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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMACIA Meeting Minutes 8.16.24 Andy Schor.Mayor Michigan Avenue Corridor Improvement Authority Board of Director's Meeting Friday, August 16, 2024— 8:30 AM Foster Community Center 200 N. Foster Ave., Room 211 Lansing, MI 48910 Members Present: Yvette Collins, Scott Gillespie, Joan Nelson, Jon Lum, Tim Daman Mayoral Designee: Members Absent: Elaine Barr (excused), Laurie Baumer (excused) Facilitator Present: Alex Watkins (LEDC) Public Present: Recorded by: Yvette Collins Call to Order/Roll call Chair Lum welcomed everyone and called the MACIA Board of Directors meeting to order at 8:31 a.m. Approval of the July 26, 2024, MACIA Meeting Minutes -Action MOTION: Nelson moved to approve the July MACIA Meeting Minutes. Motion seconded by Gillespie. YEAS: Unanimous. Motion carried. Update on the Block 2000 Facade Project Gillespie met w/Alex and Kahlea. A big takeaway is that the city wants their money to impact the entire block. The rest is set up as matching funds. Taking the $100,000 from the city and divide it by the eight store fronts which amounts to $12,500 each. Gillespie provided the board with updates on what businesses along the 2000 block are willing to contribute. Gillespie shares he hasn't heard back from China Flavor. Last year they were supportive of the project. Once the board gets an agreement with each business, we can go from there. If businesses go over the $12,500 allotment, matching will kick in. The match can come from MACIA as well as the property owners. 1 It is anticipated that the project could begin by the end of fall. It would be ideal to finish painting by September 1811 with the ARPA money being used first. Kahlea is working on the contracts. Marketing Efforts Update Much of the marketing focus has been on getting the signs out. Some businesses wanted them on the barricades or in the barricade areas. There is a possibility that future signs can be moved to other areas, but it is not clear that Public Service can use the signs MACIA has paid for or if it is something that is allowable in the barricade areas. There was a discussion about reaching out to Andy Kilpatrick to ask him. Watkins shared that there had only been an allocation of $3,000 for the signs and the total was beyond that amount. Watkins shared we need a resolution to approve funding for an additional $2,000 for the signs. Approval of the Amended August 16, 2024, Meeting Agenda to add an agenda item to allow for$2,000 from the tax capture to complete payment for the Capital Imaging Signs—Action MOTION: Daman moved to approve the amendment of the August 16, 2024, MACIA Meeting Agenda. Seconded by Collins. YEAS: Unanimous. Motion carried. Approval of the additional $2,000 from the tax capture to be taken from the budget to complete payment for the Capital Imaging Signs —Action MOTION: Gillespie moved to approve the additional $2,000 from the tax capture to be taken from the budget to complete payment for the Capital Imaging Signs. Seconded by Daman. YEAS: Unanimous. Motion carried. Discussion of Supporting Michigan Avenue Businesses There was lengthy discussion regarding ways to support Michigan Avenue Businesses. We are looking at contacting businesses in Brighton to see what they did during their construction phase. Gillespie shared there is a risk for "us" to decide what the businesses need. We need to find a way to engage the business owners and have them collaborate and be involved in a positive manner to be more impactful. Lum suggested we use Jennifer as she's reaching out to businesses about what they need. Nelson said she knows that Jennifer has talked to Ethan about an avenue clean up. Watkins thinks claiming our successes will be good. Gillespie says we need to get involvement from the Michigan Avenue businesses. He reiterated that if MACIA is not leading the charge no one is leading the charge. There was a lot of discussion about what that engagement might look like (some ideas: hosting a coffee/using one the MACIA public meetings). Damen offered to have the Lansing Chamber convene the meeting. As it relates to Brighton, it was proposed that Jennifer could connect with them. There was some discussion about aiming for mid-September (20th). Lum thinks it would be good for small refreshments - not breakfast - and to hold the meeting somewhere along the Avenue. 2 There was discussion about the meeting being sustainable beyond MACIA involvement, so that it would not be a part of the MACIA public meeting agenda. Additional discussion offered that this should be something that should be delayed until after the construction is done and that had consensus. Lum asked Daman if we could find out what chamber members are along the Avenue. Lum reminded MACIA, that while we have talked in the past about not having the budget for a person dedicated to the role of business support on the Avenue we may need to reconsider. While we have Jennifer on a limited basis, we will have to think of someone down the line. We may want to get an appropriation for it. Lum suggested that we might reach out to Sam Singh and Sarah Anthony to see if there is any type of appropriation for a position. Gillespie said we'd really need to explain what the appropriation is for and what we need. Nelson offered that we absolutely need a Michigan Avenue Development Corridor Coordinator. They need a person who can write grants, implement them, and eventually get an Americorp person. Gillespie says we need to define the position. Watkins says we can use Kahlea in some capacity. Lum says the Avenue needs someone that would be like a Cathleen Edgerly for Michigan Avenue. Lum asked if Watkins can have Kahlea get DDA position descriptions for Downtown and Old Town and salary ranges so that MACIA can see. Lum went through a list of our short-term goals that have been in our development plans-develop wayfinding signage, install bike racks, plan/develop/install banners, pedestrian infrastructure, trash bins, lighting, public art piece, flower beds, Placemaking projects, events, and improvements. Damen says bring in Brad Funkhouser and demand that they bring in bus stops in CATA. Getting CATA to put nice bus stops along the corridor. Gillespie believes we may be at a point to bring someone in. Other Business Gillespie shared that the member of the public who left the previous month's meeting felt MACIA meandered in the meeting discussion. To alleviate public discontent with the meeting agenda, MACIA agreed that it is possible to move the public comment section to an early section of the agenda. In future meetings, public comments will follow the approval of the meeting minutes instead of at the end. Watkins shared other CIAs liked the dotheavenue website. Public Comment Adjournment Chair Lum adjourned the Michigan Avenue Board of Directors at 9:44 a.m. Jonathan Lum, Chair Michigan Avenue Corridor Improvement Authority 3