Jul 22, 2020 Downtown Denton Tax Increment Financing Zone No. 1 Board on 2020-07-22 12:00 PM

unmuted. Unmute. We've determined that a quorum has been met. The downtown Denton tax increment financing reinvestment zone number one board of the city of Denton, Texas will now convene in a regular meeting at 1207 PM this Wednesday, the 22nd day of July 2020. Our first order of business is one a consider approval and or corrections of the meeting minutes from January 22nd 2020 downtown Denton tax increment financing reinvestment zone number one board of the city of Denton, Texas. Are there any corrections to the minutes as distributed? No corrections. Do we have a motion? Motion to accept. We have a motion to accept from John Rins. Do we have a second? All second from Ben Easley. We have a second from Ben Easley. It is moved and seconded that we accept the approved the minutes as distributed. All those in favor of adopting the motion say well, so I go around the horn. I'm sorry. So yes, and you can go in the order that you see everyone if that helps. Okay. So then easily. Is that a yes or no? Yes. Paul, is it a yes or no? Aye. Aye. Alex? Aye. Can you handle good enough? Aye. Gerard? Aye. I believe. Is that it? It's all I see on my screen. John, did you vote? Aye. Oh, John, I missed you up there. Sorry. Aye. Okay. So it's unanimous. Can we go to the next order of business now? Yes. Okay. Next order of business. We're going to skip to 1C receive report and hold discussion and give staff direction regarding a downtown reinvestment grant for signage for 213 East Hickory Street. The downtown economic development committee recommends a grant in the amount of $7,313. The chair recognizes Jessica Rogers. Right. Well, thank you. We're excited to bring forward a grant and we appreciate the patience of our applicant as his application was interrupted due to COVID and committee is not meeting. So we appreciate his ongoing patience as we've gone through this, but I'm going to actually turn it over to Christina Davis from our team to do the presentation and then we'll open it up for questions. And as you can see, Eric is here with us to answer any questions about the project as well. Excuse me. Are we skipping the previous item? We're just going to go out of order. Oh, okay. So that Eric, for Eric's convenience. I see. Hi, my name is Christina Davis. I'm the economic development specialist. Today I'll give you a presentation regarding the downtown reinvestment grant application for signage at two one three East Hickory Street. The business at this location is Hickory to Oak, also known as H2O. The downtown economic development committee has reviewed the application and recommends a grant in the amount of $7,313. The next step in the approval process for this application is a review on a recommendation by this board. Projects will be reviewed with the following considerations in mind, increase in property valuation or increase in sales tax, historical accuracy or design quality. It improves capacity of water, wastewater or electric service improvements to health and safety results in significant increase in downtown population. Other impacts could include but are not limited to not limited to partners with other businesses such as shared parking is a target business for like groceries or pharmacy, promotes development of arts and entertainments downtown. Additional considerations include removal of slip covers or non-historical added facades, repointing brick or replacing mortar joints, replacing and restoring cornices, removing paint from brick, replacing windows, restoring trance and windows, roof and foundation work. Replacing and adding or repairing awnings and signs. Signs may include sign boards, projecting signs and pedestrian signage, which includes window signs, hanging signs and awning or canopy signs. Also reimbursement for city of Denton water and wastewater impact fees, upgrades to water, wastewater, electric service, including interior upgrades as well as exterior service upgrades, as best as mold evapement, fire suppression systems and ADA compliance. Hickory Oak also known as H2O is a multi-building project with access from both East Hickory and East Oak streets in downtown. This grant application for the coffin race mural in metal and neon blade sign is specific for the 213 East Hickory Street address of the project directly across the street from the city's Hickory Street public parking lot. The mural featuring a day of the dead themed skeleton driving a coffin is a celebration of one of the most noteworthy annual events in the Hickory Street area downtown on Denton's day of the dead festival. The 68 by 72 inch double sided metal blade sign which features exposed neon will help revitalize the building to be another addition of rebirth in the area. Total improvements for this project include signage. In 2013 the property at 211 East Hickory was awarded a $10,000 grant for facade awning and paint improvements. Current grant guidelines allow for up to $25,000 per property. Because addresses of 211, 213 and 215 East Hickory are now one real property plan, this property is eligible to receive up to $15,000 in grant awards through the program. On July 7th the downtown economic development committee reviewed and scored the grant program application. The application received a score of 22 which allows for a recommendation of up to $10,000. Estimated expenses submitted for the new signs and the allowable project cost is $14,625. Under the grant guidelines applicants can request 50% of the allowable project costs up to $50,000. This grant request is for $7,313. The downtown economic development committee has recommended approval to the tourist number one board for a grant request of $7,313 with a unanimous vote of 8 to 0. To assist you in your discussion we provided three options for recommendations from this board to the