CRA MEETING
THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2016
9:00 A.M.
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>>YVONNE CAPIN: Let's begin the CRA meeting.
Who has the invocation?
Excuse me, but is the person that's supposed to do
the invocation here this morning?
Our Councilwoman is not here yet.
We want to begin.
She's stuck in traffic.
We'll start with the invocation.
And please stand for the invocation and then the
Pledge of Allegiance.
Thank you.
Please state your name.
I don't know your information.
09:04:46 >> Tony Kyllonen from Crossover Church.
09:04:51 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Thank you.
09:04:52 >> God, we come before you today.
We thank you for this meeting.
We thank you for the leaders.
We pray today that you give them wisdom and
guidance as they make decisions that will please
you.
God, we thank you for a city that is so diverse.
God, we pray for people in our city right now that
might be broken or hurting.
We pray that you'll give them peace.
And go, we thank you today for the rebuilding that
you've been doing, the turnaround that's been
happening in Tampa that we can celebrate and say
things like "we built this."
Help us not to forget that we did it with your
help.
For that we're grateful.
We pray today that you bless our leaders, bless
this meeting and bless our city.
In your name, amen.
[Pledge of Allegiance]
09:05:44 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Roll call.
09:05:50 >>CHARLIE MIRANDA:
Here.
09:05:57 >>FRANK REDDICK:
Here.
09:06:04 >>HARRY COHEN:
Here.
09:06:04 >>GUIDO MANISCALCO:
Here.
09:06:07 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
Here.
09:06:08 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Present.
We'll start with our staff report, monthly report
from the CAC representative.
09:06:14 >> Good morning.
As we traditionally do, we have a chairperson from
one of our CACs.
We have Shanna Drwiega this morning from Tampa
Heights.
She is going to be giving an update on what's
going on within that CRA.
09:06:30 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Thank you.
09:06:35 >> Thank you.
Good morning, board members.
Thank you for taking the time to hear our update
this morning.
I have about four items I'd like to update you on
for our CAC.
The first item being the recruitment process.
We had two rounds, but we had some excellent
candidates in the end.
And one is being appointed today.
That's Mr. Fred Henry.
Number two, we have a new member CAC orientation
that will take place on April 22nd.
The third item I want to update you on is in
regards to the SoHo capital development going on
in the CAC.
There are four items in that update.
Carl apartments is the first one.
That is a new apartment building that will be at
the corner of Ola and Palm, and it will contain
right now approximately 317 units, and the
developer is in the permitting stages, and they
expect to break ground in June 2016.
They also mentioned there is some retail on the
ground floor about 30,000 square feet, so that
will be exciting to see.
Civil infrastructure, that being utilities, that
is in the bid process.
They actually intend to start the infrastructure
work anytime now.
Scheduled for April.
We expect to see that start.
The armature work building, they are doing the
renovations which are going to take approximately
six months.
That's also in the permitting stages which will
take about one to two more months to complete.
The Riverwalk, finally this is the last update for
the SoHo capital.
They expect to be complete with the work by the
end of the year, and permitting is planned to
begin in the next month or so, and we're
definitely excited about getting that seawall
completed and seeing the progress of the Riverwalk
development that is connecting water works park to
the rest of downtown.
That's really going to be an awesome benefit to
our neighborhood.
Finally, my last update is regarding myself.
I was selected as the new chair after serving as
the co-chair for about a year.
Those are all of my updates.
Do you have any questions for me?
09:08:47 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Thank you.
Any questions?
Exciting times.
09:08:49 >> It is.
We're definitely looking forward to seeing the
progress and being able to access downtown more
readily on our bikes and walking.
It will be great.
09:09:03 >>HARRY COHEN:
Congratulations on being the chair.
09:09:06 >> Thank you.
09:09:09 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Monthly report, bob McDonaugh.
09:09:13 >>BOB McDONAUGH:
Here I am.
Just folks out there, if you haven't seen it yet,
"Creative Loafing" has a new issue out
highlighting Ybor City and a lot of the things
going on in our CRA.
So I recommend picking up a copy.
Our lightning won last night, so we have -- there
will be a little traffic alert for Friday because
there is another game on Friday as well as four
events at the Straz, which includes a comedy show
and the Florida orchestra.
Friday night promises to be a busy night downtown.
She stole some of my --
09:09:49 >> So I saw a preview last night of what the
Florida orchestra is performing this weekend at
the Straz Center, and it is something really,
really extraordinary and special, and I urge
people to go out and see it.
I think it's Friday night.
09:10:05 >>BOB McDONAUGH:
It is, correct.
Friday night at I believe 8:00.
09:10:11 >>HARRY COHEN:
Thank you.
09:10:14 >>BOB McDONAUGH:
There are actually four separate
shows going on at the Straz that night.
So it's going to be a very busy time.
Saturday night, we have movies being shown at
Water Works Park, as long as we're talking about
the park, and as Shanna was talking about, SoHo
capital now has submitted plans to the city for
everything -- infrastructure, roadways, an
apartment complex, the rebuilding of the trolley
barn as well as they will be submitting plans
shortly for a parking garage as well.
So we will see that project, which we've been long
awaiting, rising out of the ground this summer.
I saw several of you last weekend at festa Italia.
The Mayor likes to say that everybody is Irish for
St. Patrick's day.
Well, everybody is Italian for festa because I
think half the town turned out for it.
It was a great celebration.
At 7:30, we have two runs this weekend in Ybor.
7:30 a.m. Saturday is the 15th annual race for
sight.
If you don't feel like getting up that early, the
next day, from 2 to 9, we have the American Cancer
Society race for life.
36 teams, 126 participants.
And starting point is the Cuban club.
So a big event for Ybor.
In the Channel District, a very -- downtown and
the Channel District, we have very important
business to talk about today, which is the shuttle
program.
Rob Rosner will be detailing that for you.
Working on a lot of infrastructure there.
We also are coming to you today for the contract
to do a new lift station, and we're also working
with the community about some more sidewalk
projects, which will be coming soon.
Probably the biggest news out of East Tampa is
that light is now functioning in front of the
Tampa festival center.
Again, offering a safe haven for people trying to
get across Hillsborough Avenue.
I know we have a very full agenda today, so I
wanted to keep this update as short as possible.
09:12:15 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Thank you for the report.
We have CRA staff and contract administration
staff to provide a report on the CRA
apprenticeship policy for construction contracts.
09:12:32 >>BOB McDONAUGH:
Yes.
I'm happy to announce that the contract that will
be coming to you later today for the building of
the sewer project and the Channel District, that
the electrician -- make sure I say this
correctly -- they are a member of the
international electrical contractors association.
They do have an apprenticeship program, and they
will be using apprentices on this project.
09:12:59 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Excellent.
09:12:59 >>BOB McDONAUGH:
This is the first one we're
bringing to you.
Yes, we are able to have an apprentice with them.
So I'm happy to announce that.
09:13:12 >>MIKE SUAREZ:
Mr. McDonaugh, how much is that
contract for roughly?
09:13:16 >>BOB McDONAUGH:
About a million four.
09:13:18 >>MIKE SUAREZ:
And I think that has part of our
rules --
09:13:21 >>BOB McDONAUGH:
We're hoping for 20%.
We have not gotten a complete breakdown.
The bulk of this contract is for the purchase of
the equipment.
There's some contract work -- excuse me, concrete
work.
Obviously backhoe work and electrical work to put
it all together.
So when they are doing their -- probably by the
next meeting, when we have a notice to proceed,
they will have a breakdown of exactly how much the
electrical contract, and I'll be able to tell you
exactly in dollars.
09:13:51 >>MIKE SUAREZ:
Thank you.
I appreciate that.
When we finish discussion, I'd like to make a
motion that you come back -- would it be the next
CRA meeting or the one after?
09:13:59 >>BOB McDONAUGH:
I'm hopeful that by next month I
will have that information.
09:14:03 >>MIKE SUAREZ:
Okay.
I'll make that motion for the next CRA meeting
that Mr. McDonaugh would report back to us as to
the number of apprentices a part of the contract.
That is my motion, ma'am.
09:14:15 >> Second.
09:14:15 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Thank you.
Motion by Councilman Suarez.
Seconded by Councilwoman Montelione.
All in favor.
Passes unanimously.
Ms. Montelione, you wanted to speak?
09:14:26 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
Yes.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
The way that the agenda item is stated, it says
provide a report on the progress of CRA
apprenticeship policy for construction contract.
While we discussed what the policy would be, could
we get a copy in a policy manual?
Is it in a best practices manual?
Where is that policy explicitly stated?
09:14:53 >> On March the 12th, 2015, you passed a policy.
I can get a copy for you.
It was handed out at that time.
Known as CRA policy number 1.
[ LAUGHTER ]
I have a copy for you.
09:15:08 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
We discuss policies here, and
we pass motions, but sometimes we don't actually
get the printed policy back to us.
So I would like to have that as soon as possible
so we can see in black and white what the policy
actually states.
Thank you very much.
09:15:29 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
I'm very pleased.
I had an apprenticeship in my business.
It is an excellent way of getting people trained
into these very specific jobs that we need done.
So thank you for that.
We have the Florida department of transportation,
Roger Rosco.
09:15:51 >> Unfortunately, I am not Roger Rosco.
Roger is in Dallas, but I'm ed McKinney with the
Florida department of transportation.
09:15:59 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Thank you.
09:16:00 >> And thank you for allowing us to come present
to you today.
A motion was made for the department to come
address four specific questions.
One was related to an article that Mr. Rick
Fernandez had published related, and there was a
reference to congestion pricing.
The Councilwoman had asked us to come speak to the
CRA and maybe explain a specific question that he
had raised in that.
We're also going to discuss one of the other items
was impact to properties, relocation of residents.
I have our resident expert on our right-of-way
relocation process.
Zenia Gallo.
She'll come up and explain a little bit about the
process.
We have some handouts that we'll leave with you as
reference guides.
So a lot of information, but it will give you a
reference guide for you to use if you're talking
to constituents or other individuals.
And then the fourth question had to do with
right-of-way funding, and I'll cover that briefly
and explain why there was a difference in the
right-of-way funding from what the -- it was a
reference of a 21 million.
I'm not sure where that number came from, but I
can tell you what was in the October 15 work
document program presented to the MPO and what we
have programmed today that we'll present at the
June 22nd MPO meeting as well.
And I'll explain those differences.
So the first item is the pricing report.
So we looked at the document, and we actually
talked to the author, Patrick, a federal highway
employee, who wrote the document.
And there is a lot of other documents that go
along with it.
But my references all stayed within that document
since that was the reference in the article by
Mr. Fernandez.
The document was prepared by federal highway in
2006.
It focused on growing concerns with the cost of
congestion management -- or congestion in metro
areas.
And it suggested a congestion pricing or a value
pricing as a sustainable way to manage congestion.
In addition, federal and state policy encourages
the use of dynamically priced lanes.
So there's references in the actual document
itself.
Unfortunately, I don't have all the printed
documents.
I have the report here.
Within the document itself it encourages the use
of congestion pricing as a way to encourage states
to maximize lanes.
It talks about both HOV because it was written, as
I said, it was written some time ago.
It includes the discussion of HOV.
The state of Florida, we studied HOV as a
possibility.
The original TIS document, HOV was part of that
study.
Unfortunately, what we discovered, like in Orlando
and in the Miami area, it's an -- it's impossible
to enforce.
It requires a large amount of law enforcement
resources that the state was paying for.
So the state abandoned that practice and went to a
congestion pricing model, which is what we're
proposing on the Tampa Bay express project.
So what the primer discusses is exactly that.
It discusses the differences between HOV and the
positive aspects of HOV, and it also discusses the
use of congestion pricing as a way to manage
pricing.
It talks about variable pricing.
09:19:33 >>HARRY COHEN:
Are you going to be leaving these
materials?
09:19:35 >> I can leave this primer document with you.
Absolutely.
09:19:37 >>HARRY COHEN:
Okay.
So because this is a staff report, and it's not
going to go on forever, it's important that the
backup and details of all of this be provided to
us so we can look at it more closely.
09:19:54 >> Let me do that.
I'll leave the document with you.
09:19:57 >>HARRY COHEN:
Not to stop your presentation.
09:19:58 >> No, not at all.
I wasn't sure how much detail you wanted.
I wanted to make sure I provided enough
information.
I'm going to leave some time for Zenia to get up
here and talk about the relocation process.
I think that was something the Councilwoman was
concerned about.
09:20:16 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Excuse me.
One more question.
Ms. Montelione.
09:20:18 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
Thank you.
About the HOV, because that's something that I am
also a fan of, because if you want to reduce the
congestion, you want to take cars off the road.
And the managed lanes don't provide for taking
cars off the road.
They just charge them more for using that lane.
It was a presumption they are going to go faster,
which isn't always the case because managed
pricing, the more cars that are in that lane, the
higher the price goes because you want to get
people off that lane.
It's not that you're taking cars off the road,
you're shifting them from the regular travel lanes
to the managed price lane.
09:21:02 >> Correct.
09:21:03 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
The toll lanes.
09:21:05 >> Correct.
09:21:05 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
So I think that I do want to
see more information on what the statement is that
HOV lanes are impossible to enforce, because they
are used in a lot of other parts of the country.
