 I didn't know it when I first said it, I didn't know I was the same, I was like that was really the only time I could do it, so I said well, I won't worry about it, and I told him to take girls. I'm late a little bit, the next meeting, the contract. Oh, all right, Sam. Any of y'all been skating here, I gotta go ice skating. I haven't been. Mika, you may not be here. We should have gone last weekend. Ice skating. I will probably go next week when the girls are at school. Long time. I'm going to be the very first year, but after that, I don't... You won't have to worry about a flat tire. Okay, okay. Not happening. Not happening, ma'am. So we are going to get started with the... Yeah. What's your zone? Yeah, Daniel's gonna start it out. I don't know where it is. New York City and Columbia. I don't know if I got any of them. I don't, I'm not. I don't know if I have anybody there. They're doing it really well. Okay, I don't have a, I don't have a heart. I'm sorry, ma'am, I'm sorry. I'd like to see the shark. He's a little tighter on that point. Hold it, hold it. It was usually the best ones. I broke one out last week. I hadn't worn him for ten years. This is about... This is older than my youngest daughter. This is about... That's fine. Yeah, I'll try to fit back in. It was a very necessary call. Oh, you know craft. My, my opportunity is I just go to the back. As soon as I get to the back of the closet, I put on my fits now. Trying to stay up. Are we, um, Teresa? I'm sorry, ma'am. So he's in the building. It is not here. I hear you. Daniel's in the building. Daniel's in the building. He said go ahead without him. He said just go without him. He'll come in when we're finishing. Here it on. Thank you, Clint. I'm the manager, Madam Clerk. I am present and highly caffeinated. Y'all get ready. Whoa, whoa, whoa. I just want to... I know. Present. Here. Here. Here, and we're here for... Well, the guy, please, watch over us as we work to conduct the business of the people in the city of Columbia, give us a spirit of togetherness of working in the interest of all of our citizens. We'd like to allow us to go into the season with our family. We're about 30 to 30 minutes. We'll do anything. I mean, I... I'm Mary Benjamin, I can't so I was... I'm not... Okay, wow. I'll wait until she's in the room. Yeah. Okay. We will start our city council discussion with the first item, waste to energy. Mr. Dean Alford is here, president and CEO of Allied Energy. I believe this item was in your committee, Mr. and I about environmental infrastructure and it's made its way out of thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor and council. I appreciate the opportunity to be with you. I'm the son of a preacher, so I learned a lesson a long time ago. You tell them what you're going to tell them, you tell them then you tell them what you told them. So I'm going to tell you what I'm going to tell you. I'd like to share with you today amen. Say that one more time. I'm a preacher. I'm a preacher's kid over here. It sounds just like him. One pitch is short. The only difference, I'm not taking up an offering. That's the difference. That's the only difference. It was great to be with you this afternoon and appreciate the time. I want to share with you a project we're doing in Augusta, Georgia today to introduce some new technology to the United States that's been going on in Europe for the past six years. My firm is fortunate to have the development market rights for this technology and we're looking for public partnerships to engage in this technology to take municipal solid waste and to turn you there into liquid fuel with products. So let me walk you through that very quickly assuming this thing works pretty well. I'm the president CEO of Allied Energy Services. We're an energy development company located in Conyers, Georgia. We do about five and a half billion dollars worth of energy projects in North Central and South America. Everything but nuclear. That's not a very good word around here. I understand. The company, our technology is Seucos. They have an operation here in the United States called Seucos Environmental USA but Seucos robots out of Larissa, Greece is the technology firm and we have very significant engineering support for our project and what we're working on. So here's a real summary of what we're going to be doing and what we would like to talk to you about today. We're going to take municipal solid waste. When I say municipal solid waste I'm talking about your hefty bag in your house. I'm not talking about construction demolition. I'm talking about household municipal waste. One of the things that happens is EPA has a rule that says if you apply any heat to municipal solid waste that's considered incineration. And so when we were looking to try to solve that problem, EPA also has a rule relative in due to turn municipal waste into non-waste. So we were able to find technology in Greece that takes municipal solid waste and turns it into a non-waste pellet. That's where we're going to have the bacteria. In order to meet that standard of EPA they now have to be free of pathogens and bacteria but they also have to meet certain criteria as it relates to BTU value and I'll talk about that. Then Augusta and what's been going on in Bulgaria for the past six years has taken that pellet through some additional technology to make diesel fuel. I'm talking about transportation grade ASTM D975 diesel fuel and that's been going on for the past six years. For the past two years the middle one and I'll talk more about that in a second taking that technology to make medium density to high density fiber boards. So let me get into a little bit more. I did. The pellets have about 10,000 BTUs per pound and that's a little bit better than coal. Wood is about 8,500 to put it in perspective. The reason it meets the EPA standard has to burn cleaner than coal. So the VOCs coming off that if you were to burn it like as a fuel it burns cleaner than coal so we can use it for that purpose. But because it has a high BTU value we're able to make other products with it. This is the technology that turns it into pellets. The reason I want to show you this technology is that as you can see it's kind of in trains and it literally shows up in containers and it takes about 30 days to install it once it's on site. It's a self enclosed. What we'll be doing in Augusta and what we're proposing to do is there'll be a 45,000 square foot tipping barn before it gets to the conveyor. The garbage comes there and we tip it and why we'll need to store garbage over the weekends and at night so we can run basically a 24 hour operation. We'll be storing about 1100 tons over the weekend to make this project work. I just want to real quick run you through how this works to get a little feel for what it does. This equipment here in this picture is actually the equipment for Augusta. We assembled it, put it together so that our engineering firm can make sure it operates and that you're inside the gate. Yes. Everything will be inside the landfill relative to that. This garbage are those pellets that you have in front of you. It goes into the machine just like this. What happens to the organics? The organics will pull them out. I'll show you the first step right here. It tumbles and the organics and the inert material comes out at that or as I go to the next slide we gather those. Some of the inert materials like small rocks, small glasses we actually make pavers out of them so we don't lose that. Are you able to separate out the organics? Yes. For us that could be a feedstock for our wastewater plant and a regular digestion which would improve our gas production out there. That's correct. What about plastic? I'm about to get into that if you'll bear with me one second. Let me back up just one second. Those little green beans over there pellets. I know what they are. They look like green beans. I never thought about green beans. They're burnt green beans. These must come from Florence. It's 10,500 BTUs per pound. They're not breakable. Oh yeah, they'll break. They're pretty strong. They're pretty strong. They thought they were green beans. He needs some cornbread with the green beans. He wants plastic. Organic still. I want plastic. This is dirty clean. This is 20% plastic. 8% cellulose fire. And it's able to generate that much? If you think about plastic, it's oil. Plastic comes from oil. It's an oil product. I'll show you in a second. By the way, the reason I know these are pretty safe. My four-year-old grandson thought this was a crayon and he ate it. He's a survivor. He's sitting on fire. That's why I called him in the bag. But anyhow, let me get to that point and say, but those are 20% plastic, 80% cellulose fiber. They're clean of everything else. We then take it through a series of electromagnets and it feels looking for the ferrous and nonferrous materials. We take the metal out, we sell the metal as a recyclable product out of that process. By the way, this gentleman in the picture is Costa Succos. He is the inventor of this technology. This is the other page to go look at. Go look up sucosrobots.gr. The United States State Department and the Department of Defense has a thing called a genius visa. I do not have one of those, just for the record. But he does. I've heard him speak in Georgia. He's a development authority. He's made his fortune destroying unused ammunition around the world. So he's a very significant inventor. He invented this technology for the Bulgarian government to make the fuels. And we were able to find the technology and get the rights to it through the United States. Once it goes there, then there's a fan. And the reason why is plastic and paper flies. And that's the way you continue to do that separation. It then goes to this table. There'll be eight employees who will go through every bit of it. Again, I'm looking for paper and plastics. Now here's the beauty of this plastic. The plastic bags that you get at the grocery store have never been able to be recycled. They'll take those. They'll take Styrofoam. They'll take now the terrible nasty straws that have now become the greatest disaster for the environment in the world. They'll take the plastic straws as a