Hey, how's it going?

Good.

We can probably get started.

Sure.

Yeah.

All right.

Sounds good.

Um, welcome everyone to the March ninth, twenty twenty-six.

Um, Lafayette Downtown Development Authority meeting.

Executive Director Keating, do we have a roll call though?

Director Barnes, Director Kagan.

Here, Director Harty.

Here, Director Hubberg.

Here, Director Laco.

Here, Director Mundy.

Director Rogers.

Here, first on the agenda is public input.

If any member of the public wishes to speak, please state your name, and you'll have five minutes to speak.

Okay, seeing no members of the public wish to speak, I'll now close public input.

We'll now move on to approval of the February ninth, twenty twenty-six meeting minutes.

Any corrections like to make a motion?

Move to approval minutes.

Is there a second?

All in favor, please say aye.

Any opposed?

All right, that passes.

Moving on to regular business, the first agenda item is approval of the fiscal year twenty twenty-six budget amendments and carry-forward appropriations for the Lafayette Downtown Development Authority.

I'll turn it over to Executive Director.

Um, this is because we are gonna do a carry forward of unspent funds and bring it forward into 2026.

And so I'll go through what that process is.

Um, and feel free to just stop me and ask questions through audit, um, and then we'll do questions, discussion, and a motion.

And then within this agenda item, we also have another opportunity to allocate additional funding for the downtown improvement grant dig.

And so after we approve that carry forward, if you guys do do that, um, then we can discuss options about if we want to allocate additional funds to this program, which has been super successful, and we're already seeing that we're gonna be tapping out soon.

Um, and so then we'll go through discussions and question and motion and next steps.

So a one-two.

Um, as a reminder, um, each year we're gonna be setting a budget, and that process actually kind of happens pretty mid-year.

Um, as a reminder for 2026, we did a work planning um uh workshop where we looked at prioritization of just our different goals, and we developed that work plan and um we uh did that in July, and then I introduced a budget that uh complemented that in August.

Um, with that feedback, we put together a budget that you all recommended for approval in September.

Since we are governed by the state statute for DDAs, our governing body actually approves our budget, and so that's city council.

And so we took that budget and introduced it to council in October, and then they approved it in uh the end of October.

And um, one thing to note is that uh they approve it through a resolution, and uh any time that we want to change our budget, we kind of have to go back through the whole dog and pony show.

Um, and we will follow the city's budget process each year.

So they throughout the year have opportunities to do supplementals where if they need to add additional funds to something or they need to amend their budget, they call for all city departments to kind of put forward what they need, and the city manager reviews it and then it gets brought to council.

We'll follow that same cadence, and so um if we ever need to amend our budget, we will just tap into the flow of what's already established through the city's process.

So a budget amendment and carry forward.

Um so, like I just described each year, city council will adopt their budget, but as we know, things pop up throughout the year where financial circumstances change, and that's where the budget amendment comes through.

And so this allows governments and uh special districts like ourselves to adjust appropriations and maintain appropriate spending authority.

So we are um bringing forward an amendment for you all to approve and then go to council.

Um, and so if we decide to approve the budget uh amendment tonight, I would be going to council on April 7th to introduce it.

That's when they're introducing all supplemental um uh items to city council, and then they would approve it on the 21st of April.

So a budget carry forward.

Um, as you know, last November we launched one of our first uh grant programs, DIG, uh, which is a matching grant initiative up to 2500 for interior and exterior capital improvements.

We put that funding in the downtown development line, and in 2025, we allocated $50,000 for the program to use, and then in 2026, we did 100,000.

A budget carry forward is a term that's used in just municipal uh governments and just uh these sort of accounting practices when you take unspent funds from one year and you carry forward it to the next year.

So in our case, we're taking unspent 2025 funds and bringing it over to 2026.

Um we allocated 50,000 to DIG and a total of 41,000 was awarded across three projects.

So the first one is at the Lafayette Lumber Yards.

This was around $7,000, and that was the work was completed, it was reimbursed and reflected the actual expenditures.

So that's not part of the carry forward, but just to note that we spent around $7,000 for that program.

The next two ones are in different stages, and so for ventry, we helped with the patio winterization.

That was around $8,000 worth of work.

That work was completed, but the reimbursement has not been submitted or processed yet.

And so that funding has been awarded, it needs to be carried forward to 2026.

And then 11 North Public Road is an HVAC upgrade, 25,000.

That was awarded, but work has not commenced, and so it's included into the carry forward for 2025.

So with this, we had initially 50,000.

We spent 7,000.

We awarded 41.

And so what we're carrying forward is the amount that's been awarded but not yet spent, and then the remaining balance in that 50,000.

So basically anything that has not been reimbursed yet from the 50,000 is being carried forward, which is the 42.

And so our original budget line item for the downtown development uh line was 150.

And so we're adding that 42, which now brings that line on to 192.

So you can see here that in the 2025 budget, uh, you can see that this was what was originally approved.

Um the actual is what was actually spent for last year.

We were still in this transition period of Laura and the DDA, and so they were paying for certain things.

We also had uh very little snow, as you know, and so that's one of the reasons why we you don't see any general repairs and maintenance.

That's where our snow line item comes from.

Um, and we did not have to pay county treasurer's fee.

So the only expenses that we had last year was 7,000 for that one award.

I do want to note that um in this reflected actual budget line item is 66,000 of sales tax increment that we weren't anticipating, um, but we received, and so this also reflects that we got sales tax increment.

You can see that in the the second line above the revenues.

And so our amended budget really tonight is what you're um uh considering is just the 192.

So increasing the 150 to 192 for downtown development.

So I have um some proposed motion language here, but um happy to turn it back over to Chair Kagan to have a discussion or any questions.

Does anyone have questions about yeah?

Yeah.

Good.

Do we have a motion?

I'll move to approve the uh FY 2026 budget amendments and carry forward appropriations for the Latvia Downtown Development Authority.

Is there a second?

Let's second that motion.

All in favor, say aye.

Okay, so I will bring that to council in April, and then that will go through their process and get approved.

So then the other portion of this uh item is additional dig funding.

Um, so an update since the last time.

Um, typically under our my staff updates, I share what we've awarded through DIG.

And so since we're talking about dig, I added it up here.

Um, since last meeting, we awarded um 23,000 to Apollo Inc.

with Jason Graves.

Um, they're a really cool business that's been around for 20 years, and they just recently moved to Lafayette.

They bought the old Lafayette flooring building, and um he does screen printing and he's an artist, and it was a very cool site visit.

So if anyone's ever interested in meeting new businesses, you let me know, and I'll you can come along.

Um I saw it in thought tattoos, but it's ink like screen printing.

Wow.

So maybe like you can do like screen printed t-shirts and stuff.

They he does um a lot of work for C athletics and Coach Prime.

Yeah, but he's also a very cool artist.

Um, and so his project is to put in a new fence because the one that he has is very dilapidated, and to actually do one of his signature murals on it.

So it will be um not only a new fence, but then uh a place making opportunity.

So we're really excited about that.

Great use for that space.

Yeah, yeah, they need tall ceilings, which really works out.

So the other thing is uh I have a draft application that I'm reviewing and we'll probably send over to the committee this week.

It's uh the the property where Seller West is, it's a complex with a bunch of different businesses in there.

Um recently just uh was bought.

Um and uh the the new owner wants to keep all the businesses and just improve the spaces, which is great.

There's a really cool little collective of different businesses there, and so um one of the things as part of their improvements is they want to do a whole new signage package so all the signage is uniform with new lighting and just easier to move across that complex.

So that draft package is 25,000.

Um I share this because between these and the ones that we've already awarded, we'll be close to that 100,000 allocation for the dig program for this year.

So to date, um, we've awarded 2020 in 2025, 41,000.

We just discussed that carry forward, those are those little dots in purple, and then we have already awarded 73,000 for dig grants this year, and with that penning application, obviously it needs to be approved by the subcommittee, but that would bring it just under 100,000.

Um so this has been an extremely successful program.

It's not a large dollar amount.

You know, you can see from this map that it's uh a handful of projects, but I've gotten really great feedback just from our downtown and understanding some projects that are coming down the pike.

It might be a great idea to might be a great idea.

Uh it might be a good idea to um allocate additional funding just so we're able to respond to the needs since it's already March.

So some two options that I want to bring forward and happy to discuss option three or four or five.

Um, but the first is just to use the um carry forward funds, um, and so or a portion of the carry forward funds, right?

Um that's already been allocated, but then adding the 50,000 for the um downtown development program, and so um essentially allocating the rest of that funding towards this the rest of it.

Some of that already allocated the 42,000.

Right.

Um, all right, I said that incorrectly.

So we're allocating the a portion of the 42,000 um to the unspent funds to this.

Okay.

Um, so we can just say we just have one one probably one more grant in that.

Okay.

Um, or we can also add 50,000, which has not been allocated to anything to be on top of that.

So it's sorry, these boxes are just what the line item would look like.

So uh so then what happens to the people who got the 2025 when they're ready to do that.

So they would already be awarded.

I guess this is essentially um, I guess I could have done this a different way.

Um do you want to add 50,000 additional funds to the downtown development grant, which we have in our budget line item that is not allocated towards anything?