city council. Option one is make a recommendation to the Denton City Council to approve the grant requested from Hickory to Oak in the amount of $7,313 and as recommended by the downtown economic development committee. Option two would be make a recommendation to the Denton City Council to approve the grant request but in another amount and option three would be to make no recommendation to the Denton City Council. This ends my presentation but the grant applicant Eric Polito is in attendance to answer any questions you may have. I recognize John. Eric what is the target date at this point? Hey John we're loosely trying to look at fall obviously you know like everyone we're kind of just seeing what what changes it's we haven't got our CO yet either and we kind of it's on a slow you know track right now but we are close to finishing it's just trying to figure out when is the best time you know to launch it just because as you know so much is put in up front we're trying to figure out when that best timing would be. Okay are there any external issues that could prevent you guys from opening up given all the COVID stuff or is it really just internal decision making as it relates to COVID and the market and so forth. Yeah I think it's it's more that of course you know we we want to be able to offer what we're going to offer long term and with everything going on and as many restaurants have done things are kind of sized down and so I guess the question would be do we open but with a size down offering and operation and footprint really because we don't have the need for more. So those are some of the things that we're considering or do you just wait until it's good and safe to do the full thing that you know was imagined from the beginning so. So it's really just the internal things you talked about you don't see any external things that could come in the way. Okay. No. That's all I've got. Thank you. I recognize Ben. Is it I feel like in the past we've we've heard the overall costs of some projects. Eric do you feel comfortable telling us the overall cost that you all have incurred on this so far. I don't know that exact number Ben I could I could get more information but I could tell you it's it's a lot more than this piece and I wish that we would have done a better job of getting some of the other facade renovations that we were needing to do and did do into this program as well with like awnings and such and obviously some of those buildings are new structures as well like where the bathrooms are where that that day of the dead mural is. But thanks to Christina we were able at least you know get a couple of these things in there especially because it applied more to to signage you know. Yeah. Yeah. And I think when when I had walked in there oh man this was it seems like it was yesterday but it's COVID world right now. Y'all had really done some work on that entire property. Yeah. There's 1700 to drop in the bucket here. There's a lot of work that's been done and we've really tried to preserve a lot of the the history that's in the building. We repurposed a lot of the lights to get them to work and be hung again. We exposed a mural that's inside that was all kind of blocked by just you know stucco like type you know coverage of brick like they used to do. And yeah the family still owns the property as well. So that's a cool aspect that we wanted to touch upon. I know that's a tangent but but yeah there is a lot of cool reinvestment that we feel like we've done in the building and can't wait to have folks in there. Right on. That's all I've got. Recognize Paul. Yeah. Hey Paul. Am I on mute. I don't even know how I heard this. Some kind of rumor but is it is it true that you've actually got a for real preserve Quaker Town house on the property. Well we have the property that was across the street at the law firm. They were going to demolish it and they basically offered it up to us for free to use if we paid to have it moved. So that is from from you know the HLC at the time that was what was presumed that that house that was at the law firm that wasn't its original spot either and that it would maybe structure that was brought there and then we brought it over. We're not using it right now. It's just kind of sitting on the concrete plat that's next to the main concept that we have. But we had hoped to use it and repurpose it for an outside structure. But yeah you're correct. There's there's some history there and we didn't want it to get demolished. So it was cool to get to use it. Just cost a little bit of money to move it. Yeah. Well I appreciate that. Thanks. Anyone else have questions. Am I accepting a motion or. So but there can be discussion after the motion as well. I thought we were just we're just talking to the applicant but we could have deliberation even after a motion. Yes. So are we taking a motion to approve or to vote or Paul do you still want a discussion. Well do you want to pull up the three possible. Yeah I'm happy to hear you know I have things I want to ask and talk about. But I'm happy to hear other folks deliberation first. I'm not ready to go straight to the vote. I have a question that if I missed it I apologize. I'm sorry. Yeah. Could the downtown economic development group that I serve on but was not present for the last meeting I assume made a recommendation of the amount stated. Maybe someone could clarify as to what what their position was and why the amount. If I missed that part I apologize. Can you review that for. Yes. So the downtown economic development committee as you're aware scores the applications and so the average score that this application received was twenty two based on that scoring criteria and of course you know as a member of that committee that each individual member has a scoring sheet but has the ability to score based on how they feel it meets the criteria. So