CCPC Minutes 10/19/2000 R October 19, 2000
TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE
COLLIER COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION
Naples, Florida, October 19, 2000
LET IT BE REMEMBERED, that the Collier County Planning
Commission in and for the County of Collier, having conducted
business herein, met on this date at 8:30 a.m. in REGULAR
SESSION in the Collier County Government Center,
Administration Building, Naples, Florida, with the following
members present:
ALSO PRESENT:
CHAIRMAN:
VICE-CHAIRMAN:
Gary Wrage
Joyceanna J. Rautio
Michael Pedone
Russell A. Priddy
Sam M. Saadeh
Ken Abernathy
Russell A. Budd
Laura Young
Ron Nino, Current Planning Manager
Marjorie M. Student, Assistant County Attorney
Page
AGENDA
COLLIER COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION WILL MEET AT 8:30 A.M., THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2000 IN THE
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS MEETING ROOM, ADMINISTRATION BUILDING, COUNTY
GOVERNMENT CENTER, 3301 TAMIAMI TRAIL EAST, NAPLES, FLORIDA:
NOTE: INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS WILL BE LIMITED TO 5 MINUTES ON ANY
ITEM. INDMDUALS SELECTED TO SPEAK ON BEHALF OF AN
ORGANIZATION OR GROUP ARE ENCOURAGED AND MAY BE ALLOI-IF_,D 10
MINUTES TO SPEAK ON AN ITEM IF SO RECOGNIZED BY THE CHAIRMAN,
PERSONS WISHING TO HAVE WRI'ITI~N OR GRAPHIC MATERIALS INCLUDED
IN THE CCPC AGENDA PACKETS MUST SUBMIT SAID MATERIAL A
MINIMUM OF 3 WEEKS PRIOR TO THE RESPECTIVE PUBLIC HEARING, IN
ANY CASE, WRITri;N MATERIALS INTENDED TO BE CONSIDERED BY THE
CCPC SHALL BE SUBMI'I'H~D TO THE APPROPRIATE COUNTY STAFF A
MINIMUM OF SEVEN DAYS PRIOR TO THE PUBLIC HEARING, ALL
MATERIAL USED IN PRESENTATIONS BEFORE THE CCPC WILL BECOME A
PERMANENT PART OF THE RECORD AND WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR
PRESENTATION TO THE BOARD OF COUNTY COlVlMISSIONERS IF
APPLICABLE.
ANY PERSON WHO DECIDES TO APPEAL A DECISION OF THE CCPC WILL
NEED A RECORD OF THE PROCEEDINGS PERTAINING THERETO, AND
THEREFORE MAY NEED TO ENSURE THAT A VERBATIM RECORD OF THE
PROCEEDINGS IS MADE, WHICH RECORD INCLUDES THE TESTIMONY AND
EVIDENCE UPON WHICH THE APPEAL IS TO BE BASED.
1. ROLL CALL BY CLERK
2. ADDENDA TO THE AGENDA
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
4. PLANNING COMMISSION ABSENCES
BCC REPORT
6. CHAIRMAN'S REPORT
7. ADVERTISED PUBLIC HEARINGS
CP-2000-02, GGAMP: To amend the Golden Gate Area Master Plan end the Future Land Use Map to create
a new sub-district to be known as the "Logan Blvd./Pine Ridge Road Transitional Use Sub-district, to allow
office/medical and conditional uses. (Coordinator: Debrah Preston)
CP-2000-03, GGAIvlP & FLUE: A text amendment to the Golden Gate Area Master Plan and the Future
Land Use Element to clarify/add uses within the Settlement Area (Orangetree PUD document). (Coordinator:
David Weeks)
CPo2000-04, FLUE: To amend the Future Land Use Element and Future Land Use Map to creat~ a new
commercial sub-district for 48.5 acres to be known as the Vanderbilt Beach/Collier Blvd. Commercial Sub-
district, to allow a maximum of 360,000 square feet of gross leasable commercial development. (N. half
intersection between Vanderbilt Beach and Collier Blvd.). (Coordinator: Aaron Blair)
CP-2000-05, FLUE: To amend the Future Land Use Element and Future Land Use Map to create a new
commercial sub-disO'ict for 17.5 acres, to be known as Livingston/Pine Ridge Commercial Infill Sub-district,
to allow a maximum of 125,000 square feet of gross leasable retail and office development at the SE
quadrant of Livingston Road and Pine Ridge Road. (Coordinator: Amy Taylor)
CP-2000-07, GGAMP: To amend the Golden Gate Area Master Plan and Future Land Use Map by renamin_~
the C.R. 951 Commercial Infill District to Golden Gate Commercial Infill Sub-district by including 6.83
acres at the NW corner of Santa Barbara Blvd./Golden Gate Parkway, to allow commercial development.