Gotcha.

Or has nothing to do with 2020.

Five.

Yes.

Gotcha.

There's also like a small difference from what we're carrying forward that hasn't been allocated yet, as well as that's what it's.

Okay, I didn't understand that part.

So it would be um it would be about nine thousand.

Okay, gotcha.

So it would be like an additional fifty-nine thousand roughly that you'd have to put out.

Would allocating the fifty thousand, like I know it's not allocated right now, but would that impact our ability to put into other programs in the future?

Because that's like essentially two, two more bank.

So that's a great question.

Um, we things can pop up, and so since especially since we have that increment, if something pops up where we're like, this is a project that we want to respond to, we can allocate additional um revenue towards something.

So that 66,000 that we have for increment from last year is not allocated towards anything, so we can add it to something.

Tonight you can also give me direction to you know, we should probably amend our budget to include something else.

Since we don't have a project identified, I didn't want to put forward a budget amendment for adding that 66,000 towards something because we can have bites at the Apple throughout the year.

So to be clear, the 50,000 year like that's a part of that 66,000.

That we so we had 150,000 um originally in uh our 2026 budget, and so um a hundred thousand has been allocated to DIG, and we have fifty thousand that has not been allocated towards anything, right?

Oh, but so at any point so at any point like the fifty thousand if we do allocate that like now it goes to dig.

Yep.

If we don't allocate it at any point, we could allocate that towards something in the future that we choose.

Right.

We have nothing identified for that 50,000 right now, it's in downtown development, and we tend to put things in buckets so we can respond to things throughout the year.

And that 50,000 doesn't include the unexpected 66,000, or it does.

Does not right.

So that is also something that we can pull from.

So if we allocate the 50,000, there's still 66,000.

Should a project come up that we want, or sort of something come up that we want to do that we have to put towards, right?

Yeah, and was there another 9,000 that's correct, okay?

We have 59 or 66 to work with, right?

Right, and we have to do that.

And the 59 would all go to Dig.

And if you also notice we have uh 1.9 million dollars from our original budget, and we have fund balance right from Laura.

Now I've alloced I've like that's supposed to last us for five years, right?

And so it gives us breathing room for five years.

And so really what we feel comfortable doing is like 66,000 is unanticipated revenue.

We have 50,000 already in dig.

We could do 50,000 and dig now, and if we spend that up in two months, we could look to add additional funds.

Even more.

Or not and then put the 66 towards something else.

Something else would decide.

I guess it would be interesting just to hear what people's thoughts are on like is 50,000 enough.

Like I'm super excited to hear how successful this has been already because we're in mid-March.

Yeah, and we have a lot more of the year.

And honestly, like with some of our Laura grants like this, the word did not get out as quickly.

So it's really exciting that the new businesses are aware of it and they're taking advantage of it.

So I guess since we do have a lot of additional funds to work with, does it feel like we should be considering more than 50,000 to add to Dig?

Well that out.

I think understanding that we can always go back.

I mean, we would that would be 59,000, 60,000, roughly dollars.

So maybe two, maybe three projects, depending on how it's broken up.

Um if we if it was that successful, I mean, we could always go back, right?

But I think if we put two what's what's the deal with putting it in and then pulling it back, like with what's the reverse of that?

It um it's helpful to have a set amount because you're essentially going out to the community and saying this is the amount of funding that's available.

And so for me, talking to businesses, I can be like, all right, I have a couple things that are in the works, they're putting together applications.

It'd be hard to be like, oh, something else happened, let's pull that back.

Um, those are those situations are normally much larger discussions of the world tanked and like we need additional funds for something else, right?

Um, it's not normally just like we're just you know gonna change the program.

I add like kind of an opposite like reaction from you where I'm like it's really exciting to see businesses interested, and I'm excited to see everything that's happening, but it is mid-March, and like we will be working with like a limited number of funds, and like these grants are large grants, like 25,000.

So I guess like my question is what is the timeline on the completion for some of these other like some of the ones that have been funded from 25 or 26?

Because if we say yes, we want to give 25, like 50,000 more, that's two more projects.

Say that's done by June, then like what if there's a lot of projects that start popping up towards the latter half of the year and we don't have the funds, or we have a limited funds, like based on what we have to give.

Like, I guess I have I feel like there's a little push and pull there where it's like if we have these successful programs that like or grants that have gone out to these businesses, then it's like in the latter half of the year, it's like an incentive for businesses to come in and be like, yes, we really want to do this, um, versus kind of I don't want to call it an easy in, but just like there's the money there.

Um, so I guess I'm just I don't know if that was more of my thought of like, are we pacing ourselves throughout the year?

Because we don't know what might come in towards the latter half of the year versus like now.

But I feel like I'm being very conservative in that, and you were on the Lura board, so I feel like you have a lot more experience.

Well, can I ask a clarifying question?

Yeah, are you saying like projects to mean at the end of the year that are outside of the the dig thing?

No, like a part of the dig that maybe aren't on our radar now, like maybe businesses don't know about it yet, or like it takes a little more time for them to purchase property or do something that they want to like put in for this grant.

So you were thinking like we would wait to allocate more funds to it until the later part of the year if there were projects available, yeah.

Yeah, okay.

Meaning just another clarifying question that because I tend to approach things with a conservative mindset too, it seems to me respecting that mindset, there's still two directions we could go.

One would be to approve the 50,000, but not to move any additional as per the 66.

Yeah, not that that's what we're we wait and see with the idea that Word is still getting out, it is still first quarter, etc.

Yeah, and the other is to not even do the 50 and to say it's too early.

Yeah, and then you're just gonna be allocating that additional like eight thousand from the carry forward.

Yeah, right.

That's what I'm wondering.

Is okay.

Um I will I will just and I would love Ian and Tom, because they've been reviewing all these allocations.

I will say that um we never mailed out the postcard because as soon as we were hitting send to mail out to everyone, we almost allocated all of our funding.

So if we didn't want to say, like, come apply for this grant and we have no funding.

So this is this is just all organically through going through the building permit process.

Yeah.

Can you remind us of the ones that we've ordered and allocated?

Um, how many of those, if any, found out about it outside of having some connection to us or to you and applied for those versus how many were ones that you know you recruited, or I don't know if recruited somebody works that you worked with or knew about it through Ian or whatever.

Um because and the reason I ask that is uh are is it really a successful program in that the community is learning about it and applying for it, or is it successful just because we've kind of front loaded it and found some great projects through our people we already know?

So that's a good question.

Yeah.

Um I would say that Ian knew about it, right?

And so therefore Kirk knew about it for the Lockheed Lumber Yards.

Jordan was um looking at opportunities, and he's done a lot of work just through the city and so knew about the DDA and probably that was his end.

Um we have two applications with Remies, but these two over on the baseline um happened because we were doing a new business visit with Jason for Apollo Inc.

And um for the new property owner for reseller West is we also were just you know working through his lots of times when someone buys a property they go through the city for due diligence periods and we were just working with them in general, and I shared, hey, you could apply for this.

Um so a lot of it is that organic just um recruitment, if you will.

Yeah, but they found out about it directly from you, right?

Okay, I don't know how to think about that exactly, except that I do think to your point we could pause and maybe talk about the ones that we've done and promote it and then open it up again so that other people who haven't been communicating with us directly or connected to us in some way, otherwise might have a little more opportunity.

It's just one way to think about it.

I don't know that I feel that struggle, but it's something we would think about it.

I would have the question, do we have something that we are?

I mean, I know we haven't specifically spoken of any other projects, but it is there something that's top of mind that we're holding for, or you know, because I'm thinking splitting the difference would make sense.

Like I understand leaving some money in the coffers to like this is not that's defensive behavior.

Uh leave this money leaving money in the coffers so that there's something available if you know for some reason some wayfinding opportunity comes up and we can like jump on it and we need some capital for it, and we have that available.

So not putting all our eggs in one basket makes sense.

Um, but by putting the 50 and opening it back up, there's been word of mouth.

If we're talking about putting it out and then doing the postcard and kind of more organically letting people find what's available, well, you're looking at probably June, you know, before people would probably buy into it to figure out how much is left, and then we're on we're coming into the second half of the year, is when we'd have to make determination if we are sitting still on money and not doing anything, and it seems like it is as popular, we have the opportunity to move some more money, but if not, then that money, the 66 is still there, and we have the opportunity to look at using it for something else.

So I think it solves kind of both problems with what's there, especially considering we don't have some like bolstering agenda of like let's do this that we know we need money for right now.

My opinion.

Are you saying just do you mind if I ask a clarifying question?

Yes, no, for sure.

Are you saying we so we have basically there's 50,000 left in the downtown development budget that Bridge is proposing we could allocate?

Is that correct?

That's correct, which does not include the money that we have allocated for wayfinding.

Right.

We have um if you look at um professional services, it's 65,000.

Our goal is to procure a um consultant to start wayfinding, and we'll probably spend around 65,000 for this year in their contract, and it's probably gonna have a multi-year contract, and so a hundred thousand might be spent the following year.

And so um we we have in this for this year, um, I think some of the things that would be helpful is getting a new marketing consultant, um, starting wayfinding.

