got your uh
hey todd hey jeff hi erica hi thank you
you what you just got my reply yeah
thank you oh good
you're welcome
we got a lot of things going on ben we
got clouds in the background i mean this
is fancy
let's see one two three four five
six seven eight nine ten okay i think
we're good because mark officials on so
all right
well thank you everybody for uh
joining our cic meeting
um
we are gonna kick things off
uh you know i think as you all know um
based on
what's happening with our uh livingston
project and the 420 north kassidy
project we probably have
some public comment again tonight so we
will have that uh we're gonna we'll get
through the
um first part of our agenda here uh go
to public comment and then um
we'll we're gonna have to go into an
executive session for a couple things
too to talk about a couple property
issues but we'll come to that at the
time so
with that i'm gonna do uh roll calls
roll call of members so i'm just going
to call out
you all as i see you on my screen so ben
kessler here
nate green here bill harvey here
sarah gold
here
monique lamke
here
sorry markham
here
just assad
here
jeff walker
here
todd friedman
here
mark fishel
here
and zahi ben david
here
all right thanks everybody
okay so our first order of business is a
review of the minutes from our last
meeting uh they were in the packet or
they were in the information i sent
there's a link in there
um
does anybody have any any questions or
comments additions or deletions to those
minutes
bill harvey i move to approve
thanks bill do i have a second
monikel second
thanks monique all those in favor
aye aye aye opposed
all right motion passes great
okay uh so let's move on to our property
updates
um bexley square uh
we will have there's one item we need to
discuss an executive session we can't we
can't discuss it um
uh uh outside of uh in our public
section just because it's a it's an
issue with the with one of the tenants
so we do have one issue there it's not a
major issue it's just that we have one
tenant that is uh
selling their business um and going to
another they're going to sell it to
another
person and so we just need to talk about
how that impacts
that business there so otherwise we're
doing well there you know we're rents
are coming in we don't have any we
haven't had any issues actually i think
um
we don't have any issues with anybody
paying we've got one
uh one of our renters that that is a
little bit behind but
they're all catching up and you know our
the bigger ones brassica and orange
theory and uh
urgent care are um are all doing well so
uh we're doing well at uh uh bexley
square i think one of the things we're
going to have to tackle and we don't
have to talk through it tonight but we
are we have that roof issue
um and i think ben we're just going to
figure out if we you know what the other
what the other budget or what the other
estimate is for that so i have
i i have another estimate if that helps
oh you do okay you want to um
it's probably not urgent we could bring
that back to our next meeting if you
want yeah that's fine
okay
we're just for the board we're at 112 on
this other estimate i think
newmark had said something like 125. so
i want to get in touch with um
newmark and just coordinate on what
they're thinking and then
if we want to
talk about some pace financing so maybe
we can talk about that in the next board
meeting
okay ben why don't we uh get with lydia
yeah
and lydia about the um
replacement why don't we do that i can
send an email through we can
we talk about that
cool
any questions about bexley square
ready buddy
okay um oh i will say for all of these i
actually think heidi mentioned it but
i'll mention again we have all the tac
we you know we this was
we had our uh first half of the year or
i guess it'll be last half of last year
payments tax payment so i just want you
to all know that all those all those
real estate taxes have been paid for all
these properties so that is something
that um
has been done
um
on all these properties
uh
down to north cassidy um 458 north
cassidy uh we
oh heidi's not on i actually wanted to
ask her um
you know we're that's still rented i
actually think though that
the downstairs tenant that we have is no
longer there and i and i want to get an
update
um
i'm going to get an update from
uh
our manager our property manager there
to see if we're getting anybody there
the last time we talked
with them they were working on getting a
new tenant but i want to make sure that
we
would get somebody there so that's kind
of what's that's the latest on
on that property
uh
420 north cassidy
there's nothing going on with 420 north
cassidy right now
i'm joking
um
a couple things i mean i think uh i i
i'll talk about a couple different items
so i think you all know we talked about
the last meeting
um we went to
uh the board of zoning
and planning
uh on last thursday sarah and i uh were
there to represent
um you know us represent the cic as the
apple applicant because we
have site control um the major issue
there uh if you all i think you all we
talked about this but the major issue
there was
we needed this variance on parking
because we um
essentially i think we need 20 on-site
parking units
uh and we asked for a variance so to
allow for 17.
