I don't think that's anybody.

I need a horse for the year.

Yeah.

I'm trying to run it.

Yeah, I exactly.

Okay, first.

Oh, yeah.

I know.

We can do it.

I want to have it.

I'm going to add this kind of thing.

So I would have to sell it.

I know.

And this is the expression.

This is the weekend.

And then I'm not sure if you want to try something.

Yeah, but I think I see it on the problem.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

I guess it's so we don't have any other thing.

Counselor Robertson.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Good afternoon.

The meeting of the Richmond City Council will now come to order.

This is our first budget work session on planning and economic development.

I'll ask our chief of staff, uh, Mr.

Warren to come up and provide an overview of the protocol for the meeting, Mr.

Warren.

Well, I figured you would uh, Madam Clerk, if you would, Mr.

Warren, if you would hold one second.

Madam Clerk, if you go on to proceed with, I think most will have this information, but just in case.

Upon active upon activation of the emergency alarm signal, all persons should immediately exit the building.

Please use the exits to the left or right front of the council chamber or the east to west stail well outside the rear doors of the chamber.

Do not use elevators or escalators.

After exiting the building, security will direct everyone down 9th Street to the assembly area located in the form of public safety building parking lot.

Able persons should assist visually and here in a pair of visitors with exiting the building.

Madam Clerk, thank you.

Mr.

Clerk, if you would proceed, please.

Yes, ma'am, please, council, RJ Warren, Council Chief of Staff.

Um, I'm gonna quickly go over some information with you all before we get started on this work session.

Um I'm gonna go through our table of contents here real quick and then dive uh a little bit more into our uh the standard operating procedures that we're gonna follow uh as we go through these work sessions.

Uh the timeline of work sessions, your your budget review is being split basically into two phases.

There's the budget work session phase, which is March, where you're gonna have four budget work sessions that have been uh uh organized based on DCAO portfolios.

You will have one today on planning and economic development.

You will have one next Monday on finance and administration, next Wednesday on operations, public safety, the mayor's portfolio, and then on Monday, April 6th, regarding uh human services.

And uh today um you will have the the planning economic development, which consists of the following departments Department of Housing and Community Development, Department of Economic Development, Department of Planning and Development Review, Office of Sustainability, and Office of Community Wealth Building.

So first off, I want to go over the information that is before you, which you see is a binder for today's work session.

You will be given one of these for each work session uh for the next today, the next three.

What is contained in it is the beginning of it contains uh your standard operating uh procedures, your SOPs, which I'll go over in a moment.

It's followed by the presentation provided by city administration, followed by departmental analysis conducted by your council staff.

And uh in here you will see a breakdown of prior fiscal years to the proposed this year, along with some notes provided by your staff on the departmental funding, uh, along with a snapshot of current vacancies for each department.

Lastly, you will see uh at the end of this a row of questions in an Excel format, which consists first of uh questions related to the planning and economic development portfolio, and then followed by the scheduled work sessions ahead.

You will see in this Excel breakdown where it has ID and it'll have a Q followed by a question, question 14, question 15.

That is the the order number that your staff received questions either by council members or by council staff.

The numbering is just to help us facilitate finding answers as we go through the budget review process, and there is a number at the beginning of it that just is in simple order of one, two, three, four, five.

So feel free today to reference either to the queue, the question number or the ID number uh first.

And um the uh SOPs indicate that we reached out to council members to first identify if you all had any questions that you knew you wanted to get uh answered by city administration.

We're providing initial questions seven days ahead of work sessions to city administration to try to get responses.

City administration is providing their presentations along with uh inform an answer to your questions four days in advance of these work sessions, four business days.

City administration is providing their presentations along with uh inform and answer to your questions four days in advance of these work sessions, four business days, and then uh at a minimum of two days, we are providing both council, the public, and city administration this binder, uh either in this binder form or in one large PDF that is attached to Legislatar online, an email to each member and emailed to city administration.

And the to go over the questions a little bit more is that we've been providing to city administration.

As I said, we've provided an initial question seven days ahead.

And then any questions we've gotten from members afterwards or staff themselves have drafted, we are providing them at least two days before these work sessions.

We are not expecting them to provide those answers in writing for this work session.

That is a tight turnaround of two days, but we are trying to use uh transparency here for both public and city administration and provide them the questions the same time as we're providing you all the questions so they can uh have an idea of what they can expect to be asked on the dais.

Any questions you all do not get either answered or addressed today, council staff plans to follow up after this work session related to this portfolio.

Any questions you still have for upcoming work sessions?

We will be included in this questions worksheet and will be added to your next binder that is going to be provided for the next work session.

And to close up, I will just finalize uh a summary of the uh SOPs that you all are going to follow for the budget work sessions and the amendment phase.

Um the presentations that you were that you're gonna be provided today and for the next three work sessions.

We've shared several times with the administration that there will be a 20-minute timeline uh time limit on the presentation.

Um it is the goal of these work sessions that we ensure that we are efficient, well prepared, and transparent throughout them.

And after 20 minutes, uh the council president will indicate that the presentation has ended and that we are going to proceed with questions.

And in compliance with council rule 4K, we are going to enforce the five-minute limit on council member questions.

And how that will work is each member will be giving five minutes to ask questions of city administration, and any time a response is given by city administration, your clock will be paused until that response is completed.

And then if you proceed with follow-up questions, the clock will restart.

After the conclusion of your five minutes, we are going to move to the next council member.

And there will be two rounds of five-minute uh questions.

So if you did not be not able to complete your questions within that five minutes, there will be a second round offered to you to address uh additional questions.

If they do still have additional questions that were not addressed after your second round of five minutes, council staff will get with you afterwards to get those questions in writing and get those uh answered uh afterwards.

As you will see in your SOPs, we have an order of what we established uh the number of the council members in order of what the questions will be asked for simplicity for today.

We're just simply going through districts one through nine, and then for the next three sections, the numbers are um evenly dispersed so that throughout the full four work sessions, each member averages being in the middle of uh cadence of when they've asked questions and an effort of fairness there.

And to close up to talk about the amendment process, which I will go further into detail as we get closer to that.

But a quick summary is uh amendments are uh you can begin submitting your amendments now if you wish on this budget.

It is in your hands.

The the budget deadline to the amendment deadline to send to send your amendments is April 7th, Tuesday, April 7th.

No amendments will be accepted by staff after that time frame.

Um, some key dates when it comes to the amendments is Tuesday, April 7th will be the deadline to submit amendments.

April 9th, those amendments are going to be shared with the clerk's office to be posted online on Legistar.

That is Thursday, April 9th, followed by a the first amendment work session, which is going to take place Monday, April 13th, where you will have a work session where each member will be given 10 minutes to do to provide information on their proposed amendments.

Um and then that evening we will have a formal meeting where there will be a budget public hearing on your proposed amendments, and then two days later later on April 15th, you all will begin deliberations and consensus building on your proposed amendments to the budget.

So during it to finish up talking about the SOPs for the day, the big keys for you today to be aware of is the presentation is for 20 minutes, and then we're going to proceed with questions where each member will be giving two rounds of five-minute questions at that time.

If there are no questions on this, I will join you all here in the dais and we'll proceed with the presentation.

Thank you.

Please join us on the dais.

Please join us on a day as all members have been briefed in terms of the protocol, and the intent is to make sure that we get the information enough time to be able to review and make some decisions, but also opportunities to ask questions.

With that, um is it you who will provide the presentation or Ms.

Ebert or combination of persons.

Welcome, sir.

Good afternoon.

So we're actually doing something a little different here.

I think I have an extraordinary and dynamic staff, so I want to actually be presenting on their behalf.

I'll be answering some questions that come before uh council for our 20 after our 20 minutes.

Our DCAOs will be presenting to kind of open up, and then if there are some questions uh that need a little further dive, or if there are specific uh to the CAO or mayor's office, then I'll answer those.

But uh we'll have Ms.

Sharon Ebert who will do our presentation and it will do a dynamic job.

And I think she'll give you so many great answers that you might not have many many questions.

That's the whole.

I don't know.

Looking at his group, I don't believe that, but I'm gonna say it anyway.

So uh with that, I'll welcome Ms.

Ever.

Thank you, Mr.

Donald.

Welcome, Ms.

Ever.

Good afternoon, Council President New Bill, Council Vice President Jordan, and esteemed council members.

Um I'm here on behalf of the mayor of Ulla and CAO Donald to present the planning and economic development portfolio.

And before I begin, I would just like to acknowledge that I know I only have 20 minutes to present a lot of information about what we have accomplished in the last calendar year under the mayor's first year, as well as what we plan to do in this next year.

And so let me say one thing.

The mayor and the CAO view the planning and economic development portfolio as the city's money-generating portfolio.

This is why almost all of our city agencies in within the portfolio reflect um budget increases in the fiscal year 27 budget.

And simply put, it is our job to grow the city, and we do this in a number of different ways.

Our guide is the Richmond 300, a guide to growth.

In that plan, it called for us to update the zoning code, which is one of the most important things that uh PDR and I as a C DCAO will have accomplished in my lifetime.

But it also talks about improving our site plan review process, which was extremely confusing to our development community when we were using plan of development.

Um it also includes making sure that it's easy to get permits, and one of the first things I was asked to do is improve the permitting process.

We will not succeed, as we all know, without addressing our affordable housing crisis, and I thank the mayor for putting into this year's budget so much money towards affordable housing.

And our investments in our incentives and our grant programs that attract private companies here in our city is one of the best ways that we help to grow the city and to let all developers, not only just in the region and in Virginia, but across our nation know that we're open for business.

And lastly, we need to grow in a sustainable way, and that's what our Office of Sustainability is helping us do.

And I'm so pleased to see that the Office of Community Wealth Building is going to be aligned with our portfolio, so that our investment in our residents ensure that they may also grow and prosper as our city grows and prosper.

And with that, I'd like to start my presentation.

So, as we all know, the mayor has seven pillars underneath his mayorial action plan.

And I want to go through them very, very quickly with you.

We have a thriving city hall, thriving neighborhoods, thriving families, a thriving economy, thriving and inclusive communities, a thriving and sustainable built environment, and a city that tells its stories.

Our portfolio touches most of these, but in primarily all but a thriving and inclusive community.

So you'll see in my presentation today that particular pillar will be missing.

I just want to pause on this in case I don't get to it in the end.

This is just a snippet of the stuff that happens in the city every day.

