Felly rydw i'r gwaith y flinwyr yn siarad, dechrau, yn gallu bod i fod ni'n fawr yn fawr i'r gallowed yng Nghymru. Felly rydw i'r gallowed sydd yn iawn i'r bobl yn ateb gyda'r hunain egwyr y byddai'r busnes. Felly rydw i'r busnes gyda'r debat yn dengau 6,7, 2, 9 yw yn gwyllfaeth Cymraeg yng nghymrede comingfhysigol. Mae'r debat yn irrwynt gydig i'r byddai'r gaw난ol ni'n i'r bynedd. I invite members wishing to participate to do so now or as soon as possible. I would also start by reiterating the note that was circulated to members about the subjudice issues that apply in relation to the issues that will be debated now. With that, I call Colin Smith to open the debate for around seven minutes, Mr Smith. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I travelled in a black cab to Farnethau from Rhydry, where I lived at the time when I was a wee girl. I was taken in through the big-arch door and as soon as the door closed, that's when my nightmare began. Six weeks of hell, I've carried with me all of my life. That's the words of my constituent, Marian Reed, from Carlouc, sent to Farnethau residential school in summer 1965, when she was eight years old. One of hundreds, maybe even thousands of women, sent by the state to Farnethau as wee girls many of the same age as my own two daughters. They were thought to rest, to recuperate, but instead they were abused physically, mentally and in some cases sexually. Do those brave survivors are here today in the gallery? They can't speak in this chamber so, Presiding Officer, I want to share their story, a story that needs to be heard. I want to give a voice to those women's fight for justice. I want to help to ensure what happened to those wee girls at Farnethau is finally properly acknowledged. I'm grateful to the many MSPs from every party in this Parliament who have signed my motion showing their support to those brave survivors. For those unfamiliar with their story, it started when Farnethau House in Angus was gifted to Glasgow City Council, then Glasgow Corporation, in the 1960s, but the impact goes way beyond the date that closed its doors in June 1993. Farnethau House was to be used under the agreement to support disadvantaged girls, but rather than being supported, rather than being nurtured, those wee girls were subjected to a catalogue of unimaginable abuse that has stayed with them to this day. Fiona was sent to Farnethau when she was seven in 1970-71. She recalls, I remember that girls were being force-fed, and if they made them sick, they were then force-fed with their own vomit. Rosina was sent to Farnethau three times from the age of eight in 1968. She said, there was a wee lassie there, she had what we now call eczema. When I think of that wee lassie and the pain she used to go through, I just want to cry. They scrubbed her till she was bleeding, she would cry so they hit her for screaming. If you wet the bed, you've got a doing for that. And there were certain things you didn't get. I wasn't allowed a drink of milk. One time I was so desperate for a drink when it came to brushing my teeth, I rinsed my mouth out and tried to take a wee drink of water. I was seen doing it, I was hitting the back of the head, my teeth went into my top lip and it started to bleed. I was slapped for making a mess because I was bleeding into the sink. I was made to sit out in the hallway, not allowed to go to bed. I sat there petrified, you were a wee wane. Survivor Elaine sent to Farnethau in the 1970s recalls, we were forced to write postcards home that said, having a great time, Farnethau is fabulous. It was written on a blackboard for us to write out. Another survivor Helen said, I was crying, I wanted to go home, it was a nightmare. I was touched by an older woman in places I shouldn't have been. I tried to approach the head of Farnethau, I was told that children should be seen not heard. I wish I could share every story but hundreds of women have now spoken up. Yet despite so many testimonies, so many devastating stories, not one of the perpetrators of these horrific crimes has yet fully been brought to justice. I appreciate the complexities, the challenges and I welcome in recent days there has been some progress in bringing one case to court. I'm conscious that this is still a live police investigation but it has been for years and time is running out. Many of those who should have been jailed have died. Farnethau's first headmistress, Nellie Bremner, its longest serving headmistress, Margaret Fletcher, they ruled Farnethau with, as one survivor said, brutality and cruelty. Some of those perpetrators died years after their crimes were first reported to the police. They should have been brought to justice before now. I will do that. I'm very grateful to Colin Smyth for giving way. Does he agree with me that, as well as being denied natural justice through the courts of law, that the Farnethau survivors have fallen between the two stools of our approach to historic abuse and that the historic abuse inquiry didn't cover respite care was rather focused on residential schooling and, as such, they've been denied justice through that quarter as well. Colin Smyth, I can give you the time back. Thank you very much. I think that Alec Cole-Hamilton makes a very valid point. Time after time, after time, blocks have been put in the way of these women, whether it's for justice, whether it's for acknowledgement, whether it was to hear their story. My appeal to the procurator fiscal, to the Crown Office, is that the time we have left to leave no stone unturned until these women get justice before it is too late. Those women have had nothing but barrier put in the way when they should have had answers. Before they were sent to Farnethau, they all had medicals, but they were never told why they were sent. According to Glasgow City Council, no records of those girls' time at Farnethau now exist. I asked the council to meet me and the women to discuss why they refused. They said that it would not be appropriate to have such a meeting. The records are likely to have been destroyed, we are told. Despite the many acts, statutes, regulations and supervisory bodies, despite it being described by the council in Glasgow at the time as a residential school, it seems, for Nethau, escaped inspection. No one it seems properly established, a place they were sent and thousands of girls to, was safe to do so. What a litany of failure. Those women need answers. Why were they sent there? Why was this allowed to happen? If that needs an independent inquiry, then so be it. One final issue that I want to raise is one that I admit has never been raised with me by any of the women survivors. For them, this is about justice, it is about acknowledgement. However, it is a scandal that the Government's redress scheme appears to exclude Farnethau survivors. It is clear that their abuse took place during what has been described as short-term respite or holiday care. When they were sent to Farnethau, they were still in the care of their parents. Both criteria excluded them from the scheme. This was a residential school. Those women were sent there, not by their parents, but as a result of the intervention of the council. When they were there, they were in the care of the council. That, Presiding Officer, was state-sponsored abuse. Can I congratulate the member on gaining this debate? Can I also congratulate those people who joined us in the gallery, but also all of the survivors and those who have not survived this long for coming forward and making this point? However, would the member agree with me that, to treat victims of such heinous crimes differently from other victims simply because of the period of time that they were in that horrendous environment, is to stay both on this Parliament and on the Scottish Government? Colin Smyth. I thank the member for the intervention, and I think that Martin Boutfield makes a very valid point. The failure to explicitly include what happened in Farnethau and, for example, the redress scheme does send a signal that this horrific serial abuse was somehow less serious than other forms of abuse that took place under the so-called care of the state, and that the state was somehow less responsible. If it needs a change in the redress regulations to right that wrong, as the Petitions Committee has called for, this Parliament should make that change. I want to finish by paying tribute to the women who have come forward to share their story. We meet many people in their role as MSPs, but I doubt that I will ever meet a braver group of women than the Farnethau survivors. It is not for me to tell anyone that they must come forward when they have been a victim of abuse. I cannot imagine how difficult that must be, but all I can do is share what I have seen. Those women who have spoken out now know that they are not alone, and the love, the care that they have been able to share with fellow survivors has given them such immense strength. It is now our job to give them the answers, the justice and the acknowledgement that their bravery deserves. Thank you very much, Mr Smith. I encourage those members who are in the gallery not to participate. I can understand very well the temptation. I certainly understand your desire to have your voice heard, but we discourage participation in that. That includes applause. We now move to the open debate. I invite Rona Mackay to be followed by Jamie Greene for around four minutes, Ms Mackay. I welcome the debate that highlights the truly terrible experiences of women who were sent to Farnethau House residential school. I congratulate Colin Smith on securing the debate and on the work that he has undertaken to highlight the plight of these women and for his extremely moving speech. The women involved have demonstrated incredible courage in coming forward to put into the public domain the physical, emotional and sexual abuse that they suffered and to make such a powerful case for justice. It is vital that the women involved are listened to by everyone who can act to address the serious and legitimate issues that they raise. That is why this debate is important and why the petition that is currently being considered by the citizen participation and public petitions committee is also significant The suffering endured by these women happened over at least a 30-year period between the 60s and the 90s. Despite the fact that the suffering happened some years ago, it is vital that justice is delivered. Indeed, because the suffering happened many years ago makes it all the more critical that justice is delivered. That should involve any perpetrator being brought to justice and I note, as Colin Smith did, that an arrest has been made in connection with these issues. I also think that there should be recognition by our country of the suffering endured by these women. The Scottish child abuse inquiry has undertaken powerful and painful work to confront the truly awful suffering of so many children in the care of the state in the past. It strikes me that the suffering of the Farnetti survivors would benefit from being confronted with the rigor that has been demonstrated by the Scottish child abuse inquiry. I understand some of the women who have met the Scottish Government to set out their concerns and I welcome the constructive dialogue that has already taken place with the Scottish Government in a meeting between some of the women and the former Deputy First Minister, John Swinney, who was and is passionate in his determination to see justice for survivors of these terrible crimes. In a letter in February of this year to the Citizens Participation and Public Petitions Committee, the former Deputy First Minister set out some actions that were taken by the Scottish Government to address many of the issues raised in Colin Smith's motion. In that letter, it was stated that the Scottish Government believed that the eligibility criteria of the redress scheme could include Farnetti survivors, but the Government gave the assurance that it would consider further whether that was the case. I believe that that indicates a willingness to be as helpful as possible to the affected women and I hope that the Minister may be able to give us an update on the view from the Government on that question in closing. I also know that survivors have had great difficulty in accessing records relating to the time that they spent in Farnetti. Having access to original documentary information would without doubt strengthen any application for redress and therefore take this opportunity to ask Glasgow City Council to intensify its work to identify if any information is still held by the city council as a successor to the Glasgow Corporation and Strathclyde regional council that may help any individual in their quest for justice. The