Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) 4/28/26 meeting transcript

0:04 all this meeting of the uh community redevelopment agency CRA to order. In the interest of time, efficiency and ensuring everyone who wishes to address
0:13 the council address the board is given opportunity to do so. The following will apply to all comments made by the public
0:20 in person or virtually. Virtual participation in CRA meetings are available on your computer or smartphone
0:28 via Microsoft Teams or by telephone. You can learn how to participate virtually by visiting our website
0:34 www.climoutfl.gov and search for attend council meetings online. Each speaker will be permitted
0:44 three minutes to address the council. In an effort to be respectful during the meeting, please make sure your cell phones are set to silent. Thank you for participating in our local government.
0:55 Uh our first order of business today is to approve the minutes from the January 13, 2026 meeting of the CRA board. I need a motion for approval of the minutes.
1:06 I make a motion to approve the minutes from the last meeting. I second.
1:12 Okay. Have a motion and a second for approval of January's minutes. Any further discussions?
1:19 Hearing none. All in favor? Let it be known by saying I I all oppose.
1:26 Chair vote I as well. Um is Mr. Crawford in right now.
1:34 Okay. Well, we'll go ahead with that. Um motion passes 60.
1:42 Uh next item is the downtown presentation staff. Yeah. Okay.
1:56 Good afternoon, Natalie Kaylor,
1:58 executive director of the mic's not on. Thank you. Oh, red is on.
2:06 Yes, y'all.
2:12 Natalie Kaylor, executive director of Clermont Main Street. Um, is the slideshow able to be run?
2:22 Wait. Okay.
2:24 Um, Clermont Main Street is a nonprofit that is um a nationallyun organization.
2:32 Uh, there are ones all over the country.
2:35 They've just passed 40 years and they started to as a as an initiative to help historic downtowns become more viable.
2:44 It started when all of the downtowns were getting moved out into strip malls and big box malls. And so there were all
2:52 these beautiful historic areas that were completely run down. And so this lady had a really smart idea out in the Midwest and she started um doing what
3:01 she called Main Street in her downtown and it's now turned into hundreds of communities um around the country. And
3:08 um Clermont actually was a Main Street a while back and then wasn't a Main Street and then reinccorporated in 2022.
3:17 And um we as I said are a nonprofit and I'm sure you guys have noticed sometimes too that sometimes we get confused with
3:25 the city and vice versa. So sometimes um we get blamed for each other's stuff and sometimes we get credit for each other's work. So it kind of all balances itself
3:34 out I think. Um, but part of the confusion of what Main Street is, and and since you don't have my presentation, I'm just going to keep
3:42 talking and if y'all find it, and you just want to pop it up, I'll pick up wherever you are. Um, we are not an event organization. So, sometimes, um,
3:53 Main Streets can get super bogged down because part of what we do is events that bring people to downtown, but um,
4:00 that's not our primary function. And our primary function is economic redevelopment through historic preservation, education and placemaking.
4:08 So um in a city like Clermont, the first time I came here, the state had sent me in 2023 to help the current
4:15 director and we realized that because you guys have had such exponential growth in such a short amount of time that people have either been here like
4:24 Chuck for 180 years or they've been here for five minutes. love you, Chuck.
4:33 No filter. They've been here five minutes. And so,
4:36 um, a lot of people love Clermont and they're here because it's a super amazing place to be and they love the lakes and they love how it looks and
4:44 they love how well it takes care of itself, but they don't necessarily understand the history and why they should love it and why people that have been here for a while love it. And so,
4:55 um, one of the things that I really, um,
4:57 endeavor to focus on as a Main Street director is helping understand, um,
5:02 where we are based on how we got here and help people feel connected to that past. And um so some of the things that
5:11 we're working on um we do our projects through collaborations with other nonprofits obviously with the city
5:18 government um through sponsorships grants and it is communitydriven. So we have committees um that cover design
5:27 organization um promotion and who am I forgetting economic vitality. That's a silly one to forget. And all of those meetings are
5:36 open to the public and um we do a work plan each year for each of those committees that um the community has the
5:45 full ability to have input on and then we implement those for that year. So if somebody comes up and says this is great, you should do that. I'm like great, it's not going to happen
5:53 tomorrow, but we can consider it for next year's work plan. So, if you ever get offended because you come up to me with a great idea and you don't see it
6:00 happen right away, it's because we adopt a work plan and then we adopt a budget that goes along with that work plan and then we implement that um in a very
6:09 strategic purpose. But it is not top down. It is very much intended to be bottom up. So, the community is the one
6:18 that is formulating those work plans and then it goes to the board who says,
6:22 "Yes, we can fund that. No, you're being crazy. No, we're not doing that. All of those things happen. Um, if you don't end up seeing this slideshow, um, if you just want to ask them to send it to you,
6:33 um, I would appreciate you seeing it.
6:35 But we do, um, I just wanted to touch on the events that we do. So, we do have the monthly wine stroll, the weekly farmers market, um, the harvest
6:44 festival, the um, winter event, and then the haunted house. Those are old favorites that we've had. And then this last year or so, we started the anime market. Uh we took over Moms on Maine,
6:56 which was a small event um that some of the merchants had been doing. We brought in the Fancy Flea event, which is a event that happens at different places
7:04 in the state. Um we transitioned to the Family Food Fest and then also started Small Business November, which was
7:11 something that we got special permission from American Express to do. They have the logo trademark for Small Business
7:18 Saturday. And um because we have so many restaurants and retails in our location,
7:23 I wanted to make sure that people actually had time to go to all of those spaces. And so I asked for permission to do it for the full month and they allowed us to do that.
7:31 Um so those are the events. So we're done talking about those. But how do we do community engagement and communication? We communicate through
7:39 our website. Uh we have a monthly community meeting that meets at 9:00. um on the last Wednesday of the month at
7:46 the Clermont Village, uh we do business surveys. We actually have it out uh once a year where we give the businesses each of the events that we're doing,
7:55 initiatives that we're doing, and we ask them how much it helps or does not help their business because we could have an event that we think is really great and
8:02 maybe we have good sponsorships for, but our primary job is economic redevelopment. So, if it's hurting our businesses, then we have to look at that and re-evaluate how that's being done.