And if you're not driving around, but for Carmex Park, you may mix it or COSTARS New Tower, but we work very hard in helping to grow businesses and build affordable housing and attract investment into our downtown and our neighborhoods.

And so now a year in review.

Kevin and his staff have also obtained Planning Commission approval of the Oak Grove Bellmead Hillside Court Small Area Plan and the Cultural Heritage Stewards Plan.

They are working right now to also bring forward to Planning Commission the Jackson Ward Community Plan.

All of these plans will be brought forward to council before the end of this fiscal year.

Director Merrick Malone and his housing staff have helped 48 households be housed using our federal entitlement program, housing opportunities for persons with AIDS, HAPWA, as we call it.

And they've supported 379 individuals in our emergency shelters using again federal entitlement ESG funding.

And this year alone, we've completed 800 affordable housing units.

Allocated to the United States Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Conservation Grant.

And Capricia Spielman, the director of OCWB, and her outreach staff connected with more than 1,000 residents this past year and provided resources with food and health and mobility.

And they're helping people earn jobs and good paying jobs that start around $20 an hour.

Thriving families.

PDR staffed adopted zoning code regulations to ensure that vape shops are going to be compliant.

And they and they also created our residential rental inspection program.

And we're hoping that we can work with landlords so that we never have to create a rental inspection district by getting them into compliance first.

This is obviously a big pillar for us, a thriving economy.

Our new economic development director, Angie Rogers, who started last August, and her staff provided services to more than 200 businesses last year.

And they also launched a pilot by local program that just came out recently that is supporting over 453 local businesses.

We also approved two tourism development financing programs, projects.

This is a state program that we participate in, and it is going to create in Scott's edition and along Arthur Ash Boulevard, 618 new hotel rooms for a combined investment of 150 million dollars for our city.

And then in addition to all of that, they also created and retained 347 jobs.

I think this is our silent, our silent deal.

Everybody always asks us our economic development dollars giving us a good return on our investment.

And my answer is yes.

You wouldn't see all the cranes in the sky, all the businesses moving into core commercial corridors that for many decades saw boarded up storefronts if we weren't growing and thriving.

And that's all because of this department and the investment that the staff does every day, working with businesses to help them open up shop.

I also want to talk a little bit about Director Malone and his team.

This was the first time that housing and community development, and I'm not sure everybody realizes, but there wasn't a department of housing and community development before 2018.

So the department's only been around for seven years, but the staff has finally got together as a team.

They are firing on all cylinders.

They are meeting all of the objectives but one of the equitable affordable housing plan, and that's home ownership, and we'll talk about that a little later.

But they launched and issued an RFP to redevelop a vacant parcel that's been sort of a parking lot in Shaco Bottom, received uh eight applications, and we're very excited to see the outcome of that solicitation.

Our sustainable built environment.

Clearly, this is where our Office of Sustainability and Director Laura Thomas' shines.

We know that we've issued a five cent disposable bag tax, and we hope that people don't think that that's a negative thing.

We see it as being positive.

We know that plastic bags are not good for the environment.

And we also know that not everybody can afford this, so we're offering free reusable bags to anybody who needs to have them, and we're more than willing to meet them wherever to help make sure that they get them.

Our goal is to be able to make the environment better.

They also planted 1,174 trees in various communities across the city and primarily in Southside.

And I would be remiss to say if I didn't talk about again Director Spielman and her staff in partnership with the sustainability staff, as they're helping eight residents graduate with solar energy credentials.

Again, jobs, good paying jobs, and we'd like to do more of this in the coming year.

Last but not least, storytelling.

Our PDR staff, and in particular Leo Mayante has been charged with being the project manager for the SHACO project.

And this has been a project long coming.

It's finally going to open its doors in April when the Shaco Institute will open up our first exhibit to talk about the city's role in unfortunately the second largest domestic slave trade center in our country.

This has been supported with a Mellon Foundation grant that we got a few years ago that the city applied for and received 11 million dollars.

That's the largest municipal grant the Mellon Foundation has ever given to any municipality in the country, and they fully support this effort.

So I'm really excited that after two and a half years of working on this, we're going to be able to tell our story.

It's first day on April 7th in just a few weeks.

I hope everybody gets out to see the stadium.

We will have the best minor league stadium in the entire country.

I'm very proud about this.

So I think the investment in our stadium, of which the Economic Development Authority owns, is going to be a great investment.

I think one of the questions I received was you know, how much will we return on our investment?

And just to remind everybody, in 2024, when we asked you to issue bonds for the stadium, Davenport gave us a report.

And after we pay off the bonds, or as we pay off the bonds over the next 30 years, we should receive just from the first phase of investment in the Diamond District, $418 million in additional revenue into the general fund.

So that's a big return on your investment.

And last, I want to talk a little bit about sustainability's joint energy team, which is a collaboration across multiple departments in our city.

They have launched the RVA communities outcome tracker, and it's going it was showcased this year as a model leader on the national and statewide stages with the U.S.

Department of Energy and the Virginia Alliance for Clean Energy and the Virginia Energy Purchasing Government Association.

We are doing good things and we're being recognized nationally.

So briefly running through our budget, and let me first pause to say if I didn't say it well enough in the first round.

Our mission is very simple.

Our portfolio's mission is to plan and grow the city sustainably so that all people and all places can thrive.

And again, these are the five city agencies within our portfolio.

And now going into our proposed budget.

And let me let me back up one second and just talk a little bit about why community, the Office of Community Wealth Building, has been brought over into our portfolio.

Last fall, we started working on something called a joint economic mobility initiative, and we've named it now GEMS.

It's a joint economic mobility squad where human services agencies and agencies within my portfolio have all partnered together.

Of how we can collaborate and work together to ensure that our residents are benefiting from the businesses that we attract here, the businesses that we are growing here, and the jobs that are becoming available because of all the growth.

So the alignment with both housing and economic development makes a ton of sense.

We're really excited that Director Spielman and her entire staff of which are here today have joined our portfolio, and we hope to accomplish a lot next year.

Ms.

Hebert, the advisors, five minutes left.

Thank you.

So proposed budget.

I'm going to go quickly through here and just note you can look at this in more detail.

The Department of Planning and Development was the only department that got a decrease in overall funding.

I do want to mention that they get building permit fees and that a number of staff are supported by those building permit fees.

So we even though they show a headcount reduction of approximately four, it's a very strong department.

They also get a lot of funding from the federal entitlement government that supports about 45% of their department, and that's why you see the percentage split there.

And the mayor is supporting us with 40 450,000 to support our activities and implementing the Jackson Ward Community Plan, and specifically on the people part of the plan for Gilpin Court residents.

Department of Economic Development.

Again, we're getting an increase in staffing of two and a half full-time employees.

And the mayor has also added to this department's budget 250,000 for the facade improvement grant because we see that it actually works.

It's improving small businesses on a number of our commercial corridors.

Office of sustainability is also increasing, and it did not get.

I want to say that most of the depart uh agencies did receive a 2% cost of reduction.

Uh Office of Sustainability was one of the city agencies that did not.

It's a small department, has eight full-time funded employees.

And the Office of Community Wealth Building, which is also gaining an employee, and um is also being uh supported with a net increase in funding of over 110,000.

And because I'm short on time, let me jump to what you can expect in the fiscal year 2027.

So, as I mentioned, oops, my bad.

City Hall PDR is working to implement something called Triple Unity.

It's a new version of CityWorks.

It's going to replace Intergov and give us a new permitting and inspection software.

This is going to make it a lot easier for our customers to be able to track where their projects are in the permitting process.

I'll touch on a couple of highlights here.

And uh HCD is gonna stand up a publicly accessible, interactive, affordable housing development GIS map.

So you can go on their website, find every single affordable housing.

There'll be drop-down menus, you can find how many units are there, whether it's uh under construction, completed, etc.

So that's almost ready to be debuted.

And OCWB is working through a number of policies to be able to make sure that they are focused on what their delivery is and to refined uh their mission.

Neighborhoods, um, briefly, um, healthy homes, which is something that you all funded through ARPA has been thriving, and we're incorporating the opportunity to include residential solar energy options in that, so kind of bridging sustainability with our healthy homes program and making that eligible.

And as you all know, the very controversial zoning code refresh will be completed in 2026.

Uh, we hope to bring back version 3.0 later in May of this year, and hopefully by the end of the year, I think we'll all be in a place where we'll feel comfortable that it reflects our community's desires for the next 20 years or so for families.

I just want to talk a little bit about our joint economic mobility squad that I mentioned earlier below.

We're focusing on four things reducing barriers to economic mobility, aligning our services to better serve residents facing housing instability, creating our linkages between our residents and our jobs, and implementing the Jackson Ward Community Plan and the transformation of Gilpin Court.

And we will be bringing to the council later this spring a memorandum of agreement that we have been working very hard with RRHA for the transformation of Gilpin Court.

Ms.

Evert.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And that was the reason that we asked for the presentations in advance.

So we had opportunity to review them ourselves as well and come prepared with questions.

So it's not that we have not been through.

We have the full, I think we've had it all for a couple of days more to sit with.

So with that, um, I'd like to um ask members if there are questions, and I'd like to start with thank you, Mr.

Chief of Staff.

We got the protocol.

Uh Mr.

Breton.

Thank you, Madam President.

Let's start the clock.

Um start with some questions for the Office of Sustainability.

Uh I see that they have eight FTEs in the proposed budget, but I also see three um other fund FTEs, and I was and those if you're new, I'm wondering uh what those are and what the support.

And I was, and those if you're new, I'm wondering what those are and what those support.

Hi, thank you, Laura Thomas Director of Sustainability.

Could you please repeat the second part of that for me?

I see in the proposed budget eight FTEs, but also three and a half other fund FTEs, and what are those?

Great question.

Yes, thank you very much.

So the Office of Sustainability has eight FTEs funded through the general fund.

We also have one FTE funded through the USDA cool the city grant.

That is our grants administrator that is also in the Office of Sustainability.

The other additional positions are also funded by the USDA Cool the City grant, two of which are in parks and one of which is in DPW.

So those are where you're seeing those positions reflected.

All right, and one more for you is I saw in your budget request a proposal for an energy project coordinator, and I was wondering that may not be in the proposed budget, and I was wondering what is the uh the motivation behind that um role, and can that role actually save the city more money than it costs to hire?

So that request was centered around conversations that the public utilities director, Scott Morris and myself have been having as well as ongoing conversations with council members, um thinking about how we can expand our efforts around decarbonization and our path towards shared carbon neutrality.