the consensus again was an average of twenty two which makes the project eligible of up to ten thousand dollars. This project is was requesting less than that amount. So it's equal to 50 percent of their expenses. So in this case they were eligible for 14. The project expenses that were eligible were fourteen thousand. I don't have the number in front of me but the amount they were recommending from the DEDC was seven thousand three hundred and thirteen which is 50 percent of their project expenses. Okay. I'm going back and reading there. Okay this is for signs. So they might they didn't apply for other other eligible expenses on this building. They didn't feel the need to. If I could answer that Alex so we were because of the cadence and process that that you need to go through to qualify for any type of assistance we weren't able to apply for those things because they were already done and we had to submit before we commenced work on these things which in the case of the mural and the signage we did submit before we commenced work and the other things we did not. I got you. Okay. Otherwise we would have been yeah I would have qualified for a lot more certainly. Okay that's all I have. Other questions for Eric or staff. The next part looking at the three potential deliberations. Christina is going to share that slide. Just takes one second to get it pulled up. So those are the three options that you're seeing on your screen right now is option one. Make a recommendation to the city council that concurs with the downtown economic development committee. Make a recommendation of a separate amount or make don't make a recommendation to approve the grant. Are you ready for a motion. I believe we're ready for a recommendation. I'll make a motion to for option one to approve the amount requested of seventy three thirteen. I'll second the motion. First from Alex a second from Ben. Paul do you have a question. Yes I do. Wait are we allowed a question at this point. Yes. Yes. Okay go ahead. Yeah I guess you know a question potentially some comment. So my question is under what what considerations can apply to to make the recommendation different than the requested amount if all the expenses is qualified. And here and let me give you some context. You know I weigh very heavily and seriously it's not a huge amount of money here we're talking about but I still weigh very seriously public benefit benefit versus private benefit. We can only spend taxpayer money for public benefit and the whole purpose of the downtown TIF and the reinvestment grants is that it's a public benefit to revitalize the downtown area and to invest in it. And boy if there was ever a project that fits the bill perfectly you know this sure does on the whole and I you know just as a citizen like I really appreciate what they're doing with the property where where I you know have some concern is you've got two different components that went into the cost and I acknowledge what Alex said it could have been a whole lot of other things that they submitted for the timing had been different but such you know but be that as it may the mural supporting you know kind of a debt in public event and decorative you know kind of on the street and all seems to be seems to very clearly square with the public purpose intended. Now the sign for the individual business itself clearly qualifies by the way it's laid out in the presentation it's signage and that's a sign but that's why I'm asking like what are the criteria that we're sort of allowed to judge on because if I if I weigh is that really I'm very happy to you know be instructed by my colleagues but but the question I ask myself is that really public benefit or primarily or private benefit and we weigh those things that that that scale for like every parks program yeah that's an official framework that we use to evaluate things how much of it to what degrees of public to what degrees of private it just feels much more you know the sign advertising your business you know strikes me as much more private benefit so so despite the fact that I think the total project is so bang on right you know I would be more inclined to you know give the grant essentially for the to cover 50% of the mural cost that that but I don't know really how we're meant to apply the criteria so that's all one with Alex leading the TIF or the Dead Sea board he might be able to speak to that really well and then I think it might be appropriate also to sort of revisit why it starts at the Dead Sea level to bring to hers that be appropriate sure so I so Melissa's reference the former downtown task force is the downtown economic development committee is the committee she's referencing and that scores the application the criteria that they score on are the criteria that are adopted by City Council by ordinance included in that is awnings and signs as a specific criteria of which they consider eligible funding so that's a they were provided that guidance by the ordinance adopted by City Council but I'll let Alex maybe talk to the staff doesn't score the application we just make sure that it complies with the ordinance as adopted in the criteria that were given and so maybe Alex or Melissa can speak to what process they go through or what evaluation they take into perspective as they score an application yeah I'm glad to weigh in and raise my hand it's just I don't I don't want to get into a theoretical debate if we can avoid it but the whole nature of this program and this application and the eligible expenses if you if you if they were to have applied for this on the basis of all the work they've done if that had if that had happened in the right timing it's hard to make an argument that much of these cause much of the cost that we typically award on our public benefit you know impact fees you know utility upgrades which oftentimes that we're