for many years with an opening prayer led by our city attorney randy intervene that will be followed by the pledge of allegiance we ask that you join us by standing if you're able the team that disappeared or ran away today reported in a certain oh and pray that she be found quickly and safely in the family be restored and then also that she guide the discussions tonight so the presentation can can now and i will be reading items that are on the consent agenda those are all things that we will approve with one vote at the end of that reading if however you came in order to speak to one of those items and you would like it handled in its sequence as a part of the meeting i will open that up for you to come forward to the podium and ask for an item to be removed and could you please read those for us item four b to approve the minutes of the regular council meeting help march second two twelve one to approve a lease with ronald means heiser the greeley substation site in the amount of seven hundred fifty dollars for the two thousand and sixteen calendar year item twelve eighty two to approve a contract with northwest can't mechanical company in the total amount of thirty nine thousand six hundred fifty five for services to demolish and reinstalled new fluctuation paddles and celery equipment for sedimentation base and number two at the wastewater treatment plant pending approval as a form easement rights to allow the building of the natural gas pipeline in the one thirty eight k v interconnect line in support of the how an energy park item twelve a five to approve a contract with more embracing in the total amount of one hundred thirty five thousand eight hundred fifty for design and construction support of the two thousand and sixteen live station upgrade project pending approval as supported by the city attorney item twelve a six to approve a contract with and t h consultants are limited in the total amount of seventy nine thousand two hundred for that call yard closure pending approval as supported by the city attorney i am twelve is seven to approve a software license improve agreement for the p i historian control system subject to city attorney approval as to form i am twelve b one and i am seventeen eight to accept and place on first reading proposed ordinance to rezone portions of a loving east thirty second street from the r one one family residential district to the p r deeply and residential development district with a hearing scheduled for april twentieth two thousand and sixteen regular council meeting for final adoption met with a hearing scheduled for april twenty twentieth's regular city council meeting for final adoption twelve b three seven and seventeen c two accept in place and first reading to fifty to fifty four to sixty to sixty four to sixty eight to seventy to seventy two to seventy four to seventy six to eighty two eighty four to eighty eight to ninety four to ninety eight three zero two three zero six three twelve east eleventh street and two sixty eight fairbanks avenue from the r t r enter dition a residential neighborhood district to the easy education district with a hearing scheduled for april twentieth regular city council meeting for final adoption twelve c one to approve an agreement with the city of allegan police department for the use of seat belt convincer during two of time a national night out as part of the hauen public safety our efforts to provide in part an educational component to attend the in the events twelve d one to refer claims filed against the city to the city's insurance carrier and city attorney for consideration item twelve easy one point one two accept as information the m d in your update at fifty one map with no changes recommended i am twelve eve one point two two adopt a resolution approving mbak contract number fifteen dash fifty four seven new four for improvements along main street for the improvement projects along  to execute the documents on behalf of the city twelve e u one point three to approve the participation in the state of michigan's drink purchasing program for road salt for the two thousand and sixteen seventeen season per the amounts listed in purchasers report i don't need two point one to schedule a public hearing to obtain citizen comment on me at annual action plan in the propose use of fiscal year two thousand and sixteen community development block grant entitlement funds for the regular city council meeting to be held on wednesday april thirteenth two thousand and sixteen here at city hall i don't twelve efore point one to declare a surplus bicycles acquired by the police division with venomous and jenny have been beamed to the downtown howland principal shopping district board terms to expire december thirty one twenty twenty thank you so much i am so she has read all of items is there is maybe one of those if you would like to handle separately in its order in the in the agenda if that's the case please come forward to the podium give us your name and address in the item you'd like removed from that list evening bill circle forty two east lakewood boulevard i request that item twelve b two and seventeen b which addressed the proposed text amendments to section thirty nine to eighty four regarding off street parking in the arts here in district be removed from the consent agenda ok anyone from council want to remove anything from that list ok seeing man you know would you call the roll please have a motion for so i'm sorry motion to abatement application we are going to cover that then we're on to public comment is there anyone in the audience that is here that you came to talk to about something that is not later in the agenda so of just if you are here to talk about something on your heart please come forward to the podium just give us your name and address and you have five minutes to address the council judy muller one seven six nine five p m rankling grand haven michigan  you are aware you're probably aware judge post in hudsonville has announced that he is resigning from his seat this year so i'd like to announce that i will be running for that position for the fifty eighth district court in hudsonville i want to tell you a little bit about myself professionally professionally i work for the ottawa county prosecutor's office i have worked there for twenty percent for twenty seven years as a prosecutor in that role i a prosecutor crimes going from homicides all the way down to mr minor cases am one of three senior attorneys in the office at this time my major role or throughout much of my tenure at the prosecutor's office i've been involved in prosecuting cases of child criminal sexual conduct i was involved in the onset of starting the children's advocacy center back when i was at the little blue house and i have been very involved and been a key prosecutor in handling those cases throughout the years additionally i have i'm currently serving as the twentieth circuit court drug court representative from the out of kind of prosecutor's office personally i'm married to don mulder he's a contract contractor that does marine construction in the area and i have two children and when eric andrew is a police officer with new a go city and eric is currently studying plastics engineering at ferris i look forward to in the next few months getting to know many people in ottawa county and i am happy to answer any questions about my qualities but i want to accept a little bit prior to being a prosecutor for twenty seven years i also was a nurse i graduated with a bachelor of science in nursing from de paul university in indiana and i practice nursing both on a patient care level as well as training nurses i worked for seven years as a nurse so i look forward to answering any questions and appreciate your support on august second and hopefully again on november eighth because there will be a primary thank you thank you judy appreciate you coming all that you have done for children over all those years thank you so  and i like my job but i am interested in becoming a judge and so i plan to run for the other judge post judge ed post who is in circuit court has announced earlier this year that he is going to retire at the end of the year so judge ed post who works in the circuit court in grand haven is going to retire so i'm making that announcement that i am running for that spot i have that twenty seven years with the prosecutor's office where i handled everything from murder jury trial to traffic tickets and everything in between and i also have done some work with studying paternity and child support also work with abuse neglect where we abuse neglect cases in the family court so i feel like my role in the prosecutor's office has prepared me very well for the docket that judge post is going to be leaving i do have some civil work experience as well as in between my two prosecutors offices i worked at smith and we race and robie which is a civil law firm in grand rapids so there i learned how to do depositions in iraq tori's civil matters and also did a trial and actually in front of judge townson and to a county when i worked in grand rapids for that firm personally i am married to mark meet a mother who is a plastics sales person so he sells to plastic injection molding machine companies and i have two daughters katie and molly they are twenty and twenty two they go to hold college so that's where most of my money goes right now and i interested in any what anybody who wants to support me were willing to accept help and so we would encourage you to get a hold of us and we would welcome that support and we would also ask for your vote we don't have any brochures to hand out but we have something better than that  tomorrow we are supporting each other in our endeavor and so you can remember our names when it comes to the voting booth we have some m and m's for mulder and for me tomorrow and we're going to leave  thank you karen and just want to confirm with regard to the text a moment some thirty nine to eighty four will be there be an opportunity later this evening to address that urgent for that that be done well by you and i think you indicated earlier was for anything that wasn't going to be on the agenda later i didn't see a public hearing listed for that i just so ok if that's going to be brought up again later i can do it at that time you know we took it off the agenda at the consent so you can talk at that time thank  you my name is brian plus five zero seven nine hundred thirty sixth avenue hamilton michigan a question to you mayor i guess is to start out with in my allowed to address the civic center issue or is it something that that's later on the anyone else have something they would like to talk about samuel we have sam zoo zero with us today and i asked him to come in because he is a part of the story of ring cam and i don't know if everybody has heard about their business but i thought it would be great because i notice that ring cam now has a store front over across from st francis de sales and you're obviously growing and doing well and we would love to hear the story of bring cam because i don't think probably everybody has thank you so much mer for the opportunity first off my name is graduate the same year and so it was a craze our senior year where one of our friends was getting engaged and we tried to figure out the best way to record that proposal without anybody interrupting it whether it was taking pictures of the bush's or maybe you know leaning out of