And to regular business, the first agenda item is approval of the Laura parking lot program transfer to a DDA.

Executive Director Keating.

Great.

Thanks everyone.

So I know we've been talking a lot about parking lots, a long road to get here.

But the objective tonight is to report out on the work that Faith Tim and I have been doing in the parking lot committee.

So review the existing parking lot program and then consider formally accepting 12 lots into the DDA public parking lot program.

So the agenda tonight, I'm gonna step back for a moment and um talk about a downtown parking management study, which is kind of the foundation for our approach for these lots, then give an overview of the Laura parking lot program.

I'll talk about where the DDA parking lot committee landed as far as which lots to continue with.

So far, I'm gonna dive into what is a parking management study.

Um a parking management study looks at your downtown or a specific area and how parking is used and strategies for um managing it.

And so often these studies look at the existing parking supply, so in our case, looking at all the different lots, uh parking utilization, looking at uh uh parking counts during a period of time and um what is particularly in a peak period, and looking at what uh the utilization is, and then parking duration and turnover, or are people staying a long time, or um are they workers that are just parking in there, or are there customers that are coming and going use behavior?

This can be related to signage, um, is it clear or do they understand where things are?

Future demand.

This is a a big portion of the parking management study that I'll share in a second about um over time as development happens, we still have adequate parking supply, and then management studies strategies.

Um these are really kind of like your toolkit for how you want to manage parking as things fluctuate.

Not everything's gonna happen at once.

It's not gonna like you're gonna turn a switch and development all happens.

Um so this is a kind of like a roadmap for how um you think about parking in this specific area and how you want to manage it.

So in twenty twenty-five, um, the Lafayette Urban Renewal Authority, one of the last things they did was uh contracted with Fox Tuttle Transportation Group.

They are a transportation consulting firm that does a lot of work in Lafayette and also in the Denver Metro region.

And they did a parking management study.

Um they evaluated parking supply, equalization, future redevelopment impacts, uh, and downtown made some recommendations.

And so the study area for this um plan was from Emma North and included the Bob Burger Rec Center.

Um we all are aware that this is not the entire boundary of our downtown, but this is a core of where we see a lot of the parking happen happening.

It also in a way um was intentional because we did a similar study in 2011 for this exact area.

So it was helpful to use the same boundary to see how things have changed.

Um we didn't include baseline because those it's on a CDAT highway, for instance, and those all that parking is really contained on those individual sites.

This downtown core has on-street parking, off-street parking, and has a shared public parking lot.

So this is I just wanted to recognize that this doesn't cover our entire boundary.

So the parking counts were collected during um a weekday evening peak period, uh, spring of last year from 4 30 to 6 30 p.m.

And um the benefit of this is the study has helped informed the parking approach for the new land use code.

Our land use code right now has parking restrictions that are excessive for how we're seeing people do development more sustainably by not having giant parking fields or overparking different development, but really trying to promote multimodal and shared parking lots as a way to just promote walkability in downtowns.

So the study looked at three categories of parking.

The first is on-street parking within these areas.

The second was private parking lots, so properties that had parking that served just their customers or just their site, and public parking lots, and these were the shared parking lots that Laura had.

The great news is that in looking at the study, each of these zones had excess in parking during the initial parking counts, which is great.

It means that when you come to this area, you are able to find reasonable parking within your destination.

I will also caveat that parking is a very personal thing, and it also is a very perception thing.

Everyone has a different perception of it.

You could try to park in front of your favorite restaurant, and if you have to park around the block, you may think there's a parking problem.

There's other people who are used to parking and walking places, and so I will just caveat that of everyone kind of interfaces with parking a little bit differently.

So we then looked at future redevelopment and parking demand.

And because we're in the process of redoing our land use code, and we're looking at reducing parking requirements for our downtown, which will allow just more buildable area for businesses and customers and shopping.

We wanted to look at, let's say that we, if everyone in the future redevelops the potential of their site, what parking issues might we have?

And so it assumed significant mixed-use redevelopment and adaptive reuse over time.

The consultant worked with our works with our planning team to kind of look at each lot and kind of create an envelope as far as what could be built there, thinking about stories and setbacks, and then looked at what the demand was in the current situation and kind of applied those counts to the downtown and calibrated that.

Plus you.

We're trying to promote less curb cuts on public road in the long term.

So you kind of go to the alley to do parking.

So it's a it's a long-term strategy, so we said, what if we did that?

And the great news is for this area, there's really only two zones that are impacted where you want to be proactive about a strategy.

And so in zone two, there are has a primary um becomes a primary concern for parking constraints.

And zone two is public just to where the auto body shop is on baseline.

And it makes sense why there would be constraints here because there isn't on-street parking and it's really limited.

Um, and so, in a way, um we we would look to our planning department when those things come online that they do have adequate parking on site for those developments.

I think a great example is some of the baseline mixed use projects.

They know that if they want to have customers come there or mixed use development, they're gonna need adequate parking.

So those projects we're seeing having more parking on site.

The other one is zone three, and this also makes sense because this is really where we're seeing a lot of the investment that has already happened in our downtown.

This is where Tio Cali is, where Stom, Ghost Box, it can be slammed at you know, now.

Um, and so there may be some shortage under this scenario, but it the study does provide some great examples for how you can have good wayfinding to bring people out of zone two or so, zone three, maybe into zone four or zone one and kind of help people do other parking lots, and maybe they have to walk a little bit farther.

They also suggested if you were to be strategic about adding another parking lot into your program to look in this area.

So this is all to say that some of the key takeaways is overall we're still in a good position with these public parking lots for our downtown.

Um, and then the challenge really is making sure that we manage parking geographically and kind of just check in yearly as far as are his development coming down the pike, do we have to adjust things?

Are we seeing changes in behaviors?

And that can be done through, you know, every couple of years we want to do new parking counts.

This is uh an approach for managing parking holistically and kind of adapting based on what's changing.

Um, and just some recommended actions are improving wayfinding and signage to public parking lots.

This is our current sign, and while it's aesthetically really pleasing, not everyone's eye in the landscape of driving catches this because it's not the standard blue parking sign.

And so this year, as you may remember, we're gonna do an RFP, a request for proposals to redesign our wayfinding all throughout Old Town, not just parking, but how do you get around by foot, by bike, by car, and thinking about wayfinding not just through signage but also art and life and paint, and so um this through that project, I think we'll have a good opportunity to think about are these the right type of signs and are they in the right locations?

Um additional recommended actions were to strengthen pedestrian crossing across baseline road, but this could honestly be just throughout everywhere, making sure we have safe pedestrian crossings, and then a big um emphasis on supporting district multimodal biking, making sure that people are where the bus stops, and then also pedestrians.

Um continued shared parking agreements.

This is a big one, you know.

If we didn't have these parking agreements, we'd be in a completely different conversation right now.

Um, and encourage that alley loaded private parking and just main uh maintain flexibility and parking requirements.

You know, we've seen this in a couple times with projects, um, East East Simpson with the Red Queen in looking at their um project, actually getting parking waivers or reductions, and so just always having this lens of parking is not the main thing in our downtown, it's a part of infrastructure that supports our downtown and making sure that we think of this holistically.

