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[Music]
you're live good afternoon everyone
thank you for joining us today for our
city council work session today's August
12th uh 2024 it's approximately 1 p.m.
uh if you all join me for if we could
stand for a moment of silence for our
men and women of the military and our
police and fire that protect our City
247 if you join us in the
pledge to the flag of the United States
of America and to the Republic for which
it stands one nation under God
indivisible with liberty and justice for
all
[Music]
all right so we'll start off with the
jobs of the week with Sarah
rainy good afternoon everyone my name is
Sarah Rainey I am the One-Stop
coordinator for the southwest region of
the New Mexico
workforce
and all right for jobs of the week we
have a utility rate analyst this is for
the city of Los cruus the position
starts at 58,000 and the posting closes
on August 19th we also have a Utility
Systems crew leader um for 2379 an hour
and the posting closes on the 19th as
well we have for wh Sand's Missile Range
an information technology specialist
that posting starts at 87,000 a year and
it closes on the
19th for doniana County we have a heavy
equipment operator the position starts
at 16 1 an hour and the posting closes
in
September for Kids Quest Academy we have
a contractual lead child care teacher
the position starts at $13 an hour and
closes on September 1st we also have an
accountant senior at NMSU for 53,000 a
year and the posting closes on the 5th
of
September I wanted to encourage you all
I know we've touched on it a couple of
times for the community at Hope events
that we do I know in light of recent and
things um some of the issues are job
Readiness I want to remind everybody
that we go to Community of Hope every
month we sit down with everyone we do
their resumés we do interview skills we
search for jobs we also have them come
back to the office and continue this
work so that there's continuous
intervention and help and reminders
about how they can get on their feet um
right now I reach out to council members
and encouraging local business
businesses to help us reach out to these
um employees these workers they need
jobs we need employers to step up and
come with us to these events and maybe
do some on-site hiring interviews and
whatnot when we can get with them if
they would reach out to me I can set
them up with this and we can make this
an even bigger event each month and more
inclusive with that we can be reached
over there at the Alam office um on our
web page employee nm.com and through all
of our social medias thank you
all thank you sir yes
sir next we have pets of the week with
Amy D
philx hello everyone I'm Amy De Felix
one of the rescue coordinators for the
Animal Services Center of the missia
valley pick and present the pets of the
week every week and we'll always start
off with the cat of the week who is Deli
this week her number is
77637 and she says I may be a bit
reserved at first but that's just
because I'm taking my time to get to
know you I'm independent so I'll give
you your space but don't get me wrong
I'll appreciate your gentle paths and
soft Whispers I love exploring my
surroundings on my own terms finding
cozy spots to curl up in I'm a quiet
companion perfect for those who value
Tranquility I'm not one to demand
constant attention but I'll always be
there a steady presence in your life and
then we also have a dog of the week who
is Jesse this week her number is
66337 and she says I'm always on the
Move whether it's chasing my tail or
playing Fetch with the shelter staff my
days are filled with toys treats and
lots of fun I love learning new tricks
especially when there's a tasty reward
involved my energy is contagious and I'm
known for bringing smiles to everyone's
faces but I do need some help riging in
my energy especially around other dogs
sometimes what I'm really looking for is
a patient and experience forever home
where I can share all of my love and
joy and then we have a couple of
adoption events this week um we will be
at PetSmart this Saturday the 17th we'll
be there from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
and then on Sunday the 18th we will have
some dogs available for adoption at mro
Coffee espresso um so we hope to see you
there on either location and then
General events going on we are
participating in the NBC um clear the
shelters Nationwide event it started on
um August 10th which was Saturday and
it'll go on until September 10th and so
to celebrate clear the shelters and to
help get all as much as many of our
loving um pets that need homes out um
all of our adoptions are going to be $50
the entire um
event and regarding any links we have
our general website ascmv org and then
we're all over our social media Facebook
Instagram and Tik Tok is where we'll
upload some highlights some events going
on and then YouTube and Spotify and
apple podcast is where we will upload
episodes of tales from the PO side which
is our podcast
that is all I have thank
you all right thank you
Amy next our our agenda items uh 3.1
annual update from Economic Development
partners and Elizabeth ters will
introduce all right good afternoon mayor
and city council my name is Elizabeth
teters uh every year we have our
Economic Development Partners given up
update to city council um we decided to
split it up into two different work
sessions this year so last month was um
farmers market and film Los crusis and
today we'll be doing the msia valley
economic development Alliance and
Downtown Los crusis partnership and with
that I'll start with Mr Davin
Lopez thank you Elizabeth mayor mayor PM
counselors thank you for having us here
today uh as El Elizabeth mentioned this
is our year-end update we give a couple
of meetings to for the year but this
really was to talk about the
opportunities and challenges we've seen
doing Economic Development here in Los
crus specifically over the last year and
how our metrics compare against the
contract that uh we signed with the with
the city I also have Brian Garcia he's
my VP of Business Development who's here
with me today so in case there some
questions that he needs to answer I have
him here for so thank you uh first um I
know you we're all aware of each other
but kind of I always like to give a
reintroduction uh mita's Mission we're
about growing the economic BAS based and
economic based opportunities for uh for
the entire region the New Mexico
borderplex region which is donana county
Los cruus and then all the communities
within the within the county as well um
I say this because we concentrate in one
area of Economic Development that's
primarily growing economic based
businesses and that's supporting
companies in terms of business
attraction or existing companies that
we're trying to make sure that once we
have them here we don't want to lose
them right we want to we want to keep
helping them find them resources and let
them grow um but it's it creates I think
a discussion of the unique partnership
we have with the city because although
we concentrate on these areas which are
high impact it allows the staff in the
city to be able to work on other areas
of economic development that are
important to the city as well uh we are
a full service 501c3 organization uh we
are given input by a board of directors
that's both private and public you the
city of Las cruus uh the mayor and the
city manager are both uh board members
but we also have a board members that
comprise donana County uh New Mexico
State University uh Las crus school
system donana Community College the
Chambers of Commerce and about uh 15
other private sector board members that
represent the interest of the private
sector for economic based growth uh what
that basically means is we have a large
amount of diverse input that goes
forward that that's advised to us as
staff in terms of our Economic
Development strategies and moving
forward
I also want to say that because we are a
membership organization we receive
dollars from the private sector to do
economic based Economic Development so
we're able to take the contract we have
with the city and leverage that into
more dollars more of a robust budget
that then we can move to the market and
compete a little bit more um effectively
against other uh communities and States
across the country so that being said
for example our contract with you to do
economic development services at
$250,000 but we leverage that into an
over $1 million budget for economic
development for the region and I'll talk
a little bit more about how how we spend
those dollars especially here in Las
cruus uh our services are we try to
attract industry I mentioned that just a
second ago retention and expansion that
is with supporting existing companies