a tree and taking pictures just didn't seem like it make that moment very intimate and so we made up stuff in a camera inside of a ring box and fast forward to that the actual proposal resulting video is just incredible and it was at that moment we decided that maybe this is something we'd like to do in the future for maybe sixteen months to where one of the videos that one of our friends at posted on line was actually featured on good morning america at the time many of us are to graduate from hope and really weren't expecting to start a new business but with the high demand in phone call our phone just ringing off the hook we all had to move back to in the ahl and in the summer of two thousand and fourteen since then we've launched our business we're on the corner of thirteenth  maple as in the mer said and are just really excited we service about five hundred companies between us canada and japan providing our product as a marketing service forgery stores so if you're getting engaged in the near future we do offer were more and more that the feel free to comment stuff and i know that that's not the platform to do it but just also just want to say thank you thank for the community and those of you that have support us in the past and there are so many people just from hope college and the community that have supported us even just with that encouraging notes about building a small business so thank you so much and thank you mayor for this opportunity seeing you to tell us a story about the jewelry shark tank group oh sure and so last summer we we re invited to j c kay which is one of the largest jewish shows in the world and there's about twenty thousand jewelers from around the world come to the show and we are invited to be basically the jeweler shark tank which votes for the top innovation in jewelry and so last summer they brought us in wasn't sure what it was it end up being a breakout session of five hundred different jeweler experts who pretended to be like your mark cuban or mr wonderful wasn't the same scenario but that being said they'd grill you on different figure out how to better market yeah as a product we are more and more turning to a referral product one where if one jeweler is able to use the ring cam and really celebrate with their customer it leads to five ten fifteen more potential customers in the future and it's a model that we're doing both digitally as well as just in person so it's a great story thank you so much thank you so much for your time and to everyone thanks for having me thanks for coming in our hope college kids doing great thank you anyone else come here to share something with the council yeah he needs to get that back no one can propose in the back thank you very much so now we go down to the item that was pulled from our consent agenda correct ok no visual tonight for this one because this is a text amendment so thank you marin city council members which you have in front of you tonight is a proposed first reading of an ordinance amendment  to section thirty nine dash two eighty four and this specifically is an off street parking section in our t r around the traditional residential neighborhood zone district and really at its core the recommendation from the planning commission is is really rather simple and really rather brief the background story to it is much more in depth that i don't know if we want to get into that tonight or save that for the future study session which i think you want to do but really in summary the proposal is to use to make some small adjustments to subsection b in that subsection and really cut introducing the words in this central neighborhood district and you can notice that in the ordinance that's that's in there a couple times and then there's some other language dealing in that subsection b to the talks a vote of parking lot of corner lots those were all or defenses that were or sections of this ordinance that were inadvertently deleted last year while we were doing some other amendments in this section so we just really want to bring these backs of this is so those are just very much a housekeeping matter the real issue is in regards to proposed subsection c to that section which is dealing with a number of parking or the deals with the number of vehicles that are allowed to park on a property in the t r in district so currently the ordinance reads that there is a maximum of six vehicles are allowed to be parked on any property and so that includes all residential properties that includes all churches schools and in other kind of nonresidential book permitted uses in the t r n district we were alerted to this by the gentleman who a spoke up to take this off the consent agenda and i'm sure bill will have some comments too but there was actually a bill circle in his client that came to the planning commission in november and said i think we've got some issues that you might want to take a look at  in this was really truly one of the issues and that is that we believe the original intent of the ordinance when this was done back in two thousand and twelve is that this the six parked vehicle maximum should be for residential properties and that it really apply to all of the properties so in the planning commission very much agreed with that mr circle and his client were also pushing to say would you be interested planning commission in really kind of loosening up that to to allow some additional cars to be parked on residential properties specifically in instances were a property is allowed to have more than six residence or six unrelated people being able to reside on a property and in their case they have a duplex property  thirteenth street that legally is able to have ten students or individuals living on that property and currently there are maxed out at six vehicles allowed on that property and they very much would like to see more than that allowed in it probably be allowed they would like to be able to see the number of parked vehicles come coincide with the number of residents that are legally able to reside at that property too so all of which to say than this was funneled through the planning commission and planning commission held the required public hearing on this last week actually and is forwarding recommendation to you that it be changed so but that the language just read that a maximum of six parked vehicles be allowed per property for properties that cane that contain one  residential units and so then basically any non residential permitted uses churches schools etc do not have to abide by this cap so the so planning commission is recommending that that there still remain to be having six vehicles per residential property and that they kept remain ok thank you mark the third time with me being up here you can tell i'm eager to address you on this issue this evening so thank you for being willing to consider it bill circle forty two east lakewood boulevard i'm here tonight on behalf of c b r properties l l c i did submit a letter to you late last week i circulated that by e mail i hope most of you received it i'm not going to go over everything that was in that letter but i do want to highlight just a couple of things that were discussed there just for consideration purposes and i also know that you're thinking of tabling this and having a study session but i think this would be some helpful information for you to have going into that study session first by way of just limited background in most of you who are here remember this probably painfully so but a couple of you are new i'm counsel more here at the time but several years ago a coun addressed the issue of the number of unrelated adults within the hope neighborhood area and ultimately landed on a limit of six unrelated adults prevailing at the time that those ordinance changes were being considered there was also changes being considered regarding parking in the whole neighborhood area and again at the end of that process there were some restrictions put on the amount of paving that can take place in the rear yard and there was also a cap placed on the number of parked cars per property and that was six cars per property now at first blush that seemed to coincide nicely you have six unrelated adults you have six parked cars everything should be fine the problem we've discovered is that the language regarding the number of unrelated adults applies per dwelling unit whereas the language per cars applies per property so in situations where you have a multi family dwelling a duplex a tri plax a fourplex all of which are allowed in the r t r in district you have situations where you can have more adults than you can have a number of cars and obviously particularly so with the fourplex you could have four couples in the fourplex eight couples living there but you're only allowed to have six cars per property which creates somewhat of a problem that's particularly still with one of the properties that my client owns that it applies to several of them but my client situation has a duplex at forty two east thirteenth street that duplex kind of highlights what i think is the real nature of the problem and that is that this ordinance is take into account the size of the property my clients duplex sits on a double lot under the ordnance if they were to single family lots which they're large enough to be he'd be allowed to have a house on each lot and a total of twelve cars between the two of them because it's a duplex however on a double lot he's only allowed to have six cars it seems to me that that would make sense to take into consideration the size of the property at least when you when you look at that but i think the other issue that i want you to think about is really what are we trying to accomplish with the ordinance what is the purpose for limiting the number of cars at six what is the goal behind that what is the problem that we're trying to solve and i say that because we can speculate about what that problem is perhaps we think it's not nice to live next to  multitude of cars parked next year but if the parking area is large enough which it is in the situation of my client in his case he meets the paving requirements he's been allowed to create twelve parking spaces he just can't use more than six of them you can have ten unrelated adults he can have twelve parking spaces you just can't use more than six the other the other six spaces have to sit vacant at all times but when we look at this area of the city first of all i'm hoping the neighborhood area but secondly the central neighborhood district because one of the things you're being asked to do is to expand this now to the entire central neighborhood district when we think of that we say well what do we have going on in the city well look at this look at the lot that exists here on this property it's next to a residential area look at here public library it's a parking lot next to a residential area look at several of the parking lots throughout whole college there next to a residential area there are many examples throughout the central neighborhood where you have parking next to a residential area and it's more than six cars and all those uses are fine the only situation it's not allowed is with a residential property such as my clients and i think if we think that this is an important issue why are we not applying it uniformly why is it being selectively apply and i say that with regard to one other issue hope college night on the consent agenda was