So that is the foundation of we're in a really good spot and we have these existing parking lots.

Any input or feedback from residential residents, citizens in the area who may be impacted by parking outside of the public.

Not um as part of this initial transportation study, because this was really based on just the parking counts.

It is, you know, I think I've heard a number of things, you know, especially with the residential of you know, the people buy houses near downtowns because they want to be able to walk towards it, and at the same time, there are people using on street parking, right?

Um we are lucky that a lot of residential units have alley parking, which is great, but it is something that we just always want to be cognizant of, um, especially if we see a more influx of complaints.

Um, you know, if whether they're special events or we see development that kind of trigger something, um, I think both through the DDA and the city being open to re-evaluating things.

Um so the DDA parking committee, Faith Tim and I we looked at the existing Laura parking lots.

So Laura has 12 active agreements, and they've been in existence for over a decade, some of them, and they each kind of have unique terms and some automatically renew each year.

Um the the unique terms made sense in many instances because sometimes it was tied to a larger economic development agreement as far as we're gonna redo your entire parking lot, and in return, these are the terms.

Um sometimes it was the parking lot was completely fine, and we just wanted to continue it.

And so it was interesting to go through them, but it this does give us a good opportunity to kind of get everyone on a good track moving forward.

So we typically provide Laura has typically provided routine maintenance such as snow removal, line striping and pothole repair.

And um, as you know, our intergovernmental agreement with Laura talked about reassigning these leases to the DDA and provided funding.

And we shared that prior to accepting these leases, we wanted to kind of do an audit of all of them to make sure does this make sense to continue?

Um, and so that is what what we did.

Yeah.

Is it 13 or 12?

Because you said 12, but it says 13 up there.

Did I say 12 in the did I say it out loud?

You said 12 out loud.

I meant 13.

Okay, sorry.

Okay.

Yeah.

There's 13.

There's 13.

And here they are.

Okay.

Um so it says 14, but I'm gonna tell you why.

Just to confuse us.

There's 13 active agreements.

We have a uh 14th one that hasn't been executed yet, but can be.

Right.

Yes.

Okay, so this is the map of the current Laura parking lots.

Um, there's a big cluster near the Simpson public area.

Um, there's one down on Simpson.

There are some in a cluster where Brew and the and Ross Casas is, and so they're kind of all throughout the district.

It is interesting when you look at this, there is a gap from Cleveland to Emma.

And so it's an interesting thing that we've noticed.

There's also less opportunities to get an agreement in there.

And so the 14th one is the Lafayette Flea.

And this was an economic development agreement that Laura approved, but they haven't moved forward with it yet, the Lafayette Flea.

And so if they were to move forward, then we would be able to capture the parking there through a new lease agreement.

So it's in Italicized for that reason.

It's not active.

And so in looking at all of these parking lots, we saw, we we thought about okay, were they part of the original study and are they being used?

Yes, we should think about them.

And then from South of Emma, we kind of looked at each one individually and what are they serving today?

Is there a need for it?

Um and is it hard to get to?

Is it easy to get to?

Do we find that it's being filled?

And so two that we the group looked at and decided not to recommend to renew.

One is the former Lafayette Florist.

It's currently vacant.

Um, and it has an annual lease fee.

And so Laura's already paid that lease fee for the year.

Um, and so if we were not to move forward, Laura would just inform Tebow properties that we're not moving forward with it, and they would just terminate at the end of the year.

One of the reasons why we're a little hesitant to continue it with it is there's not a need for it currently because this is a big vacancy.

Um, but also TEBO properties is interested in redeveloping the site anyway, and so if they were to move forward with that, we would probably rethink how that parking is and whether or not we want to capture it at that time.

So I think at this point it might um it might be financially a good decision to not move forward with this one.

Um the other one is where first interstate bank is.

Um, and we looked at just the usability of this lot and the actual public spots are behind the bank, and so really you'd need to be a bank user to be willing to go over there, and it might be you you might be looking at the other parking lots that are more visible from public road.

And so, in thinking of another one that we wanted to recommend maybe removing would be that one.

I'm not sure if Tim and Faith had any other thoughts on that.

Wanted to share.

Yeah, yeah, I think you're just a quick question on the uh the number in it here, just so it's clear.

It looks like you've called one eleven one thirteen.

Oh man.

But we're talking about the one that's marked does 11 on the map.

Oh yes.

Yes.

Thank you.

That should, yes.

Oh, sorry.

Yeah, I double check these too.

So yes, it's the one that is highly.

Thank you, Tom.

Sorry about that.

So I think this one is just not very visible.

I'd I've never seen I think there I've never seen anybody use it as a public parking lot.

Um so my numbering's off again.

Wait, no, it's not off.

Okay.

I think my numbers are correct.

So nope.

No, they're off.

Look at the list to the left.

And thank you for my user error.

Um, so we are recommending um 12 11 lots, 12 if we decide to move forward the flea market.

And so um, we would be removing uh this map isn't updated.

Uh and I double-tracked it.

Uh we would be removing those two lots, and so we would be moving forward with 11 with the opportunity for 12.

On the left.

On the look at the right.

Right.

Okay.

It's amazing how like you're working on these animations and these graphs.

Yeah.

And I was like, don't mess this up.

All right.

I'm human.

Don't worry about it.

I know.

We get human.

Yeah.

Uh okay.

So the standard key terms for these new agreements would the lots.

They're very simple agreements.

The lots would be leased for public parking.

We provide routine maintenance, including snow removal, striping, surface repairs.

If there was ever an instance where we needed to do a large repair, we would come to the board, decide what that funding is.

If we wanted to add additional terms, so this is really the baseline.

Um we would try to get 10-year periods.

Not every property is gonna be interested in that.

They've lots of times they feel more comfortable with five.

We'll try for 10, maybe we'll go down to five, and then they'll have automatic renewal periods.

Um, and we will carry insurance for the parking lot if something were to happen.

What is what happens in the alternative or do you do the less or if they want to like terminate?

Or if they want to repave or they have some sort of idea of something they want to do, is there room for that?

So in the agreements, there um we typically have that there's a number of times where if they wanted to have a private event, not a private event, but an event for their businesses, right?

And they wanted to take that public parking offline, they would be able to do that.

Um and they would just need to provide 72-hour notice, and there's normally a number of times a year that they can do that.

Um the other thing is these can be terminated by either party.

Um, and we don't want to put a giant covenant on someone's property, they wouldn't be down for that, right?

Um, and so this is really supposed to be a symbiotic relationship where everyone's winning them.

Good question.

So transition next steps.

Um if you guys approve the motion tonight, I would um begin negotiating and executing new lease agreements.

I already have authorization from Laura to do this as far as terminating the existing agreements.

So wearing both hats, and the idea is that simultaneously I will say Laura's interested in terminating these, the DDA is taking over, this is our new lease agreement, we would love to continue this partnership, standard terms.

Um and if anything pops up, then I would be going to Faith and Tim to be like, hey, or I'm in this like tricky negotiation, this is where I'm I'm trying to go.

Are you guys okay with that?

And then um, once those are executed, we would update the website and sign it as appropriate to just reflect any changes.

Yeah.

