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Council schedules special work session to clarify proposed downtown entertainment projects
Summary
Council agreed to a public work session to gather facts about proposed downtown projects including a potential EVO/Dolby family entertainment center and Cleveland Street redevelopment. Members cited public confusion from media coverage and requested staff updates and invited developer presentations.
Councilmember Romano asked for a special, public work session so the full council and staff could "fact find" and address community confusion about several high-profile downtown proposals, including Cleveland Street redevelopment and a proposed EVO/Dolby family entertainment center.
"Our community deserves this level of transparency," Councilmember Romano said, urging a neutral forum for developers and partners to present and for staff to explain the review process. Several council members said media and promotional messaging had created an impression of a done deal when required reviews, land acquisitions and vacations had not been completed.
Council member Teixeira (identified in the transcript as raising concerns about perception) and others pressed for clarity about who the Cleveland Street Alliance represents and how nonprofit and for-profit entities are connected. One council member summarized the need: "The perception is it is a done deal, which then affects the community's perception of when did this happen, how did this happen," noting that some properties are owned by private LLCs and that not all parcels are under single ownership.
The clerk offered potential dates; council members agreed tentatively to May 28 at 5:00 PM for a special work session and asked staff to develop a focused agenda. The clerk and city manager's office will coordinate one-on-ones, invite relevant parties and present a short staff briefing on where each pending downtown application sits in the process (vacations, land acquisitions, required entitlements).
Council emphasized the session should be conducted in the sunshine with invited presentations and staff updates but warned the council may need to separate fact-finding from any quasi-judicial or conditioned decisions (for example, a Garden Avenue vacation is a separate proceeding that cannot be conditioned on unrelated project elements, per city attorney guidance).
Next steps: Clerk to schedule the 5:00 PM May 28 special work session, staff to gather status updates on Cleveland Street projects and the EVO/Dolby proposal, and council to consider invitations to project proponents for an explanatory presentation at the workshop.
