues that they were dealing with.

We connected them with representatives of the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation and with Invest Detroit.

So we are very committed to helping bring vacant properties to productive use.

But this is not uh a situation where this is a body that would be buying real estate or developing real estate.

It's maintaining the neighborhood to a standard that the property owners want it to be maintained to and helping advocate with their collective voice.

And so what I have noticed is that some property owners down there on Jefferson in particular, uh taking the time, they're paying to make sure the grass is cut, there are no weeds there, but you have some of the others that are not doing that.

I mean, you see tall weeds and so forth uh on their on their properties.

But I go back to the fact that you says, well, there are no taxes on residential.

I get that, and and and certainly we appreciate that.

But I just I just and you also do uh you receive community block grants, right?

Uh Jefferson East receives uh you receive them and so and the other uh folks you receive monies from private corporations.

I want to ask you this, and and something I want you all to really think about, because uh you you're trying to tax people right out of ownership of their land, and that's one of the most important things, especially for black people, okay, holding on to pieces of land.

So I'm gonna ask you all if you can go back and help people find development dollars so that they can develop their land.

I mean that those are the kinds of things that we should be doing and not find a way to tax them right out so that they lose it.

Council, thank you for that.

No, I I I really really appreciate those those comments.

I mean, Jefferson East, you know, we've developed affordable housing in Jefferson Chalmers.

We launched and supported, you know, two African American Detroit-based restaurants in Jefferson Chalmers, so we can help build that generational wealth.

Our foreclosure prevention and work has helped save hundreds of homes for Detroiters, not to mention in deploying more than you know, improving a hundred homes every year for legacy detroiters through our home repair programs.

I understand that very well.

The value of land and the pride and the empowerment that that brings are absolutely spot on, and we're 100% there together.

In terms of of the biz, you know, what I've pledged uh to property owners that do own a lot of vacant properties and they've owned vacant properties for years in Rivertown and for various reasons that challenges redeveloping those properties, maintaining those properties, you know, cutting the grass, things like that, is that we've committed to work with those owners uh to say, okay, how can we help you move your property forward?

How can we help you put a development plan?

How can you take advantage of new economic development tools?

So with our team at Jefferson East with with with Robin and our economic development team to really meet with folks help them develop uh create development plans.

I pledge that to to Miss Deval the uh twice last night when we were talking, you know, sit down with her, look at her holdings, figure out how you can put a great development plan together because we have some experience doing that in the Jefferson Chalmers Chalmers neighborhood.

But you know, from the Biz perspective, what we found is having property owners enact a business improvement zone to vote for it, to make that choice, sends a strong signal uh to folks that that folks want to move this neighborhood forward, that they're they're open for new development.

So having a biz, at least in my mind makes a redevelopment of those vacant properties even easier, and you're gonna have great partners like Jefferson East right there with folks throughout this process, no matter what happens, biz or no biz.

Uh, we'll be the supportive.

So let me just say one other thing.

You know, I remember with the casino tobacco.

I mean, you know, and a lot of those businesses down there in that area closed.

They had no support.

Now we're running in basically to just take their properties.

This is how I see that.

If if you are not making any money, if you have not been able to develop your vacant land, then why do you think that they have the additional money?

Where is that going to come from?

I it's just there's just something uh you know fundamentally wrong uh with that.

I hear you and I'm having a difficult time with it.

Thank you for that.

I hear your concern.

And we've had conversations with individuals that have expressed that that that same that that same concern.

What I will say though is you mentioned the tall grass and uh the litter in front of buildings.

It's the property owner's responsibility to clean that up, right?

And so what a biz allows us to do is collectively pool resources to remove that cost from the property owner so they don't get blight tickets, they don't get tickets about overgrown weeds, they don't get tickets about litter on their property because the biz team is out there cleaning that up.

So it's gonna save vacant property owners some of that headache and the threat of blight tickets too.

So that's an advantage of that, which helps preserve property ownership as well, too.

But to your point, I'm right there with you.

I would love to work with you on how new economic development tools can be deployed in Rivertown.

I think we should be looking at at a whole range of things together to bolster our legacy property owners, and we'll be right there with you and this body and all the residents to make that happen.

You have my pledge on that, ma'am.

All right.

Well, thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you.

Are any additional questions, Member Johnson?

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, so something that was just brought up and you um indicated that there is a drastic difference between the um assessment for vacant land and comparison to land with a property.

Do can you provide an example or like the difference?

Sure.

And I I can I if you give me a minute, I can pull up the assessment formula.

But there's two parts to it.

There part of it is it's uh uh a multiplier factor of what has been built, the floor area on that property, plus a multiplier factor of the a vacant of the the of the assessment.

