Thank you and welcome to the April 21st, 2026 meeting of the Greensboro City Council.

We are in the Katie Dorset Council Chambers, and let the record reflect that all members are in attendance.

We will begin the meeting with a moment of silence.

Thank you.

Mayor Pro Tem Roth, would you lead us in the pledge, please?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it's a nation under the visible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

We ask that you please silence any and all electronic devices.

The City of Greensboro strongly encourages input from all residents, and the council chambers serve as a welcoming and safe environment for all residents.

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To address the council this evening, participants must have completed speaker sign-up by 5 30 p.m.

pursuant to the rules prior to the council meeting.

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All motions will be moved and seconded, and the presiding officer will announce the vote tally.

The consent agenda covering items F1 through F16 consist of routine and non-controversial matters that are approved with a single vote.

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And if an item is found to be time sensitive, the mayor may request that a vote be taken.

Closed captioning is provided for this meeting, depending on the duration of proceedings.

A brief recess is anticipated around 7:30 p.m.

Now we can move on.

We do have where an applicant has requested that item H1 2026-217, which is a public hearing for an ordinance, annexing territory into the corporate limit limits for the properties located at 5101, 5113, and 5327 Z Z Old Randoland Road, 104.03 acres, Scott Crussel for Sean Cummings of Agency Partners LLC and others, and H2 2026-218 public hearing for an ordinance for original zoning for one for 5101, 5113, and 5327 GZ Old Randallman Road.

Scott Cressel for Sean's Cummings of Agency Partners LLC and others.

They have requested that this be continued to the May 19th City Council meeting without further advertising.

Do I hear a motion for continuance?

Moved by Ms.

Black.

Seconded by Miss Thurm.

Council, we can do a voice vote on this.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed?

Hearing none, that will be continued.

Now we need to ask for a motion because we need to move a council meeting.

We need to move the May 5th Greensboro City Council meeting to Monday, May 4th at 5:30 p.m.

Do I hear a motion?

Moved by Mr.

Holston.

Do I hear a second?

Seconded by Mayor Pro Tim.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed?

Hearing none, we are moving our city council meeting to May 4th.

Several council members will be at a conference.

Now we move on to our ceremonial items.

And we have item E1, a resolution honoring the life and legacy of Willina Reeves Cannon.

Councilmember Black.

Good evening.

This resolution is honoring the life and legacy of Willina Reeves Cannon, whereas it is with deep sadness the Greensboro, the Faith Community Church, and the beloved community recognized the passing of Willina Cannon on January 10th, 2026.

Whereas Willina Reeves Cannon was a leader, leading member of our community who stood up to injustice, dedicated her life to ensuring that others had a quality of life and loved everyone she touched through her unwavering faith.

Whereas Ms.

Cannon, a lifelong advocate for justice during the civil rights movement and was participant in the historic Woolworth protest in 1963, a leader of in the African Liberation Movement, the Blind Workers' Strike, the Cafeteria Workers' Strike, the Kmart boycott, and was a consistent and resounding voice at the Greensboro City Council meetings representing her district in the name of social justice.

Whereas she was deeply involved in the workers' viewpoint organization and the Communist Workers Party, which organized the death to the Klan rally in Greensboro on November 3rd, 1979, an event now recognized as the Greensboro Massacre, where Miss Cannon and her son were present when five demonstrators were killed and several other activists were injured by armed members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party.

Whereas in the midst of storms, Willina remained steadfast and committed to truth, justice, and equality.

Whereas Willina served with distinction as a pillar of Greensboro's healthy home division for over 45 years and dedicated her life to improving the living conditions of families within the city of Greensboro.

She earned national recognition for her dedication to eliminating substandard housing and addressing environmental health hazards.

Whereas her commitment to integrity, service, and compassion served as a beacon of inspiration and her skillful ways to connect and empower people to not only improve their living conditions, but to also their fellow community members and leaders alike.

Whereas Ms.

Cannon shared unwavering support for her faith community, walking alongside Reverend Dr.

Nelson Johnson at the Faith Community Church, where she served as a deacon and later joined Genesis Baptist Church, where she proudly served as a deacon helper and a member of the Women of Excellence organization.

Whereas the loss of Willena Cannon leaves a void in our community that will deeply that will be deeply felt, but her legacy of service will live on and now, therefore, it be a resolve by the City Council and the City of Greensboro that the City of Greensboro extends its heartfelt sympathy, sympathy, and condolences to the family, friends, and loved ones of Willina Cannon, that the City of Greensboro honors and celebrates Willina Cannon Reeves Willina Reeves Canon for her remarkable achievements and for a life dedicated to the betterment of our community.

That a copy of this resolution shall be presented to the family of Willina Reeves Cannon and as a token of our appreciation and respect, adopted this day, 21st day of April 2026.

Would you like to move that?

I'd like to move that.

Ms.

Black moved Mr.

Holston's second council, please vote.

And that passes 9 to 0.

Thank you, Ms.

Black.

If you don't mind, I'd like to save my comments.

Her son will be here to receive the resolution, and I think that it will be appropriate time after we've go through our agenda that you will see why we recognize Ms.

Cannon.

But thank you.

Great, thank you so much.

Okay, now we have a resolution recognizing Sheena Beasley.

This is item E2 and the Almond Connection.

Council Member Crossford.

Good evening, y'all.

Whereas April is recognized nationally as second chance month, a time to raise awareness about the challenges faced by individuals returning from incarceration and to promote opportunities for successful re-entry and reintegration.

Whereas access to stable housing, employment, health care, and supportive services is essential to reducing recidivism, strengthening families, and building safer, more equitable communities.

Whereas Sheena Beasley, a resident of Greensboro, North Carolina, is the founder and executive director of the Allman Connection, a nonprofit organization established to support individuals returning from incarceration.

Whereas the Allman Connection provides critical services, including housing support, workforce development, employment assistance, education, health care access, and family reunification support, helping individuals achieve stability and self-sufficiency.

Whereas Ms.

Beasley's leadership is rooted in lived experience and a deep commitment to transforming barriers into opportunities, advocating for dignity, restoration, and second chances for all.

Whereas her work has positively impacted countless individuals and families in Greensboro and beyond, strengthening communities and advancing equity through re-entry support and advocacy.

Whereas organizations like the Allman Connection play a vital role in supporting returning citizens, reducing barriers to opportunity, and contributing to the overall health, safety, and well-being of the Greensboro community.

And now, therefore, be it resolved by the City Council of the City of Greensboro.

Greensboro City Council hereby recognizes that April is second chance month and encourages community awareness, collaboration, support for efforts that promote successful re-entry and opportunity for all residents.

That the Greensboro City Council hereby hereby honors Sheena Beasley for her leadership, advocacy, and dedicated service to the Greensboro community.

That the Greensboro City Council hereby commends the Alman Connection for its ongoing work to provide pathways to stability, dignity, and opportunity.

The City of Greensboro affirms its support for efforts that expand opportunities, strengthen families, and enhance successful reintegration that helps all residents thrive.

Adopted this the 21st day of April 2026.

I assume you would like to move that resolution.

I would like to move that.

Move by Councilmember Crawford.

Do I hear a second?

Seconded by Council Member Black.

Let's go ahead and vote, and then we can hear from the speakers if that's the pleasure of council.

And that carries nine to zero.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

It's a great honor uh to receive this uh resolution, and I have not done it uh on my own.

First of all, I want to thank God for giving us the vision.

Um, and I want to thank my uh board members, uh Rodney Beasley, chairman of the board, um, Magaline Hall, our secretary, and Carrie Flam, who is the best volunteer uh that anybody uh can ask for.

And I thank for thank you for all of my uh supporters, uh donors, grandpours, my family.

I thank you all so very much, and I especially love my CC Cross.

Anyone else with some brief comments?

I just want to say real quick uh one thing that Ms.

Sheena left off is Saturday, should have celebrated 10 years.

Uh 10 year anniversary down the Civil Rights Museum, and I don't think there was a draw eye at the museum during uh comments and on behalf of uh second chance celebration, um myself, Christy, Daryl, Kamaya, all uh just really grateful for the work that Ms.

Sheena does uh stepping out in the community uh and really grateful for the council to honor her.

Um believe it's really important to uh honor our folks while they're doing the work and just appreciate this moment.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sheena come back for a second.

I want to say one congratulations on second chance.

Congratulations on the resolution.

Thank you.

The work that you do is it it just cannot be described in words.

I know that that you and I have talked and they're members of our community who are in need, yes, and they don't know where to go or what to do or how they're going to come out of it, but you you find a way.

Thank you.

And I'm just gonna tell you that that if you're having a challenge, I don't know how much I should say here.

This is okay.

Um but if you're uh if you or loved one is is incarcerated or about to be incarcerated or is facing a bail or bond and you don't know what to do or where to go, contact the Alman Connection.

Call them, email them, uh, go on the website, contact them.

The re the many resources they have are there and they're real.

And we don't have resources.

Sheena and her team are there.

If they can't help you, they can definitely point you in the right direction.

Yes.

So Sheena, thank you for all that you do.

Even when you're having a tough time yourself, yes, you still find a way to make it work.

And that's so impressive.

So thank you.

Thank you so very much.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Wonderful.

All right, moving on to the consent agenda.

Uh, any council wish to remove any item from the consent agenda?

If not, I would entertain a motion.

So moved.

Moved by Mr.

Holston, seconded by Mr.

Marshall.

Council, please vote.

Consent agenda passes 920.

Moving on to our public hearing agenda.

Uh item H1 and H2 were continued to another meeting, the May 19th meeting.

So we are moving on to item H3.

This is a public hearing for an ordinance annexing territory into the corporate limits for properties located at a portion of 1911 Willow Road and all of 1617 Sharp Road, 109 acres.

Amanda Hodiern on behalf of Thomas R.

Nees Jr.

and others.

And item H4, public hearing for an ordinance for original zoning for properties at a portion of 1911 Willow Road, and all of 1617 Sharp Road.

Amanda Hodiern on behalf of Thomas R.

Nece Jr.

and others.

Ms.

Hodiern.

All those in favor first.

Yes.

Oh, I'm sorry, Mr.

Kurtman's going to go first.

I apologize.

And I apologize.

We're having some technical issues.

We're trying to share the meeting here.

So give us one second here while we try to get this worked out.

We just want to make sure everybody at home can see what we're doing.

Okay.

No worries.

Sorry about that, Billy.

Thank you again, Mayor, members of the city council.

The request this evening is to annex and establish original zoning for a property on Willow Road and Sharp Road.

Currently zoned County LI Light Industrial and County RS 30 residential single family, and then requesting to go to City, C D RM5 Conditional District Residential Multifamily.

North of the request is currently zoned, City L I Light Industrial.

East request is County RS30, residential single family.

South of Request is on County RS40, residential single family.

City PUD planning of development, City RM8, residential multifamily, and City LI Light Industrial.

West request is Zone City R5 and City C D RM8, Conditional District Residential Multifamily.

The subject properties are currently undeveloped at this time.

North of the request is undeveloped land as well as the interstate, 4085.

Easter request is undeveloped land in a single family dwelling.

South of the quest are single family dwellings, a religious assembly use, multifamily dwellings, and a fire station.

West Request contains single family dwellings.

The subject properties are currently designated as residential on the future land use map of the comprehensive plan and its urban general on the future built form map.

There are several conditions that are associated with this request.

I will note for council that condition number three was added at the planning and zoning commission meeting.

In recommending approval requests, the staff has determined this request does support the comprehensive plans, filling in our framework, big idea for how we arrange our land uses for where we live, work, attend school, shop, and enjoy our free time to create a more vibrant and livable greensboro, and the creating great places goal to expand Greensboro citywide network of unique neighborhoods offering residents of all walks of life, variety of quality housing choices.

Excuse me.

The proposed CDRM5 disco allows uses that are complementary to existing and proposed uses in the immediate area.

And again, staff is recommending approval of the request.

These items were heard at the March 16th planning and zoning commission meeting.

Are there any questions from the council?

Hearing none, we can move on to the public hearing.

Okay, yeah.

Good evening.

Nice to see all of you again.