And if in other parts of the country they have
been using them for, in some places, decades, and
they don't seem to have a problem enforcing it, we
have the camera technology now that we know when
people get a ticket with a red light camera, it
shows the car, and it shows how many people are in
the car.
I mean, you can clearly see with today's
technology who the person is behind the wheel and
whether or not the passenger seat is empty.
Depending on what the study is that you have that
says HOV lanes are impossible to enforce and that
it's not a strategy that works, how old is that
study?
And does it account for the modern technology of
the use of cameras and ticketing based on what the
camera shows?
Because if you plant cameras along those lanes at
different intervals and it, you know, has the
ability to snap a snapshot of the car, front and
rear, because in Florida we don't have front
license plates, so you would have to get front and
rear in order to ticket a vehicle, I think that it
could be, at least logically speaking, it seems it
could be more easily enforced today than maybe it
was 10 or 20 years ago when we didn't have this
camera technology that we have today.
The question is how old is the study that you're
referencing?
09:22:52 >> Well, it's probably more related to the
conversion of the managed lanes in Miami, why they
converted those from HOV to congestion pricing or
value pricing lanes.
But I can provide that information to you.
I don't have that readily handy, so I can't speak
to it, but I can provide that information.
09:23:12 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
Well, I guess maybe educate me
if I'm mistaken, but the managed lane concept in
Florida was largely based on former F.D.O.T.
Secretary Ananth Prasad saying that capacity needs
to be built on toll lanes, not on any other, you
know, type of expansion of interstates.
09:23:37 >> Well, what he said was, when adding capacities
to existing infrastructure, tolls will be
considered.
So that's part of the evaluation process that we
look at.
We look at tolls as a consideration.
We don't look at tolls as the solution.
It has to be part of the evaluation.
Has to be feasible.
09:23:57 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
The lanes in Miami in place
before the policy came out?
09:24:02 >> The HOV lanes?
09:24:03 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
Yes.
09:24:04 >> I believe they were, yes.
09:24:05 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
And is there -- is that part of
the study that gives the reason and the actual --
I can't think of the word -- idea behind switching
them from HOV to managed lanes?
I mean, the premise and the justification,
methodology is the word I was looking for.
09:24:32 >> The study looked at the enforcement of it.
We don't use cameras to enforce traffic, as a
traffic enforcement method.
09:24:41 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
You use cameras to enforce
whether or not you pay the toll.
I mean, in so many places we don't even have
people in a toll booth anymore.
We do use cameras as enforcement on our roadways.
If you have a sun pass and not placed on your
window and not properly working or you don't have
one to start with and you get in the toll lane,
it's certainly enforced.
09:25:08 >> I'll have to provide that you information.
I was not prepared today to go in an in-depth
discussion on HOV.
09:25:17 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
Maybe somebody else.
09:25:18 >> Amy Nedringhaus with F.D.O.T. as well.
If that's okay.
I spent a little more time with our Miami office.
What they had explained to us when we were looking
into this concept for the Tampa area was that HOV
lanes that they had were not being utilized.
So in a lot of cases, it was just some vacant
pavement that wasn't being utilized which was
disconcerting to a lot of drivers that there was
asphalt over there that they couldn't access.
The hope that people would car pool wasn't
necessarily what was happening.
09:25:57 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
Well, I would say the
demographics in Miami are a little different than
the demographics here.
It's possible that there wasn't an understanding
by the public in Miami of what the HOV actually
meant.
I mean, I've spent -- most of us have spent some
time in Miami, and I can tell you from experience,
there is a little bit of a language barrier
between what HOV might actually stand for.
Councilwoman Capin -- the Spanish speakers here
can maybe come up with a few other things.
09:26:35 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
There is no language barrier.
They just don't follow the rules in Miami.
I'm sorry.
Tampa is just like Miami, only better.
09:26:44 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
-- other than high occupancy
vehicle in another language.
I'm not sure that apples to apples or oranges to
oranges comparison between, you know, the west
coast of Florida and the southeast coast of
Florida.
09:26:58 >> There were similar observations in Orlando,
because if you recall, Orlando had HOV at one
time.
But we'll provide some additional information.
09:27:07 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
That would be wonderful.
Thank you very much.
09:27:10 >> Real quick, before Zenia comes up, because I
know I'm running out of time, there was question
about the funding for right-of-way.
I don't know where the $21 million that was
referenced in what you had originally asked.
09:27:28 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
I think those of us on the MPO
know.
In the funding document, which I have in my
office.
I don't have it here.
As the budget was approved by the state of Florida
in this past legislative session and signed by the
governor, that amount of money was approved for
the 2016-17 fiscal year for acquisition of
property.
It's on the charts for TBX in the matrix.
09:28:03 >>HARRY COHEN:
My understanding is that that is
not condemnations.
It's only voluntary transactions in the coming
fiscal year.
09:28:13 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
That's what I understand as
well.
So that's where that number comes from.
The actual funding document.
09:28:19 >> Let me bring Zenia Gallo up here to talk about
the relocation process.
The Councilwoman also asked that we address that
as well.
09:28:31 >> Good morning.
Zenia Gallo, senior right-of-way agent with the
D.O.T.
I'm also project manager.
In the almost 20 years that I have been there, I
have always done relocation work under the Uniform
Location Act.
It's a little monster to understand sometimes, but
it's really not all that difficult.
The Uniform Relocation Act of 1970 was established
to provide benefits and entitlements to those
individuals that were being affected by taking
under eminent domain or voluntary acquisitions.
At the district 7 office, we used the uniform
relocation act anytime that we acquire any
property that has a residence either occupied by a
tenant, occupied by the owner.
Anytime we obtain commercial property that may
have a business that may be a tenant business or
owner-owned business, or in the cases where
someone has personal property that only needs to
be moved from a slight place.
Let's say we buy a little front strip taking, but
there's something along the front and it needs to
be moved.
Well, we compensate the owner of that property to
move that.
That's called a personal property move only.
We brought brochures to kind of explain that a
little bit.
But I want to give you a little bit of information
with not only the rules itself which are
entitlements.
They are not an adversarial where I can negotiate
anything.
They are set by federal law.
By saying that, it puts me in a situation where I
an advisory service provider to the person
being affected.
I must, under the law, make sure that they receive
all of the benefits that they are entitled to.
I can't pick and choose, and I can't provide
any -- what they are entitled to.
It's really quite unique.
It puts us in a face-to-face, one-on-one situation
with a fee owner or the tenants in explaining the
program and providing the benefits to them.
I'm going to explain that along the area, the TBX,
we have identified properties that are
residential, owned and occupied by the fee owner,
residential, owned by a business or a personal,
individual owner and occupied by a tenant.
The same thing with business properties.
So they would fall under all of the categories
that are covered under the uniform act.
Recently, I have had experience with a large
project in the area that is in the City of Tampa,
which is the Tampa Presbyterian village.
Doing that project, we encountered a lot of
different situations.
Although we did have some hurdles to overcome, I
think that the success of the project largely
speaks for the benefits that were obtained by the
property owners.
When we go to acquire property, first of all, the
D.O.T. must do the title search.
Then we go through the appraisal process where we
appraise the property based on comparable sales in
the area.
Once that comes, and that appraisal is reviewed,
an acquisition agent formulates an offer, a first
offer, to the property owner that is submitted
based on the appraisal for the full amount of the
appraisal.
There is some negotiation room.
That's a little bit different than relocation
because the acquisition agent can negotiate.
We can try to justify what the owner feels that
their property is worth and what our appraiser
says it is.
Unfortunately, appraisal is not a science.
All of us here could go out and appraise a piece
of property, maybe come up with a different value.
So we understand the owner's perspective, and we
understand that their value may be within reason
correct, just like our appraiser was.
Once that negotiation goes into place,
simultaneously the relocation agent, myself, or
another agent within D.O.T. makes a tremendous
ount of personal contact with the person being
affected.
Why?
Because we must establish all of their needs.
We look at things that you might not even
consider, such as, do they use the bus regularly?
Do they need to be in a particular bus route?
Maybe I have a Jewish family that needs to walk to
the synagogue on Saturday.
How far away are they going to be able to move
from where they currently are?
We look at things, medical needs.
One of the apartments where I recently moved a
family, the young boy that lived in the apartment
has a severe allergy condition.
The apartment that they chose to move to had
carpet.
And we had to go in, D.O.T. paid for all of the
carpet to be removed and for new vinyl tile to be
installed.
Those are some of the things that we do to make
this property, decent, safe and sanitary for this
particular family.
We provide the family with a rental assistance
payment.
Under the relocation program, if an individual, we
establish -- their current rent and utilities at
their subject property, then we go into the
market, into the surrounding market and into their
needs based on where they wish to relocate within
the area of the subject property, locate another
property that's comparable and look at their rent
and utilities and the difference that they have
there.
We calculate times 42 months.
42 months and we determine a payment for the
tenant.
That's why in some of the newspaper articles that
have recently come out, you see where some
individuals receive $38,000.
Maybe 68, 70 thousand dollars.
Yes, that is true.
They could be paying little or no rent.
We look to see whether they are a section 8
individual and they have a voucher.
We assist them.
We make sure that they do not lose their section 8
voucher.
Why?
Because section 8 has been closed for many, many
years.
In the list that they have right now, probably has
a six- to seven-year waiting list.
It is our duty to make sure that this family is
relocated into a section 8 house.
Or an apartment, whatever they choose to go to.
We also work with the owners one on one.
Lots of personal contacts.
It's likely that I could have 30, 40 contacts with
an individual owner during the process of locating
property for them.
We look to see the value that D.O.T. is paying for
their home and what it's going to take to replace
that home somewhere else.
And I grew up in West Tampa.
And for a while, my parents and my brother and I,
we had a two-bedroom house.
My brother was little, we shared a bedroom.
Well, under decent, safe and sanitary standards,
we have to look to see what the ages are.
They are not little toddlers anymore.
They do not share a bedroom.
Even though the owner might have had their son and
daughter in a bedroom, when I go look at
comparable property, I have to look for a
three-bedroom house to make sure.
So we may have to up what we pay this person under
purchase additive.
Not only are they receiving the appraised value
for their property or the negotiated amount,
whatever we may negotiate with them, but any
difference when I go out in the market to find
replacement property, we pay it to them in cash to
assist them to buy another property.
We pay closing costs for the individuals that we
relocate, and we pay move costs based either on a
schedule -- or on a commercial move.
09:36:25 >>FRANK REDDICK:
Thank you, Madam Chair.
How many residential families as well as
commercial businesses will be affected by this?
09:36:32 >> This project has approximately -- probably
about 140 families or about 33 businesses, I
believe.
09:36:44 >>FRANK REDDICK:
The reason I say that, because
you're standing before us this morning and you're
giving all of these personal testimony stories,
and it all deals with money.
If you move someone, they should be happy -- what
do you say about the people sitting there and
living in their homes for 15, 20, 30 years who
have invested a lot of money in their home and all
of a sudden they can be moved even by eminent
domain or forced out because you want to put a
toll lane?
Did you have any passion?
09:37:27 >> Do I have the passion?
09:37:28 >>FRANK REDDICK:
For those people?
Because I grew up in West Tampa, they put an
interstate through my neighborhood and it was not
nice.
And here I see what is happening now.
You're relocating people.
And you talk about people at Presbyterian, poor,
low-income people.
Even though you can put tile on the floor and
remove the carpet, what about the psychological
effect on these families?
No one is talking about these elements.
So I don't want to hear about all of this money
talk because this is more important than just the
money talk.
If you have relatives that might stay three blocks
away and they move into that neighborhood to be
close to their family and now you have one segment
of that family going to be displaced then you
don't have -- you have a divided family instead of
a family that was close-knit because they want to
live close to each other.
I don't know if the D.O.T. is thinking about all
these things, but to stand here and put so much
emphasis on, they are going to get money, somebody
might get $30,000.
Somebody might get this.
Somebody might get that.
That's not important.
What's important is that you are dividing
families.
What's important, you're taking away businesses
who have been established in those communities for
years.
You're taking that away.
I understand the urban planning, the urban
development, you can say all those things, but
you've got to think about the personal sacrifice
these families are making.
I hope D.O.T. would give consideration, because it
bother me to hear that they displace a lot of
people just to put a baseball team in place.
Now you want to displace a lot of people just to
put toll lanes.
What I hear, it's not going to reduce traffic.
I hope you all give consideration when you make
the decisions.
09:39:51 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Thank you.
09:39:57 >>CHARLIE MIRANDA:
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I agree everything Mr. Reddick said.
When you look at life, there's a lot of value to
the individual, and the problem that we have today
in society, that everything is based on money, no
matter what it is.
If I don't get this, I'm moving my team to another
city.
Well, get the hell out.
When you look at these things, you realize -- and
again, I'll go back to Frank Reddick and Capin.
Most of us were raised basically in the same type
neighborhoods.
You know, I used to ride bus three -- and this is
no reflection on you personally --
09:40:38 >> No, because we're neighbors.
09:40:39 >>CHARLIE MIRANDA:
I know you've been there 20
years.
You can take the bullets.
But what it's about, it's about life in general
and the quality of life.
We all used to ride a bus, and then in the '50s,
the streetcars disappeared because general motors
says the buses were the things.
So then the buses started disappearing and then
the interstates went through and destroyed all of
Ybor City.
The Hispanics, a lot of Anglos, the blacks, all of
us.
What the hell happened here?
Well, it started with the two lane.