physical, emotional and sexual abuse of children is a difficult subject for any society to confront, but that suffering is nothing compared to the suffering of those children and we have an obligation to air, confront and do all that we can to remedy the suffering. Important work has been undertaken within Scotland today to do that and I hope that this debate helps to ensure that work addresses the experiences of women who suffered at Farnetti House, because if Farnetti women deserve justice it is the least they deserve. Thank you Deputy Presiding Officer. I pay a very warm tribute to Colin Smyth for his very moving speech and a very warm welcome to those in the gallery today. I know that this is not an easy thing to do to listen to hear members recount some of your stories so publicly but it's so important that we do so and we do so publicly so that the world can hear the wrongs that happened to you. There are very few things in this Parliament that unite us as a Parliament as politicians of various colours and views of the world, but the work that we've done over the last few years to address some of these wrongs of the past have been some of the most important pieces of work that we've done and certainly the most that I've ever been proud of to participate in as a member of this Parliament over the past seven years. I am going to talk very specifically in my comments about the redress scheme because it's an issue that was very close to my heart. I worked on this piece of legislation both as my party spokesperson for education at the time but also as the relevant committee that worked on it and I worked closely with Government ministers and members from all across the spectrum to work and get that scheme into as good a place as we could but clearly as we've heard today it's still not there and I'm going to talk a little bit about that. I don't want to rehash some of the horrific stories about what happened at Fernethy House. I don't think they need to be repeated from me but I do want to make the point that what was supposed to be a place of recovery and care and convalescence to so many young people turned into stories of harrowing abuse and suffering and sorrow and those are stories which I think live with people their entire lives the mental and physical effects of that. I simply cannot imagine I am hugely moved and touched to hear some of the horrific stories of what happened. We think this doesn't happen in this day and age and I hope that it doesn't but it happened far too often to far too many in years gone by and we owe those survivors and those campaigners and activists that we speak of and hear from so often in this Parliament a huge sense of gratitude for the courage it takes to come forward and to fight for justice in whichever way they can achieve it and that justice can be achieved in many ways through apologies through compensation through support and just simply an acknowledgement by their Parliament and by their Government that wrong has happened to them and that we are sorry for that. Of course I worked on the redress scheme and I was disappointed in some of the elements of it when it passed. It was clear from the outset that it was not going to be available to everyone or for everyone. It was clear there were shortcomings in that scheme. I'm also deeply disappointed, I would say angered, Presiding Officer, that so many organisations who were responsible for abuse during that period did not even participate in the scheme at all and shame on them for hiding from the truths of their own pasts. What I think we could do and I want to be positive in my closing comments because we don't have a lot of time is think what I want to hear from the Government today is a response to the very specific calls both from the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee, from the survivors in the gallery, from members across the chamber, is how the redress scheme, given its limitations and its operations, can be used to offer some form of justice to those who were abused in short-term care. I understand that that wasn't the nature of the scheme when it was set up but it is a mechanism that is already established and tried and tested and I know it's improving that it has had teething problems but it is a tried and tested method that we can use already to offer some form of justice. We also need to offer an apology as well and that very public apology is one that we need to hear straight from the heart of Government itself. We need to tell those ladies in the gallery that we're not just sorry, we're going to do something. They've heard a lot of warm words from people over the years and they'll meet a lot of nice politicians so shake their hands and say how sorry we are. What they need to hear is action from the Government on how we will use what mechanisms are currently in place in this country to offer them some form of justice whether it's through the justice system, whether it's through apologies, whether it's through physical financial compensation, whether it's support mental or physical health, whatever we can do we have to say exactly what Colin Smyth said to those people. You are not alone. This Parliament is with you and it will support you and if we can say it the Government can say it and that's what I want to hear. Mr Greene and I call Michael Manner to be followed by Alex Cole-Hamilton around four minutes. I'm very grateful for the opportunity to add my voice to those of other members who have spoken in tribute to the Farnethys survivors, those in the gallery and those who can't be with us today and indeed those who have been lost over the years. I've had the privilege as a local member representing the northeast of Scotland where the Farnethys house is located to meeting some of the survivors and speaking with them. Just as Jamie Greene said, I won't seek to relate the testimony again that I think Colin Smyth gave a very powerful account to, but I have to say the fortitude and tenacity of those women in terms of fighting for not just for themselves but for so many others is deeply moving. The stories are harrowing but they carry the stories with them after we have gone home tonight. I have raised the issue of the redress scheme with the former Deputy First Minister John Swinney in committee on 12 January and pressed him on the issue of eligibility, which is being raised by members. He said to me at that time that it was possible for Farnethys survivors to be successful in applying under the scheme. He went on to explain that there were some challenges and difficulties in relating to individual cases as they might be due to the privacy of those individuals. It is difficult under the way that the Government represented it to me to talk about how many of those women may have been successful, whether any of them indeed had been successful. The Government has to think about how they communicate to the Farnethys survivors appropriately that the scheme is open to them, that it can make use of it and that it can have that small portion of justice through that. I also, on my reflections on that, would say that the system that we have put in place has created a hierarchy of abuse and that that may be unavoidable in the Government's view and Parliament's view when it passed the legislation certainly prior to my time here, but there is no doubt that speaking to those women they feel their exclusion from that has created a different tier of justice for them, certainly so. I do share that concern. It was a concern that I had at the passing of those bills that we create a simplified process, but it does create hierarchy. Nonetheless, it was designed to offer direct access without complex legal assistance. The problem that we are now hearing is that many people going through the redress scheme are actually still going to have to speak to lawyers. Lawyers are taking fees and percentages of the compensation scheme, which is entirely against the grain of what the whole scheme is designed to do. Surely that is an area of concern that the Government should also address. Michael Marr, I can give you the time back. I appreciate the intervention and I would share those concerns. I think that there is the practical operation of the scheme and who has excluded and included, but there is also the genuine emotional harm that is done to people from that hierarchy that is being created. One form of abuse is lesser or different to another. I know that the Government has a very difficult challenge in balancing those issues in historical abuse and the responsibility of the state around it. I echo Colin Smyth's observations and my colleague Mark Whithfield on the idea of this time bar in terms of whether six weeks are a qualifying period. To quote one of the survivors, to a child, six weeks feels like a year, so the abuse that takes place over those weeks is no different in that regard. I think that that has a double meaning as well. It talks to the horror, the endurance of these young women who were there for what might be, to ask the short summer holidays, but for them felt like a large part of their life and it has lived with them as a result. I would close by echoing Rona Mackay's comments regarding Glasgow City Council and I would hope that we can send a very strong message from Parliament and from Government that they must engage fully and openly with the survivors and with everybody concerned. The MSPs who are pursuing the issue should have full disclosure and a full account of what happened to the best of their possibilities. I welcome the survivors to the gallery, many of whom I have come to know very well over the past months. For anethys, it is not in my constituency, and to my knowledge none of its survivors are my constituents. 18 months ago I was walking past the Parliament when I saw a small group of the survivors huddled under the parliamentary awning who brought me over to tell me their stories. Those stories hurt me to my heart. Those stories made me want to go to war for these women. I speak today on behalf of the hundreds of women who are the survivors of the horrendous abuse that took place there. The accounts of that abuse that they suffered as children at the hands of those who are ostensibly there to care for them are truly harrowing and utterly disgusting, but it is important that we hear some of those accounts. I am going to delineate more of them in my remarks. Those were children, as young as eight or nine, largely from deprived and often mainly protestant families. That is something that the women have pointed out, taken to a remote area with the promise of a summer holiday and respite for their parents. Right out of the trap, things were not as they should have been. The constant cruelty of those running the house turned what should have been a pleasant summer getaway into the worst ordeal imaginable. When it came time to write home to their parents, they were forced to copy text word for word from a blackboard with false accounts that suggested an idyllic and tranquil experience, while the reality was day after day of chores and brutality. If they dared to deviate from that blackboard text, they would be screamed at and their letter would be torn up in front of their face and sometimes even fed to them. That practice, the letter writing, shows a chilling depth of organisation and forethought that went into this abuse. For an athlete, it did not come to light at the time of the great revelations in this country about historic sexual child abuse, in part because these women initially did not understand the nature of their victimhood. They were only there for six weeks at the time. They were from different communities, and as such, they did not often have contact with other girls after they left. Another reason that took so long to understand the nature of their abuse is the belief that they may have been routinely drugged at bedtime. Some women have memories of being given a biscuit, a particular drink for a supper that some, I believe, contained as sedative. Yet some of the women still remember waking from an unnatural somber to find themselves in rooms filled with pipe smoke where they were being sexually assaulted by tweed clad men. This has the hallmarks of highly organised pedophilia on an industrial scale. Their stories are burned into me. They keep me awake at night. Their trauma has impacted every aspect of their lives and their relationships. What is worse is that women are now being forced to endure a failure of justice, much of which we have heard already this afternoon. Many of those who abuse them have now died without justice being served. They have fallen between the stools of our national efforts to confront historic abuse. They are outside the ambit of the historic abuse inquiry and its redress scheme