So if they're of the city assessment, so if you don't have anything built on there, you just you don't have you have a zero on that side of it, and then your city assessment is also lower because it's undeveloped property.

So while vacant land does contribute overall, it's much lower than property that has been developed, very similar to to property tax assessment.

Okay, thank you.

Um so, Mr.

Chair, if you would like to go to general or public comment, but but I would love to see that uh calculation.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Any additional questions?

Seeing none, we shall now go to public comment.

If there's anyone from the public, I know I have uh a number of green cards.

If you are here today and you are in the committee of the whole and you have not filled out one of these cards, and you do want to speak, raise your hand now.

If you're in the committee of the whole and you have not had an opportunity to uh fill out one of these cars, raise your hand now.

All right, gotcha.

Okay, and if you're at home, if you're at home watching uh on Zoom, if you would like to provide comment on this particular item that is uh line item nine, the 1105 uh public hearing regarding the biz business improvement zone.

Uh please raise your hand now online.

Please raise your hand now if you would like to speak online.

Going once, going twice, going three times.

Collection of public comments have now concluded.

Ms.

Humphries, just kind of need to know how many we have online so I can identify how much time to give folks.

13 hands raised online.

13 hands online.

Okay.

I think this uh crowd, you all have been waiting for some time now in the committee of the whole.

Uh and for those who are watching, we uh the neighborhood and community services standing committee uh is not uh taking place today, which allows for us to uh continue this uh council excuse me committee uh through the one o'clock hour.

So we do have a little extra time.

So we're gonna give everyone a minute and a half for uh public comment uh for this particular item.

And we're gonna start with our folks who are in the committee of the whole.

You got three seats that are right there available.

I think one of the mics aren't is not good.

Which which one is the one that we're asking people not to sit at?

The we're put put your hand on it one more time, sir.

That's the one we do not want you to sit at, but those other three so the ones with the chairs in front of them, those are available for you to uh provide public comment.

Want you to know that when you get in front of that microphone, uh it's the the mic's gonna be red.

You're gonna push the button at the bottom of that mic until it turns green.

Once it turns green, you are now uh and have an active mic in front of you, and you may begin speaking, just asking you to hit that button one more time when you wrap up and move out of that seat so we can get the next person in, okay?

Got some shaking of heads, appreciate it.

All right, so we're gonna go first.

We're gonna start off with uh Miss Tamiko Little.

Tamiko Little, our first speaker.

If you can take one of those three seats we just mentioned, next speaker, Scott Turnbull.

Scott Turnbull, and the third speaker, Alicia Pardo.

Alicia Pardo.

It works, it works better now.

Okay, all right.

I know it can't come, it works, but it was working a little weird before.

So we're gonna we're gonna trust them.

Um and taking that fourth seat will be uh apologize if I mispronounced the name Wanona Brazil Brazzle.

All right, maybe had to leave.

Uh Brian Telefar.

All right, there we go.

That's our four initial speakers right there.

We're gonna start with Miss Tamika Little.

We're gonna give everyone again a minute 30.

Let's bring less full screen that clock for everyone so they can clearly see something.

Got to keep your eye on that clock, everyone, if you're in the committee of the whole, because once your time is up, I've got to now move to the next person by law.

We have to give everyone the same amount of time.

So just work with me, please.

Give me one second, we're gonna get that clock up for you.

Got these Zoom bugaboos happening today.

All right, there we go.

All right, Miss Tamika Little, the floor is yours, ma'am.

Good morning.

Or good afternoon.

Um councilman.

Uh, my name is Miss Little.

I stay at uh apartment down here.

I've been down here two years.

I'm here today because of course I got a letter on my door, and you can you you spoke on the $300 um that would be added to our rent.

Um my problem is what are we developing down here and why are we being taxed, and how does that help the residents?

That's my question.

Okay, thank you.

And want to make sure you all take note of the questions because I'm gonna ask you to respond to them as they move forward.

Thank you so much.

Um Miss Little.

If you can um allow Miss Penny DeVall to take your seat, please.

Sure.

Thank you.

Scott Turnbull, floor is yours, sir.

Hello, good afternoon.

Uh thank you.

Uh I'm the manager at the Pastina Apartment Building.

That uh related to the letter uh that you just talk that we just talked about.

Uh the $300 is an annual increase.

It would be spread out over the whole year for the tenants.

And I just wanted to formally object to the biz district for Pasadena Parkments because it would be a financial burden that me and my tenants could not shoulder.

Um we have 10 parcels in the area, and when you do the math, you add the rate on those 10 parcels, which are the building and various parking lots that support the building.

It would create an incredible burden on Pasadena and its residents that have lived there a long time.

And and we take pride in providing affordable housing.

Our average rents are about $900 a month.

And if this goes through, the rents are only gonna go higher.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Taking that empty seat, thank you, uh sir.