And nobody used it for a little while.
In fact, I remember, look at what we built and
nobody uses it.
Then they went to three lanes.
Now recently it's four lanes.
And as soon as they build them, they become
antiquated because the mind-set of all of us is
the more we have, the more we want.
So more traffic we have, the more cars we buy.
And the problem is, if you were born after '65 or
late '60s, I don't think my grandkids have ever
ridden a bus.
In fact, I don't think my kids have ever ridden a
bus.
I hope that I'm wrong but I don't think I am.
In fact, I don't think I've ridden a bus in 30
years.
I'm not try to be hypocritical.
I'm saying the facts.
I haven't ridden a bus because I have the freedom
of a key to leave and come whenever I want.
I'm also a violator of being what I'm just saying
I shouldn't be.
I ain't speaking for the rest of them.
If I went to the audience, and I'm sure they would
tell me the truth, that's why I'm not going to ask
them, they don't ride a bus on a daily basis.
So that's the problem we have.
If we're going to spend billions of dollars,
billions, not with an M but with a B, why do we
invest those billions of dollars in transportation
in a system that tries to be better than --
[ APPLAUSE ]
09:42:47 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
No, no.
[ SOUNDING GAVEL ]
09:42:49 >>CHARLIE MIRANDA:
Don't applaud me because I
don't take anything.
09:42:52 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
I appreciate, but we can't do
that.
09:42:54 >>CHARLIE MIRANDA:
I'm used to boos, not applause.
What I'm trying to say is that the whole system is
kind of screwed up.
09:43:01 >> I agree with you.
09:43:02 >>CHARLIE MIRANDA:
You sit --
09:43:07 >> If I may answer is a couple of the questions
brought up.
Let's be fair.
We always get that D.O.T. is doing the wrong thing
to the citizen.
I was trying to tell you how many benefits there
are to the citizens that unfortunately we affect.
But we have to look at the whole picture.
I was raised, started out on La Salle.
Used to ride my bicycle on 275.
I used to ride from Himes Avenue to the
Hillsborough River when the interstate was being
built.
I grew up on lee Roy and Habana.
Like I said, we're neighbors.
Actually, the home you lived in -- that you live
in or I think you do, belonged to a friend of
mine.
I know the area very well.
I was raised here.
I went to local schools.
I went to Cuesta Elementary.
You talk about the -- this is my community, too.
And the people that we affect -- let me explain
something.
Tampa Presbyterian village, we had 16 families
that never thought they would be able to be
homeowners become homeowners.
One of them bought a house from Mayor Buckhorn's
project in Sulphur Springs and obtained a grant
from the City of Tampa, along with our funds,
moved into a new home in Sulphur Springs, and she
now pays less than she was paying at Tampa
Presbyterian village.
09:44:33 >>CHARLIE MIRANDA:
No one is saying that you are
bad, evil, not you.
Not that D.O.T. is evil.
I'm saying we have to change the way we think.
That is the expression we're trying to get across.
The whole system, the federal government on down
doesn't think that way anymore.
They can't even pass a bill, agree on nothing.
Even in this presidential debate, no one has
talked about fixing anything.
They just talk about getting mad at each other.
We have to come together in some consensus of what
we want to do.
The time is now.
Hillsborough County, the City of Tampa, the rest,
Pinellas, all of us are thinking of something.
If this sales tax doesn't pass, I think that this
city and St. Pete and Clearwater has got to do
something, to create something.
I don't care if it is the choo-choo train, to show
something.
We ain't got a damn thing in anything to fix
anything for 50 years.
And you weren't there 50 years ago.
So I went over --
09:45:33 >> I was there 15 years ago.
09:45:34 >>CHARLIE MIRANDA:
I'm glad you are from West
Tampa.
I'm glasses you know the Sanchez family.
That's who I bought my house from.
We're not against you.
We're with you.
But we're trying to ask you for help to solve our
problem.
09:45:46 >> And we would like to do that as much as we can.
All of us use the local roads.
I believe someone was here because of traffic.
09:45:56 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
I got misinformation.
But it does happen.
09:46:01 >> We are all in traffic.
I was in traffic on Hillsborough Avenue.
It was horrible in both directions.
I thought there was an accident.
There was no accident.
That was regular daily traffic.
If we do nothing, it's not going to get better.
09:46:16 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Well, excuse me.
I just came from Salt Lake City this week.
They have a light rail that is incredible.
They did something.
There's something besides roads.
[ APPLAUSE ]
-- stop.
Please don't.
Please don't.
As Councilman Miranda and the rest of us, I rode
the bus till I was about 11 years old, from the
time I was about 7 to 11, and then we moved from
Ybor to West Tampa, bicoastal, both sides of the
river.
So when I saw this, Salt Lake City is a city of
about 150,000 people.
They have a light rail from the center of the city
to the airport.
They have light rail that goes all the way almost
to provost.
It's an amazing accomplishment.
And I look at it and they have an expressway.
And the area is about a million one, the whole
county, so there are solutions, and that's what
people are trying to look at is what else can we
do?
If we keep doing the roads, and we don't pay
attention to the rest of it, both public
transportation is very, very important, so I
understand what my colleagues are saying, and I
just wanted to mention that.
So thank you.
Ms. Montelione.
09:47:42 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
Thank you.
So, Ms. Gallo, you've talked a lot about the
success stories and how much F.D.O.T. does for
relocating families.
And those are all good.
I mean, I know that there are some families who
are benefited by getting out of the situation they
are in now.
Like you said, the folks that went from renters to
homeowners, through a variety of programs to help
them achieve that goal.
But out of 140 families, we don't know what the
percentage of people are that are happy to be
relocated or the ones that, as Councilman Miranda
has said and Councilman Reddick has said, who
prefer to be around their family and friends, who
they may never -- not never see, but it would be
more difficult to see because now they are in
Sulphur Springs instead of the inner core of the
city where they had been living for so many years.
I want to bring this back to what we are talking
about and maybe stop talking about the periphery
of anecdotal stories.
So we have 140 families and 33 businesses that in
answer to Councilman Miranda or Councilman
Reddick, that you said would be affected.
Is that correct?
09:49:13 >> Yes.
I don't have all of the numbers exactly with me
because some of the properties we have already
acquired, and just on our regular advance
acquisition process, people come to us and say we
would like to sell our property.
If it's under our study where we can purchase it,
we try to come to an agreement with them.
None of them have been under eminent domain.
They have all been voluntary --
09:49:39 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
So on this map I have, and it's
color coded for parcels to be acquired and parcels
already purchased by F.D.O.T., there are many
more, and this map is dated September 2015.
So it's not the older map.
It's a fairly updated map.
I don't know if it is the most recent.
There are many more parcels on this map to be
acquired.
Many more orange parcels than there are purple
parcels.
The orange is to be acquired.
Purple is already acquired.
So my question is, this map has been around for
quite some time.
Like I said, it's been updated from time to time,
and this one is from September 2015.
Do all of the people know who own the orange
parcels that they are in the path of this project
and will have to be relocated?
09:50:36 >> It's my understanding that that's acquisitions.
So I'm -- from our meetings, it's my understanding
that all the families have received a letter
indicating that they are in the past and asking
them if they have a desire to participate in our
advanced acquisition program.
09:50:54 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
No disrespect to the people who
own these parcels, do you think they understand
when they get a letter from the Florida department
of transportation that they may eventually have to
move or not may eventually, if this project goes
through, they will have to move.
Do you think -- is it one letter that went out?
Is it two letters that went out?
I know sometimes mail comes to my house, go
through the envelopes and, you know, accidentally
some get misplaced or end up --
09:51:22 >> Never make it to you.
Who knows.
They have received at least one letter, possibly
two letters.
09:51:30 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
Regular mail or certified mail,
registered mail?
09:51:33 >> They are regular mail.
09:51:34 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
Regular mail.
09:51:36 >> I believe they are all regular mail.
09:51:38 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
There's no proof that they
actually have received the letter.
09:51:43 >> I do relocation.
That is an acquisition function.
09:51:45 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
Is there anybody here from
acquisition?
09:51:48 >> No, ma'am, not today.
When you say that they may not understand, a lot
of the properties in that path are owned by
investors and corporations, and they understand
what that is.
They know.
09:52:09 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
That actually makes it a little
more difficult for me to swallow, because
investors, when you say investors, many of the
investors, I mean, we dealt with this when we had
code enforcement issues when a lot of properties,
the downturn, being acquired by investors.
And they would buy them in bulk.
They would buy hundreds, sometimes thousands of
properties at the same time.
They are out-of-state companies who don't have an
investment in the community.
They have an investment in the bottom line.
They are buying these properties because they know
that they can turn them over at some point in time
and make money because they are the only ones who
can buy that many properties all at once.
So if these are investors, these are out-of-state
companies, and you're sending them regular mail,
we don't even know if the investors have been
advised their -- that their properties are going
to be acquired.
In turn, you are removing the person who occupies
the property one or two times because there is the
investment company and then usually a management
company who manages those properties for the
investment company.
And that management company could be out-of-state.
Then you have the on-the-ground people here in
Tampa that might actually physically manage.
So my concern is that the actual citizens and
residents of the City of Tampa have no clue that
they are going to be relocated by the department
because they are not getting those letters.
The management company is getting those letters.
The investors are getting those letters.
The people who are in the residences.
I mean, when I do mailings from my office and I
did a town hall and we did a vision plan for the
area and pastor Tommy is shaking his head because
he was a big part of that effort, when the
Planning Commission, Zornitta is here, when the
Planning Commission did that outreach, they had
the property tax appraisers list of property
owners in the area.
And they were sending notification to the property
owners.
And they didn't have it in the budget for the
outreach effort to send a whole additional set of
letters to the actual people who occupy the
property.
So I took it out of my City of Tampa budget in my
office, and we sent letters addressed to
residents.
So to the actual physical address.
So it wasn't going to an investor.
It wasn't going to, you know, maybe an aunt or
uncle who owns the property who are out of state
or wherever.
It was going to the actual person who lives in
that house.
09:54:44 >> Our letters go to the property owner, to the
fee owner on the public records.
The reason it goes to them, if you have a
tenant --
09:54:52 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
I understand the reason.
09:54:53 >> If I send something to a tenant that tenant may
not understand.
They may leave.
09:54:58 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
I understand the reasons.
What I'm saying is the actual person who lives in
that home or in that apartment has no idea, unless
you send letters, duplicate letters, one to the
investor or the property owner of record and one
addressed resident, that person who lives in that
home or that apartment has no clue.
09:55:20 >> Unfortunately, it is a double-edged sword for
us.
When I do that, the first thing that the owner is
going to say, hey, you're scaring my tenant away.
Why are you sending my tenant a notice that they
have to move?
09:55:32 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
They are going to have to move.
09:55:33 >> Well, no.
They only have to move right now under advance
acquisition voluntary unless if we have an
agreement with them, they don't have to move.
09:55:42 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
Which is why somebody has to
educate the people who actually live there so they
are not scared, so that they understand the
timeline, so that they know eventually if this
project is approved and moves forward, that within
a year or two, they have to move.
They might make decisions, if I have a child who
is in, you know, a sophomore in high school, and
they are going to be a senior by the time they
will have to move, I might choose to move now
because I don't want my child uprooted in their
senior year.
So you need to talk to these people individually,
maybe one on one, so they understand the impacts
to their lives so they can make educated, informed
decisions.
Maybe they want to move now.
Maybe they don't want to wait two years because it
will affect the education of their child.
When we talk about families and we talk about
those families, Mr. Reddick talked about how those
families are affected, we're not talking about
real estate.
We're talking about lives.
We're talking about paths.
We're talking about opportunities.
And it's great that some of them move and get
better opportunities, but they need to understand
that.
And I don't think a lot of those people do
because, like you said, a lot of them are
properties owned by investors and they don't have
a clue.
09:57:05 >> Councilwoman, we sent letters at different
points.
What we'll do is we'll get the specific detail and
provide that to you.
09:57:12 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
Thank you.
It might behoove you to have individuals who can
knock on doors, just like you open the office in
Ybor City to have someone right there on the
ground as a walk-in center where people can answer
questions, it might behoove you to hire some,
maybe some interns in urban studies at USF, just
sayin'.
That can go out and can knock on doors and talk to
people and advise them of the situation.
And then they can make the decision whether to
further information.
09:57:56 >>GUIDO MANISCALCO:
There is a gentleman that has
called my office, and he calls crying because he
and his wife live across the street from her
parents, and they are elderly and they have to
take care of them.
The house they live in is his wife's childhood
home that they have had since maybe 1960 I
believe.
Because of the TBX project, they would have to be
relocated, one of the homes.
Therefore, they wouldn't have that closeness to
take care of their in-laws.
This man calls me in tears, and it hurts me
because I have to, as an elected official put
myself in his shoes and ask myself what if this
were me and what if these were my parents?
And I met this individual on a march for folks
against TBX as they walked through the
neighborhoods and they show people the properties
that are affected.
And as they shout no TBX or stop TBX, I'm quiet
because I'm thinking to myself, everything that I
see here will be gone, will be relocated or will
be demolished.
The interstate coming through Tampa over 50 years
ago split neighborhoods in two, Ybor City, West
Tampa and Seminole Heights.
And these neighborhoods have fought and struggled
for decades to rebuild themselves.