not talking about in the street they might be but most times we're talking about utility upgrades to the building itself interior code improvements to the building itself those are the things that they've done in this case and would would have scored you know a $25,000 grant easily and so but if you try to make the argument how much this is public benefit I mean I don't know it's more that that's where we're getting the philosophical argument so to break this one down on that basis would be to me open it up you could have that argument and and do this every single time so and again it is economic development let's hope that this is a a you know successful project that we're back to normal business and there's lots of people down there patronizing this business and and enjoying themselves and then spending tax dollars that spending dollars that equate to sales tax dollars for the city and can be used for the public benefit so and like I said in that so in the sense that you know you're just going to pick out and do that with signage is I think unfair I don't know if I accomplished what I was asked to but that's what I wanted to state John I see that your hand is raised Christina I'd like to ask you before I moved to have John take the floor could you bring up the Dead Sea scoring criteria that was that in the deck she did have a slide on the project considerations at the very beginning of what are the items that could be taken into consideration but I don't think we have the sample score sheet with this item we have it with the next item we may be able to bring it up historic accuracy any of the y'all just have that just sort of as a yes so in your backup with their full application it has the table that has it broken down and the items that are taken into account on the scoring system or economic impact historic accuracy and design upgrades to utilities or impact fees increases in population interior code improvements and then there is an other category that includes partnerships with other businesses such as shared parking the project is a targeted business such as a grocery store pharmacy or a locally owned business that it promotes didn't development excuse me promotes development of Denton Arts and Entertainment and then the longevity of the business so that's the scoring sheet and then Christina included in her presentation a slide that outlined the guidance that is provided in the ordinance adopting the program and it states that projects will be reviewed and ranked with the following consideration so increase in a property value or generation of sales tax project rehabilitation that reflects historic accuracy improves the capacity of water wastewater or electric utility services provides improvements to health and safety water wastewater impact fees are assessed and the project will result in a significant increase in downtown population either day or night or other appropriate impacts may be considered on a case-by-case basis including but not limited to partnerships with other businesses targeted businesses and promotion of arts and entertainment so those are yes those are the criteria that are reviewed thank you John so a bit of a question bit of a statement um this to me isn't part of the broad scope of TURS in its budget but a segment of it is the grant program so i'm just bringing that up paul that if this was in the broader scope maybe some of those questions come into play but this is the separate grant program and we probably should we should be that probably we should be looking at it from that perspective in those criteria because that is am i correct yeah i agree i agree okay any further discussion or questions we had a motion and a second on the table do we now just go around the horn for yeah um yes if there's no more discussion i don't see any hand raised so we'll go around the horn too with a yay or nay john yay then yay alex yay paul yeah on balance it's compelling so i'm a i'm an aye aye aye gerard all right melissa's an aye as well the recommendation carries unanimously we unanimously vote yes so we'll be moving this forward as fast as we can to the city council and we'll coordinate with eric to make sure he gets to join us for one more meeting thank you eric thanks for coming eric of course good luck with everything thank you eric appreciate everything now we'll um come back to 1b which is receive a report hold a session and give staff direction regarding amendments to the downtown reinvestment grant program policy like uh jessica and christina too yes so we have a very quick presentation christina is going to pull it up for me and drive for me so that i don't have to keep moving around i apologize for the delay here we're switching presentations all right so i'll just do a quick overview of a couple conversations that we've had since january so next slide so today we'll just have the discussion and receive direction regarding updates to the downtown reinvestment grant policy next slide so to remind everyone we have been working on this for a while uh back in january we received or we held a discussion about making an amendment to the downtown reinvestment grant policy to include ada improvements as interior code improvements as eligible expenses in that category of the policy and also amend the scoring sheet to specifically list ada improvements under the interior code improvement section as an eligible scoring item the terse board provided staff direction that you wanted direction from the downtown economic development committee prior to your consideration of changes so on february 6th which does seem like a very long time ago now we actually took this item to the downtown committee and they concurred with the terse board's recommendations following that up we were scheduled to go to the committee on persons with disabilities in march that was one of the committees that was cancelled