My name is Amanda Hodiern, 804 Green Valley Road, Suite 200 here in Greensboro.

I'm here tonight on behalf of the property owner as listed in the record, but also on behalf of the applicant, which is Mungo Homes.

So I want to welcome and say hello to some members of our Mungo team that are spread out.

We've got Jason Ewing somewhere.

There you go.

We've got uh Santos Ramirez, Joe Steinheider, and perhaps a few others also with us in case we need them for questions.

We have Dylan Coley from Davenport Engineering that did our traffic study.

Just to say that off the top.

So getting into it here, wanted to first just look at the subject property from a wider lens, if you will.

You can see it's comprised of two parcels, a fairly large assemblage here that spans from Willow Road on the west over to Sharp Road on the east.

Notably, we have frontage and therefore access opportunity on both of those roads.

As you've just heard from Mr.

Kirkman, we're just south of the interstate corridor.

There's a little bit of intervening property on the west side, and then it's right up on the right-of-way as you move further east.

To the south, there's a fire station, there's multifamily, there's some single family separate separate residences, and then there's the Mount Zion religious assembly use, which of course many of you remember last year went through a major a major development proposal to encompass their PUD and vision for the community there.

Also want to note Alamance Church Road to the south here that Sharp Road and Willow Road come off of.

Again, that's comprised of two parcels as you just saw.

Currently, the property is in Guildford County's jurisdiction.

So we are asking for it to be annexed into the city of Greensboro, and then of course zoned to a district that permits our our intended use.

Mungo's intended use of single family residential in the form of both attached and detached dwellings.

Currently, the county zoning is it's split zoned, it's LI, Light Industrial, and RS30.

So we've got two zoning districts here.

I would point out that that LI portion coming down to a residential use is a down zoning.

Um, so certainly in that regard, lessening the intensity and a major shift from the light industrial uses that could occur today.

Our request into the city of Greensboro is for RM5.

That's residential multifamily five.

However, as you're about to see, and as you've heard from Mr.

Kirkman, this is conditioned to completely exclude any multifamily use.

So we needed the M, that RM to allow townhomes, twin homes, duplexes, but this is conditioned to uh to ensure that that we stick with that single family attached and detached.

And we've also conditioned the unit count to keep us around 3.5 units per acre, which is less than what that five would would otherwise allow just by the math.

We chose the five, I'll go back to this slide, because of the communities around us to the north across the interstate, to the west at Rotherwood, south, um, south of Alamance Church, those are our five.

So we wanted to be consistent with that land use pattern.

Looking at the proposed conditions, you've seen these, but again, you can see it here, limiting the use to exclude multifamily, keeping it at the single family formats, total number of units shall not exceed 374, which is less than what the math would yield, and limiting the building height to 35 feet again, just to be fully um fully ensure and make everyone comfortable that this is not contemplating any kind of multifamily uh apartment type of use.

So looking at the current zoning, we're gonna look at sort of two uh versions here because we're in the county currently.

So starting with that, that's on the right-hand side of your screen.

You see the two red stars, that's the subject property, and you see they're in gray.

No color there, that's because they're in Guildford County.

They don't yet have Greensboro zoning, but you can see the Greensboro zoning all around it, south, west, and north.

So I would submit to you that certainly this would come in appropriately annexed.

It's in tier one to notch right into that sort of missing carve out of Greensboro jurisdiction here.

And you can see the R5 uh west, north, and south that I just talked about.

Looking at the left-hand side of your screen, that's the county zoning layer, just so you can see that split zoning that I mentioned previously.

The purple is the LI, the light industrial, and the yellow is the RS30 that comprises the balance of the property.

Again, the current zoning you can see here, this is from your staff report, so you can see how that full extent of the property will drop right in there to the Greensboro jurisdiction and be you know, follow the land use pattern that's that's been set up here and established.

This is a concept plan.

Uh it's illustrative only, of course, but just to uh just to provide a little bit of uh a look through what we've been evaluating and working on.

This is what we showed at our neighborhood meeting.

This helps us you know understand how many units to study in a traffic study, what to um what to think about in terms of how this could lay out.

So I wanted to point out here some things we do know.

Access points, that's that's determined in our traffic study.

Those are based on places that um GDOT and I want to say has some input from NC DOT, but I'll let GDOC confirm that as you guys do have your own DOT.

Um, but that that's based on where they believe we would be able to get driveway permits, and of course that would happen later, but the traffic study is a preliminary evaluation of that.

So notably you see that we have uh ingress and ingress on both Willow Road and Sharp Road.

That's important because it means the traffic can be distributed east and west.

And our studies show it's about half and half, which means that all traffic is not coming in on one road and dumping out to one place.

It's going to go both directions depending on where you want to get to, where you live within the neighborhood, and both of those outlets provide opportunity to get to the interstate and into Greensboro or out into the county.

Also wanted to point out we see significant uh stream corridors.

We've got two big stream corridors that come down from Buffalo Creek in the north and stretch into the property.

We've got a lot of steep topography that come along with that.

We've got a lot of floodplain to the north.

So what that creates is a lot of breathability and spacing in this project that has an opportunity that gives an opportunity for not only passive, just uh you know, meaningful breadth in the project, passive open space, but also creates a layout that creates some variability, some interest, and not just a one-fell swoop from end to end.

You see there in that green space along Sharp Road, that's just indicating where we think a good recreational space could be for amenities.

This will be an HOA opportunity.

Um Mungo likes to program that once they know what their what their community is looking for, because that'll be based on what buyers want to see in their community.

Um, but again, with all of this open space and the way this can space out, there'll be several opportunities to place pocket parks, different types of gathering and amenity opportunities throughout walking trails.

Umgo homes, as I mentioned, is is the applicant.

It's a little unique because sometimes you hear from me representing a horizontal developer who's setting up a project like this for a builder to come in once it's ready to go.

In this case, Mungo does that part.

So I'm representing Mungo tonight.

They're the ones who want to build this and have this community.

So we're able to show some specifics of their portfolio, their homes that they have.

Um they've got communities already existing all around the triad in Guilford County, Kernersville, all around.

We were able to point people to that when we had our our neighborhood meeting to say, hey, if you want to look, go check out these other places, and you just see here a smattering of some of those home types that that Mungo could see going here and showing some town homes as well, since that would be one of the permitted uses.

So, again, just um looking at what that could look like.

Comprehensive plan consistency.

You've heard from Mr.

Kirkman.

This area is designated future land use map as residential.

Of course, that's consistent with an all-residential proposal, urban general in your future built form map that based on you know it being serviceable by utilities and dropped right into existing contiguous city limits, furthering the policies that Mr.

Kirkman said, great places, filling in our framework, prioritizing sustainability, and it is of course in the growth growth tier one, meaning it has utilities readily available, can drop right in.

I would also point out, of course, that we hope you'll agree this is a significant and a quality contribution to the road to 10,000 and trying to create good quality housing, meaningful steps towards that in all parts of the city, and creating creating more places for people to move here and find a home or move within their current community to a new home, perhaps.

Our neighborhood outreach, I've mentioned we held a neighborhood meeting.

You see here in the titled map, that's the 750-foot buffer that's required in Greensboro's ordinance.

We noted that that cut right through the middle of Rotherwood, and it didn't reach quite down to the Sharp Road Alamance Church Road intersection.

So the two little NSAT maps you see on the right show where we just went ahead and added those additional properties to our mailing notice so that all of Rotherwood would get the same letter and those residential properties all the way down to the corner that aren't owned by Mount Zion would also get a letter.

We had 282 total letters mailed.

We held an informational meeting on March 5th at a church close to the property.

We had 12 about to that.

We had some good discussion.

Also had a follow-up discussion in the time since P and Z or Planning and Zoning Commission to tonight, following up on some feedback.

And I believe some representatives are here, so I don't want to speak for that, so I'll just say I think we had meaningful conversations.

I feel like there's a lot of shared common interests too, you know, as stakeholders in the community, ensuring that the broader area is all it can be, and that all homeowners and residents here have the amenities, support services, um, function services, um, functionality, safety that that we in Greensboro would want everyone to have.

So I'm happy to answer more questions about that as you hear as you hear from some of those other folks.

Um with that, I will uh open it up for questions.

Again, I'm here, our team is here, and uh we look forward to hearing the dialogue.

Thank you.

Any questions?

No questions at this time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I do have uh don't have anyone else signed up uh for I do have someone who is signed up opposed to this, uh Mr.

Fred Wood.

And Mr.

Wood, you have 15 minutes.

Uh you are not required to use all of it, but you may, and uh then we will have a rebuttal afterwards.

Okay, thank you.

Madam Mayor and members of the council, my name is Fred S.

Wood Jr.

I reside at 4 Acorn Court in the Rotherwood community.

I represent the Rotherwood community and speak in opposition to the proposal of Mungo Homes.

The opposition to the proposal is not because of the development that Mungo homes will place inside of the 100 acres.

The opposition is because of what will be manifested outside of that development and other developments that will come.

Recently I had a very cogent conversation with Mungo Homes and their attorney, and we feel that their presentation of affordable homes will be a plus for home buyers wanting to live in the area.

I have had a very enlightening conversation with our council representative, Ms.

Crystal Black, and I understand from her that proposal approvals are predicated on land use and development primarily other factors being secondary.

Accordingly, we expect that this proposal will be approved tonight and that others will follow.

But further, council members, the other shoe is that ultimately some 1,000 homes, two 2,000 residents, and 2,000 automobiles will be added to this three square mile area in the next three years.

We have been told, and the staff reports say that the city of Greensboro will ensure the placement of roadways, sidewalks, sewage, water services, and other utilities and adjustments that will mitigate the effects of this increased density.

So our position simply is we will hold you to that.

We don't want to be simply told about what will happen.

We want to be constantly in the loop with discussions and illustrations on all the mitigations that will bring about safe and fluid trafficability, walkability, and all of the other entities that we so rightfully deserve.

So generally, we are not engineers, municipal planners, city managers, attorneys, or the like.

But we are literate individuals who care about our neighborhood and our welfare.

Two, we will rely on our children, some who are engineers, municipal planners, city managers, attorney, attorneys to help us decipher the information complained.

Finally, with this increase in density of population over the next three years, we strongly feel that the city and county government should advocate with us for additional and enhanced amenities in the community, not just another car wash, vape shop, or ABC store, but amenities that will address the needs of what will become a diverse and different community.

We have had some communications with the corporate levels of Walmart, Foodline, and CVS.

Two, we have the pledge of Mungo homes who support this particular effort to the extent possible for them.

Madam Mayor and Council members, we are vigilant, but we are respectful in this pursuit.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Wood.

Ms.

O'Dien, would you like to have any rebuttal comments?

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Um, certainly not rebuttal, but I did just want to echo the sentiments of Dr.

Wood and the community uh he works with and represents in uh Mungo's uh commitment to be a partner in that.

Like I said, they are a stakeholder, hope hope to be a stakeholder as well.

Their residents will want the same thing.

So we've had a lot of uh conversations.

Um you've had some good ideas.

There's things we can do together.

There's avenues in place the city already has retail strategies, uh, which is a group you guys work with on some of the things he was talking about there.

So we we've started to put those pieces in place and we appreciate the opportunity to work with him.

Thank you.

Super thank you, Mr.

Wood.

Would you or is it Dr.

Wood?

Yes, I'm sorry, I did not know.

Um would you like to say anything further?

Okay, thank you.

All right, I need a motion to close the public hearing.

Move by Ms.

Stern, seconded by Mr.

Holston.

Uh all in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Now, are there any comments or discussion?

Council would like to I would just uh like to make a comment.

Dr.

Wood, I appreciate your uh words.

Uh they were well received, and um I hope that you do continue to hold us accountable.

Um, but I do echo your sentiments and do believe that uh quality retail is deserved in communities, and uh we look forward to working with you and your community along with Amanda and uh Mongo to ensure that that happens.

So I appreciate your words and keep the faith.

All right, anyone else?

Hearing none, I would accept a motion.

So moved.

Moved by Ms.

Black.

Do I hear a second?

Seconded by Mr.

Marshall.

Council, please vote.