um
we did we're talking with uh you know
talking with the community builders kind
of talking through it we actually we
reduced the
footprint of retail to 2500 square feet
but
when we had had it at 3 500 square feet
a lot of that extra thousand square feet
really wasn't usable so we reduced that
in response to the last
month's
uh uh bzap meeting really to you know to
address it and say hey we hear you we
hear that you know
the variance we were asking for
originally for you know kind of a
variance to allow for eight less than we
needed to reduce that to three
um you really to come in line and say
hey we hear you be zapped we hear you
you know people that live around there
about the zone about the parking and um
so we reduce that uh we got a we got a
favorable
um
vote i guess i'll call it out of the
bzap they uh you know they moved to
approve our variance so that was a that
was a good thing um it was another long
meeting but that's okay it's uh you know
it's a public process and it's it's
democracy in action so
um uh that that was fine um but yeah so
that's that from at least a zoning
perspective is there um we uh
and i'll have andy fill this in as well
but you know we are we are moving
forward with that project to close on
that property uh we are going to close
we're scheduled to close i believe next
friday the 12th
you know there are
environmental concerns on that property
as we know
that'll be anywhere between
50 and 100 000
we
you know the property owner kind of
looked at us and said well we're not
going to lower our price because of
those and so we're you know we're going
to um you know we're going to purchase
the property for the price that we set
out which is 4.25
um and we're going to do that next week
we will i think a couple things of note
on the environmental you know we do
um
want to go back to development services
agency and see if maybe we can get
them to have a little wiggle room on on
giving them a abandoned gas station
grant for that so we're going to do that
we're going to work also you know with
the community builders as we work
through the development there to see if
we can put some of those environmental
costs into the project
and have them covered through the
project but we still may have a gap
there that we're going to have to kind
of cover from the cic side um you know i
think um
it's not ideal but you know as we know
with the csc it's not we're not here to
we're not here to we're a non-profit so
we're not here to make a lot of money
for the csc we're here to make money to
put in another deal so
uh that is where we kind of stand with
that property andy is there anything
that i missed or anything you want to
add about just the closing on the
property and where we are there
no we received uh
some information from uh
clean title today and i have not
reviewed it yet but um
i i believe that we have uh
uh we've reviewed the title our
attorneys reviewed the title and uh no
issues with that and
like you said moving forward to close on
uh close a week from friday
great
night um yeah i'm sorry one one one
thing on that and maybe it's more for
ben but
uh ben at one point you had mentioned
maybe bexley wreck might be interested
in in using it short term
yeah so just depending on timing and
availability and
understanding obviously environmental i
think that that's all underground and
under asphalt but just right all that i
think there was a point in time but much
has changed since then in terms of the
plans especially with the school systems
those based upon our before after care
program so i need to circle back with
rec
we were just looking everywhere for you
know additional space for before after
care
but i can circle back on that and let
you know that
sort of that'd be great because i think
even you know andy we could if you if we
could use that for a while then i mean
you know next few months or whatever
that'd be probably even till the end of
the year i don't think we're gonna
move forward in construction for a while
so
nate i thought you said you just wanted
to put some big tires out front and have
a crossfit studio
man i that was a that was a you know
private conversation we had i i don't
know that i wanted to have that from the
whole cnc i mean that's andy and i were
going to set up andy and nate's uh
crossfit studio i mean you know i don't
know if that was appropriate yeah
because i do crossfit so much
you and me both andy
now i was thinking at least temporarily
putting a
pizza slash ice cream slash bank in here
yeah
well actually with the crossfit you guys
could be the before that's all
nice
before and then you read all the carbs
and there you go
i like it mark
uh bill you had a question
yeah
at one point we talked about having i
don't know 75 or 100 000 left in this
after this are we gonna is that what's
that number looking like now with this
additional expense
well i would say um it it
it potentially could be more bill it
could be it could be more than that
depending on what we are able to get uh
you know we're able to squeeze into the
deal for the environmental
um
i guess i guess i would say a couple
things you know
one we are going to be
well i mean we still have to negotiate
with
pcb on how that whole development's
going to look
so the goal would be to recoup all those
costs bill back out of the deal
either up front or over a period of
years whether it's through leases or
through some some other developer fee
um you know one of the things and i
think i told you this at the last
meeting told you all this we
sarah and i talked with a
attorney that does these tax credit
deals
and we think it makes sense to bring him
on board to help us negotiate that deal
um so i think bill you know yes we are
going to it's going to be they'll be
more added on to that
that gap but the goal would be through
our negotiation with uh tcb and through
kind of our leases and revenues we're
gonna get from that to you know bring
that down to zero
because if we were gonna get you know we
had 3500
retail space now that's dropped a
thousand square feet that's
you know
that's just going to make it that much
harder to close that gap
yeah no i agree with you bill and i but
i think i do think and i
agree with you and i think that we it is
going to take longer but i also think um
based on the discussion we had with this
attorney that um
you know there's other things we can do
with tcb maybe to to
to get that out of that get that out of
that deal either up front or over a few
years
so i don't i don't want to say that
that's a