part of our technology. Black boxes. Exactly. Then it is in a... We're separating. I'm creating a stack of plastics. Just a stack of cellulose fiber. I say cellulose fiber. I mean paper, cardboard, wood, things of that nature. We then blend it at an 80-20 blend and then we pelletize it as you've just seen. This is a picture, again, of that technology. And you can see the size of the equipment relative to the person standing there. And the reason why is we have to test three tests in each of those white bins to ensure those pellets need EPA standards. Once it does that, then, one of the technologies we have is a technology called Archimedes. And about 60% of what goes into the system becomes pellets. The rest of it is metals and water and things of that nature. And out of that we can make diesel and what doesn't become diesel is biochar. And biochar, you can Google it and buy it on Amazon for $1,000 a ton, is a soil addict. So it's better than that. It's like a plastic addict. That's correct. All the plastic around your phone is all got biochar. It's all got biochar in it, exactly. So we can make that product. And so that's what we'll be making in Augusta. We'll have a 20-year contract with a company called Archimedes. They're now taking these through this flooring that medium-density fiberboard are those green beans. That's a flooring. This is a calipant. The latest version of that, so this is a high-density fiberboard. It could take slyke. It could take paint. The beauty of this board because of the plastic content, it won't burn. And it won't rot. That's the plastic. The plastic seals it. It has less than a 1% proportion. These are products that are being made today in Greece. I'll give you that in a minute. This is some of the material being made in Syria. These are countertops. This restaurant in Greece, those tables, tops, and those countertops are all made out of material in this process. This is the process in Bulgaria. The reason I wanted to show you this process, one of the things they're doing in Bulgaria is actually mining a landfill. Going to another landfill, mining it, and using that material. So we're very excited about that progress. So here's how I would like you to really think about what we're talking to you about. To get about municipal waste for a second, we're talking about bringing a manufacturing process to your community. Where we take recycled material and either make liquid fuels or wood product. We'll create somewhere between 65 to 100 jobs depending on whether or not it's wood product or it's diesel. These are jobs from engineers to common labor. We would run shifts of local people. We would use your local technical colleges to assist us in our training. Obviously it has great environmental benefits. But this is really a piece of technology that allows us to take waste and make a manufacturing process that we would like to. And I would say there's many other benefits. So here's what we're looking for. We're looking for 10 acres as a site. In Augusta, we're leasing 10 acres inside the landfill. The city keeps the tipping fee. We do not touch the tipping fee. And for that, somewhere in the neighborhood of 130 to 175 wet tons per year of their waste we're making 9.9 million gallons of diesel. 16,000 tons of biochar in that product. What's the estimate of how much we'd save in tipping fees? Pardon? We wouldn't mess with the tipping. We don't have a landfill. We don't have a landfill. We should save. We don't save on a landfill. Because we don't pay tipping fee. Where we save is driving our trucks 82 miles out. The only way this makes a lot of sense is to be connected in the tall pairs of one of the major highways. I don't know. I'll finish your last slide. I apologize. That's okay. No, no, no. Right. Very similar situation. We put up all the capital. We own and operate it. Nothing to do. We pay taxes. If you really do think of us as a manufacturing facility, that's the way to look at the project. But what we need is municipal waste and a site for that. The reason we traditionally looked at being inside of a landfill or a transfer station is because you have permits there already. You also have scales. Can it operate inside of a building? Yeah. If it's big enough. How big a building is it? We would probably need a footprint. It really is a function of the size around it. I would say we need at least well, we would need at least $54,000, excuse me, $45,000 square feet for the tipping barn. It needs to be about $45,000 tall. Okay, because the trucks nowadays are 28 feet tall. We would dump inside. We would dump inside the barn. The reason why is when you long-term trailers are coming, they tilt them up and it gets up to about 47 feet and clearing that. So, yes, $23,000 a year. Okay. That would be something that we would work in cooperation with or trying to collaborate with other local governments to figure out a way to do this. What's the count? Anybody use that? What's the whole county's work? You know? I'm just curious what... I would make a deal with them. I'd clearly like to know. So, we would... This would have to be a regional program. Yes, we're going to ask that. You would be looking... If there was the arrangement you're talking about a good service area. That's correct. That's correct. I think the part we're looking for, again, is we're trying to locate a manufacturing facility. We'll look for feedstock. But, obviously, we'd look for a cooperative effort between local governments to pull a project like this off, because right now, this is going in landfills, long-term and there's nothing I'd share with you. The idea of recycling, as we know it today, would go away with this technology. There's no reason to separate stuff in the home. We're 100% recycling what goes to the system. So, you'll be able to offer 100% recycling to all of your citizens without any cost to the program. I said... The thought in my mind... So, you're really creating a dump site or garbage dump site. Any idea what the... You're bringing garbage to a location? We're going to lay it on a concrete pad and we'll process it. About 1% of what we don't... Only 1% of what we use everything we'll take to... So, is there any de-hack regulations, any state regulation that helps you or hurts you or anything like that? We will be required to get a solid waste handling for the individual. Solid waste... Solid waste handling. Is that for the one they're seeing? No, that's for the whole thing. I don't know what regulations may or may not require, but I would say to you, there are communities who are looking at that as a strategy. I've got a community, I can't disclose because I know some folks sitting here who have been on the paper, but that... They are now going to collect from seven communities and they have a landfill small and big enough to handle about 1% that will probably generate several millions of dollars a year. Well, I think that and the waste. I think part of what... The only thing that we... Because if we quit going to the landfill, part of this would make sense for a whole lot of reasons. You know, and we would have to have some assurance and maybe it's... Well, two things we would need in the city is a cleanup bond. Something happened on the way. Number two, which is what's required in Georgia as part of the permanent process. That's correct. And then here we would have to have something let's say if they had a breakdown and have to wait for a period of time and it exceeds the three-day storage, it's going to have to get a landfill. Making sure that we have some type of funding mechanism that they pay for that. So we shouldn't incur that cost, but we have that way. Those are the type of things we ought to think through, but to your point, you could create a gate fee for other entities and still make it economically right. But it would create some revenue for us. What? I think of the site where there are about 12 acres. You say it is, but no. Robert, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. If you could handle all that wood too, you'd like to have that. That's 15,000 tons of material. You don't want yard waste. We'll take biomass. Yes, sir. This byproduct. That is a finished product. You don't do that. What we would make What we would make on that site if we would sell it to the industry. The reason for that is that it's being also marketed to the industry. This material is being used to waste. We've taken all the tests to waste without the material. We're now testing all this in the U.S. market. If you're interested in the area of recycling, you would have to handle the recycling. We're recycling by separating ourselves. What we do in most recycling is you ask the consumer to do the separation. We're going to do all the separation in recycling. If you really think about what this material is, I don't think you would want to change all this, I think because of so much glass and stuff that you guys are not going to want that. I think what you're talking about from recycling is what's in the bag, because a lot of people do throw the extra cartons and all that stuff. Well, except in the case you say it out loud. You want all the plastic out of it. We will end up taking the plastic. We're not going to pop it so much. But some people will just toss it in a plastic bag and run it in a recycling bag. What do you do with the glass? Push it on. Let me ask about the temperature. Hotter than cold. Is that material recyclable? Thank you. If you get a product that's hotter than cold, it's going to be too huge. You don't, it's good for the atmosphere. It's not probably much out there that has the land to have a raider. I think about plastic. You know what I think? They're real interesting. This plastic is a really good example. It has about three or four times the size of a plastic bag. So that coats around the soil. It's fiber. Think about it. That's what protects it from building the water. And also, if you burn it, it will melt. And as of this, I think that's it. Thank you. Sorry. What site are you looking at? All right. This is Mr. Badura. This is Madal. I recommend. I'm going to put a bow on it because Ms. Divine has already given us a stop. A heart stop. Yeah, four o'clock, right? Was that my? I'm just curious. Do you