and helping them grow we also feel we
are an economic development Advisory
Group consultant to the city and the
county as well as the state uh I've
always said we are the goto Market the
client facing organization so we hear
what client want or expect in terms of a
relocation a competitive relocation and
it's our job to come back and tell you
as policy makers what we're hearing so
that you can make those effective
changes that make us more competitive
and then capacity building is an area
we've been working a lot on and that is
really what are we learning that we have
gaps or deficiencies and what can mavita
do to help support that whether that's
uh incentives Workforce uh Workforce um
objectives um and programs I'll talk
about that in a second as well for
purposes of our
contract um this past year past couple
years we've been really asked by the
city to go after trying to put the Los
crusis Innovation and industrial park on
the map that's the majority of what our
target has been for the city of Las
crusis so although from a metric
perspective I'm going to talk more about
industry attraction the one box on the
far left I do also will talk about a
little bit about the other things we're
bringing to the city of Las crus through
through those other services that I just
mentioned
so as an organization representing the
entire region let me first talk about uh
you know our entire Regional results
that we've had so uh what you see on in
terms of the uh the graph there is our
dashboard that is created by our board
of directors which sets the tone for
what we're trying to establish as goals
in terms of site visits companies on the
ground kicking dir looking at potential
opportunities qualified prospects that's
uh an outlier of our of our marketing
efforts that's where we identify
projects that are plan on having a move
in the next 18 to 24 months and they
have identified our region or Las crusa
specifically as a potential location
that they are
considering and then we break it down
into final results in terms of number of
completed projects the jobs created as a
result of those projects payroll
generated as a result of those jobs and
then the capital investment that's going
to be made in the area through new
construction the establishment of new
facilities or purchasing of equipment in
the area
and I'll talk a little bit about more
about that because that's very important
I think in terms of how we're growing
the uh the industrial park and then I'll
talk about our retention and expansion
consultations that's again where we go
out we meet with existing companies
listen to them try and understand their
challenges and hopefully figure out
resources to keep them here and help
them grow but overall results we had a
pretty we had a pretty positive year 628
new jobs were established $26.2 million
in new payroll once they're all in place
that's annual payroll uh that will lead
to $155 million in new capital
investment committed to the area through
new construction that is s significant
than new tax base in terms of new
construction
GRT uh 23 site visits that we had in the
region that's boots on the ground 76
qualified prospects 15 completed
projects and 56 retention and expansion
consultations so we were very busy but
that's kind of a snapshot of what we did
as an organization and and for the
entire region uh uh these are some of
our completed projects that we've had on
the left are actually job new job
creation projects and on the right our
companies we assisted with our automate
up program and that's helping to train
and skill up the workforce for new
technology related uh growth sectors of
the economy and I'll talk about that in
a moment as well so let me talk a little
bit specifically about uh what the
metrics were for the contract with the
city of Las Cruses uh really they wanted
us to take a marketing approach put the
uh Innovation and industrial park on the
map uh and this is a little bit about
our activity uh trade shows exhibited at
we exhibited at five trade shows
representing Los cruus we walked 20
trade shows representing Los cruus when
I when I say we walk trade shows it's
much more cost effective to walk than to
exhibit at a trade show I mean you have
to have a pretty healthy budget to try
and exhibit with the cost of dollars
that's 10 $15,000 usually Port trade
show easily so we walk and what that
means is we hit a trade show we walk
talking to all the exhibitors all the
vendors very hard trying to understand
do they have expansion plans moving
forward in the future so that we can
start communicating with them on a more
effective basis uh nurturing our
relationships with them and and growing
those opportunities usually from the
time we identify an opportunity it's
usually 18 months minimum before
decisions are being made for a a final
site sele a site solution so these are
not things that happen overnight we are
always trying to nurture the
relationship talk about L crues the
opportunities here and hopefully they
make a decision to want to put their
business proposition here as well uh in
terms of our marketing uh you heard from
Carlos po at our last presentation just
a few months ago and that was you know a
pretty healthy 30 minute presentation
and he talked a little bit more about
how we are actually using digital media
social media traditional media in terms
of getting our message out to the world
but through that uh we've established
relationships with um some trade
industry magazines where we we do
advertise in from time to time but we
also receive a lot of organic uh earned
media through them as well but we have
over 100,000 Plus on our distribution
list through the print marketing through
our targeted digital marketing that's
social media and other forms of uh like
LinkedIn to get our message out we have
over 1 million subscribed audience we
reach out to site selectors on a regular
basis they are Consultants who
usually have their hands on multiple
number of expansion projects every year
they're in very high demand with other
with other communities so we have to be
we have to be uh client facing with them
on a regular basis but we we have a
nurture marketing campaign that gets in
front of those 234 Consultants that we
Target on an annual basis several times
a year our entire estimated marketing
and Business Development spend on behalf
of Los crusis alone is estimated to be
around $600,000 so again we're turning
that $250 $50,000 at contract that you
provide to us through relationships and
and other fundraising mechanisms to
provide you with a $600,000 marketing
campaign and that's above and beyond the
other aspects that I mentioned the
services that we do offer that we bring
to the table
here so let me kind of let you know the
good news and then I'll talk about the
challenges so the good news is the
marketing is working we are getting the
Los Cruses Innovation and industrial
park on the map for more projects and
more looks uh if you look at projects
considering all of donana County they
are primarily looking at both Santa
Teresa and the Los Chris's Innovation
and industrial park for potential
locations and then there's uh projects
that we've established that are only
considering Los Cruses for various
reasons and I want to hone in on that
for a second so although if you add 28
plus 15 43 projects have considered Los
Cruses as a whole 15 of them have really
honed in on only the Los crusis
Innovation and Industrial Park which is
which is a 37% increase over the year
before now Santa Teresa still dominates
itself kind of as the industrial base of
the region so right now they are getting
a little bit more looks only considering
Santa Teresa but I mention this because
it's very important to realize we're
providing a message out there to uh to
companies that are targeting the reasons
why Los cruus makes more sense and it
sometimes it makes sense for a company
to go to Santa Teresa like if you need
rail Santa Teresa is a place to be if
you if you have supply chain that's
crossing the border into wates you know
multiple times per day you know Santa
teres is the place you want to be but if
you want great Interstate 10 access that
has direct access to the SE ports of LA
and Long Beach for example for supply
chain then Los Cruses makes it a very
strong case for that the fact that you
also it's a city-owned Industrial Park
primarily and provides you the
flexibility to be more Nimble than the
private sector that adds some some
opportunities as well to attract other
customers and then thirdly when when
companies look at the area they look at
the metro area of Los crusis and and
perhaps see more and and with New Mexico
state and dacc right here they see more
of the opportunity to tap into Workforce
and pipeline than you may see in
sanitary so there's different reasons