(Coordinator: David Weeks)
CP-2000-11, FLUE: A text amendment to the Future Land Use Element to modify the definition of "direct
principal access" for travel trailer recreational vehicle parks. (Coordinator: Michele Moses)
CP-2000-10, To adopt an Ordinance to approve the Immokalee Area Master Plan and the Immokalea Area
Future Land Use Map to delineate an Urban InCill and Redevelopment Area. (Coordinator: Debrah Preston)
BD-2000-15, Carl Oils requesting approval to construct a boathouse over an existing boat dock for property
located at 396 Connor's Avenue, further described as Lot 7, Block R, Connor's Vanderbilt Beach Estates
Unit 3, in Section 29, Township 48 South, Range 25 East, Collier County, Florida. (Coordinator: Cheryl
Soter)
BD-2000-23, Miles Scofield of Turfell & Associates, Inc., representing Liberty Ventures of Naplea, Inc.,
requesting a 40-foot extension to allow for a multi-slip boat dock facility protruding a total of 60 feet into the
waterway for property located at 9207 Vanderbilt Drive, further described as Lot 5 and 6, Block G, Connor's
Vanderbilt Beach Estates Unit 2, in Section 32, Township 48 South, Range 25 East, Collier County, Florida.
(Coordinator: Ross Gochenanr)
PUD-95-2(I ), Palm Foundation, Inc., requesting a fezone fi'om "PUD" to "PUD" Planned Unit Development
known as Bailey Lane PUD having the effect of amending the PUD document by revising the development
standards for single-family dwelling units by reducing the front and rear yard setbacks and reducing the
distance between principal stmctores, for property located at the end of Bailey Lane, in Section 23,
Township 49 South, Range 25 East, Collier County, Florida, consisting of 24.76/: acres. (Coordinator:
Chahram Badamtchian)
PUD-99-25, Mitchel A. Hutchcraft, ASLA, AICP, of Vanasse & Daylor, LLP, representing $olm B.
McMullen, requesting a fezone from "A" Agriculture to "PUD" Planned Unit Development to be known as
Hammock Park Commerce Centre for a mixture of commercial uses, for property located at the northeast
quadrant of the intersection of Rattlesnake-Hammock Road and C.R. 951 in Section 14, Township 50 South,
Range 26 East, Collier County, Florida, consisting of 18.154. acres. (Coorelinator: Chahram Badamtehian)
PUD-2000-02, William L. Hoover, AICP, of Hoover Planning & Development, Inc., representing Mark L.
Lindner, Trustee, requesting a rezone from "A" Rural Agricultural to "PUD" Planned Unit Development to
be known as Hibiscus Village PUD for a maximum of 230 residential housing units for property located on
the west side of Collier Boulevard (S.R. 951), approximately V4 mile north of Vanderbilt Beach Road, in
Section 34, Township 48 South, Range 26 East, Collier County, Florida, consisting of 57.5~ acres.
(Coordinator: Chahvam Badarutchian)
2
PUD-84-7(6), George L. Varnadoe of Young, van Assendetp and Anderson, P.A., representing 951 Laud
Holdings, LTD, requesting a fezone from "A" Rural Agricultural to "PUD" Planned Unit Development for a
mixed residential golf course community and for an amendment to the Marco Shores/Fiddler's Creek PUD
for the purpose of adding the land being rezoned and consolidating this area into the Fiddler's Creek master
plan while not increasing the total number of dwelling units authorized for the Fiddler's Creek portion of
Marco Shores. The area to be rezoned is located in Sections ll and 14, Township 51 South, Range 26 East,
Collier County, Florida. (Companion Item to DOA-2000-04) (Coordinator: Ron Nino)
DOA-2000-04, George L. Vamadoe of Young, van Assenderp, Vamadoe and Ande~on, P.A., repres~n~ug
951 Land Holdings, Ltd., for an amendment to the M~rco Shores/Fiddler's Creek Development of Regional
Impact DRI Development Order 84-3 as amended for the purpose of adding approximately 168 acres to the
Fiddler's Creek portion of the Dill in which the current land use theme of a residential golf course
community is extended without any increase to the number of dwelling units authorized, and to amend the
master plan to illus~'ate the residential/golf course land use theme for property located in Sections 11 and 14,
Township 51 South, Range 26 East, Collier County, Florida. (Companion Item to PUD-84-7(6))
(Coordinator: Ron Nino)
R-2000-03, Steve Morgan, representing M.B. Morgan and R.E. Shaffer, requ¢sfiug a rezone from
"RT"Residential Tourist to "C-3" for property located at the south corner of U.S. 41 and Barefoot Williams
Road, in Section 33, Township 50 South, Range 26 East, Collier County, Florida, consisting of 4.38-4: acres.