And this is on H3.

It's weird.

I got it.

And that carries nine to zero.

And now item H4, which will uh will need a statement of consistency.

May I have a motion?

So move.

Moved by Mrs.

Thurm.

Seconded by Mayor Pro Tim Raw.

Mrs.

Thurm, statement of consistency, please.

The Greensworth City Council believes that its actions to approve the original zoning request for the properties at a portion of 1911 Willow Road and all of 1617 Sharp Road from County LI and County RS 30 to City CDR M5 to be consistent with the adopted GSO 2040 comprehensive plan and considers the action taken to be reasonable and in the public interest for the following reasons.

The request is consistent with the comprehensive plan's future belt form map and future land use map, the proposed city CDRM5 zoning district as conditioned, permits uses that fit the context of the surrounding area and limits negative impacts on adjacent properties.

And three, the request is reasonable due to the size, physical conditions, and other attributes of the area.

It will benefit the property owner and the surrounding community.

And approval is in the public interest.

And that passes nine to zero.

Thank you all very much.

Moving on to item H5, public hearing for an ordinance annexing territory into the corporate limits for the properties located at 1204 Rankin Mill Road and a portion of the right-of-way 0.97 acres.

Jackie Bouchon for True Homes LLC and the City of Greensboro, and item H6, public hearing for an ordinance for original zoning and rezoning for property at 1204 Rankin Mill Road.

Jackie Bishon for True Homes LLC and the City of Greensboro.

And item H seven, public hearing for an ordinance for original zoning for a portion of Rankin Mill Road right of way, City of Greensboro.

All right, Mr.

Kirkman.

Yes, thank you, Mayor Ms.

Mayer.

Again, the request is for annexation of these properties into the city's jurisdiction and to establish original city zoning from the current County RS30 residential single family to city C D R 3 for the property at 1204 Rankin Mill Road and then just straight City R3 for the portion of the right-of-way that is coming in.

Remind council that state law requires when there is non-taxable state-owned property between the corporate limits of the city and a petitioned annexation, then that property comes in automatically, and that's the reason for the additional action this evening.

North of these requests is currently zone county RS 30 residential single family.

Easter request zone county RS30, as well as City R3 residential single family.

West request is zone city HI Heavy Industrial.

The subject property is uh doesn't show on this area, but does now contain a new single family dwelling as well as a portion of again of Rankin Mill Road right of way.

North and West of the request is currently undeveloped, east and south are single family dwellings.

The subject site is currently designated as residential on the future land use map of the comprehensive plan and as exurban uh as far as the uh future built form map.

If council approves the item this evening, that designation will automatically change to urban general.

This is a conditional application for the property at 1204 Rick and Mill Road, and this is a condition advertised with the hearing.

In recommending approval of these requests, uh staff notes again that this does meet the comprehensive plans filling in our framework, bigger idea to arrange our land uses for where we live, work, attend school, shop, and enjoy our free time to create a more vibrant and livable Greensboro, and the creating great places goals so that Greensboro Citywide Network of unique neighborhoods offering resons of all walks of life and variety of quality housing choices.

They propose CD R3 and the R3 district for the road, allows uses that are similar to existing uses in the surrounding area, and again, we are recommending approval of the request.

These items were heard at the March 16th Planning and Zoning Commission meeting.

The commission did recommend approval of both the annexation and original zoning requests.

There were no speakers at that hearing.

Are there any questions from council?

We do not have anyone spike spoke signed up to speak on this item.

So if council has no questions, I would accept a motion.

Move by Mr.

Holston.

Do I hear a second?

Seconded by Mrs.

Crawford.

That is on item H5.

Council, please vote.

And that carries nine to zero.

Now I would ask for a motion on item H6, which requires a statement of consistency.

Do I hear a second?

Seconded by Mayor Pro Tim.

Council, please vote.

And Mr.

Holston, would you like to read the statement?

The Greensboro City Council believes that it's action to approve the original zoning request for the property at 1204 Rankin Mill Road from County RS30, residential single family, to city CDR3, Conditional District Residential Single Family 3.

To be consistent with the adopted GSL 24, the comprehensive plan and considers the action taking to be reasonable and the public interest for the following reasons.

The request is consistent with the comprehensive plan's future built form map and future land use map.

The proposed city CDR3 zoning district as conditioned permits uses that fit the context of the surrounding area and limits negative impacts on adjacent properties.

The request is reasonable due to the size, physical conditions, and other attributes of the area.

It will benefit the property owner and surround the community, and approval is in the public interest.

Council, please.

Oh, we did vote.

I'm sorry.

That passes nine to zero.

And now I need a motion to adopt item H7, which is the public hearing for an ordinance for original zoning for the portion of Rankin Mill Road right-of-way, City of Greensboro.

Okay.

Moved by Mayor Pro Tim.

So I hear second.

Seconded by Mrs.

Thurm.

Council, please vote.

And that carries nine to zero.

Thank you.

Move.

Oh, sorry.

So sorry.

Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you read the statement.

I apologize.

Mayor Po Tem.

I'm sorry.

It's on the screen if you need the remote.

H7.

The Greensboro City Council believes that its actions to approve the original zoning request for the property at a portion of renting mill road right of way from County RS30 to City R3 to be consistent with the adopted GSO 2040 comprehensive plan and considers the action taken to be reasonable and in the public interest for the following reasons.

The request is consistent with the comprehensive plan's future built form map and future land use map.

The proposed City R3 zoning districts permit uses that fit the context of the surrounding areas and limits negative impacts on adjacent properties.

The request is reasonable due to the size, physical conditions, and other attributes of the area.

It will benefit the property owner and surrounding community, and approval is in the public best interest.

Other factors raised at the public hearing would also be available as well.

Thank you.

Any questions?

Council, please vote.

Or we already did.

Sorry.

I usually like to read this, have the statement of consistency read before we vote, and I apologize.

That was mine.

All right, moving on to item H8, public hearing for an ordinance annexing territory into the corporate limits for the property located at 5108 Summit Avenue, 0.55 acres.

Sara Lena and Aaron Dolph of ASRA ASRA Haven LLT, and item H9, public hearing for an ordinance for original zoning for 5108 Summit Avenue.

Sara Lena and Aaron Dolph of Asra Haven LLC.

Mr.

Kirkman.

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

Again, the request is to annex this property into the city's jurisdiction and move from county zoning, which is RS30 residential single family, to City R3 residential single family.

North and east of this request is currently zone County C Z R S 30 MH, which is consistental zoning residential single family with a manufactured housing overlay.

South request is City R3 residential single family, as well as county RS30, again residential single family.

West request is zone county RS30 residential single family.

The subject property currently contains a single family dwelling.

North, east, south, and west of the request are all single family dwellings.

The property is designated as residential on the future land use map and as urban general on the future built form map.

Staff has concluded that this request does support the conference of plans filling in our framework.

Big idea to arrange our land uses for where we live, work, attend school shop, and enjoy our free time to create a more vibrant and livable Greensboro, and the creating great places goal to encourage Greensboro citywide network of unique neighborhoods offering residents of all walks of life a variety of quality housing choices.

The proposed R3 district allows uses that are compatible with other uses in the area.

And again, staff is recommending approval of the request.

These items were heard at the March 16th Planning and Zoning Commission, and the Commission did recommend both the annexation and original zoning, and there were no speakers at that hearing.

Are there any questions for Mr.

Kirkman?

There's no one signed up for the public hearing.

Do I hear a motion?

So moved.

Moved by Mr.

Marshall.

Do I hear a second?

Seconded by Mr.

Allen.

Council, please vote.

And that carries nine to zero.

Item H9 requires statement of consistency.

Do I hear a motion?

So moved.

Moved by Mr.

Marshall.

Do I hear a second?

Seconded by Mr.

Allen.

Mr.

Marshall, would you like to go ahead and read the statement of consistency, please?

And this is for uh H9 public hearing for an ordinance for original zoning for 5108 Summit Avenue.

The Greensboro City Council believes that its action to approve the original zoning request for the property at 5108 Summit Avenue from County RS30 residential single family to City R3, residential single family three, to be consistent with the adopted GSO 2040 comprehensive plan and considers the action to be reasonable and in the public interest for the following reasons.

The request is consistent with the comprehensive plan's future built form map and future land use map.

The proposed city R3 zoning district permits uses that fit the context of the surrounding area and limits negative impacts on adjacent properties.

The request is reasonable due to the size, physical conditions, and other attributes of the area.

It will benefit the property owner and surrounding community, and approval is in the public interest.

Council, please vote.

That carries nine to zero.

Thank you so much.

Moving on to item H10 and item H11.

Item H 10 is a public hearing for an ordinance annexing territory into the corporate limits for the properties located at 3405 Liberty Road and a portion of Liberty Road right of way, which is 12.12 acres.

Nick Blackwood on behalf of KZT Acquisition LLC and others.

And item H11, public hearing for an ordinance for original zoning for 3405 Liberty Road.

Nick Blackwood on behalf of KZT Acquisition LLC and others.

And item H12, public hearing for an ordinance for original zoning for a portion of Liberty Road right of way, City of Greensboro.

Mr.

Kirkman.

Yes, thank you.

Again, other we this is another annexation bringing property into the city's jurisdiction going from County RS40 residential single family to city CDR7, Conditional District Residential Single Family for the property at 3405 Liberty Road, and then just two straight R7 for a portion of Liberty Road that is also coming in with this request.

North, east, and south of the request is currently zoned County RS40 residential single family.

West of the request is zone city, CD RM18, Conditional District Residential Multifamily, as well as County RS 40 residential single family.

The subject properties currently contain a single family dwelling.

Again, it's also a portion of Liberty Road right of way.

North and East of the Request is currently undeveloped.

South and West request are single family dwellings.

Property is designated as residential on the future land use map of the comprehensive plan and urban general on the future built form map.

This is uh for the property Liberty Road is conditional application, and this is a condition that was advertised as part of the hearing this evening.

Staff has determined that this request does support the comprehensive plan stilling in our framework.

Big idea for how we arrange our land uses for where we live, work, attend school, shop, and enjoy our free time to create a more vibrant and liberal Greensboro, and the creating great places goal to expand Greensboro's citywide network of unique neighborhoods offering residents of all walks of life a variety of quality housing choices.

The proposed CD R7 and R7 district requests allow uses similar to those in the surrounding area, and again staff recommends approval of these requests.

These items were heard.

These items were heard at the March 16th Planning and Zoning Commission meeting.

The commission did unanimously recommend approval of both items.

At that hearing, there was one speaker in favor and none in opposition.

Not going to answer any questions.

Any questions from Mr.

Kirkman?

Hearing none, we can move on to the public hearing.

Move by Mr.

Allen.

Seconded by Mr.

Marshall.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

And I believe we have Nick Blackwood signed up.

Madam Mayor and members of council for the record.

My name is Nick Blackwood, 804 Green Valley Road here in Greensboro.

Really just wanted to offer myself in case council had any questions.

Um, as Mr.

Kirkman indicated, um, did not have any opposition at the planning and zoning commission hearing, uh, held a neighborhood meeting.

Um, several neighbors attended uh no land use concerns, really just questions with respect to how this annexation may impact the unincorporated status of their property.

And that was really the the primary question at the meeting.

Uh, we do have our civil engineer Sidney Larson with Kinley Horn who can assist in addressing any questions that you might have.

And with that, I'm standing ready to answer any questions.

All right, thank you.

Are there any questions from council?

Hearing none.

Thank you.

Now uh that's all the comments.

I need a motion to close the public hearing, please.

Move by Mrs.

Thurm.

Do I hear a second?

Second amount, Minister Holston.

All in favor, please say aye.

All right, we've closed the public hearing.

Are there any further questions from council?

All right, I would accept a motion.

And this would be on H 10.

Moved by Mrs.

Thurm.

Do I hear a second?

Seconded by Mr.

Allen.

Council, please vote.

And that carries nine to zero.

Now I would like a motion for item H11, which is the we had the public hearing for an ordinance for the original zoning for 3405 Liberty Road.

Do I hear a motion?

Moved by Miss Black, and that will require a statement of consistency.

Seconded by Mr.