8:12 Um, we also have u an information tent at our market and then um the community meeting is really valuable and I would
8:21 encourage even any of you that are able to come to do to come to that. Um we'll bring up things that are going on um
8:28 that we might might want community feedback on. So two months ago I think Brian maybe you were there for that one.
8:33 Um we talked about the wine stroll and some different things that people wanted to talk about that and some ways that maybe we needed to adjust that. And so it's just a very open forum of making
8:42 sure that we hear from the public on what they would like to see. So what are things that we do that are not specifically event driven? Um when we
8:51 did our last business survey, we realized um I break it down. It's an anonymous survey, but they circle whether restaurant, retail,
8:58 professional. And um we noticed that the restaurants were having less benefit from our events than some of the other
9:06 organization, some of the other business types. And so we decided to start a new initiative for the restaurants. Um we
9:13 don't we're not their marketing arm. So I don't promote the individual business.
9:18 We're supposed to bring people to the district. But what we can do is figure out different ways to profile them. So we started a new video series called
9:26 Face That Runs the Place. And um we've had four of them so far. Um and so we're doing two a month. And we talk about the person the family behind the business.
9:37 So, the first one that we ran was on um the pizza place uh in West End and they had their cute little kids sitting there
9:45 tossing tossing pizza dough. But um just a great way. Then we did Clermont Cafe for people to understand why somebody opened a business. Again, it's that
9:53 personal connection of helping people understand why somebody chose Clermont and why um feeling like they have the inside scoop. Um this makes me sad that
10:02 you can't see it, so I'm going to turn around for you. Um, if you saw the marketing back in February, one of the things in our business plan was we
10:10 recruited a film company to come and record in downtown Clermont because when I was doing the initial uh
10:19 structure survey, we found out that you guys have a history going back to 1922 of having films recorded here. And so
10:28 that to me was a way that is super multigenerational. Everybody's interested in how things are filmed. And so, um, I started doing research, found
10:36 out over 50 things have been filmed here in Clermont. So, we're actually launching. This website is being built right now and it's going to be different
10:44 than our other website because the look is totally different. You'll see it's like an art deco kind of thing. Um,
10:50 we're going to list the films and then do different scavenger hunts where people can go and find those spaces where things were filmed or do trivia.
10:57 Uh, we have so many different ideas that are going to be attached to this, but again, uh, I can't specifically talk about this restaurant, but I can say
11:06 these restaurants all have a menu item that are named after a film, one of these films that were filmed here. So,
11:13 we're really excited about that. The website should be ready to launch um, by the end of May is the target. Um Patrick
11:22 is going to come up to you and talk about the streetscaping that we partnered with you guys on. Um the last thing I would mention is we are in a
11:30 very weird grant cycle with the state right now. Um they have not passed a budget for this coming year. So we have
11:39 made it through the grant phase to get two different grants. One is a $50,000 design guideline grant which will help people with historic houses if they want
11:47 to keep their house looking historic know how to do that. It's very um visual, hands-on kind of thing. The second one is for an an art initiative
11:56 tied to America 250. So, we're supposed to get them, but we don't know if we're going to because there's no budget. They also then have not opened the grant
12:04 cycle, which is supposed to be open right now for next July. So, um normally I would be sitting at um hiding away writing grants and I can't do that right
12:12 now because we don't know when they're going to open and we've been told that they may change all the grants. So, I can't promise you anything for next year, but I can tell you the grants that
12:21 we have written, everything has been approved. Um, that's all I'm going to say. I think everything else you can see on the slides. I'm sorry that you didn't
12:29 get to see it. Anybody have any questions? No. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, ma'am.
12:41 And this is a public man. Anyone in the public wish to address this may come to the microphone, state your name and address and have three minutes.
12:49 Anyone in the public wish to address this may come to microphone, state your name and address and have three minutes.
12:55 See, seeing no one in the chambers uh guys gone, so I guess we'll move on to the next thing.
13:06 Uh but before we move on to the main street, um I've been told that the historical society would like to do a
13:14 quick and brief presentation. It's not on the agenda, but uh we're going to have the historical society give a quick update on what's going on in the historical village.
13:25 Good afternoon, Deer Grub, treasurer of the Clermont Historical Society. And I had lots of time to prepare. I was told about this at 10:00 this morning. So,
13:36 but just briefly, uh, we've got some exciting things happening at the village. We just this past weekend finished identifying
13:45 a huge bin that we had of historical photos that were unidentified. And we've been working on it for months and months
13:53 and months. Chuck, his mother, uh, the mayor was involved several times. And we had sessions where long-term residents
14:01 got to look through all these pictures and pass them back and forth and identify them. And uh they have all been
14:07 filed now. They're all in proper files and most of them are identified at least partially. So it's a huge resource.
14:16 Yeah.
14:17 Uh we have a scanner and a dedicated computer where at some point we will be scanning and having all those available
14:26 online. at some point. We just need to find the time and the people to do it. And the people is always our problem.
14:34 But uh it's very exciting. Uh we just also finished completely revamping the display in the Quanet hut. So all our
14:42 World War II display has been completely redone. Uh we took all the brittle uh disintegrating
14:50 newspapers and papers that we had on file and uh scanned them and now we're showing faximiles and the originals are
14:58 in archival boxes stored properly so they don't deteriorate further. We've uh managed to mount hundreds and hundreds
15:06 of pictures that we had in our files which are now on display which we were not able to display beforehand. We've uh
15:13 changed all the displays so that every display now is numbered and we have a uh a list of what those items are. So
15:22 there's no longer guessing what we've got on display. Everything is now properly identified. So when you get a chance, if you haven't seen it lately, I
15:30 mean it's it's a wonderful display. And uh eventually our next step will be to go and do the same thing in the library,
15:38 which also needs some major upgrades. Uh the trouble is there's ba basically three of us that do the work and uh it's
15:46 it's always a problem for us to have enough people. Um we've been doing quite well with visitors. Uh ironically
15:56 I would say at least 80% of our visitors on the weekends are from out of town.