So we're continuing to work that.

Um that would be an enhancement that would allow us to develop programming, but we are still working in progress.

So we're usual utilizing our resources now to maximize the benefits for energy efficiency in the community.

All right, thank you.

I'm gonna ask some questions of PDR next.

Um I noticed that the um budget request included actually an increase of 10 FTEs that um it's not currently in the proposed budget.

And so I was wondering what are the trends and pressures that inspired that request and what trade-offs are we making um by not filling them.

Sure.

Thank you, uh, Kevin J Bonk, director of planning development review.

Uh part of the request uh involved staff that have been working uh reviewing building permits.

So it was looking at intake staff and also staff that uh in zoning that reviews building permits and then zoning compliance staff that goes out and does enforcement.

Um, one of the things uh that we talk about uh with the funding, uh building code fees come into our department uh in accordance with 36105 code of Virginia, those fees have to stay within uh administering functions of the building code.

And so uh for our staff that is involved in either reviewing or enforcing building permits, and we use that to fund them.

Um and and so part of the request involved uh using some of those fees to add to those positions and balance out a combination of building code fees and then general fund fees.

Okay.

Actually, I see a lot of zoning code enforcement as well as property maintenance enforcement.

Can you explain the difference of those?

And are those um groups that we can expect to see just kind of growing as the city grows, like linearly, or are there ever efficiencies that they might become more efficient for us?

Sure.

So property maintenance and code enforcement uh is responsible uh for enforcing uh chapters five, which is our building code, and chapters 11, which is our environmental code of city code, uh, and then our zoning enforcement is primarily responsible for chapter 30, which is the zoning code.

Um for PMCE, when you talk about enforcing the building code, those uh positions are able to be funded with our building code fees.

Um, and so because we've been lucky to have pretty substantial development in the city over the last few years, um, we've had enough uh to fund fully those positions.

Um when it comes to zoning enforcement, part of their work does involve uh a little overlap with uh building code compliance, but it's not full.

Uh and and so they rely on uh general fund fees to fund some of those positions.

Okay.

Um I imagine that with the code refresh, we might be expecting just changes in in our building patterns, uh possibly uh more home construction, but also possibly more streamlined um permit requirements or things.

Uh what are we expecting to see in terms of the workload?

You know, through or is code refresh expected to generate more work or less work for our department.

Um I would say different work.

Uh and what what I think code refresh, one of the things that it's looking to do is move things that are legislative uh in a process right now where you need to go through and and do a special use permit or rezoning, uh, some of those as proposed right now would be by right.

And so then therefore they would be able to go straight to either a site plan or building permits.

Uh so in terms of uh we would look at shifting some of our staff that deals with land use and preparing some of those applications, uh doing more work when it comes to zoning.

Uh, I think one of the things that we would hope with Code Refresh is that it would open the door to smaller scale projects for those who um you know want to do an addition under their home or an accessory dualing unit or make improvements with that.

Um and so the ability to do that again more quickly because you don't have to get that SUP to build something that looks just like everybody else in your neighborhood.

I would anticipate some increase in that, and then in terms of um from a building code perspective, uh we would need to be able to handle that that increase again relative with the increase in building code fees.

All right, thank you.

All right, my next questions are for a different department um housing community development.

I have one question, which was um related to uh the budget request requested and a dedicated attorney to help streamline our affordable housing um permitting and applications, and I'm wondering how the city plans to support that work if we don't create that new position.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

I'm Merrick Malone, Director of Housing Community Development and members of the Steam City Council.

The request for the 300,000 uh we parentally put in, um we um have a significant amount of legal work that's done.

And I'm sure if it's not put in, we will continue to have that work done.

But I know that we have several items that are within the uh city attorney's office, and they do a magnificent job.

It's just um I know what my my colleagues in my own portfolio have before them.

So it's this this competition, and it and it's not even a competition.

What it is is is that they tend to be overwhelmed, it appears.

And as a result of that, um we have some delays that that are created in terms of signing documents and and getting things through.

So with that, that was that was the purpose, and this has been a discussion before.

Um, and again, like I said, I think that the legal department, and I wouldn't trade Lindsay or or not for any of them, but they really do have a significant amount of work.

And we as a department as a city are generating a lot more work in order to get things done.

But if that doesn't happen in the budget, we're still gonna have to get it done anyway.

Actually, could you maybe try to describe the the level of benefit that we might expect if we were able to dedicate a position for that?

Well, I think we would be able to expedite things like the performance getting a four uh performance grants out of affordable housing performance grants out quicker.

I think we could get contracts done that really impact what we're trying to do both as housing and economic development.

I think those are the kinds of things that we need to be faster to market, and those are the kinds of things that I think would help expedite that.

Remember, they're helping us with negotiations of different contracts and things.

Thank you.

All right, I was gonna move on to the Office of Community Wealth Building, if I may.

Um I was going to ask how the summer programs that we offer for job readiness, et cetera, how those might have like synergy or compatibility with the other types of Office of Children and Families programs that we leverage partners for.

Is there, you know, do we coordinate with them?

Are these similar programs, or is there a fundamental difference?

Thank you.

Um good afternoon.

Um I am Capricious Miss Belman, the director of the Office of Community Wealth Building, happy to be with you today.

Happy to also answer that.

Yes, the synergy that exists is already transparent.

Um, we operate very well in both within both portfolios at this point, and so we're excited to announce that we continue to work together to make sure that every youth has an opportunity to thrive.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

Um and also I know that we mentioned Richmond Resilience Initiative.

Is Richmond Resonance Initiative funded in the F 27 budget currently?

Um it's so the current proposal does not support for an additional cohort.

The cohort that exists currently was funded in the previous fiscal year and it for two years.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Um, that's all my questions for the office.

And then I'm gonna move on to um economic development.

Uh if I may, I see a position listed as the property programs role.

And I'm wondering if I could um get an explanation for the vision and benefit of creating that role.

I'm almost done.

Good afternoon, Angie Rogers, uh, director for the Department of Economic Development.

Um, so this is actually a role that uh currently exists uh in the Department of General Services, uh responsible for uh various activities surrounding our publicly owned properties.

Uh so to better align that position uh with uh our vision and desire to uh use those publicly owned properties uh for economic development uh priorities, we are moving that position uh to the economic development department.

Wonderful.

And then this question actually dates back to a conversation we had about a year ago.

We're talking about our vision for the city, and we were um actually talking about growth nodes, especially in the south side, and we're expecting all kinds of growth.

And I know that we have a lot of attention and plans for city center and for Diamond District.

Uh and I I mean we were and we were trying to ask about our level of um you know conscious planning for our Southside, you know, growth corridors and whether or not our economic development department was properly staffed to make those types of plans and investments.

So um what would you say about your level of staffing and your ability to use economic development planning for the those Southside Growth Nodes?

So I think our staff for FY27 um is sufficient for the work that we'll do in FY27 since it will mostly be focused on planning uh during those corridors as we move uh through the years and get further into implementation, um, then I think that's a continued conversation uh we'll need to have about capacity.

Thank you very much.

Uh that's all for me now.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Breton.

The next uh questions I will come from Vice President Jordan.

Thank you, President Newbell.

And thank you so much, Ms.

Ebert, for this presentation and to our staff for getting us organized for this work session.

I have two questions.

The first is to Director Bonk.

Thank you so much.

Um I too am a little concerned about not more fully funding the position request from your department.

And sort of specifically, I'm thinking of all the planning work that's happening right now, and then also possible implications.

Um, I think we do expect Governor Spamberger to sign the cannabis dispensary uh bill that's on her desk.

So that would go into effect Jan 1.

What does that mean for our city's operation when it comes to where we want to see those businesses?

I don't want to be caught on our heels kind of the way we were with the vape shops.

Um so that'd be like sort of the I guess there's really two questions.

One my advocating for fully funding your department with all the planning activities that we have going on, and then two, um, what conversations you're having when it goes to how we're gonna react to uh cannabis dispensaries in our city.

Because when I look at the tax allocations that'll come from those revenues, I don't see any of them coming to your department.

Thank you.

Sure.

Uh as far as cannabis regulation, um, part of it will depend where it lands in code of Virginia.

I think the way our um ordinance right now when it comes to vape shops and we call it retail tobacco, uh it references code of Virginia.

And so if um those regulations are placed within those sections of of Code of Virginia, uh those rules will apply equally to to cannabis dispensaries.

However, uh, I think in in terms of what rules and requirements and licensure uh those dispensaries will have to have, maybe different than just what a general retail tobacco uh place might have.

And so then it would require some additional work, I think, on us in terms of uh our zoning ordinance.

I think just proactively, one of the things we can do right now is as we work on draft two to three, now that the legislation is starting to shape up a little bit, um, we can take that work with the consultants to maybe proactively put something into the third draft of code refresh uh to come back and have us a little bit more prepared for um you know that bill potentially being signed, uh so we'll be able to look at it that way.

Uh I think in terms of you know, the question about personnel, um, when I look at you know how we fund our personnel when it comes to our different divisions, and we talk about permits and inspections and we talk about um PMCE, those positions can primarily be 100% um funded with building code fees.

And and again, we've been uh fortunate to have a pretty substantial development market, and that should reflect and so um being able to fund those positions.

I I feel confident that uh we'll continue to be able to do so and have the right staff in place to keep our business targets on time.

Uh when we talk about our um other divisions uh in land use and zoning administration, uh, our zoning positions generally we can half fund through building code fees because a lot of the work that they do involves um you know working on CEOs and again getting things permitted and then also on the back end in terms of enforcement.

Um but then when you look at um some of our other team when it comes to land use or our planning and policy team, uh, those are all coming out of the general fund because they don't involve work in in um permits.

So I think those are some of the tough choices that we have to work on when we have a constrained environment.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

Um and then my second question, I will let our go, thank you, Director Bonk.

Um our CAO decide who he wants to respond to this question.

But um in the discussion of a dedicated attorney for housing community development, like is that a position that should be housed within that unit, or is it something that as a budget item should really be in the city attorney's office?

But um in the discussion of a dedicated attorney for housing community development, like is that a position that should be housed within that unit, or is it something that as a budget item should really be in the city attorney's office because I do feel like we we often have two sort of checkpoints within the city for business development, one's either through the planning department for permits, etc., one's like through the legal department.

Thank you.

Yeah, uh thing my perspective, uh at least as of today is uh legal activities with legal.