It was is Beverly Watts.

Alicia Pardo, floor is yours, ma'am.

Hello, everyone.

Can you hear me?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Um it's Alicia Pardo, by the way.

My apologies.

You know, it's fine.

Thank you.

Um so yeah, thank you all for bringing this up.

Um it's a great presentation and clearing some things up for us at Pasadena.

Um, but yeah, it is a big struggle for us.

Um, and we're a strong community there.

So uh my question would be if this was to go through and you all give us all these great things that you say you're gonna give us.

How can we hold you all accountable?

And how can we make sure the things if if we're gonna end up having to pay all this extra money?

Like, how are we gonna be able to see those benefits for us, especially?

So that's my main question.

Um, and I do have one more question.

Um for the ballots that get sent to the owners for the um votes.

Where do those ballots actually get mailed to?

Do they get mailed to their to the property address that they might not even live at and even see, or is it mailed to like you know, their their mailing address?

Like, where is it actually mailed to so that they actually get a valid vote?

So, yeah, that's it.

Thank you.

Taking the empty seat will be Ryan Sullivan.

Ryan Sullivan is Ryan Sullivan here.

All right, uh Mr.

Telefara.

Uh floor is yours, sir.

Was is this uh is this live?

It is on.

We can hear you.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh appreciate the opportunity to voice our concerns.

Uh I want to say thank you to Council Chair uh Waters for eloquently putting the way it is, that taxes, especially for these legacy uh landowners such as ourselves.

This is I've been with Jefferson Chevrolet for 32 years, my family since 1942.

This is a financial burden that we cannot afford.

Um I don't know, you know, how what percentage of the businesses are thriving in Rivertown, but uh we pay an exorbitant amount of property taxes already.

The assumption that uh you know the square footage equates to wealth and inability to pay is not true.

Just because you have a dealership does not mean that uh the square foot that you're required to have to be a dealership doesn't mean that you're you're doing all that.

Josh has got some good ideas, he's done he's a very eloquent speaker, he's an even better campaigner for a job, right?

I mean, he's gonna be the guy that's gonna be in charge of this.

Well, let's say spearheading it.

But this can't happen.

It's this would be a 15% increase on our existing property taxes already.

And like I said, it's it's we have a lot of expenses of doing business in the city that people don't realize.

I mean, from the excessive drainage fees to uh engineering, fire, plumbing inspections, um, you know, it it's just it goes on and on.

Business licenses, business licenses too.

Uh it's just I don't think people really understand the expense of doing business in the city.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Taking the empty seat will be Cassandra Neff.

Cassandra Neff.

All right, next speaker, Miss Penny Duvall.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

Um first I'd like to say I have not been receiving um notices of all these different meetings, and because if I had I would have attended, and then there to raise my hand to be on the board if this were to go through.

I do object to this and suggest that the this petition be repealed and the boundaries on the map and the natural boundary at the Jefferson and East Grand Boulevard area is learned as it is for most of the district along the Jefferson corridor, and not go into the residential community at that quadrant and split the residential community, treating half of it differently based on this uh this assessment.

It should not be part of this map, just so like they excluded the east side of the boulevard where there are businesses, they should not be including the west side of the boulevard and Jefferson where there's residential.

I think the map is is flawed.

I think the tax is a burden.

I don't I think vacant land that and other vacant properties that are not producing any income are paying taxes and don't have any income to pay additional, don't have any income.

So they're paying the property taxes to maintain it, cutting paying for get grass maintenance being cut.

I don't think Josh suggested that they were gonna be cutting the grass of private property owners and um and keeping it clean and picked up, and I don't think paper and flowers which they're offering is big picking up paper and flowers.

It's like you know, we're gonna you're gonna dig my grave with the tax and get and have me pay for the flowers that you're gonna put on it.

Is you know, that's just not reasonable or logical.

Uh I object to I I I think this whole proposal, this petition to create an establish the Rivertown BIC is I'm sorry.

It is should be thrown out.

All right, thank you so much.

Taking the empty seat.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Taking an empty seat is Vince Little.

Vince Little.

Ms.

Beverly Watts.

The floor is yours.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Uh my name is Beverly Watts, and I'm here as a resident and a resident only.

I've been living in the Rivertown Association since the early 90s.

I now reside in Harbor Town.

In fact, I'm on the board of one of the HOAs there.

Uh I'm definitely not here to to advocate for any hardship on anyone, but I am here to advocate uh because this area just happens to have our downtown in a district five, but it is a neighborhood.

You know, where we we pay the taxes, we keep our properties clean.

What we've had experienced, and uh we like collaboration with our business partners, but there are some that are not, you know, maintaining the area.

We've seen how it has been an improvement uh in the downtown biz.