(Coordinator: Don Murray)
OLD BUSINESS
NEW BUSINESS: LDC Amendment Calendar
10. PUBLIC COMMENT ITEM
l 1. DISCUSSION OF ADDENDA
12. ADJOURN
10/19/00 CCPC AGENDA/RN/im
3
October 19, 2000
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: All right. I would like to call to order
the meeting of the Collier County Planning Commission, October
19th in our year of 2000.
And before I call the roll call, I would like to welcome a new
commissioner, Laura Young, from District I representing Marco
Island.
Glad to have you with us.
With that I'll call the roll call.
Mr. Priddy?
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Here.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Commissioner Young?
COMMISSIONER YOUNG: Yes.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Commissioner Rautio?
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Here.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Commissioner Wrage is present.
You've been gone so long I forgot your name.
Commissioner Mike --
COMMISSIONER PEDONE: Pedone. Here. That's what
happens when you miss --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Commissioner Budd?
COMMISSIONER BUDD: Here.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any addenda to the agenda?
MR. NINO: Yes.
Mr. Chairman, I apologize to those people who have showed
up for Items H and I, That's the Fiddler's Creek PUD and
Development -- DRI order amendment. There was a glitch in the
time that people received their letters and that item has to be
rescheduled for November the 16th.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: So moved.
COMMISSIONER BUDD: Second.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Been moved and seconded that we
move Items H and I.
MR. NINO: However, would you please keep those books?
That's a lot of paper there.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: H and I, which have to do with Fiddler's
Creek's DOA and PUD.
All in favor, signify by saying aye.
Opposed?
(No response.)
MR. NINO: Additionally, Mr. Chairman, would you move
Page 2
October t 9, 2000
items -- under A, Comp. Plan Amendments, the second one from
the top of Page 2, would you move that ahead of the top one, so
we want to take -- we want to take the third item second, so it
would be B and the top one as C.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Now you've confused me.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: How about the numbers, Ron?
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Yeah. Mr. Chairman, I move we
move CP-2000-04 to the first item.
MR. NINO: Whatever.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Second.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: That was what I understood.
So moved and seconded to move CP-2000-04, future land
use element, to the first item of business.
All in favor, signify by saying aye.
Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Motion carried.
That's the -- let the record show that Mr. Saadeh has arrived.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: On time.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: And Mr. Abernathy.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: And Mr. Abernathy.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Oh, I'm sorry. And Mr. -- Commissioner
Abernathy is also present.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I'm sort of short.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. We have no minutes in my
packet.
Any planned commission absences?
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: Yes, Mr. Chairman. I'm going to
be absent for the next meeting. I believe that is November the
2nd.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: So noted.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Collier County -- Board of Collier County
Commissioners Report. Ron?
MR. NINO: There wasn't anything that happened that would
be of any interest to you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. For the sake of time I will delay
the chairman's report, which is mainly to the commissioners, to
Page 3
October t 9, 2000
the last item of business today.
And with that we move to scheduled items.
First one on the agenda being CP-2000-04, future land use
element.
MR. LITSINGER: Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
For the record, $tan Litsinger, Comprehensive Planning
Manager.
This advertised public hearing this morning is your annual
transmittal public hearing for the annual growth management
plan amendment cycle. You'll be hearing staff and petitioner
presentations on a number of proposed amendments to the
growth management plan and also public comment prior to your
recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners on each
individual petition as to your recommendations for or against
transmittal to the Department of Community Affairs.
As a result of the transmittal to the Department of
Community Affairs of the selected amendments, we will receive
an objections, recommendations and comments report and come
back to you in approximately sixty days for a final adoption
hearing.
I would note that, in considering that all of these items
under this particular 7A are one public hearing, we would ask
that upon hearing staff presentations, petitioner presentations
and staff comments on each individual petition, that you take a
straw vote and that at the end of the entire presentation you
take a vote on the recommendations of transmittal -- on the
transmittal resolution to the Board of County Commissioners.
With that I'll open with Aaron Blair.