it was a matter to rezone an entire block from r t r n to edi and i want to make sure we're clear we have no objections that request we think it's a it's a wonderful project in support of college in that endeavor the issue though is by doing that whole college will not be subject to those parking restrictions in essence my client and hope college compete for the same customer hope college students over hope college by being zoned e d gets an advantage they don't have to comply with a number of unrelated adults they don't have to comply with the parking provisions only the private landlords do i think if we say that the parking issue is a concern it ought to apply uniformly and i think the way the ordnance is written right now it doesn't give some an unfair advantage but i appreciate your consideration of the issues  know their property as well right now we have a study in the whole area of parking about the city of holland this is an issue parking is an issue on street off street and i think we have to be very careful and make sure we  look at this very carefully before we simply say you know go ahead i don't so i'm going to vote no on this and have because i would prefer that it would go to a study session that we could drill into it a little deeper i don't know if i can do that since we already have a motion on the floor so they can i can i can ok i will make a motion that we postpone twelve to do a study session to  table yes right is there any discussion on the table unlike yes thank you for asking i just had a feeling i said that i guess i don't understand the the reason for the tabling don't go along with it but this is first really we're not taking any action other than first reading we already discussed that we're going to put it on this they session final reading is april twentieth if we don't agree with it at that time through the study session we tabled at  that point i guess i don't understand the redundancy rate had been brought to a study session even prior to being brought up on tonight's agenda and i think there are many times items are put on this agenda for the public session where we we might have been better off putting another study session prior to that time first reading there's a there's a level of momentum and  the vote is three yes six no and i will need assistance from the city attorney but the result of that vote is that the tabling motion fails and so now you can continue on with the discussion of the production the city managers office is pleased to report the following gifts parks and recreation department for the recreation division received sixteen dollars as anonymous donation for the cell press collar ship program another parks division parks and recreation department received five hundred dollars from hayworth for how when in bloom and when my iman gardens renewed received don't donation box monies in the amount of six hundred fifty eight dollars and thirty nine cents that support what we do and even box of donations from visitors that windmill island gardens six hundred dollars and more that's awesome sometimes you have to come from elsewhere to tell us how important the things we have are it's really really great to see that support from so many people now we're going to the long awaited so exciting presentation of the civic center plan and so many people in this audience are becoming a sport group for each other and as the cast of people walked in at the present pretty meeting study session i was like yeah i know those people and that is a great group we're very grateful for all the public input in this process and for all the expertise of people that were brought in and the dedication of so many on the steering committee it is a it is a very special moment in the history of holland michigan with this presentation and the civic center thank you so much scott school have for chairing this committee and jay peters for code chairing it and now we thank you for being here tonight and pretty soon you'll probably be handing it to greg why camp from edgewater resources thank you shortly thank you mayor i just one set the stage briefly before great way camp who headed up the design team from edgewater resources leads us through the proposed plan for the civic center our group was charged last fall by the city with a pretty challenging task of we were charged with taking a run at something  that multiple attempts have been made over the past twenty thirty years as to what do we do with the civic center and the surrounding area but the task that was presented to us number one was to create a conceptual plan for the renovation and redevelopment of the entire site which includes the building and the market also we were challenged to say how can we activate the market area seven days a week also the challenge was thrown out could this become the heart of the of a new residential neighborhood over the next number of years again how do we make the farmer's market more active other than for wednesdays and saturdays also at the same time can we develop a recreational program for residents of all ages income race and abilities because there was the sense that the civic center was a place that was always very welcoming to a very very diverse group of people in our community and probably the most challenging task that was ahead of us was we were to prepare this plan within a budget of eleven million dollars and that was the real sticking point and the real challenge that this group wrestled with during the past few months because other projects came in with a much much larger price day and the challenge that we readily accept as from the start we thought you know what we can come up with a great plan within the budget that will be that we can get very very excited about that will solve a lot of the issues that are currently there but also lay the groundwork in the framework for expanded activities on that site in the building and at the marketplace so again we kept that eleven million dollar bogey out there the entire time of course during the process and we're not going to talk about that tonight there's all kinds of things you can do you know there's all kinds of wishes and hopes and again going back to the start we were charged with developing a plan an overall plan that we can work towards but again most importantly we have an eleven million dollars plan that we're very very excited about and hopefully you'll you'll you'll sense that excitement and get excited about the plan and we can c e to move forward with that plan so with that i'm going to turn over to greg why camp again greg headed up the design team that wrestled with all the hopes and wants and desires and actually  put the framework in place for this plan so with that great devor council thank you very much i want to start before we do anything else really recognize all the efforts of the council the steering committee and most important a community we had a large number of meetings a very public transparent process and a tremendous amount of community input will have are going to look at data with thousands of responses to a survey hundreds of people came to meetings and met with us and i think what's most interesting about this process where we start out knowing that this is a project that's been attempted two or three times here and seven well what's going to be different this time why are we what are we going to do that that's going to succeed now that didn't succeed before why what what was the challenge and the answer that we thought was can be found and most importantly by meeting with the community  starting over and saying what's the really the essence of this place what's important here what's critical here and how do we build on that so we did that we step back started back in november with this initial vision in session your teammates arabs want to do a quick index we've demand supply and there they'll be working with the on the precipice of the steering committee we have quite a few members here from the string committee we had members with seventeen members on the steering committee we met almost every other week since november tremendous amount of dedication from that group so as we went through that process and the first things we did is we want to come up with kind of a guiding statement and that's the vision statement that you have before us but it's all about the civic center is what's special about the place and it's going to jump ahead a couple because a few words can jump out the civic center isn't just a building it's not just the market it's not just a gym it's a place of beauty and it's about these ordinary moments of every day that happen in holland that we sometimes the show is it over like it's got a little bit like oxygen you wouldn't it unless it wasn't there you know these places have extraordinary value and what we learn from the community we have these meetings is that there are activities that happen at the civic center that just aren't supported anywhere else and they're very important things i'll show you a few of them  but it's where the more people feel welcome in this community than anywhere else you know and holland is a diverse community we reached out to many many different groups and organizations and i think pastor will actually turn the project early with a real focus on  sixty years it's a great building built with good salads good solid bones one of things that we early quote question was you know do you just not the thing down and start over the answer clearly was a resigning no there's too much value there to actually try to recreate that building new would probably cost i think christie about roughly double just because there's so much good structure and value there but again looking at that next step and really continue to serve the broadest range of residents in this community and doing in a more capable way making the building more functional more capable clearly it's showing its age it's worn it's a lot of things are out of date but we can fix those things but really ultimately celebrating what the civic center is about the heart of the community making every space that we build in their flocks more adaptable one of the things we used to do is we used to build this real purpose built the sill it is and you know when you look at those those banked step the seats up above if you're not sitting there watching show those seats are particularly useful to you so that was kind of a model we want to look at things and say if we build something and if we change this can we make it so that that space has multiple uses at all times so that was always a guiding principle for us so we came up with a vision working with a community and as as a scout outline it we really had t a fully renovated civic center imagines an improved market we did a specific market workshop that really determine that our market works great there are some functional things we've got to fix and there's some definitely other issues to address and talk about those but we have so many good things to start from certainly looking at ten acres of open pavement in downtown holland is not really compatible from an urban design standpoint with anything else in downtown how and it's kind of a strange space to be in it's fabulous when the market's there when two times there and when the when it's empty it's  kind of the most nerve it's almost unnerving you're there and you expect a tumbleweed to roll through so we wanted to break that space down with some some landscape