Um just a question oh what questions just because I've never thought of this before.

Like, so we have a parking agreement with a property owner, and something happens that's beyond like pothole.

I'm not gonna say sinkhold, because if I do, then it'll happen.

But we we call that catastrophic repair needed.

Yeah, and that's where the insurance would come in.

So the city's never engaged in so the city we're under the city's insurance umbrella.

So if something were to ever happen on that, and someone said, Show me your insurance, um, it serves that and we would have to do that.

Oh, okay.

Okay, got it.

Yep.

It's been serves though then with Laura.

Okay.

Yep.

Which is one of the benefits of having this IGA with the city is being able to utilize the existing insurance umbrella.

And all the funds to cover this program for the first five years are included in the money that Laura transferred to the PDA.

And so um, some lots need parking uh line striping right now, and so um I've investigated what that would be.

It's you know, between five and ten thousand dollars, not all of them need it, and so that's within my spending authority.

So if we were to um move forward with this, we would start doing just our routine maintenance with us.

Um Laura has been covering the minimal snow removal that we needed, but this would be the the official cut to the new one.

Can you um talk about the Lafayette Florist again or a little bit more just because it does increase that gap between the north and south public parking significantly?

So there are there are two um, and maybe I'll pull up Google Street View in a second.

If you guys want to hold, I can hold up because there are two um lots for the Lafayette floors, and so it just might be helpful to show you which one this is.

And this the terms on this one were a little bit different.

It would be probably helpful for you to talk about that too.

Yeah.

So this is the Lafayette Floor site, and this is Senior Gomez.

There's actually a um property line that goes through here, and so this lot right here is on the Lafayette Floor site.

This is the Lafayette Floors parking too, and then this is senior Gomez's parking.

And so uh Laura has been leasing just this parking right here.

Um we don't provide snow removal on this one, we just pay a flat five thousand dollar fee.

It used to be higher, it used to be 15,000, then we went down to 10 and now it's down to five.

Um that's the annual fee.

Yeah, yeah.

Five thousand.

And um, so a general update with the um Lafayette Florist is the Tibo group is has been actively trying to find a user for it.

UmGuckins was under contract before Tebo bought it, and they sent they and ultimately um terminated that contract and didn't move forward with the closing because a large amount of deferred maintenance that was on the site, and so um it's a it's an old building, it's a tricky building, it's also really suited for a florist.

And so it's a it's an old building, it's tricky building.

It's also really suited for a florist.

And so while there's been a lot of interest in adaptively reusing the site between the utilities and the amount of investment that would needed for a small business to retrofit it for ADA or fire suppression, kind of change the use.

No one has decided to move forward yet.

And so we've had the city's had four, I believe four pre-application meetings with Tebow as far as looking at different sort of mixed use developments on there.

They haven't moved forward with any of them, but they have an architect on board.

And so for the time being, it has just remained vacant.

And if the ultimate goal is to redevelop it, the whole site layout would change anyway.

And so since it's been vacant, I haven't noticed that lot being filled at all.

Maybe there's one or two people during senior Goma's time.

Good question.

I mean, along that lines, I wonder if the we talked a little bit about people not knowing knowing because of the signs that they're public parking.

So you would think maybe at our night out, it would fill up.

But I I didn't look.

But I'm gonna even sure enough if our at our night out people know or parking there.

Or know that they can do.

I know that Peach Festival uses that space for programming during the event.

I didn't know that.

Um I also have um proposed motion language when ready, but also happy to continue the conversation or any questions.

Pretty good dry.

I think it was actually a really good exercise, I'll say, because I was really thinking like, oh, we're gonna get rid of more of these parking lines.

And it was interesting to see that like really they all are used except for the ones that we um had you know found that aren't really in use, or maybe the terms weren't good, or you know, future development doesn't make sense.

Um yeah, that they're all people are using a lot of them, and based on the study, we really need them to be able to have ample parking and and also be able to give those like waivers to businesses so they don't have to build a huge lot on or huge parking, you know, lot on a small area.

And that doesn't change by giving because that doesn't sunk a number of spots in the Tebow lot.

So by not having those doesn't make it more likely that you would enforce the parking requirement.

It did not appear to be that I would I will say that um you know shared parking agreements is something that people are using as like a sustainable parking management practice, and so being able to say that like we've had these for 10 plus years, and I know that other downtowns have asked us like how does it work, and I can say like these are things that work well, and I would do this differently.

Like it was very I don't know if progressive is the right way, but we're lucky that Laura did make these investments over time um and that we're inheriting like a really good foundation, and we can continue to evaluate like how do we add bike parking when we get more funds, or if we have a large fund balance thinking about EV and helping with matching grants, and so this allows us to have that foundation for thinking um forward about multimodal.

Yeah, we had a good discussion about like how can we add bike parking potentially into some of these lots that we already have.

I feel like there's a lot we can do from here, especially with just wayfinding because a lot of people have no idea and just ignore the signs.

So I guess I will move to approve the transition public parking program from Lafayette Urban Renewal Authority to the DDA and authorizing the DDA executive director negotiate and execute parking lot agreements for the properties identified in Zibit.

Do we have a second?

Uh second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The motion passes.

All right, moving on to agenda item B presentation of the Lafayette DDA sales tax TIFF update.

Cool.

So this is a short one.

But we're going to start doing these quarterly, where I just kind of report about how we're doing in TIFF in the in the district.

And I find it really interesting to just look at different trends.

Sometimes it doesn't say it doesn't, there's no story, but it is just interesting to kind of look at different things.

Especially when we've done this with Laura, it's been helpful with the businesses, especially retail sales businesses to provide insight of you know when things are going well or when when things aren't going well, there's certain seasonality towards it.

So we're familiar with TIFF.

It's our main funding source.

And this is a typical TIFF graphic where at the beginning of our TIP, which was set in 2024, we look at the amount of sales tax that's being collected for that entire 12-year month period, and that's your base, and we also have it for property tax.

Tonight I'm just talking about sales tax.

And so over time, as investment happens, any increment above that base gets put into the DEA's bank account, if you will, and we can reinvest it in the district.

And it is gonna be our main funding source.

And so TIF clocks are different for urban renewal authorities.

They have a 25-year lifespan and we have a 30-year lifespan.

So extra five years.

So first I wanted to just kind of reflect back on Laura, because this is this is a really helpful graph to just show how TIFF in those very early years can take sometimes 10 years to start generating a larger fund balance.

And in urban renewal, this makes sense because in 1999 there wasn't the sort of activity that we're seeing today.

And so over time, as projects happen, that TIF increment starts to be generated.

That 2020 dip is when COVID happened and then kind of short um went right back up.

So we're in the very beginning of this, and so um this is just a projection example of what in 10 years from now, if we were looking at this, we would start to see this increment hopefully go up.

That'd be really bad if for some reason it went down.

Um but the really exciting thing is that last year we got our first TIFF check of 66,000 for increment.

And so we were 66,000 above the 1.7 base.

And so um since this would be really boring if that was the end of this presentation, uh, I thought it would be good to just think about how are we doing year over year month by month.

And so this here is our base year of 2024.

And so it's each month the sales tax collected um within this area.

Um and so you see the the base here.