Um we have funding in here for holiday lights again, um the uh uh farmers market partnership, and then also the CCM, the creativity and culture microgrant.

But those are all separate that's all that's that's all been allocated and goal and things that we're achieving this year, and we have $50,000 that hasn't been allocated to anything that's sitting in our downtown development line item.

So we're gonna do that.

As well as the 66 and sorry is that right?

Sorry, no, yeah.

66 has not been allocated to anything, but imagine it being in our savings account.

Gotcha.

Right.

So were you saying we alloc we allocate the 50,000, but not any additional, or were you proposing we kind of hold back that 50,000?

No, I was saying allocate the 50,000, but not in the additional, understanding that we have additional available if it is so popular that we need more at the back end of the year, so that way we don't leave businesses hanging who are like, well, I didn't find out until November, you know, it's yeah.

If we were to um not allocate any additional funding, we we would just say that dig is closed for this year.

Right, but we reopen it towards it.

Otherwise, then it essentially we're saying it's a discretionary thing, and you have to apply to the full board in order to allocate funding towards it.

If we allocate the 50k.

If we don't allocate 50k, then they have to come to the full board, yes.

And so by allocating 50k into DIG, we're ex we're extending our grant program for small businesses to understand that this is a way that they can do business with the DDA through a matching grant.

If we don't allocate it towards it, if someone wants to do it, ask for funding, then it's a discretionary thing that goes to the full board.

They have to do like what the farmers market did come and tell us why and all that stuff.

I guess I'm just so used to seeing these funds roll over year after year that I'm like, this is great.

Like we should use these funds to support the small businesses, but I totally also get the like hesitation, you know, and wanting to have money to spend on things, but we can like let's do more.

We can also allocate 50,000, and then if that gets used up by June, we can have a larger conversation about do we need to allocate additional funds?

Right.

Well, that was kind of my situation.

It doesn't leave everybody high and dry, but we get to see if like you're saying is it really that popular, or is it just because we all know people who needed stuff, you know.

Um can you along those lines?

Can you clarify um I understand the postcard not going out because of the sudden um interest?

Was that a postcard about the DIG grant, or was that the sort of intro to the DDA?

Oh, that had two sides.

Yeah.

So what is the your current marketing thinking about distributing that postcard?

If we have additional funding, then I will I will send the postcard out.

It's it's cued up.

I just didn't want to send it with no with no additional funds.

Check this out.

You can't have it.

Providing wider access.

Like to your point, we don't want it to be a program where it's just like if you know somebody here, then you're part of that program.

Like I want it to be like broad reaching and you know reach people that actually might not have funds to do something or that have been in our downtown for a really long time.

And um, yeah, I feel like the postcard would be really nice.

And there's a good chance that it may not be as large of projects based on it happening through postcard because this happened in some ways where, like you say, you're visiting large businesses, visiting the sale of a property, you know, new something opening.

If it's going out fresh, then it's gonna be going to businesses that are already operational that may just have some smaller projects, smaller things that they've been putting off, you know, capital expenditures that they're like, well, I'm gonna get to this as soon as they have some extra money.

Right, totally, you know, and that could be the opportunity for that extra four or five, six thousand dollars to get something done.

Is it also an opportunity?

And do we want to consider changing any of the thresholds?

So it goes further.

Is that something we can do with this?

Is that legal?

Yeah, you can do it every time.

Um, but I what I would want to do is I would want to understand what you'd want to change.

I mean, since so typically Laura's projects had much larger buckets, and so we would see probably five or six businesses apply for this level of grants throughout the year.

Um, it might be good to work within the existing framework for an entire year and then collect that data and then see how you might want to adjust it.

Yeah, it also might feel a little unfair if we changed it like we're gonna be able to do that after somebody already got it.

Um I might have the in the in the in the world of council.

If we have money, it it goes like we don't sit on it, yeah.

Um and it's fascinating to me to hear y'all like being conservative.

City council were like just get it going, you know, activate it, get it moving.

So I in this discussion, I hear that the way people found out about this is through connections through the DDA.

And I think that's fine because part of what we wanted to do is have people have develop a relationship with members of the DDA.

And then the first year.

I personally think it's fine to continue that because we don't know how many other coincidental incidences are gonna happen where that money could go again.

I'm I'm fine with whatever y'all want to put forward, but I think it's working.

Uh right now, we don't need a postcard.

Haven't needed a postcard, so maybe we won't need a postcard for the rest of the year because it is so new.

So it uh it could be that that next 50,000 goes, and in November, you know, maybe we have a need, but that cues up 2027.

So I think we're in good shape.

I don't I don't think council's gonna have any problem with y'all getting money into the hands of businesses, because that's one of the things we're really concerned about is businesses like who are hanging on the edge not being able to make it, and so and knowing there's money that's available, you know, that might have just gotten them over the edge.

I think we'd be really happy to know that somehow we found them.

I think that all makes sense.

My I think the only thing I'd push back on is I I think it's sort of our due diligence in sending out the postcard.

Like there's something you know send out the postcard, just so that we can look back at this first year and say we really tried to get the word out beyond.

I mean, it's not just personal context, right?

It's Bridget doing her job when she's doing site tours and stuff like that, but still, and I totally agree.

There's nothing I don't know, unethical or untoward about you know where information comes from, but for us to look back and say we did every bit of marketing we could to let these to ties point these smaller businesses that might not have any reason to have um regular contact with the city.

And and with that said, what I've heard also is that y'all are busy.

So if you get a postcard, yeah, I mean it might mean a lot, but if you have a person and the postcard, yeah, like if the postcard arrives before they'd contact one of y'all or me.

Agreed, or you know, I contact them and then they get the postcard.

It's it's sticky, yeah, and they know it's it's real, and you know Laura's not what they're looking for.

It's it's gonna take a while for people to understand.

Like, no, this is not it's just real stuff that can happen right now.

So postcard back.

I mean, I think it does give us an opportunity to be hands-on, you know, to actually go out and meet some folks and let them know what's available when we're not busy, whatever that is.

Yeah, you know, it's like um, but you know, like that's a way to make that connection to um with some of the businesses that are out there.

Yeah, I would just add that even if we increase 550k now, which I think we should, um, that'll probably go pretty quick.

The postcards will go out, and there's still gonna be people are just finding out about probably don't get to it in time, but I think it's good um seed planting for the program for later in the year next year.

Yeah, yeah, this is a good problem to have, right?

And um, if we add allocate, you know, we have around 8800 from last year that wasn't allocated, and then the 50,000 were 58.

Um, and then in July, if we need to add more, we can have a discussion about tapping in to the 66.

Yeah, yeah.

Sounds good.

I think, yeah, my hesitation around like since we do have that extra 66k, like I would be a lot more hesitant to allocate the full 50k now, like not knowing what was coming up, but since we do have that, I think it makes sense with everyone's feedback.

So, does that mean there's somebody who wants to make a motion?

A motion.

Oh, sorry.

I was like, wait, we just took away.

I had a I had a place where I didn't know where we're gonna land, so how to type it in real time.

The eight is from the carryover, yes.

852, yeah.

I don't know how many motions you can do in a day, so uh I moved to increase the 2026 downtown improvement grant program from 100,000 to 158,852.

Second, okay.

Okay.

I have discussion after the second.

Oh second.

Um discussion.

I just want to be clear.

Were you saying not to allocate the whole 50?

No, no, I'm saying I am comfortable allocating the 50 because we do have the extra 66.

Like knowing that if this does disappear in the next two months, like we still have more funds.

If that wasn't the case, I think I'd be a lot more hesitant.

I just wanted to check because it's not because it's happening.

Yeah, it's gonna happen.

It's happening, and I'm comfortable with it.

So we have the second, and we have the discussion.

All in favor.

Any opposed?

Okay.

Motion passes.

Great.

Thanks for hanging in there.

I know that that it's a little complicated doing math and budget amendments on the fly.

Um, but this is super helpful, and um we I appreciate everyone being conservative because we have two million dollars that we're allocating for five years, and we just have to be smart about what we're doing.

But um I think that this is a great use of it, and we can always adjust mid year to add money or think about different priorities.

Cool.

Yes, okay.

Um next budget item, next agenda, sorry.

Is not a budget.

Is 108 North Public Road maintenance and programming intergovernmental agreement.

All right.

Um, so as you all know, um the city recently purchased 108 North Public Road, which is a parking lot that Laura has managed.

And so with uh the DDA taking over parking lot maintenance responsibilities from Laura, um, we we're not gonna sign a lease with the city to have this within the program.

We would do an IGA.

It brings up a great opportunity to think about us and our involvement for programming that, and do we want to have a policy for how or when that site is used, not for parking.

So this is a discussion tonight.

Um, and I'm gonna get some direction from you all, but you're not approving an IG tonight.

So I'll give a quick overview of the parking lot and how the city purchased that.

Um, remind you all about the parking lot program, then dive into how community events are permitted through the city and city owned facilities, um, and then open it up about the opportunity for a potential policy and uh a review spot in that process and discussion and next steps.

Um last month we talked about um setting up a review committee to be part of the Chase Bank property, and that is 200 North Public Road, and so now we're we're kind of focusing on the south side of that of 108 North Public Road.