have a site in mind or anywhere? No, sir. I think what we would ask of you all is to put a five-stop. You said community character is important. He wanted to be in the historic district and district three. Yeah. So the rumor is, it is, it's either in North Main or District Three. I don't know which one. Well, you know, we, I think we could be realistic about an appropriate location. If I said, I said it in Greek, I would say. I'm not sure about that. Put it out there for the tennis center is on Kitabah. I think, yeah, I'm okay to continue that discussion. I actually want to actually visit the site. Oh, sure. The whole operation. That's not operating today. Let me just, we're under construction. We're having to move 700,000 yards of work. We have our state permit. When do you expect completion? Yeah, I remember these things. I think the bill doesn't speak for about. You construct that on site. Those containers actually show up like they are. We lay a concrete pad. We literally take it off the back of the ship. I think, I think, you know, and it's interesting we have this conversation today. This past Sunday, 60 minutes with the whole notion of plastic and the abundant plastic in the water. There's an inventor, a young guy, out of the street, developing that technology. He grew most of some of the plastic and water into these containers. It's exciting to me, but it also gives me a point of concern of the amount of plastic that you're planning to do. There's not a time or an instant where folk aren't loading their bin to their Herbie Kirby. Most of it is plastic. It would certainly be encouraging that this kind of technology, this side of the world, has introduced itself on this side of the world. I'm intrigued about it. I'm like more things. It would certainly be good if we could, I'd like to see that kind of technology in motion to kind of see what it does, how it does that. I think the land is critically important, but I think it would be certainly good for us to see what it is we want to do as opposed to, let's get this piece of property and let's think about this. What's that piece of property? We can use some of your... Let's start with Augusta. If we need to go to Bulgaria, we'll ask Mr. Hepus to translate the Bulgarian language. That's right. Thank you, sir. I mean, I would just say that we're not talking about new technology. We're talking about adaptive technology here, proven technology, the byproducts. BioChar is a huge, huge product right now. It makes everything from 3D printer ink to plastics and chairs, phones, John Deere, Caterpillar, all using that to mix with their plastics to get the black color so it's reliable. Obviously the pellets, pelletized fuel has been big in a lot of countries and we export a lot of pellets here overseas. I think it makes sense for us to look into this deeper. I think, Mr. Wilson, if we could put a committee together to explore all the options, run the traps, obviously there's a lot of discussion to have, but I think it would make a lot of sense, especially with our commitment to clean cities, to look at these options. I think put those up and talk about them. It's a 34-week issue. Ideally, they're going to do the land lease the right way. It's not a city, they went out of all. It doesn't necessarily need to be. Even if we got to put in the purchase land. That changes things. I hope we could recycle what we have first. Mr. Davis? I think, I saw the program on Sunday in the main thing. The scary thing about that is, China, in places like that, they're not taking anymore. They're shipping it back to other countries. A lot of this stuff right now is closer to sure than out in the ocean. We get 250,000 tons a year in the South Carolina. I think, in terms of next steps to see if this is possible, my thinking is what we get out of it. Also, I'm impressed with the fact that it's a byproduct that's closer to home when it comes to materials, housing, and things like that. I would assume that those products are economical. I'm thinking about the pass on to a home by a home. Again, I think what I would encourage you all to do is to think about the 20,000 million dollars and like to locate some of those 20,000 million dollars for that manufacturing process. Mr. Officer, the question is land and waste. Is that the answer? Yes. And then, Ken, to dig deeper. Are you guys privately owned, concerned, domestic, concerned sources of capital? Domestic sources of capital? Yes. Not with this technology. But one of the justice reports to the United States is that this technology is not something new. And to be fair, they put an entrepreneurial twist on the technology. The technology itself is not something new. They have done, like any smart person, they figured a better mouth track out using a basis. So it's proven technology. But it's the right to do the technology in the U.S. Are you finished with your next steps for us? Yes. In terms of, yes. No, that's it. In terms of how do we, everything we need to do to consider whether or not we have this work with you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. We're very back from you working with you. The city manager. If we honor you, come up with a subcommittee on it. Yeah, yeah. That's a business and they do diligence. It makes sense. The second item for presentation is by Mr. John and Dough, the executive director and CEO for the Central and Middle and Regional Transit Authority, the Comet. and he will be presenting on the Intermodal Transportation Center Feasibility Study. Hey, John. Hi. Well, good afternoon, Council, Mayor, and staff members of the city, John Ando, Executive Director of the Comet. I'm here today to talk to you about the Midlands Regional Intermodal Transportation Center Study that was prepared back in 2016. The intent of the study, which was led by the Central Midland Council of Governments, was to examine opportunities on where a regional intermodal transportation center could be placed in or around downtown Columbia so that we can have, in essence, a transportation central facility where everybody can go and get buses, bicycles, trains, anything that basically can provide mobility for the community. This is the study's the first step towards pursuing federal transit administration funding to fund these type of projects of magnitude, and facilities such as this can enhance the traveler's experience for those that want to come into Columbia or out of Columbia. An intermodal transit center is basically a facility that generally brings multiple modes of transportation together, so where you have basically a centralized hub. Several areas in the state actually have these intermodal transportation facilities, and you can also add additional amenities such as retail, parking, housing, governmental offices, and transit offices as amenities to the facility. And if we were to build a facility of this magnitude, it would take about three to ten years to do, and about $14.7 million on average to pursue a build. The study looked at 22 sites throughout the city of Columbia downtown area. The study did recommend site number four, which is the location of the present transit facility that the city constructed back in 1996. That is the Sumter Street Transit Center at the corner of Lowell and Sumter. In addition, there were three additional sites that were further analyzed. That includes a location at the corner of Main and Anthony, a location at the corner of Main and Scott, and a location at the corner of Taylor and Hardin. Based on the current needs of the transit system, this is why the study recommended keeping the facility where it is at today. However, one thing that I would like the council to be mindful of is that the board of directors recently adopted a transit center road map that discusses the short-term and long-term vision of the current use of the Sumter Street location. As a result, we're going to be doing a short-range transit plan and comprehensive operational analysis in conjunction with the council of governance to determine does the current comment transit system make sense for our community, or should we be looking at a different way of delivering the services that we're providing? Or should we have some type of a hybrid approach? We presently operate a hub-and-spoke type of system. Should we be looking at more of a radial, a radial, cross-town type system where people don't necessarily have to come to downtown Columbia to get to destinations? They can actually bypass downtown Columbia to access destinations in a much quicker manner. As our metropolitan area continues to grow, we're starting to see people are actually doing trips from northeast and northwest and southeast and northwest and vice versa. How does that play into the, at the end of the day, all of that sounds great except the one thing that I don't see addressed in there and how that plays into the ridership. The ridership is limited. And you're correct. And I don't know if that's because there's so many stops and people have to change. Is that because of the other modes of transportation of people are working closer to where they live? I think understanding all of that is huge. As you go through, obviously, you're trying to think, trying to think, but I think you would be able to dive into the rationale behind your decision, the board's policy I mean, I think you're saying is it showing, obviously, you can talk a little bit more about the State Department's decision over there and there if it's watching the way people are moving around, but they're just showing that if they modernize their routes, where people actually are going from northeast to northeast and that's where they shave off from this time. A lot of folks might be more inclined to ride. But what's that number now? It's very data driven. And then you bring up a very good point and that's the intent of the comprehensive operational analysis. The last time one was done for the system was 2009, actually after the request of the city to understand the present common system. The common system has basically looked fundamentally the same since going back to this SCEG date. So this effort actually is going to basically... We have prettier buses now. So we have prettier, much more bolder buses, yes. But