because, as we have heard, abuse in respite care was never covered. They are not in this for compensation, though they certainly deserve that. They seek only recognition, belief and justice. Some of the survivors sit in the gallery today. They do so at a high price. For each time they recount the abuse they suffered, they are forced to relive it. I want to thank them for coming and to say to them today that we hear you, we believe you, we are on your side and we will stand with you in your fight for justice. You have dealt with this far too long alone. Well, you are not alone anymore. Presiding Officer, on the last Monday in June, Colin Smyth, myself and other members will take many of the survivors back to Fennethy. We will do so with trained mental health councillors and hopefully with the nation's media so that we can help them all along the road to national recognition, to justice and then perhaps finally to peace. I thank Colin Smyth for bringing this debate to the chamber when we once again tackle the horrendous topic of historical sex abuse. It is a topic that I did not expect when I came into this place to know as much about that I currently do. I started with a historical sex abuse case with constituents and I tried to take them on a journey to some sort of address. Here we are still talking about it. Some of the Fennethy survivors I already know very well and it is really great to see you here again in the chamber, but as Alex Cole-Hamilton has just said, every time we discuss these things it scratches at an open wound. It is fair to say that progress has been made in the time that I have been here. I remember the forensic medical bill coming through the Health and Sport Committee and Colin Smyth and Alex Cole-Hamilton were part of that. We heard in private from survivors of childhood abuse and we know the trauma that we felt listening to those stories. We are hearing them at second hand. How on earth do you deal with that first hand? The redress scheme has been talked about today and I pushed John Swinney, the Deputy First Minister, to expand the redress scheme because it is very limited. Continuall, we heard that it was about parental responsibility in care homes and we had to have that parental responsibility as an element of the redress scheme. I kept going back to Mike Mickey's situation that was abused in school and I kept going back to the education bill that says, in locus parentis is part of that bill. In locus parentis means that parental responsibility is temporarily handed over to teachers. If you talk about six weeks of respite surely to goodness, that in locus parentis is absolutely cast iron and locked in there. It should not even be an argument that they have access to that. Although the redress scheme is progress, I think that it breaks UNCRC law because of the way in which it is limited. I think that that will be something that will be tackled somewhere along the line. The other thing I think about the redress scheme is that the CICA previously to the redress scheme was able to apply through a CICA redress scheme. Even if you got that, you were still able to take a civil case to court. What would happen is that if you won that civil case, any money that you were given through a CICA would be repaid. That has been taken away from the redress scheme. Although I think that we have made significant progress in this Parliament and tackling the abhorrent subject of historical sex abuse, I think that there is enough a long way to go. For me, abuse is abuse. No matter the setting, I think that we need to consider how legislation can be expanded to ensure that those who have suffered this horrendous crime are recognised so that they somehow can start down that road to recovery and healing. Once again, I commend the Fanaethau survivors for their resourcefulness in the way that they have campaigned. I assure them that, as others have done in this chamber, they are not alone and that they have the support of this place. I call Shona Robison to respond to the debate, cabinet secretary, for around about seven minutes. I thank Colin Smith for lodging this very important motion and to recognise and welcome the attendance by survivors of Fornethi in the gallery, and to recognise their bravery also. The abhorrent abuse that children suffered while resident in Fornethi House is shocking. We have heard some of the testimony through the voices of members here today. The survivors have shown incredible bravery in sharing their stories as they seek justice for the abuse that they endured as children and no child should ever have to go through what these women have. While I have not had the opportunity to personally meet with the Fornethi survivors group, I have arranged to do so on 7 June. Of course, the First Minister has confirmed that he will also meet with them in due course. I very much want to hear first hand about their experiences and offer my support. Since taking up post, I have been made aware and briefed about the range of issues that surround Fornethi House. You have my personal commitment that those matters will be explored further and acted upon. I want to set out the work that will be undertaken to ensure that matters relating to Fornethi House are, as I said, fully explored. Sadly, we know that for decades some children in residential care in Scotland were failed by those entrusted to look after them. That is why Scotland took the steps to face up to those failings of the past by establishing Scotland's redress scheme. The scheme is designed to be swifter and less adversarial than court action. Although nothing can ever make up for the suffering that survivors have endured, the scheme, as others have said, is making a real difference to many survivors as it goes some way to providing acknowledgement and recognition of the harm caused. At the heart of the scheme are survivors and the scheme is built on the principles of dignity, respect and compassion. Those principles are set out in the legislation and remain as relevant today as they did when the scheme was designed. It has helped a number of people with £25 million of payments being made directly to survivors or their families. Although the abuse of children in any setting or circumstance is wrong, it requires to be eligibility criteria for Scotland's redress scheme. The scheme is designed primarily for those vulnerable children who are in long-term care, while often isolated with limited or no contact with their families. The scheme requires that the care setting and the reason for the stay is taken into consideration when making an assessment on eligibility. I will let you in in a second. It is important to say, as others have said, that, for netti survivors, they are not automatically precluded from applying for redress, but, as Michael Marra said, that has not always been an easy process. The circumstances in which individuals came to be at for netti house, of course, vary and, so far, it has not been possible to determine eligibility for the group as a whole. However, in his letter to the citizen participation and public petitions committee dated 6 February, my predecessor committed to further testing the eligibility criteria as it exists and the guidance for the redress scheme in relation to for netti. I fully support that position. I want to put on record today my commitment to exploring this matter as quickly as possible and to keep members updated of progress. Very grateful, cabinet secretary. In light of what you just said, I just wanted to ask if the Government prepared to perhaps review the impact of the redress scheme against what the redress scheme was intended to do. We need to first and foremost focus on the matters in relation to for netti and to try to find a way to make progress. What that then leads to, I do not want to prejudge, but that is my focus at the moment. We recognise very much that accessing records and providing evidence of historical abuse is a challenge many survivors face when applying for redress. This has been an important issue for the survivors of for netti. It is important that the scheme is robust and credible to ensure that survivors, providers and others can have confidence in its processes and outcomes. Redress Scotland are independent decision makers and they take into account the individual facts and circumstances of each application when making their decision. There is funding provided of £2.4 million per annum, specifically to support applicants to help with record searches as well as practical and emotional support, and that support is available to all applicants. I understand that the limited records in respect of for netti is a particular challenge. My officials have commenced inquiries with Glasgow City Council to explore the limited records and to establish the circumstances in which children were placed in for netti house. I have directed my officials to instruct an independent person to support those inquiries and Glasgow City Council has confirmed that this individual will be permitted access to the relevant archives. While I cannot direct Glasgow City Council, I have written to the council leader to express my expectation that those inquiries will be supported by Glasgow City Council. I thank the cabinet secretary for what I think is a helpful piece of progress on that very specific issue. Is there a wider point with schemes like Redress or any other scheme that the Government sets up? We just have to put trust and faith in the survivors who do come forward that it is very traumatising for them. We are not talking about thousands of people applying for millions of pounds. In some cases, the eligibility bans are very small and even the compensation levels are relatively low, as we know in schemes like Redress. Can the people running the scheme simply just put faith and trust in what they are hearing? I hear what Jamie Greene is saying, and I have enormous sympathy for what he is saying. We are trying to be a very much solution focused here and trying to find a way forward. I will continue to look at what possible routes forward there are. I just want to touch on another matter. Note that the motion makes reference to a criminal investigation. Members will understand that it would not be appropriate for me to comment on a live police investigation, but Police Scotland has committed to working with the Crown Office to keep the relevant parties updated on progress. That is important. I also recognise that the Parliament is very deep-interest in the matter. I will provide the citizen participation and public petitions committee with an update on all matters when they are concluded. I will let you in a second. I also want to note the comments made by Jamie Greene about some of the other potential ways of recognising the harm done and undertaking to consider those very carefully indeed. I will let you in briefly just before the question. I am very grateful for the cabinet secretary giving away. She has talked rightly about the process of criminal justice. There is a process under way finally, which I hope will start to shed light on what happened at Pranethu. One of the reasons that the survivors have been denied justice so long is that we still do not know fully the extent to which things happened there and what happened there for how long and by who. That is why I lend my voice to Colin Smyth's call for a public inquiry into this, because of the nature of state involvement in the referrals by social work by the Glasgow Corporation to Farnethy House and the complete absence of documentation around that. Would she support such an inquiry? I want to look at all routes to try to help the survivors to get the recognition, the justice that they are seeking. Of course, the importance of trying to find records is why I have helped to push forward some of the progress in relation to Glasgow City Council and then we will see what records can be accessed and found. The only point that I would make about a public inquiry and Alex Cole-Hamilton will know this is that it takes a long time to go through a public inquiry. Of course, there is no guarantee of at the end of that people getting the answers that they are looking for. However, I think that we should keep everything on the table in terms of options going forward. I want to conclude by again recognising the bravery of the women who have worked tirelessly to raise awareness of the issues surrounding Farnethy House in their quest for answers. I hope that the level of interest that Parliament has in this issue, together with my commitment to the work that I have outlined today, means that they perhaps leave this place with at least the confidence that the matters that they have raised are being taken very seriously indeed and will be addressed as far as it is humanly possible to do so.