it's not a it's not a done issue at all
bill and we'll i think we'll actually
know more oh i know that at when we come
back next week i'll have better i'll
have better numbers for you on all that
how that's going to work out all right
and to be clear even though we're
closing on that property i think we had
discussed that being a strategic
decision for the cic to control that
property
the closing of that property doesn't
commit us
to the development with uh community
builders correct not at all no
no it doesn't jeff i mean you know the
community builders we got the rezoning
the zoning variants but um you know
they're going for these tax credits that
are going to be awarded in may or june
if they get them then you know we'll
we'll go forward with the project if
they don't then we'll do something else
and and i agree i mean it's a strategic
site
um
you know it the current owner had not i
mean they had art with anna in there but
they really hadn't done anything to the
property
um and so i think this is absolutely a
strategic asset for us
okay other questions about north cassidy
cool
um
we will uh
so we have a ferndale pro i think on
ferndale where we are there
is
we are we are in the process of
well those properties are going to be
demolished uh i don't have a firm date i
don't think then you have a firm date on
when those are going to be demolished
but
we will
they're you know they're in process
they're we're going through permitting
and figuring that out so
um
we'll we'll have a better idea here uh
soon
um
but they have awarded the contract and
they have been condemned so yep or it's
moving forward it's just
you know at their pace
yep absolutely i will tell you we had
this is interrelated but just kind of an
fyi for the board nate if i can in terms
of frendel mayfield we had a
conversation with franklin county public
health last week about the
environmental results they've
we last met with them a year ago and
they've obviously been incredibly
distracted by the pandemic
we reiterated the need for
them to move forward with health board
action
and
also agreed to go
they were asking for us to go to the
approach the epa
and get some additional support from the
epa in terms of enforcement action
so um
we're going to be pursuing that and mark
is there anything else from that call we
should mention just for the edification
of the cse
i was not on that call even though i was
scheduled to be on it but i wasn't able
to make it
so i can't help i just
your presence is so strong that i just
must be it
oh yeah you talked about i'll make
something up yeah so i mean it was i
think good progress frank reed is our
attorney helping us with that as well
and um
i think we're slowly but surely
obviously this is a new process for the
board of health and i think we're we're
getting there so we're i'm trying to
keep on it and give nudges even though
you know they're they're obviously still
neck deep in pandemic work
hey ben can you remind us those two
doubles that cic owns are they vacant i
assume that the tenants have been
relocated right that's good
they're big they're vacant okay
okay
uh so let's move on unless we have a
more questions about that let's move on
to our finance reports uh heidi mccabe
our treasurer is not here this evening
so
um i'll just kind of go through our our
bank balances here uh in our checking
account our bexley just basic checking
account where we pay you know kind of
basic expenses uh we have fifty two
hundred dollars in that account
uh bexley square we're at uh 172.
um
which you know if you recall we actually
paid off our line of credit uh
with
from that account because that's where
we
generate some revenue and we're uh we're
still doing pretty strong there
um
even even after paying that off so
that's good uh cassidy that is the 458
cassidy account so that um the reason
that's a little bit low and it's
actually more than it was last month as
we paid we paid our taxes out of that
and then you see ferndale mayfield there
that is that is for um it's part of the
money that we
uh
that the city gives us every year to for
a property purchase there um but we did
pay taxes out of that recently so any
questions about the finance report
um all right great
quick update i just probably should have
been a friend update i rece we received
beecher hale at the finance department
received a determination from the
from the department of taxation in ohio
that
the exemption was denied on ferndale
and they cited the fact that we had an
spe on that
so
uh
just for your edification we're going to
look work through i think that's a bta
appeal or we just reef we refile with
some more information
um
just wanted you know about that and uh
that's something that we're gonna be
we're gonna be working on getting some
good advice on i don't know
we might want to go visit the practice
of sps but there might be nothing to
that denial so let's
i'll
i'll see what's uh what's said on that
as we look into a little deeper
yeah and it's a you know that special
purpose entity though it's a single
single uh entity that owns it
sp single special purpose entity
um
and it's it's typical
when people buy uh you know developers
or whatever buy properties they put it
in an sp special purpose entity
uh llc but we yeah i think we should
look at that ben and figure out um what
we do going forward and if we can
um i think two the other thing is they
said that there were still proper there
were still buildings on those sites
obviously we won't have that again so i
think that we just go back and see if we
can um
take that back through the process and
see if we can get that exam since the
csc owns it and we're attacking them
entity
yeah i think it was just there was
lacking some connection there perhaps
exactly well i agree
it should be simple but i'm not sure
it's worth the bta i think we just need
to explore our options on that
i think you're right i think we have to
figure out if we you know can reapply
and go through that process or whatever
the case may be
all right do we have any uh new business
or old business to come before the board
okay
with that we are going to move into um
public comment
um and for those of you
in the public comment so uh this we're
gonna
the way that we've done this in the past
um is we will
allow you three minutes to talk
um what we will do is we are going to um
we are going to take notes while you're
speaking
and uh
we will answer uh all questions at the
end um you know if they're kind of kind
of public questions and things that are
kind of good for the good of everybody's