for being in different places but I want
to let you know that we're really honing
in on companies that are now saying hey
this location here is ideal
so in terms of our contract specifically
with uh the city we were asked to have a
goal of 24 qualified prospects in this
case we knocked it out of the park 54
qualified prospects were looking at the
city of Las Cruses uh we were asked to
get boots on the ground nine site visits
we had 11 site visits this year and in
terms of completed projects we had a
goal of four when we actually uh were
able to establish six projects many of
those were in our retention and
expansion program and we can talk about
that in a moment but we hit our goals in
this
area the other side of our contract was
a little bit more challenging than we
displayed on the marketing side we
actually had goals of 300 jobs to be
creative with 10 million in payroll and
17 million in capital investment we
weren't able to establish that this year
and that's just being completely honest
we were able to establish 37 jobs 1.56
million and $840,000 in in new capital
investment there's a couple of reasons
for this if you look at the chart below
when we come into the into the new year
and we talk to staff about what goals we
are we're setting ourselves on what we
want to hit we're looking at pipeline
that we've established over the prior 18
months that's how we kind of determine
and F what our confidence level and
saying can we get them here and in this
case when we entered the contract this
past year we we had a lot of confidence
we were going to bring several projects
to frish those projects are listed below
um and in some cases they died on the
vine which just sometimes happened
unfortunately more of them did than
resulted in in actually locate locating
here um and then then a couple got
delayed we were expecting um by all
means that they were going to uh uh uh
make an announcement that they were
going to locate here but because of
certain financing tools that we were
introducing them to other challenges not
to say they're gone just the projects
are delayed and we're hoping that we're
going to be able to close on them this
year so it's just the nature of the
cycle sometimes in terms of what we
do but if you look at kind of the
fluctuation of what job creation and
capital investment have been alike over
the last five years uh the yellow bars
represent Los crusis the red bars
represent the other parts of donana
County where uh we've been able to
establish jobs you'll see there's
fluctuation you'll see that post
pandemic we had four very good years of
job creation and announcements here in
uh Los crus specifically and then we
dropped in
2024 uh and but if you look at capital
investment and this is where I want to
lead some of the Lessons Learned as part
of this conversation is you'll see
capital investment continues to be very
low in Los crues compared to the Red Bar
in Santa Teresa primarily fy22 FY 23 and
FY 24 they're seeing significant amounts
of capital investment and the reason why
is because Santa Teresa right now is
just more development ready than we are
here at the lusus Innovation and
industrial park right now with
industrial space at an all-time low
vacancy around the country companies are
either looking for places where there's
existing industrial space for them to
move into which is becoming fewer and
fewer and fewer other more established
markets around the country are now
expanding and building industrial space
much quicker than we are in New Mexico
overall and much quicker than we are in
donana County
but in lie of having existing space that
requires a company to take a strategic
approach to actually build their own
space and normally you have to have
development Partners ready to put up
that space at the same time that that's
going to happen sanitar has been able to
establish themselves in that we are not
quite
there but leads me to what we believe
this year is going to look like as I
mentioned a couple of those projects
were delayed um we expect them to close
this year um but in almost all cases
these are these are Hot Prospects as we
call them we feel very you know very
confident right now that we're going to
get to the Finish Line with these
projects primarily in the Los cruus
Innovation and Industrial Park but in
Las crues but you'll see something
unique about this you'll see that on the
right hand side all but one of them
really has significant capital
investment associated with it one to the
tune of 80 plus million dollars so
one of the things I'm thinking is going
to happen if we can show demand we can
show cranes in the air that's going to
make a big difference in terms of
bringing confidence to attract some of
the developers who we need to look at
our area to put capital investment into
so we're coming into the year feeling
bullish again um maybe more so not on
the job side creation but on the capital
investment side which could lead to more
opportunities down the
line so so now let me move into those
other blocks that are outside the
contract but things we still do for the
city of Las crues our retention and
expansion program um I realized there
was a keystroke error on the companies
consulted it's actually 33 not 43 but
still compared to the uh 52 that we did
as a whole throughout the county that's
a pretty good significance of companies
we were able to work with here in donana
County again trying to understand their
NE here in Los Cruses I'm sorry trying
to understand their needs help them grow
and and see if there's opportunities for
them to create new job creation we
believe we've identified eight projects
we identify a project out of our
retention and expansion consultations as
those companies who say yeah I think we
can grow this year not just retain but
actually grow um and so if all goes well
if all eight of those companies do do uh
grow here um we're talking about
potentially 40 new jobs through our the
retention and expansion program alone
and over 4 million in new capital
investment usually that's equipment
investment as they're retooling and
growing
so an additional tool let me see oh an
additional tool we've been building over
the last three years supporting growth
this is part of our capacity building uh
service to to you and donana county is
with a relationship through the
Community Foundation of southern New
Mexico uh through they manage the New
Mexico Economic Development Fund we've
been able to establish a incentive
called a closing incentive that we can
utilize to try to attract companies to
get past the finish line here so it's
hard dollars that we can can assist a
company with in terms of new equipment
purchases or growing their jobs so in
the last three years that we've had this
program we've helped five companies here
in uh in Los cruus leading up to 956
announced jobs and over $290,000
deployed those are all private sector
Grant dollars that we've deployed it's
not tax dollars or or public dollars but
it was a needed tool that uh in order
for us to be competitive against other
markets it was a needed tool we had to
have here to complement what the state
could bring to the
table another tool that we built this
past year specifically is our automate
up program uh it was a pilot program
this year and we're looking to move it
into full launch now as we speak uh but
the premise of the program was to assist
these companies that are um required to
to adopt new technologies like for
example Advanced manufacturing was the
first one manufacturing moving to
Advanced manufacturing requires new
skill sets and in lie of programs that
are not currently available through our
school systems or Community College we
had learned through uh through the
through industry itself that there's
these micro certifications that can help
skill up an employee to meet the needs
and changes of the new equipment that's
being purchased for advanced
manufacturing uh so through that we
identified seven types of certifications
uh all of them were some type of
advanced manufacturing but crossed a
variety of different Industries whether
that was traditional manufacturing or
even food processing and food sciences
and uh we helped eight companies go
through that process uh that we helped
train 69 and certify 69 individuals
across multiple certifications so we
actually gave out 159 certifications and
we did that with a grant from the New
Mexico Economic Development Department
we did that for
$25,000 uh so this brings us to the
relationship we have this coming year
right now with uh the city of Los Cruses
as we're a recipient of some dollars the
arpa dollars that you had available to
expand this program and provide industry
certifications and growing Technologies
but more targeting uh the growing
Industries here in Los crusa
specifically so that could entail some