So what we like to do is just continue to collaborate.

Our residents traditionally have cleaned up over the years and have volunteer cleanup programs for some of the businesses.

So I'm here to support this biz, but I'm also here to support any continued dialogue for this uh biz.

We are excited to know that any business comes down along Jefferson.

We are now in Harbor Town going to be welcoming a new uh exercise facility that's gonna be opening, which would bring more foot traffic, and we welcome that, but it's also gonna bring a lot of other traffic that comes there that needs cleaning as well.

So uh and the residents here when we do volunteer cleanup, we don't get any of the profit or and nor do we advocate for that.

We want collaboration with everyone because what we believe not only in Harbor Town, but all of the residents is when we all work together, we all win.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Taking the empty seat is Tanya Stapleton.

Ryan Sullivan.

Good morning.

Thank you for hearing me.

Uh my name is Ryan Sullivan.

I'm the a resident of District 5, father of four, lived in the district for almost 15 years.

Uh I patronize a lot of the businesses within the uh Rivertown district, whether it's Bob Maxie Ford, I drive a Ford product, I'm wearing glasses from Heritage Optical, and I drink plenty of cups of coffee from Mr.

Faruqi's uh tenant there uh in the neighborhood.

So I'm very familiar with the neighborhood and the district.

I'm also the CEO of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, and that's who I'm here to represent and speak on behalf of today.

The Detroit Riverfront Conservancy has been a beloved institution in our city for almost 25 years.

Uh hearing a lot of the commentary and the in the other uh session this morning about the Unit Oil site and all of the positive remarks that people made about the riverfront.

Uh the riverfront was created uh to create a clean, safe, and beautiful environment that's accessible for all.

And when you look at the the words and the environment that the riverfront has created, uh you see a lot of that reflected in the biz strategy and what they are seeking to implement for the broader Rivertown district.

So I would like everyone to imagine and think about the way that you feel when you bring your family, your friends, your loved ones to the riverfront, whether you live in the district or not.

Uh it is a a feeling of clean, safe, and beautiful.

And what the RBI is seeking to create is that same sense of uh vibrancy uh throughout the entire Rivertown district, and we at the Riverfront Conservancy are passionate advocates for that and are strongly in support.

Thank you for hearing me.

Thank you.

Take the empty seat is Donna Jones.

Donna Jones, there she is.

Uh Cassandra Neff.

Good afternoon.

Hello, everyone.

I'm Cassandra Neff.

I'm the general manager of the Biz Ambassador Program.

Um I have a team that's roughly 95 to 98 percent Detroiters.

Um we put in roughly 200,000 man hours a year.

Um we we support the clean team, we have a safety team, we have a homeless outreach team.

We would love to have these same services.

Um and our um be as a river town.

Uh so I support uh this proposal.

Thank you.

Taking the empty seat is John Strohl.

John Stroh.

Next speaker, Vince Little.

Uh good afternoon.

My name is uh Vince Little.

Uh and I own the the building at uh Walker Street in Franklin houses the uh the UPS store and a yoga studio um there.

Uh you know, and I I I'm the support um you know of of the biz.

I I really am.

You know, I I I spend a lot of time um trying to keep the facility clean.

Um I I put garbage, you know, cans out there.

I just can't keep up.

I have to take them out.

Um, you know, so my you know, for the for the for my tenants and for their customer base, um, you know, it's important for them to to feel safe.

A lot of them are Detroiters, a lot of them are Canadians, a lot of them are you know, folks that are patronizing the um the yoga studio early in the morning, later in the evenings, you know, so you know, for them to feel safe and and and have a clean environment um and to welcome additional retail.

I wonder the limited retail areas in that area, uh, you know, and so you know I I guess I want to encourage that as much as possible so we can have the amenities that um the other people have, you know.

So I'm I'm in support um of it.

Thank you.

Taking the empty seat will be Hilary Kuldelski.

Kulski.

Uh next speaker is Tanya Stapleton.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, Pro Tem Tate and Council members.

Um, my husband and I own a building at 2930 East Jefferson that we are redeveloping into a small business incubator for Detroit-based businesses and female entrepreneurs.

Um shortly after purchasing that building, uh, our building was vandalized.

We believed it was uh target of a previous tenant.

Um hats off to police and fire, they were there immediately on Christmas morning.

And um the fire investigators said we're gonna look at the cameras in the area, and the investigation went nowhere because very few businesses have cameras, very few um folks have um the green light if they can advantage of the green light program.

And so I will say um we our firm is going to be located in this building once it's redeveloped, and we've done community development work across the city in several commercial districts.

The number one barrier to small business growth once it launches is either crime or perception of crime, and so I feel very strongly that I could not make an impact in this community without um a collective approach.