They are responsible for uh protecting and delivering the city, and if they have a different opinion, then they would provide that to us because they would be uh ultimately responsible for litigation and things of that nature.

And so right now I think the conversation has not made it to the point where they will make a decision one way or the other.

It was just about funding it uh specifically with all of the other funding activities.

I think you heard a few of them from Councilmember Breton, but also on the public information around enhancements.

We were close to 100 million for which we had to decipher which ones make it into the budget and which ones don't.

I think what you see from this dynamic group of leaders is that no matter which ones you fund and which ones you don't, there are many things that we love to do for Richmonders, which we can't necessarily do unless we uh make certain funding decisions.

So I hope that answers your question.

Okay, so TBD on where that's attorney would be.

I think we want to get some clearer guidance and provide and allow the city attorney's office to weigh in on some of those insights that don't necessarily uh for public consumption decisions that you have to make around litigation, exposure, liability, et cetera.

And so I don't think we've gotten there yet.

Okay, thank you so much.

Um President Newbow, that's the end of my questions.

Thank you.

And um staff will um uh record that question for follow-up as well.

Uh Councilmember Gibson.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um my first question.

Sorry, I think I'd like to start with um housing and community development.

Yes, Councilman.

Thank you.

Um of the questions that I have is regarding the um uh on page uh 450.

There are 210, I'm sorry, there's 450,000 that we've been discussed for community investment.

Um and I was wondering if you could provide more information about the projected impact, uh, more of the specifics in terms of how that uh will be used and um to provide some context whether or not um this is planned to be ongoing or if there are future investments that are going to be needed.

Um this is the funding, I believe that's targeted towards uh folks at Gilpin, and and so it's um I'm wanting to understand a bit more.

That is uh that is correct.

That is the funding that is directed to the Jackson Ward plan and the Gilpin court, which is represents a collaboration between the city and RRHA, and that we will be of we're doing a joint working group to redevelop Gilton Gilpin court as well as enhance the Jackson Ward plan.

And that that 450,000 are personnel would be personnel, the whole package for the implementation from the city's point of view side of the table to move this this development and redevelopment of Jackson of Gilpin court as well as the Jackson Ward.

So that's that's that 450,000 that the mayor is has agreed to put into the budget to be able to implement the programs.

So can you provide a more detailed plan with that 450,000 dollars?

Well, right now there is a plan that's being developed and working.

We're working out of the MOU agreement with RRHA to implement both a development housing them, helping them implement a housing plan as well as a people person plan.

And that will require a a um administration of administrator of that program, this for and some staff that will help to implement the program that's designed to to not only help with the redevelopment of of the of Gilpin, but also support the residents there too.

And that's so that's personnel that will be used to do that.

So is there I'm I'm just wondering, is there how do we get to the 450?

I mean so I I would like to understand specifically how we got to the 450,000 and what the what that breakdown looks like.

Maybe I can help since I put to the initial budget together.

So the $450,000 is to hire someone who's gonna oversee be the general manager, if you will, of the implementation of the tire Jackson Ward community plan.

And as you know, that was a CNI grant, so it had a people plan, a housing plan, and a neighborhood plan underneath that plan.

Part of this will be to hire one other additional person to help.

There's already funding in place to do the people plan, but the bulk of that $450,000 will be to be focused on the residents, because that really is what this is all about.

So it's to ensure we have proper community outreach and engagement and hopefully money to be able to start to engage potentially through a consultant to do the assessment and case management work with Gilpin residents.

And so it is it is the start of implementation and what we think we will need for fiscal year 27.

Thank you.

And I'm wondering why that is, and when we could expect to have more clarity about how we measure success in housing and community development.

Certainly.

But you may have recalled or maybe not, because it's been a while.

But uh in 2022, we actually passed the equitable affordable housing plan.

And in that plan, it talks about what we're planning to do every year for the next 10 years, and you will see a very detailed accounting of how many permanent supportive housing units we plan to develop in that 10 years, how many units of rent uh new residential rental replacement public housing units and homeownership units.

And right now we're on a good uh pathway to meet all of the objectives of this plan, without the exception of homeownership, which has gotten really difficult for us after we came out of the pandemic and the prices of homes have risen so much.

So that is the one area that we're struggling in.

Um Director Malone's staff is working on an update to this plan so that we can assure that we the numbers that were used back in 2021 and 2022 when this was adopted or updated, and we can be uh more true to where we are today in the economy, but this is the roadmap that we follow.

Thank you.

Um also regarding performance measures in the economic development item.

Um, there's two performance measures.

One is specific to jobs.

And um on that measure, you know, I guess ultimately when it comes to economic development, the the performance result really should be financial, financial gains to our general fund.

Um and so uh I I was hoping that this could be translated into something that's more directed specific to those, you know, that type of gain.

The reason why I ask, you know, when we talk about job growth, many of the jobs might be taken by folks that don't live in the city.

Um ultimately then it becomes difficult for us to measure the benefit for Richmond residents.

And so, you know, when we think about more jobs, then you you know, people are going out to eat more.

There, you know, there is some type of financial measurement there.

Um if uh if there are more Richmond residents in in jobs, there's benefit there.

I'm just hoping that that could be more specific to truly be able to measure the return we're seeing.

Um similarly with the the performance targets specific to capital investment, you know, ultimately, yes, they're making investments, that's great for them to do, but the but really the measure is how are those benefits, our investments translating into increased property growth, you know, property value and then in turn revenue that is coming back to the general fund.

Those are the measures so we can say if the department's looking for an additional you know 400,000, then we can we can really measure the actual ROI.

Finally, on that same thing, um, you mentioned the diamond district returns, and I appreciate uh you doing that.

I would love to see that four million dollar figure broken down and documented.

I I think it's important for us to see um when various parcels will be developed by what the projected um return you know uh generated revenue from those so that we can make sure that we're hitting those milestones as planned to to make sure again that we're going to be covering the the bill, if you will, for um for for the bond.

So thank you for your questions, and I'm gonna have um director Angie Rogers come up.

But I do want to say that um the economy right now is really hard to predict.

As we all know, it seems to be changing day by day, week by week, um, in terms of gas prices and commodities going up and down.

Um so I wish we had a crystal ball, um, but we don't.

Um what we can do is a lot of detailed projections, and we did that for the diamond district, and we can actually show you how um Davenport uh did underwrite it based on uh when things were coming online, how much sales tax, meals tax, hotels tax, and property tax would be generated every year when everything is being built.

So that we can provide you because it was a detailed analysis for the performance measures.

I'm gonna ask Ms.

Rogers to help you out.

Sure.

Good afternoon again.

Um so I'm gonna try and unpack uh uh what your uh unpack your question and lay out um how we typically report uh on these things.

I think the first thing uh I wanna uh say is that it uh typical um economic development variables that we use to report out on uh when we make an investment uh uh does include jobs in addition to uh what the uh capital investment uh that we are making, sort of or the investment that we make through an incentive, what that leverages in the total project, and then what the return on investment uh might be uh through that project.

Um and so when we make an uh an investment, we are typically reporting on all of those things.

Um and I think there are uh potentially a number of places uh where you're seeing sort of to be provided or TBD uh on things that we're reporting, uh we're reporting because we're waiting for that reporting in the mayoral action plan uh to sort of catch up to uh what we're presenting to you all.

Um but I think uh in uh response to specific questions that you might have about projects today, we can provide that um in addition to this meeting.

The other thing I wanted to just add though is uh when we make an investment uh in a project through an incentive, um we've got those typical reporting variables.

The variables that are about how uh the general fund increases, those sort of macro uh variables, which we track as well, but typically those are separate from uh what we would report out from any individual project because we're reporting out on uh projects that we make active investments in, whereas the those macro variables are affected by those projects, but by everything that's going on in the city, um, including things that we may not be making a direct investment in.

Um and so we use those macro to sort of tell us whether we're headed in the right direction, but we don't usually directly connect them to the projects that we're making investments in.

Thank you.

Yeah, I mean, I I think that perhaps these metrics then should be more targeted because obviously just as the economy evolves, there are going to be shifts in in job growth and and and capital investment and such that we uh know the number of FTEs, for instance, that we have in the economic development department aren't really a factor in that.

Um and and I do think you know, when we talk about job growth, it's critical that we are very specific, you know, with looking at Richmond residents because that's our five minutes.

Thank you.

It'll be the second round.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh Councilmember Robertson.

We can proceed, Councilmember Robertson.

I'm sorry.

Yes, you were next.

Okay.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um I want to thank the administration for the presentation, a lot of information in a short period of time.

Um, and I want to thank our staff for the work that you've done to prepare us for our questioning and discussion.

Um, I'll start off with Miss Ebert.

Um my question.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

Uh as you started off your presentation, you spoke to the fact that your portfolio really is the dominant portfolio of the city, that is about the business of generating revenue for us.

Um of the things that I think that is important is that we have an answer as to what is our projection based on your portfolio generating revenue for the city as to whether or not there's a goal that you're striving to reach.

Short answer, no, there is no goal because I cannot predict the future.

You know, um, we don't we don't work off of you know, trying to grow the general revenue or the general fund by you know X millions of dollars every year.

Um that I I would have to turn to Angie to see if she's ever been able to do something like that.

Um I certainly have not um, you know, our job is to keep the city growing, and we're working on a number of different ways to do that, supporting businesses, attracting businesses, but we can't predict the outcomes of all, you know, we may work with 20 different companies, and they all may choose not to come here.

It's our job to try to get them here, but I don't know if we could accurately project that we're going to you know capture one or two of those companies that we're out there working with because it's a very competitive market that we are working in.

Um, and with those companies come those jobs and that capital investment.

Um, Miss Rogers, you want to add to that a little bit?

Sure.

Um the uh thing that I would add, and this is just based on my uh past experience in other jurisdictions, it's that um some factors that we could look at um is you know, if we wanted to uh set a goal for uh growth of our commercial tax base or the sort of um aligning the percentage of the commercial tax base versus the residential property tax base.

I think that's a typical way um that jurisdictions sort of look at um an economic development uh factor that they want to see change.

Um I think the other thing would be to maybe look at uh sector by sector.

Um I've had uh experience, you know, for example, we may say um we want to set a goal to uh grow uh fresh food square footage, you know, on the south side um by a certain uh uh number or by a certain percentage.

Um so I think that there are some ways that we could uh look at this.

Um I'm not aware that we have uh any goals like that uh set, um, but I think that's a conversation we can certainly engage in.

Okay.

Um I'll continue with the economic development since she's here.