So these two sites were purchased by the city in partnership with Laura to preserve that public parking lot.

Um, the city is going to sell 200 North Public Road.

The RFP is live, it's out on the street, and so if you know anyone that's interested in buying a building from 1976, you send them my way.

Um but we're really excited that we're able to preserve this public parking, and it also provides an opportunity to use it for events or markets or pop-ups, which it has not been able to do historically.

So the first part of uh potential IGA would be for maintenance.

Um, it has been part of the Laura maintenance program, which is being transferred from Laura to the DDA.

Um, we typically provide snow removal, line striping.

Sorry, Laura has typically provided snow removal, line striping, pot repair, surface repairs, and in return, there's public parking.

So Laura has had a lease with JP Morgan Chase for about a decade now.

And so when you all entered into your intergovernmental agreement with Laura, it talks about Laura providing you all funding to reassign those leases to the DDA.

We have a subcommittee of um Tim and Faith, which we're hoping to meet soon to talk about just strategy and auditing those, and then um later the spring we'll formally move all those over to the DDA.

Um, with 108 North Public Road being part of the city now, we're not gonna have a lease, but rather an IGA about we're gonna provide this maintenance, and then there's an opportunity to add another layer of this of do we care about how that lot is used for non-public like parking purposes?

P3.

Um so as I mentioned, you probably have noticed that there's never been events in that parking lot, and that's because JP Morgan Chase's insurance requirements and risk would not allow us to use it for non-public parking.

By owning it, we can now think about how we want to use this key asset, whether having the farmers market there or pop-ups, markets, it really just kind of changes how we think about this space.

Um, since it is a city-owned lot, it would have to go through a community event permit process, and I'll go through what that is in a second.

But essentially, any time something's on a city property, we need to make sure that every single department that would have some involvement in it, whether it's police, fire or public works or risk or insurance, all feels like this could be a safe event and within our guidance of the community event permit process.

But we have an opportunity to think about how or when this is used, and we can think about do we want a policy that kind of aligns with our downtown economic vitality goals, our action plan goals, and kind of putting some guardrails about what we would feel comfortable with that space being used.

So the community event permit process is required any time someone is applying for using an uh the space of a facility, like an event, um the closure of public streets or sidewalks, or the use of festival plaza.

Arts and cultural resources oversees festival plaza as far as what can be allowed in that area through the community event permit process.

Um the application is on our website and has a long list of details, but essentially you're providing details in a site plan and the various city departments look at it.

So public works for traffic control, risk makes making sure you do the correct insurance, fire for emergency planning, police for public safety.

If you plan to serve liquor, you get a liquor license to the city clerk, um, and we'll pull in different departments as needed.

And it having this process is really great for not having to reinvent something.

Um it ensures that it's in compliance with local, state, and federal laws, and also just making sure that the event organizer has full responsibility over the operational planning.

So noise, site layout, sanitation, restoration, vendor licensing, public health if you have food vendors, all that kind of goes through a big long process for the community event permit.

Um so I want to have a discussion with you all and thinking we have this new asset and we are going to be providing maintenance for it.

Do we care how it's going to be used on those non-public parking events?

So we could develop a policy that is kind of attached to that community event permit process where we can outline when and how the lot may be used for non-public purposes, public parking purposes, um, seasonality, time of day limitations, maximum number of closures annually, engagement goals with lobby of businesses if that makes sense, and then event event scale parameters.

Are we talking network?

I only have a couple more slides and then I can open it up.

Um, and so how this would work well is since it's still city-owned facility, and it needs to go through that event permit process.

But if we're interested, um, we could either invite you could delegate me or you could create a subcommittee of two members to be formally assigned as reviewers in the community event permit process.

So the same way that you know, when we get that application within the city, it gets delegated to police to review to fire.

There could be a DDA component that reviews it with the policy in hand, making sure that it's aligned.

So the process would be you would submit through the standard city process.

Each department would have their review.

The DDA representatives would review in consistency with that policy, and again, it would focus on these downtown goals that we have, and then approval would be contingent upon both the city clearance and consistency with the DDA policy.

So instead of creating a whole new policy that we have to manage, we're just being part of the city's one.

So I have um three policy discussions, and then um I can help lead a discussion about what some guardrails are.

So the first one is does the board support incorporating programming oversight of 108 North Color Road into the IGA?

The second one is does the board support the development of a formal use policy, and then what are some initial guardrails that we want to start to establish?

So frequency, seasonality, and scale.

I also have some draft discussion points about that third bullet, but um want to kind of hear y'all's thoughts about one and two first, and I'll turn it over to Mina.

Ty, were you gonna I'm sorry, I'm trying to find the right words.

Um why would why would why would we do that?

Why would we want to have a policy?

I mean, I just I I assume the city has a pretty uh like detailed policy and procedure for I know they do for like rent renting space and black events there you go, the words.

Um I'm just I'm I'm curious, it seems like some redundancy or what would what is I don't understand why.

I'm just that's a great question.

Um so the city's going to um have making sure that's a safe event, right?

Follow the city policies, but since this is a key asset that is related to parking, this if it meets the community event permit process, it's not if someone could essentially apply to rent it out the Saturday of the farm the Saturday before the farmers market and it could be our night out is happening, and then we have something that's on a Saturday, then we have the farmers market, and they could apply for the entire year.

Are we okay with having this rented out, you know, four or five times a month?

Are we do we want to limit how often it's rented out because our key purpose is public parking?

That policy framework is not something in the community event permit process.

So the city doesn't already consider that.

Sorry.

So the city doesn't already consider that.

The city would consider that you can close public road for a farmers market, um, art night out or chamber events, and then it needs to have like special approval to close down public road for something other than that, right?

Um it doesn't have things related to if you you need you need to be you need to engage Lafayette businesses that are adjacent there if they want vendor space.

It doesn't have that next layer of policy.

Um and I think s we can also think about do we care if half the parking lot is rented, does it need to be all of it rented?

Those things aren't in the community event permit process, that kind of next layer of details.

Okay.

Yep.

Um, I would say I strongly support the TDA being involved in uh oversight of this because this is a new property for the city, it's right in the middle of everything that we are working on, and I think it will impact a lot of businesses and activities around downtown.

Um and so even if we find that everything that comes across our desk for lack of a better term, is positive and we support it.

I think it's better to be sure of that in the first year than to leave it without oversight and regret it later because there's a lot of really unhappy businesses due to like no oversight from the DDA and like the lack of like obviously there's compliance from the city, but the sort of priorities that the DDA has, I would say, like so that's my opinion on it.

Yeah, and I think to add to that is um, and thank you for saying all those points is this the city does not have necessarily an economic vitality lens about saying yes or no to certain things.

If it meets the criteria, it's gonna say yes, but it doesn't have engagement goals or frequency goals um or how to engage the adjacent businesses for being participatory.

Um you wouldn't want uh an event that excluded participation from our businesses, and this would just have some safeguards into making sure that we feel comfortable with ha what sort of events may be happening because it's essentially taking public parking offline.

Right.

Does that make sense?

Yeah, okay.

I also strongly support this.

I think oversight's really important.

A lot of businesses rely on the parking.

Um, and I think we want to make sure if people are having an events there that it feels in line with what we're doing as a downtown.

I also think it's really really important that one of the guardrails is that we speak to the businesses in that area before we shut down the parking that they rely on.

So um it would be great to it sounds like these initial discussions are we're kind of supportive, but just want to make sure that everyone feels comfortable with bullet one.

Ian and Tim.

I do, yeah.

I mean, I'm tending to agree with what everybody's saying.

My you know, given that the lumber yards are right there, I know all the businesses there already have concerns about the lot in the lumber yard specifically being used for other events, specifically the farmers market and having this.

I'm just thinking purely from my experience with everybody there would be concerning to them because once that lot is closed down and there's an event happening, not only is there no parking there, but everybody coming is gonna need to park somewhere.

So why not park 60 feet away?

You know, um, so yes, I think oversight would be super important, but I'm super excited about the opportunity of having events there.

I think it'd be awesome.

Perfect space, you know.

Um but bullet point one, I yeah, I would be in support of incorporating it.

I kind of think this is why the DD was created, so yeah, I think we should do it.

Not one of the only I'm comfortable, I'm comfortable with it too.

I think it's the right thing.

I am um it is curious to me that we're through the lens of like limiting and real curating and being careful and advocating for the businesses.

Uh, because I remember just reading the community development plans in the over the years, it's really actually been promoting doing more stuff there and bringing stuff in that could be a problem.

So I mean, I think if it's handled well, it's gonna be by far a net benefit.

And I would definitely be in support of uh either you know, rigid having the oversight or having a subcommittee.

Okay.

So it sounds like we're we're gonna talk about and this is just a discussion, so it's almost like just throw everything out, right?

What are things they think would go well and what are things that you think might be some concerns?

Um, the first one is I have frequency.

So should we limit how often it can be closed on weekends during the farmers market season?

Um so essentially, you know, if there's a big closure in this area anyway from May through October every Sunday.

Um, they don't last year they didn't formally use that lot as part of it.

They know that it could potentially be used.