The proposed model features an autoencoder-based network for scale adaptation and a CNN classification network. It has been shown to achieve higher diagnostic accuracy than other models, with accuracy, sensitivity and specificity reaching 96.2%, 96.2% and 99%, respectively. This article was authored by Naveen Nasser-Elden, Ahmed Nagler, Mohamed El-Sharkoui and others.


Governor Mark Dayton announced today the appointment of two area attorneys to fill two district court judgeship vacancies in Minnesota's ninth district. Annie Kloss and Hughesby, the current Beltrami County attorney, was appointed to fill a new judgeship recently created by order of the Minnesota Supreme Court and will be chambered at Bemidji in Beltrami County. Christopher Strandley, the current Cass County attorney, was appointed to fill the vacancy of the Honorable Richard A. Zimmerman. Strandley will be chambered at Brainerd in Crowland County. Strandley was previously the assistant Cass County attorney before becoming the Cass County attorney. Now, Cass County Administrator Josh Stephenson tells Lakeland News that if Strandley accepts the judgeship and resigns, State statute says the first assistant county attorney would take over the role as county attorney until the vacancy is filled. The county board could appoint a new county attorney by statute, though there could be no special election. The next election cycle for county attorneys is 2018. Barb Harrington is the first assistant in Cass County. David Frank is the chief assistant for Beltrami County. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.


You can avoid falling victim to a super common delivery scam that looks like this. Never open the link. Even if you don't enter your personal information, some of these links automatically install malware on your device that can steal your info. Do not call back. A scam operator will answer and ask for your personal information and credit card information. You can also be charged a connection fee for simply calling back. Sign up for checks or email alerts on packages you are waiting for. This way, you can keep track of all your packages and check for legit updates.


Climate change activist Greta Thunberg believes it is possible, in theory, to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius but says it's up to us if we want that to happen. The Swedish teenager has arrived in Glasgow ahead of the COP26 summit and she has no problem angering people as she contends it can be necessary as part of environmental demonstrations. I think as long as, of course, to make clear, as long as no one gets hurt, and as long as, yeah, then I think sometimes you need to anger some people.  Thanks for watching, I'm Greta Thunberg and I'll see you in the next video.


Thank you. Good afternoon. Welcome to DDRC members, staff and guests. We ask for your patience during this meeting. Multiple staff members are present to make sure that the meeting runs smoothly and all applicants and citizens are able to communicate with the Commission at the appropriate times. The public will be able to participate using multiple methods. When participating, please provide your name for documentation purposes. If you're participating, you can watch, email, phone, or log into our web session. If you're watching, you can stream the meetings through CDTV, accessed at www.youtube.com, backslash user, backslash Columbia SC government. If you're emailing, you can submit letters and statements via email to cocboardmeeting at ColumbiaSC.gov, leading up to and or during the meeting as the account will be monitored throughout the proceedings. Emails and letters will be read into the record. You can phone in calling<PHONE_NUMBER>. When prompted, please enter the meeting code 2330. If you're participating by phone, you'll have three options. Star 1 will allow you to listen. Star 2 will allow you to record a voicemail message that will be read into the record. And Star 3 will allow our participant to be placed in a queue so that they may speak live when prompted. Please make sure your computer audio is muted if you're calling in live via your phone so we don't have feedback. And then you can stream via the web at backslash, backslash, publicinput.com, backslash, coc, ddrc, dash, mark, m-a-r, 2022. And I will call the roll. Ms. Brannum. Here. Mr. Broom. Here. Ms. Jacob. Here. Mr. Salibi. And Mr. Wolfe. Here. We have the public forum. In order to avoid ex parte communications, ddrc members are under strict instructions not to discuss cases under consideration with the public or with each other outside of the public forum. The meeting typically starts with staff calling the case, giving a summary of the project and then calling on the applicant to present if they wish. Decisions are typically made in one evening. Decisions may be appealed within 30 days to a court of competent jurisdiction. Both will be administered individually as we hear either from applicants or from live speakers. Applicants with requests before the ddrc are allowed at a presentation time of 10 minutes. This time should include but is not limited to an overview of the project, case history, and any pertinent meetings held regarding the request. The time also includes all persons presenting information on behalf of the applicants such as attorneys, engineers, and architects. This time limit does not include any questions asked by the ddrc or staff regarding request. Members of the general public are given the opportunity to address their concerns and intervals of two minutes. Applicants may have five minutes to respond. Staff has a timer and will make presenters aware of when their time has expired. Are there any changes to the agenda? There are no changes. The ddrc uses the consent agenda to approve non-controversial or routine matters by a signal, motion, and vote. If a member of the ddrc or the general public wants to discuss an item on the consent agenda, the item is removed from the agenda and considered during the meeting. The ddrc then approves the remaining consent agenda items. Will staff please read the consent agenda? Certainly. We have one item on the consent agenda, 317 Watery Avenue. This is a request for a certificate of design approval for exterior changes in the Wales Garden Architectural Conservation District. Is there anyone from the ddrc that would like this item removed from the consent agenda? Is there anyone from the public that would like to have an item removed from the consent agenda? Please communicate by sending an email to COC board meeting at Columbia SC.gov. Communicate via phone by pressing star two to leave a voicemail or star three to speak in person. We will pause a minute to allow any communication from the public. Nothing's received. Okay. Thank you. Sounds like nothing's been received. Do I have a motion and a second to accept the consent agenda and also the February 22 meeting minutes? Make a motion to approve the consent agenda in the February minutes. Mr. Broom. Yes. Ms. Sims-Phranham. Yes. Ms. Jacob. Yes. Mr. Salibi. Yes. And Mr. Wolf. Yes. Motion passes. We'll move to the regular agenda. The first case, well the only case on the regular agenda today is at 2615 River Drive. This is a request for certificate of design approval for new construction in the North Main Corridor Overlay District. This proposal is for a five-story, 56 unit residential development at the northwest corner of River Drive and Benton Street. The building is v-shaped with residential units above parking on the ground floor and some surface parking in the rear along the north property line. The project received conditional approval at the Planning Commission for site plan on March 10. I'll just read through some of the staff comments and then the staff evaluation and then I believe the applicant is here to present the project in more detail. So under site planning and parking placement, the building is primarily sited appropriately addressing the street frontages in the acute angle shape of the lot with narrow setbacks in the building footprint. While the surface parking is largely screened from the right of way with the building, the ground floor of the building is mostly parking behind metal screens in the place of storefront. Building design and height. The building height and stepbacks do meet the requirements of the unified development ordinance and the neighborhood compatibility standards therein. For building orientation and elevation, the buildings are parallel to the primary street, river drive, as required. Both street frontages have strong brick base and start to establish a rhythm of bays with recesses, but the frequent change in materials appears haphazard and detracts from the concept. Alternating solid brick bays with the punched windows and visually permeable bays with the balconies and siding would be a more consistent design concept. This could likely be accomplished by moving brick material from the rear elevations to the front without requiring additional brick. While the north and west end elevations provide fewer features, some fenestration would help to articulate the large expanse of wall, particularly the north end, where fenestration would not be adjacent to a single family residential lot. Under corner articulation and entrances, given the acute angle and high visibility of the river drive and Benton Street intersection, the building does not have an architectural feature or entrance to emphasize it. The entrance on river drive has a small canopy with visually undersized supports. Having a perspective of this corner would be helpful. Facade elements. The proposed materials are acceptable, however, the building concept would be stronger and more compatible with the district if the pallet were reduced to two primary materials on the street facades. Brick and horizontal cementitious siding are seen more frequently in the district and in the neighborhood. While vinyl windows are acceptable in the north main corridor overlay, the windows are rendered with a dark finish on the elevations, but the cut sheets indicate a white window finish. The window finish should be consistent with the renderings and the depth should be a minimum of four inches from the face of the facade. The required percentages of storefront are intended to activate the public realm with active uses on the ground floor adjacent to the public sidewalk. The amount of the first floor that is active frontage is minimal. The corner floor plan has some programmed spaces, such as a community room, a computer room, and an elevator lobby. These programmed spaces could be arranged to provide additional active space along the street frontage by moving the mechanical room towards the interior or the garage. While the renderings indicate storefront, the majority of the river drive frontage is parking behind perforated metal screening. More detailed drawings of what this will actually look like would be helpful in providing some public art features could help mitigate this condition. The staff recommendation is for deferral of the request based on addressing the following design elements in order to meet the North Main Corridor guidelines. Provide additional features along the river drive elevation to mitigate the parking garage frontage and illustrate with an enlarged