actually this intent is to really just look at where people are boarding our routes, where people are getting off of our routes and determine does the system as design even make sense. Because what I'm starting to... How do you capture that? Because that was the thing that confused me is talking to people who are riders. How do you capture that when they're getting off one bus transfer onto another? How do you actually capture the destination? So the ultimate survey that the consultants would do would actually do basically what is called a region and destination study. So they'll actually individually survey riders and ask them where they're boarding and where they're going. They'll plot all the dots on a map. They'll overlay with the common system. And then they'll determine does our route network make sense for those riders. One of the common complaints I get from a lot of our riders, and even my experience in riding the system often, is that our system is too slow. For me, I live off the corner of Beltline and Covenant. It takes me, if I take the crosstown route, I'll take me 38 minutes to get to my office. You leave Trenton Plaza, which I've done, it takes you twice to 40 minutes to get downtown. But if I miss that bus, which runs every two hours, I'm now at 65 minutes because I have to take two knots to downtown, and then I have to take the bus that goes into the Monticello area. And one route runs half-hourly, one route runs hourly. If I miss that connection, that's where that long wait time comes into play. And then that's where we have all the folks at long or something. So if we can keep people moving, then it really defeats the need for having a large centralized public. And that's kind of where that study was going to play. And then also that study will look at those 22 other sites that were considered to see if maybe instead of having a big centralized facility, maybe we have satellite facilities throughout the service area. For the average destination, will it be able to tell you how far that is? Are they within 3 miles, 10 miles, 20 miles of their destination? That's what the survey will be able to do for us, yes. One thing to note, if you're not aware, this is the current time that the system has a chance today. You'll notice that if you can see the little square boxes that are scattered throughout the service area, those are called super stops. And what we've been trying to do, especially with our service change that we just did back in October, what we're getting ready to do in January, is try and connect as many routes as possible to these super stops so that we can start training people that there's other locations in our service area where you can transfer and make connections to other routes. So we can find faster ways to get people throughout our system within our current resources until we're able to complete that study. These are some sample transit centers that are across the country. The first one is the Orlando Lynx Transit Center. The one on the right is the Phoenix Central Station. The one below that is the Transit Center in Greenville. And then below that is the North Charleston Intermodal Station that was just recently constructed. And then the one on the far left is the Fort Worth Intermodal Station. If you look at the Spartan Merge Transit Center, I didn't know they had one. They do have one. They have one downtown and the way it's constructed is very empty. Is that at their Amtrak station? So Orlando, Phoenix, Fort Worth, Greenville, and then North Charleston. And then North Charleston just opened about four months ago. Is that the Amtrak station? All those include rail? Orlando and Phoenix do not include a rail. And Greenville do not include rail. Fort Worth and North Charleston does. That's my contact information. I'll be happy to answer any questions about or any further thoughts on an intermodal facility. One comment that I just recently learned for information is that I understand the city owns the Amtrak station. So there's even a potential that we could pursue at PA Grant if we wanted to redevelop the Amtrak station to like a smaller intermodal type facility. We could work with Avista and the neighbors in that area to see is there an interest to have some kind of a small facility. Not necessarily having all of our routes go there, but perhaps you have student shuttles, some mainline common routes, the Amtrak, and the city bus and the bus to the airport. Those are very small pieces properly. I think the Development Foundation owned the rest. Look at Derek. Don't put your head down now that you can see the Development Foundation on the chuckle and right next to it. We ran those traps at Avista some years ago. I had a recent conversation about it. I think it's also the sound idea. I think years and years ago, the optimal location would have been a well-earned assembly if we were going to try to do something there. That shift is there. Hold on for a minute. You're talking about UG. UG. We can keep it by rail. We can pursue different type of funding sources that would make a grant application attractive towards funding such a facility. I was just going to add too. If we end up looking at decentralizing the common system, there's still going to be a need for some type of level of service to the downtown community area. Perhaps we can do some type of streetscape or in-house superstop at the corner of Hardin and Taylor where we have a large cluster of our common ridership at that intersection due to the low-income housing some of the colleges and universities that are there and provide some enhancement opportunities for that neighborhood which could be federally funded. Don, remind me how many riders you have. We carry about 2.4 million passenger trips a year that translates to about 9,500 passenger trips a day. But that's multiple trips. So what's really the single rider? That's information I don't actually have. Our survey that we're going to do would actually give us that information since we'll be individualizing trips. Make sure I had the update data. 22? It's still growing. Yes, it's one of our lower performing routes but we have done some targeted marketing towards that neighborhood so hopefully in the next six months it will mature and gain additional ridership. Where's 22? 22 is the route that goes between colony apartments via Hardin Street through the Bull Street development to five points and Rosewood Hills right. That also takes up Richmond. I'd love to hear any feedback you get from the VISTA Guild and I think the reality is that the comic now is a pretty good organization. It was seven, eight years ago and we had these discussions with the VISTA and public resources and especially with the changing nature of the ability and there was so much going on. I really enjoyed the time we spent together. I recently remember things together and it was amazing, push it back. Obviously a lot of long held opinions and ideas as the all transit experts and then there's R. A few people in this room actually are so keep pushing, let's keep working together in the spirit of cooperation. Recognize that we're all a team and this is your final word. Would you tell Council about the partnership with Uber and Lyft? Yes. So I'm starting this week actually and our goal at the comic is to be more of a mobility agency and that's not just a typical transit agency but what we've implemented right now we're doing a soft launch. We're going to do a bigger launch come January but we have a program called Comet on the Go and if you have an Uber or Lyft app the first program is our nighttime program, Comet at Night where we'll pay for the first $5 if you board within anywhere we have a Comet fixed route bus stop to anywhere within the Comet fixed route service area. That services from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. 7 days a week so it's geared towards those that work in the service industry that need public transportation in the early morning hours when presently we're not running bus service and a lot of the Uber and Lyft trips average around the $5 to $8 range so there might be a few people that would end up with free trips that are subsidized by the Comet there might be a few people that end up paying $3 to $4 on top of the subsidy that we provide. The next part which is an innovative concept that hasn't been done elsewhere in the nation yet is called Comet to the Market and the goal with Comet to the Market is from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. we'll pay the first $5 on Uber and Lyft to connect people anywhere within the Comet fixed route service area to fresh food markets. So as long as you put wherever you live in the Comet service area and you put a bilo a Walmart neighborhood market Publix fresh market Whole Foods anything that has fresh produce or fresh meats we'll pay that first $5 to the store and from the store back to wherever you want to go. Which brings up, I'd be curious to see once you get the actual ridership of where it goes if it doesn't make sense that you're pushing more people to Uber and Lyft and having less routes because you're getting those people directly and I'd be willing to bet on simple math that you come out ahead and create a better service in the same amount of dollars that we're spending for a wide system that's not getting people the way they need to be. And it's funny you bring up that point and that's kind of the whole intent of why we wanted to try these pilots because it can give us some test opportunities to determine like if we have low productivity areas in the system it doesn't make sense to run a bus at a we pay $69.08 an hour we can just pay that $5 subsidy and we'll do way more trips for a lesser cost. Probably get more people using it and get more people using it. So in the early morning hours it averages about $3 to 25 that's per Uber and Lyft in the daytime hours that significantly increases to over $175. Never, ever, ever I don't care what time it is never been able to get a ride on Uber or Lyft. Never? Never, never been turned down. The good one or not good one? Oh you've not been turned down. Oh you've not been turned down. Now I can tell you in the early morning hours though the wait times are not like right now