Holston.

Ms.

Black.

City of the Greensboro City Council believes that it is action to approve the original zoning request for the property at 35 3405 Liberty Road from County RS40 to City CDR 7 to be consistent with the adopted GSO 2040 comprehensive plan and considers the action taken to be reasonable and in the public interest for the following reasons.

It will benefit the property owner and surrounding community and approval is in the public interest.

All right, thank you.

Council, please vote.

And that carries nine to zero.

Thank you.

Now I need a motion for item H12, which will also require a statement of consistency, and that is the ordinance for original zoning for the portion of Liberty Road right of way for the city of Greensboro.

Move the item.

Move by Ms.

Black.

Do I hear a second?

Seconded by Ms.

Thurm.

Ms.

Black, statement of consistency, please.

The Greensboro City Council believes that it is action to approve the original zoning request for the property at the portion of Liberty Road right of way from County RS40 to City RS 7 to be consistent with the adopted GSO 2040 comprehensive plan and considers the action taken to be reasonable and in the public's interest for the following reasons.

The request is consistent with the comprehensive plans future built form map and future land use map.

The proposed city RS7 zoning district permits uses that fit the context of the surrounding area and limit negative impacts on adjacent properties.

The request is reasonable due to the size, physical conditions, and other attributes of the area.

It will benefit the property owner and surrounding communities and approval is in the public's interest.

Thank you.

Council, please vote.

Someone not vote yet.

That is all of our public hearing items.

So we will move on to our general business agenda.

Madam Mayor, before we get to item I 1, I need to recuse myself from I1 because I sit on the board of the CVB.

All right.

So Mrs.

Thurm has expressed that she will need to recuse herself from this.

Madam City Attorney, do I need a vote on that?

Or okay.

Thank you.

All right, so item I1, ordinance to approve Greensboro, Guildford County Tourism Development Authority 2026-2027.

Fiscal year budget and the amount of $1,500,000.

We do have a speaker on this, Mr.

George Hartzman.

George Hartzman.

Public integrity watch.

The Greensboro Sports Foundation.

Which has incoming monies from the Greensboro Area Convention Visitors Bureau, from which Sammy just uh refused her so extremely well.

Um the problem is this money is funneled through to Greensboro Sports Foundation, as you can see.

There's another item that the City of Greensboro gives the Greensboro Sport uh Sports Foundation.

There's another item that the City of Greensboro gives the Greensboro Sport uh Sports Foundation, and then it gets money from the Greensboro Coliseum Complex, which is the City of Greensboro, essentially.

So Mayor Mary K.

Abbaswader is on the board of the Greensboro Sports Foundation, and there's this law that says local public officials participating in contracts benefiting nonprofits, which with which they are associated.

So what I'm asking for is for Mayor Abba's waiter to recruise herself from this item.

Madam City Attorney, since these funds are going straight to the convention and visitors bureau, is there any need for me to recuse myself?

Thank you.

Okay.

So I've asked for comment on this.

And you're not going to recuse yourself, even though the money goes, you're going to vote money to the visitors bureau, which is going to then funnel it to the nonprofit that you are associated with.

Mr.

Hartman, I can't predict the future, so thank you.

I'm sorry, say again.

I said I cannot predict what will be done in the future.

Okay.

So on that basis, I believe you should have recused yourself.

Um part of that money, that $100,000 that's funneled through the Sports Foundation has gone to events in which uh the mayor has participated in that were paid for with taxpayer dollars.

So the City of Greensboro funds the visitors bureau, and then the visitors bureau funds the sports foundation, and then the sports foundation funded uh the sports foundation board's Christmas party, which Mary Kay RSVP to the Jill Jones from the Sports Foundation sent out a letter saying you're welcome to bring a guest to join in the festivities, which was not a business meeting, therefore it's illegal.

It's an illegal gift from a government contractor.

Thank you, Mr.

Hartman.

All right.

Uh with no questions from council, I would accept a motion.

Moved by Mr.

Allen.

Do I hear a second?

Second by Mr.

Marshall.

Council, please vote.

And when we do have the one recusal from Mrs.

Thurmond.

All right, that carries eight to zero with one recusal.

Thank you so much, Council.

All right.

Uh we are moving on to item I2.

Resolution authorizing commitment of funds from multifamily housing developments.

Yes, I believe we have Mr.

Hunters to speak.

I see one minute.

Council, I do have some speakers, but I will hold off until Mr.

Hunter gets the presentation.

Okay, good afternoon, Mayor, Mayor Protein, members of City Council, Samuel Hunter, Housing and Neighborhood Development Director.

Um it is a pleasure to bring you this item this afternoon.

Um this is something that we bring to you all on an annual basis.

The Housing and Neighborhood Development Department releases a request for proposals for typically it's been tax credit only projects.

Well, this year uh we did something different.

We heard your your recommendations and some of your requests, and so we opened it to non-tax credit projects as well.

The way this presentation is formatted, we have categorized each proposal and recommendation via 9% new construction, 9% rehabilitation, and 4% new construction, and then the nine, the non-LITEC proposals as well.

The process commenced in early February this year.

We started a little earlier, so we can get in front of you all a little earlier, and also provide some predictability to the developers and the other uh proposers as well.

The evaluation team was comprised of the housing and neighborhood development department, the planning department, Guilford County Planning Department, and then also we had a representative from the community foundation of Greater Greensboro to do an evaluation as well, just to get that outside perspective in the evaluations.

Some of the things in the evaluation criteria that we had listed this year was location, so proximity to amenities such as a full grocery store, making sure that people have close close proximity to public transit routes.

Also, we took in account to additional amenities such as daycares, pharmacies, public parks, and things of that nature.

Financial feasibility being a steward of public funds, we wanted to make sure that it was financially feasible for us to invest these dollars into them.

Project team experience was another element, zoning and adjacent land uses was important.

Type A units and type A units, think about them as your ADA compliant units.

So we also included additional bonus points if you had a 20% set aside of ADA, also known as type A units in your development.

Unit count was something that we looked at.

We evaluated the market studies, and then we also granted additional bonus points to city owned sites, things that the city owns that we want to see spurse in development in certain areas of the city of Greensboro.

On this map before you, you will see all of the projects that were submitted.

The ones that are highlighted in that tealish blue colors are the ones that we're recommending for funding, but we wanted to make sure that you all and the entire community could see the distribution of projects across our city.

So the first one that we're going to talk about is the 9% new construction.

And 9% is a program that is administered by the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency.

That is the most lucrative and competitive tax credit that someone can pursue in our state.

We had three recommendations for those, and we'll talk about project specific as well.

We're getting north of 200 units for 9% new construction projects as well.

And then the 9% rehabilitation.

New construction and rehabilitation, even though they're 9%, they don't directly compete against each other in the state's evaluation process.

So when it comes down to that financial feasibility and also preservation of units, we wanted to recommend a 9% rehabilitation project.

And again, we'll talk about project specifics shortly.

4% new construction.

That's other that's another competitive process that North Carolina Housing Finance Agency administers, but it is not as competitive as the 9% projects.

We have one recommendation for that, and that's on the city-owned site.

And then the non-tax credit proposals that we receive.

We are recommending one of those, and that is for another preservation or rehabilitation project of 24 units, and we'll talk about project specifics.

Just a brief snapshot of everything that we're bringing to you all for recommending.

So you can see more than 400 units are being proposed for your consideration, and over $8 million in GAP financing recommended by the city of Greensboro and our team here.

The total development value exceeds 100 million dollars.

So our $8 million investment could have an invest a total development investment back into our community over 100 million dollars.

So and some of these projects are contingent upon the state financing, so we'll talk a little more about that as we progress.

The first project that we're recommending for the 9% new construction is called Ellington Place.

That is at 2701 North O'Henry Boulevard.

You all may be aware that that is the former Regency Inn, that is a city-owned site.

We have worked closely with DHIC, who has a successful track record of securing tax credits.

You can see the unit breakdown there, but they are proposing 75 units, and they will be for seniors.

Again, this is a new construction deal.

Their request was 1.785 million dollars from the city of Greensboro.

My staff and I did the underwriting, that is financially feasible, and we recommend this project as well.

Phillips Avenue Apartment.

This is in the Renaissance Plaza area.

Self-help was the lead developer for Renaissance Plaza when it was originally created.

They approached us and expressing their interest in developing the residential portion of that site.

We had negotiation with them.

We talked through it, we evaluated all of their proposals, and we believe that this is a suitable project as well.

Again, another city-owned site totaling 59 units for seniors.

The city requests for that project is $2 million.

And again, this is a 9% new construction project.

The next one for the last 9% new construction project that we're recommending for funding is for the Grace View Apartments.

This one the lead developer for this one is affordable housing management, but they have a ton of community support, and the great and the Grace Community Church has been critical in this deal as well.

They are proposing 84 units, and you can see the AMI breakdown there.

This one is for families, and their GAT financing request from the City of Greensboro is $845,000.

And again, this is the last 9% new construction that we're recommending for funding.

The next one we're talking about is the Southgate Market Apartments.

That's located at 734 South Elm Street.

That'll be 120 units of mixed income.

When we promote mixed income, we really want to get that diversifying the socioeconomic levels in that community there.

They've requested approximately 2.6 million dollars from the city of Greensboro.

And I will state that this is only for the residential aspect of this project.

So there are some other elements of the project that we're still working through, but for right now, what we're recommending is solely for the residential, and we feel extremely comfortable making this recommendation to you all.

This one is 56 of existing units, and the target audience for that are people that may be receiving supportive services.

The request from the City of Greensboro is 489,000, and this is a 9% rehabilitation project.

The next one is Richardson Village.

This is a non-tax credit project that is was submitted by Beacon Management Corporation.

The units are existing.

They are 24 units there, and the target audience for that is family.

They have requested $350,000 from the City of Greensboro, and we feel comfortable doing this.

So the next steps, we wanted to outline it for you all in the community.

Next steps look like after you lost consideration, then our staff does the commitment letters to the developers, and we issue those prior to the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency submission deadline, which is on May 15th, which is why we brought it to you all a little earlier this time.

We will not know which projects were awarded from NCHFA until late August.

All of these projects that we're recommending that are pursuing tax credit funding, everything that we're recommending tonight is contingent upon the tax credit award.

In the event these developers do not receive the tax credit ward, the city of Greensboro keeps our funds, and we have the autonomy to reallocate those to different projects in the future as well.

If they are recipients of the tax credit project, then they will move forward with the city funding and the state funding, and then the projects will come to fruition.

Any questions?

Are there any questions?

Thank you.

That was very in-depth.

I appreciate it.

We'll can go ahead with our speakers then.

I have a Mr.

Daniel Bullock on Zoom.

Is he on?

Yeah, and I think Daniel may just be here to field any questions for you all.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

Um I have Grant Duffield.

Would you like to say something?

And I also have Philip Marsh, if he would like to say anything.

And you each have three minutes, if you like.

Thank you so much.

Um, Mayor Abusawaiter, members of council, thank you for your time this evening.

I'm actually going to cede my speak uh time to speak to a member of Grace Community Church who can speak to the project.

City Council, my name is Steve Morley, uh 3527 Spice Bush Trail.

I'm pleased to have the opportunity to speak with you this evening in favor of the request for uh financial commitment for Grace View Apartments.

My family and I are members of Grace Community Church, and I serve as a member of our governing elder board.

There's other members of our board and congregation here.

Uh, and Grace Community Church has sought to faithfully live out our mission of developing disciples who live from the gospel crossing ethnic and economic lines for 40 years, and in doing so, we have sought to expansively and generously respond to the question who is my neighbor.

We sought to do that through seeking the best interest of all of our uh neighbors in the Greensboro community and especially those in the Glenwood community.

One specific need that we recognize within our community is for additional safe, reliable, and affordable housing.

Therefore, in living out our mission and in desiring the best interests of our neighbors, Grace Community Church is seeking in partnership with Affordable Housing Management Corporation to utilize a portion of the land resources that we've been stewarded to develop affordable uh family housing.

The response has been unanimously positive, and they have encouraged us in this pursuit and expressed an earnest desire to see the success of this endeavor.