Um interesting things is that May and December were the two highest sales tax months.

And maybe um yeah, isn't that interesting?

Well, I got the holidays.

Holiday makes sense.

Why may?

My uh spring gut feeling is that after the holidays, people kind of chill on spending a little bit.

It's a little bit colder, and then right before school gets out, people get outside.

That's kind of our pattern.

Yeah.

Just post-tax time January, February, March, or really drag.

You know, what are they buying?

What do they buy?

People are buying the holidays, getting ready for the summer, getting ready for like you know.

Do you have it by business?

And is that public?

It's not uh the city does have it by business, and it's not public.

Yeah.

I think I know why August is high.

Because you're gonna go back to school.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, so this was 2025.

So this was last year.

Um the interesting thing is that there was three months that we didn't surpass the year before.

So May of 2024 was more than 2025, as well as August and December.

But if you think about it, it's really close.

They were up like off by a couple thousand dollars.

November too.

November too.

Yeah, oh right, and November.

Um, and so there was these periods where we were almost there.

Um, but we still got 66,000 of increments.

So don't get too bogged down with the like we didn't surpass each month.

Um overall, this we did better.

March was on fire.

Yeah.

It's really interesting.

Um I was trying, I was trying to think about what was happening in these periods, and then I was like, maybe there's not a story here.

Yeah, you know.

It's definitely interesting from perspective.

The really exciting thing is that we're doing great this year.

So this is the green.

We are up from the previous two or 2024 and 2025 for January, February, March.

And so on the right side, I just have what Q1 has been for these three years.

And so did some math here.

So from 20 Q1, 2024 to 2025, we were up 8.9%.

From 2025 to 2026, we were up 5.1%.

So from 2024 to 2026, Q1, just looking at the comparison, it's up 14.5%, which is great.

It means that we have a really healthy district.

It also means that there were certain projects that came online after our base was set.

Kalita Grill is a great example of that.

And so we're gonna continue seeing when different projects come online.

That that increment really helps the tip.

Since we're mapping.

Uh oh.

This is as far as I can go.

No, but I mean when we get I I just want to say that when we get to May, August, November, and December.

I just wonder if we could peek back at this.

Uh May, I'd like to see.

I'd love to see May.

Yeah.

And December.

Uh yeah.

I would just like to see if May still if May drops, it'd be interesting.

Yeah.

It's really interesting to think about this related to our marketing strategy.

If we know there are just low months in general.

That's when we focus marketing and try it.

How can the district kind of help with getting people out or doing things?

Yeah.

Well, April was the lowest one in 2024.

But look where it is in 2024.

Yeah.

I did look at what was happening in April 2024, and this is when um tariffs were first starting to be discussed.

And so that could have changed some behavior, but honestly, I can't necessarily say that's what it is because sometimes people remit their taxes different at different time periods.

And so it's my best guess, but it's not verified.

So back in the sorry, I'm gonna do this, but in the the you sort of you showed the long-term trend the whole trend since Laura started.

And there was a dip in 2020 for, but there was also a dip at 2020, the Great Recession, whatever that means.

Um it was bigger in 2020.

Would it make sense?

And I'm not an economics, I don't know if this makes sense to correlate uh a national figure, like uh interest interest rates with what we're seeing here.

So again, I'm not an economist, but um when every year when I was with Laura and now with the DDA, when it's time to put our budget together for our revenue, their projections based on how much we think the district's going to grow.

And so I've always sat down with our CFO who will look at all right, how's the downtown done year over year?

How is the city done year over year?

What are spending trends?

And they also look at when setting the city's budget um nationally and what our inflation and um escalation and then also uh interest rates, they kind of look overall at different sectors of our economy, how we should be um budgeting our revenues.

And so I'm not an economist, but I hang out with some of them.

I wonder what weather uh what bad weather has with being so dry and warm and open and red little snow.

I mean, maybe that's part of the story too, right?

We're seeing a lot of growth in January, February, March.

So yeah.

I think these are super helpful to do just quarterly to see how we're doing.

Um, you know, once we get some years under our belts and starting to see some real like correlations about things, we can try to be just more strategic about marketing or activations and getting people out at different times.

Next item.

Yeah.

Um moving on to the debrief of the April DDA networking event.

Okay.

This debrief is really brief.

Um, but I just I did want to just like open it up so if there was anything that we wanted to kind of talk about.

Um so to ground us just in this com in the this conversation, you know.

We in our work plan wanted to have a series of networking events.

Um, and the goals around this were to strengthen relationships between downtown and just our members, right?

Our business owners, our property owners or residents.

Um this could also be an opportunity for just to share updates about what we're up to, which is really important to just have some transparent communication, um, offer educational content, uh have these be fun and kind of reinforce our creative, eclectic and diverse identity, and then really has this as an in-person opportunity just to help with retention expansion and recruitment efforts.

So we had our first one, which was really fun.

Um it was uh at the end of April, we had 24 attendees, which was great.

Um this math doesn't add up because some business owners are also property owners.

So I was just trying to see what the representation was.

So um we had 14 business owners, we had nine that were also uh property owners.

We had two staff members, and then um we had two community partners with ACRD, and so it was a really good mix of people.

We I did a quick five minute talk.

We were at Romero's, and um I just kind of wanted so we had Tom, Faith, Ty, and Ian there.

Um so wanted to just I have a c another slide here about what I heard, but wanted to just kind of hear your thoughts about how you thought the event went.

I think it I think it went well.

Um it was nice to connect with people, some like business owners that I hadn't checked in with in a while, and just kind of hear um what was up for them, what they were working on.

I thought it was great.

Yeah, um there were a lot of questions about like what the DDA does, that kind of thing.

So I thought that was cool.

Otherwise, I don't think it was uh it was pretty relaxed.

Yeah, it was cash.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It didn't feel stuffy or or the need to academic business and that kind of thing.

Yeah.

So stuffy and academic are two different things, or do they they kind of go together?

Some overlap.

I wanna know if there were any surprises.

So I mean, I would and happy for you guys to jump in too.

I found that this one really it felt like people really wanted to just chat and like get like hang out with people.

We had the new Eats and Suites owner there.

We had some new, you know, the craft places about a year old, I guess not a year old.

Um not quite.

Um and so it was nice just to like get to know other people, like have everyone kind of get to know each other that hasn't met each other.

Um and we saw some property owners that haven't been out in a while, so that was cool to see people show up.

Have them been out.

Just hasn't like mingled with other like property owners.

Yeah.

I felt that way, like personally, it was seeing people that I hadn't connected with much, and maybe five or ten years ago I did, but since COVID maybe hadn't, so that was really nice.

And then I met some new people I had the craft person and uh the laundromat owner and some people and really have an opportunity to maybe advocate more for them to take advantage of the resources available through the DDA.

So it was a nice mix.

Um so I I had a bunch of things.

One thing that I thought everyone was gonna do, but no one did is I had like uh a box where I was like, what's one challenge that you have?

And no one filled it out.

Uh and then there was another, oh I also had the cards as far as like how would you like to engage with these?

And everyone was just really into talking with each other.

That that was something that surprised me as far as they didn't really want to be told what to do, kind of just wanted to grab a drink, grab some food and hang out with people.