16:03 And we see this when we have the wine stroll. People come in. They're mostly local. And many many times we hear I've
16:11 lived in Clermont all my life. I didn't know this was here. Yeah.
16:14 So how people don't know that it's there? I don't know. Uh we are members of a group uh called the museum sharing
16:22 society which is a whole bunch of central Florida museum associations or historical societies and it goes all the
16:31 way from uh Winter Garden as far as Zelwood and Sarrento and Lady
16:38 Lake and there's 25 or 30 of these associations. We meet quarterly and I can tell you for a fact that all of them
16:46 envy us for what we have. I mean to you think you know to various county seat should have they have one little
16:55 building. Uh all these other places Zelwood doesn't have any building. Sarrento doesn't have
17:02 any building. They all aspire to be what we are what we have. And so I'm you know we
17:09 really need to support what we have. I think the city has done pretty well in supporting us in terms of keeping up the structures, but uh the general public
17:18 needs to support us more. I mean, we are constantly struggling for volunteers and constantly struggling for money. Uh
17:26 donations are way down, but uh we do our best and I think what we have is is a real treasure and uh people should come
17:34 and see it. If you haven't seen it lately, you need to come and see it. So anyways, that that's all I had time. I didn't have time to prepare anything,
17:42 but I hope everybody comes and sees us. Thank you. Can I comment? Sure. Um, two things that jump out at me.
17:50 First, well, first of all, thank you for all your hard work in preserving the history. That's a big deal. And to those who have done it, it's fantastic. Um,
17:57 one is, uh, Mr. city manager, if we can make sure that our public information office is promoting the needs of both
18:05 historic uh downtown as well as the historic village. Uh you we have a very strong homeschooling community here in
18:13 Clermont and people who, you know, are looking for things for their kids to do and for the adults to do. And so um if
18:21 there's a way for us to spread the word to the citizens of what we need, I think we can work together on that and it doesn't have to cost anything. But the
18:28 thing that jumped out at me that I wanted to interrupt is it's my understanding or insert myself that the
18:35 um first of all the grant program for Lake County tourism is reopening on May
18:42 1st. I do not yet have I haven't seen it so I don't know what the parameters are going to look like. It's a brand new
18:50 program. I'm kind of um the number one target for Lake County tourism is going to be sports tourism, but that doesn't
18:57 mean it's the only thing it supports. It just means that's what the staff is targeting.
19:03 But there are other funds and I believe you mentioned the Tavar's Historical Society. I think it is. I think they're a recipient this year. So,
19:15 if what we have is better, let's put together an application for what we might be able to do if you can show, you
19:22 know, that you're getting so many visitors from out of area.
19:25 We we are we are very close to what Natalie is doing and we we are very friends with her and uh she she does
19:33 whatever she can. She's a grant writer par excellence. Uh we don't have anybody on staff that has any inkling on how to
19:42 write a draft a draft but uh a grant but Natalie does and she does whenever she can she does that for us. Uh it's our
19:51 biggest problem. I mean we struggle along with the money but we manage to make it work and we do uh I set up an invest investment account and that's
19:59 doing pretty well. No matter what the stock market is doing we're doing pretty well. So we have the reserves. It's just the dayto-day that's a problem for us.
20:07 Yeah. And uh our biggest problem is people. Yeah.
20:12 Are you finished? I'm sorry to interrupt. I want to piggyback off your idea if that's all right.
20:17 Um have you considered or you may have already done this. I don't know. Have you considered going to East Rich High School to speak with the guidance counselors high school, the principal?
20:27 Because my thing is co students who want to go to college have to have volunteer hours. So, if you could set something up
20:36 for them, then I'm sure that's where you could tap into them. We have a program going with Give a Day. Okay.
20:42 Otis does that for us and he supplies volunteers for us. The trouble is, you know, they need to fill their hours and they don't want to get involved more than that.
20:51 So, basically, they come and the only thing we can really have them do is sweep and clean and wash windows and things like that because they're not
20:59 there long enough to get involved to be to be trained. You know, you can't train a a dosent in a half an hour.
21:07 And I mean, these guys, they or gals, they come, they spend three hours. What about at Lake Sumpter?
21:13 Uh, it's the same with with all these years. It's short term. They're they're not interested in getting involved long term. And we're looking for long term.
21:22 Long term.
21:22 And uh we do have Well, I was just thinking because if you had people who were like library u majors, they would be interested. We
21:31 we're working on a program with the uh women's club. They have a junior women's club, right?
21:37 And the junior women's club, we've uh donated the space for them to hold their meetings. Okay.
21:43 In return, they promise us those participants, those young ladies will get involved and help us. But so far,
21:51 uh hasn't come to fruition.
21:53 All they've I mean, what they've contributed is they've contributed cleaning services. Oh,
21:59 that's it. And that, you know, they for some reason young people don't seem to be excited about history the way I am.
22:08 Well, and uh that's maybe that's shows my age,
22:11 but uh it would be really lovely if we could get younger people involved for the long term because basically that's
22:19 what we're looking for. We're looking for long-term volunteers. We don't need three hours here, three hours there, four hours there. We need somebody who,
22:27 you know, who comes on a regular basis,
22:29 who gets involved in a project and follows it to completion.
22:32 And and that's just not happening. And those people don't seem to be popping out of the woodwork.
22:38 Let let me say what Mr. Deer was beating around and saying, basically, we got a agent staff over there that's doing
22:45 everything in in the historical village and everything. And sooner or later,
22:49 they they need to be replaced. So, we need to find other people that's willing to put in a lot more hours than just come in and volunteer one or two hours
22:56 here and there, okay? And help replace some of some of them over there.
23:00 We we we need people to get excited about the history. And I mean, we have a we have some real treasures there, right?