order we will answer those
um and and do our best to answer the
questions at the end but so if you want
to talk uh feel free to raise your hand
um in the uh
in the participant link
and again we'll have three minutes to
talk and uh we'll answer the questions
all the way at the end so and we
appreciate you all coming and talking
and um
with that i think our first
uh participant is
madison sir tim i think a lot of a lot
of you know tim but tim if you could um
just give your full name and your
address that would be great sure thanks
nate my name is tim madison i live in
956 pleasant ridge avenue i sent an
email to nate green today i hope and
asked that he would forward it on to all
members of the cic and i hope he did in
my three minutes um i will try my best
to summarize uh my my concerns first and
foremost i have no idea how the city
announces two developments without
having any involvement whatsoever from
the neighborhoods and i use the term
city inclusive of the cic there's five
elected members of of council uh excuse
me of the city on the cic so i i say
again how is it the city
does not in any manner whatsoever have
any conversations with these two
neighborhoods before announcing that
these two developments to me it's an
embarrassment for the city and as a
resident i'm completely appalled um
second issue is uh in regards to the
2017 southwest master bexley plan
i urge that you look at that there was
nine voting members on there including
president of capitol university uh and
the current uh president of bexley city
council the mayor the superintendent the
school board the head of the library
president school board president council
were all involved in that it was a year
project
city expended 30 thousand dollars in nbj
for uh the consultants uh for that plan
it took a year for the plan to come to
fruition it was released i believe it
was voted on council and it was approved
by council what's why i'm raising that
now is that that plan that extensive
expensive plan
calls for high density residential on
the west side of college not on the east
side it's just shocking that no one is
paying attention to that plan how many
of us were involved in it how extensive
it was how expensive it was the last
point i want to make is and it's the
most important point is i don't know if
any of you live near livingston or any
of you drive on livingston but i've
lived in seven different houses in seven
different streets in bexley including
broad street and none of them are
anywhere in comparison to the
dangerousness of livingston the crime
the traffic the noise
why is the city and the cic proposing to
put
58 bedrooms
intended for family and candid for kids
on livingston avenue it makes no sense
those kids are going to go to the
beautiful new million dollar area on
mayfield ferndale to play they're going
to ride their bikes and walk down
livingston it makes no
sense to put residential on livingston
avenue put it where the plan suggested
that it be put on which is on the other
side the reason it was planned to go
there was because those kids and those
families could utilize mayfield ferndale
don't make these kids cross
livingston avenue across college to go
there
again i ask you to look at the 2017 plan
review my email i appreciate it very
much and thanks for the time
hey thanks a lot for your for your
comments tim and i did forward it on to
everybody so they've had a chance to
look at it before tonight so thanks
uh the next person we have is uh
lori laurie if you could please give
your
uh your full name and your address that
would be great
sure um
lori katz
and my husband wants to speak after mine
we're 299 south roosevelt
and uh
i had a couple questions um and i will
send these on to you so you don't have
to worry about the notes
but i do i don't um i wanted to get a
clearer
uh better understanding did some nate
did you say recoup that
we were going to recoup the costs from
dealing with
tcb
um and it sounds like you're still in
negotiations with tccb
so
is it
sounds like if things don't go the way
the city wants the city would back out
but i don't know if my understanding is
correct or how do you know
that this will really work out and that
goes to the crux of my question which is
why are these particular projects seem
to be in bexley's best interest now i
want to run down a few specific
questions
[Music]
one why was there no involvement with
the immediate neighbors until after the
number of projects had been set
how is this in keeping with the cic
mission
how are we moving forward saying well
right now we're saying that property
values will not decrease that was what
the expert said at the um these app
meeting
however
i feel her numbers were about national
averages and they do not apply to what's
going on in bexley now if we can assure
those neighbors that their property
values won't go down what kind of
insurance do they get
what kind of insurance do they get and
if they happen to go down
what do we do say oops i'm sorry if if
there is a strong feeling that this will
not hurt their neighborhood
let's see what kind of remedies are in
place
should it start going down
um
is there any recourse if we find that
crime is increasing because again i
think that the bexley neighborhood
properties the way we are
bordered by high prime areas on two
sides it is asking for trouble i would
love it if it's not
but the kind of data that was used to
show we're safe to me seems
like a misunderstanding of the data i
assume that you guys have gone through
this and it's just not
and it's just not
available to the public but i'd like to
see more transparency so that we could
trust this
um
i respectfully ask if there is a
conflict of interest between sarah gold
being
a voting member and the business between
skillkin and gold
i also wanted to say that while ben
assured me that the um
bexley education or
whatever our entity is that goes over
education that they have been told about
this project and have not asked for any
additional money or support i would
suggest that with the confusion from
covid and no superintendent
laurie if i can interrupt you you're
over three minutes now so
i appreciate your comments and uh
we appreciate those and thanks for
talking tonight
thank you
uh the next person we have is uh pat
james so pat if you would
please give your full name and your
address that would be great
my name is pat james and i live at 865
francis avenue
and my comment tonight is a question
i want to know why the cic was
interested in putting
low-income housing on francis avenue