So speaking on behalf of our church community and our elder board, we as Grace Community Church see this as a continuation of our mission, as an expression of seeking the best interest of our neighbors in a way in which we can collaborate with the city of Greensboro and the council's priority of providing an abundance of affordable housing.

So we would ask that the city council give their positive consideration for funding that would aid in our creation and preservation of affordable multifamily housing.

I'm glad to be your neighbor, and I appreciate your time and consideration of this request.

Thank you.

Mr.

Marsh.

Good afternoon.

Um here representing the East Watson Street Development Corporation, and I just wanted to tell the housing department as well as the city of Greensboro.

Thank you very much for considering our project.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Any council have anything?

Hearing none, I would accept a motion.

Move by Mrs.

Thurm.

Do I hear a second?

Second.

I'm sorry, second, Mr.

Marshall.

Thank you.

Council, please vote.

And that carries nine to zero.

And I just want to thank staff.

Thanks, staff and the members in the community have worked so hard on this.

I know everyone is has played a part, so thank you all so very much.

All right, moving on to item I three, a resolution of City Council support for the Piedmont Triad Regional Water Authority, water and wastewater utility regionalization study and regional capacity development.

All right, I don't believe we need to have a staff member unless anyone has questions.

Does anyone have any questions?

Hearing none, I would accept a motion.

Move the item.

Moved by Miss Black.

Do I hear a second?

Seconded, that was a tie.

Seconded by Miss Crawford.

Council, please vote.

That carries nine to zero.

And thank you, Mr.

Borchers, for being here in case we had any questions.

All right, item I four.

Let's see.

Don't have any speakers.

Okay.

Item I for resolution approving bid in the amount of three million nine hundred and sixty-nine thousand dollars and authorizing execution of contract 2023-030A, which state utility contractors incorporated for the big Alamance lift station upgrade project.

Um, do I have any questions from council?

Hearing none, I would accept a motion.

Moved by Mrs.

Thurm.

Do I have second?

Seconded by Miss Black.

Council, please vote.

And that carries nine to zero.

Thank you.

Item I5 ordinance amending water resources capital revenue bond fund for the big Alamance lift station upgrade and the amount of four million three hundred and sixty-one thousand dollars.

Any questions?

Discussion?

Hearing none, I would accept a motion.

Move by Mr.

Marshall.

Do I hear a second?

That was a tie.

Seconded by Mr.

Holston.

Council, please vote.

And that carries nine to zero.

Item I six resolution to approve change order number two to contract 2021 0490 with CPL for 307, 307, 275,000 for design and inspection services for the equipment services garage site work.

Any questions from council?

Hearing none, I would accept a motion.

Move by Mrs.

Thurm.

Do I hear a second?

Seconded by Mr.

Allen.

Council, please vote.

And that carries 9 to Z, though that was I 6.

On I 7, I do have a speaker.

Um Mr.

Hartzman, uh let me read the item first.

Item I7 resolution to approve change order number three for contract 2021-0498 and the amount of seven million eight hundred and sixty-eight thousand sixty-eight thousand nine hundred and eighty-seven dollars with Samet Corporation for the Equipment Services Garage Site Work.

All right, um, Mr.

Hartzman.

So this is a change order for almost eight million dollars.

George Hartman.

Public integrity-wise.

Um with Salmon Cork.

Who you now serve on DGI's board with?

Is that correct?

Madam Mayor?

I'm an ex officio.

Okay.

I do not vote.

So it says in March 22, salmon uh was contracted for construction manager at risk for the development.

And then it says the combined cost and guaranteed maximum price was going to be 24, 183, 395.

And then in June 25, we got a change order because there were some soils that were found underneath a maintenance garage, who would have thought, and you threw another $864,000 at it.

And then what you're looking at now is another $8 million.

So we're at $32 million.

So what happened here?

It looks like we just blew $10 million before we even got we're even getting started with the project.

So where was the environmental due diligence on this project?

How did this happen?

Because it shouldn't have happened.

And then now we're sitting there.

And this is costing taxpayers another $10 million on top of what we otherwise would have paid.

I assume nobody wants to answer that question.

But I mean, construction manager at risk, if he's going to take the risk, doesn't that mean that the combined cost and guaranteed maximum price was supposed to be $24,183,000?

Because now it's not.

Or there's any discussion.

Sure.

Comment it's been a minute since the uh briefing, but it might be worth staff just explaining what actually happened there because there was a legitimate issue that happened at the site.

And I think that most of it was explained in the uh agenda item, but sure, go ahead.

It was the city manager.

Yeah, I'll ask ACM Lair Davis or if our anyone from our procurement staff is here to respond.

Thank you.

And uh the project manager Sean Tilly is here as well for questions that are that are beyond my ability.

And uh the project manager Sean Tilly is here as well for questions that are that are beyond my ability, but essentially this is city-owned property across the street from our current uh garage site.

Uh we wanted to build the expansion as close to the current site as we could, so it allowed us to go across the street without having to buy any additional property, any additional property.

The property turned out to have a considerable amount of both unsuitable and contaminated soil.

We own the property anyway.

It's our responsibility to clean it up whether we don't, whether we build anything on it or not.

So now we're getting it, the the proper soil taken out, the proper soil brought back in, and we'll be ready to start construction within a year.

Thank you.

Is that clarified?

Yes, thank you.

Yes, and also it was it was mentioned that it was in the same place as the current garage.

That is not correct.

So that changes the scenario there.

It's the land across the street.

So thank you.

And Madam Mayor?

Yes, Mr.

Holst.

In these kinds of cases, uh we as counsel and staff, we have the the benefit of of having specifics in detail and and an understanding of what's behind the numbers, but the average resident may not have that information.

So I would suggest and recommend that when we have cases like this when there's an extremely large change order that we just be proactive and just share what we just shared prior to in layman's terms, so that folks can just simply understand what's happening as in how it's happening, and not think, especially in these times when folks are looking at every dollar that we're spending and an overrun is eight million dollars.

Uh, that the natural knee-jerk is to say, gosh, what happened?

And we can just be proactive and uh uh city manager purple elephant, it really helps.

The what purple?

Purple elephant.

Not sure what that is, but it it was all explained in the agenda item, and I know Mr.

Hartzman looks at that very, very carefully.

So, yes, thank you, Mr.

Hartzman.

So, anyway, moving on, uh let's vote.

Council um I would accept a motion unless I did already.

I'm sorry.

We got a move by Mr.

Allen, seconded by Mr.

Holston.

Council, please vote.

And that carries nine to zero.

Thank you so much.

All right, uh this is item I eight moving on.

Resolution making certain findings and determinations and authorizing filing an application with the local government commission.

All right, uh council.

Any questions?

Discussion.

All right, I would accept a motion.

Move by Mr.

Holston.

Do I hear a second?

Second.

Seconded by Mayor Pro Tem.

Council, please vote.

And that carries nine to zero.

Moving on to item I 9, and we do have a speaker on that one.

Uh this is item I9 resolution approving bid and the amount of $3,998,600, and authorizing execution of contract 2025-0540 with low max construction incorporated for the first Horizon Coliseum Coliseum Arena Restroom Renovations Project.

Mr.

Hartzman.

George Hartzman, Public Integrity Watch.

$4 million, low max construction.

Who committed zero MBE?

6.95 WDE.

Um it says the apparent lowest response of bidder was four essentially four million dollars.

But on the next page, it says in VISICON with an MBE of 18.4% and WBE of six percent out of Colfax 3 million 787,000 dollars.

They were the lowest bidder, and they had the highest MBE.

And you went with John Lomax.

I talked with somebody at Vizicon today.

He said the minority contractor was outside the range of the counties that uh it needed to be, so it didn't count.

So we're paying another $200,000 and zero MBE to Lomax Construction, who also got the Bob Gardens contract, as I can recall.

He was also DGI board member for years and years.

And I guess he attended the DGI's taxpayer funded holiday party.

Larry Davis, Arthur Samet, Craig Carlock worship uh Carroll, and Nasha McCrae.

This is a tax, this is our money, Mr.

Davis.

You have normalized.

Oh, I'm not allowed to talk to him.

You, City Council have normalized and allowed city employees to attend functions that are gifts from government contractors of the city of Greensboro.

You gotta stop doing it.

You gotta stop doing it.

You're stealing from taxpayers.

That's what it means.

And it's normalized.

It's the same thing at Greensboro Sports Foundation.

Andrea Harrow, Phil Fleischman, Frankie Jones, Brent Christian, Scott Johnson.

That's our money.

You're spending our money on your cells over and above your income.

It's unearned income.

It's taxpayer money.

Stop taking it from us.

Thank you, Mr.

Hartzman.

Any questions, discussion from council?

Hearing none, I would accept the motion.

Moved by Mr.

Holston.

Seconded by Mr.

Marshall.

Council, please vote.

And that carries nine to zero.

Moving on to item I-10, resolution approving amendment number four for contract twenty-twenty-three-zero zero sixa in the amount of three hundred and one thousand two three hundred and one thousand two hundred and four dollars and two cents with Samut Corporation for Windsor Chadis NOCO Community Complex, NOCO Park Construction.

All right, uh, Mr.

Hartman, are you on that one as well?

George Hartsman, Public Integrity Watch.

This is a change order for another Samet Corporation construction project where they were enlisted as a construction manager at risk.

Means here's how much it's gonna cost, and if anything goes wrong, I eat it.

But that's not what's happening here.

So it looks like uh some of the design work was wrong, and that's on salmon.

It shouldn't be on Greensboro's taxpayers.

And you the mayor of Greensboro serves on a board with Arthur Salmon.

I know you're gonna vote for it, so why bother asking you to recuse yourself construction manager at risk?

Why are we paying for this?

All right, any questions, discussion from council?

Hearing none, I would accept a motion.

Moved by Mr.

Marshall.

Do I hear a second?

Second by Mayor Pro Tim.

Council, please vote.

And that carries nine to zero.

Moving on to item I 11.

I have several people signed up for this.

I do have one in opposition.

I have five in favor.

And it is the ordinance item I 11 ordinance amending certain provisions of the housing code.

All right.

Mr.

Brent Ducharme.

Yes, ma'am.

Mayor and members of council, good evening.

Brent Ducharm from the City Attorney's Office.

Having helped draft draft the uh amendments to the city housing code that are in front of y'all this evening.

I did want to just highlight a few uh key points, and I'll I'll certainly be brief in my comments.

Um just want to uh to dive right into it, um, tracking with the uh the attachment to the ordinance.

So on page three of the draft ordinance, um the list of conditions that violate the code have been updated, and there's now language uh that seeks to more squarely address significant areas of mold growth that are within a dwelling.

The city's housing code has always focused on addressing the underlying conditions that cause mold, and that's definitely going to remain central uh to enforcement of the ordinance, but that new language uh aims to address circumstances where there is a large area of mold growth that exists that simply can't be addressed with cleaning agents.

So that is the one uh substantive condition that has been added uh to subsection 11 or section 1110 of the code.

Um a little bit about process.

Um, the minimum housing enforcement process is of course largely set in sewn as an administrative process, something that's handled in-house at the city.

Uh and the procedure section of the ordinance has really just been amended to track with state law a little bit more closely in some spots, and also uh to be formatted to be a bit of an easier read.

But also, state law does allow uh does provide the opportunity uh for the city to bring matters in front of the courts when there are issues with obtaining compliance and the proposed amendments uh include language that reflects that fact.

Just to emphasize uh you know that the extra force of the court order may sometimes be helpful uh to help gain compliance.

Um I know from working on the item that uh accounting for repeat violators is a key consideration we've had here.

And so we've drafted the updates uh regarding periodic inspections and the little bit of room that state law leaves for a registration requirement for repeat violators.

Um there is a registration requirement included in the draft.

Uh, if a rental dwelling uh were to have a series of more than four violations of the code within a 12-month period, again that's more than four uh within a 12-month period or two or more violations within a 30-day period, well then that uh dwelling unit needs to be registered with the city.

Uh there's not a uh registration fee included uh in the updated draft, but that registration requirement is really about making sure that the city has it documented when there's a concerning pattern of violations at a particular property and that we have good contact information uh for the owners of the property in in those situations.