And now we have come to a point where Ybor City is
coming strong and Seminole Heights is coming
strong and Tampa Heights is coming strong.
But then we have this TBX proposal that once again
cuts into the fabric of all the hard work and the
character of this neighborhood and these
neighborhoods.
I ask myself, if I'm going to be against TBX, what
is my solution?
Should I support go Hillsborough?
Is rail what we need?
Is it transit?
My ideal situation would be, left the streetcar
years ago, if we had that streetcar, we would have
had mass transit.
We had mass transit but with the 1950s and onset
of automobile ownership and the building of
highways and interstates, interstates that have
cut through our city, we pulled up the streetcar.
We relied on buses or they promoted buses and
automobile ownership.
But times are changing.
My generation doesn't rely so much on automobile
ownership.
They want bike lanes.
They want pedestrian-friendly areas.
They want to use mass transit.
They want something.
I like to use the bus and I like to promote it to
show people it's clean.
It's good.
It works.
Doesn't work for everybody.
But instead of D.O.T. spending all this money from
the state, which is billions of dollars, why not
partner with the municipalities or the counties
and say let us help you lay down a rail
infrastructure.
Let us look towards the future.
Let us look at CSX lines to convert them to
commuter lines, look at direct shots from USF to
downtown to the airport.
The future is in transit.
The future of our community's success is in
transit, mass transit.
When we have corporations that look to us to move,
they will ask the question, how do we get our
people around?
And we tell them we'll use the bus -- interstates
are not the answers.
TBX is not the answer.
But widening our roads and tearing into the
community again and opening up these unhealed
wounds, because we are now coming back, is not the
answer.
So I wish that the state would say, let's sit down
and talk and say perhaps either delay the project
or scrap the project and look at other
alternatives.
We have a potential ballot initiative that would
address transit and road improvements and whatnot,
but it all comes down to funding and money and
leadership and the voices up in Tallahassee or
whomever to say maybe we're going about this the
wrong way.
Maybe we were too aggressive in the 1950s and
'60s with building the interstate.
Maybe we need to look at other options.
That's all I'm asking.
Because when I talk to these people, I feel their
pain and I sense their frustration, and I
represent a lot of them in the district that I
represent, and I think that we should delay this.
We should sit down and talk more and see how we
can better spend this money, because it's a lot of
money.
If we do it right now, it will save us the hassle
in the future.
We're delaying progress by building more highways.
We've been doing the same thing for 50-plus years.
Let's look at alternatives.
[ APPLAUSE ]
10:02:09 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Councilman Suarez.
10:02:11 >> If I could address two things.
One, if you could give me the address.
There are many of those cases that we are
currently working on that we have been made aware
of.
It may be one of the ones that we're looking into
to see what options we have.
So if you give me that information off the record,
I will look into it.
I would also like the opportunity maybe to come
back and explain, address some of the -- and I
would also encourage that maybe the Hillsborough
MPO, and I know rich -- they did an excellent
presentation yesterday at the CAC meeting that I
thought may be a good primer.
And I'm sure it's nothing that you don't already
know, that you haven't already heard, but it kind
of discusses the transition of how we got to where
we are with transit and the studies that have been
done.
We are also -- we have partnered with Hart to look
at the specific items that the Councilman just
addressed, which is the CSX lines and what premium
transit we can bring to the region.
We are actively as an agency encouraging that
effort to move forward, because we totally agree.
We can't continue the same policies of road
construction.
We understand that.
But there needs to be a commitment on the local
level.
Needs to be a commitment on the regional level to
adopt a transit plan that they are going to move
forward with.
And we'll partner with the plan.
The D.O.T. as we've demonstrated throughout the
state, we will be a huge partner, and we will
contribute greatly to that effort, because we
understand the need is there, and it has to be
addressed.
Give us the opportunity.
We'll come back.
I'll have Ming Gow make the presentation to show
you a little bit what we're doing, maybe discuss a
little bit about the premium transit study that I
know the Councilwoman and Councilman Cohen are
familiar with.
10:04:02 >>HARRY COHEN:
I believe you are already on our
calendar for May at the CRA meeting.
We'll make sure to add that presentation.
10:04:13 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
The premium --
10:04:15 >>HARRY COHEN:
They are already coming to us
regarding TBX in May.
10:04:20 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
We also have at our City Council
meeting, we talked about the premium transit study
that should be starting -- you can tell us when.
10:04:28 >> September.
10:04:30 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
And we asked for a report on that.
10:04:33 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
One quick follow-up.
Councilman Maniscalco has some information on
people who have called his office.
We know people are watching in TV land because my
office just got a phone call from somebody who
said he did not get a number.
Here is his name and phone number so you can
contact him as well.
We'll pass that information along.
10:04:55 >>MIKE SUAREZ:
Thank you.
Mr. McKinney, a couple of things you did that
were very intelligent.
One, you hired someone from West Tampa to
represent you.
We all know people that come from West Tampa are
very passionate and we will make sure we try and
get things right.
Second, I went to Cuesta sixth grade center in
addition, now it is a concrete slab with stairs
going up to it.
It's been taken over which was, of course, an old
cigar factory.
Mr. McKinney, we talked about all the human
elements in terms of what it means when you do
these type of projects, large projects that affect
people significantly.
And I think that we all know the history of the
interstate system throughout Tampa and what has
happened to our former transit system which
started being dismantled in 1946 and '47.
The question I have now is the process.
Here's what I want to know.
We have an F.D.O.T. project, a plan that's been on
the books or, excuse me, not in the books or in
the planning stages for over 20 years if I'm not
mistaken.
In order to do the project, you need the cash, you
need to accumulate the cash.
You need to get the land.
You need to do all these other parts of it in
order to get it done.
I know that you're familiar with what the U.S.
secretary of transportation has said about the
impacts that D.O.T. has had throughout the years
especially for neighborhoods, and I think he had a
Washington post article just recently, but in
addition, some of the things he said about ladders
of opportunity and what it means to actually build
a transportation system, and make neighborhoods
grow up as opposed to being affected negatively.
In terms of the process, if the secretary of
transportation, the U.S. secretary of
transportation did not want this project to go
forward or had made a comment to you and had,
let's say, something to say we don't want to
support this, is that something that is separate
from what you all would do?
Would you have to listen to that particular
secretary?
Or is it more controlled at the state level?
I'm just curious about that.
10:07:08 >> If the Federal Highway Administration did not
support the project, obviously, that would be --
that would be -- that could be a potential deal
killer.
We are following through the environmental process
now.
We are early in the process.
There are a lot of things happening.
I know because of the potential to advance funding
into this project, but we are still in the
environmental evaluation process.
We are having daily discussions with -- actually,
this morning, we have got a meeting with federal
highway.
So we are working through the process to address
whatever concerns that they have.
I invited her today, we hired USF to assist us in
community outreach efforts --
10:07:53 >>MIKE SUAREZ:
We're familiar with that,
Mr. McKinney.
I appreciate that.
I guess the question is, in terms of the process,
because usually it's a mixtures of state dollars
and federal dollars, correct?
What's usually the mixtures?
50-50, 60-40?
10:08:08 >> In this project, I don't have the exact number,
but we receive about 25% of our funds from the
federal government.
75% comes from the state trust fund.
10:08:17 >>MIKE SUAREZ:
And then in terms of direction,
though, I mean, if U.S. D.O.T. said and Federal
Highway Administration said, hey, listen, we think
this is a bad idea, we don't think this actually
does what we want to see in the future for
transportation in the Tampa Bay area, can the
governor and the Florida secretary of
transportation say, well, listen, you know what,
we'll go forward with this.
We'll find our other 25% somewhere else and we're
just going to do whatever we want to do.
Can you do that or is that something --
10:08:52 >> I don't know if I can answer that.
That is a pretty heavy question.
10:08:55 >>MIKE SUAREZ:
In the years you've experienced,
have you ever had that happen?
10:08:58 >> Not in my 25 years.
10:09:01 >>MIKE SUAREZ:
I didn't think so.
I was curious, because we're approaching a new
paradigm when it comes to holistic transportation
solutions.
We know we won't get rid of cars tomorrow.
I think all of us know that.
When we have to travel certain places, we need our
vehicle.
There's no doubt about it.
But we want more choices as consumers of
transportation.
You see it with Uber and Lyft.
You see it in terms of some of the things that
we're doing at Hart which is experimenting with
first-mile, last-mile projects.
We want to use all that is available to us.
And I know we talk about autonomous vehicles, and
I think Secretary Steinman is a big fan of
autonomous vehicles.
But at the same time, we need to see where we're
at in 5 years, 10 years, 25 years as opposed to
doing a project that is, you know, for the most
part, kind of started in the early '90s, and now
we're trying to make it happen in 2020, let's say.
I'm just using a number here, a year.
In terms of the next part of the process, I know
the NEPA process has to go through.
That's being done currently.
And then is there any viewpoint of using any of
the lane capacity that comes up exclusively for
transit?
That's one of the issues I know that we've kind of
talked about it, both from my side at Hart and
Secretary Steinman has mentioned some of this,
which is they are looking at using lane capacity
for Hart to be used free of charge for those
riders, but it hasn't been put in -- excuse the
pun -- concrete about us going forward.
Because if this goes through, we need to provide
other opportunities and options for people to have
mass transit because if they don't do it, it will,
I think, go to naught.
We're not done with this project.
I know it's going to be I think long and drawn
out.
If you look behind you, a lot of people behind you
are not in support of this TBX project, and it's
not a finalized product yet.
I think you know that.
I think we all know that.
So I want to make sure we -- and I told this to
Secretary Steinman directly and I'll say it to
you, too -- you need to find ways to mitigate what
you're doing in addition to finding solutions that
fit the needs of the neighborhood and not just the
needs of the drivers that are going to be driving
on that freeway.
Because we cannot continue this kind of
loggerheads without actually coming up with real
solutions for the choices that people actually
want.
And not because we want to build a road.
And that's something that we need to really think
about before we go forward any longer.
I just wanted to ask you that process, because I
know that money is a big part of it.
You know, you need to get the funding.
You have to have the state legislature continue to
look at this.
The state legislature said no and decided not to
fund it or vetoed by the governor, it would hamper
your ability to go forward.
And it would be much more difficult.
So, you know, I think that if you look at the
people that are concerned about this particular
issue, the holistic transportation solutions that
we need to look at might include some of this but
it doesn't include all of this.
That's something that you'll have to think about.
Thank you, chair.
I appreciate it.
10:12:23 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Thank you.
10:12:27 >>CHARLIE MIRANDA:
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I look, it's not about what's happening in Ybor
City, what's happening in West Tampa, what's
happening in Seminole Heights, what's happening in
Tampa Heights.
If we continue with the same mind-set, all of us,
we'll all be living under the expressway because
we're going to keep increasing and increasing.
That's it.
We have to find a different route.
That's my closing.
Thank you very much.
10:13:03 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Councilman Cohen.
10:13:04 >>HARRY COHEN:
So everyone, I believe, has had a
chance to speak, and I wanted to say something to
D.O.T. and to the community.
This was Lisa's motion to bring this up today.
I believe it's coming back to the CRA again in
May.
And I have felt that this is a very important
forum for this discussion to take place.
Because our role here is to protect the
neighborhoods of the City of Tampa.
And this is a place where there is a lot of
concern that's been expressed about the details of
this project.
At the MPO, the project is being presented in a
little bit of a larger form because it includes
areas of the region, in fact, that really do not
directly bear on the city itself.
There are pieces of this project that have to do
with the airport.
That have to do with the integration of the Howard
Frankland bridge, that have to do with building
out in the right-of-way between the expressway,
between downtown and Westshore and part of those
plans include some provisions for a transit
envelope and for, perhaps, a transit envelope
across the Howard Frankland bridge.
This piece of the project, though, the piece of
the project that involves the downtown interchange
and that goes north from the City of Tampa has
caused a great deal of concern within our
neighborhoods.
And I felt it was very important for D.O.T. to
hear from the City Council members who spoke,
every one of them, passionately today about the
concerns of what this is going to impose on the
city.
I recognize that 11,000 -- excuse me, 11,000
passengers a day have got to get to the airport
that we have to have additional capacity, not just
hopefully with rail and rapid -- bus rapid transit
and other transit alternatives, but that we're
also going to need additional road capacity.
What my plea is to D.O.T. is to start rethinking
the details of how we're going to get this done.
Look for different options to get people through
the decor of the city.
That's the primary issue that has been raised
here.
And it's not just -- it is certainly partly about
the displaced families and businesses, but I think
it's equally about the division of the
neighborhoods that have worked so hard to build
cohesiveness and build businesses.
And I think you've heard from everybody today,
testament to our real, real concern that that's
going to be jeopardize.
So, you know, when you come back in May, and also
when you come to us at the MPO, particularly when
you couple to the hearing in June, on June 22nd,
where the MPO is going to have to make some
critical decisions about the future of this
project, please, demonstrate a willingness to look
at other alternatives for how the urban core is
treated, because that is the number one issue that
is standing in the way of getting some of the
relief that we need for the airport, for the
bridge, and for some of the other areas that are
affected by this project.
Thank you.
10:16:28 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Councilman Reddick.
10:16:30 >>FRANK REDDICK:
Thank you.
I'll just make a final comment.
That is I hope when you come back in May, I hope
you will come back with an alternative plan
instead of the one you have on the table right now
that affects so many people in these neighborhoods
as well as businesses.