I'm not sure if Peter's going to use it because it provides parking for vendors, um, which is helpful because a lot of different vendors come and they need to be able to park.

Um, and so he he's gonna go through the community event permit process, and he might say, Can I use this lot or not?

But um, in how how do we feel about we know that there's already like a large I wouldn't say disruption, but like closure in this area every Sunday from May through October.

Would we want to limit the frequency during this time period?

Like um, it can only be closed once a month on a Saturday during this period, so it's not like you're getting major closures every weekend from May through October in this area.

Does that make sense?

That question does.

I think for me, it kind of lands on the next question, which is like what type of event in the scale, because if it's something that's gonna bring business in for other small businesses in old town, then I would say I would lean towards like no, or very limited um like frequency limitations versus like is it something that is gonna be really tightly held to that space, and then just businesses are feeling the fact that there's no parking or people are coming down less because there's a lot of stuff going on that's not including them.

Um so I feel like it's almost reverse.

But yeah, I feel like as long as you have the the power to decide what event happens and what doesn't, I don't necessarily think it needs to be limited.

Um, you know, unless there's pre you know, if somebody wants to do something every day in your or you know, every weekend and you're having to deny three of those what you know, the perception of having my own.

I think it it it ultimately helps you though to to have have that be spelled out in advance for people because you're gonna create a situation where people are like, Well, how are you deciding who gets to have the Saturday event?

You know what I mean?

If you just make it so that people know that you're only gonna allow it to happen one Saturday or two Saturdays, or whatever we decide, um people can work around that parameter as opposed to you saying if we like your event enough, we'll let you have a Saturday.

You know what I mean?

I mean, that's kind of how that looks.

And it's a little, I think it's a little more like ominous than just having a clear like this is the way it works.

Yeah, and I think the event scale adds in like first.

So this question is what events feel appropriate for the space.

Like, would you only close it if a large street closure was happening and wanted to use it?

Or would we feel comfortable for smaller activations and pop-ups or smaller markets?

I I would tend to recommend that if someone wanted to rent the space to sell one thing, like that probably is not the right feel, right?

Like a holiday market, a holiday market would be a great one, right?

Great space.

I don't think anyone should ever only do half the lot because that creates a safety issue.

You don't want people trying to park on half while they're trying to have something on half.

So if it's going to be used for something, you have to use the whole lot for that something because someone will run over some money.

Are are y'all okay with an event that is not sales tax generating?

Like let's say that there was a cultural event or a concert or something that was different that wanted to activate the space.

Are you comfortable with that?

I feel like even though it's not directly sales tax generated.

And part of our action plan is on culture and community.

And it actually probably is better for the small businesses if it isn't something that's sales tax generating because it means that they do have to spend money elsewhere.

Right, there's a good thing.

Right.

If it's something where there's tons of boosts from other businesses that have come in, well, you know, people are gonna designate a lot of their dollars to that there, if it's something that is drawing people for the sake of them seeing something, some events, some dancers, some whatever, but that's just what it is.

They they have to then walk to things to do stuff, you know.

Tim, what are you?

I was gonna say, I think I think Janae started this whole thing.

I think this is similar to what you're saying.

I meant that in a positive way.

Like the thought that events that are going to bring business to the other you know, surrounding businesses are the ones that's I think that should be the criterion.

And like a lot of times that's what council will do, is we'll say, like we're selecting based on a criteria that's in a plan.

And in this case, the DDA, and I mean that's kind of the mandate is to reinvigorate the downtown area, make sure it's vital.

So any event has to meet that as a you know, first threshold.

Is how does the downtown area uh provide your event what it needs, and how do you support the businesses around it?

Yeah, and I think that's you know, I think that I that should lead.

That's a great point.

And I do agree, like please don't use half the parking lot.

Like immediately becomes a nightmare.

I was like people trying to park.

I feel like it's a little hard to have this discussion without the third one.

That feels super important to me.

And so it's a little bit like I have all these thoughts and ideas brewing in my head, but it still feels like we need to actually engage like the stakeholders in that are like our directly feeling either the benefits or the challenges by programming events there.

I personally, I mean, it does take away parking, so I think it's really important to talk to the businesses nearby and be like, how does how would this really affect your business and your customers?

I'm kind of excited about being able to have events on public road that don't shut down the road because that is the biggest challenge, I think, as a small business owner on public road.

Um so to me, it's like it's great, it brings people downtown, but it's not actually closing the access.

But again, like having conversations with those businesses that are really nearby and be like, how much does this rely?

Like how much do you rely on this?

How much do you think it would impact what kinds of events would you like to see here?

It seems like the farmers market has really gotten a lot of like positive feedback from the businesses, and I think that's because there was a lot of engagement thoughts that went into that process.

So I think it would be important in this case too to make sure three is very present.

Go ahead.

I'm gonna wait for this.

So I mean, it's a parking lot, and I think the paradigm that we're using is it brings people in because they can park the car.

Um parking lots are not the only thing to bring people in.

So this is our moment to shine where we have the DDA self-driving cars that are bringing people from here or wherever, or but I mean, we just blow this up as an alternative way to get to the downtown area and use that parking lot as a people lot, you know, an alternative place to bring it in.

And maybe that's one of the events is check out all the different ways you can get here safely.

Uh, and I'm saying that's an event, but on the regular, I think there should be definitely an understanding that we want you to come in to this event with some alternative form of transportation, and we need to do the wayfinding and the footwork ahead of time to say like these are the things that are available, this is how you take the jump, this is how you off yeah, ride free law that gets in there.

So I just think that that should be added as a part of this the mindset for this one is that we do use it that has something alternative to a car.

God, I'm losing these words of that today.

Um how many vehicle spaces are in the road?

35.

This last point about how, and again, we're jumping around, but like how important is that events incorporate or benefit downtown businesses?

I think we've heard right now, like if an event brings people there, they might go to the businesses afterwards, right?

And there's like a good balance of if you were to do a pop-up market, you wouldn't want just the brick and mortars to be in the pop-up market because it's essentially just double dipping, right?

How is there a nice complement to both of them?

And so everyone kind of feels like there's a benefit for small entrepreneurs or makers, while also making sure that if there is space that wants to be used by brick and mortar that's nearby for collaboration, there is those opportunities.

So in a way you could probably make an indirect correlation that it benefits different businesses in different ways depending on what the event is.

But I think to face point is um it's disruptive to take parking offline.

I think if you were to ask anyone if if I were to take your parking away from your business, it's disruptive.

Now they there's probably you know a cost benefit of like, well, I'm gonna get like a thousand more people because of this event, it's worth a disruption.

And so, in a way, I think as part of this conversation is like figuring out like what feels like a special enough thing to close this down.

So, how how do we this isn't directly related to the questions, it's more about how this becomes part of the process.

Is it is it does the DDA become part of the events application?

Are we a uh a different evaluation, like you have to have a meeting with these people and meeting with these people?

Like what what is what is the so we would develop a policy that would have guardrails maybe in within that says it can't be a ticketed event, it can only happen this through these weekends throughout the year.

Um it is in this area, you need to get you know written feedback from every business, right?

Have some sort of policy, and so if it checks these things, you know, no political events, then you're saying, yeah, this can work.

It needs to take off the whole lot offline.

These are the type events that you can do.

We can we can go through like we're scoring yes or no as far as like do we like this event or not?

I wouldn't necessarily go to that route.

I would do it more just like if you're gonna do an event, it needs to fit within these guardrails and it needs to go through this process from a downtown economic vitality standpoint.

So we could technically the way that they require um for if you're gonna have fight for liquor license, they make you go get signatures from the surrounding it's businesses and residents with that, but we could have some is it possible to do something like that where you know whatever your event is, you have because it's usually a 45-day process or what have you, you have to go collect so many signatures from the surrounding businesses supporting your event because that could be a large part of the vetting process.

Um, but I don't know if if that's I worry that something like that would be like very cumbersome for people wanting to do events, um, like canvassing public businesses.

Um, like you know, A, that's a lot of work, and two, you never know what which balances you're gonna get.

Um, so I think that's where we come in where it's like we have policies and we review them based on like what we've set, and that saves like the business owners and the people who want to come in.

Um so we're talking about the business engagement.

Is that happening prior to us developing these policies?

Is that what I'm is that what's happening there?

Or I think another way is um let's say that you were going to do a like an e not an event that can is in complete competition of the surrounding brick and mortars without them being engaged or have an opportunity to participate, might be a policy, right?

You know, like if you were to do a brew fest but not invite any of the Lafayette, let's say there was a bunch of breweries right next door and not engage any of them and have everyone be excluded, that might not be a great look for our downtown, right?

That's fair.

Yeah, so I think having just some understanding that there's not you know direct competition or exclusion, there might be a policy that says um if you plan to do this sort of type of event, you need to be able to like even with our chamber, we say that in the peach festival, you need to have 20% of your booth space be available for Lafayette businesses.

Like there could also be engagement goals for if you're going to do a certain type of event, do you want to show that you engage different businesses to be part of it?

And it doesn't necessarily need to be brick and mortars, it could just be other you know, Lafayette.

And this doesn't have to be when you say Lafayette businesses, are we talking about Latvia businesses in the DDA footprint or I mean you can go either way, right?