And uh if a property needs to be registered uh but then goes a full 12 months without a violation, uh we would not ask the owners to to keep up the registration information with us at that point.

Uh two more bullet points I want to highlight.

Um, second to last.

Uh proposed language does include an expansion of the existing uh provision in the city code for emergency cases.

This is section 11-41 of the code.

Uh and the new language would incorporate a list of imminently dangerous conditions uh that are pulled directly from the state's landlord tenant laws.

Uh that's aimed at giving better definition to that existing ordinance, emphasizing conditions where you know click quick compliance uh is especially crucial and reinforcing the particular the potential for city initiated repairs on that.

And finally, I want to highlight the increased civil penalties that are listed on pages 18 and 19 of the proposed ordinance.

That's an amendment to section 11-42.

Again, another point that is going to be responsive to some of the concerns raised about repeat violators, right?

So for a number of years, the civil penalties uh within the housing code have been set at 200 with a $10 uh daily penalty to follow.

Um the ordinance uh as amended would increase those penalties.

Uh what was once $200 would become $500, so a civil penalty of $500 and the daily penalty being increased from $10 to $100.

Additionally, as I mentioned, the repeat violator uh concern would be addressed through a tiered system, a second tier uh of civil penalties.

So I mentioned $500 with a hundred dollar daily penalty uh in the event of a violation.

Well, if there is a second set of violations that occur at a property within a rolling twelve month period, those amounts would increase.

So again, we are looking at a uh increase in those civil penalties, certainly from what they are trying to account with that two-tier process for some of the concerns regarding repeat violations of the ordinance.

And folks, again, that's kind of the high points of the ordinance that I did want to highlight for you all.

I promise I'd be brief in my comments and certainly happy to say more if helpful, but uh just appreciate y'all uh hoping let us work on this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Are there any questions?

No questions, any discussion?

No, we'll hear here from the speakers.

I just make sure council didn't have any first.

All right, Mr.

Hartman is in opposition to this George Hartzmann, public integrity watch.

Uh Council Persons Black and Crawford should be commended for what they've done on this.

I'm thankful.

You went uh outside the Overton window.

You did what uh Trevock didn't want to have happen.

I don't see any Trevoc members here tonight.

I saw the email that they wrote uh against the commercial ordinance, and you're on the right side of history here.

Umise Turner Roth was the city manager, as I recall, when uh the city uh got rid of Ruco and in her communications at the time, it was like 15 years ago, something like that, uh she essentially said they are gonna rip apart the rental unit inspection regime uh that got our housing stock back into back into really good shape, and now it's not again, and it's because outfits like Trevick whose uh events you seem to very much enjoy attending, uh, has lobbied against uh low-income uh renters in the city of Greensboro.

So it's a great ordinance, and now it comes down to enforcement because we had an ordinance before, and it wasn't enforced, and it's as far as I know, it's not being enforced now, especially on multi uh family uh properties, and that is a function of the code enforcement division, which is directly under city manager Trey Davis.

So you can have all the beautiful code, and it is beautiful, that you can write, but if the city manager decides not to enforce it via the code enforcement division, it doesn't count.

It's not done if you don't make them do it.

Thank you, Mr.

Hartman.

All right, um, let's see.

Let me go to those you signed up as opposed, but I suppose I hear that you're in favor.

Thank you, Mr.

Hartman.

All right, I have Beth McGee Huger, followed by Malaya James, followed by Terrell Dun Dundee, followed by Sarah Segwin.

I hope I said that correct.

Followed by Ben Brock Smith.

You each have three minutes if you like.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council and friends.

Um I'm Daphne Key Hubert.

I live at 6017 Bush Frederick and Brown Summit, just outside the city limits.

I'm glad to be speaking tonight at that same night you did the resolution about Wolena Cannon because she was the Healthy Huns champion.

And she would be really glad about what you all are doing tonight.

She worked for for good code enforcement.

You have the opportunity tonight to preserve housing and to protect the people who live in or near properties that are not kept in good condition.

You can show that the city is holding accountable.

And this saves everybody money and stress because Larry Roberts team won't have to go out to the same properties over and over and over again with owners ignoring what they say.

And you can save the owners money because the sooner that they fix something, the less expensive it's going to be.

A little lake becomes an entire roof or floor collapsing.

Obviously, this saves the residents the stress of living in dangerous housing and probably saves the medical care too.

And it saves the neighborhood from having property values decline because of flight.

So all of that happens because properties of any violations have to be repaired quickly.

And so the ordinance is is written to make it much smarter for our owners to get their properties fixed quickly.

You can do that with your vote tonight.

Um you're going to be doing it for years to come by actually enforcing what you are doing tonight.

And so I look forward to seeing all of that wonderful work being done.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

Give us your name, please.

I want to make sure I said it correctly.

My name's Malia Ines.

Good evening, Council members.

My name is Malia Ines, and I lead the eviction court watch program in the Greensboro Courthouse.

I've heard countless stories about uninhabitability that have left me worried as a Greensboro resident.

Once in it showed photos of the breakouts the mold was causing on her younger child.

Photos so terrifying that it left the magistrate speechless.

I've heard stories of bug infestations so bad that there would be times a tenant would open her wallet when she was at the store and a ropes would fall out.

Or she would be walking in her day-to-day life and not know that there was one crawling on her from home.

As a young winner, these stories scare me.

I've heard tenants at the complex I live at tell their horror stories, and I sighed with a little relief that it's like I won the lottery when I moved into a decent unit.

Not only do the stories themselves scare me, but the lack of accountability.

Landlords doing the bare minimum to fix these issues.

We as court watchers are thankful that the city is making efforts to shrink in co-compliance.

These revisions are a step in the right direction.

So thank you, Council members, for doing the right thing tonight, as I'm sure you will.

And don't make this the last step.

An open line of communication needs to be kept with tenants.

Earlier in the year, we asked you guys to commit to a tenant forum to hear from tenants directly.

Think about it this way.

I've lived in the same complex for three years as I finished my college degree.

I've had a decent experience, but not all my neighbors can say the same.

This can be said at any complex in residential dwelling.

We can't possibly know what tenants need until we hear from them directly.

Please continue to do the right thing.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr.

Denzi.

Thank you, thank you.

And you you got it right.

Awesome.

I appreciate that.

Um Terrell Drunzi, a community organizer doing a lot of tenant outreach.

Um really excited to hear the positive things, the hard work.

I heard a lot about the hard work I'll put into making this making sure this bill is fair, but it's also going to serve the people that is intended to serve.

And that's great.

And I don't want to say George is right, but like Georgia's right in the sense of it is important that we do walk with the implementation of this and making sure that it is enforced.

We've got a little truth in there.

And I think that is the most important truth is this is a great strong bill, but we have to make sure tenants can trust that the city is going to work on their behalf to make sure it's enforced.

I think right now we've come to y'all with a lot of tenants over the last two years.

A lot of them are not here because they they feel like it's a nice show, and they don't feel they feel like the city has left them behind.

And they really rightfully have.

A lot of those people have to move out.

A lot of those people who still had to endure those cases and those conditions.

And I think when the rollout of this, I understand is going to be about 90 days.

I think that's the most important time to champion this policy change to the community as well.

We're really trying to invite council members in the city into a forum.

Not inviting the tenants into this space, but inviting y'all into spaces they make to talk about those issues.

Also lifting up these issues of just like predatory fees that people just don't understand.

And I think this is the perfect time where we're kind of resetting how our housing policy works to bring, be at that table with them, to hear these stories and start bringing those things back into this chamber and figure out how we can continue to work for them.

I think what would make this bill so strong is that y'all have taken the stories that we brought in here that tenants have brought in here to make it actually impactful.

You didn't care about the law.

You took your ambition and then let the law walk you back.

I think that's how we should be serving our communities.

So again, we really encourage all just to let us know if you're willing to have that sit-down and forum with tenants.

It'll be about June, so everybody's got some time.

Um, but we greatly appreciate having y'all in on that so that they can see this city in this council still cares about what they're going through.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Sarah Sigwin, is that correct?

C.

Gwyn, thank you.

Like sequins on a dress.

Got it.

Thank you.

Hello everyone in council.

Good evening.

My name is Sarah.

Um, I've lived here since I was two.

Um, first in Brown Summit, so at large, and then uh moved into district three for high school, and then over to District Five for college.

And then now I'm back at three, and I live just on the border of districts three and districts two.

During the evenings, I spend a lot of time tenant organizing, doing this.

And a lot of people don't answer me, and a lot of people do.

Some tenants I've talked to so far have had similar stories about issues in their homes.

Things are ranging from mold pests like cockroaches or mice, glass or trash where kids are playing outside in front of their homes, uh, sewage in and near people's homes, and a great deal of many things.

But the constant thing, and and even though these things are changing, and it's a different issue with each tenant, the thing that remains constant is people's desire to have a good, safe home to come back to after work, and the stress that the tenants and families are under when rent is paid, but landlords don't fix the problems, and it's that tension that people are holding on to in their daily lives.

Since knocking on folks' doors, I sat in meetings with stakeholders, and in these meetings we've collaborated as organizers and stakeholders and city council members and cities uh city city staff and lawyers to create a policy update to the residential housing code that truly centers tenant stories and lived experience.

In these meetings, we've debated things like language, uh timing, possible impacts that this is gonna have on tenants, single family homeowners, uh, mom and pop landlords, even HOAs.

Uh, but the thing that we've not debated is the necessity to update this code.

That has remained constant amongst everyone that we've talked to.

We need this update to code to hold slum lords accountable in the city.

We have them, and it's a problem.

Um we need them to reach a bare minimum of standards, just the bare minimum is not what they're meeting.

But this can't be the end of the discussion, and fair of fair and safe housing.

We've got to educate folks on what this amendment means for people living in uninhabitable conditions.

Just the other night I gave a phone call to a tenant who asked me if he was going to be responsible for paying the $100 a day if the city inspection found an issue in his apartment.

And we know that that's not what's going to happen, but then all of a sudden there's this fear that people have that continues when we stop when we stop at just a vote and we don't do the extra mile of educating people on what happens after the vote.

So we've got to keep people housed, and we've got to have space for this tenant forum, hopefully in June.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

Mr.

Brock Smith.

Sorry, it's not made for people myself.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, members of council.

My name is Benjamin Brock Schmidt.

I represent the owners, operators, and suppliers who support more than 84,000 units across 12 counties, including 40,000 here in Guilford, primarily in the city of Greensboro.

I'm standing today in support of the process that brought us here.

There's a lot that goes into housing, and it's an issue that impacts every single one of us.

The process that came before us, thanks to council members crawford, their black, a number of organizations together, and we're very grateful for that opportunity to have those discussions.

And on behalf of our members, we're here and committed to continuing to work with you on safe, affordable, and well-maintained housing for residents across the city of Greensboro with a variety of groups across the city.

Our members don't just operate apartment communities here, they also live here.

Thank you again for your time and for your assistance in bringing us all together in this process.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And that is my last speaker.

Do we have any council comments on this or discussion?

Anyone?

Ms.

Black?

Yes, I do have.

I have something prepared that I'd like to share.

Today we are taking an important step towards strengthening our community by advancing an ordinance focused on improving housing quality across our city.

Safe, stable, and well maintained housing is not a luxury.

It's a basic foundation for health, dignity, and opportunity.

Too many residents are living in conditions that fall short of what they deserve.

Homes with unresolved maintenance issues, safety hazards, and outdated infrastructure.

This ordinance, this ordinance sets a clear, fair standard to ensure that every residence, regardless of income or neighborhood, has access to housing that is safe, clean, and livable.

Improving housing quality is about more than buildings.

It directly impacts public health, educational outcomes for children, and overall quality of life.

When families feel secure in their homes, communities become stronger, more stable, and more resilient.

This measure also supports responsible property owners by creating consistent expectations and accountability across the board.

By raising standards citywide, we protect both tenants and landlords while preserving the long-term value of our housing stock.

Our goal is simple to ensure that everyone in our community has a place that they can truly call home.

One that is safe, dignified, and worthy of people who live in it.

