This meeting started.

This is a meeting for the budget hearing for uh neighborhood and business development.

Today I have with me is Counselor Hudson, Councillor Moore, Counselor Nave, Counselor Cogwell, Councillor Penny, President Pennyagua, Councilor Williams, and Council Month as well.

And I think Councillor Majoke will be joining us.

And we welcome our MBD team and Owen Kearney.

Yes.

Where's your question title Owen?

A deputy commissioner for planning and sustainability.

Okay.

All right.

Um, so we uh welcome you guys and we'll dive right in.

Counselors, thank you.

Uh Michael Collins, Commissioner for Department for Neighborhood and Business Development, uh, along with uh Michelle Spansky, our Deputy Commissioner of Neighborhood Development, and uh, as you introduced Owen Kearney, uh Deputy Commissioner of Planning and Sustainability.

Um so we're actually going to cover two budgets today.

Uh so we've got the uh when when you look at the Department of Neighborhood and Business Development, uh there are three budgets that cover that department, and that is uh the one that is uh what's often referred to as MBD proper.

So that's the economic development and community development.

There's the uh one for planning and sustainability, and and we'll cover both of those today, and then next week we'll cover the one for code enforcement.

So uh to start with, we're gonna go just for run a show.

Uh we're gonna cover uh uh a top level overview, uh we'll get into business development, Michelle will follow up with uh the neighborhood development, and then Owen will uh round us out as we transition to the planning sustainability.

So that's uh budget.

So that's that's how we're gonna walk through these things.

Uh so uh I I want to start with a a huge thank you to the budget team uh that has really supported us through the process of getting to today.

Uh and so uh to everybody on that team sitting right behind me.

Thank you.

Uh uh our our own finance team, I know uh uh Jackie Duong uh uh is here.

I see Victor Foe from our finance team.

Um and then we've got representatives from uh the different divisions uh as well that I may call on uh if you guys end up with some questions that uh they can get into the specifics of so from a high level.

Um I'm gonna start with so you've got four handouts.

One is uh a top level org chart that looks like this.

Um we we can start with that.

Uh and then the uh what we'll get into after that is going to be uh just to follow it up.

I'm going back to my teaching days and saying let's look at uh uh make sure you guys are are clear on what you're looking at.

To follow it up, we're gonna uh look at the uh business development budget, which I have filed among many other papers here, and I will pull that out shortly.

So uh so high level, we've got four main divisions uh that we that we just went over.

Um there are about 30 a little less than 35 people in the um the three divisions that we're covering today.

Um so between those two budgets, we're we're looking at uh a little over 1.3 million, just to tick over 1.3 million for uh the neighborhood and business development budget, and uh just to tick under 390,000 for planning and sustainability.

Uh from an economic impact standpoint, um that money supports uh the fact that we are able to put into the city and out to our partners uh uh 61 million dollars uh worth of economic and neighborhood development that we do across uh a tremendous number of uh grants and uh lending from our said uh from SEDCO, our business development uh team.

So uh what that tends to look like is uh really really vary.

We see we've got 16 different funding sources.

Uh we've got uh 32 different uh grants, uh not including the lending that we do that really what all of this work does is make sure that as we understand from our community, and that's the collective we, right?

It's it's uh the administration and and the common council, and we you know we appreciate the the uh very regular communication that we have with uh with you regarding our constituent uh concerns, whether they are business development um or uh uh or housing development related.

Uh but it puts us in a position where we are able to take uh less than two million dollars and uh do more than 30 times that amount of work within the community.

So it's it's a it's an incredibly efficient team, especially because of the fact that this work goes across uh the the different divisions.

So these divisions support the the two divisions that we're talking about uh right now support five different authorities, four of which are active, uh but we do reporting on five.

So you've got Syracuse Housing Strategies Corporation, uh the Syracuse Urban Renewal Agency, uh the Industrial Development Authority, SIDA, our economic development corporation, SEDCO, and then uh the the dormant uh Syracuse Local Development Corporation.

So we staff uh again four of those five uh and use those to make sure that we are uh supporting the work that we need to do when it comes to housing development, uh when it comes to economic development across the city.

From uh um uh SIDA, for example, has seven different projects uh that are either under construction, six of them are under construction, one one of them's just finished in the class financial closing right now, uh that has 289 million dollars worth of uh development to it that's bringing in 700 and uh j just under 800 housing units.

Uh and again, because of our work with uh the zoning team a couple of years ago, and our zoning code uh requires that we've got affordable housing in any large project.

That all means that there's uh there's affordable housing uh components to all of those projects.