if you requested a car you'll probably get one within 5 to 6 minutes. Early morning hours if we're talking about 15 to 25 minutes. Well it depends. It truly depends on the day of the week. That's true too. You're right. Don't worry about what I do and where I go. Friday and Saturday nights of course you get more car availability. I'm out sure making our community is safe. I'm not at home tucked in bed like you. You're talking physically about the contracts you have with Uber. That's correct. That was easy. But I don't want to I don't want to I don't want to miss how big a deal these two efforts are. I think they're thoughtful. They're forward thinking when it comes to addressing the issue of growing food deserts and scarcity this is cutting edge. But Don and Derek If the end user is actually taking advantage of it I think we just gotta make sure we spend as much time really promoting this as much as possible but this partnership as it relates to fresh foods this is the very first time in the country it's a big deal John I'm excited about potential I'm more excited about the potential down the road having a comment, lift thing because I think at the end of the day we'll be able to provide a better service for more people in a much more economical way than drag and diesel buses all over the country I know we came with a very specific purpose today. That's on mileage that's on natural gas so right now for one month we're demonstrating again a pro-terra bus this time the bus is actually here in Colombia for one month and every day we're going to put it on a different route if you're curious about how electric buses work I encourage you to take a ride on it it's going down Wall Street today yes, around the 301 the big white bus, yes, zero emissions I think the CNG is a much more efficient in the electric both on cost stop and start yes, you are right on that the challenge though with CNG is now the industry is moving so fast away from CNG that a lot of transit agencies are actually because of the grants that FTA is putting out they're starting to procure zero emission buses, hydrogen buses well don't bring up hydrogen we've been down that route it was a $250,000 I think from a standpoint on the CNG industry is not I would disagree with you because it's a carbon neutral product the cost per cubic foot because you're not buying it per gallon if you set up a system Marta does a great job and now they're integrating a lot of biogas into that system you go to downtown Atlanta Frito Lay, UPS C&T, AGL you name it every one of those are all running on CNG for the stop and start because it's a carbon neutral you still get the power of the industry and the cost is significantly less than electric I don't disagree with you one of the transit systems I managed in California was 100% CNG I started the catalyst to convert from diesel to CNG operation we have to just be mindful of how the technology is moving because CNG has an upfront significant capital investment and the grants that previously was able that you could have utilized for CNG buses like I was using in the early 2000s are no longer I think at the end of the day moving towards Uber and everything else we might have to have to worry about that and then to answer your questions about some of the mobility items the electric bus our board of directors did also authorize us to go out a bit to purchase two trolley vehicles for the soda cap connector route in downtown Columbia we are going to be doing a phase one of revamping soda cap connectors starting January 28 we'll have we'll still continue to have three routes one route would be basically Main Street District to Vista to West Columbia and Casey the second route would be to Five Points and the Hardin-Taylor neighborhoods the third route will be during fireflies games from the Main Street District to the Spirit Communications Park and the Bull Street Development we're also going to expand the hours to soda cap connector we are going to run it Monday a Sunday through Wednesday from 9am to 6pm and Thursday Friday and Saturdays from 9am to 12 midnight the buses will come by every 25 to 30 minutes instead of having two buses per route, four buses we're only going to have one bus per route and just do short circuits our goal is that with the redesigned route that will make it more attractive for downtown residents downtown employees and visitors coming into the Columbia market wanting to try the service and the trolley will also help attract more attention to the service we're also partnering in conjunction with Blue Cross Blue Shield and Bewegan, we're going to be another sponsor to the Blue Bike System we're going to be funding 8 expansion stations within the city limits and we'll also be paying and operating subsidies so that anyone that rides the Comet will also be allowed to use the Blue Bike System for 45 minutes per use that way it addresses the first mile issues for some of our riders and can also help shorten some of the trip times for our transit users and also help improve the carbon footprint in our city you're not busy enough you're not even going to get to work well the next one that's coming is our band pool program and that's in partnership with Enterprise Rideshare and that will start in January and we'll pay the first $500 towards the rent of a van and community groups can start forming commuter groups let's say Killian Road, Walmart they can drive to the state capital or even here at City Hall go to work and then at the end of the day get back in the van and take the van back to Walmart and get in their car then go home so the community itself would form the commuter group with the partnership that's correct the more people you get in the van the more cost to the user someone has to organize it very interesting tracking all these programs that's the goal that's a real interesting thank you John a lot of people working for having me Derek thank you and your colleagues too John do you do you have a summary that's available on the innovative aspect yes would you like me to email that to you yeah especially when you're talking some of the van pooling that we can I think we the areas that you looking to serve those folks tend to contact us more I think than they have direct dialogue yes I will send that out today if I just also may add we do have bus service to the airport now bus runs every two hours between downtown Columbia and the airport part of our intermodal connectivity that we're trying to we get it at Laurel and Sumter or along assembly street and then it cuts over on Blossom and then takes Naut's Abbott to the airport and then starting come January the next okay our next item is the commercial retention and redevelopment program formally the facade program update and proposed 2019 targeted areas Jerry Lynn Hall program compliance specialist and Mr. Brett Whiting loan officer for the Office of Business Opportunity and there's Melissa Linder the director of the Office of Business Opportunity good afternoon how's everybody doing we're going to give you a brief update on our commercial retention and redevelopment program formally the facade improvement program last year in 2017 we actually changed the name from facade improvement to commercial retention and redevelopment we have expanded our focus not only on the exterior improvement of business properties in our city but also on working internally to improve the entire project therefore we called it the commercial retention and redevelopment program and it has been very very successful we have five areas we're going to share with you five businesses that we're able to help this last phase which focused on the Farrell Road and West Beltline area what we're going to do is show you those improvements as they occurred and we're also going to talk to you about some new targeted areas that we're going to look at as we look into our future 2019-2020 and where we need to focus at this year we're very intentional and deliberate about where we were going we looked at not only traditionally what areas in the city are we already working in what programs do we have with our community development block grant program focus areas what can we do to layer those efforts therefore a bigger impact in the city this year we also looked at code violations that was very important and you'll see as Jerry Lynn Jerry Lynn's over the society aspect of the PRR and Brian Brian Brett White I'm so sorry Brett Brett White he actually are a loan commercial loan aspect of the program so they work as a team and they're a great team a great team they really do tag tag team these areas they're out there they're visible they're working with our business owners to make sure that they know about the program and to make sure that they're being fully organized throughout the city Hi, I'm Jerry Lynn and I am going to cruise right through our presentation today we do want to start with the summary of 2017-2018 Farrow Road and West Beltline and then we'll wrap up with what's going on in 2018-2019 good I won't go through all the numbers I'll just hit the bad ones with the facade program you'll recall that's an 80-20 match the city will cover 80% the applicant pays 20% and the city in this particular area the funding limits were a maximum of up to $15,000 for exterior improvements for a single building the commercial loan had a maximum limit of $10,000 there is no public private investment required for the commercial loan the first column shows you the public investment on the facade project $61,709 on the commercial loan which is the interior $48,854 as a total I didn't show it here but I did some quick math so the total public investment between facade and commercial loan was $110,553 you met Miss Tameka Hawkins I did you got to get her a sign how did I do that she's had that braiding sign up there for 20 years and if I had a sign like that in front of my business I'd be in trouble I'll get to it but the one unfortunate thing is I can't make people apply for the program though I try the private investment which is the amount that the applicants are putting in to match our investment was $15,175 so a facade total public private investment we did $125,738 in investing on Farrow Road and West Beltline we had a combination