versus
placing that
type of housing on ferndale mayfield
in the properties that they had already
purchased and
were apparently haven't been torn down
i don't know why community builders was
not interested in that site can you
explain that i agree with tim madison
that
it is not a safe place to put kids right
there on uh livingston avenue can you uh
answer that for me please
sure uh pat we will we will uh we're
taking notes and we'll answer them at
the end do you have any other questions
or comments for us no
okay well thank you very much for your
time and uh for for talking with us
tonight we really appreciate it
the next person we have is uh jessica
willis so jessica if you give your full
name and uh
your address as well
sure thank you
my name is jessica willis i'm at 826
south cassingham road
um i just wanted to say um as a founding
co-chair of the bexley dei um
it's been really great to see part of
the city's dei initiative and mission to
create an inclusive bexley come to
fruition
i'm really excited about these
apartments i think that it's going to
just help further that mission and that
cause
um and i also want to note for those
who have expressed a lot of concern
about the safety of livingston um just a
little anecdotal note my mother-in-law
has lived on livingston on the berwick
side for 15 years has helped raise our
children there and um you know there's
been no problem with i mean clearly we
all understand that livingston you know
there's a high traffic area and
i'm hoping it you know in the coming
years that the city of bexley and the
city of columbus can work to address
those issues but you know i truly
believe it's going to be a great place
for anybody to get into bexley um in
those affordable housing apartments and
raise their children so i just wanted to
say thank you to the mayor and city
council and everyone on cic for helping
continue this mission and creating an
inclusive bexley so thank you
thank you jessica really appreciate you
coming and talking and uh
we'll take that into account
all right uh do we have anybody else
attending the meeting that would like to
like to talk in the public public
session
nate laurie yeah i think lori had
mentioned her husband oh yeah yeah her
husband yup so let's let's have him uh
let's have him talk that would be great
okay this is larry katz 299 south
roosevelt
uh i
like my wife i also have a thousand
questions
but
i'm going to cut it down to two
and if i can get those two resolved
that'll take care of all of the rest of
them the first one is
couldn't we have some sort of page
on a bexley website
where we can post our questions
the questions can be limited to you know
a certain number of words so people
don't write
essays and you know long
novels on there and we can get answers
that will be posted for everyone to see
the
next question is that i would like to
get answered tonight and on
that website if we could ever get to
that is
although i like everyone else
hope genuinely earnestly
very very much so
that this works out the way everyone
wants it to that this turns out to be a
great thing
that we're all proud of and we can all
brag about and point to and say look at
what we did
if in fact it does the opposite
and it turns out to be a nightmare
i'd like to get an answer
as to what our options are
how do we get out of it is there an exit
out of it or is it in fact something
that we're stuck with for life till
death do us part
i asked the mayor this about a week ago
i've heard other people ask other
questions at these meetings
and i've heard over and over and over
again
we'll get back to you i've never heard
the actual get back
right now those are the only two i've
got
okay
well thanks larry thanks for thanks for
coming and talking we really appreciate
it
all right so uh we have uh our next
person is joel gruff
so joel if you could uh say your full
name and your address
joel i think you're a mute
can you hear me now
yep there you go
yeah joel graff 834 francis avenue
um i wanted to
quickly reiterate what pat was saying
earlier
as far as the footprint that livingston
property all three parcels together make
up 0.7 acres so we're not talking about
a large plot for that kind of density
um in the bzect meeting this week
it seemed like
eventually
a resolution was made about the parking
issues and the traffic issues
conditionally
um with one of the comments by the
chairman being that they should put uh
permit parking uh would be the solving
for the overflow
without knowledge that there is permit
parking on francis up to pleasant ridge
already
there was also some issues with the curb
cuts
and the visibility and
again i don't know how closely cic
really got involved in looking at that
project but there's a myriad of problems
including the safety the traffic etc
and
i'm not i guess i'm curious how much you
guys were actually involved or since
there is really a
paper interest as a llc member and not
really a
significant membership in that location
if you just let tcb do it on their own
that's it
sure all right thanks joel thanks for
comment really uh comments really
appreciate it
okay
uh
randy
i don't know how to say randy's last
last name um but randy if you could give
uh your full name and where you live
that'd be great
randy i think you're muted
okay randy cuno 2662 rule avenue
great thank you
i like others wonder how you came about
to make this decision
without consulting with the immediate
neighbors i've spoken with several
neighbors who are planning on moving
simply because they don't want the
construction
going on
for 15 months etc
and
this reminds me a lot of 1993 or 1994
when the gas station became a station of
the 90s
and it was for all practical purposes a
done deal
and we
received and
to know effect
we ended up
burying
with this gas station which was a
station of the 90s
and we had a payphone
outside uh our house they had people on
the phone at one and two in the morning
we had people who had cars with blurring
radios where they would get gas we had a
lot of profanity over there etc etc
and this feels a lot like that and as
much as
people really weren't consulted before
you started working on the project
i do like larry katz's question
why not field all of these questions and
make a public posting of your answers
the questions with the answers
great uh anything else randy any other
questions or comments
i i think that's it
okay thanks thanks for coming tonight
and thanks for uh thanks for your
comments right really appreciate it
all right uh anybody else um