So uh it's it's meeting the need, it's encouraging the growth, and it's doing it in a way that is highly efficient for us.

Uh when you look at what we're doing with SEDCO, uh the fact that we've got one point uh 1.7, 1.8 million dollars worth of lending that's happened, and we are the business lender of last chance basically.

So uh what we are um what we encourage our applicants to do is first look to make sure that they can uh achieve their their borrowing needs through a traditional financial institution.

The more they're able to do that, the more they are able to then grow that relationship with that institution, and they're better positioned to faster expand their own business because of those lending relationships.

When they can't do that, we have more creative underwriting that we're able to do.

So our uh our staff has on uh does their uh own underwriting.

Ben Slate, who heads up that team, uh is uh comes to us from the uh banking world as a commercial underwriter, but we're able so we're able to take a look and understand really why a traditional lender might not support this project and why it is reasonably safe for SEDCO to do it, and it is a benefit to the community to be able to do it.

So a lot of a lot of the loans that we put out there are out there because those business owners should have access to them.

Our community is better off because of those projects, uh for one reason or another, um the more conservative traditional lending institutions just won't take a chance on them.

So when you look at that type of work, it's it's a huge impact.

And then we've got work such as uh uh our work with the community uh the CNI grant.

So uh for those of you that were previously on the on the council, you know that uh it was it was really uh the team of uh city housing authority and the developer that won the that wrote the grant that won the 50 million dollars uh for the choice neighborhood implementation grant.

Uh the city is responsible for we're as co-applicant and co-awardees, seven and a half million dollars on that.

And what that really does is uh make sure that it it's it's called critical CCI critical community improvements uh investments, excuse me.

Uh and so what we're looking to do uh with that money and what we are actively doing is on uh whether it's housing related, whether it's um uh amenities to the neighborhood uh that are uh placemaking or amenities that are related to what we do with the um growing the businesses in that neighborhood because it's a bit of a desert for a lot of them.

We're able to make sure that those investments uh happen with community input.

So right now we're leading a tremendous amount of community engagement around that work.

Uh just because of the fact that we've I mean I I could go on with this for as long as you guys want.

You have a lot of other budget hearings, and we do more work.

So with that, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna turn that over to Michelle to talk about the neighborhood uh uh investment stuff.

If I have time, I'm gonna come back around to talk about how we tie into code enforcement as well.

Before we go to Michelle, do anybody have questions on what was stated so far.

Okay, go on the show.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Great to be here with you all today.

Um there's a handout that I have uh provided all of you that kind of highlights uh a few uh highlights that we've had from our uh most recent uh uh fiscal year and then uh some items that we're looking forward uh kind of to the year ahead.

Um high level as it pertains to the division of neighborhood development, uh a major component of the work that we do within uh the neighborhood development division uh involves the implementation of our HUD entitlement grants.

Um so there's a combination of work that we do uh to manage that program on an annual basis.

Um that accounts for approximately 25% of the grants that we currently have in uh some stage of activity.

Um so we have about 21 uh million dollars uh right now at this point within the neighborhood development portfolio that uh is either underway or that we have been recently awarded that we'll be managing over kind of uh specific periods of those different grant life cycles.

I think largely under the umbrella of all of that different work, um, kind of the items that tie that together, I think can uh be well described by the um strategic priorities that are identified at the top of the uh handout that I provided to you all.

Um, the same language is uh comes directly from the uh consolidated plan uh that we uh approve on a five-year basis that is then submitted to HUD.

Uh it is meant to be kind of a guidepost for how the city thinks about using those entitlement dollars, um, but also um is not at all uh separate or independent really from how we think about just the work that we do globally.

So um focusing on uh the work that we do to preserve uh quality and safety of our existing housing stock within the city, uh remediate uh disinvestment in that housing stock, promote affordable uh homeownership and the creation of new affordable housing, um, so new construction as well as uh increasing uh access to homeownership opportunities, uh resources to prevent and address homelessness and provide uh other housing resources and public services kind of within that similar ecosystem.

Uh and then to improve neighborhood health and quality of life.

So thinking about uh items that we do to support um uh ongoing efforts kind of through code enforcement on the vacant property reduction side, other kind of auxiliary efforts uh for housing safety and quality of life.

Um I think uh just looking at kind of the grant side of things, uh certainly the federal environment that we've been operating in at particularly this last fiscal year uh has been a challenging one.

Um, so there was a lot of pivoting that uh our team was kind of doing.

Um I think the uh we are uh lucky to say that uh the the doomsday scenario, I think that was initially um uh at one point kind of contemplated that we might be navigating.