Uh question as it relates to that.

I do think that when we set numbers, we measure ourselves effectively by number.

So I'm interested in not knowing what we can what we will accomplish, but I think when we set a specific goal, then we have a benchmark that we strive to, so I would like to see that considered.

So, question as it relates to primary markets that I think are key that we are not capitalizing on to the degree that we could.

That being everybody's asking for more food markets in the city.

Everybody, I think we have this one of the strongest medical uh institutions in the city of Richmond that we are not capitalizing.

I'm concerned about the hole in the donut of downtown Richmond that's been there for so long that it seems to be fixed.

And I'm sure Ms.

Trammell is going to be interested in what's going on in the new land that we just purchased Southside.

I see those as economic engines, and I'm interested in knowing whether or not they are focaling industries and locations, and can we project some revenue if we move forward with those uh developments?

Sure.

So I'll start with uh kind of where I guess we're standing uh downtown city senator broad.

As you know, this is a high priority uh for the mayor for this administration and therefore um a high priority for me.

Um our focus there uh over the uh next year or so is on a couple of different things.

One we refer to um as permanent activation.

That's the uh real estate development that we hope to do in the area and the business attraction um that we hope to do in the area.

So right now we are uh focused on the GRTC hub, um, which is as you know, part transit hub, but there's also anticipated to be uh two mixed use uh towers uh above that hub that we will need to uh plan for uh and attract um both the development partner to first um and then the businesses that we would like to exist um inside of those towers.

We're also focused on the Coliseum site and attracting a new hotel associated parking and the infrastructure improvements that need to happen around that.

So that we refer to as the permanent activation at the same time we're focused on interim activation.

Um so that interim activation for us is focused uh mainly on the Broad Street corridor uh and those uh storefronts that need uh I think some interim improvements so that we can uh attract more businesses uh to those storefronts.

Um we have a couple of tools including uh one important one uh that the council approved for us last fall that's gonna help us with that interim activation uh along that corridor.

Um so this uh uh focus for us is how uh we are looking to uh grow and improve the downtown city center to broad area.

Um if we get you know, sort of more uh into the traditional downtown, as you know, we've had two projects recently that have been adaptive reuse of uh some aged uh uh office buildings.

Um we just uh did the groundbreaking, I think two weeks ago uh on uh a building uh with Douglas development where we've used uh CPAC uh and also our uh commercial tax abatement program uh in order to support the redevelopment of that old office building into uh uh hotel plus multifamily plus ground floor restaurant.

So those are the kinds of things that we are uh trying to use our tools uh in economic development in order to uh spur the revitalization uh for this area.

Um I'll talk just a little bit about uh grocery stores because uh grocery has been tricky uh as we know in some uh areas of our city.

Um I think that uh as we're moving into this phase, there are a couple of important points.

One, uh trying to get um grocers who are willing to look at smaller footprints.

Um not uh you know 30,000 or 40,000 square foot store, but maybe something at 15,000 square foot or less, um, and trying to think about um how we package that maybe in a couple of different parts of the city, um, not just focus on one store because that's a difficult uh prospect for um uh retailer to open just one store because the then they have a hard time competing with you know Kroger, who is you know able to go and and buy milk, you know, at uh in bulk and then can offer it for a decent price to a customer.

Uh so when we think about um being able to uh attract grocer to the south side, I think we're looking at um uh can we attract grocers who would look at a smaller footprint, uh, which would make the economics a little bit more feasible, um, and how can we co-locate uh with some of the other uh things that we have going on in that area?

Okay, so hopefully I gave you a sufficient answer to I I would like to ask for a list of priority projects, developments that we would like to focus on, uh a timeline for getting those done or and a projection of why we would invest, what kind of money we need to invest in order to attract them, and if we're targeting it so that we uh projecting a certain return on investment, I think uh the stadium is a great uh uh opportunity to talk about, but I think we need to do, I'd like to see us do more of that uh specifically from economic development and um and to and to be able to address those key huge markets that I feel like we have, especially the medical market that we uh industry that we have with VCU and uh biotechs and those kinds of things that really uh state of the art, not only in this region but throughout the United States.

Um so that's really what I'm looking for mostly, and then giving us some leveraging, how much you know we invest a dollar, what kind of money we're leveraging, because that should be counted as a part of our revenue as well, and as well as we look at the jobs and those kinds of things.

The other question that I have is um the my the uh Office of Minority Business Enterprise.

I don't know where that is in the portfolio, but when we talk about economic development and growth and business growth and retention, uh I'm interested in knowing what is being planned for minority businesses growth, small business growth, and also growing um nonprofits.

Ms.

Robertson, just be advised there's one minute left.

I'm sorry, I okay.

Um, the CAO answer.

All right.

Yeah, so definitely uh question that relates to this portfolio.

So we made some realignment in our portfolios and who reports to who, but a part of that is also ensuring that those silos that exist because you're in one service line versus another one.

I'm kind of throwing those out the window, and that that doesn't exist anymore.

Folks have to work across service areas.

And so when we are looking at the alignment, I'm looking at it multiple ways.

First part is for economic development and the Office of Community uh wealth building, which internally I kind of describe as like workforce plus, you know, making sure that we're allowing our economic development outputs as well as our uh our workforce development, you know, development and growth, the jobs that people will take to be able to uh move forward and advance their lot in life.

When I'm thinking about uh the Office of Community Wealth Building, a part of moving them to that internal services cluster is because they touch every part of the city, similar to DIT, uh budget, uh finance, those are the areas that touch everywhere.

And we want things like the diversity, I'm sorry, the disparity study, uh as well as some of the efforts that we have for small business and really all business to resonate across the city.

And we plan to bring on some of our staffing and uh connect to some of these external entities like the chamber and others to make sure we're delivering and integrating and preparing our businesses across service areas.

So I'll just double-click on that a little bit.

So when we think about preparing our businesses, uh we can't necessarily do that alone.

And so we are communicating with some of those external partners to make sure that we do that together.

And so our office of minority business will be engaged in that uh when we think about ensuring that we have the resources necessary to uh support small businesses, some of the openings that we have uh in economic development and just across the cluster will be focused on supporting that.

So I don't see those things as disconnected.

I think what we're doing with the Office of Minority Business is really kind of elevating it a little bit and making it go across the city, but also ensuring that they get connected to our chambers, our venture Richmonds, all of those other partners, MBL, all of those folks who are helping to enhance, grow and increase our business community.

So more to come because we are looking at some of the open recruitments that we have to make sure that the staff that we bring on, at least one of them will be centrally focused on uh growing and increasing business.

Mr.

Donald, thank you.

Follow-up question to that.

We uh anticipating over the next couple of years as we realign assessments that there may be some cliff effect as it relates to revenue.

And because this portfolio generates most of revenue for the city, how what are we expecting to do?

What are we doing to better prepare for that cliff?

Yeah, so that's great point.

So we'll of course I don't want to say automatically, but we're expecting to get what would be considered a windfall with the new with the next budget in the same way we had to tighten our uh belts this year, they'll kind of open up for let's call it the next year, right?

As you write size.

Uh as we do that, we still have to be prepared for these ongoing costs that we have from everything from labor and materials and others.

So as we're preparing, we're making some strong investments and some adjustments in our decision making.

One of them is how we adjust with our regional partners.

Uh I'll use GRTC for an example, or even our amulance authority.

We funded them at higher levels than uh they expected going in.

The Amulance Authority is a great example of that, and we provided some additional resources.

We did that so that they can make those purchases, but also not be so reliant on the city.

Uh with GRTC, that's something similar.

I know that you and Councilmember Jones um sit on that board with me, and we've been very focused on making sure they take full advantage of uh the CVTA funding and really uh ensuring that we keep fare-free in place, but we are very thoughtful and methodical on how we make those investments.

Well, it's kind of the same with us.

I know I sit on the Greca uh board, and we want to make sure that the demolition of the Coliseum.

So even though you don't see these things in the general fund, there are activities for which the city is controlling.

And so we want to make sure we are demolishing the Coliseum, but also putting that hotel in place so those revenues and our share uh of those funds, you know, come back into our coffers.

Uh, it is the same as our alignment and bringing our economic development arm and our what I'm calling our workforce development plus arm together so that we are both bringing in opportunities for the future that are revenue generating, but making sure that Richmonders are the ones that are being prepared for those opportunities because for a person who might be unemployed that increases their salary, et cetera, their tax revenue and dollars, all of those things come right back into the city of Richmond.

It's great to have Richmonders working in Henrico and Chesterfield and all of those other places, but it's better when they do so right here at home.

So Mr.

Donald, one last question.

Um as it relates to the um housing and community development and the mapping that you're creating.

We are in the process of trying to identify all affordable housing.

Is it possible to incorporate that in the mapping?

Yes, ma'am.

So that's well, that's one of the things that the mayor asked that same question.

And so he's focused on it too, is making sure that there's there's a way, and we we did this, and it wasn't excellent.

I'm gonna be honest with you in Atlanta, but we got it started where we created like a housing help center.

So all of the investments that we had made in affordable housing, those that either were online or coming online, you mapped it to a place where people who were looking for housing could come to a central place and say, hey, uh the Lakeshore is gonna have 27 units that'll be available at this rate come January.

So we're looking at how we can do that, but we don't have the same level of infrastructure, but it is definitely on the list and something that is top of mind.

The first thing we're trying to do, though, is those investments that are already in place is being able to bring those forward.

And I know I had a chance to speak with uh uh director Malone a couple of weeks ago, and it's one of the things that's top of mind for him.

So it's in progress.

We're doing the preliminary work now, but the goal is for people to be able to either walk into a place or access it electronically and be able to see where available units, especially those that are funded by the city are available.

We don't have that capacity right now though.

Thank you, Councilwoman Robertson.

Councilwoman Lynch.

All right.

Thank you, Councilmember Newell.

Um, everyone's hit on you know, ditto to everyone's questions are really really good.

Um couple of um questions regarding the planning department um and and around some of our FTE changes, and I know that um uh DCAO Ebert during her presentation cited that we have a really strong department there, which we do.

Um however, um year after year, I know a lot of us receive um constituent concerns about a variety of um issues both in code enforcement, residential speed to um residential permitting.

Um I know we're kind of rocking and rolling on the developer side.

Um, and then of course we have a new, you know, quasi program that we're trying to stand up in in the rental, the rental inspection district, although that might be more of more a name only than in an actual program at this point.