Advanced manufacturing but it'll also
include you know maybe tella Health uh
video game development because that's
been on our radar for a long time and
then the certifications they need um
other types of coding that are needed
for whether it's micros oft AWS or other
types of certifications for those for
those individuals to grow in their
careers and and a slew of others that
are important for Industries we're
trying to grow
here we're also expanding the program
through these dollars to not only get in
front of existing employees and their
employers but we're also reaching out to
donana Community College as well as the
CTE programs at Los crusa schools
because we want to see if we're able to
provide these certifications directly to
the students so by the time time they're
they're graduating or leaving their
programs they are Workforce ready for
these jobs are that are now growing here
in the future so we're excited about
this potential it's taken a lot of work
even as as we set up the pilot program
and we're hoping to have full launch
into these other Industries this
year and then finally in terms of uh our
economic advisory as I mentioned and our
capacity Building Services I I've
mentioned the need for attracting
development
capital and this brings me to
conversations we're having with staff
right now and the city manager's office
uh regarding a unique program where
we're able to tap again into uh private
sector dollars the Community Foundation
of southern New Mexico's New Mexico
Economic Development Fund and and get
some of those private sector dollars to
complement some of the resources you
have at the Los cras Innovation and
Industrial Park to attract a developer
to come to the area and put spec in the
ground take the risk on our Marketplace
because we know if you take the risk on
our Marketplace by the time you start
building you'll probably have at least
and that's that's one of the most
important lessons we've learned this
past year and we've have that lesson
because we've been watching Santa Teresa
for a long time you know 12 13 years ago
when foxcon came and built their
facility on the other side of the Border
we thought that was going to be the
Catalyst that was going to drive drive
supply chain to our area didn't happen
when Union Pacific came and invested
their $500 million it did create jobs
through Pacific we thought that was
going to be the Catalyst it didn't
happen at that time it wasn't until
right around prior to the pandemic that
one speculative developer from Dallas
came and took a chance on the market
they built a 300,000 square foot
building and before it was even finished
they had it leased out since then
they've put about over 1.5 million
square feet of additional speculative
development into Santa Teresa and that's
one of the reasons why there's robust
growth there the past few years it's
because there's readily available
facilities for companies to identify and
move into and that's where we want this
to go for the Los cruus Innovation and
Industrial part so it's it's very
exciting to say we have a tool that's
attracting private sector dollars uh
we're also talking with staff about what
we're calling a shovel ready initiative
that's also a private public partnership
with with developers but what we're
trying to do is um see if we can partner
on a specific site at the at the
industrial park and have that company do
renderings drawings pre- permitting
everything so we can shorten the
timeline of development from when they
actually identify a a client so it's
time to Market and the cost to Market
aspects of it so I'm excited um uh mayor
you know and councelor Florida I think
you know from the uh the PRC meetings of
the past you know I've been talking
about this for years so I we're happy to
see that we may have something we can
work with moving forward to help grow
the industrial park here and what it's
about is cranes in the air confidence in
the market and then attracting those
companies so I want to leave with this
note uh this came from the Federal
Reserve Bank of Dallas Al Paso Branch
July 2024 southern New Mexico demon
demonstrates impressive economic
Vitality with the latest employment
figures showing 2.8% growth compared to
the previous year outpacing both state
and National averages this growth
underscores the Region's attractiveness
for business and Workforce Development
Las Cruses being the largest city in
Southern New Mexico I think that's
something for all of us to be proud of
it's not just mita's efforts but it is
also the the efforts of your economic
development team and as well as our
partners in the region so with that I
will leave it for any questions you may
have for Brian or myself thank
you thank you Davin for the presentation
is there uh any questions councelor
Flores thank you mayor uh thank you
deavin um so it the picture literally
that we saw
is
impressive in one way but not so
impressive as to what has come to
lusis and I think I know when I started
on Council more than seven and a half
years ago we already had a contract with
you and um and then I think we up the
ante on that in terms of the money
distributed to you um so my question is
this after all these years is is it um
you know it seems like you've been
milking the dry cow so are we a dry cow
is there any point in going on um quite
frankly and with all due respect Devan I
think you've done wonders for Santa
Teresa and I'm happy to know that
there's a region in New Mexico that is
benefiting from your work but
frankly um I don't see how it's really
benefiting us now if you were to do a
study that shows how Santa Teresa you
know the the wealth the revenue that's
being built up there is somehow being
funneled to us because there's more
houses being built here well nobody
wants to drive from Las Cruses to Santa
Teresa and the jobs in sesa here offers
jobs to people who live in Mexico I
don't know if that's true or not they
and with all due respect there's nothing
wrong with that there's nothing wrong
with what you presented but there's a
missing there's just a missing link
there where do we come in and you're
saying well if the industrial you know
the industrial park had a a a building
structure yada yada they would come but
that's the first time I hear you say
that and it's like build it and they
will come well I don't know uh you know
I think that uh Economic Development the
city has some plans for that but um
I mean how how do you how when do you
think any of this everything you're
doing you know I know you travel
throughout and this and that but I was
trying to take notes of an
accomplishment and you know two pages
and you know something that really
benefits us guses I didn't see it Davin
is there anything that you can U help me
with on that did I miss something well
mayor council Flo is I uh I guess I
would respectfully ask you look at our
body of work because if you look at the
even the years past we we we've had very
strong years in terms of job growth and
then then we have these cycles that take
place I think what we're trying to do is
establish right now the opportunities
for the Innovation and Industrial Park
in a market where industrial growth
around the United States is has some
very unique trends that are taking place
that I think we can take advantage of
right now um so yeah so I I'm not going
to disagree with this year this year
yeah we had a tough year in terms of
closing the deals but we had a great
year in terms of providing exposure to
Los crues and The Innovation and
Industrial Park but sometimes we're not
in control we we we don't always have
the tools the policy to get them to the
Finish Line you know we are trying to
Market them but it's not like we have
the tools to really just make them
enforce a decision right but that being
said I I try to give you a snapshot of
those projects that got delayed and
where we think we we we're going to see
opportunity this year but it is it's
it's a eff for that is year to year but
it takes a body of work and several
years in order to grow programs grow
opportunities and and I guess the other
thing is what what we're providing to
the residents of Los cruus you you
looked about at that automated up
program right that is something no one's
tackling and we decided we were going to
tackle it with dollars we could find
elsewhere not city of Las crus dollars
so that we could skill up individuals
here in Las crus for the workforce of
the future so yeah in terms of closing
the jobs I I think it was been a very
challenging year I'm very upfront with
that but I think if you look at our body
of work you'll see that year after year
overall we provide a return on
investment to the city for the dollars
they give us what what was that
investment is is there a report on the
investment the return on all of this I