Um kudos to the team here who has put out hours, hours um of community organizing.

It is not easy to organize an effort of this of this magnitude.

Um but I would also just like to say my very first apartment was also in Rivertown, and I felt fearless, but my parents would have loved a biz, trust me and belief.

Thank you.

Taking the empty seat, uh Dorian Mausi.

There he is.

Donna Jones.

Good afternoon.

I'm Donna Jones.

I'm a resident of Harbor Town, and I am in support of the Biz.

I just had two questions for clarification.

One is um all of Gabriel Richard Park included in the Biz.

Looking at the guy diagram, it looks like it's only part of the the Biz, and if if not, why not?

And also um, how will residential condos be impacted by the biz assessment?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Did uh Winona Brazil did she arrive?

When owner Brazil going once, going twice.

All right.

Unfortunately, we're gonna move on.

And then we'll close out the individuals that we have here in the committee of the whole, but our next speaker, Mr.

John Strohl.

The floor is yours, sir.

Uh thank you very much for hearing me.

I'm I'm I'm uh John Strowe.

I I'm a past chairman of the Stro Companies and the Stroh Brewery Company.

Uh and uh a past chair, current board member of Jefferson East and a board member of the Riverfront Conservancy.

Uh our family has been in Detroit for 175 years, six generations, uh, and I uh we came down to Rivertown in uh almost 50 years ago uh and invested hundreds of millions of dollars in uh the the site that is uh River Place with hundreds of residential units, office space, retail, restaurants, etc.

And uh for years uh uh we paid uh for funded uh our staff to uh maintain landscape secure and improve uh throughout the area, far distant from our land holdings, improving the streets, uh safety clean and so forth.

Um now as a past property owner, I represent uh millions of dollars of philanthropic contribution to uh the riverfront conservancy and uh uh substantial contributions to Jefferson East to support clean, safe uh and housing efforts and um and this is an opportunity for us to uh to uh equitably distribute the cost of these services uh for the betterment of the neighborhood and the improvement of the quality of life and growth uh in Detroit.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh next speaker, second to last is Miss Hilary Kodelski.

Hi, um I am a resident at Pasadena.

I've been there for over five years, but I've been in the neighborhood for over ten.

Um, and I am, of course, concerned about any extras.

You know, I want to retire.

So um, but listening to what's going on in these assessments on business and living where I live.

Um the city owned properties.

How how do they do they get taxed that same way?

Does the aretha participate in the beautification?

How much do they?

Because I know living where I live, I stare at their ugly pylon concrete dirt box parking lot.

Um, and their venues shut down majority of the year.

So what I mean, and and then the there's a city owned lot next to it.

So and I think they acquired another one across the street.

So I just want to know how how many of the city-owned buildings are contributing, and how much specifically I'd like to know what the aretha because they contribute a lot of their patrons are coming and causing a lot of the issues in the area and the broken glass that we don't get swept up right away.

We're the last thought of on our streets.

Uh it'll get cleaned up before a concert.

I do know that.

So I'm just curious, all I want to know what the city does.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Last speaker, Dorian Mosey.

Uh good afternoon, thank you, everybody, for hearing me.

Dorian I also am with the Ray Productions and Management Operator of the Aretha Amphitheater.

Just here to uh for is our support for the program.

We've submitted a letter, but I wanted to come in person and go on the record.

As we do uh recognize the importance that the biz does for the community around us, we contribute uh financially and with our staff as well to uh help support that effort.

So I just wanted to again just go on record with uh support for the organization and the initiative.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We shall now transition to our online callers.

Who's our first caller?

Our first caller is caller ending in one two four.

Caller ending in one two four.

The floor is yours regarding line item nine.

Caller, are you there?

Let's put that caller at the end of the queue and go to the next caller, please.

Yes, sir.

Our next caller is iPhone.

IPhone.

The floor is yours.

You have a minute 30 regarding line item nine.

Caller, are you there?

iPhone.

Are you there?

Let's put that caller at the end of the queue and go to the next one, please.

Um, we'll try caller ending in 039.

Caller ending in 039.

The floor is yours regarding line item nine.

Folks walked away.

Caller, are you there?

I'll try and again put that caller at the end of the queue and go to the next caller, please.

Owner, next caller will try is owner Papa.

All right, caller, the floor is yours.

You have a minute 30 regarding line item nine.

Good afternoon, and to the chair, may I be heard?

Yes.

Thank you.

Um I I think that uh maybe this isn't really not ready to roll out.

I think there are many questions from the community that need to be responded to, and I think what he suggested that came in too late uh that would put him over a certain point is is reason enough to uh postpone this and to have this being run, you know, and then the vote, you know, and then January 6 this happens.

I think that maybe we need to slow our roads.