MR. NINO: Mr. Chairman, once again, because some people
came in late, I announce to the public that the Fiddler's Creek
petitions will not be heard this morning.
MR. BLAIR: Good morning.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: And with that --
MR. BLAIR: Good morning. For the record, Aaron Blair,
Planning Services.
What we have is, the petitioner seeks to amend a future land
use element and map of the Collier County Growth Management
Plan to allow for the creation of the Vanderbilt Beach, Collier
Boulevard commercial sub-district for 48.54 acres which is
located at the corner of Vanderbilt Beach Road and Collier
Page 4
October 19, 2000
Boulevard, as seen in the map here.
The change would allow for 360 -- 360,000 square foot of
gross leasable space, of commercial space, which the staff
believes this is too intense of a development for this location due
to other developments in size which can be seen as a Carillon,
Pine Ridge Crossing, Berkshire Lakes, The Pavilion and Naples
Plaza.
Also, its development will allow for three-story office
buildings, which, right there at that location, that's a rather tall
scale of ability and that size is usually seen in urban areas like
downtown Naples and along 41, which, in such a rural area, that
is very intense to have next to estate zoning and single family
dwelling units.
Staff's stance is not to transmit due to this intensity at this
location.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any questions of staff?
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: I'll probably have some a little bit
later, Mr. Chairman, but I need to disclose that I had a
conversation with Mr. Mike Davis and Mr. William Arnold in
regard to this petition. We don't need to disclose --
MS. STUDENT: I just -- for the record, Marjorie Student,
Assistant County Attorney. These are legislative --
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Okay.
MS. STUDENT: -- items so you need not disclose on these.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: I talked to him anyway.
MS. STUDENT: That's okay.
(Laughter.)
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you, Marjorie. And I think just
for the public to disclose, I think we all got a lot of telephone
calls, letters, E-mails, personal visits on all of those
amendments.
Now we get to hear from the petitioner.
MR. YOVANOVICH.' Good morning, Mr. Chairman and
members of the Planning Commission.
My name is Rich Yovanovich with the law firm of Goodlette,
Coleman & Johnson. I have with me Wayne Arnold with Grady,
Minor, professional planner, and Mr. Bill Hoover is supposed to be
here shortly, who also is a part of the team on this project.
What you have before you today is a petition for a comp.
plan amendment to designate the corner of -- the two corners,
Page 5
October 19, 2000
the northwest and the north portion of the northeast corner of
Vanderbilt Beach Road and Collier Boulevard as the Vanderbilt
Beach/Collier Boulevard commercial sub-district.
The petition requests 360,000 square feet of commercial
uses on approximately 48.54 acres. That would be allocated
240,000 square feet on the northwest corner, which is
approximately 33.45 acres, and 120,000 square feet on the
northeast quadrant, which is 15.09 acres.
As you all are aware, the intersect -- the proposed
sub-district is located at a very busy intersection. 951 and
Vanderbilt Beach Road are two of the more well-traveled roads in
Collier County. They basically function as arterials.
The future land use element, specifically at Page 27, sets
forth some criteria to establish a new activity center. And there
are basically three criteria. The intersection must consist of an
arterial and collector road or two arterials, the activity center is
no closer than two miles from an existing activity center, and
there must be market justification.
I wanted you to understand, we're not asking for an activity
center but we want you to understand that, under the
comprehensive plan, we could ask for an activity center because
we meet the criteria. We are two miles from the nearest activity
center, which is 951 and Immokalee Road.
Basically, we believe 951 and Vanderbilt function as
arterials and I believe your staff is looking at proper
classification of those roads. And we believe we have more than
enough market support for that criteria.
However, we did meet with your staff and we did meet with
some commissioners before we submitted our petition to, to
basically get a pulse for what was wanted in that area, whether
an activity center was a preferred mechanism or a commercial
sub-district was a preferred mechanism. And at that time both
your staff and the county commission preferred the commercial
sub-district approach because they did not want a density band.
And typically your activity centers have a potential of a
three-unit per acre density band. So, keeping -- keeping with that
request, we submitted our petition requesting this commercial
sub-district.
Candidly, we were a little surprised when we saw the staff
report that raised the issue of the fact that there wasn't an
Page 6
October 19, 2000
appropriate transition from the adjacent residential to our
proposed commercial because be didn't have a density band. If
your staff wants us to include a density band, we'll be happy to
include that in our provision, but I don't think that's really what
the commission wants. But if it's necessary to do a transition,
we'll be happy to include that density band request.