23:06 I mean, I I was just blown away when we did the uh the Quanet hut. We uh started researching a lot of these things
23:14 because in the past these artifacts were just thrown in a case and put on display without anybody actually recognizing
23:22 what they were. You know, people were expected to to guess what they were or to know what they were from past experience. So now we've identified
23:30 everything, but in order to identify them, we had to go through a real process to to research this. Mhm.
23:35 And I was blown away with how many things once we started researching them show up on museum websites. Other
23:44 museums have them and they show extremely rare or very very rare, you know, and we have treasures there that
23:51 we didn't know we had and that people don't realize what we have.
23:57 You know, people need to come and see us and and recognize what what treasure we really have there.
24:02 Yes. So we probably need to do some Tik Toks.
24:07 We we again you know people out we you you want to see my list of things that we plan in the future.
24:15 It's just finding the bodies to do it.
24:18 The uh the next agenda for us is to update our website to accept payments on
24:24 our website and also to uh to go beyond the website. In other words, regular
24:30 postings on Tik Tok. Uh, I mean, we do Facebook, but that's for old people like me. I mean,
24:36 everybody now does Instagram and Tik Tok, so we're working on that.
24:40 But it's to find the number, but I'm there every day.
24:43 Okay. I thought when I retired, I'd be able to pick and choose and, you know,
24:46 sit at home and decide when I wanted to do something. Hasn't happened.
24:50 It's I'm doing more now than I did when I had a full-time job. Well, thank you for your service.
24:54 We We appreciate it, Mr. Deer. And um so all the ones we had at the um high school reunion this week came out and somebody identified all them as well.
25:04 Uh all the pictures,
25:05 not all of them, but uh I say twothirds of them. Okay.
25:09 And a bunch of them, we reason we couldn't identify them, they were from Groveland. Okay.
25:13 And somebody came from Groveland and recognized them right away.
25:17 Well, well, I know one gentleman came up and it was a whole group uh pitching and he said, "Well, I can bring you a whole newspaper article, a whole nine yard on the bunch."
25:24 You should have seen what we started with. I mean, we had a plastic bin about this size and about that size full to the top with pictures when we started. I
25:32 mean, you saw it closer to when we started. Yeah.
25:35 And uh most of those I mean 90% of them have been identified at least partially. Yeah.
25:40 At least somebody identified on every picture. So that's pretty amazing.
25:44 So I guess the key now is just trying to get some of us down there to sit down with the computer and the scanner and get them scanned. You know, we we played with the scanner.
25:53 We scanned 300 historical pictures for Kowanas when they had their 100th birthday. So they ran a uh screen in the
26:02 background showing all these historical pictures. So we did scan 300 pictures successfully and it worked.
26:07 So we know the basic workings. It's just to get somebody to sit down and Valer uh uh
26:16 Natalie was saying that uh the there are grants available to get college students to do that.
26:22 Okay. And so we're working. We talked about that in the past. So like she said, grants are up in the air. Okay.
26:28 But uh there's stuff that we got to do. So All right. Thank you, sir. Appreciate that update.
26:34 And I think historical uh I'm a big supporter of historical village and everything because I think it plays a big role in our society here and keeping
26:43 history. I'm a big fan of history myself and some of the things I see down there.
26:48 And um I do know young people don't want to be down there working, but they find it fascinating when they come here. I matter of fact, when I did my family reunion here in 2019,
26:58 um that's one of the thing I scheduled,
27:00 I took my family down and I found these young kids, they didn't want to leave the historic. They found it very fascinating. I thought it was going to
27:08 be part of the one one of the boringest part of what we was doing for them down there. But that's the one place, man, I I had trouble getting them away from
27:16 there. So it was very fascinating to see the uh go into the one schoolhouse and one room schoolhouse and all in the
27:23 chapel and everything. So it's very interesting. But they have trouble want to come down there and work on fulltime.
27:29 But I think we also this council last year also uh cleared it for some of the city staff. I think it's one or two members on the city staff would like to
27:38 put in more time. I think we cleared up for them to be able to uh dedicate more times down as well. So all right. Wow.
27:45 Time is moving. Uh,
27:50 next item is Main Street phase 2 pro proposal 1446.
28:04 All right, I'll try to make this quick.
28:09 Are we able to show? Yeah. Well, there you go. All right. Uh, good afternoon.
28:14 Uh, my name is Patrick Bianke. I'm the board president of Clermont Main Street. Um, we're located at 83 Can you hear me now?
28:25 Oh, there you go. Uh, we're located at 836 West Montro Street. My name is Patrick. I'm the board president of Clermont Main Street. Um, I'm here today with an interesting project. So,
28:34 you heard earlier Natalie say that we have four committees. Well, one of the committees is the design committee. So
28:41 during our initial concept of phase one which is essentially Montro Street from Lake to 7th uh with respect to the tree
28:49 plantings that you've seen downtown that all came through our design committee.
28:53 Um this very similar uh a vision that was cast through the design committee.
28:58 Our our chair is Jeff Powell. Um, and so we just had a recent meeting about this,
29:04 coming up with some sort of rendering as to how we can incorporate uh something much bigger than ourselves. Um, on top
29:12 of the green spine, as you'll hear me call it, of 8th Street from 50 all the way to the lake, right? Um, so if you
29:20 don't know, Center Lake is actually a storm water pond that's very important uh to downtown. A lot of people hear Victory Point. Victory Point. Well, it's
29:28 interesting enough that anything south of Montro Street and north of 50 drain to Center Lake. So, it's very important
29:36 as I go through through that. So, we released this on social media. I'm sure you've seen it. Um, it it got a lot of
29:43 community feedback and the way that I describe it is that it kind of uh gave some inspiration, imagination uh to the community as to what could be done here.
29:54 Um, of course, nothing's set in stone.