I'm telling you I didn't see anything
regarding Las crusis and I am not in any
way uh challenging you and the work
you've done in terms of the benefit to
the county or to Santa
Teresa um and and a lot of this Davin
has been well it's in the making it's in
the making it's in the making and and
maybe I'm feeling impatient because um I
know Rome wasn't built in a day I know
that much but um I guess after seven and
a half years going on eight years here
on city council uh I just you know we uh
don't have the jobs and we don't have
the uh industry and uh and I so honestly
do you think that maybe um you're
milking a dry cow maybe there's no point
in seeing what's here for Las Cruses and
and do you work closely with Elizabeth
and Chris on this mayor City councelor
yes we do work very closely with
Elizabeth and Chris um
so I I I'm not sure I understand the
reference of milking a dry cow it means
that you're trying to get something out
of something that won't give
in other words what are the objective
conditions of our city that have not
allowed you to bring industry of some
sort you know uh that's the milk that's
a milk cow analogy so yes mayor City uh
councelor flotes one of the things and
I've been talking about this on the PRC
for years the need to attract
speculative development in the capital
that's not new it's not the first time
I've ever said this I've been saying it
for five six years to the point where
it's almost like I'm joking L quoted
sometimes but um that is a tool I think
we need to bring but we're not we have
not been in control to be able to do
that we've now found some pockets of
dollars through this relationship with
the Community Foundation of southern New
Mexico to bring private sector dollars
but we still need more of the city's
support in terms of making this happen
and making it a value statement I don't
think it's milking a dry cow I just
think I think we need to put more effort
into this is is is quite frankly what it
comes to it and you know when you talk
about the investment we
make in Economic Development and IND
industry attraction not only locally but
as a state I mean we are falling behind
in terms of competing against cities and
states around the country uh we had a
consultant come to our uh board retreat
this past a month ago because we wanted
to hear what they had to say about how
Texas does things and these little
communities in Texas have sometimes 10
20 30 times the amount of dollars
invested in in uh in Economic
Development than we do here I and I just
think I think that's an important note
to take we need to invest more if we
want more but I think with the tools
we've had especially with I'm hoping the
pipeline we have right now what I what I
showed you here we close three of those
projects then there's cranes in the air
and that's the main thing cranes in the
air establishing confidence so that more
investors and developers can put their
money into the marketplace
and mayor councilor flus one last thing
um we do run an RO uh an impact analysis
every year uh we break it out
specifically for jobs within city of Las
Cruses um and we provide that at the end
of at the end of every year so we are
right now working on our final reports
for the city but those past reports have
been available to you each and every
year for the I think the last seven or
eight
years well for the last seven or eight
years it's been about the same
thank
you thank you councelor for anyone
else there anyone
else okay I just want to add as as as
counselor Flores I kind of felt the same
way uh where you grow impatient and you
want to see results and and I know it's
been a while but I'm also on the board
and I signed up on that so that I could
see what's going on firsthand and they
do a lot of work and I see that your
production agency isn't here today but I
know Carlos does a tremendous job in in
marketing for Los Cruses and donana
County so now I feel like I'm very
optimistic I I I like the approach that
we're going and we're working with
public and private Partnerships now
looking at uh the industrial park and
maybe some speculative buildings to take
place so yeah we just unfortunately we
have to be a little bit more patient but
I think there's uh there's some things
coming down the pipe now that are
working and we're very fortunate that
things are really booming in Santa
Teresa that that that it is going to get
closer it is going to get closer to Lost
Cruis and I I see some promising things
coming so I'm optimistic and I I see all
the work that goes in uh to Economic
Development from Maita and I thank you
for that Davin thank you
mayor okay no further
questions um we'll move on to the next
one which is the downtown Los crues
partnership okay and now I will turn it
over to miss Susan Greenwald Cabo oh
you're right there sorry wrong
side good afternoon I am Su an Greenwald
Cabo I am the executive director of
downtown Los Cruz's partnership um this
is our annual report um so you can see
that I'm the executive director um as of
October I was the interim executive
director and in March I'm the permanent
executive director um in the past we
have had two employees but looks like
for now and in the foreseeable future we
are a one woman show as far as staff um
our executive board is John Muno
um he's here with us today of electronic
caregiver um Dr Jeffrey Stewart who owns
MVB Pharmacy and Dr Christen Morehead
who was our secretary um she is outgoing
I put that on the slide just to make her
know for sure that we were not signing
her up for three more years of
secretarial Duty so um guys the mission
statement of downtown Los Cruz's
partnership is to create a signature
business destination that celebrates our
Region's rich cultural heritage local
arts and culture and contributes to a
thriving sustainable and economically
thriving downtown um one thing I would
say about Downtown Los cruus this year
it that it is thriving um but it's also
fragile and we're going to talk about
why those two things are both true so
business activity so in the past we have
just
reported um businesses lost and
businesses gained however um we are
having I think a Renaissance Downtown
you can see that we have three
businesses that have relocated to the
district so that's somewhere else on
lock Cruis we have three business that
have relocated outside the district
meaning they've moved to a different
part of town but they're still in losw
crues um we have six businesses that are
permanently closed we have nine that are
new and we have six that are in the
process of opening and by in the process
of opening I mean that they have ail
building and are working on a sign so uh
that mean not just kind of in the theory
stage but really in the process of
opening within the next six months um
and I will tell you that this is a
snapshot so this is our year um as of
when as of I guess the end of June but
within the last week I have been
contacted by three businesses that are
getting ready to open um I have also
been told by one business that they are
closing so um there's a lot of flux um
in this chart I would say too that the
reason um that we are not having more
new business uh downtown is there is
really a lack of places for business to
um move in where the rent is Affordable
um and that has access to foot traffic
so um kind of these moving in and out of
all these kind of the same buildings
they kind of the same spaces um that
that you know someone moves in someone
almost if someone moves out excuse me
someone almost immediately moves in um
so we're kind of having this growth is
more of I would say maybe kind of closer
to a churn um of businesses that or I
guess business locations that are
affordable and viable um being kind of
taken another reason we don't have as
many new businesses is businesses are
staying
longer um so we don't have the rapid
inflow
as we did when lasina opened to almost
entirely retail um because that that
really kind of flipped the script on
downtown and having that essentially as
a shopping mall not only filled that
space But the spaces around it started
to become filled more
quickly right um so our accomplishments
this year um we have over 350 Direct
business contacts that means that me or
our board have talked to these business
buiness either over the phone sometimes
by DMS because that's how businesses
like to communicate sometimes um or by
email so these are times that we're
directly contacting the business owner
kind of figuring out what's going on we
do brn surveys we do at least five each
month um so we can track our project our
progress in a um kind of a set way uh
that we have re also we have reinstated
our microloan program so our microloan
program is a five ,000 loan at 3% simple
interest which equals the term of the
loan about
$450 um so we did this we announced our