and start to be more gracious to the neighbors bring the scale down while still maintaining the parking and making sure that the function works its very pragmatic plan so it's a process of continuous community outreach we've had many many meetings i go through them a lot of different concept designs and that are approach we presented a number of different concepts community feedback change within the feedback and moved on go deep into all of those at some point if you'd like to but we had clearly different directions we got clear feedback and i would hope that the folks that participated would would would acknowledge that we certainly did lessen  this with a list of some of the public meetings this doesn't include any of these day call or the steering committee meetings all of which republicans well so for every one of these meetings or at least one and often times to stake out their meeting steering committee meetings to make sure we're on track so many many meetings were here last on the last one there march sixteenth this is sort of an end of this first conversation and hopefully the beginning of the next conversation here's a quick summary two thousand seven hundred sixty three people responded to our vision survey which really presented a huge range of images of what the space could feel like and wasn't meant to be where i want to exactly that but as a means of the of the public to communicate with us things that resonated with them in a visual way because it's often difficult for the general public to speak architecture and you know w organizations like i said pastor will in many many others four hundred people came our public meetings we got huge mailing lists thousands of hours of effort lots of time spent on this process to listen and gather feedback you know there was a point in time there was a clear data driven survey of what should be done of the civics and i just brought this in here because the blue says renovate it the red says build a new one ten percent weren't sure what to do so there's clearly you know but this is back a few years but a really clear assessment that there's public support for what happens there with the building and make it better but when we did our survey of the visual these jumped through a little bit but what you're seeing here is that sort of green color that you see was people that reacted well that image so you can see for example movies in the park or you know spaces for people to gather and meet and play games you know the pickup basketball game many people don't even realize what happens there but for a buck and a half or and it's a different side of the new than you usually see or usually think of maybe but you look at the green this is what the community was really bragging positively to night activities really came out as as a key goal there so you can see this one just a beautiful wonderful space where people can walk and feel safe and comfortable in the evening so some of the summary of the of what we heard was that this is the civic center is the most inclusive place in holland i think we all think of holland as a very welcoming open friendly place but there are many people of different demographics that don't feel that same way they look around and they may feel like i don't know that i feel as welcome as you think i probably do but at the civic center ray says consistently that's a place i feel welcome we talked about that as it related to  aquatic center when we worked on the parks and rec plan the parks and rec plan looked at that and we heard a lot of a lot of folks some of the nerdy communities don't feel welcome at their product center and i don't think that's because anybody doesn't want them there but it's the way that facility operates it is since it's such a high investment at an elite level and it's so programmed that you know compared to bowers pool which is sort of a more relaxed environment there's a really clear preference there and we took that lesson to heart with this is that some of the activities that happen at the civic center are really more about this this comfortable welcoming you know it's fun it's recreation and wellness and we'll talk about that some more but this idea that clearly need to be modular and flexible and after all all of our spaces need to be multi use early on we really recognize that a really when the project enhance the market provide functional parking of course we do have a small reduction in parking physically on the site but we came up with a really simple management strategies to make sure that we don't negatively impact the way that the market works providing a more diverse programme offering really key and really want to make the space good for everyone rather than great for one specific use of pick on the pool and it's met it's really operates at the sort of elite team level this is really meant to be about wellness instead of fitness and sort of recreation set of competition so it's kind of a different feel on the spectrum of recreation of what and jeremy and the park team does all the day so ultimately it's about the ordinary things becoming extraordinary sista few images of the ordinary things that are extraordinary course the market markets looking at you know the holland christian best ball game if people complain about the basketball court i say this every time but dan and david were asked to design a new gym for him and the design directive is make it feel like the civic center gym that's pretty good sign so you know they got the guys find the airplanes that's just such a cool thing you've seen it come in there in a thursday morning course we have never built a space for an indoor model airplane flying but when we have one and we have the opportunity it's a great we're for this folks to gather in the winter and really celebrate  together it's kind of a cool activity of course the festivals the different ethnic festivals that are supported up there are going to show you know the parades that happen out there and of course to a time all these things like you know i've got twenty more sides like this with you know the cage match and roller derby a these crazy things that happen in this building you don't really think about ultimately we thought of them as the orphans there's places that don't have another home and taking you through this process because i think it's really critically important to realize it's along a little bit but i want to really get a sense of the process and how we got there here for two of time in the tour buses show we should put our best foot forward and have a space that's representative of the quality that we have here and right now that's not living up to how on standards it's kind of a layer of detail we've described throughout the processes is how and quality which doesn't necessarily mean it's the separate taking advantage of existing drift up spaces where thousand feet from the lake which is kind of crazy one of the big things obviously is how it continues its march to the water and we're on the thousand feet at the civic center and that's very close you get up on the roof if you haven't been up there call really energy efficient open the door for energy tax credits for example that my you know save you two million dollars in financing this project which is huge so we're looking at those strategies as well market specific comments creating more and more kitchen and more market programming one of things as relates to wellness we want to create more of an opportunity for the market to be sort of a way for deriving education opportunities for the community to serve bring more customers to the market bring a more diverse clientele the market more diverse vendor op portunities and then more training and classes you know there are many folks in this town who might come into the market and not necessarily know how to cook all those specials are not you know i don't want to do something new so this demonstration kitchen would be everything from you know the garment chef series teaching how to make special  this was this is where we started was really the bigger vision we'll talk about that activity more often and that's really a programming activity we talk about how we're going to program this but ultimately a plan with them live in million dollars so i'm going to take you through that that plan and show you scott said we have what we are very proud of as an eleven million dollars step one and how do we get there so one of things that you see here in this presentation is back to the overall view we certainly had a few other items that it's  the audience here that yellow is a little difficult to say there's a few other items on the very north edge that someday maybe a parking garage where there's a little yellow box around there ultimately someday we may look at extending the canopy as we might look at a second jemma on the south someday looking at mo park space there are more things out there in the vision that we can come back to over time but a real key is that this is a beginning point and it starts a conversation when we talk about a new residential neighborhood it's really more of a dense neighborhood as things in that area that part of town evolve to the west and maybe to the north of course protecting the historic neighborhood to the south as a priority as well our basic our eleven million dollars budget really focuses on the area inside that red dotted line there will go into greater detail so could we have a broader vision there are some other elements would love to see happen in the parking areas and over time will be setting priorities and continuing to separate is this conversation between the vision and step one is really want to priorities more than  something because there are so many good things on here that what will we'll be choosing from many good ideas so starting with the market some very specific pragmatic things gutters utilities you know not all the areas have  power and water for example or just simple marker so when a market vendor sets up at six in the morning half in the dark trying to get their current right spot for example creating additional twenty four covered market stalls including sixteen new stalls one of the things that we're going to do to do is about double that which is basically make it about the size of this full room if we had if this these curves were here so expire expanding that space when the building comes up and engages the market engages it's tree but it creates an indoor space that in the summertime of that whole edge that whole wall that was a street that whole edge would be roll up doors are opening doors so in the summertime it opens wide open it's like an indoor open air market in the wintertime we close those and it can become an indoor market currently we have  a winter market and and bill and others and they stand out in the freezing parking lot trying to sell vegetables sort of come inside create that activity that's also a space that when it's not being used to the market can be used for additional play additional programming meetings all those things will also create twenty four more covered stalls plus sixteen additional ones so that's more capacity for the market and more covered areas and that's really critical that some of the vendors also looking at completely new restrooms which of course you need desperately there's a lot of traffic that intersection a market morning we can change the light patterns everything stops for a minute let the pedestrians cross and