And what's really startling to me is that you have done such good work already without this being in place, so why can't you continue to do the good work that you're already uh and engaged in and doing without this uh uh change or this biz being established.

And what was really startling to me was the man with the yoga uh studio who said that cleanliness and safety was an amenity.

I think you all ought to take a look in the mirror.

And and and when someone tells you that an amenity is cleanliness and safety, especially when you live in a city that spends millions and billions on safety and on um blight.

Um it seems that something is awry.

They should continue to do the good work and the conservatory, which had millions embezzled from them.

I'm not sure if they uh need to be listened to.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Next caller is William M.

Davis.

William M.

Davis, the floor is yours.

You have a minute 30 regarding line.

Item nine.

Uh good afternoon.

Can I be heard?

Yes, sir.

Okay.

One, I think the footprint is too large.

Uh two.

I I don't I don't think you know, like there's a number, I have a number of city track retirees live in that area.

And obviously they can't afford anything addition.

Because you know, we've been robbed for you know for 12 years.

Uh three.

Have they uh did they reach out to Church and Messiah and Reverend Barry?

Uh I would think that if they especially if they're crossing the boulevard, if they're going uh north of the boulevard, they should have uh three, you know, this is not ready for prime time.

You need to take this back and review it.

And I don't see why any of the people that's running or you know, the uh who have individual properties down there should be paying anything additional for this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Next caller is redo zoning change hearings.

All right, caller, the floor is yours regarding line.

We're gonna get that clock uh first.

Okay, regarding line item nine, the floor is yours.

You can hear me?

Yes.

Okay, great.

Okay, first of all, once again, and please don't violate my first amendment rights, Mr.

Tate, because it's totally relevant.

First of all, um, for all of you who live there and are impacted, I strongly believe he's violating your rights to speak as long as you need to on this matter under charter section 6-205.

Um, you should absolutely be concerned about the people getting having to pay more money.

And I would love to see a clean city too, but very politely, then this is very much related.

Why?

Because it's not it's unequal treatment, and maybe my neighborhood needs to ask for somebody to make sure that the people want to build North End Landing, stop mowing over garbage all the time, and I keep bringing it up to people, and no one does anything about it.

So we would all like to have a clean environment.

I know people who have been ambassadors who do great work if that's part of this kind of thing that this would fund.

But I also, Mr.

Tate, why you should you should ask for a legal opinion about 6-205 and how you guys are repeatedly violating it also at the city planning commission and cutting people off and not giving them a full opportunity to present while other people get to go on and on and on and on.

Mr.

Benson totally disregarded it the other day.

The city planning commission just on this topic.

Some of these are illegal hearings.

Okay.

Thank you for letting me finish finally.

All right.

If you if you believe that they're illegal hearings, you are free to file any complaint, any report to an oversight entity.

Um, but just saying it on public comment doesn't make it true.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is Tim Flintall.

Caller, the floor is yours.

You have a minute 30 regarding line item nine.

Caller, are you there?

Caller, are you there?

Let's put the caller at the end of the queue and go to the next caller, please.

Next caller is Mark's iPhone.

Mark's iPhone.

The floor is yours.

You have a minute 30 regarding line item nine.

Caller, are you there?

Caller, are you there?

Let's put the caller at the end of the queue and go to the next, please.

Next caller is Jackson.

Caller by the name of Jackson.

The floor is yours.

You have a minute 30 regarding line item nine.

Caller, are you there?

Caller, are you there?

All right, let's go to the next caller.

And we will put that caller at the end of the queue.

Next caller is Commander Flugenzi.

All right, commander, the floor is yours.

I I think commander was calling outside of being a public commenter because they mentioned him in advance of public comment as a presenter.

But we're going to give Commander an opportunity to talk outside of public comment as a result of that.

We will try Sylvia Crawford.

All right, Sylvia Crawford.

Floor is yours.

We have a minute 30 regarding line item nine.

Caller, are you there?

Hello.

Yes.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

First of all, I want to uh I want to commend everybody.

I want to commend the committee, all the participants on the committee.

And uh I am uh the owner of the building, Crawford Real Estate and Development.

And uh we own we have a tenant which is also owned by my family, Cred Cafe.

Um so we have um recently uh received uh the um content of the plan that is to go forward.

First of all, I think that uh the biz uh the business improvement district downtown has done it done done a tremendous job, and I think uh it is reflected in the fact that uh the NFL and other entities that have come have been able to produce uh significant res uh revenues uh for those small businesses.

We are on the east end of the riverfront, and I do see that there is a great difference in how the um traffic, the business traffic along the west end.

Uh there's a big difference between that and the east end.

So during many of these activities that come into Detroit, we don't see any of that activity.

I do believe a collective effort is necessary.

Um, I would like to see more engagement before we move forward with a vote to push this through by January 6.