We did submit a market study that shows where the -- and
we don't -- that, that shows where the property is located. And
basically this property serves Golden Gate Estates. It will -- it
will provide, you know, commercial shopping center type uses to
people going home to the estates.
This petition -- and which your staff does not point out to
you -- captures 9,000 existing trips on those roads and prevents
them from having to travel north on 951 to that existing activity
center on Immokalee Road and 951. It also prevents them from
having to go several miles to Vanderbilt Beach Road and Airport
Road or going into Golden Gate City.
So the benefit of this project is that it serves Golden Gate
Estates. It's right on the border of Golden Gate Estates and
meets what the people of Golden Gate Estates have said they
want. They want retail close but they don't want it in Golden
Gate Estates. They are willing to drive to it to access it. And we
believe that our market study supports the additional -- the -- our
request to establish this commercial district.
One other thing I want to point out about your staff report is
your staff categorizes the property surrounding our submittal as
rural and that is not accurate. The property to our north is urban.
The property to our south across Vanderbilt Beach Road is
estates.
So we believe that our request is consistent with the intent
of the comprehensive plan as far as getting an activity center.
However, we're not asking for an activity center. We believe the
need is there for a -- for commercial uses and we also believe
that what we're requesting is compatible with the surrounding
development and potential development.
And Wayne Arnold will go through the specifics of our -- of
our development proposal. And if you have any questions of me
or staff after there is public comment o- I don't know if anybody is
here from the public to speak on it, we'll be happy to answer any
questions.
Page 7
October 19, 2000
MR. ARNOLD: Thank you. Good morning. Wayne Arnold
with Grady, Minor Engineering representing the applicant.
I would like to go through a few of the primary planning
points of the proposal. Bill Hoover, who has worked on the
market analysis, will be providing some additional information for
you following my presentation.
I think, as Rich described to you, what we're proposing to do
is place commercial in advance of the advancing residential
development along this corridor. It's consistent with how we've
approached the comprehensive plan since the mid-1980s and
that's designating activity nodes at our major activity centers.
And I think in this particular case what we've tried to do is
establish an intensity of use that is consistent with the market
demand in our area, but it's about a third of the size of a typical
activity center that you would find throughout Collier County.
I think the one graphic -- and maybe staff has that that they
can put on the visualizer -- that shows our location in relationship
to the other activity centers. I think it's very clear when you look
at that, geographically speaking, the nearest activity center we
have is north of us on the corner of Immokalee Road and 951,
now Collier Boulevard. The nearest -- the other nearest activity
center that we had was along Vanderbilt Beach Road, part of the
Vineyards DRI. That activity center commercial was moved west
to the intersection of Airport Road and Vanderbilt Beach Road,
which is now the Naples Walk Shopping Center. That's a Publix
anchored shopping center.
So we've established a location that we believe
geographically makes sense. It serves a growing market of
Golden Gate Estates primarily. If you try to establish that this is
not the confluence of two major roads, I think that would be
inaccurate because, even though they may be classified as
collector roads in Collier County, they purely function as arterial
roads. And we have had conversation with the transportation
department regarding the reclassification of those and several
other roadways in our network.
I think what we've also tried to do is establish something
that can be designed, like I said, in advance of some of the
encroaching residential development before we have to deal with
the compatibility issues of residential development. And I think,
to also meet that, staff has argued that we may not have a
Page 8
October 19, 2000
reduction in intensity as we move back towards residential
development. But in fact what we've said is that we do want to
and we will provide for the interconnectivity of this shopping
district with whatever is going to be to our west and northwest.
And that's a part of planned text.
Staff has also compared this proposal to several other major
shopping centers that we're familiar with in the community.
They compared us to Carillon Shopping Center, Pine Ridge
Crossing, Berkshire Commons, Pavilion and Naples Shopping
Plaza.
When I looked at those figures that they supplied in their
staff report to you, based on the amount of square footage and
acreage that are provided for those shopping centers, I find that
we really don't compare very well to any of those, because, when
you look at the square footage that we're asking for based on the
acreage that we have included in this plan district, we come up
with a figure that's about 7,400 square feet of commercial per
acre,
The county's standard has long been about 10,000 square
feet per acre for typical retail. It's just a figure that's thrown out
there, which means you typically at any given activity center can
have a million and a half and to a million six hundred thousand
square feet of commercial potential at a typical activity center.
So again, we're about a third the size of what you would
normally find at a typical activity center.