of funding we had both CDBG we didn't block grant funds and we had some general budget funding next I want to quickly hit the projects we had everyone can still hear me this is KDEL properties at 3035 Farrow Road you'll see the total public investment we went in and totaled that up for you between facade and commercial loan $23,961 facade covered the roof that was needed the loan did some landscaping some medallions floorings, lighting addressing most were on the exterior and a permanently mounted mail box so here Lynn what's the $10,000 loan what's the $59 the maximum that Brett has is $10,000 but it did 10 minutes $10,000 just now so the application so wouldn't the application be right and there's no we do have some before during the actual photos they do all the way with the greatest we had a bad roof the fork was unfinished you'll see we did a good bit of work all the way around during an after on the interior they had some limited carpet that was in the building and put in the floorings we put in some drawers there's a permanently mounted mail box signage on both a projection sign and a sign on the side of the building and there it is a 4 and a half very good next we go across at $31.16 total investment public funds on the facade the exterior was in touch we did on the building front door and side door roof fencing on the inside there was some parking lot maintenance they had stylish chair, dryer chair this was dryer and fencing on the interior there's a lot of before you can see how the deterioration of the falsehood doors that are really hard at work there's some before photos seating you see a fence in repair and installing the roof on the door and then your before and after the parking lot maintenance was great it gave a new coat and strikingly we could now see the parking space very, very, very nice next food, Kathy is a building owned by DSP Properties at the middle we repaired this is one of the smaller projects we did total investment $12,981 handrail wall sign hangers building on the interior of the second week it was in bad state so we went in we were flooring molding on their own it's beautiful place I don't know if it can be yet but you can see some of the action photos where now the railing is complete better access kind of quick, our buddies over there got the sign up for Alan Carver's that is that's in studio A studio D mark all my construction and helped out on a lot of the interior work before and after you see the flooring going in coming up, going in final before and after again one of the smaller projects this is one of the larger projects outing garbage bags I buy it a hundred times it looks so much better thank you and remind me Fred, he is including even more money on his own that we did want to mention we did even as a door upper level and lower level on the sides of the building to face the street and it was fairly good we replaced the lighting there was a light bulb we added the address manual very important for emergency services you can see there our usual total investment number a fucking lot repair again it's just a bad solution in our country cabinets we'll see the photos in a minute this was one of the most rewarding projects we did here's a little bit to demonstrate especially in the bottom right corner at the styling station there was a lamb in it over it just over the years it's all and all gotten cracked, etc and you can see they came back in they peeled all that off they painted and put up these people are coming in how many and the real thing is what's made what's interesting is you see across the street people cleaning up their properties and fixing it up it's created a sense of pride with other people going I need to clean up my yard now and fix up my space it really has worked it really has had an effect yes it's late for that purpose iterating these added investment added improvement on the private sector before and after he is thinking about the paint screen otherwise so this picture Jerry Lim when you look down you see that mobile sign every one of those places we got to somehow encourage to change because we all have those but for 30 days at a time what I've noticed is it takes away from people's pride and this and that somehow I think we have a facade grant maybe we ought to have a sign grant to help people get nice signage so that it's there or changes even if it's done monument where it can share because I think it just changes the feel of the neighborhood there's so many good things going on you know when we bought the the old dealership and I think it's really helped to change people's investment you got a lot of good businesses that just need that little extra boost but all these buildings are some of the one thing that's down the aisle oh yeah they have that too that's right and everyone very I appreciate that man with a car then maybe she got some new things you wish you wish a little farther down the street coming up to where to not road at 3830 West Beltline is a big store spiritual it's avatar and Daniel you're talking about that sign I know it makes a big difference I've seen it I drive by there all the time I eat lunch around the corner from there a lot too right we replaced some security logging we actually we did some installing monument style signs dimensional parking lot enhancement we replaced the entire interior ceiling we did two sections of floor in that same size and paint and when we talk about the work that we do inside I know that we can't see it but when you go in it's like it's like a take it can look good you take a bite of it but it's inside it's kind of nice on the outside you go on there and that same character you return to that store so it's similar to that we're looking at and we're getting more advice about that and talk about that in the morning total project 21,063 and the business owner Ms. Terry she's she's 19,163 several different families and then her uncle I believe she's had a business in there and she's now going on to her music so this will be a legacy to the state but we just see the ceiling we have the before and the after side by side here you see our security lighting that's one by a four with close up there you are there it is Daniel the difference between taking those semi-permanent signs which will be trouble in that commercial zone area that's new, it wasn't before you had 30 days and a lot would be knocking on your door all the big times but you can see we added a palmetto even today how'd you get to plant a palmetto there I thought that was against the city landscape what you can plant them at the fairgrounds that you can't plant them at Jay's corner I'll tell you what these folks over here I'll do it now do you know what percent of the businesses that we assist by the occupants versus those that are renting Jerry Lynn, trick question what's the secret to 100% black seed oil it is shot on the market yeah, beautiful open this is my first formal presentation during work sessions so it's a little I've never done so much work before with my wife by the bing by the boom but I walked in in the incense but the black seed oil is supposed to be you got as many I did not participate no I thought that's what rock and rock was for I learned something didn't know what it was for jewelry real quick where have we been we started in the downtown then we went to Maine and Northman not drugs, but we had two phases we went from Taylor to Covenant then Covenant to the sort of and most recently we've already started looking at where we're going next we have been to most of the although we have to work all hard so we're looking what's going to pool this we looked at of course community development, organization service area their priority designated city, redevelopment areas of zones opportunity zones federal programming see where they overlaid and we looked at four doors that had not benefited from the program in the last 10 years new is where we added is the violation what better way to try to figure out where all businesses could be we wanted to see if they would work closely well add to that as folks are trying to develop helping them trying to help her I'm trying to help here can't be he is in a role well guess what she's pitching you're missing I'll do that one okay so I hear where you're saying does it because of where you're going though does it also make sense yes possibly that's right now we don't regenerate how far east is that code enforcement does how far east is how far east no no no no no oh I'm sorry what's happening what's happening what's happening what's happening what's happening right check it please it was millwood office the churches I don't know what's going on there they stripped it because they have to they have to de-franchise it at the corner but nobody signed up that's what I was saying so if you're going to do hardening you're doing millwood just connect it right there and do how much money are we talking about I was thinking but really both of them I forgot about Taylor but I was going to say right there both of those just make that a square that and there just because there's not that many businesses but some of them could benefit I mean I'm thinking I'm going to have to look at the types of violations because like we're see the time that we're chosen how many of somebody buys she opens back up she opens three days later they close just because somebody died no she closed because her son died and then like a month later she was open the other day when I went by there I tell you if that place did close it'd be the one place I'd buy I love that place let me ask you a question it just didn't get a long time it just didn't get a long time how far since we've seen it in the identified new area what's the possibility of these businesses I'll be honest with y'all this is all really good but the reality of it is that what's killing a lot of these small businesses is that the taxes that they're having to pay because their rents are going up and landlords having to pay so much and the thing we have to figure out a program to help them just by that this is an observation and I think the plan to go into other areas is good when I look at the what appears to be the total cost of our old belt line it's only $125,000 going