elevation to better understand how that will read from the street. To reconfigure some of the common spaces on the first floor to maximize active frontage along the street. To provide a more consistent rhythm of architectural bays by reducing the number of materials on the street facing facades. Brick and horizontal siding are recommended. Provide more architectural emphasis on the corner and at the building entrances. Illustrate with a perspective of this corner traveling north on river drive. Provide some fenestration or other features to break up the expanse of blank wall on the north short end elevation. Provide dark bronze colored windows with at least a four inch depth from the face of wall. And then more information about roof mounted utility equipment should be provided if applicable. That is it for the staff recommendation. And I believe Parker Zee the developer. Hi so when you come up if you could state your name. My name is Doug Cruz. And do you swear to tell the truth in these proceedings. I do. Happy St. Patrick's Day everybody. We have various photos of the site here. This is an existing conditions. This is the site plan showing a parking under the podium. Pedestrian access off of River Drive. The main building entrance towards the corner on River Drive. There's an egress exit along Benton Street. Refuse collection towards the north there and a fenced in play area towards the middle green. There's a one way restricted access gate off of Benton Street. This is for emergency vehicles and it would be restricted to just that. The main entrance for vehicular traffic is on River Drive. Five handicapped parking spaces. We have three accessible units. We're only required three by the ADA code. But we provided five because we will have visitors provide access. Yeah. So make sure you get into the microphone. Yeah. All right. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Yeah. Go ahead. This is the landscape plan. And we do need to locate some grand trees on here to see if where we can save them or where we have to mitigate. There is a 15 foot side buffer that we are getting reduced by adding what was a six foot masonry wall. I think in the planning review we we have gone to an eight foot masonry wall or perhaps combination masonry with wood cap. So this is the enlarge plan of the building. There's a match line up there. It wouldn't fit all on one sheet. The community and common areas are at the corner of the lot on Benton and Riverside consists of an office, a mail room, mailboxes, elevator lobby, computer room, community room, public restrooms and a mechanical room. Sir pause just one second. Are you back? Okay. Right. All right. Sorry. Go ahead. No problem. There were some screens bleeping. So I wanted to make sure everybody could see. All right. Thank you. Okay. So that is the ground floor plan. It is a podium building. So the bottom floor is concrete post tension beams. And then above that are four stories of type 5a wood construction units. There's an elevator shaft at the core of the community building and two exit stairs. One towards the north of the site and one along Benton Street. We're showing the required bicycle parking in this plan along Benton Street and up towards the north at the River Drive entry. So this is an enlarged view of the common area plan. And you can see the community room, computer room, support office, elevator lobby, mailboxes, mail room, the management office where the rent drop box is, the ADA restrooms and the mechanical. Here we have the elevations. It consists of brick and hardy plank and vertical and horizontal siding. The community area that you saw in the plan at the corner of Benton and River Drive has storefront windows on them. And there is on the bottom elevation. You can see the main entry has brick all the way up with a portico porch along with that as you move down River Drive elevation and both Benton Street and River Drive elevation as you move away from the community building. What you're looking at is is openings into the parking area. And we wanted to screen that to some degree so we have die cast metal screening along those windows. They kind of start at where you see the pains where that red car is on River Drive. To the right, those are all the screening openings. And then you can see the door that provides the access for pedestrians and bicycles into the parking garage itself. The Benton Street elevation, you see the portico. There's a portico that we discussed a little bit. That is the access to the egress stairs. You can see a step up elevations from Benton Street due to the height restrictions. And the elevator tower is over to the right. All of these units have balconies with exterior storage. These are the streetfront elevations here. Can I ask a quick question, Mr. Cruz, about what you just mentioned. On this elevation, on both elevations, primarily the River Drive, are you saying that those openings to the garage, I mean to the underneath parking, are screening elements? Yes, we're open to suggestions, but right now we have a hexagon metal punched metal screen in those openings. Okay, thanks. I want to be sure. Did we get on stuff? Yeah, bear with us for just a second. We're showing three materials. Verticals, hardy plank, horizontal hardy plank, hardy panels, and brick. It's a corridor building, meaning there's a corridor down the middle with units on either side. And we'll be locating the condensers on the roof towards the middle of the building. These are the north and west end elevations. Right now you can kind of see into the parking garage. Did we skip some? Did we skip one of the elevations? Maybe not. So these drawings, the question, do match pretty much what was submitted, right? They appear to so far. Correct, yes. Okay, yes. So this is the backside of the podium building. You can see parking, what you're seeing underneath there, are lighting, lighting in that area. And you kind of see out to River Drive, you see the windows and the pedestrian access door on that top elevation. And I appreciate the cost-saving comments. I take some of this brick off and move it to the front riverside elevation. My construction team really appreciated that. You can see the patios with outdoor storage. And these are the short end elevations that contain the egress stairs. The north end has the egress stairs. And the west end is the closest elevation to the protected property. So we've limited a little bit of any views out there. That door you see is access to the lower portion of the height restricted area along Benton Street. And these are just non-colored elevations. Here are the materials that we put together in the package. The hardy panel, the horizontal hardy siding, and vertical hardy siding along with a Belden brick. And also the vinyl windows that we use typically. This is the screening concept that we are using for the to screen the parking garage from view and to get a little bit of air circulating through that parking garage area. And what's the finish on that? Well it could be bronze to match the rest of the windows. There would be a frame around it. It would look like a window with a screen in it. So to clarify the windows are bronze and not white. We did show them white but that we will abide by the recommendations of staff and make them bronze. Okay. And we're open for any kind of finish on those screens. Is this all of your slides? I'll ask a question while they figure that out. Go ahead. All right. So I had a question. Yes. Pretty much all the staff comments recommendations. Did you have any issues with any of the recommendations that they listed here? Nope. They're all valid and we will work with staff to make sure we meet those. I think it's a rock and roll kind of elevation but I think what they want is easy listening. So we'll kind of move to that. Let's go back to staff. Are there still more slides? I'm sorry we were having technical difficulty. Can you just the last request? I missed what the question was. I just asked the question while y'all were trying to figure out the technical. If they had any questions or concerns with the recommendations. Oh gotcha. Okay. And he replied that he didn't and he could work with staff on that. So that was probably my biggest question when I saw this. Okay. Because not knowing if you were coming in with different material today or the same that had been presented. So that was my main question. Thank you. Is there more to show? This is the end of the slide presentation. If you want to go back to something but we're going to have to pause the presentation in order to get our public comment. So I guess we're having some technical challenges. Oh I got you. Okay that's the last slide that we have for this I believe. Let me see. We can go back to any of the slides if you want to discuss anything in particular. So I'll probably open it up now to the DDRC members and see if anybody has any other questions in addition to what's already been raised. So I would just like to really reinforce the comments about from the staff. I'm very concerned about the aesthetics of this facility. I mean I'm thrilled to see more development happening out North Maine but this needs a lot of massaging to make it sure better. So if you're you know really willing to work with the staff on this I'm not so opposed to three different materials but there's got to be some consistency in where you put place those materials. I mean we have a combination of horizontal and vertical planes within the patio kind of areas and stuff. I mean all that needs to really be cleaned up a lot. We will definitely work with the staff to adjust those. And then the end the the the the corners are really in need of a lot of work and looking at how to handle that correctly. I appreciate that one of them's facing one of the property owners but you really have to try to make that as aesthetically pleasing as possible. We've actually discussed that and we will be adding windows in those stairwells to to add some other windows except on the protected side we would probably use spandrel glass windows but just to break up the monotony of that facade we will put some openings. I just find that the way that the different three different materials are showing on those ends are just not in harmony so I really suggest you look at that in great detail. And just as a general question I mean I know that this meets the requirements of the height guidelines by the new regulations but I'm assuming I mean what's really compelling to me is where you get down to the four store one two three four storey component. I'm assuming there's no way to make this entire project more of a four storey height for this area. Not without losing units so we you know we have a commitment to affordable housing to make sure we have that unit count and there really isn't another way to to do that. Can you go to the Benton Street side or actually go to the plan or yeah actually this we're losing it but let's go to one of the floor plans that shows a setback so we can actually see them here those light lines you know there's a 35 foot height limit at that first light line that crosses from Benton Street to the north 55 45 at that at that line and then 55 at that line and then pass to the corner at 60. Right so so what you're