We're not fully there, but um, it was certainly not without challenges.

Um we're really appreciative of the work.

Um the grants team has been doing a lot of work, and we've um gotten a lot of great feedback from our uh uh sub-awardees in terms of kind of uh as we've been working through that process.

Obviously, some of the circumstances are challenging, and we wish we weren't dealing with them, but we've been working through it.

Michelle, you said you grant team, so you guys have your own grant team?

Within uh neighborhood development, yep.

So uh Tanya Eastman is the director of that team, and then uh within that team, uh there's program administrators that are kind of directly responsible for the um four main uh major HUD grants that kind of constitute uh the most significant portion of our funding.

So CDBG uh emergency solutions, which focuses on uh homelessness uh prevention efforts, uh the home partnership program, which is a lot of uh work related to housing construction.

Um that position also has some involvement uh with various efforts.

So um our side of the office is kind of involved now with the inclusionary zoning and affordable housings, they are responsible for managing the monitoring of that as those units are coming online.

So do you work with Janet Burke?

We do work with Janet Burke.

Okay, so that was where I was going with that.

Yep, we sure do.

Michelle, I have a question under the um housing strategies corporation.

With the um wave of money that you're given to homeowners to um improve their properties.

Do you guys have a schedule of what neighborhoods you're doing when?

I know you did a couple neighborhoods last year, you got a couple on here for this year.

Sure.

Do you have a schedule going forward?

So when people ask, I can say you'll be in 2028 or 2029.

Sure.

Yeah, so um the housing strategy as it was adopted by the council uh it in uh right at the end of the uh most recent fiscal year, yeah, and 2024, uh, identified the first uh kind of three waves of neighborhoods.

So uh wave one being uh salt springs and tiphill far west side uh to launch in uh 2025.

Uh the second wave being Eastwood and Elmwood to launch in anticipated in 2027, and then the third being the Court Woodlawn area to anticipate it to be launched in 2029.

So the idea of the plan kind of comprehensively was that across the spread of the 23 neighborhoods that were uh distressed or uh in kind of middle conditions, we would work through the balance of those, assuming that we uh have the funding resources on an annual basis, uh, which as was adopted in the strategy, we anticipate that to be about uh two and a half million dollars uh to two to two and a half million per year that that would enable us to kind of keep that cadence moving on a every two-year basis.

So the work that we have done so far, uh kind of um the funds uh with the support of the council that were authorized to transfer um right at the very end of last fiscal year under the 24-25 budget.

Uh those funds transferred uh at the very end of June of 2025.

Uh in August of 2025, we launched our first wave of program uh programming with the block challenge program in the Tip Hill and Salt Springs neighborhood.

Uh there's some highlights kind of of uh that work and uh the impact that we've had so far today.

Yeah, that's been great.

That's been great.

Michelle related to that.

We 2025 budget put two and a half million dollars into the um housing strategies corporation.

The fiscal year 24-25?

Fiscal year 25.

Yep.

Um, last year we did not add to that with our budget.

Um this year you've got two and a quarter in there, but we've only got a million dollars spent in the first wave.

How do you you know how do we go from one million dollars spent, but you're asking for another two and a quarter to add to the two and a half that was already in there?

Uh so I think that we anticipate uh on an annual basis for Tip Hill and Salt Springs.

There's a total of about a 25 million dollar fundraising goal that we expect will kind of complete the work in those two neighborhoods over the course of a 10-year period.

So I think the thinking is is that we need some of that kind of preliminary seed funding uh to create kind of a substantial cushion where we can get that work going.

Um I think uh the uh big focus of the work that we want to uh move towards now that we are launching programs.

Um we're gonna be launching expanded uh programming for interior exterior uh beginning this spring.

Um we've got the draft terms uh pretty uh in good shape, and we'll be presenting those to the board for a vote at their meeting at the end of this month.

At that point, we would kind of roll that out for Tip Hill and Salt Springs if we are able uh to receive the funds that are requested within the fiscal year 26-27 budget.

Uh, that would enable us to move forward on schedule with work in Eastwood and Elmwood, we think, based on kind of resources that we have available.

Um, I would be clear that kind of from a timing standpoint, we would be looking at very close towards the end of this fiscal year.

So that may uh of coming into this next year, we would kind of look to start work in those two neighborhoods, but it would still put us in a position where we're on schedule as adopted by the housing strategy mid-2027.

So the pot of money that came from the state initially that that's gone.

No, those funds are not gone, but we anticipate that we are going to be spending approximately 2.5 a year in the neighborhoods that we're working in.