as the start of the covid pandemic started so we weren't able to get with them until their next meeting which was july 16th i presented the item to them and they also concurred with the terse board recommendations and they appreciated being part of the process and so next slide so the proposed amendments and i've included both a red line and a clean version of the policy for your consideration would be to amend the interior code improvement section and the on both the project descriptions and the scoring sheet and i have another slide on that in just one second as well as we went through the policy to make administrative updates which included changing the references to the downtown task force to its new name the downtown economic development committee we also updated the contact information and staff references and some of the checklist items that applicants have to go through to make sure that that information stays up to date we also provided little bits of clarification where needed nothing major just making sure that the process was clearly outlined where we had been getting questions and then we just corrected some formatting and grammar issues that came up in the process and if you go to the next slide this is the amendment that this committee specifically recommended back in january which was to add the statements under the interior code improvement section that states and improvements made as required by or in accordance with the americans with disabilities act as amended so it's specifically now listed in the definition as an eligible project type and that is i believe all i have and so we can open it up for discussion like to open up for a discussion or question doesn't look like there's any discussions or questions yeah i think we kind of we made that call at that meeting so it's great seats in there yeah yeah i think for what it's worth i'm good with it and it doesn't seem that this is something that needs to be voted on we do need a motion a recommendation because the policy is adopted by ordinance so we'll be drafting a ordinance to amend the policy and taking that to city council so we would like this board's recommendation to go with that okay would anybody like to make a motion i'll make a motion to approve i'll second so we have a motion and a second i don't see everybody is john still there yeah i'm here oh there you are yeah john i seconded uh second sorry vote yay or nay i vote yay then yay yeah alex yay paul yay yes and i thank you gerard yay elissa yay the right board passes the unanimous vote yes and we will be bringing that forward to city council and we'll make sure to update the board once that gets adopted by city council great thank you that takes us to 1d correct receive a report hold a discussion and give staff direction regarding the fiscal year 2020 2021 downtown denton tax increment refinancing zone number one budget yes it's that time of year again that we are going to be discussing budgets and so prior to the city manager's start of budget excuse me prior to the start of the presentations and the city manager's presentation in the next few weeks to city council we wanted to bring the terz board um budget item forward so i'm going to turn it over to nick vincent nick is our assistant director of finance who is going to present this item thank you jessica can everybody see the presentation no okay okay can you see that yes perfect so as jessica said i'm nick vincent assistant director of finance i have a brief presentation to review the 2021 proposed downtown terz budget with you um chair if it's okay there's only two two or three slides if we could get through the presentation ask questions if that's okay with you so this slide summarizes the adopted 1920 budget you can see it here in this column so the terz fund currently has 739 000 in revenue we currently have 150 000 in expenses in the current budget and we are forecasting both of those to be at budget ending this fiscal year and you can see the preliminary 2021 budget we are forecasting 801 000 in revenue for the downtown terz fund and then we have 100 000 in expenses forecasted a couple things i want to review with you so the 2021 revenue assumptions you can see the base value for the terz fund and i'll review with you on the next slide of 79.3 million we are currently forecasting the 2020 value for the terz fund to come in at 227.3 million and this currently assumes an eight percent growth in assessed values in the city of denton we will receive certified estimates this coming friday and this year is a little bit different than previous years we will not actually get a certified total the 24th of july this year we'll actually get certified estimates so we'll continue to keep the downtown terz board updated as we progress through the budgeting cycle circle back with you in august or september with the updated values but for the time being we currently have an eight percent increase in assessed values plugged in as you can see the estimated revenues as i've reviewed up in the table is 801 000 uh we do use 95 percent of the incremental value above the base value um so basically the difference between the 227 and the 79.3 million represents 148 million dollars of growth um 95 percent of that value is 140.6 million and then the 2021 expenses we do have a hundred thousand dollars in grant reimbursement plugged into the budget this is the table we show each year when we're presenting the downtown terz budget and you can see in 2010 when that initial value was established at 79.4 million and you can see that value here and you can see the forecasted value that's revert reviewed with you on the previous slide of 227.37 million so you can see over this 10 year period the terz district has increased in value and of course you can see the forecasted revenue down here at the bottom of 801 000 so next steps we are looking for