you don't have to worry about the cars turning left regular traffic patterns you just let it go and we don't change anything for rush hour reorganizing the aid a compliant a clearly the a parking was oriented around the building we need to change how that works to make it function much better for the market a west bank or the market really is obviously focused to the east when the when we have the north pole expansion we also look at an outdoor extension of the civic center they go to the north it looks like a park but it's really an extension of the civic center activities of programming and market activities to really create a more balanced site and enhanced the market in that way some play environment and more of this wellness programming so that some of the activities that jeremy's going to program will actually be outside in the space and then finally more demonstration cooking activities this is probably the most important thing as it relates to a really fundamental change in how the space works and how it's activated it's  about programming and this really came from our friends a project for public spaces we clearly need better programs for daily vendors the system is evolved over time but it's maybe time to elevate that thinking about how we get more diverse markets there's a real desire for you know could we have a thursday network oddo could we have friday nights movie in the markets for example different activities one of things that that the market folks told us they don't want is about here and once and saturday i do not want to come back on sunday and monday and thursday it's the way the market they have to grow food at some time right so you have the one stand saturday markets which are stay the same and then we create a different type of market activities to program and activate those spaces as much as we'd love to physically build something that makes people come down there it's other also more diversity opportunities for for the vendors there's folks who would love to get in there but it's a waiting list it's hard for me to do that if we create different types of market it creates different opportunities then finally parking man strategies that if we were to build up the full vision we lose about seventy parking spaces out the six hundred forty and exact number talking about you know simple strategies like having the employees of the market vendors park to the northeast in the next block over we can show you all that if you'd like to dive into the details but often i think we came up with a very pragmatic solution th  that's the north pole expansion that blue dot is that is the is the new restrooms they'll be accessible from the indoors and the outdoors so you can have the restrooms open early in the morning without opening the whole building simple functional things and the new entry of pine  and that would be the new entry sign there that red began another element is sort of a glass casco welcoming place out in the market so when you come out and you know where do i find you know the guy who swears rudy who sells chocolates i got to find him and in those kinds of things maybe you get your market box there so all of these elements here come together to create a new space thinking about that entry again breaking down the spaces make it safer crossing more shade more trees more pleasant landscape will top of the crowds here in the small screens but  package what you're seeing there is not a fixed sign where the where the where the text is that would be like a high def t v screen basically so that can change constantly one of things we want to think about is that it's not about the marquee of the building it's about the whole says space so we wanted to pull the signage and information off the building and starts to say these are the activities happening in the place in civic center place not at the civic center building and so all kinds of different activities and it could be all kinds of information there as we think about the western anchor that's really you can start to get a sense of how the building expands to the north and also that that green space to the north of there is play space it's market space it's program space for jermyn to do more activities  and these are the kinds of night market things we definitely want to know market activities there was a huge huge desire for that just to get a sense of what some of these places could feel like having some splash headphones out there for example so kids come out and run and play you know obviously a lot of programming activity if you want to have that active while the market's on that you know soaking the kids could be fun my kids would love it but again these wonderful spaces you know imagining a walk through it's currently parking lot and feeling like this is something that we think is really special so  as we dive into the building we're just see here is again that obviously you know what so it's interesting that in the southwest corner there this was the sort of overall full vision of the building and of course like any project you know you can you can just keep on going and keep on going and so this covers a whole range of things everything possible the whole entire wishlist and what we want to do is as we focused on this is established a bunch of priorities so i'm going to actually focus on what we're proposing to do is step one but everything on this design is built to be modular so that if we choose to not do something now the building is set up that it could be improved or added or brought in later so we were not preventing things from happening so the building comments we heard was clearly it needs a complete renovation this is actually what we're doing you get a complete renovation of the existing existing civic center activities so if you did nothing else essentially everything that happens there now that jim space new bleachers new sound new lights the paint everything feels great the lobby space you come in it's something you're proud of it's when somebody comes in from out of town you feel good about it the gym works better the stage works better we don't necessarily have a goofy power thing hanging from the ceiling if you have some of our public meetings people thought that was pretty fun just bring this place up to up to speed certainly fixing the time for air conditioning in a building after sixty years it's time and that's going to make the building much more active in the summertime than it is today acoustical stage rigging lighting and sound new bleachers all the finishes will be touched the seeds on the upper decks we're going to level some of them and show how that works but the ones that remain in their current configuration we're going to fabric a new paint so they're there ready and ready for another fifty years and certainly code improvements or some things over time that have had slipped out of code compliance will fix all of us the north pole expansion this is so basically the first side says take the building you have now and completely bring it up to code bring it up to speed all the uses that you used to having there are now completely done in a more functional more beautiful space just like you have now so that's sort of your sort of baseline now we're adding to that and this is all within our proposed step one budget  is the real key expansion is this north hall that i've been describing so one of things we want to do is level the northern number jack and so when you're standing in the gym and you're looking for a date street you've got that angled upper deck we're going to take that structure out because concrete and steel we're going to level that useful for it can be classrooms it can be a dining it could be a wedding reception it can be partitioned into different you know a yoga studio or indoor player is for kids in the wintertime you know who doesn't and if you've got kids you know in january some point you've got a lot of run somewhere all those things can happen up there many that pivot is that happen on the gym floor today like pick a ball don't need that giant high space they could happen up there so we could keep basketball happening while pickle balls happening and different things can happen in multiple spaces indoor juran market spaces we need it we're not trying to create a market like that down hunger nappers market we're trying to create a space where the market activities are used to seeing can come in and happen and then they go away and it becomes another use for an day flexible classroom spaces the balcony overlooking st we certainly want people to engage with that and being on that upper level you'll be of look out and see the lake we also improve the lobby the lobby entry what we call the family room a real this building is when you think when you compare it to you know like a full on you know fitness center when you know first thing you do you come in and you check in at the thing they did your peers and you got your your pass or whatever this is the space where people who feel welcome that doors on all sides they come in they decide down there welcome they're waiting for the kids to get done with their activities or they just want to come in and sit down and read a book in a comfortable space the restrooms of course improving offices of the team there makes do with a lot of dated stuff asians and of course it is a compliance so this is the building and the purple space you see the purple rectangle you see right in the middle that's the gym space there is a green rectangle to the are the toilet room so that's the new restroom facilities the horn space just above that is the new office space currently they're separated into two sides of the entry we're shifting the primary entry point to the north east to the north more so what may not look like much of an expansion what you're seeing there is that green space just above the orange rectangle is about five times wider than it is now so when you walk into the lobby today you would walk in right through the arrow is there through the orange that's where you'd walk in today  in the future that would be off a special come in to the north closer to eighth street and the whole all the men's room facilities there will come out and the area will open up and be dramatically wider and more gracious and then the green rectangle across the north of course is that expansi expansion of the north to its street and then that space has a higher better off than it is now or higher a ceiling currently is than eleven feet maybe and we're going to bring it up to maybe fourteen as that space works so you'll have a higher base space now and then you have another space above that and that space will be designed in the future you could add a third floor on top of that if desired so that's a quick overview of the building in the northwest corner there is also additional storage and catering kitchen space the upper level deck the east and southern opera level stay the same the north would be leveled and we'd replace the seats with risers bring seats in and so that space comes and goes in is more useful that way but when took time comes we can do the same thing we've always done and have tons of people there are other kinds of events and with air conditioning we would expect to see many more events and we currently have and then future we've been led to get up on top of that yet again and keep on going up so so the kind of character again in terms of a space what i want to show you with this picture is