1. I. Lelia Vann, DNCL President, called the meeting to order at 6 pm. The recording of this meeting is available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/hoeCtoMEwGg

II. A motion to approve the minutes from last month’s meeting was made and seconded. The minutes were approved without change.

III. Financial/Membership Report-- As of September 30, 2022, the DNCL had a balance of $1,394.71, 116 individual members, and 39 business members.

IV. Crime Report – Alan Driskell, CRO, Norfolk Police Dept. Officer Driskell reported that it was a relatively quiet month. Car larcenies dropped dramatically. There were two commercial burglaries. One was at Harbor Park, the alarm went off, and all three individuals were arrested.

V. DNC – Mary Miller, President & CEO. Mary made a few announcements: Neon Fest is this Thursday and Friday, Oct 20-21. The Grand Illumination Parade will be held on Saturday, November 19.

A. DNC Ops Report – Audrey Fussell, DNC Ops Manager. Audrey reviewed the operations stats for September.

VI. Guest Speaker – Patrick Roberts, Deputy City Manager. Mr. Roberts presented information on his background and some of the cities/departments in which he’s worked, addressed the questions sent prior to the meeting, and introduced the Safe Night programs. As Deputy City Manager, he works closely with Public Works, Utilities, the Transit Department, the Planning Department, and the Resilience Department. Programmatically, his responsibilities intersect with other departments within the city. One of these intersections involves Public Safety and the Business Compliance Unit. Addressing the questions that were submitted:

A. Has the Business Compliance Unit started? Is it fully ramped up? The BCU is almost fully staffed at this time. The BCU staff will work with applicants for new businesses, businesses that apply for new permits including Conditional Use Permits, will focus on short term rentals and will also watch for emerging new businesses such as the cannabis trade.

B. How does the BCU intersect with Public Safety? When a large cluster of similar business are together, the impact from those business can sometimes intensify which is what Mr. Roberts believes may be happening in the downtown area. In conjunction with the Public Safety office, there is an effort to eliminate opportunities for criminal activities and opportunities for unsafe activities to take place. For example, the increase in police presence downtown is one of the efforts to eliminate the opportunity for criminal activity. Other efforts to eliminate opportunity for bad things to happen are the cameras downtown as well as the cameras in the parking garages. In the long term, there is a desire to have staff available to analyze camera data in real-time to prevent crime and not just document it after it happens.

C. The desired end-state for the BCU is to have businesses be self-regulating, to operate in a safe environment, and work with surrounding businesses so they can all be successful, profitable, and keep their patrons and employees safe. A program that will help the city move toward that end-state is the Safe Night program. The Safe Night Program is not a city mandate. Because the DNC has contracted with Safe Night, Mary Miller introduced Dimitrios (Jim) Mastoras from Safe Night. Mr. Mastoras explained that nightlife management is a large and complex problem; Safe Night is a multi-component approach this problem. The DNC and Safe Night have developed a 12-month plan. Over the next few months, DNC and Safe Night will identify stakeholders and do an assessment of the current state. DNC will run the accreditation model; Safe Night will teach the city how to support it.

D. In response to a chat statement (The engagement model, gaining business owner buy in, seems counter to the CUP shutdown of current establishments) Mr. Roberts noted that the city did a sweep inspection a few months ago of over 50 businesses, mostly downtown, to avoid a situation where the city is merely reactionary and only showing up when there’s a problem. He wants to get into a habit of routinely interacting with business and city staff.

E. What is the status of the noise ordinance? City Council adopted a new noise ordinance in September. The Police Chief’s staff and the City Attorney’s office are working out a training regimen so that the field personnel will know the new code and how to implement it. It will probably not help in reducing the loud dirt bikes and ATVs along Granby Street. The noise ordinance deals with noise from a vehicle that has been modified, loud car music, and noise from businesses beyond their perimeter.

F. With respect to Lime scooters, Mr. Roberts and the Transit staff have met with Lime. NPD and Transit are currently identifying areas of downtown that they want to geo-fence. He doesn’t think it is possible to geo-fence the sidewalk. He is also going to press Lime to implement some of the capability they currently have.

Mr. Roberts noted that there were some questions regarding the status of development projects downtown; he will ask his staff to send Lelia some information to distribute. He also encouraged members to go to the city website, look at the Budget pages, review the Council calendar and when the budget process comes up, to make their preferences known.

VII. City Planning Commission Projects/ARB – Preston Carraway, DNCL VP.

A. Assembly, 400 Granby Street. CUP request for banquet hall with live entertainment and sale of alcoholic beverages, on premise. Presented by Mel Price/WPA.

B. Preston provided an overview of the Downtown CUP/Enforcement Status:

1. Culture Lounge and Restaurant. CUP was surrendered in early 2022, a zoning appeal has been filed with the City with a hearing scheduled for October 20.
2. Legacy Lounge. CUP was revoked Sept. 11 following a quadruple shooting in August. A court appeal has been filed and a hearing has been held; the judgment has not yet been rendered.
3. Scotty Quixx. Their Special Exception Permit (now known as a CUP) was revoked on Sept. 27.
4. California Burrito. Their CUP was revoked on Oct. 11 for multiple over-occupancy violations. They intend to file an appeal to Circuit Court.

VIII. Old/New Business

A. 2023 DNCL Slate of Officers:

1. President: Lelia Vann (incumbent)
2. Vice President: Preston Carraway (incumbent)
3. Treasurer: Christopher Shields
4. Secretary: Lorraine Connaughton (incumbent)

B. Being the only new member of the Slate of Officers, Chris Shields introduced himself.

C. Slate of Officers for 2023 will be presented at the November 21 DNCL meeting.

D. Election of the slate of officers will be held at the December DNCL Holiday Party.

IX. Announcements

A. DNCL October Social: 219 Bistro on Wednesday, Oct. 19 starting at 5 pm.

B. Neon Festival in the Neon district Oct 20 -21, 6 – 10 pm.

C. Recycle Read Used Book sale at the Slover Library Oct 21-22.

D. Trunk or Treat at the Freemason Street Baptist Church Oct 29, 4-6 pm.

E. Special Waste Collection Event at the Southside STEM Academy, Nov. 5, 9 am to noon.

F. Grand Illumination Parade, Saturday, Nov. 19 beginning at 7 pm.

G. DNCL November Monthly Meeting: Guest Speaker is Kevin Murphy, City Planning Chair. Monday, Nov. 21 at 6 pm.

X. Adjourn – The meeting was adjourned at 7:05 pm.