want to speak from the public
all right
it looks like ben that's that's
our full list
um
let's see how do we want to best address
these questions i think there's a lot of
different questions in there
let me just say i think one thing that
we are doing one thing that we've done
on the city website and i think
for all of you on the cic and also just
for any of the public members we there
is now um a
uh
frequently asked questions section on
the on this on the
city city of bexley website
um if you go i think it's under yeah
there we go if you go under boards um
there is a link to the community
improvement corporation
um
that is uh
it answers a lot of different you know
it kind of answers a lot of different um
answers a lot of different questions
that were that were
asked
uh i don't know that answers all the
questions that were asked it answers a
lot of the questions
that have come out in the zoning
uh the zoning meetings um you know we
have uh ben and i have have gone through
this and and really just made sure that
we've tried to address uh as many of the
as many of the questions that we've
heard out there in the public as
possible
we understand certainly
that we can't address you know all all
of those questions
um
and uh you know
so so i just wanted to put that out
there um i you know i will say uh i
guess
a couple things i mean you know there's
there were a lot of there are a lot of
questions in there i think
um just so that everybody knows and i
know that you want you all all of you in
the cic already know this but you know
we are um
the cic is engaged in both projects this
is there's a llc that is yet to be
formed but will be formed
that
is the umbrella for both these projects
we are a very we have a very minor
interest in the overall uh overall uh
projects i'll i'll call it just because
of the structure um there is a investor
that has really the largest the largest
interest in that structure and then
we've got a really small
interest in the remaining in the
remaining piece
um you know
when you all have seen on the cic board
you've seen uh and hopefully you
remember kind of that how that
organizational structure looks
um so we have been involved i think you
know just from the livingston standpoint
we have been engaged in the discussions
with tcb
um about what that's going to look like
um you know the tcb took the lead on
reaching out to the community and
talking with the community um you know
as the cic uh you know we have we
we haven't reached out to any neighbors
that is true
um we did follow you know we've gone
through the zoning process we we
followed that process we've talked
through that process you know we also
have the uh the ability i think
at all these meetings for the public are
coming to talk
uh which you know we try to we try to
open that up and and answer questions
where we can
um
you know and and i think uh um you know
this is this is certainly um i mean
hopefully i mean at least we're we're
trying to open that up and and give
people opportunities to talk um
i will uh i will tell you and sarah you
don't have to answer this question if
you don't want there was a question
about a conflict with your with your
company um as far as i know sarah you
weren't on the board when we um
uh put out the rfis and uh tcb responded
as far as i know your company is not
engaged today
with
the tcb maybe at one time before you
were but you're not today and you know
the reason you're on the board you're on
for a lot of reasons sir but uh you know
you have a lot of uh this experience in
affordable housing in a in a company
that you worked for
um before you before you came back and
started working for silicon gold i don't
know if you want to answer that sarah
but that's certainly yeah
i'll just say yep uh skoken gold has no
current projects with tcb and nothing is
anticipated um in the future so there is
absolutely no conflict of interest
great thanks sir
you know and i also will say that you
know one of the things there's questions
around why is the cnc involved with this
what's the what's the reason behind that
why are we where are we involved in this
i mean
again uh feel please please go look at
the faq because that really helps
explain it better but you know the cic's
mission or the csu's goal we're the
economic development agent for the city
the city has gone through strategic you
know strategic plans over over a number
of years mixed income housing was a big
goal
of that
so we are really i mean as the cic we're
trying to follow that mission and be
that economic development arm of the
city um and and do what you know do what
we were charged with uh uh many years
ago
you know the other thing is too i know
we talked about this i mean both of
these properties they i know we're in
march now the beginning of march but we
didn't even know that that these
properties were available until december
and so this is not like this isn't
something that was done behind closed
doors or done in the dark at night or
any of that kind of thing we we um
you know when it was appropriate to talk
about
uh these projects we did and we applied
uh through the public setting and we've
gone through that process and and don't
we done what we uh you know from that
perspective we've done what we're
supposed to do to to to get it out there
in the public um and you know we also i
mean
the other thing is this is as the cic um
we we have we we have to uh as we're
negotiating under property you know
um like any property purchase we part of
that um is done between us and the
property owners and so you know in
december we were doing some of that and
then when it was uh that we were we were
able to bring that to the public we did
as soon as we we could and uh you know
we didn't risk um these deals going uh
these projects going sideways um i will
say from a financial perspective you
know we are
um you know stewards of the cic so
anything that we do
um with this project with tcb um we need
to make sure that uh you know we get we
are financially prudent with that and
we're able to pay back any debt uh or
anything like that that we're able to
that we put out for
uh for these projects so
um i kind of talked around a lot i don't
know if i directly answered all those
questions i will say you know i that
question about the website i don't even
know if it's possible to do that put up
questions and answer them that would be
a laborious task
we're all volunteers but i think
we're trying to do our best to get out
as much information as we can
um to the public when we can so you know