those are big roll up doors and so if this is that northern edge along its street view lots and lots of doors the design of the building of course is going to follow the existing structure but what you're seeing here is the kind of activities you'd like to see this is the farmer's market in flint but you can see there's folks on the upper deck there will have folks on the upper balconies above the norm hall looking down all the activities on the street the market and then this is the kind of character of  that family or mob in space when you come in you have more of an open feel more of a welcoming feel than we do today and this is the kind of demonstration activity so what that looks like here is clearly what you see is the primary part of the building you can  recognize where the existing structure is and then the north expansion there's that vertical glass on the corner that's the entry lobby space that also houses all the vertical circulation the elevators and stairs the north hall as you can see is now further out towards eighth street and is engaged eighth street there that's where those activities will happen on market days and then on the space you'll see some renovations there with the new restrooms in the new office space occurs there looking from the other  side again just getting a sense of the new park space that new extension of the of the wreckage to the outdoors and different things that can happen there so that right there is step one and we're very very excited about that because we think it meets all the goals and initiatives that were put before us i think it's a really thoughtful pragmatic set of priorities decided on and that was through the tremendous effort of our steering committee so you know open up for questions and disc you have a couple of questions first of all as a member of the steering committee i want to thank everyone who's been involved as you've indicated there's been a tremendous amount of energy and time invested in this to come up from to this billy i mean this is the eleven million dollars version and have you know we were to add like a third level to the north side or a little bit different facade in the front and you know all that stuff that we don't like to have but our frugal side saying well maybe not in my mind the it's it's important i think to as we go to the community with this and ask for their support in different way said to have those options out there invisible and also a price sort of attached to that because you know as as you said you know in this town we don't do stuff half baked i mean when so we don't do things badly we do them well thought out but i think i rather purchase alluded to this others too that there is a point it is possible to come back in the future and add things to this concept but there is a value i think in thinking about what is prudent to that because it will be more expensive in the future to add things we all know that in the future there will be other projects that at the moment will occupier time and take priority so whether or not we would actually come back and do these things  to say nothing ever of the displacement and disruption of new construct so my point is i think it would be a good thing as we roll this out and offer it to the community to have those options listed oh i'm site of what's being proposed here which is a very very good good offering with some prices included with that i think of their maybe those in the community who would like to live leave part of their legacy connected to this project and to give them that opportunity i think would be a good thing so yet just really quick again thank you for all the people who have worked on this and i have attended a number of meetings although i was not on the committee i think the civic center has been for a long time a place where what words are going to be had what's going to of course at the civic center and this is sort of a given  we're going to have an i don't know it's probably going to be at the civic center area and that's what we've done for the last fifty sixty years and we can go back to its origin and i'm sure if you've lived in hollow you can make a list in your mind or on a piece of paper of how many events that you've gone there from and i want even begin to do that i think the community needs a place where it can meet and case rain or shine or whatever this is where we can meet and have a program if there's an emergency we know where we can go if it's a great time we can go there if it's a festival we can go there and i love the flexibility i love the idea of the restrooms being open so you can go if you are in the building they're available and then the exteriors i think is a real asset  and as we move to the western gateway that way it looks like it could be the right time i think it's a great idea you guys did a great job with flexibility and i'm not sure exactly what the next step is going to be but it sounds like we're on our way i think you should ask the driver that if there's any more comments or questions you know like sure but i'm a counselor for a long time we've been talking about this for a long time so i'm glad to see it coming together i think greg you and the group came up with a great compromise there's a few things that everybody's going to have to give a look over but it's going to have to take very personally labor day for me with this new parking truck parade is going to have to find another place to go makes me sad but also some of the exciting things that might be able to happen within this area there was a few of us that were old staunch ones way back when when people were saying tear it down it's no good i don't know we better stop think about this for a second so i'm glad to see a repurchasing coming of this you in the group have done a fantastic job or we're going to please everybody absolutely not is this a vision for the city i think you hit the nail on the head does it give us some future endeavors to get into absolutely as you said it's modular it continues to build as the city develops in different ways it can be moved to tweak just a little bit it's not going to be a stagnant building for another fifty years so you graduations there's a lot of work to be done yet a lot more discussion to have i'm glad the openness all the public meetings that came the public input and i don't get excited about much i got kind of a stone face but this is launched the final launch to the public was the day that he passed away and you kind of feel like you lost a soldier that was going to help with this whole civic center the dream and  coming into reality and of course his was the great quest out to the public what if someone would want to donate to name the building and that's what generated the two million dollars gift from the generous hearing us and would talk about all the different things that happened here and i'm sure he remembered things many people didn't i talked to one person who said he was there in the eighty's with his dad and johnny cash performed and johnny cash came out and said boy this building's  that's all that's really all you know we're not overdoing this we definitely do need to do something and it is just awesome one person called in and said yeah i remember when i went to a wrestling thing with my dad there that was so awesome and then he called back again a couple minutes later and said you know i'm going to go there with my son because he's about the age i was when i went with my dad and i want that it's the keeper of stories and  it is gone from one generation to the next and that is a precious thing and just a couple weeks ago i was working with esther felt ski and some vietnam veterans because this is the fiftieth  year to commemorate the vietnam war and if ever there were a group that we did not treat well that deserved our highest respect they would be the group and we wanted to reach out to them and have an event  here on the thirtieth of april to recognize them and to say thank you and so we looked talked about all different places to have it and all different staging and and finally we came down to the civic center and i thought how appropriate because in the civic center it's big enough to house a lot of people we could maybe have a choir on one side and and the band on the other side in the riser areas that we could have a timeline that the museum does to teach about what that war progression was we couldn't house also the michigan the michigan commemorative statue that they have for all those who gave their lives  in the vietnam war and we'd have the space to house people and and have a meaningful ceremony and i thought how how appropriate when you think of all the different places to go everybody goes back to the civic center it is the civic center and it is really exciting to see all of this come together and i know it wasn't easy but it was handled with such grace and goodness and we're really grateful for all the work that we had into it and now do you want to talk about the future sure yeah well thank you that's again it's a this is a huge team effort this is the fun part of it is that this is been about the process of listening and your finding finding this place so it's pretty exciting what comes next you know what we call design development in architecture virtual world is we've got a great concept we've got a great vision we need to continue to refine the cost estimates we continue to refine the pieces and parts of the program use a program that's the activities that are going to happen in there and just you know how much building space or how much of this or how much of that so we'll continue that process review potential of additional funding sources there's a pretty good is out there you know one of things that th is you know there's not chasing pictures here and second of some of the other things that we could do is is as you guys going to watching process and decide what's where are the priorities because that's what you do primarily it's about reviewing priorities and choosing among many good ideas  to look at that and so finalizing the construction budget over the next six day weeks maybe twelve weeks whatever that takes that's a really key point in time when we say ok that's that's what we're going to do and then the design team will dive in and get those drawings done working with chris and everyone else we expect to be under construction this fall and certainly that would be an interesting challenge is that they're thinking about the bidding schedule on the construction schedule once we know the construction schedule jeremy is the bund ask of relocating were fourteen months chris chris as fourteen months of construction going to hold them to that it's on the record jeremy gets to figure out fourteen months of alternate programming sites so a lot of that activity happening but one of things for  review all these things and help think the priorities in terms of what we say completing the vision you know there are some potential immediate funding sources that we've identified for example those those potential it's a very important word potential two million dollars credit finance savings that's a state program that if we can get the energy efficiency we know we can have that may free up it reduces the cost of the bond and it could it could be as much as two million dollars kinds of things folks who might want to sponsor some things corporate sponsorship grants there are going there are grants out there that could help us with