And so kind of from a total resourcing standpoint, uh, we estimate just in um Tip Hill and Salt Springs, it's about uh 50 projects a year uh for a 10-year period in those neighborhoods, working out to about 2.5 million dollars a year in those two neighborhoods.

And so two and a quarter that's in this year's budget.

Do you anticipate needing that two and a quarter, or do you have enough in reserves to I think that's what Corey's asking?

But in order for us to move on to work in wave two neighborhoods, yes, we will need those resources.

I think otherwise we would be in a position where we would be moving on to do an additional thing before we have kind of fully secured where we feel like we need to be for wave one.

Those funds were also allocated to an admin, right?

Administration or no.

Uh the only funds that have been allocated to admin, so the state funding, uh, that five million, uh, we are not allowed to use any of that for staff costs or administration.

Uh and the stipulations that were put on the fiscal year 24-25 funds were that only 10% of that 2.5 million could go towards any amount of staff resources or indirect costs.

Okay.

So can I just uh just a quick thank you, counselor?

Um simple the simplest way that I keep it in my head is we started with a smaller dollar program, uh is proof of concept on on making sure that we were doing this the right way.

That has worked, and that has spent us down about a million dollars to do exactly as we were talking about with Council Councillor Moore uh and to be able to hit additional neighborhoods and do what we're talking about, then the spending is going to increase significantly.

And so if we're gonna if we're gonna stick to what we've took promised the constituents that we're gonna do, this is the dollar month we take.

Um thank you.

Uh can we go over the budget lines?

That was great.

Is everybody okay with that?

Yeah, okay.

Yeah, sure.

Yes, but just I mean, I know we moved up one public information office.

So that that's that is uh it's not a new expense, it's simply a shift from the uh mayor's office to our office uh uh for that uh for that line.

So it's not a new expense to the total budget, it's just a new, it's a it's a one-for-one trade across budgets, department budgets.

So did you trade one to her?

So no, what what we've done is if you take a look at the fact that uh number of positions on the budget, uh we're actually down a position this year uh for what charges against the city budget.

Uh and that comes from the fact that uh we had money that we're uh some grants that we were able to access admin against for this upcoming year that we had not been able to previously.

Uh the 4.1 million dollar uh ward that we received from HUD, uh we have a little bit of admin money to spend over the five years of that grant.

And we also uh have about two million dollars total.

It's and the amount's gonna be much smaller and fluctuate in years going forward from um both uh New York State and the attorney general's office related to the opioid settlements, and uh those grants offer us a little bit of uh admin as well.

So that's why when you look at our total budget from year to year, we're we're we're largely flat.

It's because I was able to move some positions over to those expense uh to those.

So this public information officer used to be under mayor's office, and I was on the MBD.

And none of the in the SERB positions, any of these grant grant funding money is coming through.

So the grant funding money is is covering a ton of different positions.

Yeah, in fact, we we've maxed out what we can do on the uh on the grant funding.

That's that's uh related this, right?

Uh I love this with Jackie.

Uh I don't have the copy.

Yeah, I didn't sorry, I don't have a copy of that one with me.

That's at the end of your blue view.

I think I literally have a copy of everything else.

Basically, yeah.

That's that.

Oh, you want to see it?

Yeah, do you but thanks?

And Counselor.

Well, she's requested the question.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

I see it.

Yep, yeah, thank you.

Yep.

So the um so basically, as you go across the top, uh those are each of the different funding sources that we pull from to support uh to support the different positions.

So it's not that we've reduced uh positions because we've already gotten to the fewest positions that we can have and continue to do the work that we do, uh, but we were able to move one basically the the equivalent of uh having two off of the uh the budget, and then we added the one back in with uh the trade from the mayor's office.

Okay, and I shouldn't trade's probably the wrong term, but okay.

Do you have any vacancies at the moment?

sources that we pull from to support uh to support the different positions so it's not that we've reduced uh positions because we've already gotten to the fewest positions that we can have and continue to do the work that we do uh but we were able to move one basically the the equivalent of uh having two off of the uh the budget and then we added the one back in with uh the trade from the mayor's office okay and I shouldn't trade's probably the wrong term but okay do you have any vacancies at the moment uh we yeah we've we've got some that we're in the process of filling right now how many um so the uh deputy commissioner uh position is uh a business development is uh uh the biggest one uh and then uh just last week we had um uh our uh SETCO uh lo uh loan officer uh left the team so uh so we're gonna uh fill that one um and the uh FEC one and I think we've got a planner one uh is yeah so uh so yeah we're we're in process with all of those and the environmental review um coordinator now so that that's another one that you'll uh we we're able to do this again with keeping the budget flat um so as since we tend to run a really thin team I like as I I pointed out 13 32 different grants like I said we got I think 33 or 34 staff people right uh so everybody's doing stuff that's additional duties as it's signed.