to the parks wait wait the Mr. Moss it passed away when we look at the areas that are successful businesses, new businesses that $125,000 sometimes that ends up going to one of those businesses what I'm hoping we can do is really add to the total in that pot we're so limited $125,000 I would think that the areas that we really want to see develop we could find little more resources put in there that's number one and then number two kind of agree with well I do agree with Daniel because we've been kind of talking about this over the years what else can we do to make it easier to open your door I promise you hopefully during our retreat we're going to have an in-depth discussion about that we've talked about some creative ways of doing that and I'd like to see us have some, put more meat on that bone other cities that do little creative things to help small business real small business truly small business which are the ones that we're I did want to include that we're looking at this area and I believe that mostly applies to part of our design in the design district and a so there will be a little extra approval that may happen depending on where what they apply to but just a little bit can we go back to the going please it seems like on the Hardin Street part from your bay down to Blossom a lot of those properties have been purchased to do apartments or whatever projects there is how many more businesses left in there that could use this program it's not that many really when you think about it it's not that many but it's still there actually there are I mean I know that Five Points has a great number of businesses that generally we have revenue brought in by more sales of more than 51% of our those are not eligible and we have pulled them out on both of these pool of orders that are commercially zoned that are eligible this picture is showing the ones that have violations that are eligible and that will be our priority to help them address their violations but there will be other sites that have no green dots but they aren't eligible I was trying to do the section between and I was saying but look at Saluda Avenue there's three retail spaces open today I agree I got two retailers that were showing some spaces down there too and I think they're going to look for that because they're making a trying to help they're taking a little bit of gamble hopefully they won't get protested because the budget constraint tells the only business is only part of the business we will not be able to do 5.5 million at this point but let's look at that the available sources for where we are now in 1829 and we know that we've got 88,336,000 we have a small amount $55,348 remaining from this Farrow Road wet felt line area a community development block grant and we have asked for an amendment to take that money close it out of the oil program and use it only through part of it that is being processed now but we don't have that you haven't done any restaurants or anything that helped but this is where but see this is where but this is where why a franchise not a franchise well a yogi bear chicken franchise would not be just fried chicken and horse South Carolina come on you gotta get out for a man who's out and about in the world culinary knowledge is very good I'm in bed while you're riding Uber let me let me here's a conversation I have with somebody what it takes because I think you you also try to distract your businesses I tried to promote that we gotta figure out moving into 19 how we take these programs into a better program to get people into business as well they need to be tied together and today I saw an example of somebody across the river getting to do a whole renovation in a 15,000 square foot strip center and it took them 2 days to get a permit and I saw a space somebody did on main street and they added a counter didn't change HVAC didn't change electrical didn't change anything no flooring nothing y'all we gotta change the way we operate what we did want to do is if we are awarded we'll have a total of $143,684 to keep this off if it is unable to be awarded we'll be operating with $88,000 the reduced budget may require to take the program or adjusting the project funding now we've got them set up at the $15,000 for the commercial loan of the $10,000 there are some things we can do I've got details on some of the violations and what they are and I think a lot of them can be addressed for less money so I'm hoping to have several more small projects if possible I was just talking about the limit both the facade and the individual loan project require a two-year monitoring period as long as the owner or senate maintains the improvement that's installed for that period there's good to go and the amount that we invested on their behalf that first 80% or 100% is forgiven with each loan could they not maintain it or not repair it within an excusable amount of time would be considered in default and then there would be a delay in the next year in order to be eligible for the loan project it has to be we want to see improvement on the outside because that's what I would have to do by the end of the year we have to be applying for the facade project in order to get even a look at the loan project on top of that the commercial loan project could not exceed the cost of the facade project can't come and do a $500 sign on the outside and then $10,000 on the inside in order that the exterior is in great shape sharp shape that type of thing before we get into the interior here are these are 17 properties that are currently in violation on part 3 we've got 16 currently in violation within this party within those boundaries that I spoke about and 16 on really well as I said, there's a minimum of plenty additional commercial properties in these parties that are still eligible they just don't have violations but they are still eligible for the program one thing we did do was kind of limit these improvements what do violations go what do they mostly need so we are looking at doing a lot of improvements to awnings that they need carpentries, lighting masonry, painting roofing it must be a peak style roof and it has to be clearly visible from the major corridor if it's this way if it's out here I can only do the front this way if it's clearly visible from both sides I can open that roof but the difference with the commercial loan project is again we are looking at sustaining that business or sustaining a life of that building the only improvement will only be done to what is kind of considered permanent infrastructure in the middle of the building we will paint or repair the walls paint or repair the ceiling the floors cabinets that are built in not the ones that you purchase but the fixtures cabinets built in or similar built in fixtures are eligible lighting lighting if the owner also wants to improve ADA accessibility above like adding a ramp or grab bar that's the plus that makes it more feel to be personalized and parking lot repair is only cut we will play to describe going down to the dirt or anything like that one time we were talking about surveillance camera products we have removed that from the list because of driven by the need the need really didn't come down to whether they asked you or anything I thought the discussion was to help the police department put anything like that that was a bonus I like that that would be good you knew you were thinking that where do we go from here here it is redevelopment wisely is now targeting the limited amount of entitlement funds to get specific large projects this funding force may not be available to us very much long we want to let you know in 2020 we are going to be requesting the budget that's higher than in two years thousand if they use 10,000 if they do use the whole amount open it we want to think great job we will look I think in general the council was the recommended area that they suggested we got to keep rotating I think you have an opportunity for the area thank you so much final presentation is on opportunity zones and the city's perspective Mr. Ryan Coleman director of economic development I'm good I can't control the commentary though I just wanted to take the opportunity because it's going to be last council meeting with us today after 12 years with the city she has the opportunity to help expand her family business we're excited for her but it's bittersweet because she's been such a great asset to our city clerk's office and Erica will be trying to fill something you want to give up all this craziness to hang out with your family I'm sure your children will be so excited for the first 30 days right alright talk about OZ alright you're qualified to come up here you probably sat down on the rephrase first council as part of the a lot of cities around the U.S. have started to lay their own work to clear these opportunity zones and invest in cities that have gotten out for the first time and we have done so in an economic development market we've got about 20 or 30 slides from here really the goal of this is to kind of serve as that connection we want to communicate with these investors and connect them with these opportunities fair enough we can make any progress in this but this is something really bold but happy to so the other one if you have a hard time in the first time or if you've been there but you may remember there was a bill called investing in opportunity zones and skies you know but then you have one in the past few days and Ohio you've done the best you've probably done the best in years trying to rate the opportunities of the centers that show the challenges of places where where you can actually push the best option is this Governor's when Howard asked to be effective and Governor's to start with identifying a number of times there's a state there's a national there's a national there's a national there's a national there's a national there's a national there's a national there's a national there's a device there's a device there's a device inside which you don't know whether it's government lay payment of a very fabulous amount of money in that period of time. That's not a good thing to do. That's not a good thing to do. And anything that they make, the money they make in