green infrastructure and other elements public private partnerships one of the things that is a really useful tool that's not used often enough is figure out how to partner with you know jason developments in adjacent projects nearby but you may have opportunities and access to grants that they don't and you can leverage and partner and build something that benefits them or they can build something that benefits you like we did with our project at harbor shores and st joseph also really working together the developer was able to build a bunch of public infrastructure and in return the city managed to get grants to help construct parking for example and so there's a ways that you know just being really open minded and creative about how this works there's opportunities there to study and really remaining flexible over time to vision is going to adapt and change and grow but you're definitely right anything you know there's always the question of what's that going to cost and that's always the question is when are we building it and the thing we build now is going to be less expensive than anything we build later because a year from now still costs more and everything costs more but it's also now your tiptoeing into the building that has more finishes versus now you know  in this in the step one it's really all about the northern expansion the north pole the biggest move that we propose beyond that would be really expanding the east to all the east family room and so you have a little bit more of that space and what's kind of interesting about this is that space sort of an envelop the existing wall you'd actually look through that glass and still see the remnants of the civic center up there you'd still see it as a part in a piece of it but you have a much more wonderful flexible space a lot of different things you can see there's the third floor on the north pole expansion which gets you a bunch more square footage that's useful so these are other opportunities there's things on the back side of the building which just again i saw in the  parking area thinking about you know it when you look at that green space to the north i showed you a companion picture earlier or where that was the green space it could also be an ice ribbon and so rather than having an ice rink that you're skating around in a circle this is like skating on a ribbon through a park like skating through a path which is a really wonderful light in a much more interesting exciting here's a good photo of what that could feel like other things we could do in terms of that green parking lot of green in the parking and the landscape out there that's the strategy is meant to be overflow parking that's reinforced so that you can park on it two or three days a week for the market but our parking consultant identified the fact that vast majority of the time we have about three times as much parking as we need when the overflow comes you can park on this so what you're seeing in the upper right corner is the structure the lower right corner that green space is the exact same photo from the one above and so you can actually drive on the grass without destroying it and protecting it and that's really good green infrastructure in terms of taking care of water demands and so on and then trees in the park and don't necessarily have to take up parking spaces you can see here in this image so lots of different ideas that we're working on but creating spaces in the park this could be a space that you would feel in the parking lot because you could create a walkway that breaks that scale down yet when we need the parking demand on the weekends or for the market we have it still it's just a lot of different ideas but one of the out there for you lots to consider and i want to thank you for your time tonight and for trusting us with this project we really appreciate the opportunity thank you thank you so much i want to open it up for public comment to those of you from the audience that came to speak to this project if you would come to the podium and give us your name and address and you have five minutes the green that is keep going t yellow dot is one minute the red dot is it's over gotcha ok great five zero seven nine hundred thirty sixth avenue hamilton michigan i was one of the farmer's market representatives listening to the comments here tonight i had kind of a speech written but i listening to the comments here tonight the comments are this is what the people watts this is what the people like this with the people the city of holland want for greg and a staff we've done a wonderful job on this project i i applaud them i don't agree with the project but i applaud them for the prop the only way you affirm their work is by bringing this to the vote of the people because that's your comment your comment that this needs to be affirmed by the people but yet this counts i stand before this council today knowing full well that this council has no intention of bringing this to a vote to the of the people i know i speak for the majority of vendors at the market and equally confident that my voice represents the concerns of the support of the citizens of holland to begin with the farmers neither indeed initiated this process nor have they sanctioned this process so that's just in my firm belief this process what it has been nothing more than smoke and mirrors to placate the farmer's market concern vendors and the citizens of holland at their debacle of june thirty twenty fifteen had council been forthcoming and honest and not broken policy after policy we would not be standing here today prior to the aforementioned date mayor dykstra and city manager cotton were fully aware of the public's distaste for written renovating the civic center yet they accepted the donation with conditions to alter a publicly owned building i challenge you to find another case as such they accepted this donation i argued that this was a huge error in their judgment council has compounded the error by accepting the donation without public publicly vetting the donor something that the public had absolute right to know what it was donald trump fred meyer or mr they didn't debate as to the need of the donation in light of the residence and willingness to renovate the civic center and without recognizing the greater burden would be placed on the taxpayer both up and upfront costs to the t twenty million which by the way out i'll mention that publicly for you that the project is twenty million dollars phase one is eleven million dollars and the future operational costs which nobody on this council has mentioned what are the future operational costs of the civic center now you'll have no idea process this is a clear violation of city policy and state law the contractor awarded the contract prior to the completion of the design no bid was given this is also a violation of city policy are to be made sealed and determined by counsel do we know if the project is actually only fifteen million dollars instead of twenty we don't know you don't know and finally the mayor authority was purchased ownership and operation the community pool from home public school system for one dollar the authority began almost immediately to plan for a campaign for a bond issue to fund a finance school  hundred six the pool community voted overwhelmingly in favor of the eleven point two five million dollar bond issue facility design was then refined construction drawings were completed and the project was bid was broken in ninety eight and the project was completed in ninety nine that's good enough for the pool that's good enough for the b p w main is building if it's good enough for the public schools it's good enough for the renovation of city hall it should be good enough for the civic center i ask you that you bring this to a vote of the citizens let them decide if the farmers need to have a farmer's market like this thank you thank you bye anyone else has something to  say nathan box seven twenty lockwood drive also a member of the civic center steering committee was a great pleasure to be part of the committee and i appreciate the fact that the council allowed me to participate i'm also a member of the two time board of directors and i think that was probably the reason why i was on the steering committee but i'm also a citizen of the community and a heavy user of the civic center above all counsel i i would really like to say one thing to you get it done that is the charge of the steering committee that is the charge of the citizens of holland i agree with the comments that i heard tonight that the people of the city of holland want this project the people that i talked to in the city of holland who know that i'm on the steering committee have told me that they want to get this done the civic center it's our front porch it's our living room and it's our family room it's where we come to meet it's where we come to celebrate and where we come to play we come to the civic center to buy our fresh fruits and vegetables to play a game of pick up basketball to go to a gun train or doll show or to learn how to dutch dance my wife and daughter there tonight learning how to touch dance the civic center is where we come to do many of the ordinary things of our lives in its service to the ordinary the civic center is extraordinary for the last sixty years it's helped us create lifelong memories of daddy daughter dances graduations and basketball games it's where we went to the circus to see our first elephant it's where we had our first elephant here at a two of time parade it's clear that the civic center has been showing its age for quite some time frankly our front porch needs a facelift our living room is not suitable for our guests and as a guide for the two  time festival for the last twenty three years i can tell you it's embarrassing to bring our guests into our living room at this time and frankly it's barely functional in the family room the civic center steering committee was asked by the city council to create a plan to renovate the civic center in the surrounding property spurred by a generous two million dollar donation or charge was to create the best plan possible within an eleven million dollars budget and to that end the committee rolled up its sleeves and with the help of very hard working and i would to say very very responsive and thoughtful professionals we helped many meetings including meetings with stakeholders and users of the facility the first big conclusion that we get we gathered from those meetings with the stakeholders was that the civic center is used by a broad cross section of the community more people feel comfortable and at home at the civic center than anywhere else in holland even in its current state of disrepair it's one of the most used facilities in the city it's the place to go frankly when there is no other place to go it's utilitarian and it's functional but it could be so much better the second big conclusion is that many people in groups want to use the civic center building in sight and they want to use it even more we learned it needs to be a place where the current users continue to feel welcome but it also needs to be a place to welcome new years or and frankly to welcome back those who felt it is no longer suitable for their needs because of that wide range of uses a renovated civic center needs to be flexible modular and adaptable it shouldn't be perfect for any one user or group but rather good for everyone it should be