If you don't have an alternative plan at our
discussion in May, I think this Council, this
neighborhood a great -- by voting to not support
the TBX plan.
I think we need to go on record in May that we do
not support it if you don't have an alternative
plan.
And that should be a discussion we have in May.
Because I think every member on this Council has
expressed concern.
If you're not willing to reach out to an
alternative plan, then we should go on record to
make that official, our concern and not support
TBX.
Thank you.
10:17:39 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Continue.
10:17:40 >> We were done.
I'm going to make sure if there are any other
comments.
10:17:48 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
We have a crack team here of aides
that looked up the answer to this letter, the CRA
sent to honorable Gregory Nadeau acting
administrator, Federal Highway Administration in
Washington, D.C., and this letter is dated
July 23rd, 2015, of the concerns that you heard
today.
So that was last year in July.
And his answer to us was, copied Debbie Hunt,
F.D.O.T., Ken Morefield, F.D.O.T.
Beth Allen, Hillsborough MPO.
And it was division administration answered by
James Christian.
They hear our concerns.
As a body committed to the model of redevelopment
and revitalization.
It is disheartening for CRA once again to see
I-275 blow another Tampa neighborhood striving to
reinvent itself.
These neighborhoods we're talking about are
neighborhoods that were in dire, dire straits, and
these people invested in these neighborhoods and
have managed to bring them back to a lovely
actually neighborhoods.
His answer is, we are aware of F.D.O.T.
His answer was dated August 5, 2015.
We are aware of F.D.O.T. is in the process of
reevaluating the previous completed studies.
The National Environment Policy Act and federal
regulations outline a formal process to identify
and assess potential impacts related to
implementing approved federal actions at various
phases of project development.
In this case, the construction of TBX.
Although nothing has been submitted to our office
for review at that point, we want to assure you
that all the identified issues will be carefully
considered in the environmental decision-making
process to ensure compliance with applicable
federal laws and regulations.
We encourage to you continue to work with
F.D.O.T., the Hillsborough metropolitan planning
organization during the project development study
process to identify the potential social,
economic, and environmental effects, identify the
potential social, economic, and environmental
effects the planned roadway improvements would
have on the community so they can appropriately
evaluate, avoid, and minimize or mitigate.
We applaud your efforts for the work -- okay.
So that's what we're doing here.
Exactly what we're saying, what he said we needed
to do is what we're doing.
And we will continue to -- in that vein.
I want to thank my colleagues for their input on
this.
Any other --
10:20:49 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
No.
The last part of the item is for Melissa Zornitta
to present the Tampa Heights community plan.
Is Cathy Coyle or someone from staff up?
Mr. Campbell is here, for the city staff, so that
we know how the community plan of Tampa Heights
has an effect or not or is affected by the TBX
project.
10:21:25 >> Good morning.
Melissa Zornitta, Executive Director of the
Hillsborough County City-County Planning
Commission.
Thank you for inviting me here today.
I have a couple of things I was going to share
regarding the Tampa Heights neighborhood plan.
This was completed by Planning Commission staff in
conjunction with working with the neighborhood
stakeholders in 2002 and accepted by City Council
by resolution in 2003.
Unlike some of the other community plans, like
Seminole Heights and 40th Street, this community
plan did not have goals, objectives and policies
that were adopted into the comprehensive plan.
So it's not a regulatory tool so much.
And as we talk about the contents of the
neighborhood plan, you'll sort of see that.
We do have policies in the adopted comprehensive
plan --
10:22:25 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
Ms. Zornitta why is this plan
different from the others and why is it not a
regulatory tool like the others and why wasn't it
adopted into the comprehensive plan?
10:22:36 >> Seminole Heights and 40th Street came after.
All of these community plans referenced on the
slide were done in a different approach.
They were taken as sort of a way to come up with
the vision of the community and have a way for
them to express that as a tool for the community
to help organize their efforts.
It is something that is considered in other
planning efforts, but since then, we've sort of
progressed and evolved in how the community plans
are done.
And Seminole Heights and 40th Street are sort
of --
10:23:15 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
If the Tampa Heights plan were
done today, it would be done differently and
adopted into the comprehensive plan and it would
be a regulatory tool.
10:23:22 >> Portions of it would be.
Portions would turn into zoning code, much like
the Seminole Heights has the form-based code that
was done.
There are different regulatory tools that might
implement different portions of the plan.
The comprehensive plan does recognize that these
community plans were done, and that the
neighborhoods put a lot of time and effort into
them when they were developing them and talked
about how they should be the framework and basis
for future community plans that are done in those
areas.
That might update those efforts.
Additionally, it recognizes that there was
valuable content.
They often inventoried a lot of the community --
In terms of the content of the Tampa Heights
vision, it talked a lot about neighborhood
organization and empowerment.
The group that is here today wasn't necessarily in
the same structure and framework in 2002.
So a lot of the community plan focused on how to
help them build that neighborhood infrastructure.
It talked about looking for opportunities for
collaboration and partnerships as well.
There was some discussion of rebuilding the
neighborhood economy, focusing on some commercial
revitalization, particularly along Tampa and
Florida streets.
There was a focus on connectivity, looking at
gateways, opportunities for greenways and trail
development, maintaining the grid system,
pedestrian safety, and support of transit.
Again, back in 2002, they were talking about bus
in support of the trolley.
Potentially extending that into Tampa Heights.
It talks about housing choices, and looking at
affordable housing and having a greater variety of
housing types maintained in the community and a
focus on children and having parks and gathering
places and focusing on safety.
And then this is the vision map.
Probably can't get it all on the screen at the
same time --
10:25:50 >> [speaking off microphone]
10:25:53 >> So this shows sort of the concept map for the
neighborhood with the focus on some activity
centers along Tampa and Florida streets.
Those red circles are sort of the community
revitalization areas that were aimed at, looking
at enhancing some of those streets with greenways
and gateways.
It also inventoried the number of the existing
uses that were in place at the time, social
services, schools, parks, as well as identifying
potentially opportunities for additional pocket
parks and things of that nature.
So I would be happy to answer any questions you
have.
10:26:42 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Any questions?
Ms. Montelione.
10:26:45 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
You saw me reaching for the
button.
10:26:48 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Yes, I did.
10:26:49 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
We don't have an overlay to
show what the TBX expansion or the interstate
expansion would do to this plan, but seemingly, if
you look at this map and you look at yours, there
is quite a bit of, I think that the green, like
trees or something indicated along the lines there
that parallel the interstate.
10:27:27 >> The circle are street trees.
These dashed green lines are greenways.
10:27:38 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
I'm trying to picture this and
picture that.
From looking here, it seems that from the
interchange down.
The orientation I don't think is north-south.
That is where the majority of properties to be
acquired is on the map that I have.
So it seems like most of that would all be going
away.
That part of the connection for a greenway or
trail system would be eliminated.
It would have to be relocated, because it's in the
path.
And that seems to be the major impact.
And I'll give you this map so maybe you can look
at it and offer your machine.
But if we were, hypothetically speaking, to adopt
this map into the comprehensive plan through a
plan amendment, initiated by the city, what would
the impact be to the planning process that the
Florida department of transportation would have to
consider as an undertaking in the future?
Not that I'm putting you on the spot here or
anything.
10:29:12 >> Not at all.
This is a concept map.
I don't think any of these lines, like, for
example, the pink houses put on here are
affordable.
It's labeled affordable housing, and it says not
location specific.
So there's a lot of things about this map that are
perhaps not in a position to be utilized in a
regular --
10:29:40 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
This map, though, is only part
of the Tampa Heights community plan.
There are paragraphs, verbiage, there's statements
of vision and goals.
Much like the other community plans that the
Planning Commission has done, it's the first step
in moving towards the adoption, like we talked
about before, of the Seminole Heights zoning code,
which is undertaken by the City of Tampa's staff,
not the Planning Commission.
So the first step, though, is to have it adopted
into the comprehensive plan before our staff picks
up the ball and runs with it for planning
purposes.
10:30:29 >> Well, the process that we've been utilizing of
late has been to do a lot of that work more
simultaneously with the community, if we're able
to.
I would, this was done in 2002, and so I think it
would be a worthwhile effort before anything like
that was done to update it.
There are things about the neighborhood that have
changed.
10:30:54 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
For the better.
10:30:55 >> Right, absolutely.
10:30:55 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
And it would be more
impactful -- the impact of TBX, the expansion on
the interstate would be more impactful now than it
was in 2002.
I'm contemplating how we would undertake that
update.
I think the CRA --
10:31:21 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Sal Territo may have a little
information there.
10:31:23 >>SAL TERRITO:
I don't like to interject myself in
these kind of discussions.
I was on the Planning Commission '90 to '93.
I served as its Chairman.
A lot of these were giving the neighborhoods an
opportunity to give a vision of what they wanted.
They weren't done in such a stringent manner as
they would meet the city's state standards how to
impose these things.
What plan amendment -- with plan amendment maps
come policies.
Some of the policies that were proposed would not
be allowed to be done.
They didn't meet all of the legal standards.
Not that you can't --
10:31:54 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
Right.
Which is why I'm contemplating requesting an
update.
10:31:58 >>SAL TERRITO:
Well, it's not only an update.
These things were done quite a few years ago.
They would have to look at it again.
They are not just map changes.
Policies go with them.
Policies have to conform to state law and so
forth, not that you can't look at it, but these
maps were not done with that in mind.
It may require a new study to come up with a
different plan that would meet our standards, not
just taking these and updating these.
That's all I was trying to say.
Thank you.
10:32:24 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Thank you.
10:32:29 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
[microphone not on]
Hearing from the Planning Commission on what
exists in their records today as far as the level
of detail and what the community plan is and how
it's on the books or not in this case.
So that answers those questions.
I see Mr. Callahan at the podium.
10:32:58 >> Good morning, Council.
Mike Callahan.
Planning and urban design.
I'm here this morning as a proxy -- he was
required at a mandatory training meeting this
morning.
We did spend some time updating this map.
I would like to show it to you.
I think it speaks to a lot of the things that
Ms. Montelione was talking about.
If you look at the map Melissa just put up, we
have updated many of the things that have
occurred.
Almost the bottom third of the Tampa Heights
project area has been developed in many cases,
developed out with the heights project is in
process to be developed as well as GE financial
headquarters.
Encore is in there.
The red area to the east of the interstate is
actually the expanded Ybor City historic district.
You can see lightly the brown area in this
rectangular area is the historic Tampa Heights
area, which will come under its own regulatory
framework in terms of being developed out.
But we are in process.
This is our next plan, community plan, which will
have its own regulatory structure.
I can't tell you exactly when that's going to
start because we still have to finish 40th
Street, and we're working a little bit with Davis
Islands as well.
So it is next.
It is absolutely next, and that's really what I
wanted to bring to you this morning there.
10:34:57 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
I'll let you in on a little
secret.
I knew that.
And I wanted to put that on the record so
Mr. Territo, while you were speaking, I was trying
to draw out the information and the contrast
between what we have with the Planning Commission
that exists today from 2002 and what the city is
undertaking as the Tampa Heights community plan
moves forward and how we're taking that 2002
community plan, we're going to move forward with
the City of Tampa planning process and hopefully
codify --
10:35:39 >> Not hopefully.
We will codify.
It will be similar.
10:35:40 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
Thank you very much.
So we will codify some of these planning policies
and move forward with development codes that will
be on the books, that will in some cases directly
impact the TBX and the expansion of the
interstate.
So at some point in time, not to make everybody
laugh, down the road, there's going to have to be
a meeting of the minds between what our codes in
the City of Tampa dictate for Tampa Heights, what
the community wants, what will be part of our City
of Tampa Code of Ordinances and what the Florida
department of transportation is planning because
they will be in direct conflict.
10:36:35 >> Yep, um-hum.
10:36:36 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
As part of the F.D.O.T.
planning process, the reason I brought up, and I
said in the motion $21 million which was before I
actually received the matrix of funding.
But it's actually 20 -- there it is.
It's $24.6 million.
It's $24,594,775, which is budgeted.
So before we start spending, or before the Florida
department of transportation starts spending that
taxpayer money to acquire property that are owned
by folks who voluntarily want them acquired, we
should put a little bit of a break on this, allow
our planning process to move forward and find out
what the real impact to those properties is.
Because after our planning processes go through
and we codify some of these things, the value of
the property might be different.
The intended use of those properties might be
different, and I think it's a strong enough case
and argument to slow down the Florida department
of transportation's acquisition policies and
plans, to wait until all of these things are done.
You know, the interstate expansion is not going to
be a -- a teaspoonful of dirt is not going to be
churned for a number of years.
I want to pull back on that acquisition, the
aggressive acquisition policy that they are
following through now, and wait until all of these
other questions are settled.
10:38:28 >>HARRY COHEN:
It's not the practice of Council
members to ask other Council members questions.
However, it's my understanding that the issue you
just raised is the only thing that the MPO is
actually voting on on June 22nd.
That's the only piece of the tip that is locked in
stone for the next year, regarding this project.
10:38:56 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
Transportation staff isn't
here.
If the TIF is approved.
10:39:03 >>HARRY COHEN:
Ms. Duncan is here.
I want clarity.
10:39:08 >> Good morning, board members.
Jean Duncan transportation stormwater services.
You're correct, Mr. Cohen.