John Hardister and Kim Phillips from TriVic.

Ben Brockersmith from Piedmont Triad Apartment Association, Mike Barr from the Greensboro Regional Realtors Association, Beth McGee Huger and Fritz from Interfaith Housing Initiative.

Sarah Sequin and Craig Mancoff from the Gate City Housing, Gates Keepgate City Housed, our code enforcement team, who is ready to hit the ground running with this.

I know that I heard some comments about enforcement, but we have the pure support of our code enforcement team, and they are ready to move on this ordinance.

We could not have done this work without this collaborative effort, and I hope that our city sees that we work collaboratively.

We could not have done this work without this collaborative effort, and I hope that uh our city sees that we work collaboratively, we work with all of our organizations, and you can come up with a beautiful product if you can sit down at the table and have a conversation.

So I thank you for your work and appreciate the time that was put into this product to this ordinance.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Crawford.

Uh so I want to talk, um, take a moment to recognize uh what it took to get us here.

So this this hasn't been easy, this has been work that has spanned quite a number of years.

Um it took real conversations and people coming together, like tenant leaders, community organizers like Guilford for All, um, Interfaith Housing Initiative and Keat Gate City House, as well as housing advocates like uh Beth McGee Hugo and many more, and it and I I have to say am partners because they came to the table, um, and that is Ben at uh Piedmont Triad Apartment Association, Tree Vic, and the Greensboro Regional Real Realtors Association.

I I really want to thank them for staying at the table and working through very you know light tensions, uh especially joining in on the tour.

The folks who actually joined us, uh, we took a tour to look at some of the worst uh properties, um, both commercial and residential, and so you know, this this really was amazing to see everyone stay in in the conversation.

Um for too long we've seen uh code inspectors taking the blame when the truth is our housing code didn't uh have the tools to hold people accountable, and so these updates they change this.

Um we've worked with these committed uh city employees in both the realm of organizing and also in working with them when we get complaints here at the city.

Uh as we head into the warmer months, we are already seeing tenants dealing with pests, I mean heat, and you start to see these things pick up, uh, broken air conditioning and unsafe electrical issues.

Uh so that's not just uncomfortable, it's it's a health and safety issue.

Um I want to thank the tenants who continue to work with us, who open the door, um, who talk to our co-compliance officers, who actually go out to really terrible complexes, knock the doors, and leave information on hundreds of doors.

Um I'm proud that we've moved through these changes and moving them forward.

Uh they'll go into effect in 90 days pending our vote this evening, and we'll be offering education so everyone from landlords to tenants will understand what this all means.

We're also looking at uh ways to uh mitigate issues of co-compliance for homeowners.

Uh, the city does currently have a homeowner repair fund, and we're looking at other ways to support um folks who will need help.

As we honor the legacy of Willina Cannon and recognize leader leaders like Sheena Beasley, this is a reminder that safe housing matters.

Uh it matters for people who are deeply impacted, uh, and it matters uh for each and every one of us who live in a community near uh multifamily housing or housing of our seniors who are struggling to keep up uh their homes.

Housing is about dignity, it's about health, and it's about doing right by our community and pending this vote this evening.

This will be a win for Greensboro, and I'm super proud of what we have done up until now together.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Mr.

Marshall.

I was gonna say this for council member comments, but it's more appropriate now.

Um, it can be easy to get off task in this job.

It can be easy to get distracted, um, especially with some of the discussions that have been occurring over the recent weeks.

Uh, but I want to applaud my fellow council members for continuing to do the work for continuing to advocate for things that actually make the lives of our citizens better every day.

Um that's what we can do tonight with this ordinance.

Um kudos to Councilwoman Crawford and Black for leading uh this effort and for fostering an atmosphere of collaboration both with us and with our community partners, tenants, residents as well.

Um we've got a lot of work to do, and I'm I'm looking forward to continuing to do that, and that's what we were elected to do.

Great.

Anyone else?

Mr.

Holston?

Yes.

I also want to say thank you to my fellow council members, especially um Crawford and Black, who were who stood in the uh in the precipice of um this new ordinance or this updated ordinance.

You know, why are we here?

Um it was just a little while earlier that we were here talking about our commercial code, and now we're talking about our housing code.

And I've said it before, and I'll continue to say it that the majority of the commercial businesses and the majority of those property owners are doing the right thing.

It's in the upper 90s, but it's that other one, two, three percent that is the weakness in our community.

And I heard some of the speakers talk about you know code compliance and make sure that we're we're gonna uh be inspecting for what we expect.

Well, that's really the purpose of of these ordinance updates.

It is so that our code compliance team has the teeth to address and and and to take out the vagaries, and also to put enough motivation in for those uh bad actors who are doing the wrong thing to do the right thing.

So you've heard about the fees going up, absolutely.

No, previously on commercial code, it was ten dollars a day as a as a fit uh as a penalty.

That wasn't motivation, these are the motivations that we need so that our city can be stronger.

Uh we can't have neighborhoods that are uh running into bed or or miss or disrepair, and the property owners not taking care of them.

When those properties become better properties, and those communities become better and stronger communities and safer and healthier, then we're all stronger and safer and healthier.

And I'm just proud that that this council uh you know, crystal balling, I guess, is uh gonna vote and they're gonna update these uh this ordinance to go through commercial ordinance, uh but the residents of our city, the tenants who are living in in these properties are going to be the beneficiaries.

Very proud, very happy.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

All right, anyone else?

Ms.

Parker.

I'd like to echo my district three neighbors, Sarah and George, in full support of this ordinance, um, and gratitude for the anchoring of the effort by Crawford and Black.

Um thank you to all who worked on this ordinance making it possible.

Uh I'm really proud to grow like Greensboro with this council, you all.

Uh I really appreciate the intentionality that as we develop, and you can see in our agenda, um, that we're building new, but we're also taking care of our current residents, and I think that that's a value that you're gonna see from this council, and we're committed going forward.

So I give great thanks for everyone.

I appreciate you.

Great.

Anyone else?

Ms.

Thurm.

Um much of the kudos have been said, but I would like to reiterate how much and how helpful it was to have our partners, Mr.

Brock Schmidt, um, Mr.

Hardister, Kim Phillips, Mike Barr, Sarah, Beth, um, at the table, along with Mr.

Roberts, because he helped as we were going looking at properties, as we were going through the code, he helped to explain what it what kept our inspectors from being successful, and I think that's something that really helped us fine-tune the policy.

Um, and I appreciate that you took the time to explain to us when we were kind of thick headed at times about what exactly wasn't working because it sounded good, but in reality and in the legal and the implementation was not working.

Um, and that was a piece that I think was very beneficial.

Um I think all these partners coming together set the stage for the success that's to come with this policy, and I'd just like to thank everybody involved.

Um, I know one of the speakers earlier talked about Tree Beck being opposed to this.

They were not opposed to this, they were very supportive.

Um both Mr.

Hardester and Ms.

Phillips uh came to all the meetings, uh came on the tour, Kim came on the tours, um, Rock Schmidt came on the tours, Mr.

Barr came on the tours.

Um it really made a difference, and I think sets the tone for Greensboro working in partnership with all stakeholders as we move forward at with the city.

Um, and that's a tone that I'm very excited to participate with and very much appreciate from all those involved.

So thank you.

All right, anyone else?

One last thing, and then I then I have a comment, and then we can get the most important.

But I just wanted to make sure that we threw a lot at you, Brent.

And I just wanted to say thank you for hearing us.

I know your face is turning red.

I know you don't like to take compliments, but it was a lot of work over some months and a lot of ideas that we threw at you.

And I I really just want to say we really appreciate it.

Thank you, Brent.

All right, Mayor Pro Tim.

Thank you, Mayor.

And just to say quickly, a couple of us were having a conversation, and these are comments are reminding me of that conversation in which it was commented that you really get you achieved great policy by having multiple voices come to the table.

And they may not start or seemingly start in the right same place, but ultimately end in the right place because it's in the place that's representative of our community, and that is a collective of the interests and needs, and in having an opportunity for everyone to have that input to be at the table to work through the challenging pieces really is what's going to make us stronger.

So thank you all for being a part of that, and thank you, Council Members Black and Crawford, for your leadership in that regard.

And thanks again, Brent.

So I think everyone has pretty much covered everyone who is involved.

You know, it's it's it really becomes a team effort once everyone has started building those relationships with the other people at the table.

And I'm huge on that because you know, once you build those relationships, you don't feel quite the angst that you normally would in bringing something up at that table because everyone has an idea, everyone uh some people don't want to listen, but they're there at the table, so they listen.

Uh, you know, and I'm not saying that happened in this case, it's just something that I've seen over the years.

So just having everyone at the table, everyone listening, and and building those relationships because I know that people feel more comfortable now calling us, talking to us, talking to code, talking to the uh the lawyers, things like that that really really can help move us forward.

So I truly appreciate everyone.

It's been a full team effort, and specifically, of course, Councilmember Black and Crawford, thank you so much.

And I think we have a really good product here, and uh you know I know we can move forward with it.

So thank you all.

So I would accept a motion, Miss Black.

So moved, and I would accept a second, Miss Crawford.

All right, council, please vote.

And that carries nine to zero.

That passes unanimously.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, so that is the end of our agenda.

Oh, we do have I-12 boards and commissions.

I'll run down very quickly down the road.

Um you'll see, Miss Black.

Do you have anyone?

None for me, Mr.

Allen Mayor.

Mr.

Allen has one.

Uh like to appoint uh Dr.

Danny Parker Moore to ACE District Three and has an application in.

Super.

Do I hear a second?

Okay.

All right.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

That passes unanimously.

Mr.

Holston.

I guess I have two tonight, Madam Mayor.

First for the uh Library Board of Trustees, uh, District Three.

Jennifer Rio.

Second.

Second.

All right.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any okay, that passes unanimously.

You have another one?

I do have another one for the commission on status of women.

Uh out of District 3 shel be pennants.

All right.

Do I hear a second?

Seconded by Miss Parker.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All right.

That passes unanimously.

Anyone else?

Miss Thurm?

None from me.

Um, Mayor Pro Tim.

Miss Crawford.

Uh yes, I've got Dreema Caldwell for District 2 for the Commission on the status of women.

Second by Miss Parker.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All right, that passes unanimously.

Mr.

Marshall.

None this evening.

Ms.

Parker.

Yes.

I set a goal, y'all, to have all my boards and commissions finalized by April, and I've met that goal.

Thank you all, District Three, for showing out and um applying.

Keep on applying if you are not appointed, keep on coming back.

There will be uh vacancies throughout our tenure.

Um but I do have uh some wonderful folks to appoint.

Thank you for your uh offering of your public service and expertise.

Um the commission of the status of women, I'd like to appoint District Three Kristen Moorhead.

All right, do I hear a second?

Seconded by Miss Thurm.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

That passes unanimously.

Do you have another one?

Yes, on the Human Rights Commission, Adriana Galdo Adams.

All right, do I hear a second?

All right, seconded by Mr.

Allen.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Okay, that passes unanimously.

Parks and Rack, Tia Rollins.

All right, did I hear a second?

Seconded by Miss Thurm.

All in favor, please say aye.

That passes unanimously.

And do you have one more?

Yes, the Greensboro Transit Advisory Committee, uh Robison Logan.

All right, do I hear a second?

Seconded by Miss Black.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All right, thank you.

I think you get the prize for having the most in one evening.

That's great.

Okay, now we will go to council comments.

Miss Black.

I'll start with you.

I just wanted to uh say that I did get a message from uh Miss Cannon's family and hope that we can at least present the uh resolution to them at the next council meeting.

Great, thank you.

Thank you.

Uh do you have any other comments for this evening?

No, thank you.

All right, Mr.

Allen.

Uh just a few brief comments.

I was uh grateful to attend the Strange Fruit Festival uh this past weekend and uh had the pleasure of uh introducing the Nina Sabone tribute.

Uh so grateful to all of the folks uh who put that uh festival together for us.

It was a great space over the weekend, Friday, uh Saturday, and uh got together for uh a mixer on Sunday as well.