other cic members if you feel free um
to uh to answer any questions or pipe up
if you if you would like to uh we do
have i think one other person melissa
garlipotti that would like to talk and
we can we can open it for her but
anybody if you want to pipe in that feel
free
just a
practical matter nate we could easily
add
further questions and answers to that
faq so as as additional questions come
up that have broad community interest
we can absolutely add those
okay great
thanks man
anybody else
want a pipe up
yeah sarah um
actually that's that if you would sir go
ahead
yeah i think it's important we got a few
questions about you know why um is this
or is this proposed development not
being worked on on the ferndale mayfield
property
location you know that
location is currently has
much environmental contamination and the
cic is actively working to
abate that contamination and you know it
would be irresponsible of us to develop
further housing um
to develop anything on that site without
fully
abating the known environmental
contamination so i think that's one of
the you know main reasons that we're not
pursuing that site today
but we're actively working on cleaning
it up um and have it um and and
hopefully we'll be able to um redevelop
it with some other um purpose in the
future
thanks sarah
um i think you know we did close the uh
the q and a from panelists but uh we do
have one other person that did not get a
chance to speak so
after melissa i think we're going to
close q a but melissa if you would
uh take your
go ahead and take your three minutes
that'd be great if you could
say your name and your address
melissa you're still muted
there you go hey
um this is melissa garla potty i live at
981 francis
as a forensics resident um as well as
others i do believe that we will be
impacted by this project
but first and foremost if anybody in the
community that supports
this i you know
i hope the overall bexley community
considers the danger of a property at
this location
for someone who believes in affordable
housing
i don't believe this project is going to
prevent the dangers but possibly make
them worse
my question is how is the leadership
going to be accountable to withholding
um
these conditions if something happens
for example you know i don't want to
be negative but just putting into
perspective like a car ramming into a
living room a child is hit by a car
there's a drive-by shooting or there's
any illegal activities going on in the
area
um another thing too if let's say the
majority of bexley pd is
uh you know exhausting their resources
to this location how are they going to
meet the demands of other areas in
bexley
how are we prepared as a community to
dealing with this i just wanted to ask
the leadership that that's something
that hasn't really been talked about
um and then um the other question i had
is
um
is there is there a possibility
that
we as a community could consider a
different location due to the density of
this building thanks
great thank you melissa for your for
your comments
um i will say uh and and uh we've had a
couple of hands show up but i think
we're going to close q a we had we had
done it before but um
you know i will say from a safety
standpoint um so a couple things one the
community builders is going to be
engaged in this project for at least 15
years and actually they probably will
engage in it for 30 years uh the cic
will be engaged in it um
well forever really um so we will uh be
engaged in what happens uh what happens
here what happens um
uh what happens today what happens
tomorrow um and we also you know we
we all live in the city we all want to
make sure that everybody's safe um and
so it's our goal to to make sure that on
the properties that we own today we try
our best um to to have those properties
be um you know kind of upstanding
properties
um within the community because it's the
cic and we're part of the city um we you
know i i can't speak to crime and all
those other things that's a i would say
that that's a you know that's a function
of city government that's a function of
the police department and
uh those kind of things um this will be
a new facility uh i would hope that
we're not gonna have people renting
these facilities that are gonna do those
kind of things um but you know things
happen and we will um just like any
other property owner we're going to work
with uh the city and the and the safety
forces to make sure that uh it's a safe
place to make sure that uh police
respond and all those kind of things um
you know there was a question just i
think and hopefully i answered it but um
just what we do you know going down the
road with these properties well again
we're going to be involved in this for a
really long time and whether it's all of
us on the screen or you know 10 years
from now a different group this is still
going to be on the cic's radar it's
something that we're going to deal with
and respond to all the time so
um mark you have a comment
yeah i do um i guess i want to be real
careful about something here
and
this is a response to a couple of
questions for tonight and i've heard
previously i mean
you know and ben will correct me if i'm
wrong and i'm not suggesting there
aren't studies being done and things but
it is a very dangerous and frankly
inappropriate assumption that there will
be additional crime because we're
putting in what some people believe to
be more affordable or
or mixed income housing and i certainly
whether it's intended or not there are
certainly some who will hear that those
questions and concerns and and believe
that there are some racial overtones to
that and again i'm not accusing anybody
of that i'm just saying that we need to
be real careful as a group and i think
we are and understand that the message
here is that of course i mean i'm not
aware of any development in the city of
bexley that could potentially have
brought in crime or added to our crime
that has not ever been addressed by the
city and frankly um you know back when
there were more intense discussions
about the
developments at ferndale mayfield uh
before we realized the extent of the um
before we realize the extent of the
environmental problems there were some
people including
there were some people who were
opposed to putting money into ferndale
mayfield because of the alleged
additional crime um and you know i i'm
won't name names but i think some people
on this uh in in this meeting know who
i'm talking about and so frank again
i'm sorry i'm rambling a little bit and
maybe being less than appropriate on