If you want to sell if you want to support both our downtown businesses, but also provide a showcase for other businesses within our community, whether they're makers, right?

Um or food trucks, right?

I think that it goes in, you can think about it in many different ways too.

But two things.

Number one, uh, I would I I think council would like to hear um that uh the Lafayette businesses are are invited to participate.

And the second thing it's just like see you start the rubber funny, just forgot I just forgot about it, but I I think it would be I think that also it goes both ways.

So if you've got a brewery that's not in the DDA that's invited to the festival, that people who live near that brewery have never been there, happen to be there at the DDA, then they can patronize that one, and same thing works for ones that are in it within the DDA.

I think it's small enough, it feeds uh we feed the whole city.

And I think it's also important to remember that people go to our downtown to experience different things, and so there needs to be a nice balance between like supporting the existing businesses that are there, but also bringing in different things that aren't always there, and so it complements each other nicely.

Um so just this are the I know that we're not making any decisions tonight, but these are the conversations that are helpful to hear like how these are resonating or not resonates with you all.

Because I think the the goes both ways is the lens we should be using as well, so that while um while those while every one of those downtown businesses is super important as individual businesses to the DDA, it seems to me that our mission and scope is the health and vitality of the area, and that may mean that's why I don't think we would survey survey each time because there is very understandable from businesses in that exact two block radius or something that anything that gives up parking is a no.

But but we we want what's good for the long-term health of the DDA district and not just there there are going to be trade-offs in our lens.

I think even though we're supporting individual businesses with every effort, including in our dig program, including in all of our programs, we also there's gonna be times that we disappoint individual businesses because we're making up a decision for the collective area.

Um and and so that business engagement initially and getting to know those businesses more, but I could imagine arts and cultural festivals that no businesses right there are gonna want because people are coming and um it's taking away 300%.

Taking away parks, so that we can't always choose it goes a little bit to how the communication goes around um how you get to downtown too.

Yeah.

Um I have a question.

So it sounds like we're mostly on the same page about a lot of these, like the bullet points you've outlined.

So, in terms of next steps, I know we're not making decision tonight.

Are you gonna outline before the next meeting?

Like, here are some options on each one of these bullets that we can kind of vote on or consider what's the next steps on the result.

So the next steps would be on this next step slide.

Bridget quickly type that up.

Um so one, it sounds like we want to include this programming into this IGA.

So I would draft an IGA reflecting the maintenance of the programming, and then separately I would put together a proposed policy framework report discussion, and they might have some trade-offs.

I think I'm kind of hearing us uh a theme in this that I can I feel pretty okay about putting together something that's draft, and then I can say, like, do you want to make it stricter or you know, looser for certain things, and then we can kind of workshop that at a different meeting.

Um, and so it's almost like two documents.

The policy does not have to live in the IGA, it will probably just say they will have program overview and oversight through the community event permit process and develop a policy that fits within the guise of our city attorney or something, yeah.

Um I think we should take the time to do it right though and engage businesses up front, not figure it all out and then pretend it was it, right?

So would it make we have to I don't think we have to allow any public events there until we've really felt comfortable we've done it the right way, right?

There's no time frame on just because the city is I mean if someone applied right now through the city and then meant the same for a process they could consider they could get an event.

And so we don't have to put it in place but we also understand any events that occur before we do will occur however it works through the city's process basically it behooves us to do it quickly.

Yeah.

Okay.

I mean and again it's going the it's going to meet the city event from a process which is really robust and if the city feels comfortable like closing down public road it would feel comfortable closing down this parking lot because it meets health safety you know it's not uh it's not a political event it's not a ticketed event right and so this is essentially just another layer as far as like what is that policy for how does this advance our vitality goals so if we feel fine you know I can put together a draft and we can say yes no go back to it let's talk to these businesses we can we can have this be a few month process or if next meeting we were like you know what this feels like the right scope then we let's move forward with it.

So I think the first thing is like we can I can bring forward back that IGA and we can get that done in April.

The policy will be a thing that is referred to in the IGA but does not need to be finalized at the same time.

Okay.

That makes sense.

Oh I just remember I was just gonna say I remember the second thing is that all things understood not everybody who's here is going to be on the DDA in the future.

So the like the you know events we like is going to look different for a different group of people so having some criteria that's more objective is kind of what we want to do.

So it's is it really events we like or just events that meet the criteria of what our of what the scope of the what's the thing yes or action plan.

Yeah it's more built around that it's not like we would I like these events.

I like Pokemon events so let's let you know I mean that is like we don't know it's the subjected like based on our already decided plan.

Yeah all the Pokemon Pokemon go.

And people get hit by cars.

I just I like so open to everyone else's like feedback but I I think doing something more like quicker or quickly is probably more beneficial because I think there's nothing less than like small businesses and Lafayette likes than to like have like a fumble on the first run.

Yeah and then and then it's all playing catch up.

And so I think even if it's not what we ultimately are like this is exactly what we want I think having some guards is probably beneficial.

And then on the last point in business engagement I think like there's been a lot of feedback about engaging businesses and making sure they're involved I think getting permission to everybody's point is really hard to do and like we have the downtown and then we have larger I think what businesses actually want is to be engaged and know what's going on.

So if it's like maybe they don't get to say no this bubble parade can't happen but like we know what's happening and this is the time so like maybe we change our operating hours or maybe we do a special soap making for bubbles I don't know something that is like engaging with businesses.

So I think a mechanism to do outreach is more important than permission seeking from businesses.

So that's my only two cents but I think doing it quickly and then doing outreach is the most important things.

Yeah.

Anyone else comments on the next steps are you feeling like you have direction then yeah and I appreciate everyone kind of like slowly moving through this discussion because it's like the first time of us in this sort of programming oversight role.

And so a lot of it instead of providing like direction is more of just like asking more questions which is the questions are just as helpful as the like I feel like we should do this or that having these larger just like discussions are super helpful just to think about what is our role because we've never done this and Laura hasn't ever played this role and so it's helpful to hear just us all kind of work through what could this be and what do we not want it to be and um so I'll put I'll throw something together and you can tell me we love all of it or let's go back to the drawing board and at least it'll be something that we can respond to.

Great.

And I and I think the moral is even if you can only form your question as why it's worth it because that that got right to it why cool great breakfast add something to the discussion that's a little bit related and unrelated.

So it it's just making me think about other events that close down public road or that affect the DDA district, and if there's a way for the DDA to have an involvement in those as well, not just a parking lot.

If there's some sort of mechanism for that.

Particularly around the chamber events.

I know that you said the city can approve for our night out.

What was the second one?

Farmer Market and then Farmers Market and Chamber.

And I feel like what the chamber is lacking the most is communication with the small businesses, like Janae is saying, like letting people know what's happening when it's happening, or if they're considering a new event, or for example, if they decide to change the date of the peach festival, which they did this year and they didn't inform like any of the businesses about it.

So I would love to see some oversight on like general events that are happening in the DDA district and how we can actually it doesn't have to be like permission from all the businesses, but how we can actually engage the businesses and the stakeholders who are like paying rent on public road so that they can actually have like a say in what's happening, or at least be aware of what's happening in a more efficient way.

Anyone else?

I don't disagree.

I don't disagree, and I think that would include other major thoroughfares like Harrison.

Yes, right.

You guys have had that same problem.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it's a great point.

As the DDA and a champion of our downtown, you can totally provide direction for me saying this is a concern, like how can we have more involvement or communication or whether it's a you know, I'm not sure if everything can be an actual oversight, but how can we improve the process?

Um, if everyone is feeling like this is a good thing, not just to think about this parking lot, but how do events happen in our downtown and making sure we're advocating for clear and constant communication?

Um, I can I can I can take that and run with it.

So if if that's feels like a Yes.

Cool.

I think that'd be great.

Cool.

Thank you.

Yeah.

That's why the DDA's here.

That's why we have a staff person.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um, next agenda item is overview of the proposed 2026 DDA networking program.

Cool.

All right, so this is a a short one.

Um that's funny.

Um, so as you know, in our work plan, um, we decided that we want to do a series of networking events.

Um, and this really aligns with our goals to enhance engagement and communication in our downtown.

Um, we have a networking planning committee of Ty and Tom, um we've met recently, and so this is just a kind of report out and just get some general feedback.

Um, and they've been great as far as thinking about who is this supposed to serve.

Um, while we have a lot of businesses in our downtown, our constituents are larger than that, and so our DDA includes property owners, businesses, residents, nonprofits, downtown community partners, and those downtown community partners could be artists and creatives, and so um we're not just a business association, we're much more than that.

And so thinking that our audience is really engaging those who care about our downtown.

Um so our goals um thinking about you know strengthening relationships between those downtown constituents, making sure that we're providing timely updates on our DDA initiatives and catalytic projects, offer educational content relevated relevant to downtown investment and operations, making sure that this feels like our identity of our downtown that has been coined as creative, eclectic, and diverse, and then we are essentially a downtown full of businesses, so not losing sight of supporting retention, expansion, and even recruitment efforts.

So we're thinking of the proposed format of these would be balancing content with informal networking and community connections.

Not everyone wants to sit and listen to a lecture for 60 minutes.

