The Fort Lauderdale City Commission met on July 2, 2026, to discuss the Central City Redevelopment Advisory Board's communication, a Group Violence Intervention (GVI) program initiative, a city hall update, and various commissioner reports. The meeting ran from 6:15 PM to approximately 8:30 PM.
Okay. Good afternoon everybody. Welcome to the city commission meeting this uh June 6th. Excuse me. July 2nd. Right. I'm dyslexic. Okay, July 2nd, 2026. Thank you all for being here today. We have uh just a few items on the afternoon agenda, but it's going to be uh um uh filled with a lot of information, so really looking forward to moving ahead and getting this forward. I want to thank the vice mayor for taking over the chair uh at the last meeting. Thank you so much for uh conducting the meeting. I appreciate it. Welcome, Mayor, thank you. And uh so let's move ahead. We have a communication uh to the city commission from the central city redevelopment advisory board. Um is uh city manager thank you, Mayor. Guess we have reviewed that communication and we do feel that we're able to address those concerns. Uh is there anyone here from the central city rede? You want to speak? How are you? Yes, please, yeah. I can't see, I can't see yet. I couldn't see whether I can't see the podium, so oh yeah, but Mr. Mayor, yes, commissioners, uh city manager, city staff. My name is Nicola Stan. I am uh have been a member of the advisory board for three years now, and uh uh uh sign up for another three years. Um I live in the CRA boundaries. I am um on the fifth terrace uh 1125 Northeast Street. Um I wanted to talk about this communication. Um the communication is a recommendation to accept proceeding with the land use amendment um pro uh program as it's um uh as it's uh presented to you with the reduction in scope to only the rezoned areas, which is what was approved at the board meeting. Uh what was discussed over the previous years uh when uh rezoning was discussed. There was a lot of meetings and back and forth um consensus has been established on the rezoned on the areas that were proposed for rezoning, not for the entire CRA area. So that's one thing, and the second thing. Before you go on, so this is an issue that's been um bounced around since I was a commissioner. So is our CRA manager here? Can we talk about what the timetable is about implementing those changes and when it's going to come before the commission? Good afternoon, Vanessa Martin, CRA manager. So we are at a stage where we're actually trying to bring forth the land use plan amendment consultant on board. We have that coming before you in August 18th, as far as the rezoning is concerned. That was of course on a whole through September October of this year through this the Senate Bill 180. So we're working through all of those um parameters to make sure that that everything is addressed in a timely manner. Once we can bring that consultant, we're going through the negotiation contracting periods right now for the land use plan amendment, and once we can get that sorted out, we will bring that to you on August 18th. But our but we do understand the urgency and we are working with city departments to address those concerns. So when you say um you're you're putting out to bid for the consultant, what consultants have we been using up to now and why aren't they part of this process already? So we that part of it has been done already. Um procurement has already gone through through the CCNA, and they have identified a firm, and that firm right now is actually we're actually in the negotiating contracting process. We're also working with legal to come up with other um ramific decisions in order for us to before we can draw a conclusion to the contract. So when you say um it's coming to the commission in August, what exactly would be coming to the commission in August then? The the land use plan amendment consultant hiring that firm to come to um to help the central city CRA.