But just knowing all the growth that we have ahead, um do you predict that we are going to to wind up saying, hmm, I we we wish we would have had more of this particular planner.

I just don't want us to sell ourselves short in that in the precipice of so much growth, knowing that those have historically been areas where we needed more staff, not less.

I think you know, if you look over the last five budgets of uh planning and development review, it's probably grown about 20, 24 positions from when I started, and that has been primarily supported by the building permit fees, which is in direct correlation to the growth of the city over the last five years.

Um so, and again, as Mr.

Vonk has said in a previous discussion, you know, the the ability to spread that money over anybody in his department who's working on building coding, building code administration has helped him tremendously.

And that in a lot of respects also covers our property maintenance and code enforcement staff as well as permitting and inspections.

Um I think right now we're in a good place.

Our goal and our strategy with the residential rental income program is to do a lot of proactive work up front so that we're not getting into the position where we have two, three, four different apartment complexes that have been put into districts, and then we have to do a tremendous amount of inspection and monitoring work.

We would prefer to head it off, if you will, and have those um owners work with us.

We have had a couple of successes doing that in the past.

Um, I think the great challenge there is um, as as councilwoman Robertson has pointed out, displacement, um, accidental displacement.

What we want to be able to do is to say, hey, you need to fix your roofs, you need to update your bathrooms and your kitchens, fix some of the systems that are not working.

We know a lot of them have probably not been updated in the last 30 years for our naturally occurring affordable housing, those housing units that were perhaps built in the even early 90s, 1970s and 80s, um, which is really our affordable housing, if you will, um, when you're looking at something that you might be able to get for less than a thousand dollars a month rent.

So the key in my mind is can we create a program that can help those property owners do those improvements and so that they don't then raise the rents and displace people because they now feel they have a better product to put on the market, and therefore the people living there can no longer afford them.

So Merrick and I are working on a program to see if we can do low interest rate loans that they wouldn't be able to get in the open marketplace, and then tie that to keep those units affordable because they're getting a loan with a much lower interest rate.

But that is uh something that we're trying to do so that particular program does not become a burden to PDR staff.

Um second question is really about, and this kind of speaks to Councilmember Robertson's um point about larger and and Council Member Britton's point about larger growth nodes, how we're um being planful of our you know, some of these larger projects, City Center, um, you know, certainly you know, SHO's coming online with some of some of the um the museum activity there.

Um where in this budget can we see some some recognition that the TOD, you know, we did some really cool fun things, one cool project with the um tourism um uh district funds earlier this year.

Is there um something in this budget that reflects some potential to use the that funding in the same way again to fund some because we don't have when we just don't have money set aside for land purchase for beautification for the things that we kind of know we need to do to prep a site for those major economic development opportunities.

Um we're oftentimes either letting that finding that money in the couch cushions or trying to get creative with partnerships, or in the case of the um Altria site, we had ARPA money, you know.

But what what are we doing to kind of set aside some funding here to acknowledge that we have some some startup costs to get those growth nodes going?

And are you talking specifically about downtown or other commercial areas?

I I would dare not prioritize one area of the other.

So it's more of a general question.

So perhaps um Director Rogers can come up.

She does have some tools in her toolbox that have been fairly effective in a number of commercial corridors.

Sure.

The thing that I would say is that um most of our tools aren't uh capital heavy because we just don't have the funding to put up.

Um the tools that we do have are uh typically taking advantage of the growth in revenue that we expect as a result of projects coming in.

Um so we get a project and we're able to look at um how that project is gonna grow our revenues uh over time and redirect some of those revenues so that we can support the project and make it feasible.

Um so uh our economic uh development performance grants, that's how they work, uh TDFP, most of the projects of the tools that we have are uh designed so that we can make sure uh that the project is going to be revenue positive over time and then try to redirect some of those revenues in order to support the project.

So in that way, I think you won't necessarily see you know, sort of a pot of capital sitting uh in the budget.

Um, but what you will see are these tools that um projects know that they can come to us, get underwritten uh and receive that support.

That being said, uh we do have uh smaller pods of funding in the budget for our enterprise zone uh and care zone uh um uh and care funding uh where we are able to uh provide, albeit smaller amounts of funding, but funding to small businesses that are looking to uh uh locate in our or expand uh in our corridors that we're focused on.

Um thank you.

Thank you very much.

I think you I think you just spoke to why we need that that funding, right?

Um we have we have the tools at our disposal to help incentivize a developer a little bit to go in um to some of our our growth nodes, but very very different from having the capital and infrastructure money already up front there for some of these projects.

I think since I've been on council, we've done you know four major economic deals, and we've had to come out of pocket somewhere somehow to do underground infrastructure, ground infrastructure such as sidewalk, street repair, et cetera, demo.

And and I just wonder if it wouldn't, you know, penny wise, pound foolish to accelerate the growth in some of our areas, like let's say a whole street, right?

There's not much we can do, and we've toured many, many developers.

Reva um and I have have done that.

Um Counselor Lynch, you have one minute or question.

Got it.

Um, you know, so um just just thinking about ways that if if we truly want to accelerate growth, particularly on the South side where we know we have a lot of infrastructure needs, et cetera, you know, where can we um set aside some of that funding if it's getting creative with the tourism district funds, et cetera, um, to to really see equitable growth in some of our areas where we know need it most where we know developers aren't coming and building us sidewalks and uprooting our DPU infrastructure for free.

If I may just have uh 30 seconds to respond to that, the thing that I would say um, particularly for some of the areas that we're looking at um along the South side, and we've been looking at Hull between Cowardin and Warwick.

I do think that housing is gonna lead the way.

And so the investments that you all, along with the mayor have agreed to make uh in affordable housing, um, I think is really gonna be the first in and will bring us along uh with those ground floor uh opportunities that we have tools on the table already to help make those things happen.

Thank you, councilwoman Trammel.

Um I have a couple questions for Kevin.

Kevin Funn.

Thank you, Kevin.

Um the vice president, she raised some questions earlier about if marijuana is legal, um if it's made legal, I guess July the first or whatever.

Um do you have enough um code enforcement officers to um enforce all of that?

Um, you know, with these vape shops, convenience stores, and I know that right now we have 60 um store or vape shops and convenience stores that are closed up, which is definitely not bringing in any revenue to our city or taxes or plus um their families are suffering because they're not able to go to work.

And I saw in the news, I think the other night where they're going in there and they're vandalizing these stores that are now closed up where the the owners can't go in there, can't get their stuff out of there, can't do anything because they will be arrested for trespassing.

So, how do we how do you I don't even know why they were closed?

Some of them in my district that I know that they um they serve the community well, especially when my colleague over there, Ellen Robertson said we don't even have a grocery store to use the convenience stores to go in there to buy the milk, buy the bread.

And I've said over and over that if the vape shops or convenience stores are doing something legal, yes, I wanted it addressed.

Yes, I want it to be taken care of, ASAP.

But if these business owners have not been told why they were closed up, or given a timeline when they can open back up, what are what what do we do?

What do they do?

That's a lot of questions, but I just no, so I think just to to you know work on um from up from a high level, you know, I'll rewind back to even things that we were talking about, um, reasons for passing the retail tobacco ordinance, and then that was really rooted in um limiting access to uh to tobacco from youth.

And if you look at right, this is a zoning code change that put some buffers from locating these establishments near schools, near parks, near basically places where youth were present.

And so one of the things that we did when this became uh ordinance in July of this year is some compliance checks in terms of where we felt, and this is between police and and PDR uh establishments that were um hitting that threshold.

Basically, it just means um it doesn't prohibit you from selling tobacco.

It just says, look, if more than like 10% of your inventory, your floor space, your revenue, those things, that you're going to be seen as one of these establishments.

And so um our team between uh planning and finance and police and fire go in and are making compliance checks to say, are you in compliance with city law?

Uh and and if you're not, um, what are the steps to go there?

And when it comes to, I'll just say, you know, some of the things that have uh made the news about us placarding or or shutting down right an establishment.

Um I I will just say when we talk about from a building code perspective, putting up that orange placard is like one of last resort.

And that is um if we look at these establishments when we put on an orange placard, it's because either A, they don't have a certificate of occupancy, so like we don't know what has happened there, or B, we found building code violations that are life safety threatening.

And so those are reasons uh again that they get that placard, but then we've also been working uh with these uh establishments to say, all right, how do we get you compliant?

How do we get you back open?

So we've had both group meetings, individual meetings and working them through.

Um for a number of them, we've granted early starts so that you can get in while you're processing the permits.

Um, because again, at the end of the day, you know, we want to make sure that establishments are able to operate, but also able to operate in a way that is safe for them and their customers because the last thing we want is something to happen, um, you know, an injury or or worse because uh something is not compliant with our codes.

And so um we'll continue to to work on that, and I think just to make the transition to what you talked about, um, we'll likely do the same things uh when it comes to uh retail cannabis um and and if you know we work on codes to change um where we allow those in the city.

I think that's a policy discussion that will come with some recommendations, but ultimately city council is going to decide, right?

Where do they want these establishments in the city and then what rules uh would apply for us to go through and ensure compliance?

Okay, so in other words, um the ones that are shut down, you have been meeting with them or working with them for them to be able to open back up.

You have been.

Yep.

Okay, and um out of 60, can you tell them about how many has been reopened?

Um, spreadsheet off the top of my head.

Uh there's been a handful, I would say somewhere between five and ten have been reopened.

Are you planning on meeting with them maybe so that you could maybe be on the same page with all of them so that they would know, you know, because I looked at a couple of them and I didn't understand what the orange factor what it said.

I didn't I myself did not fully understand exactly why that store was closed.

Sure.

Um as you know, we we started this uh um you know compliance in in December of last year.

We held a meeting with a number of representatives in January, and then we also had uh a more uh in-depth meeting in February to go through and talk about um, you know, one, what are we looking for in terms of like compliance and what are the health safety things that you need to have in place?

Um and then two, like how do you go through and get those permits?

And so I think one of the things we've also emphasized that for establishments that we haven't been to yet, um, we will eventually get to all of the vape shops in the community.

And so come to us ahead of time and in terms of I think our staff is very willing to work through and say, point out right what is wrong and what is needed to fix it.

And some of the things can be very simple fixes um in terms of right, uh just making sure you open up um you know doorways for ingress and egress and put the proper signage in place for for exits and fire extinguishers and those things, some are more complicated because walls were built or electric things were changed, and and so it's gonna be a little bit longer process.