Uh Camone Jordan who's our director of neighborhood housing uh it's her team that is doing all the outreach uh within the community it's her team that is doing the emergency repair program uh she's also at every single position we have produces uh one of the things that she has to produce is she does all of our federal environmental reviews uh and it's unsustainable okay no I just I was I wasn't sure if that was like a shared individual between like code enforcement it is yes so it's gonna it's gonna also support the work of uh the uh because the for the seeker reviews the state level reviews you see that across the zoning team it's gonna support that as well so yeah it is department wide from an alignment standpoint uh in addition just to the fact that kind of the workload and bandwidth is kind of in excess of what is realistic for one FTE to be doing um we just feel like the technicalities within that it's really a position that needs to sit within the zoning team because of overlap between federal state those various reviews um so just to kind of ensure the cities um that we're not creating a risk of liability for things yeah program uh so that uh that person uh actually just left the team a couple weeks ago so we're uh iron for that now is the guy the young guy uh yeah uh uh Rafiki Ful just yeah Rafiki oh okay because someone one of our somebody was just asking yesterday about the FEC could you just update where we are with so the yeah so uh we have a MOU and and then a uh small grant with the centers for financial empowerment which it's their model and importantly their database that we use um that uh for some reason there was a delay in CFE getting us an updated memorandum of agreement uh memorandum of understanding to be able to access the um uh the portal and it was at the same time that we moved from uh home headquarters to United Way so uh we just got that while was just able to complete the review and a markup so it just went back to CFE we're hoping to finalize that as quick as they can turn it around to us.

Mike okay who is the uh immigration refugees our affairs coordinator uh adult mine okay a doll yep now do you have a coordinator business coordinator for people who are having issues in the city appoint person yeah so uh Rianca Hill who's here her uh she's the director of that team and they do everything what's her name of sword uh Rianka Hill is the director okay and so uh her team does everything from uh you know the outreach to the businesses along our our um business corridors to uh you know we we've got a 1.7 million dollar grant that we secured uh to help bring the grocery store and now pharmacy to Valley Plaza so I do have some existing issues I mean one of our local businesses called me the last couple of days so I call Eric so I I'd like to know the coordinators who can handle all of our businesses that we have on the north side you know one ever issues well there's pertain the sidewalks or safety.

Yeah so that that uh reactor's team is the is the one that'll do that uh even though Eric's a big wig he still talks to us so that that stuff does trickle down towards us.

Okay.

Yeah uh but uh yeah feel free to always reach out uh to myself to Brian I could uh continue to reach out to Eric as well.

Thank you.

Commissioner and go ahead.

Um among these uh positions are any of them currently still remote positions or hybrid positions no none of them okay I was just gonna ask um changing the conversation a little uh looking on page 21 a community ambassadors program that I heard they were doing so well yeah but we're not funding them so we we very very much want to fund them uh uh Michelle has been able to secure some some other money we uh we may come back uh mid-year and look at doing some type of transfer on that because it's been a highly successful program but we've been able to secure some money through uh attorney general's office uh that's that's also getting grant funding on their own right so that yeah so you mentioned emergency repairs how many are we able to do all the emergency repairs that we're getting requests for or and where are we pushing them off to if we can't do it um so I think in theory anything that is a major health and safety or a chronic uh

We uh we may come back uh mid-year and look at doing some type of transfer on that because it's been a highly successful program, but we've been able to secure some money through uh attorney general's office.

Uh that's that's helping us.

So that yeah.

So you mentioned emergency repairs.

How many are we able to do all the emergency repairs that we're getting requests for, or and where are we pushing them off to if we can't do it?

Um so I think in theory, anything that is a major health and safety or a chronic uh lee occurring health and safety code violation technically could be considered eligible for the emergency repair program.

Um so uh total volume of code violations, we have roughly 65,000 code violations a year that are cited.

So uh in terms of is that totally enough resources for the entire need.

Uh I think that would be getting into kind of the estimated one billion dollars to fully care conditions of the housing stock.

Um as far as kind of uh big scale repairs, I think where we would be looking at for um total budget across our various grants uh would bring us to approximat a little over uh six hundred thousand dollars uh that we would have total now.

Um I think we have been very successful.