So uh really grateful for that space and those artists, uh DJs and the organizers that put all of that on, as well as the vendors.

Um got the opportunity Sunday to attend uh uh play uh at AT State University uh put on by students, uh the skeleton crew, uh which was a deeply moving play.

Uh and uh all of those students did a fantastic job of uh putting on performances.

Uh the score was incredible, so can't brag on my Aggies enough.

Uh we'll continue to support those arts and hopefully do bring in some of those to uh the community and to uh some broader venues.

Uh so definitely look forward to that.

Um I think that's it.

All right, super, thank you.

Mr.

Holston.

Yes, I do have several.

Um back on April 11th, uh, Councilmember Marshall and I attended the Healthy Kids Day down at uh the Bauer Park, and then we kind of moved it on over to the Black Maternal Health Fair at Center City Park.

Both were fantastic events, well attended, and uh for very, very good purposes.

Healthy kids, healthy life, and obviously with the disparities in black maternal health.

Uh that was uh a very well attended and uh appointed with resources event.

Uh also on the 11th, I had the opportunity to attend the Black Sports Writers Hall of Fame at North Carolina AT.

It was a second annual.

Uh the the Black Sports Writers Hall of Fame is actually housed at Crosby Hall, there at AT.

And this year they honored Clifton Brown, Gary Howard, Rob Parker, and Ron Thomas.

But it's very nice that we have the beauty of North Carolina AT here on campus, and that we have a sports writers hall of fame uh getting bigger and better every day.

Uh on the 14th, uh, Reedy Connections uh have the groundbreaking ribbon cutting for you.

It's ready for work closet.

Uh it's where clothing is and items are donated, shoes, men's, women's, and uh for folks who are getting back into the workforce.

Uh they have a place to go and get their professional gear so they can be ready for the interview and ready for work.

Uh that was at New York's Chapel United Methodist Church.

And the City of Greensboro hosted its uh fair housing luncheon on the 15th over at the Yvonne Johnson Event Center as well appointed by Dr.

Love Jones and team in the City of Greensboro is a great event.

And then just this past Saturday over at ANC again.

I mentioned before the uh the Prospect Health Education Network.

Uh that was uh in conjunction with a health fair there at the campus, and it was a very good event.

There were several speakers and seminars going on.

Uh there were uh uh attendees who were there who had mentioned that they had been to other events regarding prostate health and men's health, and they really didn't get the same kind of information before that they received at ANT.

So it was it was really really important.

And the topic is important to me.

As last year, I lost my brother to prostate cancer.

So I would encourage every man.

Get information, get resources.

This very same prostate health education network is going on H B C U tour.

It was in Johnson C.

Smith prior to coming to Greensboro.

And this upcoming weekend is going to be at Shaw University.

So it's never too late, it's never too far to take care of your health.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Thank you.

All right, Mrs.

Thurm.

Last yesterday evening I attended a civic engagement seminar, workshop, panel discussion, all of the above at um that was sponsored by the thread.

And it's the first in what they hope to be a series of public conversations.

It was so well done, and it was very interesting.

One of the stats that surprised me was how far down on the list North Carolina is on civic engagement.

And everybody in the audience, I think we were ranked 50th, Trey, is that right?

In the United States.

So just something for us to think about and keep in mind.

We take our civic engagement to some extent for granted because that's who we are in Greensboro.

Obviously, it's not that way across the state.

So something for us to think about, something for us to work towards.

And talk about impressive.

Those operators to hear the stories of the award winner winners, people that have saved.

There's one gentleman that has saved well over 20 lives via his service on Metro 911.

There was a woman there that saved two lives in the same month, being Metro 911.

So I think we another thing that we take for granted that those people are there when we need them.

But I want to lift them up because they are such important people in our community and are really behind the scenes, but do an amazing job.

So thank you to all those folks over at Metro91.

Thank you.

And oops, you have something.

Actually, we can talk about Melania.

That's annoying out.

Okay, no, no, no.

I'll I'll come back to it.

Um let's see.

Mayor Po Tim.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I had the opportunity uh over some parts of last week to attend uh Accelerator for America, and this is an organization that calls itself a do tank.

Um, and it was a group of mayors ultimately that came together, but cities really that came together to identify solutions to um chronic problems that cities are facing across the country and to share ideas and solutions and really to really band together.

Part of it had it includes you know, how do you create new revenue sources?

Um, but some of it is is very much uh just policy items like the ones that we face.

Um and it was a great event, and then we're a number of cities represented there, everything from Miami to Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Um, but one of the things that it reminded me of was one, the fact that many of us cities face similar challenges, um, and it's it reminded me specifically of our discussions related to homelessness in this community.

Um, there was an article in the News of Record earlier this month that talked about the pilot home projects that used to exist here and the new pilot effort that we have taken on, uh, the small family initiative and the housing first plus.

And I want to go back to that because I don't want the fact to be missed that this effort is representative of a larger effort that's happening with this council.

And it's an effort that says that we will really dig in and to consistent challenges that we are seeing as a community and as a team of leaders in really finding sustainable solutions to challenges that have plagued us.

Those are just concepts that we're trying for now.

But there's many more to come.

And just as you've seen with the ordinance discussions, it will be a collaborative effort.

It will look to bring stakeholders to the table.

It will look to ask the hard questions of what's been working and what's not working.

But really digging into the place of what's going to get us really to where we want to be ultimately.

Something that city leaders that I was with really represented that I took away from me was being bold, being tenacious, and being willing to take risks.

And that I think is representative of the body that you have here.

There is not a mistake of the work that you're seeing.

There's a lot of work that is happening behind the scenes as well, and there is much more to come.

I want to thank the staff for staying along with us in this process.

There's a lot of energy, and you all are doing a great job at keeping up with it.

And we're going to keep asking those questions and working together on solution finding, being creative, and challenging ourselves.

So I really again appreciate the work that's been done.

I look forward to all that's to come.

Great, thank you, Ms.

Crawford.

Still super like writing the high of we we got this done and got this voted in.

And it you know, it's just one of those things that we we promised we would do in the first 100 days.

So it's a little past the first 100 days, but here we are.

Um and uh I wanted to uplift the fact that we had the recycle rodeo on Saturday.

Crystal and I ran on over there.

Um, that was really a great event.

It was steadily busy, and our staff is amazing.

Um I I saw that someone said it took them longer to load their car up than to check in and have the stuff taken out of their car, right?

Our city staff uh were they were like a machine out there, and it was hot.

Um so I I really want to thank the Office of Sustainability and all of the folks that were out there on Saturday, and then um just uh like a public announcement.

Um the Greensboro Farmers Market right there on Yanceyville, usually has its second day on Wednesday.

It has moved to Tuesdays from four until seven, um, and right now some fresh strawberries are in there, so I'm just saying.

Um the third thing is on Sunday we went to the um Triad Black uh Faith Leaders and uh Black Farmers event, and um it is really amazing what's happening right now in Crystal's district with the uh faith community involvement on making sure to support black farmers and look at ways that we can tackle food insecurity in highly impacted areas.

Um, and I I really look forward to how the city can support them more and how it can grow and get uh into my district, which is district two.

Um, so I'm I'm being very selfish in trying to expand it.

Uh and then um the fourth thing I wanted to uplift was uh Earth Day is Saturday, um, and it will be at Keeley Park from noon until four.

And I hope that folks will uh engage and come out there.

Um the weather is supposed to be nice, we're gonna hope that it holds out.

Um, and then last but not least, y'all know I like to eat.

I'm not this big by mistake.

Uh, but the Korean festival is this weekend as well, and so there'll be lots to do, lots of music, and lots of food.

Um, so that's it for me.

I'll be brief because Mr.

Holston already stole my thunder.

Um but both of those were really great events.

Um attended for both of them, and and both got a lot of people uh moving in and about downtown, and uh it was it was hopping that day.

So um I appreciate Mr.

Holston for going to those with me.

And again, I commented on it already, but I just want to commend everybody for continuing to do the work, continuing to stay focused.

Thank you.

Ms.

Parker.

It's so fun.

We are all talking about how we work, live and play, but I also wanted to tell folks about this new investment.

We had a I had a wonderful experience touring with Parks and Rec and David Kraft at the Green Hill Cemetery.

So we're not just work, living and playing.

And then Council Member Black has also visited our city cemeteries.

And so I think that that's always interesting that we are not only investing work, live, and playing, but also how we are bearing our folks and how we rest.

But also there's a lot of beautiful things.

So if you wanted to go out into our city parks and and also our city cemeteries, they are really lovely places to go and visit and to be a part of.

So I had that wonderful experience with the mayor.

And so I also wanted to announce that May is recognized as National Small Business Month in the United States, celebrating the contributions of small entrepreneurs who make up a significant portion of the economy.

In concert with this recognition, we are excited to launch the City of Greensboro's small business enterprise program on May 1st.

The Small Business Enterprise SBE program is a race and gender neutral initiative created to expand opportunities for certified local small businesses to complete this, I'm sorry, to compete for city contracts while strengthening their long-term capacity and competitiveness.

The City of Greensboro's Office of Business Opportunity will host building relationships.

Many of council will be present.

The small business enterprise from 9 a.m.

to 1030 a.m.

on Tuesday, May 19th at Yvonne Johnson's event center at Barber Park.

This will be an opportunity for small businesses to learn about the SBE program and the certification process.

Look forward to seeing you all.

Great, thank you.

And I just have a few.

Of course, we went to several of us went to the uh Guilford Metro 911 Telecommunicator Awards.

And tomorrow morning, our own Melanie Neal of GM 911 is receiving re-accreditation for uh it's an award of the I want to get it right, the Guilford Metro 911 Emergency Medical and Emergency Fire Dispatch Protocols.

And uh GM 911 is only the 37th public safety answering point in the entire world to be commended and applauded for this award.

So I think that deserves a round of applause.

Melanie has worked so hard for GM 911 and has done an amazing, amazing job.

So uh several of us were at the Black Faith Leaders and Farmers Branch.

Um I had the opportunity, I was able to speak to the housing and health services department students at North Carolina AT State University, and they had a contest and they did posters on things that affect and how uh things they do affects the city and health and human services, and it was very really fascinating.

And I was tickled to see uh on one of the posters was my colleague, Councilmember Crawford's photo in a uh when she was doing serving food at what what's the name Urban Ministry, okay.

Yes, she was serving food, and it was like they were saying like how people how the council gets involved and things like that.

I don't know which poster won, but you know, it was kind of cool to see her picture up there.

Um I also want to, I had the honor of speaking to a 50th year anniversary for Delta Sigma Sigma alumni chapter of Sigma Gamma Rose Sorority Incorporated yesterday.

And I want to tell you, these ladies are something else.

They do so much in the community, they uh have blood drives, they have food drives, they do everything like that.

So I I just wanted to commend them.

So that is all I have, and now Mr.

City Manager.

Thank you, Mayor and Council.

Um, nothing really tonight, other than to remind you, we will continue our budget series this Thursday.

Uh and our final of the work session series will be next Friday, May 1st.

I think we have some adjustments in uh our council meeting calendar, uh, but we will ensure that we take all feedback and get you all the information we need or you need uh as we approach the budget time.

Super, and I think we have one more item after city and madam city attorney.

I just want to um join in with the city council and uplift.

Um he has done such a wonderful job, and he is so humble that he will not give himself a pat on the back, even when it's desserved.

He said over there, I don't know if you all noticed when we came in, because he was like, No city attorney, you speak, and I'm like, no, you sit in here and you've done all you've done this work.

You need to get your flowers where you can smell them.

And so I I do thank you all, council, for trusting us to come in and lead and guide you and legally advise you on what can and cannot be done, and trusting us to get the work done that that you envision.

So, Brent, and thank you, Brent.

Good job.

He's been great, thank you.

And I believe Councilwoman Crawford had someone that we need to move from alternate to uh to a regular voting member on the minimum housing standards commission, yes, Mr.

Bill Furlow.

Yes, so I need a second on that, please.

Seconded by Mr.

Holston, all in favor, please say aye.

Aye, and um that concludes our meeting.

I would accept the motion to adjourn.

Moved moved by everyone.

Thank you all.

Thank you all very much.