microloan recipient in June since then I
have had five requests for micr loans uh
right now we have the funding for a
three-year cycle so if all of our people
are five years on a three-year term it
kind of it refunds itself um so if we
want to expand this program it's going
to be fundraising um for us to find some
more funds to get those funds to
businesses um so we have a redesigned
business Spotlight and ACD icons program
this year we have a new media team uh
they've really thought about how these
videos work as they were before they
were absolutely beautiful but we found
that they were a little long um no one
is going to watch a three-minute video
so no matter how beautiful it is so we
have cut them down to under two minutes
um done a little bit of boosting and I
have a graph about that to kind of show
you how that project has expanded um we
had a record crowd at chili drop we had
seen in coverage it was a magical night
it really was uh we have had the largest
Zombie Walk attendance to date last year
um we've had improved visibility and
accessibility um one of the one of the
things that's contributed to that is us
really focusing our m messaging on how
we can help businesses um I think in the
past a lot of our messaging kind of
revolved around the events that we do um
or other kind of projects that we have
but just recently we did a video uh
unfortunately starring me talking about
how businesses can get in touch with us
guys that has been tremendous I think we
really have not emphasized all the
resources that we bring to the table and
a lot of those are through New Mexico
Main Street as
well um so guys you were here when we
had opportunities for our interns to
meaningfully engage with the community
that was such a great experience I know
for me hopefully for you as well um we
have significantly increased uh our
presentations and speaking engagements
so if you guys know of anyone who has a
hot mic and 20 minutes I'm your girl I
will talk about downtown um all day long
I have the slide deck ready will ready
to travel um I have spoken to the
Coalition of conservatives in action I
have spoken to Rotary I speak every um
city council meeting um anytime I'm at
the county so just really getting our
face and our message out to the
community um and how they can be more
involved uh We've also had more and
deeper collaborations with the city and
local nonprofits for example we are
really working closely with the Arts
Council um to make sure that we are not
programming over each other as far as
writing programs so we attending their
open mic and they hopefully were going
to start attending our writers
workshops um so we have substantial
reach rate and presence on social media
again I have a chart to talk about that
in a little bit um we had our first B
Tob Quick Connect event um guys this was
pretty amazing for us we had 36
businesses uh actually join us um we had
eight I'm sorry we had 11 vendors there
so was the city where Cruz and Selena um
did and Blair did a fantastic job of
telling businesses for example what um
media sorry media what data services the
city provides which is probably the
thing I got the most compliments about
like I had no idea I could get all this
market analysis and I could get it for
free yes you can right um but we had um
we had New Mexico Main Street there we
had we had the New Mexico Department of
Economic Development there uh we had a
we had West so a lot of different places
that they could plug in um said really
successful um hopefully we grow that
this next year uh we had a successful
Generations in litfest uh we are going
to have Generations again but I think
we're going to roll litfest and
something bigger that the city's working
on so to be announced um we have we have
had more direct connections between
businesses and New Mexico Main Street
revitalization speal specialist techn
Tech assistance so one of the really
great things that we can do that nobody
else can do is if you are in the
district and you are a business owner we
can connect you directly with technical
assistance through a New Mexico uh Main
Street revitalization specialist so if
it's something that I can't handle like
your a business in the downtown area and
you need a logo for free I can hook you
up with that right if you need a market
analysis again for free I can I can help
you with that I mean so there's so many
surfaces that we off offer one thing we
did this year is we had a business who
was a a tap room that wanted to move
downtown and so we had a New Mexico Main
Street specialist will poell who whose
background is architecture we walked six
properties um on Thanksgiving
Eve uh to see would a would a Tap Room
work here um and he was really helpful
and saying you know this property really
needs to be remediated it's probably a
little bit more than you think it is
this property has a gas leak um this
property just doesn't have probably the
traffic flow that you need so I mean it
was really really helpful for them and
it was helpful for me to learn how to
assess some of those
properties um we've worked with uh the
CLC and on the ACD Capital Improvements
project which I am proud to say is
finally where's Chris in motion yes
close we're very very close um and we've
had a 59% increase over 2023 in
community service response rate which to
me is really exciting I haven't shut it
yet because we're still getting
responses as of today so one thing I
want to show you that really
highlights um one thing that we've done
is the um
Improvement of reach for our
videos right so
we've had the business Spotlight and ACD
icons project for about four years this
is about the fourth cycle um and I just
took last I just took fy22 23 and FY 23
24 to compare the two so you can see
that there is a 66 in% increase in
Social Media that's just reach that's
just individual viewers who have seen
these um I said two things one making
them under 2 minutes
to boosting it and boosting it by like15
$20 a video made this huge impact um on
how far they're reached um the number of
interactions with those businesses we've
heard that they've gotten a lot of phone
calls and things because of them they're
just a much more effective product um by
actually having a little less product
and a little more
boosting right and I think things that
we're will looking forward to um coming
up our next Merchants meeting is going
to be on September 5th we're talking
with film Lost crues and they are going
to be helping our downtown businesses
get on the Film Production vendor list
as I saw Andrew Hara from film Lost
Cruis do his presentation and I thought
why is every business downtown not on
this list so I called them and asked
them and this is our solution we're
we're going to have it on SE M 5th it's
going to be an hour we're also going to
record it so it will be available to to
businesses even if they can't make that
meeting um we're doing a we're in the
middle of a dlcp branding
refresh uh we're growing our board we
just got a new board member last week
and expanding our organizational
capacity uh we're exploring new funding
opportunities some new grants again
looking into how we can fund that
microloan so we can offer it a little
more frequently um advocacy for ex use
development in the district please
because really that's one thing that's
holding us back is just not enough
places to put people um as far as
businesses and we just need some
residents down here so we are in full
support of that goes with the the zoning
issues um our ACD writers group is
working to publish its first chatbook in
November cross our fingers learned a lot
about the local publishing industry um
in this and we are working to grow our
business Outreach um including growing
our B2B Quick Connect event and I
believe that's all ready for
questions all right Susan thank you
thank you guess mayor protm thank you
thanks so much for the presentation I'm
just curious I just have one question
sure on the folks that are either
leaving or closing do you do exit
surveys if we can and what kind of
information are you hearing so there's
kind of one is the the rent is is too
expensive um I would say that that's
probably the most
predominant um issue uh also that kind
of foot traffic patterns are changing a
little bit so um but rent rent
affordability and the viability of that
property to you know that we've had we
have some property downtown that's been
grandfathered in that's in a little bit
rougher shape and since downtown is
doing well the rent even on those
properties properties is increasing and
is that information that you're sharing
with landlords and owners of those
properties yes okay all right thank you
appreciate
that come you're good all right well
thank you appreciate you all the work
you're doing thank
you next on the agenda uh 3.2 historical