29:56 Surely we're looking for feedback from the CRA board as we go through this process. Um, and assuming uh or at least
30:03 if you acknowledge, hey, yes, this is something we want to proceed with, then we would get with all the prospective
30:10 civil organizations and corporate possible sponsorships and all the entities that uh would make this project
30:18 come to pass. Um, so currently we're calling it the Clermont Botanical Garden at Center Lake. Um, so the
30:25 concept is simple, but yet it's powerful. So if we look at the rendering, I kind of want to go through
30:32 what it is and why it's so important the way that it's set up. Um, so the first is the W's edge. So it's about 2500
30:41 linear feet. Um, it it is a continuous what's called latoral planting. So it's aquatic vegetation that serves a
30:49 purpose. So, anything that drains to the pond, that drainage, this aquatic vegetation will actually soak up the
30:57 phosphorus and all the other nutrients um that comes from it. So, you'll see in the legend over there where it says water edge. So, that's like duck potato,
31:07 soft rush, the blue flag iris, you know, those those things are water quality.
31:12 It's a measurable water quality improvement. So just above the water line, so that second tier, you'll see uh
31:20 a transition to more native grasses. So like mu grass for example, I don't know if you anything about muy grass, but it is Florida native, but it also six weeks
31:29 out of the year it'll actually turn a pretty cool pink, right? So that's something that's pretty interesting. Um as well as the sord grass, the fakahhatche grass, which is a mouthful
31:37 to say. Um and then the pollinator meadow. If you look at that other tier,
31:42 the pollinator melt, the coropsis, which is native to Florida, actually grows nowhere else on Earth but Florida. It's our state wildflower as an example,
31:51 blanket flower, the blackeyed susan, the native milkweed, right? So the native milkeed is the host to the monarch butterfly, right, as we know it today.
31:58 Then you have a shrub layer. So everything is low, very low ground laying, if you will. Um, so then you
32:07 have a shrub layer. So the Simpson stopper, the beauty berry, the wax myrtle, and the pawpaw, all Florida native. The pawpaw is actually endemic
32:16 to Florida. Again, doesn't grow anywhere else on Earth. So pretty cool to know.
32:20 And then actually the pawpaw is interesting because it's actually the host of the zebra shallowtail butterfly.
32:25 So that's interesting as well. So above it all is the canopy. So if you look at all the trees, so specimen live oaks, bald cypress, red maple, slashpine,
32:33 these are plants like the live oak for example, you plant it today, it'll live over 400 years. So our great grandchildren's children will be able to
32:40 walk under it. So pretty cool uh to know. So then the 2500 approximate 2500 linear foot of trail, we were specking
32:49 out a shell stabilized shell trail. So it's ADA compliant. Um there's a lot of botanical gardens that use this. One of the biggest ones is the Florida
32:58 Botanical Garden in South Florida. It's a 1.7 mile trail of shell. Um, but again, it's it's permeable, right? So,
33:06 drainage also important, but as well as the ADA accessible and just the naturesque of what a shell trail is. So,
33:15 first things first, water quality. That's huge.
33:19 I already explained what water quality is with respect to water quality. And I'll get to the fiscal impact. There's a lot of grants out there that will support water quality projects. For
33:28 example, the St. John's River Management, they have up to $3 million grant currently open for development with respect to water quality. So,
33:39 that's really important to know. Second is the environment and the canopy. So,
33:44 the pollinator corridor that we're creating is exactly the kind of habitat that Central Florida has been destroying
33:51 for the last 30 years. And when designing something like this, we want to bring it all back into our downtown.
34:00 And then the economic vitality. So, as Natalie mentioned, part of our mission in Main Street is economic vitality. So,
34:08 this is more than just a botanical garden or a park. I mean, we're talking people that will visit the site that
34:15 will also eat in downtown. They'll drink the coffees. They'll they'll meander through. They'll shop at the boutiques.
34:21 There's a lot of that with this project.
34:25 And the fourth obviously is the fiscal impact.
34:29 I Tim Salon from Trey Lake will tell you I mean from property value perspective landscaping absolutely increases
34:37 property value. It's proven uh throughout the entire state. Um but a lot of the questions that I get asked is how do we pay for something like this?
34:47 Well, of course there's tree mitigation funds, but there's a lot of uh grant opportunities out there, which not only is for water quality, but water
34:55 conservation. So, Florida native plants require less water, herbicides,
35:01 pesticides, all the things. I mean, it from a city perspective, it's a long-term cost reduction in your maintenance by doing something like
35:09 this. Now, you could say, well, we'll just leave it and that's the lowest cost. But with respect to projects, this would be the lowest overall cost. Um,
35:19 there's a lot of different organizations out there that offer, you know,
35:23 gardening grants. I think LiveWell actually opened theirs up. It closes May 15th for gardening, right? Up to 250,000. There's so many different
35:30 avenues that we can enter into. And you know, you know, Natalie for almost a year, a little over a year now. She's an
35:39 excellent grant writer. Um, we're absolutely blessed to have her and she will absolutely lock herself in the room to knock these out. Right, Natalie?
35:47 So, definitely definitely interesting,
35:49 but this is not just an isolated project. I mean, one, this is a centerpiece. Center Lake really it's a view um but it's underleveraged and if
35:58 you if you grew up here, you would know that the trail did exist all the way around the lake. There used to be fitness equipment around there and you know, for whatever reason, it got
36:07 destroyed. I think it had to do with water table, but um we're looking to put that back, pay homage to what was um but
36:15 it is a centerpiece to the front of our downtown. And that green spine as you flow down 8th Street, I mean, it's just going to connect with everything else.
36:25 Think about the education aspect of this, right? I mean, there are cities and counties all over that will come
36:32 here just to learn what they too can plant in their houses or they can adopt from a plant book or whatever it is. Um,
36:40 there's that home school. You mentioned homeschool earlier. I mean, how awesome would it be to have that ecological aspect to your curriculum as a home
36:49 school? So, there's a lot of benefits to this project. Um, it is a vision, right?