Thank you so much.

Next caller, please.

Next caller is Hanny Boutros.

All right, caller, the floor is yours.

We have a minute 30 regarding line item nine.

Yes, hi.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Hi, good afternoon.

My name is uh Henny Boutros, and I own uh several properties in the area proposed for the Rivertown Biz.

Um I do support Detroit growth, but the current biz plan, I don't think that is fair or practical.

Most of the land included in the biz um is vacant or made up of empty buildings that produce no income.

Yeah, property owners are being asked to pay extra taxes for business improvement.

The BIS should focus on area with active businesses, not on resident on residential blocks or tax exempt land that won't contribute financially.

Adding new taxes to homeowners and proper small property owners, um especially during an uncertain economy, only will create hardship and lowers property values.

Many of us believe that this proposal places a burden on the wrong people.

Um I'm here today that's petitioning to repel or opt out.

Only properties that want to participate and pay the assessment should be included and receive biz services.

Other part of the neighborhood needs support through incentive, not more taxes.

And thank you for considering those concerns of local property owners who want a fair approach to improving Detroit.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Next caller is Stefan Welch.

Stephen Welch, the floor is yours.

You have an Hello, this is Steph Welch of uh Pistons Sports and Entertainment along with W Detroit.

Uh we're proud to invest in the River uh Rivertown neighborhood with our 6,000 East Development, East Jefferson Development.

Uh we are thankful for Rivertown's uh improvement zone engagement with us.

We're gonna continue to work with them and have conversations in good faith uh based on their goals.

Uh we believe this is an opportunity to provide uh even more uh clean, safe, uh vibrant community that supports uh economic development uh that residents can uh uh benefit from.

Uh we look forward to continuing to engage and thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Next caller.

One second.

Is Chris Brownwell?

All right, caller.

The floor is yours.

You have a minute 30 regarding line item nine.

Hi there.

Uh, can you hear me?

Yes.

Wonderful.

Uh, my name is Chris Brownell.

I'm the CEO of Curlin Lighting.

We're a manufacturing business that is based on East Jefferson, squarely in the uh proposed Biz.

And my family has been operating this business in this location since 1931.

So we've been longtime uh investors in this neighborhood.

Uh we've cared for a long time about what happens throughout Rivertown.

Uh historically, you know, our ability to impact things has been limited to our plot of land and and beautification there and planting flowers and mowing the lawn and keeping things in good in good uh shape for our employees um and for the the residents uh who who live near us, many of whom are our employees who are also residents in in Rivertown.

Um and I'm a uh a resident of the downtown biz.

I live uh right off of Grand Circus Park downtown.

So I've seen firsthand some of the benefits uh within a within a small, relatively small geographic area that can happen when people come together as part of these uh business improvement zones.

So uh it for the sake of our employees and for the sake of our our neighbors.

I really am excited at the prospect of of having a business improvement zone here in Rivertown, uh contributing to it.

I I will serve on on the board as well, helping to direct those efforts that can be seen and felt immediately by the people who live right here who work right here uh and improve the quality of life there.

So it's a very exciting prospect, and I hope that we'll be able to take it to a vote.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Next caller, we are returning to Mark's iPhone.

All right, Mark's iPhone, the floor is yours regarding line item nine.

Mark's iPhone, are you there?

Going once, going twice.

Three times.

Hello, can you can you hear me?

Yes, sir.

Floor is yours.

Thank you.

Appreciate that.

Mark Reef, uh, owner of uh Rivertown Holdings.

Uh 237 Joseph Campo, better known as the Atwater Brewery Facility.

Uh also owned uh land behind it as well.

Um have been in the Rivertown area as a business owner or property owner since 2002.

Uh I've seen uh the early stages of Rivertown and uh the issues that we had from a safety and cleanliness perspective.

We've had uh definitely had some immediate increase in us being able to handle the safety and cleanliness on our own as business owners and property owners.

Uh having a Rivertown Biz very similar to what uh Detroit Biz has done is vitally important for the safety and cleanliness.

And as a business owner, it's also very important for property values and for future MX economic development.

It's critical.

We can't go backwards, we must go forward.

And all the amazing things that uh that uh the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy has done.

We need to continue those efforts.

It's vitally important.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Next caller um is Jackson.

We're returning to Jackson.

All right, Jackson, the floor is yours regarding line item nine.

Yes, can you all hear me?

Yes.

Fantastic.

Uh first of all, I want to appreciate uh y'all's time here.

Uh, I did I do like the information that I did learn through the presentation.

Um, however, I am opposed as a resident of Rivertown.

I am opposed to uh Rivertown Biz.

Um while I am all about the improvement of this area and not only this area, but any project within the city limits.