telling me is because you've got this requirement by the unit count the unit count there's no and you've looked at options for maybe turning the corner again to keep it at the four storey instead of correct. So can you go to like the fifth floor plan. Oh that's OK. Okay yeah there really isn't a way to reduce the height without losing units that we're committed to. And we do fall in line with the with the height restriction along there. Yeah I'm aware of that that doesn't just because it falls within it doesn't mean it's the right approach necessarily but at the same time we want to be sensitive to the to the neighborhood and the aesthetics there. I do think that corner element really needs to be looked at and it's just so complicated that corner element and how it's addressed. I think one thing that would help us when you go back is to actually produce some 3D rendering so that we can really get the sense of what it's feeling like and looking like in this context. Any other commissioner question. I have a question and I'm a little confused about the brick. Where is the brick on the project. The bottom level. Yeah the entire bottom level of floor is brick. And then we bring it up to punctuate and and make a rhythm with with the brick. We can make it any height we want. If we need more brick on this side we'll raise those elements to to the second floor possibly the third floor. So but it is a brick all the way around. At the bottom floor. Well let's just be sure what you plan to do. That's by painting on the job or the site is pre finish. It would be pre finish side be pre finish. Yes. Hardy plank. I am I'm sensitive to the cost just like the staff suggests could you take some of the brick off the back and put it on the front. But let's just be sure that when we do that if that's going to be the decision that it that again is consistent in how it's applied on the front versus what you're doing on the back now that the brick is gone. So let's just be sure you come up with a solution that that helps balance all of those. Yeah I don't think well can we go back to the parking lot I don't think we'll remove too much brick there and maybe you know that maybe we'll limit it to that second floor above and take those other pieces back. But we will have brick on that that side as well. We're not going to strip it down entirely. And then the other thing I forgot to mention I apologize chairman but is that that that elevation both the elevations along Benton and River Drive with the windows on the and the screening on the lowest level. I mean that inconsistency between some are actual windows I guess some of them go into those office areas with the with the detail of the windows at the top you know they're punched windows as opposed to the large screen areas. I just think it definitely needs to be rendered like it looks like a screen instead of glazing because right now it appears to be all glazing but it somehow again this component of this center area where you have the punched windows versus the other punched the other area that protrudes which is the entry to the downstairs look completely different. Again I'm all about consistency and something that makes sense in terms of the elevation so that it can be as appealing as possible. Yeah we can do that. We're totally open to however we you guys want the screening to happen at the parking level. I'm assuming it can't just be open without screening. It could be open. Not that I'm suggesting I'm just saying there are options. I believe there was other comments to have that screen. But I mean it could be glazing I guess. I know there's a cost impact to that but but it's really important this facade is really key to both of course the Benton Street and the River Drive so right there will be a frame in those windows so that in the openings. So it will kind of match the windows above but we were open to any suggestions and recommendations that the staff has for those openings in the parking garage. I think on some other similar projects like this there's been use of art and other things at the street level to make it more appealing and attractive so. What kind of art. I would let the staff give you some suggestions on that when y'all talk about it but I know on other projects we've seen lots of different techniques you know. Right I've seen you know that screening of the windows could have some pattern and things like that. So yeah sure we will work with the staff on those openings. And I appreciate that you've handled some of the attachment to the street front with some landscaping but I would definitely encourage you to make that a priority in terms of how you address the street. Okay to soften that as much as possible. So yeah we do have a lot of street trees and but we can we can add more that is not an issue at all. I am a little curious about that one point right there on the corner that isn't 10 feet back to meet the height requirement. It looks like it's five feet back as opposed to the rest of the facade that's 10 feet back right at that corner you know on Benton Street. On Benton Street yes. Yeah I think it's 10 feet from the back of the sidewalk is how the code reads. But you're right it is at the five foot setback line. Just that just that small portion. Right but it goes up you know more than 50, 45 feet or whatever that requirement is. But I thought the requirement was 10 feet from the back of sidewalk not necessarily from the property line. The setbacks are measured from the property line. Okay well the setbacks are but that requirement of the 10 foot setback. The upper floors setbacks. Yes. Well maybe if we can just staff can just clarify that to be sure because that's the that's the tallest part of the building and it's the closest to the street so I was just curious about that corner. Definitely take a look at that. Thank you. The comments commissioner. I think I'm done. No no no no and they're excellent ones. I mean I do such a better job of articulating what we're all thinking so I appreciate that. Anyone else? Thank you. We encourage those that would like to communicate via email to begin sending in letters and emails. You may email COC board meeting at columbiasc.gov. Go on the web at publicinput.com slash coc ddrc dash mar two zero two two. For those wanting to leave a voicemail or speak live call eight five five nine two five two eight zero one. When prompted please enter the meeting code two three three zero. Then press star two to begin leaving a voicemail. If you would like to speak live press star three. Please make sure your computer audio is off to avoid feedback. We will now hear comments from anyone who is here in person. Now receive any comments received and someone coming up. Thank you. Come up please state your name. John Wilkinson. And do you swear to tell the truth in this proceeding? I do. Thank you. Good afternoon my name again is John Wilkinson. I'm serving as the president of the Elmwood Park Neighborhood Association. I'd like to start by thanking Parker and his team at Woda Cooper. They engaged with our neighborhood very early in the process and before even getting to the planning or this planning hearing or this hearing today had already incorporated a number of our requests and recommendations. So we're we're thankful for that as it relates to design the biggest concern that we've heard from our neighborhood and our neighbors is simply the size and the height of the project that's been addressed today and I'm sure is addressed in some of the other comments that will be heard. You know it's fairly striking between a five story building and the adjacent single story homes and while we understand the ordinance may allow for it. You know our neighbors would prefer something shorter. So I guess aside from the size of it you know we're generally in agreement with the recommendations from staff and for your recommendations today as well. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon. Please state your name. Jennifer Glass. Do you swear to tell the truth in this proceeding. Yes. I live adjacent to the proposed development. My home and business have been located there for over 20 years. And there I understand that the height is in the zoning and so it's allowed. And I think that we all as neighbors can share the concern of having building the size and I have learned you know followed along with this process and I understand that these gentlemen have a minimum number of units that they need to have in order to make money and get the tax credit. And I feel as though that fact doesn't really speaks to the core issue which is that this isn't a project that was ushered in by local developers who had enthusiasm for our neighborhood and our community and making it more walkable and bikeable. I think this is an instance of capitalism where we are being presented with something that allows somebody who's not best in our community to cram as many people on a small piece of property. I understand that's my opinion but it's kind of an overview of as somebody who lives and works and believes in three development of downtown as how I see it. The bottom floor which is hard to wrap your head around calling that a space because I think you could say 80% of it is parking and the entrance to the community area is nowhere near where I mean it just looks very disjointed to me the main entrance versus parking. I think if we could possibly eliminate some of the parking or have them, the developers lease parking elsewhere which there are several vacant commercial properties very close by that perhaps they could lose one story by not having the parking under the building. That's all I had to contribute today. Thank you. Good afternoon. When you get up you please state your name. Danielle Shealy. Swear to tell the truth in this proceeding. I do. Thank you. I am also a resident of the neighborhood and have been following along with this. I also understand that while the height is allowable when the overlay district was approved this neighborhood looked very different in the past five years. We've had extreme amount of new single family home construction properties that primarily were multi-use I mean multi-tenant have been converted back to single family. We've had more investment in properties going from rental to primary residents. We've really seen an influx of new businesses that are one story to story the most similar project to this in the North Main development district is a three-story apartment at the corner of Miller and North Main. That's on a four-lane street. It's three stories. It fits. And so I think that this is not a development that is impossible to achieve. But I think on this particular lot this sizing and massing is enormous. We haven't even talked about the mechanical on the top. According to the zoning that has to be a solid it cannot be screens. So that has to be a solid parapet. So technically we're adding another half story for all of our mechanical equipment up there. And that's going to increase our shadowing against private neighboring properties. For instance, the Noma the two primary business buildings for the Noma flats which is a market rate over market rate development. Also two stories multi-family in the neighborhood. But they will be completely in shadow for the majority