There's some uh numbers that are highlighted uh at the bottom of the handout that I provided around uh the total cases that we've had kind of in our pipeline for um management so far.

Um we've been very successful with getting compliance through the use of the threat of the program.

Uh and in certain instances where we have uh property owners that we know are kind of frequent flyers, they're non-responsive to everything uh in many instances.

We've also been successful in collecting a decent portion of those dollars.

So um I think as we are able to kind of continue to scale that, uh we want to try to uh use that as much as we can.

I will say that uh I think that some of the challenges, it is a tool that is better suited uh for the needs that we see in kind of the uh smaller density rentals, one unit, one to four units.

Um it is not the best tool that for uh looking at kind of a major multifamily apartment complex the size of a skyline or a knob hill.

That's where it there it can be possibly kind of a part of the solution, but it cannot be the singular solution based on the resourcing that we currently have.

So, how much are we funneling to home headquarters as far as like are we sending people that a fixed income homeowner in Salt Springs calls and she needs a roof?

Are we sending her to are we sending them to places to get help?

Yeah, certainly for for that uh circumstance, absolutely uh headquarters, home headquarters receives uh just over two million a year in uh CDBG funding across uh several different programs, about 1.8 million of that is uh specific to direct homeowner assistance related uh programs, uh so uh covering kind of urgent care, um, any uh additional kind of sharp grants, things like that.

So that's on the owner-occupied side.

We don't use the emergency repair program uh to um in a circumstance where we have a owner-occupant, um, specifically because if we are doing that as a service, then we are billing it to them on their taxes.

So only caveat would be if there could be a circumstance in which a homeowner um would request that we do something that way, but it typically in the circumstances that we're applying it, it is when we've exhausted the options of a rental property owner who is not meeting their obligations.

And in funding would probably limit our ability to honor that request.

Can you speak to the um homeless prevention of street outreach?

Um uh where does who oversees that and what is the budget for that um that for that work?

Yeah, so uh so a couple things uh and then just looking at time up, we'll we'll transition to the planning sustainability budget if that's okay with you all.

So uh the emergency solutions grant is uh 430,000 uh grant from HUD that is specific to addressing homelessness.

So uh Sue McMahon oversees that that grant, and then she also coordinates uh who did you say Sue McMahon?

Uh so cur you know entire career dealing with uh with these populations.

Um and then uh the opioid funds uh what what we fund is is really uh outreach um uh as well that that we do that for so uh uh between Sue and myself uh because I do I do a lot of the uh uh coordination as well with the homeless outreach teams, that's how we cover it.

Okay.

So if it's okay with you, uh we're gonna transfer over to uh Owen Kearney and uh planning sustainability.

Yeah, it'll go right into it.

Yeah, good afternoon, counselors.

I had um shared with you a uh memo, one of the I think four or five pieces of paper.

Ours has blue text on it, uh just as uh point of reference.

Um and what that outlines is um notes on uh essentially not only our division staff, we are a two-person division, myself and Karina Freeland, the city's sustainability planner.

Um but as you'll see in that that memo, that work and the work that's both, and this really captures work that's both underway and planned for the upcoming fiscal year, uh, is focused on two things primarily long-term planning and policy development and project implementation.

And and for instance, um, you know, the the first two, the development of the city's comprehensive plan uh and the development of the climate action plan, obviously long-term planning documents uh that are both underway.

The climate action plan is noted uh there.

We have a draft prepared, our public comment period is open.

Uh if you're you're interested in commenting, that's open for about another week.

Uh, and then we plan to finalize and get that plan adopted this summer.

The comprehensive plan work um is is underway.

This is work that's really focused on um long-term planning and ultimately identifying and and targeting strategies for managing the city's resources uh and guiding investment and development over the next 10 to 15 years in the city.

It's a broad plan.

Uh it also helps identify uh and and is a requirement for zoning amendments.

So those two long-term planning activities, uh one well underway and near completion, the other one just ramping up.

Um other projects, uh essentially four, three, four, uh six, eight, uh, that's Progress Park.

Uh that is New York State funded project uh for design and construction to make improvements in our parks, uh particularly Progress Park in this instance.

Um community campaign for uh solar.

Uh that's something that there's been a fair amount of interest and and uh work on and and discussion about lately.

We've we were um that's something is noted here that is a partnership with that energy smart CNY uh to connect city residents and businesses to a solar provider, uh, which not only supports renewable energy but provides uh monthly savings on uh electric bills.

That's something go ahead, counselor.

So uh any shade, but can you tell us a little bit about this program?