Um, and so thinking that these will be you know an hour, an hour and a half long, they'll be at different downtown venues, we'd have light refreshments locally sourced, and the format would be a 20, 30 minute focused presentation or topic or panel, and then kind of just opening up for general mingling and and networking.

Meet the people.

Um the proposed cadence for these, I think in future years, if this goes well, we'll probably be quarterly, but just because of what we're all up to and creating different grant programs, um, we're thinking of doing three this year, and so having one in April, one in August, and one in November.

Um, and not everyone can attend it at the same time, and so each event being a different time.

So having a morning one, a lunch one, an evening, making sure we just cast a wider net for engagement and participation.

So some potential topics.

I think for this first one we really want this to be a hey we're the DDA and um just explain who we are and some of the resources that we can provide.

And so we could talk about dig and the creativity and culture microgrant as something that we want to do in future years.

And then depending on when this is scheduled we could even have our um marketing consultant there to introduce themselves as a we want to introduce you to whoever's doing marketing and we could um say stay tuned right um we can do surveys at these events also just quick things to fill out.

But some other topics um is working with the small business development center they do a series of workshops that are really great and informative and having one in our downtown we can engage Boulder Workforce development center to come in and um help with a topic there.

And then also we could do an event that has the Boulder Latino Chamber of commerce and so thinking of like what could what could benefit our downtown so it's not just you know mingling but what are they going to get out of it and just having a rotating series.

So these are just some initial topics we're thinking of so short report out but next up is it I think it's very um key especially for this first one to see if we could get all of you there or most of you there.

And then I can I can throw dates out now or if it's helpful I can throw out a bunch of different times and we can take a survey and get it scheduled that might make sense but we're thinking either the um first event the week of the 13th or 20th this will allow us to um select our marketing consultant and so hopefully they could attend also.

And so the idea is that we would do promotion through an email blast postcards all of you can talk to your neighbors and we'd likely have a sign up link.

That way we can just understand how many people have RSVP'd and um what sort of engagement that we're getting but I also want to just make sure that Ty and Tom not to put you on the spot but if you have anything else you want to add or any thoughts um they've been super helpful in just kind of thinking through how this might work.

Did we talk about providing refreshments food that's really rotating yep.

Yeah I don't have any I mean she covered most of it there.

I I do think it's important that that first one be used people have no idea like what we are to some degree you know or so I think it'd be good for us to expose ourselves to the public.

We can rephrase that I'm gonna I do way too many mixers and networking and icebreaker things.

Listen I love making PowerPoints and I love speaking to them if you haven't noticed but if we don't have to do that.

It's just me so I I'm just throwing it out right now I mean you can even have that logo on it if whatever they're doing yeah yeah I mean these can be different we could we could do a tour of the Rappaho center for one of them right like we can have them be a panel of diff discussions of different things or uh it could you know be a lunch and learn sort of topic where we have three businesses that are really good at X and people want to come and learn from them.

Like I think we can switch up the format.

And that's just me.

So y'all yeah no that was my only thought too like even the 30 I was like well let's go to 20 and like is that just but I think making it clear like we're being creative in the ways that we're doing that initial like we need to have an anchor to bring these events together but what that looks like I think should be creative I agree with you.

Every once in a while slide deck can be pretty good.

Yeah every once in a while but I think I'm also open to maybe reconsidering I mean you look at things like the SBDC and workforce seems real dry.

Even though it could be a value to business people.

So like do people want to come and hear that stuff or they want to come and hear the story of a new business coming in or talk about an event or something like that.

But that could be some of what we first one I I think that's the presentation I think the bad word is presentation and you're just automatically connecting that to um slide deck.

Like what is what is the anchor to get the businesses like to say or individuals to say, yeah, yeah, that's something I want to go to.

So not I don't think you need to think like Bridget's not gonna be doing that.

Yeah, like it's not gonna be a DB.

I mean, I think that so I went to something wrong with D D A.

Okay, I went to an SBDC workshop uh last year, and it was um lint lease negotiations for small businesses, and it was very informative, and it was with a broker from Chrisman Wakefield and worked through just different terms in your lease and like what things are standard and what isn't, and it was a very engaging back and forth.

I think that that's a really great topic that SBDC could help with, where you have all the businesses that are just like this situation happened to me, and someone's like that happened to me too, and it's like that's not standard, or that is standard, you know.

Like I think having to be in engagement and not just being talked at would be presentations need to be dynamic, yeah, is the feedback I'm getting.

But I think one of the things that we talked about for the April event was we kind of need I I don't know that we'll be for April be able to figure it out, but we kind of need to know what people want to know, you know what I mean, or what is important to people, like we can assume that we know what people want to know, but do we know so maybe we could have it the first one, like some getting some feedback on what people want to do with the next one?

So these are some ideas what do you guys think?

What would be helpful for you?

Right, yeah, yeah.

I think having just like an easy card that when people sign in, it's just like these are potential things that we're thinking of.

Do these resonate with you?

They could be like, yes, no, no, yes, yes, yes, circle.

And then other and be like, this is what I want out of this, you know.

They get a raffle, and then they'll really give away uh DDA tote bags.

Full of things.

I was like between the wine and apothecary and some coffee, and we could toss some wild museum tickets in there, you know, free parking at the lumber yards.

We figured out I'm missing Cardi B for this, so maybe for the potential weeks you're throwing out.

Is there any way we could schedule the it on like a Friday those weeks?

Yeah, I mean I'll suggest that yeah, it's probably a good idea.

Okay, good, because those are the only days those weeks I could do that.

Well, I just think Fridays in general are good for normal people, yeah.

You know, so I'm gonna be on Friday, but yeah, I'll throw out I'll throw out some times with them.

And everyone understand that there might be a preference for Fridays, but I'll throw out other times too.

I I don't know.

One of those might be a derby week after.

Yeah, available on Fridays.

I just asked.

You are or not?

I am so you look at that normal person that Friday.

Yeah, well, it depends on if it's like morning or well, yeah, when did Friday you talking?

Yeah, you'll send it, you'll send it.

Yeah, so and that is all to say like some people cannot leave their job, right?

Right.

And so they might be like, I'll I'll attend the happy hour one later this year, right?

So I almost suggest we do the first one as the happy hour because I do feel unless others you guys have been heading this up.

So I but I'm wondering if if it's a Friday and it's like okay, let's try to bring in as many people as possible.

But if you I think the first one definitely needs to be focused on some sort of fun, you know, I mean, it needs to be something that's like well, it just needs to be something that doesn't make like you want me to leave work and go to work, you know.

I mean, it can't like it needs to feel like engaging and something that you know because I think we'll get more attendance that way, and and the more attendance we get, the more feedback we're gonna get, you know.

We want to try to get the more people we can meet and find out where they are.

Um, but people only really respond to like things they enjoy.

Yeah, they do the other things out of like obligation, and we don't want to feel like the obligation.

Perfect.

Okay, so we disagree.

Yeah, I'll throw things out, you'll respond, we'll get it scheduled.

I mean, I I guarantee if you say public wine will be there, there's something favorite words together.

Public?

Why?

Exactly.

See, we got a lot of wine notes in town.

Okay, okay.

You good on that?

I'm great.

So we're ready to move on to upcoming meetings and staff updates.

Cool.

Um, so our creativity and culture micro grant closed, and we got um, you'll see in a second, but um we got 11 applications, and so our goal is to award those with the subcommittee soon.

Um and then also um we got 25 respondents for the marketing kind of RP.

And so the goal is to bring a lot of people have jobs, so the goal is to bring that on board in in April, and then again some parking lot stuff we're working through.

What's the how do you narrow the pool pool?

Yeah, like for the marketing scorecard.

And Faith and Janae are on that review committee with me.

Nice.

Yeah.

It's gonna be a really fun week.

Yeah.

Well, we're not reviewing 25.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, so bike parking.

Um, I have a fun update with um bike parking.

I think a while ago last fall, we shared that economic development, public works, and sustainability.

We're someone was on it.

We've been looking at opportunities to add additional bike parking in Old Town.

Um, if you've noticed it's been difficult because we have a lot of site constraints with site triangles and sidewalk widths and street trees and the parking lane.

And so we um last time we we talked about this, we wanted to do a pilot for a bike corral, and the update is that sustainability has funding to do it, which is great.

Um, and so we're working through getting a bike corral in Old Town, similar to this.

Um the location is TBD.

Um, and the really fun part about it is uh it can be customized the panels.

And so um we're we're thinking that we'll do something similar to a fun artistic shape of a bike rack.

Um since this is funded through the city and is cited through city departments.

There's no ask from the DDA, but if you all are super interested, um I can bring back the design of the proposed panels for you guys to look at, or if you want to just say city run with it, you're paying for it, you're gonna be installing it.

Um we can do that too.

I just wanted to kind of open that up if anyone felt really strong about reviewing panel designs.

Almost someone who was really strong about bike stuff.

Tim you have no bike.

Do you have any like locations TVD?

But is there like specific spots that are scoped that you're trying to determine?

Or we had a spot and then it didn't work out because it was taking out a curb cut.

Oops.

Um that wasn't being used, but might be used in the future.

Um and so we're going back to the drawing board.