Um, but we again, you know, just like any client throughout the city, I mean it's our goal to help any customer, whether that's a resident or a business, you know, get up to code as quickly as possible.

Yeah, because each day that they are closed, they're losing money, and each day that they're closed, we'll lose in money for the city of Richmond because you know, we always say we need more money.

So are you do you have a plan to meet with the other business owners that are not open at this time?

So we we'll um continue to meet with uh them individually.

Uh I think we've uh for the moment just put a pause on more proactive inspections to allow us to make sure that we're spending our time focusing on those who have violations, making sure that they get uh permitted up and running as quickly as possible.

Okay, thank you.

Sure.

Thank you.

Um I have a question for Sharon.

Sharon, I I want to thank you for attending our meeting last Thursday night.

And I know there was a lot going on, but can you just explain um with the Philip Mars site that we have you know purchases over what a hundred acres?

And I know a lot of citizens were saying, and they're still saying it.

I'm not to pick up, bring the cards here, but they want something like an outlet mall over there where you could have grocery stores, restaurants.

Um I know a lot of people say that, you know, people are doing more online shopping, but I'm hearing that people are saying they no, they still go into the stores.

If you go to Macy's um in Chesterfield Town Center, like I do on Sardi Sunday, it is packed in there.

Plus, they have a lot of our citizens that work there.

So great question.

So, yeah, last year we closed on uh 96 acres from Altria.

Part of the condition of sale was to demolish their vacant operations building.

And the office uh Department of General Services is overseeing that work.

They started it a couple of months ago.

Um, they're on schedule and on budget, and they anticipate that the entire operations building will be demolished by the end of June.

So that was the first thing we had to accomplish.

And I think the second thing we talked about last week at your town hall meeting was what are the next steps?

And so we really do want to get out there this summer and take people out on the site.

We know that a large portion of that land is going to be park space just because it's beautiful and and we have a we have a we have a park that has water features in it, so we really want to make sure that everybody can enjoy that.

But there's about 50 uh plus or minus acres that can be really developed, and we'd like to learn everything that everybody wants from the community.

Then we'll fold that into a request for interest from the development community and find out what their thoughts are before we can actually start to do some of the hard work that Councilwoman Robertson has asked us to do, which is for that five and a half million dollars to purchase the site, and about four million dollars to actually demolish the building.

Um, what is the return on our investment?

Um we believe that some of the land can be used for economic development, and I agree with you.

Um, while people are shopping more online, uh, you know, discount uh retail is still booming.

People do go to outlet stores, people are looking for a good buy, people are going to thrift stores.

Um we've had developers come to us and literally say, hey, we'd like to build a whole community down there, whole village.

We'll have retail stores, we'll have civic spaces, we'll have residential.

So we have a lot of interest in what is going to happen to that.

And this will be our year to explore and to figure out how we can really maximize the investment that we've made.

Yes, Sharon.

I wanted you to know too with the fill with um Petersburg getting a casino.

We, you know, I know that they don't have the hotels there right now, like we do over there off of Bells Road.

We got the Hampton Inn, um, we got some others, the Red Roof Inn and a couple other big hotels.

So when they go to Petersburg and they gamble and they have fun and all that, they I've heard they come down here and they use our hotel.

If we had something there on that site that would bring them there to spend some time, um, because maybe a lot of people get dropped off there, and then other people could take the bus, come back down here and go shopping to the restaurants, and then go right over there to the hotel and spend a night, and this would bring in more revenue for us and give us more money.

I think it's a great idea to capitalize on what's happening in Petersburg.

It's a short distance uh away from the site when you're traveling on I-95, and we will certainly look into how we can create some synergy so that the city can still you know grow from what's being happening in Petersburg.

And Ms.

Tramwell, you have one minute left.

Um what does it okay?

There was one more thing.

Um, there's two more, but just one for you.

The Richmond Corridor, I know that further up the zip code 23224, they're doing a lot of improvements over there where the model tobacco and Port City and all that is doing a lot of modeling and also um beautification.

Do we have anything further down where like 23, 234, where we have the motels, the seven motels, um we have other um like the satellite, restaurant and lounge that they are requesting some beautification.

Um, you know, they have potholes, they have sinkholes, and they're asking for something to happen down further the cent, all the way to Walmsley.

So I think it's a very good question.

Obviously, um our goal is to have Walmsley Boulevard, which stops right now in front of uh then the Altria site that we just purchased to extend all the way to Highway One.

I think that's going to be a huge imp uh help to re-energizing that part portion of Highway One.

But at the same time, let's not forget that the fall line trail is going to be coming down that entire section of fall line trail, and they're working right now on redoing the entire streetscape for Highway One.

So perhaps when the Department of Public Works is up here, we can find out a little bit more about the timing of that.

But I think that will generate a lot of investment.

We're looking at a number of vacant sites in conjunction with the redevelopment of the all trius site on Highway One to see if we can kind of create more synergy as people come and leave.

I think a lot of people will be coming to the park once the park is developed.

That will be also an anchor to people coming off of Highway One, and then drive investment into Highway One.

I think the only thing that Kevin and I feel is uh difficult to do on Highway One, and you know this is the residential, the east side of Highway One is much more residential, with the exception of a Philip Morris.

The West Side, although it has a lot of commercial and industrial like uses, the parcels aren't that deep.

And so we're trying to figure out how to maximize the best use of parcels that are not quite as steep as you would maybe find on Midlothian, for example.

But we are looking at it.

There's also other things in the pipeline that I can't talk to you right now about private development coming.

So stay tuned.

Thank you.

And also thank you, Councilwoman Trammell.

Just one thing.

I wanted to say thank you, Mr.

Malone.

Thank you, Mr.

Malone, for all that you're doing all over the city, especially with some of the seniors in my eighth district.

I really appreciate you.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Jones.

Thank you, Madam President.

I guess my question might be to Miss Ebert.

Um because I know we've talking a lot about your portfolio and all the things that fall under them, and they talk a lot about it's the revenue driver for the city.

So my first question is how much, because I know we held a lot of sessions, but how much of the community input did we use to build the budget for your portfolio?

I think when you're talking about planning and development review, uh probably a lot of community input.

Um I think we probably could do, we've done a lot of input when it comes to housing, especially affordable housing.

Um we meet with that community um regularly, and the mayor has actually established his own housing advisory um committee to help us uh stay on track and keep on formed.

I would say um we could benefit from meeting um more holistically with our economic development partners.

Not that we don't meet with them, we do, I think meeting with them holistically maybe something that we could do in the future.

And then is that inclusive of the residents?

Like how many residents, how how many residents help shape what you felt you needed to build out the portfolio?

Portfolio of this particular budget.

Yes, this budget.

I mean, this budget is really based on years of experience on what our goals are, obviously right now.

Um, as you can see from our presentations, we're focused on the mayorial action plan and the seven pillars.

Um community input, but I wouldn't say that we went out and you know interacted with the community to build our budget.

Yeah, and I was asking because I know y'all held a lot of sessions that were publicly um yeah, the town halls.

Oh, those awesome.

That's what I was meaning.

I was referring to that.

Yeah, the town halls.

I want to talk about, I thought those were absolutely awesome.

Let me have the CAO come up.

We don't got to talk about them because I ain't got well four more minutes.

I got a question.

Oh, the numbers, yes.

I think it was a total of around two thousand or something like that, total a thousand that completed every active form.

And in the mix within the next week, we'll actually be releasing a full report on the public feedback because we had a variety of ways for people to provide input, not just attending.

So we'll be sharing that shortly.

So don't go forget then.

So my next question then is have we also, as a part of that, done a citywide needs assessment based off of coming.

Yes.

So the next steps, we will be announcing two initiatives, um public as well as I think we leave out our employees a lot.

And I'm not talking about Richmond in general, I'm just saying period when we do government.

So we'll have some uh employee center feedback as well as a part of that needs assessment, and we'll be announcing those, I think, in the next two weeks.

Okay, then one more.

Oh, I guess.

Um, and I know we talked a lot about economic development and a lot of projects and how we're gonna bring business and what we can do right now and what we can't do.

So my question is as a part of that, are we actually looking at um, and I know Ms.

Robinson raised it a little bit, but like the equity and have we done an equity impact assessment as well.

So you sound just like Director Foster.

So she's been big on making sure that we take the next steps, what I'll call it just uh the next steps and implementation of the diverse the disparity study.

So the first part is just disparity amongst business and minority businesses and the impact there.

But one of the things that she brought up in just a conversation and doing our one-on-ones early on is just how we we measure that impact just across a needs assessment for our residents, not just businesses, although many of them are part of the micro business environment.

So we're looking at the next steps in that, but we have not implemented it.

Um and I'll tell you there are two reasons for that.

Number one, we're trying to do a lot in a small period of time with our small and mighty force.

But I think the second piece, and I'm not just saying this because I'm talking in front of you, I think our action show it as well.

We don't often start with the council on ideation sometimes.

And so y'all represent each individual district as well as collectively with the mayor, our 237,000.

And so I think we want to come back and figure out okay, this is how we're gonna implement the small and minority business portion.

How are we going to leverage our individual council members as well as the resources that we have to get that feedback?

And so that is the next step, and I don't think there's a cost associated with it yet.

So it's a plan to do so after the budget.

Yeah, and because I guess my question is like in trying to look at the budget, look at not necessarily if we're in the phase of amendment and making amendments, you know.

I guess I just want to ensure that we are looking at the city.

And I asked this question during our budget thing that we had at the hotel.

And we do, you know, an internal audit of the areas because like we heard today, the Diamond District City Center, and right, those are places that we need to actually get moving to generate revenue, but there's a whole uh another area that we are not even, you know, really emphasizing on, but I think part of helping to make a sound decision with the budget needs to be included.

Like we need to know that.

Like, what is the plan?

I know my colleagues said it, but like what is the plan for South Side?

What is the plan for if we're getting all these new positions?

I would just like to know like, is it incorporated based off of the need?

And that's why I asked about the needs assessment because some of the code enforcement calls are higher in different areas based on where they are.

So I'm just trying to get a sound, more you know, sense of like when we say, yep, let's move this along, but it's also inclusive of the people.

It's also an order of magnitude too.

So district eight and nine are I would say our two biggest uh untapped opportunities.

And but you also have some active activity and projects, which I would consider the diamond district and some of the other, even our downtown corridor, those are like active nodes for which um they're available for resources now.

But when you look at everything from uh I I heard uh council member tramble talk about grocery stores, or maybe that was council member Lynch.