But when I looked at the numbers and started comparing,
and I broke them down, Naples Shopping Plaza has 16,700
square feet of retail space per acre. Carillon, 13,200 square feet
per acre. Pine Ridge, 8,600 square feet per acre. Berkshire
Commons, 8,800 square feet per acre. And the only shopping
center that they compared us to that comes in under ours is the
Pavilion Shopping Center that came in at just under 7,000 square
feet per acre.
So I think, from a comparison standpoint, they haven't fairly
categorized us relative to the other commercial districts that we
have out there. And frankly, there is a presumption here that this
develops as one large retail shopping center, and I don't think
that's necessarily the case. We have -- we're split by Collier
Boulevard. We have thirty-three and a half acres, roughly, west
of Collier Boulevard. We have about fifteen acres east of Collier
Page 9
October 19, 2000
Boulevard. We're at a location that would provide for adequate
separation from the intersection of Vanderbilt Beach Road and
Collier Boulevard to provide for traffic signalization there and
meet the county's spacing requirements, which also gives us the
opportunity to serve adjoining properties with signalized and safe
access to the site.
I think that staff has sort of alluded to the intensity as
maybe not being compatible because we're moving out toward
the fringe of the urban area, but the urban area is -- extends
another mile to our east. We are abutting Golden Gate Estates
designations to the south. And I think that's also a major reason
why the plan amendment should be supported. We are in the
urban area. We're at an area where we can have typically four
unit per acre residential development. That's what we see
occurring around us. We think that market that's growing from
the Vineyards east along Vanderbilt Beach Road as well as the
extension of Golden Gate Boulevard, Vanderbilt Beach and other
roadways along the 951 corridor need provision of these services
so that you don't bring more of those trips out onto Collier
Boulevard and Vanderbilt Beach Road and take them east/west,
north/south to get these other opportunities for shopping.
Staff has an inventory that was prepared back in 1998, I
believe updated by Fraser & Mohlke Associates that indicates
that there are some eighty-odd acres in what they've determined
to be our planning community that's available. But, in our
analysis, I don't find any sites larger than about five acres that
are within that trade area immediately, because we do have a
new public shopping center that's going to the north at
Immokalee and County Road 951 that's part of the old Richland,
now Pebblebrook PUD. But, aside from that, you go down to Pine
Ridge Road or White Boulevard and you find two five-acre tracts
designated on the north and south side of that road that are
available. I think you'll hear Mr. Hoover speak to those issues a
little bit more.
But the fact is, there is no major activity center within two
miles to support the growing population of Golden Gate Estates
and part of that central Naples corridor.
I think that Mr. Yovanovich had indicated that we haven't
asked for a density band for a variety of reasons, yet staff, in
their recommendations to you, said there are three viable
Page 10
October 19, 2000
alternatives under the current plan that you should consider
before you approve this, one of those being a light industrial
business park for this location. The second would be a typical
four unit per acre, planned unit development. And, third, they
have suggested that potentially an affordable housing project,
that up to fourteen units per acre might be more appropriate for
this intersection.
I think we would argue that the most compatible and the
most consistent and the most reasonable thing to do is to
designate this has a lower intensity commercial activity node
and allow that to develop, hopefully better than we have in some
of our other activity centers. We have provisions in here for
architectural continuity, signage consistency, interconnectivity
with adjacent parcels, et cetera. And I think all those
combination of factors make this the appropriate plan
designation for this site.
I'll go ahead and defer to Bill Hoover, who is going to provide
you with some market analysis. And we'll be happy to answer
any further questions if you have them.
MR. HOOVER: For the record, Bill Hoover of Hoover Planning
representing the petitioners.
In the county staff report they disputed the northern trade
area of the subject property, stating there is an industry standard
two-mile minimum radius for trade area boundaries from the
subject site.
I asked both commercial realtor Craig Timmons and general
real estate appraiser Chuck Quinby if they had any information
regarding an industry standard two-mile minimum trade area
radius boundary. Both of them told me they hadn't ever heard of
it.
The Appraisal Institute's book titled, Shopping Center,
Appraisal and Analysis, nowhere talks about a two-mile radius in
about 300 pages of this book. However, it does state, quote,
According to the Urban Land Institute, the primary trade area for
a shopping center has a radius of 1.5 miles and a travel time of
about five to ten minutes. A community shopping center has a
primary trade area of three to five miles and a travel time of ten
to twenty minutes, unquote.
The Appraisal Institute shopping center book also advises
that one should not solely rely on radii and/or travel times when
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October 19, 2000
determining trade area boundaries, as intervening opportunities
in market sharing will also be major factors.