Because we found about out and mail.

And to add to that, are are there going to be any community uh engagement sessions on this?

Because we're getting all the calls about this.

We have no idea what it is.

Um yeah, a c a couple just immediate um the direct feel free to direct them to our office.

Uh I'll I'll follow up with our contact information.

Um there is uh the city website has pretty extensive notes on the program, even examples about the billing, how this is structured, but ultimately what it is uh it's a program that um allows city residents and frankly even beyond city residents, but our focus on city residents connecting them to local solar providers in the area uh to they could subscribe and have a 10 to 20 percent reduction on the electric electrical portion of their national grid bill.

That's not right away.

Uh it is something that is there is uh month or two delay after sign up that it's a process that um is underway and that you should see those savings again as it noted here.

We've had uh just over 2,000 people enrolled.

We have about 600 people on a wait list, and the wait list is due to the solar providers in the area, the solar farms, none of which are in the city, the outlying areas.

Um they have to come online and become part of the program.

We have as many people subscribe to that what's available to date.

That's those those 2,000 uh 62.

Um as the additional solar providers come online, really over the next three to six months.

The wait list draws down, and you know, we expect to have probably by the end of it well over uh three thousand people depending on subscription rates.

So there's there's broad interest, there's maybe not immediate savings, but as this program comes online and the solar credits become available, uh those are savings that are passed on directly to property owners, and that can be both residential and uh you know business, you know, commercial business owners.

So um we we've had a lot of interest in it, a lot of discussion about it, but again, two maybe two quick points of reference.

Send them our way, and I'll I'll provide our direct contact information to all of you after the meeting, and also a link to the city website, which is we spent a lot of time really trying to have pretty straightforward, simple FAQs that people can look at.

Yeah, but we still need to have some type of community engagement because one, we just pause the battery storage facility um uh installations, and um then we come, then this pops up.

You also have the other thing that's over near, I believe solar or Van Rensalier, where it seems like fracking to me, but I'm not 100% sure what it is.

So there's some things happening that we're pausing one, but then we're uh supporting others.

So we need to be clear on the reasoning why, you know, just so that we are fully aware of um, you know.

Why the difference is that we're gonna be able to do that.

Just quickly, the the the solar, the community solar program is consistent with our climate action plan.

It is something that is a direct planning development and project implementation that not only supports renewable energy but provides resident savings.

Um the the battery energy storage is is a relatively new use that our zoning ordinance is silent on.

Uh and so with the moratorium was used for and and that would be a private development in the city, whether it's on Brighton Avenue, some of the ones that we've heard of recently, uh, to develop those storage systems in the community.

So obviously zoning regulates private development, hence our desire to update our zoning uh to to just provide a review process.

And the the third item that you had mentioned was uh the Inner Harbor National Grid is uh developing and and essentially piloting with strong support from the state uh thermal energy network.

Uh they're investigating that.

Uh that's in conjunction from my understanding with the Onondaga County facility out there, and that they would use wastewater uh as a renewable heat source.

So all things that um are energy related, all different sources of funding.

Uh but the one that we are specifically responsible for, we NBD and specifically planning and sustainability is the solar program.

And and happy to, if folks are are interested and could benefit from um us being available, we're gonna be there.

Uh this is something that there's there's a lot of upsides to this, and we don't see a whole lot of downsides, but you got to get people in a place where they're comfortable to to get their questions answered.

Yes, and I do appreciate the fact that you said it is online that they can go online and see it.

But there's a lot of folks that were targeting, they're they're not online.

Yeah, so a lot of these folks need to have a paper trail.

And and probably about a fifth of the applications we've received out of those 2500, 2600 have been paper, the paper mailing.

So people are using the paper, they're submitting that way, they're gonna get signed up uh the same way as everything else.

It's really first come, first served basis.

So we want to make sure folks, whether you have that internet connectivity or or you prefer working off paper, we're gonna make sure we meet you where you are, and and that you can benefit from these.

So I think being clear.

I'm so sorry.

I'm just about to ask me.

I think being clear on what you stated as far as um uh there's more that'll come online because that was one of the drawbacks when I saw it on paper, is like, why are we supporting this if it's limited?

Yeah, so that's based on what's available, but when more come online, then you'll start to dwindle the wait list out.

The wait list there's one coming online.

I think most immediately there's one in Camillus.

Uh so they're really outside of the city, they come online.

They I think quite a few of them are built and have to connect to the grid with national grid, as you can imagine.

That's not a week-long process, it's a couple months.

So I think ultimately what this does is speak to the desire in this community to support programs like this.