So that was an interesting thing.

I thought everyone was gonna want to do my story, but they didn't.

Um so I followed up and we had um eight people fill out the survey, which was good.

Um, and so I asked what would make these networking events valuable to you, and everyone kind of clicked everything, right?

The big one was meeting other businesses and property owners, um, marketing and promotion opportunities, collaboration, learning about DDA programs, and then five people were still interested in guest speakers and short talks.

So um, I think the main sort of um North Star, if you will, is that people just want to collaborate and then just have some short shorter things as a touch point.

Um I asked what challenger topic you'd love help with, and heard marketing activation and businesses and event promotions, and then um any other feedback.

A lot of this was very similar of you know, we met several businesses or property owners for the first time, and it was great to have in-person communication between businesses and properties in the Lafayette Downtown Development Authority.

So yeah, first one I thought was I thought it was fun.

And people stayed.

Yeah, you know, it was a good turnout.

Um, and I probably had 10 people say, I'm interested in coming, I just can't come to this one, which is good.

Um could they come uh not come because of the date or the did they give a reason?

Or the did they give a reason?

Some were like, I'm traveling, some was I I need I can do a morning, others were I just need more advanced notice.

I would like this kind of all over the place.

So moving forward, um we have we discussed having one in August and then November.

And so I was thinking with one of these, we could also do a morning session just to try to capture a different group of people.

Um then potential, sorry, what was that time?

I said a breakfast idea.

Yeah.

Um two potential topics, particularly because I'm realizing that people just want to mingle more than like being at a presentation, is um once we have our marketing uh contract onboard up and running, we could do a quick 10-15 how can you engage with old-time marketing and have them meet everyone.

Um that could be an August one, and then for November, um, we could have a kickoff for creativity and culture micro grant, and maybe even have it kind of be like a mixer for collaboration, and so we can kind of invite all of our artists that might want to engage with the DA.

So that's cool.

I think that's sound great.

How about a presentation of the projects that the DDA has funded so far?

Yep.

Just so people can kind of connect the dots of what is what you use for and give them some ideas.

Yeah, that's a great idea.

Are you saying kind of like in conjunction maybe with the second one?

Like could be in conjunction with the second one.

Yeah.

The kick off the second creativity and culture.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, you both of them I think would fit fine with either of those.

Um especially since I'm it might be good to do a little like blurb about what we're up to because there's any new people that come to each one of them, and they might want to be like, what are you guys doing?

So a quick reintroduction might be even if it's in five minutes and kind of share what we've done.

That's a good idea, Tom.

Again, uh that's a again.

I don't know if this makes sense for in the business world, but it would seem that the TIFF that's the increment that we're getting.

Um saying what it's been used for.

Is that what you're saying?

Yeah, I was I would just showcase.

I mean, we've already approved several grants, so by August or November we ought to be able to have some stories of things that been completed and what we picture some money.

Yeah.

I'm wondering if the percentage of what the percentage of what has been uh the funding that has accumulated has been activated.

I guess it's kind of to highlight the effectiveness of the DDA.

Like I I think the I think the funding got used immediately.

Well, that was we have we had funding left over from Laura, but even uh just amplif amplifying that this money that's coming in is not it to work.

It's putting being put to work.

Yeah, we're just getting started.

I think is like a message.

I mean, and then like annually say like you know, whenever it maybe annually say like, hey, this much came in, you know, in this period, this period, and this period, and then you know, we activated it very quickly.

Like we're not holding on to it, we're putting it back into all this is also reminding me that like maybe in Q1 of next year we kind of report out what was last year, you know, yeah.

That might be the right time, more transparent, not like the state of our downtown, right?

We don't want that.

That sounds stuffy, but like being able just to report out like these were our goals, this is what we accomplished, and this is what we're looking forward to next year.

Sounds a little bit like a state of group downtown.

Yeah, but I mean I think those are important because we're only as effective as those who know what we're doing, right?

And engaging with us, and so um being able to have those touch points, I think would be important.

So yeah, I'm excited.

Yeah, okay.

I'm just wondering since the networking is a social is intentionally a social event.

If they're all I have is an elf on the shell stuck in my head, but something that is um a social addition to the piece, like uh I don't know, having names for the time of year that the networking is happening.

I'm spitballing here.

I don't understand like a theme, like a theme or an icon or symbol.

I think the the the events what people are gonna want from the events is gonna vary based on the time of day.

So I think the first one, because it was done during a happy hour, that's kind of the mode that people are in.

I don't know that people are going to want to hang out the same way if we do a breakfast one.

You know, that's probably one that's a little more focused on information, a little more directed towards things people want to hear about, you know, or lunch.

Because you your time is you know, you're winding your day down at the end of the day.

So you you're kind of in that collective mood.

But if you catch me in the middle of the work day, like what are we doing that that's gonna help with with progressing my work day because I and then I'm gonna get back to work.

That that could be it.

Like it could be uh, you know, a cup of coffee.

Be the logo.

And then okay, I gotta drink some of my mind.

But you know, something that's simple as I'm working, so let's do this.

But then the afternoon ones.

So this this sounds like it falls into the um what uh with the marketing group was talking about with the like I don't know, the medallion, not medallion.

Python?

Yeah, like similar something similar to that.

It sounds like what you're talking about.

Like we create something around, you know, but now are we saying people uh are you are you thinking that this is something put somewhere so that people can identify it, or is this something you know businesses receiving for participating?

No, no, no, no.

Not I mean you don't have to I don't want it to make a tour.

But if you show them best.

No, no, no.

I mean for them, like if you talk to somebody and you say, like, hey, I got five breakfast medallions, you know.

Yeah.

This is what I do, right?

I I this is for me.

Yeah.

And then you know, eight people have a tequila glass.

But for the the event that they go to.

It's just something to be a store to add to the story of like I usually come to these and I and I have Hey, uh people like swag, people like tours, people like, you know, so I think that we can just kind of think about like we have one in the Arapahoe Center Theater, right?

What is something cool that they one want to go to, they get something that you know out of it.

So whether that is informational or physical, we can think about that.

Yeah.

And I don't want to put a lot of money into it, but something that represents like, hey.

Fiscally responsible and fun.

I think yeah, I really think what you're talking about falls into kind of the the overall marketing plan of you know, yeah, they're talking about doing anyways, giving them some direction what we're looking for and then letting them figure that out.

That's why they're the smart ones.

We just give them the ideas and make it.

No, no, I think that's great.

We could I'm gonna stop that.

I think we could think outside of the box too, like for the breakfast one.

It doesn't have to be a catered thing and to uh call flows necessarily or at a restaurant, but maybe it's uh outside the taco wagon.

We you know, rent that out for the morning and have it there and everybody go creative on the spot.

Yeah.

Yeah, especially if it feels very authentic.

Totally.

I think that's a great point, Tom, as far as like we can the first one was at Romero's, right?

Um maybe someone's never been to Romero's before, but like we should rotate just different venues, different times, different offerings, different experiences.

Um, cool downtown, and it'd be good to just bring people together in different ways.

Um I'm just gonna put out there that November is a challenging time for people.