those investments that have to be made to qualify opportunities, funds, or the whole of our rules to be determined there, they pay no capital debt. It really is an incredible opportunity to drive the Secretary of the Mission with $100 billion of gases just based on activity with Sanctuary a whole lot more activity in that space. It's important to note that unlike in town and Gainesville, there's probably a different town in Gainesville and New Yorkers, there's 40 up in Gainesville and there's about 17 in Gainesville. Burden, suburban, anywhere. All across the country. But every zone is not going to see robust investment in transportation. We're kind of getting out ahead, identifying the right opportunity. The greatest concern we've heard we met with Secretary of the Mission the first of September spent a lot of time with Senator Scott and everyone else including people who see some real potential here is that if it's a capital, it's just where the bills are going to happen. There's no one like that. You have to do that and also find creative ways to pull people back into the message that Gainesville has reached has lived and had lived in those sectors. So, this is why and his team put together this perspective just to start distinguishing ourselves from other communities. A lot of communities are ahead, putting out their own perspectives on the city about Gainesville But we've been constantly engaged in providing some direction on how to do the regulations. The first sponsor regulations came out in October. We've been working on it for a long time. So what are our regulations? Geography. First part, we start down here in Elmwood. First part, up in Elmwood's name. I'm the seller of the I.C.L.A. I.C.L.A. We go all the way out, back down to I.C.L.A. We put the I.C.L.A. on that track. Part of that is on Farrell Road. We go all the way up to I.C.L.A. Over the Nibu. It'll be. It comes back down over here. And those properties all qualify to be in the opportunity to go. We have a basic property. We also have a situation where the property is in one spot. And it is in the opportunity to go. And expect it to be there. I think the federal government kind of realized that we have a lot of private sector properties. They're not there. They're not. They're not in the tax liability. They're just sitting there in Elmwood. And at the same time, we've got a lot of those. But at times we have just the best way to move it. They're both investing their money They are putting their money They're putting their hands to it. So we have these deputies They're putting jobs in a city with their sensors tracked. out on top it's always one it's my it's my understanding correct me from wrong not only you know an area across the road I'm gonna tell you at least every road ain't across the road Thanks for the glamor Investors They get their tax bill in the northeast. Hey, I'm telling you y'all y'all laugh when they get that 700 mil plus That's segregated from private sector versus government segregated from private sector and government I want to know the difference you want we can we can pull that out and add that in there hey in 2020 you can stay there that's the subsidized subsidized subsidized subsidized subsidized those high taxes Daniel's talking about no tower public but we've got the number three billion train free all right wait whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa you're gonna count spirit communications part yeah it's commercial and 37 million that's a and the law school come on now y'all are stretching it now and a hotel is not even open these are yeah um because there are developers who trying to get out of it and i know someone mentioned I don't know how real this is, that person contacted me, and they said, you know, the did you ask them what they wanted? No, I mean, I know they told me what the project was. Have you run analysis on how the opportunity zone affects a potential project versus the cost of the taxes and everything else? Because, you know, for us to have a significant advantage, you know, at 8,700 opportunity zones is going to be a lot, so there's going to be a lot of competition. But if the capital gains relief doesn't help offset, because at the end of the day, as we continue to struggle is, you've seen the numbers, we've got 54% of people rent and taxes going up and it's making it more and more unaffordable. So this is great for the developer, but for the life of the project and being able to get it passed down to the people who need the incentive, how does that play? And I think we need to be prepared to tackle that issue. That's the point. I mean, that's why, particularly at this stage, maybe we ought to be thinking about the ways in which we can encourage a type of investment. I mean, for the macro issue about taxes, the discussion that we do to have the fiscal strategy, we can't afford that. A macro discussion that's going to have to be done. If we are going to encourage, or identify, whatever happens with the types of things that speakers hear about the program, then we ought to be prepared to do that. You know, just by thinking and trying to figure this out and maybe hopefully even just, you know, one page or a page where you have some on those issues. I think as creatively as we can think about what we want to see happening and what we want to see happening and if we work and work with them, maybe having some community sessions and asking folks, are you talking about the program and Perfect World, what would you want to see? How we can help direct private sector capital into this space. Thinking about the number of local investors that might be interested in this, not just in New York or California or Chicago. Folks who are interested in getting an 8-9% return, if you're going to get a return for a smart investment in the community, think about resiliency. Do you want to get people investing in solar panels? Or what can we do to connect folks who aren't connected to broadband? There's so many different ways that we need to create more housing for working folks for 15 years. Again, ways in which there's a local strategy that marries up with a national strategy that speaks to the values of the city. All these places where there's been a great need, but the capital hasn't been there. How can we direct relatively patient capital into this space? It's our job to kind of put our own personal touch. I won't tell you, we got one deal done already. It's not one that we did, but we made known of the old movie theater. It's not the one at Cumbia Mall, but the one at Cumbia Mall. The meeting place now owns the whole shopping center. Oh yeah, in the back. Yeah, in the back. The meeting place, just over a year ago, went to... We opened the movie theater there. The numbers just didn't add up. It's called Fit Investor. It didn't add up after we sat down. They should have been chair of the implementation of that program. I think they opened up the project. They opened up the idea of the majority of it. We'll talk more about it. I think it's a dirty job, but it's the kind of effort you want to see. Not to do a real estate deal that's going to happen one way or the other. There's going to be a lot more happenings. No, I'm agreeing. That's where we started. We started that earlier. We've got to make... But I like the idea, too, of having some dialogue with these areas of touch. Sometimes that's... I'm glad to hear that. Also, though, there are opportunities out there that represent what we want to see. I'm not... Right now, Delta, you go after it. To convince somebody that this is an area with a difference. You'll do what it takes to get you there. Getting them there is going to have to die. Right. It's getting the community to support it. That's been our challenge in the past. I think, you know, as we move forward, we... I think we're very fortunate to be able to do that. Folks, you know, when Tom makes a point for it, it's going to be very... It's going to take a lot of hand-holding. Right. And when we... In an area, when we... Think about everything that we want to see. It didn't always have to be built by the city. Right? Right. Again, things that we want to see, but that need to be built by the private sector. It's my life. It's got an impact. There's been a component of these. I mean, the social thing is that... How does somebody develop and not just come in and make a living? It's critical that we have this. But we're here. We're going to support the community. And I think developers will work basically. We've already got the buy-in. We've already jumped that hurdle. Now it's only going to be this kind of stuff all the way to the city of... I think we have a plan. I don't know if y'all all know this. There's a factory going on. What's the drive, uh, park there? It'll work for a housing there for the hospital system. It makes more sense than a hotel. We've got problems going on in the city. Commercial property on Imperial Road where the food line is. More of some of the traditional economic development. We're thinking about workforce housing, spending in... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... That's it for the most part. Next step, we've got a buscab room, ... ... ... ... ... I'm taking the right place you got a place. Nobody will find this out. Are they going to let the people come across the bridge? Absolutely. I'd like to make a motion to go into executive session for receipt of legal advice related to pending threat and potential claim on the 30 days, 40 days, 70 a James Morris versus city. Kirby Bishop at all versus city. Received of legal advice related to matters covered by attorney client privilege pursuant to 70 a to entity fees of flood property acquisition, discussion of matters related to proposed location of expansion services encouraged location expansion of industries of other business pursuant to 70 a to Bentley Park parking incentives grant West. Yes. Hi. Steve. When I say, yeah, the hand of the hand upstairs. No, you got to I completely forgot about it. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to pretend to be an active group. I hadn't been active since oh, hey, that's where they make a mistake. When we get cell in, I'm going to go change the legislation. Yes, sir.