Not only again, for the supporting renewable energy, but cost savings.

Is this education and the marketing being doing more than one language, more than English?

So far.

Not that I'm aware of.

Okay, because to get to the whole community.

Yeah, that's something that's good point.

Maybe you would have more subscribers.

It is it is in more I'm looking at my my colleague.

I believe it is.

We'll we'll clarify that with you.

What language is uh it is available in, but um that is something that we anticipated.

Um finally, just looking at time, uh natural a couple of these, the the the second half of this list, natural resources inventory.

The city has never done something that like that looking at our natural spaces, historic sites, water courses, um, compile that for planning and uh public use ultimately.

Uh that work is being funded by New York State.

Um we had a robust discussion on um number six, the electric vehicle charging.

That has been submitted to both uh New York State and National Grid.

That is a pending um over 400,000 award that would also uh complement our work in Progress Park.

Brown fields number seven, a relatively small part of our budget, but the city has um brownfield properties, uh about a half dozen of them, three or four of them are in programs, and that we are required to perform ongoing uh testing and monitoring.

The one at Chester and Bellevue is one they're actually performing.

It's a large vacant lot at Chester right across from the farm.

City owned site, it was remediated about six or eight years ago, and we have to perform ongoing testing, which we have a third party contractor that that that does that for us.

So that's a relatively small part of our proposed budget.

And then finally, uh ending again with um New York State funding to look at the piers in the inner harbor, and that not coincidentally, there are part many of these implement uh implementation projects are in the inner harbor.

We know there's a lot of interest, a lot of investment.

Um, and so looking at how the peers that are now city-owned peers uh could be investigating, surveying, and developing some initial concepts uh with public engagement uh to redevelop those peers.

And so a couple themes I'll leave you with planning, long-term planning, project implementation.

Almost every one of these elements have a public engagement component.

Um about 80 percent of this work is grant funded, as I noted.

Our current funding without the EV charging is over two million dollars.

Um and so this is work that we're able to really use largely state dollars to you know extend our our reach and our work to improve quality of life in the city much further than our our our budget would suggest.

Happy to answer questions.

Yeah, we we want to be respectful of time.

We realize that we're we're at the time that we've scheduled, uh but uh we are available for any questions.

Any questions?

I'm also sticking around for the next um when you talk about city-owned piers, where I mean I know that there's a different entities that own part of that pier.

Exactly.

What what area is the city owned?

So the the piers, if you're um thinking about the the inner harbor, if you go up solar uh street and and make a left just as you go past Kirkpatrick Street, it's a little parking lot there, the old freight house building is there.

If you continue to the water, which would be you know, if you're looking at a bird's eye view on the the east side of of the inner harbor, there's two piers that extend out into the water.

Okay, and those two piers were previously owned by New York State.

Uh the cities acquired them, and if you they're just hardwalled concrete, hard wall with grass on top.

They were through the canal core, right?

Uh that is correct.

And so let me ask you so the amphitheater does not belong to the city.

The amphitheater does.

That is a parks facility.

Um, and they'll be in sooner than later, and I'm sure they can cover the the plans for that.

But the piers, uh, you know, the progress park is on the on the west side of the park, the piers are on the east side.

We know core uh and and and some of the other large property owners have additional mixed-use buildings proposed.

Um the parks department is is proposing new railings along the inner harbor.

We know uh Ken Townsley and his team is proposing some new lighting out there.

So a variety of separate projects that combined will make this publicly and the fire department putting a uh uh dock and uh relocating their their safety boat out there.

We know more people are going to be out in the inner harbor, and we are collectively working to provide safety, uh safety improvements, and public amenities to really make that a space that people want to visit.

And a and a bathroom.

Like I said, parks will be in, um sustainability.

Uh to date hasn't done bathrooms, but a good noted.

You know, if you go to the inner harbor in Buffalo, they have all kinds of businesses that run little boats, they take people on tours, they have little like tiki hut boats.

You can go out and have food on the on the water.

I mean, I hope that's something that we're thinking about trying to encourage businesses to start up if there's areas they can rent in the harbor.

It's an under absolutely underutilized area, and and I think the city broadly speaking, whether that's skilled trades or parks or planning and sustainability, looking to set the table to a lot of those private investments, and for that matter, the county um trying to set the table on these public services and amenities and improvements to to draw more of the private investments to do just that.

That's right.

We don't want their budget deficit, though.

Yes.

All right, any other questions?

All right, thank you guys, Robert.

We appreciate it.

And are we moving into the next one?

So I'm going to go to the codes?

Uh so