But when you look at grocery stores, there are a few ways to look at it.

I think uh Director Rogers highlighted, you know, how we're approaching it.

But there's also a fail-safe, like this places a blank canvas waiting for us to create some things.

And so when we look at that, now that we know what we're doing for downtown and some of the future activities, let's say we can't attract.

I'll just use an example in Atlanta.

We couldn't attract somebody.

Um, we put 12 million dollars in for Cambleton Road grocery store, and because of the demographics, we couldn't attract anybody.

I think she highlighted we're starting to look here, which is a little wiser than we were there, is smaller grocers.

But even if we can't do that, we can't leave out the opportunity for a municipally run grocery store.

I think that should be on the table.

We also have to come to council to talk about that and make sure it fits within your vision.

That's why I said I think we start, we go ahead and deliver on the things that we've committed to and promised, and then we can chew gum and walk at the same time, and we start with our ambassadors for your communities and talk about what those other options are.

I do think it is a post-budget conversation, though, because the first thing is you've made some commitments in 23, 24, and 25, and we want to make sure we honor and deliver on those and then bring back the ideation phase with y'all first, community second, and then deliver for Richmond as a whole.

Yeah, thank you for that.

I think what I I personally, and I mean I don't want to speak for anyone else, but I think like in sitting in this process for years now.

I think it is really helpful when you kind of have a sense of like I I need like where we moving.

I can look at the individual budgets, and I can see okay, we're increasing staff, we're gonna put this many more units over here, we're gonna, you know, build this department over here.

I can see all of that, but I also still cannot see how from a from a council, and I have to only speak from my perspective from a ninth district council.

I cannot see how all of that encompasses where it's moving.

It might be in motion, I don't know.

I'm just simply saying that from a budget standpoint where we sit today and having to make and vote on things that are in this budget.

I'm trying to really get a sense of and I I know Ms.

Rogers talked about the corridors and all that, but I'm just saying that's where I'm approaching it from.

So I'm looking at all the different departments because I'm trying to see how it's gonna collectively support not just those projects we promised, but when how's it going to be sustainable for everybody?

Yeah.

Part of that, if you look at that budget explainer that I sent to the council a couple of days later, now it's 32 pages and it came after the budget, but I think it may help start that process for you because it actually uh what do they say?

It tells you where the bodies are buried, right?

So it talks about why we not just the decisions that we made and the budget document itself, but also why we made that decision and then what's coming next.

And so I think that pathway is a little clearer there, but it doesn't stop with the budget.

Budget is just our plan, our initial plan, because as you see from the recent uh weather and everything else, we have to change those and it's ever evolving.

So point well taken, and I think if there's a need for us to do more, we will, and I appreciate that feedback.

Well, I'd just like to put a plug in that well, Miss Uh Eber held up that book that we did, whatever that book was.

I would like to see a book for the Southside.

It'd be super helpful to help us understand where we're going.

Thank you.

We'll bring that back, yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um the good news about being last is many of the club questions that were on my list, you have already.

So, but I'll still just um uh reiterate some of those as opposed to having someone come forward.

Um, I really like Miss Ebert, your um concept of the money generating portfolio.

Um, the part for me, and this was raised by another member.

I like to have very much project specifics at the projections, uh, the timelines, the revenues that will be generated uh for those.

Bless you.

Okay.

All righty there.

Okay.

So I think our staff have that one as well.

Um, there was a mention of affordable housing and certainly the abatements and the grants that are given.

What is still a challenge, I think, is the infrastructure to continue to ascertain that those are being retained once we've given them.

Do we go back and look, are they still X number that are affordable in that development?

And so they are rightfully receiving that abatement or whatever the case.

And so I don't know what our infrastructure uh is in that regard.

I'd really like to have some sense of the uh if this is built into the budget, the timeline for the completion of the disparity study.

We've talked about that for quite a bit of time, uh, best faith efforts and all like that's interesting, but we've been talking about this for quite some time.

So I'd like to get that information.

I really like to um uh commend the uh thoughtfulness of bringing OCWB and Ms.

Spelman's team into the portfolio.

I think a prime example was the uh we're gonna have the first solar farm uh in the east end.

And then with sustainability, we had, I don't see Mr.

Walker staff, but we had eight residents who are trained who would then be able to work and be a part of that effort.

I want to make sure that we are intentionally looking at all of those projects and such that we are whether we're coordinating to do the training internally or with our local colleges to get the certification so our residents can become employees and benefit.

So it there's a win-win, if you will.

So I'm really pretty you know, pleased with both of those offices, and that's a prime example of that work coming together.

So I want to say thank you there.

Um Ms.

Rogers, I know is working on this.

I'm very much interested.

Uh I know the enterprise zone is uh we have an iteration of that, and it's being further enhanced and tweaked, and there'll be a care grant.

I'd like to get dates specific for when that uh expanded enterprise zone uh will be completed as well as when it will come forth to council and also with the care um grant.

I just want to say thank you.

Um I don't know if Ms.

Rogers is still here, but I'm very much appreciative of that expanded work to pick up other areas that would facilitate development.

Um the um I have several of these, but I'm gonna give them to staff after this.

Um the grocery store, we have been talking about the need for grocery stores for far too long.

The north side, the south side.

Um, even I need additional one down in Fulton, but beyond that greater strategic intentionality.

One folks aren't gonna just locate it.

I think Miss Ebert, you mentioned it.

Um, and so the size or there are urban box models that can be looked at and looking at how do we say three places you can get an incentive versus going to one, and I think it's really critical whether it's um trying to attract a developer or doing cooperative with city or in our case a private developer.

I think we have to move on this.

This we've been so I'd like to get some sense of um that um timeline.

We need to move on this so that families can have that kind of access.

Uh the others I'll I'll just simply because they um well this lap, well, this is not the last one, but the last one I'll mention.

I'm not I'm almost at my five minutes, the five cent disposable back tax.

I'd like to get a read on that and where we are, but also are we continuing to provide those bags for residents so they are not having to incur the cost.

That's it for me.

I'll submit the rest of the questions to our team.

Thank you for the presentations and comments at this point.

Yes, I'm go.

Okay.

Yeah, um, we we told members there would be a second round of questions, and there will be, but I just asked the members to be concise with if they have any additional questions, and if not, um council staff is able to take these in writing and get them answered for you.

So we're gonna go back around one through nine again.

Um so try to be concise, and we can also put those in writing.

If it's appropriate, I'd like to very quickly insert the plastic bag text question for you.

Okay, yes.

Um again, Lawrence, I'm a director of sustainability.

Yes, we are continuing to distribute reusable bags throughout the community.

Um they are currently available at the community center, so we want to thank our partners at Parks and Recreation for helping with that.

And information about pop-ups and other distribution um efforts are gonna always be on RDA Green2050.com, so that is always up to date.

Um, and then we will also be building a public dashboard, and that will show every penny we receive from the state, and it will show in which manner we're spending every penny.

So that will be live and updated once that starts happening.

Thank you.

Thank you for that update.

With that, Councilman Breton.

No more questions today, thank you.

Thank you.

Um, Vice President Jordan.

No further questions right now, thank you.

Councilwoman Gibson.

No further questions.

Councilwoman Lynch.

Um, just just a question.

How many folks are from the city who are sitting out in the audience today?

I just want to say thank you.

This has been an awesome and thank you to RJ and to our council president, vice president.

This has been one of the best budget sessions I've ever attended.

I'm like the biggest critic, so that's actually really meaning meaningful um coming coming from my mouth, but I just want to say thank you guys for organizing such a great budget session, and thank you guys for taking the time to be here and and do this.

It's really and to all of our staff, you're amazing.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Robertson.

Uh thank you, Madam Chair.

I do have uh a few more questions, but what I would like to do is to put those to writing um by departments and get them to the staff.

Thank you.

Councilmember Trammell.

Um asked a question now because one because I have to go, I gotta go be with some children at Bouchall School.

Um they said that there's 42 families that will get um $500 for the next two years.

Can we come back for another discussion?

Can we have somebody fully explain that?

Because I don't know how these 42 families will be pegged, and they're going to be getting $500, I guess, a month or for the next two years.

Did I did I get that right?

Miss Spelman is coming forward.

Good afternoon again.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Um, Miss Tramwell, that those 42 individuals are actually over a two-year period.

They began last fall, so that will conclude in 27.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Trammell.

Councilwoman Jones.

I do have one question from Ms.

Ebert.

Um you mentioned um the input was from the from the map when we were when you were talking, and I just had a quick question from the map where it said invest in South Side, and it said how will we know that we're making progress, and one of them was the per capita investment.

Can you talk a little bit about that?

I may need uh director Rogers here, but as you know, we still have some money left over from the $10 million, which is about four and a half million dollars.

Um I actively look um every week to see if there's uh anything for sale that has in any of the nodes that we have discussed with you, and unfortunately I haven't found anything.

We want to make sure that if we're gonna use some of that money for acquisition, that it's going to be in an area where we can create that sense of place that you have been asking for us to do, and unfortunately, um nothing seems to be coming up for sale in any of the areas that we want to, but that money is still sitting there.

We still plan to invest it wisely.

And with regards to some of the performance measures, perhaps um uh director Rogers could come up with I would say for the uh is the question about the performance measures specifically for the four and a half million or in general.

Um I think that the performance measures that we would be looking at are the same for um the tools that we um invest across the city.

Um so um, you know, the um enterprise care, you know, these are all of the tools that we are using for activation, um, and we are typically um looking for uh those tools to perform a dollar of investment gets us anywhere from three to four dollars um of leverage uh when we invest those tools.

So I think those are the same performance measures that we would use on the South side that we would use across the city.

So I'd like to say thank you.

Um CAO Donald and your team, um certainly all of the leadership um who've been a part of the presentation and all of the folks here who've been a part of just compiling and doing this work.

Um it's phenomenal.

We've made uh a lot of inroads, but we have a lot of work to do, and I know that collectively and collaboratively we can get there.

I really do appreciate your working with us to um have a protocol this year that hopefully we find more efficient um and an opportunity for us to dig in and ask questions, but also to get more information uh from you during this session.

So, with that, we look forward to the next um workshop.

I should say work session, and um Mr.

Warren, that next that will be Monday the 23rd at one o'clock.

Thank you.

I was about to say they give RJ Autumn props.

I'm on sound two now.

Well, Mr.

Well Mr Donald, I started with you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you everyone.

This meeting now stands adjourned.