what should be said
about this but again this is
these are developments that are
consistent with the city's mission um
and the city's strategic plan whether
they happen to be on one side of college
avenue or another side of college avenue
yes there are very important questions
especially for us to under the city to
address for the neighbors but i don't
want this to devolve accidentally or on
purpose into an us versus them kind of
attitude that uh perpetuates problems
that we're trying to get the city past
um that the city is trying to move
forward from from the past so thank you
and just uh because mark you asked me
um you know i can speak just from from
watching our crime statistics and
observing
over the years that our our well-managed
department complexes which run the gamut
from a halfway house
to
high-end condominiums are not sources of
crime in our community they just aren't
period
now we've experienced crime
in the areas that we've talked about
specifically because we have a situation
where we have properties
physically deteriorating
not being invested in
absentee landlords
lack of
attention or
care on the part of property owners all
due to a structural inequity that was
created in the 50s
when we allowed landlord to construct
apartment complexes on top of an
unlicensed unregulated unmitigated
landfill that's the one area in the city
that's been the exception for very
obvious reasons
and so it is difficult to hear some of
the objections although i believe that
they are earnestly made and sincere as
as not being
having some veiled bias involved
and i think that uh the the point that
we should all keep in mind is bexley
city council outlawed discrimination
under the fair housing law on the basis
of source of income
and so not only can we not
uh as landlords discriminate on the
basis of source of income so some of the
questions for example about
vouchers
apply equally to every single property
in bexley by law today
or some of the discussions even about
zoning when we get down to source of
income that that is a protected class in
the city of bexley
city council made it made a point of
that
and put their
put their spirit and their intent behind
it and so part of that is is being
careful as we talk through this
that we're talking about what the real
issues are
and not what our uh perceptions are not
based upon uh experience or
uh
you know as some of us believe uh
well that that's i'll put it there just
experience thank you
all right uh thanks everybody uh do we
have any other comments or questions uh
from from the group
all right
um so with that uh i would like to make
a motion um that we move into executive
session based on the high revised code
section 121.22
g2
mr chair before we before you make that
motion can i say one thing i want to
make sure that is not taken out of
context
i want to be very clear i'm not saying
the people who have objection to the
development are biased i am not in any
way shape or form saying that i'm just
pointing to some some of the language
that's been used and i want to make it
very clear that there everybody has a
right to have concern about the
development and they are being heard so
i didn't want to i didn't want to create
the perception that i was saying a
blanket statement about anybody who has
any concern at all
yeah and i and i think and ben i
appreciate that and i think you know
mark you stated as well i i think um we
shouldn't make the assumption that
uh because this is a new complex that
we're gonna have uh crime or any kind of
any of those other kind of things there
i think that's a that's a that's a wrong
assumption to make um on anybody's part
so i appreciate that
ben anything else before i move into i
mean did you have any other comments i
want to interrupt junior further thank
you
all right i'm going to make a motion to
move into executive session based on uh
the high revised code section
121.22 g2
to consider the purchase of property for
public purses purposes the sale of
property or competitive bidding for the
sale of other disposition unneeded
obsolete or unfit
property in accordance with
section 505.110
or 0.10 of the revised code
if premature disclosure of information
would give an unfair competitive
marketing advantage person who has
personal private interest and adverse to
the general public
interest
do i have a
second
thank you mr harvey
uh i'm going to call the roll
um bill harvey
yes
nate greene yes
monique lamke
yes
mark fishel
yes
claire gold
yes
troy markham yes
jessica
yes uh david yes
todd friedman
yes
jeff walker yes
andy madison yes
and ben kessler
yes all right great uh i sent a zoom
link to you all uh for this
for the session so
um hopefully you got it it was in a
calendar invite that i sent so hopefully
you all got that and uh we'll move over
to that
that new meeting for the for the next
session
and then we'll come back here to close
out our meeting later
ben i'm glad to see that your internet
is now working
fabulously
all right do we have our way back
we're missing
okay
all right uh can i get a motion to move
out of executive session
don't move
thanks mark second
second
thanks andy uh all those in favor
aye aye
any opposed
all right i'm going to move back into uh
new businesses real quick i would like
to um bring up a uh bringing up hiring a
law firm to help us with the um with our
discussions with uh the community
builders and both the 420 north cassidy
and livingston project we got a
engagement letter
from applegate and thorne thompson
a partner that we would be dealing with
there is
uh nicholas
brunick
he's a
housing tax credit um expert they're out
of chicago but they do
work across the country and i think
it'll really help us
with our continued negotiations with the
tcb um and uh as we go through this
project process so
um you know that the budget that he's
given us there is between ten thousand
dollars and fifteen thousand dollars we
will um
make sure that we don't go over that
we'll try to uh you know be below that
if possible um but any uh i just want to
bring that up any questions that
everybody has let me comment
okay
can i get a motion to uh to approve that
engagement and hire them
todd so moved
todd friedman get a second
bill harvey yes
thanks bill uh all those in favor please
say aye aye
aye aye
all right any opposed
awesome
all right with that
do i have a motion to adjourn
i'll motion to adjourn nate this is jess
do i have a second
i'll second
all right thanks jeff all in favor of
adjourning
please say hi hi hi
awesome see y'all in a month we