36:54 So, we're here as Main Street to say, do you do you like the vision? And if you do like the vision, what we would ask for today is a letter of support so that
37:02 we can take that letter of support and go. It makes our grant position a lot stronger. But of course, even after that, if if this is a direction that the
37:11 city would really like to go, the Sierra Bay would like to go, I mean, we still have to meet with VFW, we have to meet with the garden club. There's a lot of
37:19 other civic organizations that we have to meet with. there's a lot of people that we get and our community meetings are for that. We would invite the
37:27 community here. I mean, you're already seeing it all over social media, the the level of support. Um, and that's why we did it that way is to see what does the community really think about this. Um,
37:37 so that's all I have. I know we have 5 minutes left of your meeting, so I don't want to take up too much, but I'll field any questions you have. Um, and we'll go from there.
37:45 All right. Thank you. Um, before we bring it back to the board, um, this is a public meeting. Anyone in the public wish to have anything to say, may you
37:53 come to the microphone and state your name and address and have three minutes.
37:57 Is it a public forum? Anyone in the public wish to address this item may come to the microphone and state your name and address and have three minutes.
38:07 Welcome back. Hi there. I'll bite. Yes. Welcome back.
38:10 I'm on different clothes today. All right. My name is Rosie Moholland. I live on 12th Street. Um I am also a member of the Florida Native Plant
38:18 Society. I am not here as a official representative of Florida Native Plant Society, but we would kind of be out of
38:26 our minds if if we did not think this was a worthwhile project. Um, we'd probably have to go to a different
38:33 organization. So, uh, just FYI, you have two uh, Florida Native Plant Society
38:40 chapters in Lake County. One is right here in Clermont. Uh, Passion BL Flower Chapter is the southern chapter of um,
38:48 Lake County. Beauty Berry is the north chapter. So,
38:53 I'm hoping they responded, Brian, to the social post, but they would be allies.
38:59 Florida Native Plant Society has grants available. Just throwing that out there.
39:04 This might be a project that could leverage some Florida Native Plant Society money. The other organization that's kind of a sister organization to
39:12 Florida Native Plant Society is the Florida Wildflower Foundation who also have grants and I don't like grants in
39:20 general because they're way administratively heavy. I can tell you their grants are like easy peasy money.
39:26 Um, thank you. I love the project. I I think we could recruit Native Plant Society people to support it for you.
39:34 Awesome. Thanks for Thank you. Anyone else? Anyone else? One out there online.
39:42 One online. We have no one else in the chamber. We will close the chamber public comment portion and go to online.
39:48 Yes, sir. Who's online? Jimmy. Uh, hello. Okay. Can you hear me?
39:56 Yes.
39:57 All righty. Uh, this is Anna Sinker, 575 West Minola Avenue, and I'm really happy to see Rosie there. I'm also a member of the Florida Native Plant Society and
40:05 just became the vice president of the Passion Flower Chapter here in Clermont. Uh so like she said, anything you need, again I'm not speaking as a
40:12 representative, but anything you need for to make this project happen, we will help you there. Uh this would be an incredible asset. I have been
40:20 volunteering at parks, uh doing pollinator counts and all sorts of things and this year has been brutal on on wildlife because of a freeze that we
40:28 had and now this massive drought that we're having. So if we have pockets like this that can be a refuge and that can
40:35 connect people to nature so they can appreciate what we have here in Florida.
40:40 This is how we preserve our incredible assets. So yes, the Florida Native Plant Society can be uh an ally here. U the
40:48 Florida Wildflower Foundation and I also I'm going to add uh the Dark Sky Foundation.
40:55 uh through research we have learned that uh the importance of proper lightning in these types of spaces light affects
41:03 nature it affects us as well and I see this beautiful trail and I assume there's going to be uh light there we
41:11 can in the design make sure that we put the right light there so that wild wildlife can take refuge there so that people can enjoy that space uh and that
41:20 it's and so that it's safe as well for everybody. So, yeah. Uh, anything you need? Uh, I'm here for you.
41:28 All right. Thank you, ma'am. Anyone else?
41:32 Okay, Mr. Mayor. Can I Yes. Oh, thank you. Jimmy Crawford here.
41:40 First of all, I'm really sorry to see that empty chair and thank you guys for letting me weigh in. Um, I love the
41:47 proposal. I do I I would like to see as one of the stakeholders uh the Clermont Garden Club be involved
41:56 in this. They're obviously pretty handy green uh thumb ladies and they are a
42:04 stakeholder because they're right there on the lake to start with and they have a lot of knowledge. I don't wouldn't want to turn the keys over to anybody.
42:12 Native Plant Society are fantastic people. Um, but I'd love to see the garden club involved in this process somehow.
42:21 Okay. Thank you, sir. Anyone else?
42:27 And what? In that case, we close public comment. Bring it back to the board. What's board? Patrick, I'm a 100% for this project.
42:35 It's phenomenal how you've presented it and everything, but I do have a few questions. I think you alluded to one thing about educational opportunity. Can you comment on that? Sure.
42:48 Um, in the couple minutes that we have left, so I think from an educational perspective, like I said, cities and
42:55 counties adopt Florida native design. I mean, we have a a Florida statute that actually prohibits HOAs from getting
43:03 involved and as to what they can plant with respect to Florida natives. So, I think there's a huge foundation for that. Um, and then like I said, the
43:11 ecological aspect of it for homeschool to allow that kind of processes in their curriculum to have them come down and learn about that and maybe even start
43:20 butterfly guard. I mean, I'm getting into the weeds, no pun intended, but but I think even starting butterfly gardens at their home and so on like my son, for
43:28 example, we we've done this. We've taught him how to attend and take care of those things. So, all of that from an educational perspective will be important.
43:37 Okay. Yeah. The other thing I think there I read some comments on Facebook about the Christmas lighting program,
43:43 what we may or may not do with the city or by yourselves. What do you think about that? Well, that that's a great question. So,
43:49 actually a lot of people don't know the Kuanas Club is the one that does the Christmas lights. I actually spoke to Mr. Siver today. Um, so I think it'll be
43:58 a collab collaboration coordination between the city Kuanas Club and Main Street. whoever what whoever wants to get involved, you know, like Florida uh
44:05 botanical gardens in Largo, they have a Christmas light ceremony, if you will,
44:12 where you can walk through the gardens and it's just absolutely beautiful. Um I also think, you know, you guys do the enchanted forest, why not do the
44:20 enchanted garden? I mean, all of these things can be unfolded. Um, and I do want to mention because I think it's absolutely important to make very clear,
44:28 um, you know, I even talked to the design team or design committee on this.