direction today from the terz board the denton cad will release certified estimates this friday the 24th we get estimates for the entire city so assessed values the downtown area in the city of denton so for the terz district and then the proposed budget the city manager's budget as jessica had mentioned is going to be presented to the city council on august the sixth and that concludes the presentation and i will pull it down really quick to allow for questions okay i have a question yes sir do the certified estimates consider um property owners um contesting their tax bills is this considered after that or could it be adjusted after people are contesting uh that's a great question uh so the certified estimate can be adjusted after this coming friday and there could possible possibility be a property still in protest so uh there is some uncertainty with it until we get those certified totals which this year we won't actually receive certified totals in september um so we'll get those in september and circle back with the terz board and city council once we get them but we will be working off certified estimates coming this friday and as we have those budget discussions the city council in august one other question um thank you one other question where are we at um the consulting firm and bringing together a proposal for what we've been talking about as far as a larger game plan i don't know if we want to dive into this here but it certainly seems to fit the budget talk um we had a presentation from a gentleman you know six months ago what is the status right now sure so like many things it got delayed due to the covid pandemic as staff staff had to shift um on some other high priority items but we have resumed the study and we intend to bring it back as soon as it gets completed we're missing i would say maybe five to ten percent of the data we need to finish it up and then bring it back so our intention is it will be back to the board very quickly and is the payment for that consultant coming from the general fund yes this was not paid out of terse funds that's correct that's all i've got any other questions or discussion okay jessica yes you had some input no no no i was just telling you you were muted okay thank you so we'll look for a motion about the budget as presented i guess motion to accept it do we have a second i'll second it okay moved and seconded that we accept the budget as presented by nick all those in favor well not all those in favor so go around a horn to get a yay or nay or yes or no john yes then yes alex yes paul i jeward yes alissa yes so the it is uh the motion passes by unanimous vote yes so nick will build that into the recommended budget that will be taken to city council and we'll keep you updated on that process as you know the budget must be adopted by city council so we will come back to you if we have any changes thank you thank you next order of businesses to receive staff activity report where we will also discuss the next meeting date and we'll invite christina back for that one for staff reports openings we have a dentin sports crowd practic they're located in the in a shared building that will also have a call center which will be really interesting for us at 235 west hickory red's yard is open at 410 north bell they advertise that they specialize in eating drinking and chilling out with yard games and picnic tables out on their open spaced area cookie crave is down south locust and they will bring you warm cookies and ice cream or milk until 3 a.m so if you get a craving you can give them a call salon indigo and vinyl lounge have both opened down in the former dentin record chronicle building and so they have some really great services there vinyl lounge is serving up some groovy tunes and cool cocktails so if you get thirsty and want to listen to some records you're you're all set and three wishes also opened in the former market on oak space on 108 west oak and they have home decor and collectibles on our closings we have we do have a good list of closings we have the market on oak which is at 108 west oak nift which was a secondhand clothing it was at north austin street scrap is now closed freaks and geeks source gaming lounge cryptozoology escape in the square mad world records denton trading wine squared and juice lab so the last two are are closing up at the end of the month but they are they're on the way moving we look forward to seeing h2o open soon caskies which is on 311 north elm and then more fun toys is planning to move into the former mad records location so that'll be nice to have a toy store on the out on the square since you do review grants i do have a couple updates for you on the grants the 109 west walnut for the movement lab he opened right as soon as covet allowed so he's opened there and processed and then went by 104 west mckinney this morning which is chai dow's location it looks to be completed in there but i haven't heard anything from him but i'll be checking up on him to see how how far along he is or if he's ready to to close out his grant as well the next meeting date i have listed for us is september 23rd so any questions i think on the meeting date we were trying to capture the uh consultant report yes so our discussion with the consultant has been that that's our goal um but if we finish early we may ask the terse board if you would like to call a special called meeting um prior to that september date since that's pretty far away but we'll get back with you on that we'll just keep that date since that one's set and then if we need to get back together early i'll send out a note to everyone and get your availability great okay christine is that all yes okay that's all the final order of business is concluding items is there any other business to discuss wow if there's no other business the regular meeting is adjourned at 12 53 pm thank you