preservation commission annual report
uh Larry Nicholls will be doing the
introductions good afternoon mayor
Enriquez members of the city council
City staff and members of public Larry
Nichols community development director
very pleased today to have the
historical preservation commission give
you their uh annual report this is a
part of our ordinance that that will
give an annual report to the city
council each year just a little brief
history on the commission uh the
historical preservation commission was
created in
2019 uh to assist in implementing the
historical
preservation ordinance and the
plan the
commission uh is primary duties and
interests is a protection of the and
preservation of historical buildings as
they are an essential component of our
City's
Heritage they have
um they collaborate uh with the
Community Development Department and the
city manager's office to advise the city
on
historical districts and create uh
cultural
properties uh we Community Development
Department is staff leaz on to the
commission and we support them through
administrative support to the data
management GIS
mapping uh planning zoning and building
permits and
inspections the Commissioners are
appointed to their because of their
experience in such Endeavors as
architecture history
engineering law architectural history
historical preservation
archaeology and other revelent areas our
commission members are Dr juny Judy
barryman the cheriff since
2023 David Chavez Ernie compos Dr Paul
dies Jeffrey Shephard Dr Jerry Wallace
and Patricia
Williams and with that I'll have an
introduction of do of Dr barryman to
give give you the historical
preservation anual
report good afternoon thank you for your
opportunity as um thank you Larry for
the introduction as noted um for the
record my name is Dr Judy barryman I'm
the uh current chair and for the record
I Am David Chavez co-chair so what we
would like to do first is give a more
in-depth in introduction to what the
historic preservation commission and I'm
going to be calling it The HPC because
it's easier to
say so
um Dr Dr bar can we get you to talk
directly into the microphone so it's
recorded thank you is that better okay
sometime this week or last week you got
a very Hefty
package um and I apologize for the size
but within this package you receive a
copy of chapter 40 you received a copy
of chapter 2 which is the proposed
revision to chapter 40 comments and
changes that the commission has voted on
in terms of chapter 2 changes and a copy
of the historic preservation design
guideline
manual these um documents form the
Keystone of historic preservation and I
would like to take a little bit of time
to go into that um the presentation that
we will be given today I will be given
part of it and David will be giving the
other part so if I can figure out the
slides which I'm not ah there we are so
um the first slide historic preservation
is a city ordinance it's not a wish it's
not something that will come as Larry
noted earlier the chapter 40 was voted
in in
2019 it entails the protection of
historic Rec resources as a public
necessity and beneficial to economic
prosperity and the quality of life the
formation of the historic preservation
commission and the pursuing goals and
procedures were codified in chapter 40
which you now have a copy
of um so one of the questions that comes
up is in this process what is a
certified local
government that's a good question so a
certified local government is any City
town or municipality in New Mexico that
has met specific eligibility
requirements and has been certified
through the state historic preservation
Division and the National Park Service
so it's a rather big deal the city of
Las Cruses is the newest member of the
CLG we are one of 10 cities in New
Mexico and we were qualified in
2021 as a CLG Los Cruses has a formal
role in the National register of
historic places nomination process we
have a role in the review of federal and
state and local projects that involve
historic resources and we can
participate in state preservation plans
so that we have quite a a big basket
that we can work
from but what are the benefits so I mean
why was the process carried through and
why are we now A Member One of the
biggest advantages of being a CLG is the
potential to receive federal and state
funding that means real money through
various grants and the ability to
receive assistance and training from the
N from the state historic preservation
office so under the CLG program we are
eligible for funding that is only
available to other CLG cities and the
historic preservation officer or shipo
is mandated to come down and help with
the
program in 2023 the city received their
first CLG proposal and funding for
$60,000 um the funding was to update the
national and state register for the
mosquite neighborhood unfortunately
there was no one capable of taking and
pursuing the grant so that Grant was
returned we negotiated with shippel
through various processes the count of
the money was depressed but eventually
the entire funding had to be turned back
to shipo however this does not mean that
we are not eligible for future funding
in fact shiple and state historic
preservation officers want to see this
program work and funding will be
available for
us so what are the responsibilities as a
city what do we have to do in order to
engage as a
CLG so I I want to
emphasize without the CLG funding the
city the
HPC and Community Development cannot
carry through some of the requirements
under chapter 40 there just isn't money
in the city budget so we do have to rely
on trying to get some of the state and
federal funding but one of the issues
here is and we'll go into it later in
terms of grants in terms of the city
there really isn't anyone familiar with
the CLG funding and right now we don't
have a historic preservation specialist
but we'll go into that in a moment the
CLG status establishes a level of
credibility for the Las cruus historic
preservation program on both a local
state and federal level level so I've
listed some of the primary
responsibilities so enforce local
preservation through a historic
preservation ordinance that's chapter 40
that's in place create and maintain a
position of a qualified historic
preservation specialist we have had one
but um since March I believe he has gone
on to other menus maintain a historic
preservation commission we have a very
active commission with seven members
right now if we were to tally experience
we would have experience in historic
preservation of over 175 years so the
people on the commission know what
they're doing um one of the things under
chapter 40 that is required is to survey
and document local historic properties
this has not been done um the second
item that is very important with a CLG
program is to provide for public
participation frankly that's been on a
very limited BAS
basis so as you had your packet
delivered to you what is chapter 40 and
currently it is being revised but right
now we're just going to talk about
chapter 40 so the entire historic
preservation commission is administered
by the city manager as I Mo mentioned
earlier there are seven
Commissioners and the chapter 40 also
requires a historic preservation
specialist he is our liaison between the
city and the commission right now we are
struggling there is no
specialist um it sets out chapter 40
sets out the procedures and how a
property is designated as historic and
what um entails it defines the
certificate of appropriateness which we
will go into which is a COA process and
it's the development of the design
guidelines which you now have a copy of
so in general I I want to Summarize
chapter 40 is saying that it protects
and promotes those buildings and sites
and resources that our community can
tell a story why is Los crues unique you
know what is it that draws people two L
crues you know what are the values that
we are looking for through preservation
I believe that we enhance civil Pride
civic pride obviously you can point to a
historic event or a place and there's a
certain amount of civic pride it creates
sustainable neighborhoods and I think
that's really critical in the sense
that we have historic districts within
the city of Las Cruses and within those
districts there are families who have
lived there over a hundred years and so
you have this sustainable neighborhood a
sense of civic pride and a sense of who
you are in terms of I live in Los Cruses
um preservation also expands housing
options and responds to infilling within
the city it makes Los Cruses a Heritage
tourism designation and finally it
attracts businesses to rehab under
utilized
buildings so one of the things that is
the primary thing that the HPC does is
we have a review process and we are an