the first place residents think of for activities and intertainment and it should be the hub of activity for  community that is at the same time both impressive and familiar it should be a place we are comfortable living in and a place that we are proud to show our guests fulfilling every item on the community's wish list would greatly exceed the eleven million dollars budget but i believe that a plan within that budget falls short of what the civic center should be it falls short of what the residents of holland expect and it falls short of the can of continuing the extraordinary legacy the civic center has created how it has always been a city of big ideas for thought and investment in the future holland has always been willing to invest in quality we want things to last and we recognize that by investing a bit more in the beginning we'll save much more in the future and for those reasons the civic center place steering committee discuss two proposals for the council to review one that falls within the eleven million dollar initial budget and another the committee believed represented what the civic center play should be the consensus of the committee was to propose a plan that meets the needs of the site the desires of the residents and the spirit of the community the cost would be well below that of a plan that would provide everything for the community but a plan that would create an attractive inviting and functional hub of community activity and enhanced plan would create a true civic center the hope is that the residents supporters investors and donors will see the value of the civic center place and be willing to invest publicly and privately  another sixty years of extraordinary experiences and memories regardless of the plan that you choose above all get it done thank you thank you an i do question though and they kind of challenge in such we heard multiple times today that this project represents kind of the most inclusive center in holland like community and yet very few people of color y population changing demographic that truly is represented in this room so as we move forward i hope that that will be a focus kind of spark some community input from various angles are more than what it has now so thank you thank you for being here the other comments from the audience came here from texas and civic center has been really nice so it's like it's too bad it's going down there at a nice memories in there and it's too bad you guys can't put a little t l c into a beautiful place you know but you guys are going to tear it down at least wait till i have my son here that is a birthday party because last july the twenty fifth and is his birthday he was coming home get hit by a drunk any other comments starting i guess in the fall there were two main pictures he saw an eleven million dollar picture which was what the council asked the committee to come up with eleven million dollar project and there's also a larger vision and we don't know how people are going to respond as far as giving toward this project so for the next three months we're going to pre be pursuing that list a great head up there of private public partnerships ways to include donors private donors and corporate donors whatever and we'll be putting together a way to finance whatever and then we could possibly go to a little higher number that's what nathan was talking about and doing that eastern side of the building as well as the northern side if we can ok two more questions richard the first one is is are going to be a web site in case people do drive past the signage to see what is actually going to be there during that time for siri website now because i hear people talking about a lot of different things still going on presently but when i go by and look at the marquee usually there is nothing on the murky saying hey tuesday night is pick up basketball game or something like that is or a website that we can go to now how do you know what's going on at the civic center question holland dot com how and recreation dot com for those who couldn't hear it on t v thank you thank you we'll be talking about bindings there later any other comments from the to if i can't hear i think if the elephant in the room is how are we going to pay for this i don't think that decision is really been made yet so it's an open issue and we haven't really even discussed it before throwing some ideas around but that's still you know we're hoping that people will step forward and you know give us some directionality maybe those private people in those people are kind of really looking at first so we don't really have a campaign right now is open no decision has been and we'll be re addressing it on the thirtieth at our study session and the other comments fund raising or any plans to finance yet march thirtieth it will be under study session and the city council whole budget deliberations on april thirteenth and fourteenth and probably i think that first monday's eighteenth  so i expect that that will be a subject of conversation during those study sessions of the entire city budget so does someone have a motion to accept this is information you know support wow ok that and same sign if you're against it say i think everybody likes it as mushy as i did that ok thank you so we have the information and we'll talk about it on the thirtieth and everyone is welcome to return for that meeting is a study session every one of our very busy election very complicated election and also give her and her team our support is she turns around and focuses on the very next election which happened the very next day and i think is scheduled for early about the backgrounds and look forward to working with the holland sentinel any way that we can the second thing or third thing i want to say is on the march thirtieth meeting we just mentioned that you will want to get a nap before the meeting we have so far scheduled b r t r and paving subject that we discussed a little bit tonight broadband fiber works will have a business plan they want to discuss with the city council the home energy retrofit program and last but not least the civic center place so maybe not in the in that order i will figure that out later but that's all scheduled for march thirtieth and the last thing i'd like to say is i  don't think there's anyone that has served with me and talked about the civic center that doesn't know where i live so usually what i have said to the individuals involved is that i live at the corner of maple and eighth street and but that should not change anything that anybody thinks or wants to do about that neighborhood that but i do want everyone to be aware so there will be no misunderstanding  about my involvement which is simply professional  the and that concludes my remarks thank you ok there was a usa our usa today article i think that came out either today or it's going to be in the tomorrow paper about two thousand cities that have elevated lead in their water and that seems to be the question for the for the country nowadays and in relation to flint but if you have questions about your water source here with the holland just please go to the holland d p w web site they have put on their water quality study back on the home page in case people have questions they also have ways that you can work with the health department if you want to get private testing for your water but overall our waters tested about fifty thousand times a year and our percentage of flood is below as you can go up to fifteen and ours is below zero overall so it is this is excellent water that you're drinking here in the holland area also we are in competition for strong being respected as a strong town that is the first year for that competition we are in the last sixteen of those we'd love to get into the elite eight the voting for our city versus fargo north dakota opened yesterday at eleven a m so if you go to strong towns that work please vote for us and then stay tuned because  to the final four and we'd love to do march madness be by being designated a strong town love to have your involvement in that also the grand rapids business journal just published that michigan small business development organization designated fifty companies in west michigan as being the one or ten ten of the fifty of the businesses you should watch in michigan are located in west michigan and three of them are located in holland it's abt core partners and code blue and i t c incorporated are all going to be recognized as businesses to watch so we're happy with our new businesses talked about tonight or these businesses also that are are flourishing in holland we're so grateful for all of you that took time out of your evening to be a part of this great study and this great discussion and we're very thrilled to be at this point with so many things in holland to do any council members have something to say j a couple things well i was a little troubled by mr poets comments i don't it's not nice as a someone who penned tended almost all the meetings i had i don't think he is the voice of clearly  majority of the input there but a couple of things about when he singles out that the city manager and the mayor of you know ryan's position there i would say having been involved in ryan's hire when that happened and had they known how many houses he looked at before he purchased them i don't think it's his job to sit there and defend whether or not he has any interest in this project i would say unequivocally that or are city manager has no interest in the project whatsoever and to single out the mayor in the city managers doing some things inappropriate you know i just think that's a bit unfair i went into this project very skeptically myself don't think me wrong but i've come around a long ways a perfect no but i think if yes most of the farmer's market representatives in the people who are vendors i can't imagine that they're not walking away from this thinking the way they really listened and not only did they listened they did a really great thing so i just i don't want to have that that one almost that single comment tarnish what i think is a pretty good thing here the other thing i would say is i violent and i didn't volunteer i actually got paid i've seen the money that i was a but i was a  for the election i was an election worker and i don't think i will ever do it again because it's a phenomenal amount of work but i did see when there was an issue i mean the amount of ordination of what has to happen there and the way it all comes together at the end and the way we have you and i have trained our people to do that job and then see you when there's a trouble when there's trouble there's a ballot there's a bad ballot there's a one extra ballot here what do we do with it it's a big big deal and to see you come in and just say what do you got here we go bomb a lawyer you know the computer everything i was astounded at how complicated and i am a whole new appreciation of what you do on that election day because i was soon you just took that day off because there's nothing for you to do is not the case so i  t was astounded and i know i thank you for the appreciation even though i didn't think it would have to do it again sorry sorry thank you thank you say anyone else ok then we have the item that was pulled off of consent ryan i do you want to read that the proposed tax amendment we read it already so we don't have to read it again all right so we handled that so i guess