I got some spots for you.

So you're talking about the are you talking are we talking about the bike design things and that?

Uh these are inspiration photos for something that might be put on those panels.

So the panels will not be bikes.

No, connected all together.

It will be panels.

It will be painted with a bike theme on it.

Similar to how these are so the what they're building is that.

Yes.

But the other pictures were just inspirational.

Okay.

Yes, a Pinterest board, if you will.

Run with it is my opinion.

Yeah, I say replicate.

Okay, we're running with it.

Yeah, just text Tim.

Like my only suggestion would be to go with DDA coloring, like our new logo coloring, but other than that, I have to go to reference.

What is why you're in marketing?

What is the um what is the criteria for for a location?

Do you know?

Oh, it's a lot with public works.

Okay.

Very well.

Because this is proposed to be on the street.

Yes, it would be taking out a parking spot.

Okay.

Or um there could be, yeah, there's it's gonna be on public road.

It's not gonna be in a parking lot.

No, for sure.

Yeah.

I'm just um um okay.

We'll talk later.

Okay.

So this is just a fun report out.

Um that we have funding for it.

We talked about it last fall, and it's actually moving forward, which is exciting to see.

And now we're gonna find a home for it.

Woo!

Yeah, so it's probably gonna be on the street uh this summer.

Okay.

Perfect.

Um, the next one um is that we have um, as I mentioned, 25 proposals for the marketing campaign.

And so this is just a timeline of where we are.

Um, we got the submissions on March 2nd, our review committee's meeting this week to shortlist.

We're gonna be interviewing the we'll we'll figure out based on the scores what a nice break is.

Do we want to interview two or three?

Probably three, maybe two of the top respondents the week of March 23rd, and then the goal is that um this review committee is making a recommendation to the board on April 13th.

So that will give us um April, part of April, May, and June to do onboarding, which will be a nice healthy transition or yeah.

When's the first R9?

May May.

You know what?

The best thing to do with marketing people, just throw them in the default thing.

They'll figure it out.

She's a brutal.

She's experienced.

No, they're good.

All right then.

Um I just shared this, but um, exciting that we got 11 applications for CCM.

Um where I just reached out to that uh subcommittee, which includes Tim and Ian.

Um so let me know your availability, and then we're gonna be reviewing.

We'll have a scorecard, and then those award letters will go out.

And so at our next meeting, we'll report out um who was awarded the different projects.

Um and then the last one is light pole banners.

So this has actually been in the work for a couple years now through the city.

We used to have light pole banners up and down public, um, if you remember.

Um they um weren't put up once we started doing snowflakes, and so there's been an effort with our just um creative teams internally about adding light pole banners back on.

And so um the city has designed a series of um 13 uniquely designed banners that celebrate just different places, traditions, and designations um from Wanaka Lake to Thomas Open Space, um, and so those are gonna be going up soon, which is really exciting, and then there's also a smaller series over here where the red Adironic chairs are on the front porch um where there's gonna be um different uh annuals and biodiversity and um companion series, and so they're very really vibrant, they're really beautiful.

The city's website's gonna have um a website, there's gonna be a page on the website to explain the the um the background of all these different things.

Um one thing that's in our work plan is to discuss whether or not we want to have oversight over policy on banners about whether other people can have banners on light poles or not.

Um we we can have that conversation at a future meeting, and you guys can be like, we don't really care about light pole banners that much, or we do want to have some oversigned light pole banners, but um, I'm excited to share that some new banners are gonna be coming up um in the next week or so, and um they're really fun.

That's cool.

Yeah, are they gonna be up for like a certain period of time?

They're gonna be up on the non-snowflake seasons, so our which is all the dolls are so it's now for the um our holiday lights go up in um October, November.

Okay, and so and then they come down around Valentine's Day, so it's gonna be that other season of like March through October.

Straight you're not the first person in town to do it, though.

Really?

No, these happens all the time.

Are we leaning into um heritage, like cultural pieces with these banners and stuff?

Yes, okay.

There's a couple of really cool um banners that are um uh inspired by historical photos of old town.

Cool.

And or sorry, Lafayette.

Okay, yeah, yeah.

Like what?

Um, and they're there are also it ranges from um uh the water park to farmers, to some historical photos, and so they'll be really fun to see the library, the skate park.

Um yeah, it's a fun way to bring some vibrancy to our wider stuff that's around.

Are those actual ones that I I love the Wanaka Lake?

It looks like we're some enormous European park or something.

Doesn't it look good?

They get there and it's a cool they're really fun, and the animal ones um that are gonna are smaller are really cool, and those are in English and in Spanish, which is fun.

The Fox.

Yeah, the Fox rules.

That's great.

What does the say?

And that's it.

Those are my updates.

Great.

Um now we move on to new business and director's reports.

Any directors have any updates to share?

Um, if anybody isn't aware, the Beach Festival change.

Yeah.

From the third Saturday of the month to the second Saturday.

So the chamber did a very poor job of informing the businesses along public roads.

So if anybody does, like please let people know just because I know people do a lot of planning around it.

So what's the date?

Second Saturday.

It's the 8th of August.

It's been happening the third Saturday of August forever.

Um so I like checked in with a lot of other businesses, and many of them were completely.

Did they say why was the reason?

They give a few different reasons.

The first one was that art night out is happening.

Like the way that it lines up.

The first Friday of the month is the last Friday, is it ends up on the last day of um July.

Sorry, guys.

I'm like, I reached a brain fog point of the evening.

Um the way that Art Night Out falls now, it's falling in line with the third Saturday.

So they said that it was difficult for them because they need to use like the Starkey building and stuff, which totally made sense.

Right.

Um, and that's why they changed it the second Friday.

But then when I reached out and kind of inquired more and was like, Do you think you'll change it back next year?

You know, I plan well in advance for this event.

And then they were like, we don't really know the peach vendors were really happy about the date change.

That was like okay.

So I I would love for just for the businesses to be like more involved in that process.

But I think it's really important for people to know because a lot of people still don't know that it has changed.

But it's happening on the 8th this year.

Gotcha.

That's the Saturday, right?

Friday, Saturday, Saturday.

Yeah, it's just that if they it would normally happen on the third Saturday, but it lines up with the but then you have Art Night Out and Beach Fest.

Peach producers.

Well, they I'm I think maybe the like harvests are changing because of climate change would be my assumption about that.

Well, my trees didn't even know whether to die this year.

I just think it's a weird, it's like the weekend before school starts, so there's like a ton of like I have so many like staff members that are traveling that weekend now.

Um a lot of people travel, a lot of people are out of town.

I feel like it's not the best timing for that event, but uh I would love to see it moved back next year if possible.

Yeah, yeah, maybe with some DDA oversight.

Yeah, okay.

Maybe I just want people to know that is a change because I think it's really important for people to know about it.

Well, any other, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

So uh council member Barnes and myself have been doing straight away.

Okay, what we do.

Uh we've been working with uh the city of Longmont, and we'll find out this coming week if it's also the City of Lions about doing a uh uh somewhat of a joint Juneteenth uh situation, marketing, promoting it together.

Um we're working on naming it something that leaves it open to whatever this area is that we're in, South Boulder, front range-ish, so that that way, you know, it's kind of a monkey see monkey-doo type situation.

How do we get to be involved in that?

So we want you know uh Louisville and Erie and the other surrounding um folks to also get involved, so we're trying to make sure that we leave it open for that um to happen.

But so far, these are just the folks that have come forward to participate for this coming year.

Um it's kind of exciting.

We're we're building off of Longmont's platform just because they've already been doing it for a few years, so instead of reinventing the wheel, um, we're you know, working with them to get stuff implemented and also working with trying to get some Sundance exposure early um by uh doing a call to artists here soon asking them to do short films on Juneteenth, past, present, future.

Um, basically, like you know, how Juneteenth started, where we see it now, where it's going.

Um, and then the idea would be to show these shorts um at each of the different lions here.

Uh longmont, one place would be past, one place would be present, one place would be future.

We try to stagger it.

And we would actually do that on the Juneteenth day, which is the 19th, because it's hard to have a festival on a Friday.

Um, you know, uh, because most people have jobs.

Uh so we would do the actual festival piece on the Saturday, the 20th, but look at screening the Juneteenth films on the 19th at each of the cities, and and uh when will you know whether that's definitely happening or more probably by the end of this week?

Yeah, it's happening really quickly.

So it's happening.

I mean, it's just the where the yeah, the where is probably the biggest piece right now that we're trying to figure out for us in in Lafayette.

I mean, Longmont already has aware, Lions already has a where, so we just have to figure out a where piece.

Um, but it's something we want to make happen.

I just think that's very exciting, and speaking for the museum.

We've been trying to get Erie on board too, and we've had some issues with that this year as well.

Yeah, it's been complicated, but we would love to stay in the loop if there's ways on the arts and culture kiddo side we could support.

You're on my list.

Awesome.

That's very exciting.

That's great.

So yeah, so that would be the the update that I have.

There's a wine thing happening too, but I won't know more about that until Wednesday.

Any other director reports or updates?

Okay.

If we're all good, the time is 748 and we are adjourned.

I dropped.

Thank you.

I dropped.