That is the only piece that is being voted on at
the June public hearing at the MPO board meeting.
The acquisition, the approval to go forward with
the acquisition of the -- I don't have the exact
number, 24 million -- yes, thank you.
10:39:33 >> [not speaking into a microphone]
10:39:35 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Thank you.
And I have a question for Mr. Territo.
Do we not have the -- the CRA has the power to get
an updated plan and spend its own CRA dollars to
hire a private consultant to do it in a timely
way?
10:39:48 >>SAL TERRITO:
You have the authority to hire
private consultants if you can find the money out
of your budget to do that.
And the money that you're using for that purpose
has to come out of the area CRA -- CRA area from
which the work to be done.
Can't use downtown money for West Tampa and so
forth.
But it is within your jurisdiction to spend your
money as you see fit.
10:40:10 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
So we're looking at Ybor, the
heights what else?
Who else is there?
Downtown.
So we have three.
I just wanted to bring that up so that we can
maybe consider that.
I leave it up to my colleagues.
10:40:48 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
Coincidentally have the budget
numbers here.
In brief, from the CRA.
The expansion of the Ybor historic district is
that Ybor one or Ybor two?
10:41:00 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Ybor one.
10:41:01 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
Ybor one.
10:41:03 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Two would be east of 22nd.
10:41:06 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
Ybor one, ending fund balance
461,000. Tampa Heights riverfront CRA ending fund
balance is 258,000.
Mr. Territo, would we -- in downtown it's a
million four.
More or less.
Would we need to have the CRA community advisory
boards of those three areas ask us to reallocate
the funds?
Or do we make a request of them?
They are the ones who decide how, in some cases,
money is spent.
10:41:49 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
They are a voluntary group.
We decide how at the end of the day --
10:41:54 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
I don't want to take money that
they don't expect.
10:41:58 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
At the end of the day, it is a
decision of this board.
10:42:01 >>SAL TERRITO:
Normally what you do, you ask them
to consider the issue, review it, and then come
back to you with a recommendation.
It is your final decision.
Because what you'll be doing is moving money out
of other projects or other areas that might want
to be funded by those groups, but ultimately it's
your decision.
10:42:18 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
I would ask, then, by motion
that we have the managers of those three CRA funds
to come to us with a report or with -- yeah, with
a report on which projects could possibly be
impacted should we decide to allocate some funds
to hiring our own consultant to take a look at the
issue.
10:42:46 >>SAL TERRITO:
Put the three areas on the record.
10:42:49 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
Sure.
It would be Ybor one.
Tampa Heights.
And downtown.
CRAs.
So I would ask the managers of those three to come
forward with what their projects are and which
would be potentially impacted by reallocating some
funds.
10:43:08 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Ms. Montelione, that's excellent.
However, would it be helpful -- we don't know the
ount we're asking for.
You just want to know where they would be able
to --
10:43:21 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
What projects they have
allocated now, and that would tell us how much in
the fund balance is left for us to potentially
hire someone.
We need to know how much is already allocated out
of those fund balances.
10:43:35 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Council member Montelione has a
motion.
Seconded by Councilman Cohen.
A date.
10:43:43 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
That shouldn't be very
difficult, so I would say in May at our --
May 12th at 9 a.m. under staff reports at the
CRA meeting.
10:43:54 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
We have a motion by Councilwoman
Montelione.
Seconded by Council member Cohen.
All in favor?
Opposed?
Passes unanimously.
Thank you very much.
10:44:02 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
Thank you for the idea, Madam
Chair.
10:44:07 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
You're welcome.
Thank you.
We're all welcome.
[ LAUGHTER ]
We are now moving on to our next presentation,
presentation, jean Duncan, director of
transportation and stormwater services to report
on four issues on go Hillsborough pertaining to
the City of Tampa and the CRA districts.
Thank you.
10:44:39 >> Good morning, CRA board members.
Jean Duncan, transportation and stormwater
services.
I've got a little handout coming along to you.
It's similar information that I presented a few
weeks ago, but I would be glad to go through that
again.
Basically, I'm here to answer a few questions and
provide some information about the two rail
projects that are in our go Hillsborough plan.
I'll place some of these items on the ELMO and
I'll be brief.
A very quick recap on the go Hillsborough planning
process.
We had a grouping of folks starting back in May of
2013, Hart staff, the two cities of Plant City and
Temple Terrace as well as the City of Tampa and
Hillsborough County, started a series of meetings
under the direction of the newly formed policy
leadership group, which is our three mayors and
our seven county commissioners and our Hart chair.
And worked together on developing a project list
and took that out for public comments, and that
resulted in a draft mobility plan proposing a half
percent sales tax as a strategy to fund that plan.
The plan was then chaired again through another
series of public engagement meetings in two
different phases.
First phase having 36 workshops.
The second phase 54 workshops of which in that
phase, 22 meetings were in the City of Tampa.
That resulted in the recommended plan at the PLG I
believe back in November of 2015, voted to move
forward for consideration to be put on the ballot
for our Hillsborough County residents to weigh in
on whether to support a sales tax increase for
this plan.
10:46:47 >>SAL TERRITO:
I apologize for breaking in.
Normally after each of the items, you want to have
public comment or do you want to have it at the
end?
10:46:55 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
It's at the end.
Our agenda has it at the end.
Thank you.
10:47:00 >> Just some quick information about the two rail
projects that are in this plan, the first one is a
proposed rail project that's based on information
from the Hillsborough County MPO's 2040 long-range
plan, long-range transportation plan as well as
another study that they did called the transit
assets and opportunity study.
We took information from those two plans,
identified the cost estimate of about 480 million.
And we've identified that project in our plan
looking at the go Hillsborough potential sales tax
increase as well as financing, D.O.T. grants,
federal transit administration grants, possible
P-3 funding.
Alignment and technology has not been decided yet
for that study.
Just to reiterate that on this slide, I call it
rail.
You'll also hear the term "fixed guideway."
You'll also hear the term "premium transit."
There's a lot of terminology out there.
I just wanted to point that out.
Fixed guideway transit or rail system has not been
determined in terms of the alignment or the
technology.
There is a process that we have to go through
particularly if we're going to get federal
funding, that will allow us to identify and make
those decisions.
As Ms. Capin mentioned a little bit earlier, we do
have that premium transit study.
Again, fixed guideway rail, all the terminologies
fit under that umbrella.
That premium transit study is underway in terms of
the D.O.T. has provided a million dollars to get
it started.
There is a scope development between D.O.T. and
Hart staff.
We're looking at starting that in the fall.
You might have gotten a specific time frame from
D.O.T. I didn't quite catch if they provided that
to you or not.
Fall is the best information we have for it to get
underway with a consultant on board.
That will be about an 18- to 24-month process.
This particular study will look beyond the City of
Tampa.
It will look into Pasco and Pinellas Counties to
also explore the CSX rail tracks that have been
offered up for sale.
But that will be the beginnings of planning for
our system.
We will follow this study up with what we would
call an alternative analysis study to then nail
down more specifically the alignments and the
technology that we're going to be utilizing.
Our second project --
10:49:38 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Excuse me, Ms. Duncan.
10:49:41 >>MIKE SUAREZ:
Quick question, in terms of the
alternatives analysis, is it possible that the
premium transit study could be essentially the
alternatives analysis or does another study have
to be done in order to make it the alternatives
analysis?
I mean, you know, because sometimes I think we get
well too confused about what we're going to be
doing next when we have a study available to us
and whether or not that can be converted into an
alternatives analysis.
10:50:06 >> Right.
It may be through the premium transit study that
downtown Tampa portion could go off on its own
course with that prior alternative analysis that
you're speaking of as background information
that's already been done.
So basically, we're springboarding ahead a little
bit because we do have the prior information.
10:50:27 >>MIKE SUAREZ:
So if we wanted to go forward to
the MPO, we could say, listen, we don't want to do
the entire premium granted study.
We want to do just this part of it within the
Central Business District, extension of the
streetcar, we can do that fairly easily, correct?
10:50:40 >> Well, currently, the way it's being scoped out
is the premium transit study is going to include
looking at the downtown portion from downtown to
Westshore.
10:50:52 >>MIKE SUAREZ:
That's just a portion.
You mentioned CSX is a part and some other things.
My point is if for some reason we don't go forward
with the CSX or other things that are part of the
premium transit study, we can use that as a basis
for the next part of it as an alternatives
analysis for specifically the extension of the
streetcar.
10:51:10 >> Absolutely, yes. I didn't quite understand
that point.
Yes, that's exactly what we expect to do,
actually, as a result of this.
To what extent we can overlap that with the
premium transit, we'll certainly be looking to
accelerate as much as we can and use the current
information that we have.
10:51:29 >>MIKE SUAREZ:
Thanks, Ms. Duncan.
10:51:31 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Thank you, Councilman Suarez.
We have a question from Councilman Cohen.
10:51:34 >>HARRY COHEN:
Ms. Duncan, I don't want to put you
on the spot in asking this, because this is a
little outside what you're here for, but we spent
all morning talking about TBX.
Now you're telling us welcome news.
Of course, many of us have been briefed on it,
that this premium transit study is going to be
underway, and it's going to include the Central
Business District of the city.
How can we possibly make a decision about
allocating money to acquire right-of-way?
If concurrent to that decision we're doing a study
that covers the exact same area of the city.
It seems like these two things, I understand they
are on totally separate tracks, but when you
consider that they are on totally separate tracks
and then go Hillsborough is on a third totally
separate track, does the time line that we're
making these decisions make sense?
10:52:35 >> So, the way I would explain it is, they are
very integrated with each other.
The TBX project is a spine for many of the go
Hillsborough projects, particularly on the
roadside.
The TBX project has reserved a 44-foot corridor
envelope throughout the interstate section
certainly within the City of Tampa and across the
Howard Frankland bridge.
And this premium transit study, again, the scope
is still in development.
But the level that we explore, that interstate
envelope versus a local street in terms of where
that rail system will go, the scope being
developed right now with Hart staff and D.O.T.
staff will lay out to what level of detail we go
into for that.
10:53:25 >>HARRY COHEN:
I want to try to simplify it for
myself and for everyone what it is you're saying.
I guess you're saying that you're going to
evaluate the different alternatives.
On one hand, TBX, it goes forward.
On the other hand, if you're using local streets
is what you're considering.
10:53:46 >> Well, I guess I would say TBX is additional
travel lanes within that limited access
right-of-way that D.O.T. has.
The rail envelope is reserved for whatever transit
rail opportunity that is developed.
So TBX or no TBX, that envelope is still there.
And that's what the premium transit study is going
to be focusing on.
Again, I'm not part of the scope development.
I don't know to what level of detail they are
going to explore that in the alternative analysis
that Councilman Suarez mentioned.
Those details were drilled down very closely.
This is a broader look at rail in a much larger
area.
So as Mr. Suarez was saying, this may be
information we take and then go on our own path of
just within the City of Tampa from downtown to
TIA, make sure that we're doing our project within
the bigger picture of a regional system, but drill
down into those details that you're talking about.
But we don't see go Hillsborough, TBX, or this
being in contrast with each other.
Rather, they are working together in terms of the
planning decisions that are being made.
10:55:08 >> Anyone else have questions for Ms. Duncan?
No.
All right, Ms. Duncan, thank you very much for
your report.
10:55:14 >> Thank you.
10:55:18 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
That concludes our staff
reports.
I see we lost a lot of our members of the
chambers.
They had to get back to work, I'm sure.
We are now at public comments.
Anyone wishing to address the CRA board, please
stand up, come to the microphone and remember to
state your name for the record.
10:55:46 >> Good morning, Kimberly Overman, 4610 North
Central Avenue.
I'm imploring you to recognize that the community
is very upset about the process of having TBX go
through our communities.
I'm encouraged from what I've heard today, it
sounds as though Council is very empathetic to
what's going on in the community.
This business area has actually fought very hard
to recover during this time period, and my biggest
concern is, if we are, in fact, voting on
allocating -- what was the dollar amount?
10:56:28 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
24.6.
10:56:30 >> 24.6.
10:56:31 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
For acquisition.
10:56:32 >> For acquisition of properties that eliminates
property tax from ever being collected on that
property, again.
It also eliminates any of the sales taxes that
might be generated from the businesses that are on
those properties.
And that doesn't count the properties that
F.D.O.T. has already purchased over the years when
we were talking about having high-speed rail land
in the middle of the city, of which those
properties lay vacant, boarded up and harming the
economic development of these communities that
have fought so hard.
So, please, please, make sure that the CRA is very
much considered in the amount of tax revenues and
tax credits that the community will lose as a
consequence of considering TBX as part of our
overall economic plan.
Using transit is a way of actually solving some of
our needs.
Having buses and helping our businesses grow will
solve a lot of our needs.
But destroying the community fabric in order to do
that shall not be done again, in my opinion, if we
are good stewards of what we're supposed to be
doing for our community.
What happened to Central Avenue businesses for the
large population of African-American communities
that were a strong economic engine for the City of
Tampa, to have it destroyed when the interstate
went through the first time and to not honor what
happened there.
We just had a park that just got opened up to
celebrate what was lost and trying to regain it
and spent a lot of money making that happen.
We need to not forget.
That's very important to not only the current
residents here, but the business owners that are
developing and risking their resources to make
this happen.
Thank you.
10:58:20 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Thank you.
Next.
10:58:22 >> Hi.