of the day when you get to a five and a half now story building. This is the largest and tallest building that's for a mile radius until you hit Bull Street District and Elmwood. This does not fit the character. We need there's good density and infill development projects and then there's bad. And this waivers closer to the bad side because we're just cramming in to cram in. We're not. There's no thoughtfulness. This is actually very similar to two properties that the developer has one in Ohio and one in Michigan. So this is kind of a cut and paste. I almost kind of wonder if they looked at the neighborhood vernacular when they decided to drop it in there. Do they just say here's X here's why dollar sign dollar sign and didn't really take into account the fact that this is directly abutting a historical neighborhood which so the neighbors across the street from Benton Street if they want to change their windows from the current window to vinyl window they would have to come before you all and get approval for that. However right across the street is a five story monolith that can have basically whatever they want granted party paint vinyl not allowed. These are all wonderful elements. However this disparity between the two it's hard to articulate it's not a design professional but if you look at the disparity between the structures that this building will be replacing buildings built in 1940 and 1920. I mean there's no acknowledgment of the fact that this is a business district within a historic neighborhood and the ability to have multifamily housing is very possible. We've seen it on North Maine we see it on Confederate we see it in other areas even with this developer they have done a similar project in West Ashley that abuts a historic neighborhood of similar craftsmen style the apartments are three story tall and they are more residential looking with exterior egresses and they can do it they have just they're not and so as the neighborhood we're just asking that we look at the size and massing of this to make it work because this will be a flagship this is going to set a standard for the area and I'm afraid at this size and mass it's just too much thank you thank you staff for my own clarification do we actually now have an automated timer is that a timer going off? Yes. Okay we haven't had that before I believe I just was checking all right it kind of startled me all right thank you thank you anyone else here to speak we will now hear comments that have been received in writing. Can you hear me? Very low. I'll just try to speak loudly. I do have one comment and I'll wait on any callers comment is from Ginny Iwin and I hope I pronounced that correctly her comment is the proposed development at the intersection of river and Benton drives does not fit the surrounding community architecturally it presents traffic concerns for the surrounding residential streets I live on Buford Street near River Drive and believe this is the wrong location for this much needed housing that have been forwarded to the commission any that were received before in the business day yesterday March 16th 2022 have been forwarded to the commission those include 11 that were opposed and that those were letters from Owen Elliott Michelle Leclerc Laurie Chrissy Vaughn Lynn Childs Kristen DeBard Clayton King David Vaughn Josh Laney Michael Reems and Rafael Labrador and then one letter in support which was Caitlyn Mahoney those have been sent to the commission for you to read before the meeting. Have received one letter since those were sent out to the members of the city of Columbia design development review commission. Thank you for carefully considering the impacts of the Benton crossing development on Columbia and its residents. I rate this letter for your consideration and for inclusion in the permanent record as a resident of Columbia and as an 18 year resident of the neighborhood in which the proposed development is to be constructed. Although I write this letter of concern solely as a resident its content is consistent with concerns of many of our residential neighbors many of whom I represent as a member of the Elmwood Park neighborhood association and its board. This comment has not been vetted by shared with or endorsed by the neighborhood association or its board. Any criticism of this letter is for me and you alone. I am firmly against the development as planned. At five stories the proposed development will be one of very few and the only of its type building of such height north of Elmwood Avenue and south of Interstate 20. This is a vast region which constitutes some of Columbia's most historic gentrification vulnerable neighborhood and thus valuable in the greatest sense of the word. A vote to support the proposed development is the opening of a door for future development that will further erect shadows over some of the last remaining gyms that make downtown Columbia an attractive place to live. Gems that differentiate Columbia from a hundred other similarly sized cities that have lost their soul only to benefit out of town and out of state developers whose vision do not align with the residents of those communities. That this development occurs at the convergence of three historic residential neighborhoods and immediately abutting one of them makes the decision you're about to make all the more impactful for the downtown neighborhoods of Columbia. It's impact on the one and two story single family homes that make up the vast majority of the Earlwood Elmwood Park and Cotton Town neighborhood will be significant in the same way that inconsistent definite architecture has reduced interest in other historic neighborhoods of downtown Columbia neighborhoods that are no longer vibrant residential parts of our city. These concerns about the proposed development are exacerbated because of the tax benefits that motivate them and the ownership group that will primarily benefit from their construction. These tax benefits and profits will not remain within our state let alone city let alone the neighborhoods who will hear the greatest cost of the development. Sorry bear the greatest cost of development. They will benefit an ownership group that unlike you and me have no stake in the preservation of our architecture. That group could demonstrate a more genuine concern for our neighborhood and city by reducing the height of the building to no more than three stories which would be much less architecturally obtrusive on our city and neighborhood. I encourage you to require such a change for the repercussions of such I mean of the proposed development will make a lasting and irreversible architectural change upon the downtown neighborhoods of our city. Sincerely David Barbo of Elmwood Park. Are there any voicemails or callers? No. No. I guess we answered our question no new correspondence right? Don't know if the applicant if you have anything you want to say at this point or okay state your name. Parker Zee. Do you swear to tell the truth in this proceeding? Yes. So I'm Parker Zee with the applicant board of Cooper Company's. Can you come a little closer to the microphone just so we can thank you. So to address some of the comments on height we when we initially created this project we had proposed a strictly five story building and after we met and have communicated with the three neighborhoods Elmwood, Earlwood, Cotntown, including a neighborhood meeting there was concern about the entrance which we initially had on Benton Street as well as being five stories. So part of what we did was maneuvered the entrance to be at the north end of River Drive on the property which shifted the building and as a result we also stepped down the building from five stories to be four stories as it gets closer to the neighbors. Doug had mentioned earlier that part of the reason for keeping it at five stories is that we have been awarded the tax credits which require us to be at 56 units for the tax credits and that step down from five to four stories permitted us to keep that while also not reducing the parking too little to fall under the city of Columbia requirements for this district. I think the parking requirements are between 1.2 and 1.5 spaces per unit for this district. And right now we're at 1.3. So just wanted to clarify that. There was also some public comments that were concerning the how much our company cared about our properties. And I do want to say that we really do care about our properties, our principles. They've, I've heard stories in the past where the maintenance wasn't upkeeping so they drove down and mowed the lawn themselves to show that this is the standard we need to maintain our properties to. They tell every developer and every worker that whenever we travel visit some of the local properties, give them feedback. And two weeks ago I was in Denmark, South Carolina, one of our properties. We noticed that the playground had, I guess, rubber mulch and that started spilling over into the parking lot. We gave that feedback and within the day they had changed our specifications so that we don't do rubber mulch anymore. We consistently improve and make changes to our specifications to, because we want to be good neighbors, we want to maintain the property to the best of our ability and we want to be an asset to the community and the neighborhood. Thank you. Does anybody have any follow-up questions at this point? Just one quick question with regard to the tax credits and the 56-unit requirement. Does your credit approval letter require 56 units or is that the mix of units you all have identified between market rent and below median income rental? It's the unit count we put in when we applied for the tax credits last year. We had applied last summer where we awarded the tax credits in last, I believe it was November or sometime between October and December. And when we applied, we applied with 56 units. We have a lot of what goes into the credits we receive is based on what they call eligible costs for receiving the tax credits. Every unit in the project is going to be affordable. So 56 units were eligible to receive the tax credits. And that's what it was received on. Thank you. Any other commissioners with a question or follow-up? I just want to get something clear in my mind. How tall is the building on the ground up? How tall is the building on the ground up? Well, it buries along Benton Street and along River Drive. But the tallest portion of the building is under 60 feet, which is the elevator tower. The rest of them are at 50. 