The Appraisal Institute goes on to say that intervening
opportunities are other shopping centers that potential
customers will not drive by to get to the subject site.
If you look at the graphic from the Appraisal Institute, it
shows the subject site in the middle, and then there are seven
circled shopping centers that are intervening opportunities or
comparable sized competing shopping centers. It states the
primary trade area of the subject site will extend halfway
between the subject site and the seven competing shopping
centers. This is shown by the dashed line.
Essentially this graphic is a simple demonstration of Riley's
Law of Retail Gravitation. The Institute of Traffic Engineers,
whose trip generation books are the basis for nearly every traffic
study throughout the United States, also has a very popular book
out called Transportation and Land Development. When advising
how to identify a trade area boundary in this book it states,
quote, Use Riley's Law of Retail Gravitation to establish the
boundary between competing centers, unquote.
We gave staff a letter identifying how we did this on
September 9th, 2000. However, the staff report was written
since that time.
Based on -- our traffic study was done based on
methodology from the Institute of Traffic Engineers, the
Appraisal Institute and the Urban Land Institute.
The marketing study goes in to show that -- we did it with
two different approaches. One called a historical ratio analysis,
the second one a market support analysis. If we use an
approximate average of these two approaches in the year 2000,
there's an approximate shortage of fifty-five acres in the trade
area. This increases to about ninety-five acres in the year 2002,
which is about the soonest that this project would get
developed. This increases to 120 acres in 2005 and a shortage
of about 160 acres in 2010. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any questions of the petitioner?
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Yeah.
Can one of you tell me what the time frame for the
four-laning of both Collier Boulevard and Vanderbilt at this point
Page 12
October 19~ 2000
is? I mean, are we getting close to that?
MR. HOOVER: Off the top of my head I think Vanderbilt, in
approximately twenty-two months, the four-laning is supposed to
go to from Collier Boulevard all the way to Airport Road. So
that's in, like, a final design stage. Initially that was going to get
cut off at Logan Boulevard and I think about four months ago
they decided to take it all the way to Collier Boulevard due to the
growth in the area.
Collier Boulevard in the vicinity out there is not in the
five-year plan. However, talking to transportation staff, they feel
like that, in this next capital improvements element that that's
probably going to get moved up. I believe it's in the -- they are
moving up the design portion of that at this time.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Okay. Mr. Hoover~ while you're
there, you're in here, as we are, quite often. And, if my memory
serves me correct, we have already approved a number of PUDs
that would be to the north of this project that are -- MR. HOOVER: Correct.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: -- for houses. So I'm looking at
this section of land, or one square mile that falls in between
DiVosta's project to your west and Collier Boulevard. And I'm
thinking that almost all of that is already approved for houses,
and that there's going to be another maybe even 1500, 2000
units of housing in that one square mile of --
MR. HOOVER: If we figured a density of even, say, three
units per acre, we would have 1800 homes in the square mile
just to the northwest. And there's probably two and a half, three
people -- persons per home. So I think you're probably looking at
a population of 5 to 6,000, just in the square mile to the west.
I think later on today you're going to see a petition coming
in about a mile to the north for fifty-seven acres entitled Hibiscus
Village. I'm also working on another one about 600 feet north of
that one for -- I think it's seventy-seven acres of residential. And
I serve on the forefront, being a planner, but I was also asked to
give a proposal for another fifty acres of residential development
a little bit further to the north but south of Immokalee Road. So
that particular area there is -- it's happening now, if that's the
right word.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: And DiVosta's got 2,500 units in
their section?
Page 13
October 19, 2000
MR. HOOVER: And they're selling three per day.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Yeah. I don't know. I just feel
like staff has totally missed the, the importance of commercial
here because it seems to me, in a very short time, without some
shopping here, that we're going to really have some roads
clogged up, not mentioning Golden Gate Estates, but just from
Vanderbilt Beach corridor in that immediate area, we're going to
have a lot of roads clogged up, them trying to go get groceries,
further to the west.
MR. HOOVER: Yes. My -- I think the biggest thing I could
say in supporting this thing, if you were living very close to this,
you would be saving two to five miles each way to go get your
groceries, or possibly get your work location there.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: I have a question.
I want to make sure I understand the concept here of this
trade area. The map that you gave us with the retail trade area
is dramatically different than apparently Exhibit B for the trade
area that staff is talking about. They extend clear out into the
Golden Gate area. Is that the difference?
MR. HOOVER: I think the one I gave you -- the one I handed
out --
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Right.