And so I would just be kind of like I think early, the earlier we can do it in November the better.

Because once you get into November, you're not gonna get anybody in the retail world to like come out.

You're you're totally right.

This needs to be like the first week in November.

Um because then it's like Veterans Day, and then people are getting ready for Thanksgiving.

And I'm just thinking about when that's in the Christmas is already coming.

You're just thinking about all those things.

Yeah.

I was just putting that out there for the great point.

Future.

Uh so what I'll I'll do is I'll also send out um a quick poll for you guys about which days you're free.

Um hopefully your calendars are free later this year.

Um have them been filled up with a bunch of things.

No.

Uh so I'll send that out and then we'll get on the date and we'll start just much earlier promotions for these events.

Yeah.

Okay.

Um moving on to upcoming meetings and staff updates.

All right.

So I have um a bunch of things to run through here.

The first is um you guys are gonna think I'm crazy that I'm already building out our agenda schedule through the end of the year, but we're gonna have to start thinking about that.

Um and so next meeting is gonna be June, and I really want to start looking at our schedule and scope for the wayfinding RP.

Um I have it drafted, and so it's gonna be me kind of reporting out this is the direction that we're going and um get some feedback to see if there's just anything that we want to add in.

Um then I was thinking it'd be really great to do a board retreat in July, and so I'll have to ask you guys if you could potentially participate something during the day.

Um I know that that can be hard because we all have jobs, so I'm gonna just throw out a couple dates a couple times.

Um, particularly because I want to go toward downtown Longmont and spend a couple hours with their DDA.

Um their DDA has been around for 30 years.

They've done a really they've done so many cool things, and it would be great to like they're our neighbor and just see what they're doing and get some good ideas.

Um, last earlier this year, they Longmont DDA did their retreat with me for uh a couple hours, and so they they found it interesting to be with a new DDA and what we're thinking of, and so um would love to go up there.

And then after that um board retreat, thinking in August, we would kind of throw out everything that we're interested in, look at the work that we've done with our existing work plan, and then kind of refine that for um the upcoming year.

And then I will bring forward a draft budget based on that work plan and how we plan to execute it for 2027.

Um that will be in September.

We would approve our recommended budget in October, and then ultimately council will approve it in November because they're our governing body.

So, in a way, we're starting our budget process in the summertime and just having like a good cadence of working through everything.

So that's what's coming down the pike, and obviously things will get filled in as things pop up.

So these were just some core things I wanted to just put on everyone's radar.

I will certainly tell you this later, but just make a note about I'm out uh the whole second half of July.

So we do that retreat.

Yeah, just good do it before that.

Um it's also a good reminder that if you have any summer plans or just plans for the rest of the year, um, just let me know, and I'll just mark you down and we'll try to work around them.

Yeah.

Okay, um, the next thing I wanted to do to report out is um when we were talking about the parking lot for one-way north of the group.

Um the the Lafayette Chamber just got brought up as far as our the city's partnership with them and just better communication with the businesses.

So I wanted to kind of just report out um what we've done since then from the the city's perspective, and then also as the DDA executive director.

So um I wanted to share that the City of Lafayette does um have a chamber partnership partnership and contract, and so that's something that is reviewed and approved every single year.

Um it's something actually fairly new, it wasn't always a formal contract.

We provide funding for the chamber to be um our signature event provider, and so they manage the city um contracts with them to manage the Peach Festival, Independence Day, Fun and Fireworks, Brew Festival, Holiday Market, and Tree Lighting.

And so in that contract, we have a minimum of 20% of booth space needs to be reserved for Lafayette businesses, and there needs to be an exclusive period where those businesses can apply first before it's open to the general public and given priority acceptance.

So that's something within their contract language.

Um after hearing from some of the businesses, and Faith brought it up that they changed Peach Fest date.

Um, we approach them as far as it seems like we just need to have a better way of transparent communication with the chamber and the businesses, especially with their events and um and what opportunities there are.

Um and so there's new contract language in there that um the chamber is gonna provide direct notice to affected businesses prior to any event um or prior to any date or major logistical changes to the scene events.

So this is trying to be proactive about what happened this year.

Um, and then the other thing that the city is gonna be asking the chambers to do moving forward is that they host a festival information session about the Peach Festival for local businesses in January.

Since that's already passed, they're gonna be doing it in this is their flyer.

Their first one is gonna be May 20th, and then the other one's gonna be uh July 8th, and have just some walk-up times for people to come in.

And this informational session is supposed to really share event details, logistical changes, application timelines, and just provide an opportunity for businesses to engage with the chamber staff, um, especially since there's a priority to be able to have Lafayette businesses participating in these events.

This is supposed to be a way for you to understand how can I apply and how can I engage.

And then upon request, the chamber shall provide the city with documentation about its outreach efforts, including a list of businesses contacted the dates and methods and notifications.

So this is something new, and again, these are living breathing contracts in a way they get evaluated each year, but after hearing just some of the confusion with Peach Festival changing dates, um, we wanted to just have them be proactive moving forward about engaging with our businesses about how they can participate in these events and what sort of um what they can anticipate.

So they asked me to share this wire with everyone.

Are there any concerns coming up so close to festival season with the change of leadership or pass the baton and all that good stuff?

So the um other thing is I'm sure many of you heard that Katie McNeil is the executive director um has resigned and uh she's ending at the end of May.

And so they're um actively trying to fill that seat.

Um, and they have a a board, and so the chamber board will be working on approving that recruitment.

Um they the chamber also has an events person, um, so they're still on board, and so um yeah, it's a it's gonna be a big year for them without someone in the leadership seat.

So they when does Katie resign again?

A couple weeks.

Yeah, she'll be gone into this month.

And they they'll they'll fill that spot when they can as the market provides.

I'm sure they have a process.

Um and I'm wondering about these these windows, like that's an hour.

A three to four and a four to five.

Is it uh and again, I don't know about business operators, but I don't know.

Can they because they have to go to the chamber to make that happen?

And also open for any feedback about this that I can relay to them.

I think the window needs I I'm not a business owner, but I I don't know that that's a uh why don't I think they're getting a presentation or is it just drop-in QA or something?

I think you'd get a better response.

If it is just drop in, that's probably more concerning because they're definitely gonna go over that time because what happens to the person that drops in at 3 55, like you're not gonna give them the abridged five minute version.

It would probably be better for them to if they're gonna do it send it out and say it's on this day from this time where it'll start the presentation so the people that are interested can show up and get the full like rundown of what it is.

Is it a drop-in?

From what they've shared is that it's an informational session exclusively for a lot of paper businesses, it's from three to five.

So I assume that if you want to attend, you should be coming at three o'clock.

Yeah.

Okay.

But the for the following year, they would be doing this in January.

Yes.

Okay.

Because it's like that that's so close to the event that that's not gonna do very much at like for this year, but it makes sense if it's in January.

Yeah.

The idea is that like they're they're talking about everything, and you know, the other thought of this is like businesses should be saying, hey, you know what worked really well last year was this, or you know what didn't work really well this last year was this.

Can we make adjustments?

So they are starting to make those adjustments in January.

Yeah.

If they're giving a presentation, I think they ought to record something and make it available when people are available to watch it.