50 feet. How much? 50. One thing that I think is important to tag on to Bob's comment is what the young lady brought up about. The mechanical units on the roof, and if there's going to be some kind of screening or whatever up there, I'd like to see that as part of the next. Because I think it really does contribute to that height factor yet again. It seems to be the 3D will help with us. Yeah, we need to understand the experience. We need to experience the experience. And I assume that y'all looked at other property nearby that wouldn't be so close to the residential. I mean, I appreciate that you said you care about the residences and the areas that you move into. But I'm assuming that this credit could apply to another piece of property. I don't think so. No. No. I don't understand that. One more quick question. I think there was a comment relating to the ability to maybe get creative with where the parking goes, whether that's a parking deck situation or something where it's not under the building so you can decrease the height. Because that seems to be the primary negative feedback is the height of the building. So have y'all looked at any alternatives to that? We needed to meet the minimum requirements of South Carolina housing. And the only way to do that was this podium building with parking underneath. Also, at this time, I'd address the main entry really is under the podium. There are two entrances, one that faces the protected property and one that faces north on either side of that community cluster at the corner. The entry on River Drive is really a pedestrian entry and probably won't get very much use. And maybe residents leaving there to walk the city. And there was a comment about maybe potentially adjacent sites for parking. Is that worth exploring? Has that been explored? Yeah, I'm still not following the question that Mr. Schleavy asked about while we couldn't consider a structured parking so that we could bring the building down. I didn't quite understand the answer to that either. Yeah, we haven't. I guess the best way to answer it is we haven't necessarily looked at it, but in looking at the area, there's not much opportunity for leasing, parking, or constructing an external parking lot that would be convenient walking distance for residents. Yeah, because I go back to your comment that there's I think the issue is the height and that parking is not only the worst part of the elevation in terms of how it's approaching the street, but also adding to that height factor. So if there's anything y'all can do to look at that in a little bit more detail, it would really be greatly appreciated. And other sites potentially for parking. Yes, we can look at that, but I'm not sure what opportunities there are in the general vicinity that will have space to be able to either lease, park, or construct parking. I guess we're just suggesting it's worth investigating since we'll see what motion goes. But obviously the recommendation to defer this, there's a lot of things to still be worked out. So we look forward to see how it evolves. Yeah, OK, I appreciate that. OK, with that, I do need a motion of how to proceed on this case. I've already stated my preference, but I do need a motion and a second. OK, it's a lot to read, but I'll be happy to do it. I would like to recommend that the 2615 River Drive be deferred and deny the design certificate certificate of design at this moment. Be deferred based on addressing the following design elements in order to meet the Northman corridor guidelines, provide additional features along the River Drive elevation to mitigate the parking garage frontage and illustrate with an enlarged elevation to better understand how that will read from the street. Reconfigure some of the common spaces on the first floor to maximize active frontage along the street. Provide a more consistent rhythm of architectural bays by reducing the number of materials on the street-facing facades. Brick and horizontal siding are recommended. Provide more architectural emphasis on the corner and at the building entrances to illustrate with the perspective of the corner from traveling north on River Drive. Provide some fenestration and other features to break up the expanse of the blank wall on the north short and end elevation. Provide dark bronzed windows with at least a four-inch depth from the face of the wall. And more information about the roof-mounted utility equipment DB provided if applicable. And to work with staff on all of those recommendations. Do we have a second? Second. Mr. Broom? Yes. Ms. Sims-Sprannam? Yes. Ms. Jaco? Yes. Mr. Salibi? Yes. And Mr. Wolff? Yes. Motion passes. Is there any other business for the agenda? Staff, everything covered? Did we cover everything on that? I think we're good and we have no other business. Oh, OK. So just making sure we captured everything we needed to on that. All right. All right, great. Then a motion to adjourn, please. I'm sorry. I'm forgetful. We did want to mention that we formatted new guidelines. I think I sent an email to that effect. So no guideline language has been changed since its adoption, but we do have a new format for all of our guidelines. And so they're consistent now and how they're laid out, hopefully for customer ease of use, along with some information about administrative processes to make that more efficient and easier for people who are trying to use the guidelines. For historic districts, yeah, thank you. Is that available online as well? It is. It's all online. And I think since you guys, the link in one of our past emails, but we can resend it if you all want to look at it. We thought that would be easier, but we also have the book here if you want to take a look before you leave today. So they look really great. We're very proud of that work. But that is all of the business. Thank you. Thank you. And I don't have any business out of business. So motion to adjourn. I move to adjourn the meeting. Meeting is adjourned.


Meeting planners, if you haven't started using Twitter to market your events or stay in touch with your delegates, today's blog post and video is just for you. And if you have started using Twitter to market and promote, then maybe today's tips will ensure that you're on the right track when you're using Twitter and implementing it at your conferences. We're using Twitter today, folks. Here we go. Hey, friends. It's Leanne, and while I tend to use LinkedIn to distribute my content, I still feel Twitter is the best way to stay connected with your delegates, especially when you're on site at your conferences. It's short and it's sweet and it allows you to react in real time to things that are happening on site with your program. And I think that's one of the reasons Twitter was really the first social media platform that events and conferences started using to have that two-way dialogue with their delegates. A lot of other social media platforms are now used in marketing and in real time, but let's go back and look at why Twitter is so powerful when you're using it at your events. And while you can include photos and videos, I think Twitter is a great way to pass along information, especially as it happens in real time, be it changes in your program, changes in room assignments and speaker assignments. And then delegate feedback as well, because you've got 200, 500, 1,000 boots on the ground, maybe giving you intel that you can't see. So this is where Twitter, I think, transcends some of those other platforms. But some of these tips I'm going to give you today will also apply to LinkedIn or Instagram as well. But keep in mind, it's predominantly about the hashtag and about promoting and getting real time feedback through Twitter. Tip number one is hashtag creation. Now you want to create your event hashtag months in advance. If not years in advance, if you're planning far out into the future and want to reuse a hashtag. But here are some things to keep in mind when you're creating your hashtag. Number one, keep it short and sweet. Number two, make sure you test drive it. There's so many events out there, we want to make sure that your event is using that hashtag and that hashtag alone. And number three, hashtags transcend platforms. So make sure when you do that test drive of your hashtag, you're looking not only at Twitter, but you're also looking at LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram as well. Tip number two, hashtag marketing. We want to get this hashtag out there as far reaching as possible.   You need to ensure that people know exactly where to find information about your event, regardless of what device they are using. So make sure your hashtag is everywhere once you're done chest driving it. And if you're curious about how to cross post hashtags and find hashtags that you can start promoting your own. I did do a video about hashtags that we use in the meetings and events industry, and you can find that video in the description for this as well. But also look at the hashtags that your association uses. That's where you want to start promoting your own hashtag is through the hashtags that your delegates are already using. Tip number three, have a Twitter guru or a social media point person. This is the person that's going to be watching your hashtag. And of course, responding to any questions and inquiries in real time. So ensure that there's a member of your staff or a volunteer who's able to stay on top of all your social media platforms and your Twitter feed. Tip number four, have a social media or a Twitter team. These people are also known as influencers and they're people that can distribute the Twitter hashtag to their audiences as well. So identify people in your association that are really well versed in social media. They don't mind marketing your event using the hashtag and give them some ideas on how to get that hashtag out there to your audience. Tip number five, and often the most overlooked one, is internet bandwidth at your venue. Make sure your venue has enough bandwidth to support all the devices that people are now going to be using to communicate using your hashtag and all your social media. So talk to your venue, find out how much bandwidth you have, because you don't want to do all of this promotion of using social media if people arrive on site and they can't use social media because of the internet. Tip number six, your name badges. It's an easy one. Just make sure the hashtag for your event is on the name badge, but also include the handle of that delegate on the name badge as well. So when they're communicating with other delegates and they're meeting people, people can see right away how to get a hold of them on Twitter. And my final tip, this one's a little bit more work, but I think there's a lot of value here is to have a Twitter education session. And this is where you host a simple 20 to 30 minute webinar. Maybe you film a YouTube video on how to use the hashtag. People find value in that kind of teaching and are more apt to use the hashtag if you give them some prompts and some leading and teaching. So invest some time in creating a little bit of a tutorial for your hashtag and for your event, and you might see more engagement with that hashtag. So those are my seven tips for implementing Twitter at your conferences, but you guys are doing it all the time as well. And I want to hear from you. Will you let me know some of your best practices when you're incorporating Twitter into your events? Please comment below this video. Twitter is still one of the most useful and engaging tools for engaging your delegates, sponsors, exhibitors at your event. I encourage you to try using Twitter at your next event if you haven't already. To learn more about our complementary services for meeting planners, hop on over to our website at www.conferencesource.net and learn how Stephen and I can assist you with your next event. Thanks for watching this week's video and all the best at your conferences this season. Happy tweeting. Bye for now.