adjudicating body so in our review
process we will look at documents that
are given to us and determine whether
the proposed changes by the applicant
will affect the historic Integrity of
the building so the process basically is
the applicant will apply for a building
permit um if the property is in a
designated District or is considered
historic um it goes to the historic
specialist who will review the
documentation with Community Development
HPC will review the applications review
the planning documents and will prepare
a COA or certificate of appropriateness
um HBC all of this is under a public
hearing and of course the applicant has
recourse if they disagree with the
finding they can go to the city council
or asked for a second
finding this captures where we are to
date and I think if anyone were to look
at that you would seriously ask what is
happening in
1921 the commission
reviewed 25 COA decisions in 22 there
were 12 in 23 there were
16 this year we only reviewed
three so the question that I would ask
you is are developers getting so wise
that they no longer want to rehab
historic buildings or is Community
Development and the city not doing their
job in planning in terms of catching
requests for um
changes request for Zone Changing it's
pretty much the same appeals is pretty
much the same but I would like you to
look at meetings and work sessions that
are cancelled that means that under um
CLG under chapter 40 we're required to
have monthly meetings as of this year
we' have had four cancelled monthly
meetings very difficult to carry on any
type of review with this type of
record so I've lost my space so I'm
going to um the last thing I'd like to
talk about is the historic preservation
design guidelines you all have a copy it
is very
large the basis for this is that the
city went out for a contract a couple of
years ago they received the guidelines
it was reviewed and
rejected um it had fallacies it had
incorrect photographs and there is
really no understanding of New Mexico
architecture so the guideline sets the
standards for preservation it defines
what type of building style what type of
material that should be used follows the
federal guidelines um it is an
identification of historic Landscapes so
that we're all talking the same subject
and it helps to ensure compatibility
between new development and existing
historic environment so the quest the
request that the commission has today is
that you put this on your next board
meeting and to either accept or deny the
historic um guidelines manual because
this is a critical key point to
following chapter
40 so I'm going to turn over the second
half and we're going to discuss a little
bit about educational opportunities um
David the educational opportunities are
in chapter
40 that is the law you all voted on
it but we were
denied to do our work but we've done it
it
anyway we went ahead and have done three
walking tours of the historic district
the mosquite we've had an art
exhibition we've had historic
preservation
exhibits we did a creative Industries
Fiesta at the county PT
building so the only way our community
is going to understand and learn about
its historic past
is we are the stewards we are selected
because of our background to do the work
to do Outreach to do educational
components as far as getting the word
out of what can and cannot be done by
reading the
ordance the sad thing about it there are
many departments in this city that have
never looked up the
ordinance codes doesn't even know what
the ordinance is we've gotten cases in
front of us where the public says well
code said it was okay and it's in
complete violation of the the code so we
need to get the word out and hopefully
and I'm hoping that we get the
specialist in that will do
that to educate the the Departments so
we don't have these
issues we're sometimes looked at the
commissioners
as bad
guys they don't want to follow what we
do well if Council had not
voted on this
ordinance then we wouldn't be here we
follow the law to the
nail and there are folks that refuse to
follow that
so we're here to try to um push the
issue you all here select us for our
background not City staff but you all
we're here representing you at all these
meetings and we also represent the
community when we go out and do
community outreach educational component
we're going to be doing some artwork
presentations hopefully to all the
schools to teach the students about
their history if you ever pull up a New
Mexico history
book it's printed in
Indiana history stops at a coral they
don't even mention much of Las Cruses or
donana County
so
what one of the problems that we've had
in the
past is that the CLG
funding it's it's tied to the The
Specialist that leison is the one that
goes and works with the grant department
here in the city this year we lost out
on
$275,000 that's a nice chunk of
change and I'm one of those that I'm a
money
person I hate to see money disappear
when we have an opportunity to apply for
it and
luckily we do have some good people in
the state that are willing to help us
out to see if we can at least try to get
some of
it the Fielder house that's photographed
in this building you all had a
resolution a few weeks
ago that uh it left it hanging we don't
know if it's going to be torn down or
not but we have a
question that all the Commissioners ask
is
that who gave the
authority from City staff to remove the
loadbearing wall in the
building there's nothing wrong with the
building other than the fact that it was
self-induced
Demolition so the building's Still
Standing There are folks that don't like
the
building it is what it is it's all a
fabric of the historic district Fielder
is a a family that was established
here almost over a hundred years
ago so you know that's another problem
we had a problem of demolition on May
Street we have yet to receive any
documentation on that and we're waiting
hopefully that the property on mosquit
Street will be changed over from owning
being owned by the city and going back
to public so it can be bought by the
public there's housing shortage there
are folks waiting with a checkbook to
purchase that building on M on on
mosquit Street the same situation was on
May
Street after having discussions with the
city manager and others that building
was supposed to go back to the public it
was torn down on a
Friday
so we have some we've been in in some
situations where we have tried our best
as a commission to to do our
jobs and
luckily um with the announcement that
there is a search for a new um
specialist that things will turn around
and be better want say so so final our
final thoughts why historic preservation
so I've only listed a few of the key
points but an important point to keep in
mind there is so much fallacy about
historic preservation that it's too
expensive it denies property ownership
that you have to do certain changes
um the reality is only the exterior of
the building is ever considered but it
honors the diverse Heritage in a sense
of place BOS Cruses is unique because if
we destroy all of our history we are no
longer unique an important point also to
mention is historic preservation is
compound comp able it is not against it
is compatible with affordable housing
and development of the city it supports
Sound Community planning development of
economic and Heritage
tourism it's also a huge factor in
environmental one of the things that we
have tried to do and have not been
successful when a historic building is
torn down all the material goes to a
landfill there is old wood that could be
recycled
there are doors that could be cycled I
mean we could reduce our footprint from
an environmental sense so I would like
to finish um citing counselor Karan in
June 14th in um regarding realize Los
crues realize Los crues is a long-term
strategy designed to address the housing
shortage and we must do so do so from
every angle one of these angles must
involve involve the preservation of the
city's unique history and culture
historic preservation is an essential
part of helping any City appreciate its
past and to responsibly develop its
future and I with that I'd like to end
it I thank you very much and we' be open
to any questions that you may have thank
you very much for your time all right
thank you thank you for the presentation
and the update uh anyone have any
comments
no seeing none thank you very much thank
you very
much that's it okay this concludes our
items for agenda today um so with that a
motion to adjourn move to adjourn second
Corin this is on the motion to Adin the
work session councelor McClair yes
councelor matis is absent councelor
Graham yes councelor cran yes councelor
flutes is absent councelor Beno yes and
mayor yes
I love
[Music]
construction is currently underway in
the Cashers area at City Hall