44:32 We can, you know, ramp up the design committee, make an agha committee through Main Street to have a seat at the table with respect to the garden
44:39 club and so on. Like, we want to get everybody involved. We want community planting days. I mean, I think it's going to take a village to get something
44:47 like this done. We're not going to alienate anybody. We want everybody to be involved that wants to be involved. So I want to make that very clear,
44:54 right? Because I think somebody had mentioned, you know, partner or with the garden club, VFW. Yes. And any other kind of entities in the city that would work together, right?
45:03 100%. No question.
45:05 Um Patrick, I like the idea. How long do you think it would take to get this um going? So if the CRA board says yes,
45:17 we're we're we would love to issue a letter of support,
45:21 then we will take it. Natalie will will get that start seeking all the grant opportunities because they have different cycles in which we can apply for it.
45:30 Then our mainly my job and the design team's job will be how much is this thing going to cost? How many plants,
45:37 you know, there's spacing requirements and all. And we we want to get everybody involved that knows about that um to come at the table so we can start
45:45 planning and preparing. I presume that there will be a second followup to this to say, okay, we've done a lot more than
45:52 just vision. Now we have some data and this is kind of how we execute this. Okay?
45:58 Because it it may be a little bit different than this, right? Because you have outfall structures off of 50.
46:04 There's a storm water system tied into this. the trail may not be perfect on how I you know so all of that will come
46:12 into play. So I think there's a second followup. We'll try to work as fast as possible. Okay. Um assuming the the board says yes.
46:18 Well, I like the idea and you have my support. Thank you.
46:22 Agree. I love the idea. You've got my support. Um, one thing I uh thought of when you're talking about educational opportunities is um, and I think this
46:30 would be an opportunity for the city specifically to participate is I know at one point with Victory Point there was a desire to have some kind of educational
46:40 space that had to do with water quality and conservation and native plants and kind of wondering when I look at this
46:47 perhaps this is where we could fulfill that promise or an opportunity or a connection point. you know, I know that wasn't realized and I don't know all the details and there are better I know
46:56 Charlene has been an advocate for that so there are better people to talk to but kind of creating some opportunity perhaps it's a phys I don't know it's
47:04 needed if it's a physical space in the garden but I could see this being a really cool spot for something like that to sort of fulfill
47:11 perhaps that promise uh that was made at Victory Point. So that's one idea. I have other specific ideas but I can talk
47:18 to you all about those. So, um, I love this. I think it's amazing. I think it's a great destination placemaking piece
47:26 for the city. I love the direction that we're moving in with native plants. I'm personally inspired as a homeowner down here who is not into landscaping. I'm just copying what downtown is doing. Um,
47:37 so I Yeah, you've got my support on this. Thank you.
47:42 Uh, Ditto. Um, I heard you say that you were looking for a letter of support.
47:49 Um, I'd be willing to enter to enter a motion for a letter of support for conceptual vision of the Clermont Botanical Garden at Center Lake. Um,
47:59 knowing that the actuals, the timelines,
48:04 the funding, the conceptuals, all of that will come back for approvals through CRA, through city council. But I think it would be incumbent upon us and
48:12 we'd be remiss if we missed the opportunity to go ahead and say conceptually, let's issue that letter of support. So I'll move that.
48:19 I'll second it.
48:22 And can we funnel any other comments or questions directly to you? 100%. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Or or Natalie.
48:30 Sure as well. Okay. Thank you.
48:33 Oh, I'm all day and twice on Sunday on this one.
48:36 Okay. Well, I'm all I I I love the project. But I do have a couple of concerns. Well, answer the one on the on
48:43 the Christmas light display uh and everything cuz I as the corners member and the one that helped put up those
48:50 displays, I was always so concerned about that because this uh residents really love those displays so we can work together there. Uh I love the idea
48:59 we have the trail going around there and think we've been asking for a trail around that lake for quite some time now. Some years ago, we've been trying to get that done. So hopefully we can go
49:08 ahead and get it done. I'm only concerned with um the number of plants there, you know, is it going we going to
49:16 put too many around there that you won't actually see the lake? Uh and that that that concerns me and everything, you
49:23 know, I mean like that and will people still be able to get to it and fish because we still have a lot of fishermans down there as well. So if the
49:31 number of plants around there, I think we have to probably make some areas where they'll be able to get to and fish as well without having to go through all
49:38 the all the plants and all. So may I answer, Mr. Yes, please. Um, so if you look at the the rendering,
49:46 you'll see kind of a a trail off where it it appears on a 10,000 foot level there's a fishing pier there. So the
49:54 idea um yeah as you come wind down a street you you'll walk left and then go right
50:00 there. That is where we slate for a pier. May not be in the best location.
50:04 It probably could be in a different location, but the idea would be to have that fishing element to it. And as far as the planting and and it looking a
50:13 lot, remember that plants have a separation requirement, you know, and it's a lot of ground cover. So it's not like it's not going to look like Jurassic Park.
50:22 Okay. Okay.
50:23 Where you can't see the light, it it'll have a lot of ground cover. So, I think that'll address your concern. And the more visualization as we get through the
50:31 more technical like we're going to have renderings that you'll see as you're walking in, right? As if you're standing there and what you're seeing and the
50:38 topography on 50. Remember, it's so much higher than here, right? So, you're going to be able to see right in no problem.
50:44 Yeah. Because remember where you spent a lot of money putting the fountain in that lake and everything some years ago and everything. So, I still would like to see that visual and all that. is
50:52 there. But we also have people that not just fish on Wednesday, they fish all around the lake. So if we can have maybe weeds, couple more
50:59 couple fishing among fishing spots in there and everything.
51:02 But uh I I love the project and like I say mainly specifically the trail because we've been trying to get that around there for quite some time. So So thank you.