Kevin Thurman, 111 North 12th Street, Tampa,
Florida.
I first wanted to say I'm really glad that the CRA
is taking a position.
TBX affects the majority of CRA districts,
including the downtown, one that I was on the CRA
advisory board on before and the Channelside one
that I live in now.
I think it's really important to people that the
F.D.O.T. understands that this body exists to make
sure that the blight that created a redevelopment,
is something that shouldn't be continued and not
only not continued but our taxpayer dollars
shouldn't be to create more of it.
And it is your job, and I am glad you are doing it
today, to protect these areas, protect your
millions and millions of dollars of investments
that you've put into these areas so they can
continue to grow.
I want people to understand that part of that
investment is the key.
But I did want to take a second that I have to
change the second half of my thing because of
something jean Duncan said that I want to make
very, very clear.
That is not a single dollar of the go Hillsborough
plan that people are putting forward is dependent
on anything to do with TBX.
I hope we can kill TBX and don't have to worry
about a single bit of that money.
I don't understand why she would say that.
I hope the city corrects that issue.
I hope you guys each ask the city to clarify why
they would even possibly say that.
Now, the study for the overall CSX tracks
obviously has something to do when we're talking
about investing 52% of our sales tax into
alternatives for driving.
When we're looking at what we're going to do here,
the choice about what we face on TBX is exactly
what we see.
No matter whether you love every single bit and I
would like to see a lot more transit in go
Hillsborough as everybody knows.
But here's the thing about it, as a community, no
matter what compromise we reach as residents, the
City of Tampa is spending the vast majority of its
money on complete streets and on transit.
And we're talking about over a 30-year time
period, over 70 some odd percent.
That is the statement that no matter whether you
think it should go further, we're making very
clear, F.D.O.T. is a small fraction of the amount
of money that they spend in our community on
anything like those alternatives.
And that is the key thing that we need to
understand.
That is why these two things are so completely
different and why I have always opposed TBX, and I
happy that you guys are standing up and doing
what you're doing here today, but we'll always
also argue that we need more transit funding so
we're not looking at bus routes that run every
hour.
We're looking at bus routes that run every 15
minutes so we're investing in rail like the
conversation we're talking about in the studies
that we're doing, and so that we have the money to
take advantage of opportunities.
If we can beat F.D.O.T. back from TBX, then we
have billions of dollars, they said needs billions
in the community.
You should absolutely delay everything until that
transit study is done on June 22nd.
Shouldn't buy another piece of property until they
know how they will be spending all of the billions
of dollars in this community.
11:01:27 >> Good morning.
Neil Cosentino, 708 South Davis Boulevard.
I want to share with you, there's going to be a
global mobility think tank formed.
And the global will deal with air, land, and sea
transportation.
One of the reasons for doing this is we have MPO,
TBARTA, we have Tampa Bay regional planning
Council, and we have all these entities out there
and we still don't have a consolidated bus system.
Everybody is talking rail.
We have ten bus systems.
We haven't even consolidated them yet.
Now, how can that be?
Well, with a think tank, we'll come back and
explain why they didn't happen and why it should
happen.
There is another very, very important issue that
deals with eminent domain of property.
$1 billion, Drew Park was purchased.
All that property, and taken off the tax rolls.
If private enterprise bought all that property, it
would have stayed on the tax rolls.
But because the airport authority bought it, it
came off the tax rolls.
So that tax has to be made up by us.
Okay.
Now we look at Gandy Boulevard.
Eventually they are going to eminent domain
property on the north side and the south side of
Gandy Boulevard when they put in the second
bridge.
When that property is taken off the tax rolls,
guess who has to make up for the taxes?
The people of Tampa.
Now, you would say the argument is, we're going to
put in this connector because everybody in Tampa
Bay is going to benefit -- Pinellas and so
forth -- but who pays for it?
Every year.
The taxpayers of Tampa pay for it.
When they eminent domain property, if they do on
that TBX and all that property is taken off the
tax rolls, you could say, well, everyone is going
to benefit from it, but who pays for it?
The City of Tampa taxpayers pay for it.
So this is an important issue when you look at,
and it's every year.
It's not just one time.
It's every year we have to make up for the taxes
that are lost.
So this would be an issue we'll bring back.
We'll bring back the issue of consolidating our
bus systems before we even think about a rail
system.
Thank you very much.
11:04:19 >> Good morning, Council.
My name is Rick Fernandez.
2906 North Elmore Avenue, Tampa, Florida.
That's in Tampa Heights.
I'm the president of the Tampa Heights Civic
Association.
First of all, thank you all so much for the amount
of time that you've devoted to this issue today.
It was great sitting in the audience and hearing a
lot of the things that we've been saying and
thinking now for the better part of a year coming
back to us from the dais.
It's very heartwarming and frankly emotional for
me.
So thank you for that.
I was I guess to some degree responsible for at
least one item on the agenda regarding congestion
pricing.
I penned an article that appeared in 83-degree on
March 1st in which I raised the issue of
congestion pricing.
F.D.O.T. was asked to come here and talk about
that today.
I didn't hear a lot about congestion pricing in
mike's presentation, not even the definition of
it.
So I thought I would offer that to you.
And to let you understand why it is that I got on
that track to begin with.
Because every time I showed up for an F.D.O.T.
presentation, regardless of the venue, the sales
pitch has always been that TBX and express toll
lanes are a choice.
This is the sales pitch.
This is the marketing piece behind the express,
the Tampa Bay express concept.
And for the life of me, I was having a hard time
finding much in the way of choice related to TBX.
It seemed that this was something being crammed
down our throats, not a choice issue at all.
So I rooted into what the economic principle was
behind the express toll lane concept which led me
to the Federal Highway Administration definition.
Congestion pricing sometimes called value pricing
is a way of harnessing the power of the market to
reduce the waste associated with traffic
congestion.
Congestion pricing works by shifting some less
critical and more discretionary rush hour highway
travel to other transportation modes or to off
peak periods, taking advantage of the fact that
the majority of rush hour drivers on a typical
urban highway are not commuters.
By removing a fraction, even as small as 5% of the
vehicles from a congested highway, pricing enables
the system to flow much more efficiently, allowing
more cars to move through the same physical space.
Now, as I read that, I was not reading choice.
What I was reading was behavior management.
What I was reading was F.D.O.T. intends to nudge
people off the interstate by raising the price of
using the interstate system so high, either in
terms of time or money, that people will simply
opt out of the system.
So the next time you have a representative from
D.O.T. stand before you and talk to you about
highways, please remember that economic
underpinning, and call them on it, because this
isn't about choice.
It's about nudging us away.
And if you want to take us off the interstate
system, there are better ways to do that.
They are called transit options, and we will go
voluntarily, I promise you.
I think I'm out.
Thank you very much for your time.
11:07:29 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Thank you.
Next.
11:07:36 >> I'm Ed Tillou, Sulphur Springs.
Okay.
Talk to item 4 a little bit, I changed over from
being a motorist to using public transportation,
which brings to mind this riddle, why do you hit
yourself with a hammer?
Well, the answer to that riddle is because it
feels so good when you stop.
And that's the way I feel about the automobile
versus public transportation.
Public transportation is so much better.
With respect to whether high occupancy vehicle
lanes can be enforced, Virginia seems to do it
pretty well on the roads that go in from Virginia
into D.C., and people have these things.
They have blowup dolls.
They get them at the porn shops.
[ LAUGHTER ]
They blow them up and put them on the seat.
They get away with that a few times, but not
indefinitely.
Just a few times.
Well, anyway, if Virginia can do it, why is there
all this problem down here?
Anyway, with respect to item 11, in that handout,
I have a little bus schedule 96.
It's these little trolley-looking things.
The thing is, that is so great, it can save so
much downtown walking, which isn't a pedestrian
feel, wonderful pedestrian feel, we're told.
It's actually pretty bad.
It's tiring.
There's even urban sprawl downtown.
And the thing is that 96 bus, a little trolley,
it's good but it only runs a little bit of the
time.
Now, you need two of them.
You need one that runs all the time and maybe, you
know, it would be like half hour service, but then
the other one, every 15 minutes and the reason you
only have that one certain times is because it
started to serve as a commuter bus from Harbour
Island.
So when they were going to discontinue, all the
Harbour Island people went ballistic.
Anyway, that's that.
Anyway, the 96.
And then the thing a lot of people mentioned over
and over again is jitneys, which are associated
really with New Orleans, I think.
And there's someone here who is a totally electric
vehicle fan.
There isn't really place for totally electric
vehicles because they are sort of small and
inefficient.
But the thing of it is, these gems, you see the
parking department, have well, they only have two
seats.
But like two-seat benches, and they could serve as
jitneys to people around town.
That was tried in St. Petersburg.
I don't know whatever happened to it.
It was forbidden.
So this is in the seat of the county, the county
Transportation Committee has got to get on that.
Okay.
Go Hillsborough.
I mentioned in one of my things in the handout
about Brinckerhoff.
The mid 1600s, one of my ancestors complained
about them.
11:10:56 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Thank you.
You've got homework, guys.
Thank you.
11:11:03 >> Hi.
Dana Lazareth.
I'll be moving to Tampa this summer, but I was
born and raised in St. Pete.
I just got accepted to the USF masters urban and
regional planning program, and I'm really excited.
I'm sure I'll see you guys a lot more.
Go bulls.
I'm sad that the F.D.O.T. people left.
Are there any left here in the room?
Okay.
Awesome.
Well, I just wanted to thank them for that
presentation.
It was very manipulative and informative.
I wanted to ask, I don't know what research their
planners are looking at, but all of the
information is out there about where urban
planning is going, about what is important in
revitalizing cities.
And it's public transit.
It's pretty much everything opposite of what the
TBX is.
And I don't know -- I wrote this down because I'm
super tired.
I'll just read it.
I don't know in what modern day dystopian society
does it make sense to destroy homes, historic
landmarks and communities for a highway that only
certain people can and will use.
A restricted road, we no longer live in the
industrial revolution.
We live in the age of climate change and
pollution.
Little rhyme for you.
Anyways, the TBX is most backward piece of
planning that I've ever seen.
The nation recognizes it.
Florida is sort of a laughingstock right now
because it's even been proposed.
I just came from Portland, Oregon.
I don't know how many of you guys have been there,
but they are amazing.
You should visit and ride the max.
Ride their light rail.
It's wonderful and beautiful.
What we need to be doing right now is following
examples like Portland.
We need to be downsizing, infilling, retrofitting,
because this crazy expansion of growth is not
going to work.
Development has always been engineering and
politicians and growth and money, and it needs to
be sustainable community controlled.
The difference between planning and engineering is
that engineering says, can we do it while planning
says, should we do it?
Planning people need to remember that there's
people, there is a person at the end of this
legislation.
Honestly, you guys seem pretty on our side, and
that's so awesome.
There's thousands of signatures on petitions right
now.
There's a go-go campaign that raised over a
thousand dollars to get materials to campaign
against this.
I mean, I'm pretty sure all the information is out
there.
You guys seem to be on the right side of the fence
on this, and I'm so thankful for that.
So thankful.
Thank you so much.
But yeah, if D.O.T. needs to do more research or
something, I don't quite understand.
Thank you so much.
11:14:09 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Thank you for your statements.
Us guys appreciate it.
11:14:20 >> Good morning.
My name is Chris Cory.
I'm here as a homeowner and a builder.
I'm with the Councilman Reddick's district.
So he's heard a lot of what I'm going to tell you.
This is a house I built in 2010 along the I-4
corridor, and, obviously, some activities have
happened since.
They tried to buy the house for the high-speed
rail.
They certainly weren't successful -- the F.D.O.T.
They did a beat-down for about a year.
I lost about $40,000 on it.
I've recovered from that.
That's all right.
What everybody has been saying about how the
D.O.T. will come and decimate an area certainly is
true.
I ask you drive over to 12th Avenue.
International and historic landmark district.
Look at that street.
It's a ghost street.
I was paying $3800 taxes on that property, as
people have mentioned.
No more revenue from 2010 to 2014.
It's abandoned now.
The code enforcement folks park on the grass.
That's what they are using the property for.
I have subsequently taken this house, as I was the
last bidder on the house, and moved it to 11th
Avenue, 600 feet away.
Cost me about 92,000 just to move it.
Then there was land costs, but it's sitting very
prominently in that national historic land
district.
It will represent us all well.
Eventually I will sell it.
Probably lose a little bit of money on that.
You guys, please understand the abuse that is
coming out of F.D.O.T.
They buy in excess way ahead of time, and it's
time we all put a stop to it.
It's ridiculous.
I've got other issues, but I don't want to discuss
it now.
I'll probably try to meet with individuals.
11:16:04 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
I was going to ask if you can
provide all of us these photographs and a little
bit of history of what you just said maybe written
out so you can provide a little more detail.
I would love to have that in order for that to be
brought up at the MPO.
11:16:25 >> Right.
I'll tell you, just for me, there was a situation,
inverse taking where they beat down a nice
prominent piece of property like this, but what
they did, the D.O.T. actually were buying houses
including the Lopez house along 12th Avenue,
they were posting asbestos warning signs, boarding
it up, and there was no asbestos in the house.
We looked like a toxic waste dump for over a year
over there.
They beat you down little by little.
And it's time to stop.
11:16:51 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
I would love to have more
detailed information.
Thank you very much.