Oh, that's a great idea.

That makes a lot more sense.

There's gonna be some business that finds out about this session.

May 21st.

That's a great point, Tom.

I'll I'll share that feedback with them.

I guess I'm curious, how do they communicate with businesses that aren't chamber members?

So we we shared with them that we would provide them our small business um email distribution list.

We would promote this for them as well.

So they're gonna promote it through their channels.

We'll probably also send it to the small business development center to promote, and then also through our just economic development small business list just to try to get their reach out there because not everyone's a chamber member.

Okay.

Yeah.

So then also that will happen with the January 2027 one.

It will be like promoted earlier.

Yeah.

That makes sense.

And they're supposed to provide direct notice.

So that can be done a number of different ways, like in-person, email, but you know, we are expecting that they are providing that notice for those who are in this planning area.

Okay.

So a short short update.

I know we talked about it.

Um City's made some changes, and I think this idea of providing the feedback as far as recording the presentation would be really helpful.

Really helpful.

Yeah, it's a great suggestion.

But we don't we don't know it.

It's a presentation.

The information practical overview.

So we can we can I'll follow up and share it with this group for the about what it is.

If there's not a presentation planned, it probably should be.

If there's no motivate them to be a little more structured about how they're planning on doing it.

I mean we have no idea, but if if the goal is to make sure other people have access, you'll have to be a little bit more.

Along those lines, you probably want to check in with them about whether or not it's gonna be available in Spanish as well.

Yeah.

You can have uh trends.

Um okay, the next one is the farmer park is back.

Um yesterday was their second week.

Um they've expanded this year from 65 to 85 vendors.

Um it was slimmed the first day, everyone was so excited.

Um so I just wanted to share that it's back.

I've been I'm talking to Peter pretty regularly because especially with like the new market season, there's always kinks that want to be worked out.

Um from the DDA perspective, I wanted to kind of share three things that I'm hearing, and this actually might be something that we talk more in our work planning.

Um the first is um they we have a number of outlets on public road for the holiday lights, and the vendors use them.

Um, but they they're low voltage, so they're really meant to be for low voltage items.

Um they they they trip sometimes, and so um if you've ever been to R Night Out or the farmers market and been near a generator, it's really loud and kind of changes the event, and so um it it was just an interesting thing to be reminded of that there could be some longer term infrastructure investments just to help with logistics of some of these events and have them be like a little bit more sustainable.

So um we got it all worked out.

We we flipped the breaker, but um just an interesting thing as far as like the logistical things that one does not always think about.

Um the other thing is when there's that many people in one area, it clogs the 5G network, which I also didn't really know a lot about.

And so there was a number of businesses like vendors the first day that lost out on some sales because of the that was happening last year.

Yeah.

So um one thing that I'm looking into is the city does have portable public Wi-Fi that they use for art night out.

Um it's very expensive, they're very like kind of precious boxes, and so I'm gonna see if that's something that um we could offer for the the farmers market.

Um another thing, and then the last thing is um a number of our hot food vendors right now is work are working with the fire marshal on our fire code, and some of them um have things that they need to adjust to meet fire code related to warming plates and electrical, and um it's it is uh for some of these you know vendors a lot to um have to address, and so I'm just uh working closely with Peter and the fire department to just keep tabs on where every thing is and see if there's any sort of help that we can provide um as they kind of go through that process.

So just a uh a thing that I wanted to report out behind the scenes.

So then the last thing um is um cone and agency off record have been meeting.

They're awesome bless you.

The transfer of things, we're getting them on board.

We have a draft contract, and so um that contract term will begin in June.

Cone goes through the end of June, so this will have a good month overlap of actual working together.

Um, and so we're excited about that.

The other thing is the Lafayette Lights is live, and this is the Lafayette Electronic Arts Festival installation at the Lafayette Florist.

Um, it's super cool, and it's at night, and so if you're driving on public or running your bike on public, um, there's a really cool art installation that's going on there.

Is it every night?

Yeah, it's on a timer.

Do you guys want to see a video?

It's on a timer like dark or something.

So this is it's hard to see, but this is when it was like uh raining the other day, like snowing.

And so cool.

Yeah.

And are you just standing across the street?

This is David standing across the street across the street.

Yeah.

You're not getting data.

Stand in the uh but it's super cool, and just like a great example of like activating different spaces.

Um David Fidel's awesome, and these is really cool.

And so um, it is out there right now, and so tell your friends.

Go on public that night.

How long how long is it gonna run?

Uh through the end of the month.

Through the end of the month.

That's when Leaf is.

Are they using it to promote as our QR code?

Oh, what is going on in my I can share um I can I I can look into exactly what David's doing for promotions for it.

Um I know that they have their own website for Leaf and people who are are aware of it, look up the different events that are happening, but um that's a good thing for those passing by being like, what's going on in there?

Yeah.

Um then two really quick things.

Um I um presented at the Lafayette Arts Administrator meeting uh this morning at the Arts Hub.

There's a lot of different creatives there, um, whether from the Wow Museum or the Lafayette Theater Company, Dog House Music Studios, there's a lot of people there.

And so it just shared um what the city economic development's doing, and then also what the DA do is doing, and a lot of the work that they do uh overlaps with what we do as far as partnerships.

So it was nice to spend the morning with them.

And then um I have been sitting in um uh Sundance Regional Coronation meetings, and so one thing that they're working on is a toolkit for how businesses can engage with Sundance.

Um I think a lot of the work that we're doing with our new marketing contract and thinking about passport books can be something that we stand up for Sundance in our downtown as far as showcasing what we're all about.

Um but uh just wanted to just report out uh once we have this toolkit, I'll be sure to share it with this group, share it with all our channels and just kind of have a clear and easy um messaging as far as what's happening with Sundance if I'm a business and have a space, how do I offer it up for activations, or if I want to do something, how do you promote it?

Um it's a it's a big thing that's happening in Boulder.

I know that this first year they're focused on Boulder, but um I'm sure there's a lot of creatives in our downtown that want to tap into it.

So I'm participating in those and we'll report out um once I get information.

And then I um I'm happy to turn it back over to Faith, but I know that Ty and Tim have an update on Sundance and their 19th event.

Yeah.

So I guess the day before you guys met, we met with uh Sundance group about um Juneteenth, because we had the idea of doing a uh the film festival piece, uh Juneteenth Film Festival where it's the focus on the past, present, future 15 minute shorts.

You put a call to artists out um probably uh month ago, maybe, uh, looking for folks to get engaged.

And um we ended up talking to Sundance about it and you know, made the argument that you know you're in the backyard, we should give some folks some access and try to figure out how to get people involved.

The big piece was you know, we told them that artists don't really know like if you're not Clint Eastwood or you know, somebody knowing like how do you get that access or get engaged, and they were very adamant that they want to find the people that people don't know.

But you know, how do you inform people of that?

So they're gonna we're still working out the details and particulars on how their involvement looks, but they are going to get involved with us on the film festival.

Uh we talked about the doing a panel discussion afterwards, uh and just having their name attached to it in general gives it some validity, you know, ties having a film festival isn't nearly as appealing as Sundance is helping with the film festival.