Uh I strongly feel as if it should not come at the expense of uh stakeholders, potentially residents, so on and so forth.

And therefore, uh do ask that y'all consider a modification of this petition.

And uh that's all I have.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Next caller, we're returning to Tim Flinthoff.

All right, caller, the floor is yours.

Regarding you very much.

Thank you very much.

This is Tim Flinthoff.

Um, I'm an architect with 4545 architecture, located in 2761 East Jefferson.

Uh, I moved my office to the area from New Center.

Um, mostly because I like the walkable community that we have here.

Um, I'm a resident of Detroit as well.

Uh, I think that the biz is gonna offer a great opportunity to strengthen the community here, and I offer my full support.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Next caller, we are returning to iPhone.

All right, iPhone, the floor is yours.

Hello, good afternoon.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Hello, my name is Lori Wilde.

I'm a resident of Harbor Town, as well as a recent uh elected board member there, and I'm reaching out to uh say thank you for the public notice and hearing.

And I would say that I'm in support of the River Town Biz in general.

I do walk through the River Town District every morning with my dog in the wee hours, and uh do sense a uh do feel a sense of security with the current efforts around uh patrolling there, so thank you for that.

Uh, I do have some questions.

So, how would or how does the Unit Royal Pistons development and public abatement um request impact or a line, or how is it being considered as part of the proposed Rivertown biz?

What does that look like?

Um, how are the commercial property owners who uh one could assume are sitting on property in the river town zone, uh potentially in a speculative manner being engaged or held accountable for not taking action to improve the area on their own as it is?

Um, how will the Rivertown Biz work to attract, develop and support new businesses and services for the residents of that area as opposed to just trying to attract uh for lack of a better term, tourist tourism type type traffic, um both from an economic development perspective, but as well as a physical, and then um last but not least, there's already issues with pedestrian traffic impacts uh on East Jefferson.

How would that be addressed?

And then um how are the various hoas throughout the Rivertown District while not being thank you so much.

Next caller, please.

Next caller is Marguerite Maddox Scarlet.

Yay, yes, afternoon.

We just um exiting no uh city we need to figure out make sure that they deliver the property about the area permitted to you guys today we need to do that and delay to execute a chimney I do everything the happy um it does learn that next to it did not have thank you very much.

Thank you.

All right, that takes us to the end of our public comments, and I see you get about three pages of notes there.

I'm on a call right now, and nobody's you pass me.

Have a seat.

No, I'm 039.

We called it earlier.

I know, and then you called, didn't you move me back to the end of the queue?

Because the phone disconnected.

I was right downstairs, and I was gonna talk, so I came up here before I went to the mayor's office.

Okay, now I'm just asking for my minute in 30 seconds.

We'll give it to you.

Come on, take a seat.

Take a seat right there in the front.

You take a seat right there.

Come right here.

What is all you are coming up?

Mr.

Crowley, Mr.

Crowley.

Uh I'm I'm I'm offering you another opportunity to speak.

Don't have to at this moment.

You don't have to.

However, you want to handle it.

I was definitely on the call.

And all I wanted was my man.

Hold on one second.

I'm giving you the time.

Okay.

So third o'clock.

I thought you were guard.

Okay.

Well, here.

No, not yet.

Not yet.

First of all, let me introduce myself.

My name is Reuben James Crowley Jr., and I'm also running for state senator in the third district.

I'm announcing my intent to form exploratory committee.

The new Michigan state, third district.

Uh this has nothing to do with the public hearing.

Now, what I'm talking about.

Over in River Town.

And I'm an extensive member of the city of Detroit.

Matter, as a matter of fact, over in River Town, the this whole thing.

I'm also one of the members, one of the people that discovered absentee ballot fraud.

This whole thing.

So you have one more opportunity.

Um at this is strictly about line item nine.

And that's what I'm speaking on, sir.

Then you keep diverging.

Give you one more time.

And no, I just listened to many people speak about before they beg to comment.

So what I want to say is this.

This petition needs to be put on hold.

And we need to have serious discussions about these teeth in officials who are voting on millions, hundreds of millions and billions of dollars worth of contracts, proposals, ordinance.

So much, sir.

Thank you.

I I've asked you a couple of times.

This is about what we talked about.

This is exactly what we're talking about, sir.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

We shall now move on.

All right, we'll give you an opportunity to respond to the questions.

Okay, let's ask the commander for the question.

I'm sorry, sir.

Uh Commander Fulgenzi uh would like to say a few words now for public comment.

I'm gonna give him an opportunity to chime in.

Thank you.

Report him over.

Oh, we see her in person.

Commander Johnson is here in person as well.

So whoever would like to speak, so we can keep it moving.

From DPD.

He's been promoted as a panelist.

Commander, are you there?

Yes.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Good afternoon, honorable board.