11:16:56 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Thank you.
Next.
11:17:04 >> Good morning, CRA board members.
Donna Stark, president South Seminole Heights
Civic Association.
I came this morning because I was very interested
in listening to F.D.O.T.'s update of this board as
well as hearing jean Duncan's presentation in
regards to the upcoming go Hillsborough rail study
analysis.
I think what is still so most concerning to me is
that we have yet to have a real conversation about
what effective transportation looks like.
One thing I've heard over and over at the
charrette, F.D.O.T.'s mission and goal is to
provide effective -- to effectively move people
and goods across this region.
And I fail to see how we're having this
conversation if we're missing the data about what
it looks like to have a premium transit study.
What does it look like if we have the CSX rail?
What does it look like if we adopt another fixed
guideway, whether it's some sort of tram, some
sort of light rail, expanding the streetcar.
What do all these things do and how do they look
when combined?
How can we ask our residents and our tax base to
say, yes, you know, go for this or yes, be in
support of TBX if we don't have all the
information about what makes the most difference,
what makes the real return on investment.
Based on the information that we have, you know,
looking at it again from my neighborhood
perspective in south Seminole Heights, this is not
a good plan for us.
It doesn't help our community grow.
It doesn't reflect our values, and I think one
thing I found attending these charrettes is that
all of my surrounding neighborhoods, both in
Seminole Heights to Tampa Heights through Ybor to
downtown, all have the same vision.
We want to be interconnected with each other.
We want to have an easier commute.
You know, we really don't want to see the
commuters coming into downtown to work here, sit
there.
We understand it's pretty soul-sucking to sit in
traffic.
Believe me.
Most of us have lived outside of the city at one
point or another.
But we want a solution that actually works.
The information that F.D.O.T. has provided to date
has shown that it is not a real solution.
So what I'm asking as a representative for my
neighborhood is that we do not put another dime
toward funding any sort of acquisition and moving
TBX forward until we identify what a true plan is
for this region, and we move forward with that
with real solid information that comes from
today's date, not from 30 years ago.
Thank you for your time this morning.
11:19:30 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Thank you.
Anyone else in the audience who would like to
speak?
11:19:49 >> Thank you all of you.
I'm very pleased to hear what you have all been
saying.
My name is Mauricio Rosas.
118 West Mohawk Avenue.
Councilman Reddick, I take that very much to
heart.
I think that the human element is something that's
missing.
We were asked to look at what would the map look
like.
This is the map from F.D.O.T.
If you pop it up there.
You can see right there, that's where the
community center is located.
Talk about the impacts, we can just see exactly
what's going to go through there.
not a good thing.
They said we had -- again, I have another slide.
They said 140 residents were going to be impacted.
How many people lived in Presbyterian Village?
How many people live in Mobley Park?
How many people live in North Boulevard Park?
I think it's more than 140, at least maybe 142.
F.D.O.T. needs to be held accountable.
Everyone is talking about the trolley.
I love the trolley.
When we come downtown on Thursdays or Friday, we
get on the trolley and have a good time.
This is on a weekend.
That trolley is full.
People had their luggage going to the airport on
the trolley.
I do have a video.
Since I didn't present before, you would have
heard the comments.
I was just completely -- I was elated.
I was absolutely elated.
Now, the charrette summary, one of the things that
came out is on the slide here, where
unequivocally, the community is saying absolutely
no, we do not want TBX.
There is no mitigation.
When the vote comes up at the MPO on June 22nd,
there is a whole line of legislative funding, we
have to -- and I ask you, to vote no against that
funding, because the moment we vote yes, well,
this funding is just limited to FY '17, well, I'm
getting close.
I'm inviting you all to our March on the 23rd,
Mr. Maniscalco has said in the past he was there.
You need to see the human element.
We really would like to you come out to the
April 23rd, Saturday march.
I appreciate very much.
Thank you.
I hope that your vote here will carry over to the
MPO as well.
Thank you.
11:22:50 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Thank you.
Anyone else in the audience wish to speak?
Thank you, ma'am.
11:22:56 >> Donna Davis.
2314 East 10th Avenue in Ybor City.
I just have one thing to say.
I just want to thank you all for being in sync
with the will of the people on this and the input
that I'm getting from the community that I serve.
11:23:11 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Thank you.
Anyone else wish to speak from the audience?
We continue with our agenda.
11:23:32 >>BOB McDONAUGH:
Item number 6 is the approval of
the funding for the 12th Street pumping station
that we had talked about before.
11:23:42 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Okay.
We need --
11:23:44 >> So moved.
11:23:45 >> Second.
11:23:45 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
A motion by Council member
Miranda.
Second by Councilman Maniscalco.
All in favor?
Opposed?
Passed.
11:23:55 >>BOB McDONAUGH:
Number 7 is the approval for a
new member of the CAC for Tampa Heights.
11:24:01 >> I move that approval of Mr. Henry.
11:24:04 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Moved by Councilman Suarez.
Second by Councilman Cohen.
All in favor?
Opposed?
Passes unanimously.
Thank you.
11:24:16 >>BOB McDONAUGH:
Item number 8 is to please
receive and file the quarterly update of the
financing.
11:24:21 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Moved by Councilman Cohen.
Second by Councilman Miranda.
All in favor?
Opposed?
Passes.
Thank you.
11:24:29 >>BOB McDONAUGH:
Number 9, we are asking for a
letter of support for a TIGER grant application
for the Tampa Port Authority.
This is in conjunction to the Channel District,
and we will be cooperating and working with them
for that overall plan that they introduce the
board to.
11:24:45 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Is that a resolution or letter of
support?
11:24:47 >>BOB McDONAUGH:
A resolution.
11:24:52 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Moved by Councilman Miranda.
Second by Councilman Cohen.
All in favor?
Opposed?
Passes.
Thank you.
11:25:01 >>BOB McDONAUGH:
Item number 10 is the acceptance
of refunding from Hillsborough County for monies
that we had previously spent for Curtis Hixon
Park.
They were, again, if you recall, the downtown CRA
had expired.
We had an extension but no longer with the
participation by Hillsborough County.
They agreed that they were still obligated to pay
their pro rata share of the CRA funds for the
park, and that's what that --
11:25:31 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Moved by Councilman Miranda.
Second by Councilman Maniscalco.
All in favor?
Opposed?
Passes.
Thank you.
11:25:39 >>BOB McDONAUGH:
Item number 11 is the downtown
shuttle program, downtown Channelside.
And if you would like, Rob Rosner is here and he's
prepared to give a presentation.
I know all had the briefing.
It's a significant amount of money, but it's also
a step forward for our urban areas.
11:26:05 >> Good morning.
I wanted to say thank you for taking and
considering this.
This is covering two CRAs.
It will be covering downtown and Channel District.
This process started about a year ago.
I've only been here about seven or eight months.
In getting involved with that, I was able to
really dive into what the issues were and what the
things that were becoming an issue.
We made it a focus of our CAC meetings to find out
what those issues were.
The desire was strong, but the first ask was a
50-50 match.
And it didn't seem to match that well, and
downtown was very supportive of it and Channel
District was like, well, why should we pay as much
because we are a lot smaller area.
We don't have as many businesses but we have more
residents.
In hearing what those concerns were, we went
through a process of three major meetings where
the Downtown Partnership had brought a proposal of
what they wanted to do, and then heard the
reactions from Channel District and downtown of
what those were.
And they were able to respond to those.
One of those was the logistics of handling running
a shuttle program. I'm going to give you a real
quick update of what the shuttle looks like.
It is a six seater.
The idea is that because the Hillsborough County
is under PPC in order to get this program going,
it usually runs on tips or some other kind of
thing.
Well, because PTC regulates this and they don't
have it there, we can run it as a free program,
and that's what this funding is to cover that as a
free program.
Hopefully in a year or so when the legislation
changes, if it does change, we have most of the
way through --
11:27:58 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Excuse me.
It should stay free.
It should stay free.
And that funding needs to be -- it is very
important for our downtown and Channelside to be
able to move people.
We're not there yet, but I visited many cities
where the transportation within downtown is free,
and it is very instrumental in the progress of
those cities.
That's my statement.
Sorry.
11:28:37 >> Just a clarification.
He was not talking about actually charging
passengers to ride.
It was the selling of advertising and the
acceptance of tips, which changes how it's viewed.
The idea was at some point if they were allowed to
sell advertising, it would help underwrite a free
service.
11:28:56 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Thank you.
I remember now.
I apologize for that.
Thank you.
11:29:02 >> During that process, we were weighing this out
so that the issue is that bus doesn't always come
right when you need it and people shouldn't have
to deal with that last-mile issue.
The benefit coming from this is that people can,
instead of having to get in a car and go somewhere
else or try to use facilities in the area, this
shuttle program would be able to have you from
point to point around 20 minutes, the idea you
would be picked up within 10 minutes and be at
your next destination in another ten minutes.
What's different about this than fixed guideways
like they were talking about is this a
point-to-point on demand.
So if you wanted to leave right now, you could
pull up this new app that they would have for it,
call for the vehicle, and hopefully within ten
minutes you would be downstairs getting in one of
these gems and off to your next destination.
With that in mind, I wanted to let you know that
part of issue was, does everybody support this?
So we asked the partnership to perform a survey,
and they did a survey, and we got a little over
1100 responses.
I've shared those responses with you.
I believe they are online and the partnership has
that as well.
But they were overwhelmingly positive.
Very few said they weren't interested in it.
And then we also asked questions about where would
you use it and what kind of things would you use
it for?
Got some really good answers for doing that.
This would be supportive, and one of the things we
talked about for balancing that 50-50 match was to
do an 80-20 match based on total area.
Downtown has around 880 acres.
Channel District has around 220 acres so that made
a more reasonable 80/20 match of trying to balance
out because downtown does have a fair amount more
businesses and probably a lot more trips.
The partnership, one of the things we asked them
to do is to make sure it's a little more
sustainable by finding private sponsorships.
So they have gotten a little over $50,000 in
commitments from the different hotels that want to
utilize this, and they are kicking in 60,000 of
their own.
In your packet, you'll see the dollars there were
there, but we're hoping to get support.
11:31:32 >> I have a substitution.
11:31:33 >>SAL TERRITO:
I put the wrong funding source on
there.
Should be CRA.
11:31:39 >> Not the city.
11:31:39 >>SAL TERRITO:
Amended resolution.
11:31:44 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
We have a motion and a question.
11:31:45 >>CHARLIE MIRANDA:
I want to make clear in my
mind, in case there is an accident, that the CRA,
this CRA, the city part of CRA is not involved in
it.
This is done by you guys.
11:31:57 >> We're going to be contracting with the
partnership and supporting them as a funding
mechanism.
They will be contracting with a company called the
downtowner, which you have information on that.
They are the ones that will be running it.
They carry insurance for their vehicles and then
the partnership carries their own insurance for
events and other things that they do.
We're covered in both areas.
We are primarily a funding source, not a carrier.
11:32:22 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Thank you.
We have a motion by Councilman Reddick.
Second by Councilman Maniscalco.
All in favor?
Opposed?
Passes unanimously.
Thank you very much.
11:32:38 >> That concludes the report for this month.
Any questions or concerns?
11:32:42 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Thank you.
11:32:43 >> Move to receive and file.
11:32:45 >> Second.
11:32:45 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Moved by Councilman Miranda.
Second by Councilwoman Montelione.
All in favor?
11:32:54 >>SAL TERRITO:
Coming back to the City Council,
three-party agreement.
CRA is funding.
City overseeing.
11:32:59 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Right.
Thank you.
Any information reports -- [microphone not on]
11:33:11 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
Thank you very much.
Some time ago, I made a motion for the
Tampa/Hillsborough homeless initiative to come and
give us a report.
They weren't ready yet.
They are now.
So I would like to motion for Antoinette tricklet
to appear before CRA on May 12th at 9 a.m. to
discuss the Tampa/Hillsborough homeless initiative
point in time homeless count.
11:33:33 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Thank you.
Motion by Ms. Montelione.
Second by Mr. Cohen.
All in favor?
Opposed?
Passes.
Thank you.
Anything else, Ms. Montelione.
11:33:41 >>LISA MONTELIONE:
No, ma'am.
Thank you.
11:33:42 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Councilman Maniscalco.
11:33:53 >>GUIDO MANISCALCO:
I'd like to make a motion that
we present a commendation to Urban E Recycling on
April 21st, 2016.
They will be at the Tampa Theater for what is
called -- okay.
I'll scratch it.
Anyway, on another note, I want to wish my father
a happy bird.
He turns 57 years old today.
Young man.
11:34:19 >> He's only two years older than I am.
His father is only two years older than I am.
11:34:25 >>GUIDO MANISCALCO:
Happy birthday.
I'm sure he's watching and enjoying our show.
11:34:29 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Happy birthday.
Councilman Cohen.
11:34:32 >>HARRY COHEN:
I don't have any new business.
I did notice that our evening meeting starts
tonight at 5.
Is that correct?
11:34:38 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
5:01.
Thank you for reminding us.
11:34:44 >>MIKE SUAREZ:
In that light, 5:00, we're going to
have a very short meeting because some things have
not been perfected but we need to do the meeting
and we'll be back at 6 for the regular meeting.
11:34:56 >>YVONNE CAPIN:
Councilman Miranda?
None.
I have none.
So we are adjourned.
Thank you.