So they understood that and it sounded like they were all for they told them in the meeting the next day, so that to me made it seem like they were spreading serious about engaging in it.

We were in the um our regional chamber and economic development meeting, and uh at the end they shared that they're they're gonna be coming to different just community events this summer and you're going to Longmont and Lafayette for the Juneteenth event.

So they're coming.

Yeah.

It's real now.

Yeah, send it to them.

So how that helps us with the stuff for 2020.

One of the things we asked for that they're trying to work out the details on is whoever wins the film festival situation, giving them the opportunity to have a space in 2028 to present.

Because like I said, everything's already laid out in 2027, so it's doesn't make sense running into that.

And I I was it was um I get a reply from Rachel Hanson that the Arapahoe Center Theater.

Um we would like to do the screening there, and that they're looking to make that possible in the in the Rappa Center Theater.

So that would be a it's it would be great for Sundance to get a peek at the theater too.

Yeah, especially the before.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, and then the after, because it'll be hopefully remodeled before the 2028 show.

Cool.

It's exciting.

Those are all my updates, so I'm not sure if there's any other are there any other um new business or director's reports?

Yeah.

I had a question uh regarding well, two things.

Um the the power situation in the downtown area and the 5G situation.

Um would it is it in the purview of the DVA to do this to address the support of the businesses by looking into more substantial solutions, like uh I don't even know what it's called, a uh like um like a micro grid situation where we have power that is more uh how should I say robust um and look into that something that's you know sustainable um and I don't know what that would look like, but something that bec because the even when we're looking at the parking lots.

Yes, there'll be more activation on other parts of the in the DDA area, but that's definitely uh uh there's a lot going on in in that one location.

So to make sure we have robust internet connections and power that could support not just that part of public road, but festival plaza.

Because I know Festival Plaza we know they're they're both need double strip and more support.

And if we had some kind of system that's renewable, like a solar power wall micro um power substation that is not on the grid but is its own independent piece that's and then this is not I I always have these ideas of can't be done.

Well, I think this would be a great conversation for our retreat and in our retreat, again, I think it would be good for us to dream big, treat medium, dream small, and think about like what are our prior what are our priorities, right?

Because maybe the first step is scoping out what is there existing and what is the need and then what could a project be?

And so the first maybe in 2027 what we do is we just investigate how much would it cost to do a a bigger in infrastructure electrical upgrade?

And then we can try to figure out like how do we want to plan that over year over year?

Um so I think that this is a great conversation to have for that work plan about, you know, we we had priorities for this year, and I think the way finding is gonna be our first big capital investment in our downtown.

Um yeah, for years to come, what other sort of things that we want to put on the priority list?

So when you're talking when you were talking generators, you're talking about specifically the ones that are like on the back of food trucks, like those types of generators or like the like is uh just generators in general.

So is there the have we looked into the the big giant like electrical boxes that you can like run power from the ones that you know?

We no, we're not event providers, so I haven't looked into any of this.

Um but you know, I think when we scope this out, it is looking at our existing events, what are what what are they working with, what what would they like to be working with, and what can our existing grid hand like you know, the outlets handle what's do we need to do something bigger?

And so I think everything's on the table.

Well, I was gonna say because I know there's the when you're talking infrastructure, like you're talking about Excel and those guys, like that's where it starts to get expensive, you know, doing with them.

And I know that we had um it's probably about the size of these two tables together that's a uh essentially its own housed electrical box, you know, and it could do like so.

I think we would run like two blocks on one side of the street off of one of these boxes, you know, and basically just run outlet boxes for people to run it.

So it was something that you could put away when you didn't need to.

Is it a generator?

Yeah, it's a generator, but like a it's like having your own transformer essentially that you can run off of, but it doesn't make the noise that those kind of like gas.

I think the Peach Festival, they're gener I don't I I there was a lot going on in the Peach Festival.

Then they have I think they have a huge generator at the far end.

Possibly.

I would say there may be an option that doesn't require the same sort of like infrastructure investment, but we get the same result at least temporary.

I appreciate that.

I think with this we'll think about like what are the sh what's a short term thing, a medium, long term, long term would be great if we could just like redo all of our infrastructure to support these events, right?

And that would be super sustainable.

Um we might not have the fund balance to do that.

So kind of scoping out.

Um something something to think about.

I mean, there could be like grant funding that we can look into.

There's a lot of like main street grants, you know, trying to like revitalize main streets and it's also like resiliency grants too sustainability.

It might serve as resiliency hub for power out of other power images.

And I'm a firm believer that if you're gonna ever rip up the street or like do infrastructure, what are other things that need to add at the same time, right?

Right, we can start with the city.

So yeah, this will be a drood big exercise of what we're working towards.

But it's good to get that out on the table because it's something that we'll want consistently be working towards.

Yeah, yeah.

This one won't take as long as I I'm sorry, I wasn't at the network, and then I was in DC trying to like get where it's actually funded.

Other stuff.

Um just I guess one other question was was there anyone who attended who had no idea that the DDA existed or didn't have were there any questions like exactly what is a DDA?

What is it?

Was it completely new to anybody?

I think this was the first time that a lot of people were engaging with the DDA.

Like Robin and Miguel, the building where the Colorado Herbalism school engaged a lot with Laura, but they didn't they've never engaged with the DDA.

Um, the Eats and Sweets was the new owner that wanted to learn more about it who's reinteracting with them.

So I think a lot of them they are aware of you know Laura and understand that we're taking over, but there were some that had no idea what we were doing.

Yeah.

And then I'm wondering if new b not new businesses that don't typically engage in, we might engage with if it's clear where the lines like in the Venn diagram.

This is the city, this is DDA, this is the chamber.

And uh what the relationships are because it might sound like everything is the city of Lafayette.

You can just put a the DDA is part of the city.

I mean, you know, like a department, but it's quasi government tools.

I somebody literally tell me they said, I heard you're on the chamber.

I want this.

And I said, No, I mean city council.

They're like, whatever.

So you need to how how do I get to be part of the chamber?

I was like, I don't know.

So it's I'm not sure that definitely.

A lot of those things tend to be interchangeable for people, you know.

One thing that we have in our work plan and is um, you know, we have an existing small business toolkit that we have with the city, but making one that is branded just for the DDA about how to do business in our downtown or engage with us.

And so this is a I love this idea of like who we are and who are who are our partner agencies, but how are we different, right?

And who do you go to for what?

Um, so I kind of like that visual representation because um, yeah, it can be confusing because we're not the city, we're very close to the city, we're arms length, uh, we're not in the chamber.

Yeah, in the city.

Yeah.

Um, so and we engage with many different partners.

So I think uh that is a great idea to think about in that exercise.

Yeah.

Save it for the retreat.

No, no, no.

We're gonna put it in, it's already in the work plan.

Yeah, but I I would I hadn't thought of that as far as making a visual representation of the differences.

So that's a great idea.

Yeah, if you have a problem, like which which entity do you go to?

Right.

That's usually what the question is like this is my problem.

Who do I talk to?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Cool.

Thanks, Tim.

Oh, that's me.

All right.

Any other new business?

Uh we complete.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you, everyone.

The time is 7 26, and we are adjourned.

Thank you.