51:12 And I envision Yeah, I was going to say and I envision we'll we'll we'll have those specific conversations, right?
51:17 This is conceptual 30,000 foot view at this point. And do we support the vision? You know, I mean, there's a lot of things that we can do there. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
51:26 Thank you. Yeah. We need to vote on that. Not yet. Not yet.
51:31 Mr. Just real quick, we muscled somebody out on public comments that was online.
51:36 Would there be a chance for them to sneak in their comment?
51:39 Okay. If they was waiting and we we we didn't allow them. Let's go. Go ahead. Online then. Thank you.
51:46 Thank you. This is Jenny May. Can you hear me? Yes.
51:50 Thank you. Thank you uh Wayne for uh doing that for me. Um this I wanted to add on to a lot of the people that were
51:57 on there. So um as being part of the young patrons of Fear Tropical Gardens back in the past, um I want to
52:04 congratulate Natalie and Patrick, people at Main Street, well done. This is going to be an amazing project. Um it does
52:11 bring it's going to be bring a lot of people education, awareness, uh environmental awareness, everything. Um
52:19 the most important thing too is and it's funny because I had brought this up during the DPZ Sharette was it's going to be the main entrance, one of the main
52:27 entrances from 50th um onto uh historic to our historic downtown. What a beautiful site for anyone to drive in to
52:37 see that beautiful botanical garden as the first thing before they go in. Um questions to
52:45 Patrick or Natalie or anybody from Main Street. um seating areas uh for people to sit, enjoy uh using any of the arts
52:54 in public places um concepts in it as well since you are pushing the art uh in public uh places all the way up to you
53:02 know to the lake. Um you know benches can be which we had ideas at Fairchild Tropical Gardens we did you know benches with butterflies if you're using the
53:10 pollination areas. Um, uh, also the wall that's on that building that's right next to the lake. I think it's I forgot
53:19 the name of the company, but there's a a wall. Maybe there's could be a a beautiful art mural to kind of incorporate with the botanical gardens.
53:28 But little things like this, but um, but 100% incredible work you guys um, hooray
53:35 and thank you for doing this for us for city of Clermont.
53:39 Thank you. and you'll see updates on Clermont Main Street as we unfold the the next step. Thank you so much everybody.
53:46 Thank you Mr. W.
53:49 Yeah, quickly Mayor um as you know with the CRAAS the things that enable you and your guard rails are your redevelopment plan. So I just wanted you to know what
53:57 kind of enables this and I want to read section 3.4.1 real quick. Um so in your redevelopment plan it says that you
54:04 shall under 3.4.1 4.1 State Road 50 and Center Lake entryway redevelopment create a sense of arrival and create a
54:12 window to the downtown at the intersection of State Road 50 and 8th Street. New signage, pavement markings,
54:18 streetscaping and entrance features should be incorporated, as well as enhanced water features in Center Lake, which you've already started. So, great.
54:26 Thank you, sir. And you you say sign. I guess I need to get with Kirk because I'm still looking for the digital sign in that entrance there at a street as well. Okay,
54:38 we still need I think we we talked about that before to improve that that look down there as well. So, but any other comments? Okay, I have a motion and a
54:46 second for a letter of support u for this project. Any and no further discussion? Let all anybody in favor let be known by saying I.
54:55 I. All oppose. I all right that was Mr. profit online. He was I'm I'm assuming in support right
55:04 and I chair vote I as well motion passes 70 over thank you and hopefully we can get this project going very soon.
55:11 Good luck.
55:13 Well, thank you. Anything else need to come before the board?
55:16 Yes, I would like to bring up um me. Um can we get a workshop scheduled? I know that was actually something that we talked about in our last CRA meeting and
55:25 I think it fell through the cracks, but uh looking at the community redevelopment agency plan and the strategic vision for the CRA, having a
55:34 workshop where we can um discuss what that should be. It hasn't been updated since 2015. So, I know that's something that we want to update and I would love
55:42 to see us have a little bit more precision around what we're stewarding as a CRA. I don't think it has to be this big thing. I think this is
55:50 something that could even be facilitated internally by uh city staff potentially,
55:56 but just to to pick up that ball and move it down the field. Uh if we could get potentially a workshop scheduled like the last two
56:04 weeks of May. I know we're holding some space for that.
56:06 Miss Mr. Well, I would love to see a workshop too and I would like to have Mr. were present at that workshop whenever we do it because I not only
56:14 that but I would like to look at uh increasing our CRA area and everything of the CRA and we can talk about it at the workshop as well. Okay.
56:24 And just request really clear facilitation. Um sometimes I think we arrive to workshops and there's not a lot of clear facilitation. So from uh
56:32 city staff or whoever is relevant um to that be facilitated well and really taken advantage of so we can come away with.
56:39 So M a good plan.
56:40 Mr. Van Wagner if you'll look at our workshop schedules and everything and see which one we can work
56:48 that in on is uh hopefully before the next CRA meeting 3 months from now. Uh somewhere in between here and there we can have a go ahead and workshop and do
56:56 that. U and when you like I say I would like to have Mr.
56:59 present at that workshop because I would also like to talk about increasing the uh CRA area of CRA. So even though even
57:09 though the Tallahassee is talking about trying to get rid of CRAAS, I think we need to press forward. Okay.
57:14 Is there availability on the 19th or the 26th? I know we're doing a budget one. Yeah, neither.
57:21 I don't necessarily think it has to be on a council workshop Tuesday. Yeah,
57:26 this is CRA. we we can find a time to pull for the CRA to be available um and
57:33 have that workshop. I'm willing to take a survey of availability and and have that plan just for that rather than
57:41 try to fit it into a council workshop time. Agree.
57:48 I'm all for it. Okay. Anything else?
57:53 I I'll get with all of you and we'll schedule a time. I'll try to do it for May like you're requesting. So I think I'll see what I can do for you. Thank you.
58:00 Well, thank you.
58:02 If there's nothing else, I'm uh adjourn this meeting.