MR. HOOVER: Okay. That one is from the Appraisal
Institute. And basically it's demonstrating that, if there's -- if
you've got two neighboring shopping centers -- and this is Riley's
Law of Retail Gravitation, you just drop a line right between
them.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Okay. So then staff then
apparently feels that we're going to draw more from the estates.
Is that what the conflict is?
MR. BLAIR: This is their trade area that they submitted right
here. This is the subject property and this is their trade area. All
this. And then right here is the nearest activity center, right
here, which is almost exactly two miles from the subject
property.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Okay. I'm having difficulty trying
to figure out why staff feels that this isn't a good place for
commercial. I think I'm following Mr. Priddy's comments.
MR. BLAIR: First off, it was the intensity of the use. They
are allowing for three story office buildings. That's a large
Page 14
October t 9, 2000
building. If -- for that area. I mean, they feel it's an urban area.
But really, if you drive out there, it's very rural in the way that it
looks.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Well --
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: I'm not sure what road you're
traveling.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: I'm --
MR. BLAIR: They are entitled to their opinion on it. But this
is the height of a building that would be built out there. Right
here. That's the three story building.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: See, I'm not clear. We've heard
this intensity issue before, and I'm still not told what it is that
staff is focusing on when it comes to the intensity issue. It just
doesn't fit in my vocabulary.
MR. BLAIR: Well, it's just the intensity of the scale of the
buildings, is what -- if the scale of the buildings -- it's just, you
figure if they are okay with the enormous shopping center right
there at that intersection -- maybe the people do need the
commercial uses out there, but I think just the intensity and the
scale of the project is much too intense for this area. Even if the
commercial may be needed right there, but I think the intensity
of it is what the problem is. Not to mention, the trade area we
just had a problem with because they are serving all these
people, but yet this person here will still have to drive ten miles
to get to this area. So how is it -- that is not helping these people
on this far end of the trade area.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Okay. So whose trade area are
we working with?
MR. YOVANOVICH: That is the trade area that we believe
that we will be servicing with our commercial development,
because the people from the estates obviously are coming into
the more urban area to work. And they are going to go home that
way, too. And we are on their way home.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: What's the methodology for
determining a trade area? Maybe that's the real question.
MR. HOOVER: That's -- in a nutshell, we used Riley's Law of
Retail Gravitation, which is very commonly accepted. And it
basically --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: That's what you used to
derive this, mid-point between the nearest --
Page 15
October 19, 2000
MR. HOOVER: Yes.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY-' -- shopping center there?
MR. HOOVER: Right. So that one right there is a sample --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY-' Does that square with this?
MR. HOOVER: Yes, because there's nothing to the east.
Essentially it says --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Okay.
MR. HOOVER: -- you drive to the closest one as far as
considering neighboring centers.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: There isn't any halfway point
out east.
MR. HOOVER: Since there's nothing -- and Russell Priddy
would know that. There's nothing out there to the east, so they
would still drive to the closest one.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Okay.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: If you throw Wilson Boulevard in
there, does that change any of your numbers or how it draws?
MR. HOOVER: It's included in there and we added seven
acres of commercial retail, and we -- since it was approved by
the comprehensive plan amendment already. So that's included
in here, but that's only more like convenience commercial. So
you have to consider more -- like size. So it's relatively small
compared to this forty-acre project. So you need to compare -- I
mean, and again, this is in the sample trade area thing from the
Appraisal Institute. The little convenience commercials are not
considered if you're considering a neighborhood type shopping
center.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY.' Let me ask one other question of
staff.
If a light industrial were the use on this property, how tall
could a building be in a light industrial?
MR. BLAIR: Light industrial?
MR. NINO: Thirty-five feet.
MR. BLAIR: Thirty-five.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY,' Thirty-five feet. That's three
stories, which is what a -- so why are you bringing an argument
to us that, yes, they need commercial but it's the character of
the buildings that's too intense when your other part of your
report says that they could have a thirty-five foot building in
Page 16
October t 9, 2000
there? It makes -- it doesn't wash. And I don't think there's
anybody in this room that really believes that that area around
this project is rural. There are approved PUDs and certainly long
range planning should know that.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Was that a question?
(Laughter.)
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Yes.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Then I ask staff to respond, please.
MR. BLAIR: If it was a question, I'm not sure that I'm --
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Well, I just -- what's your logic
now for denying this? You just told us a few minutes ago it was
because it was a thirty-five foot building would be allowed. But
you're telling us that that can be allowed and you would prefer
that with industrial being there.
MR. BLAIR: I don't know that we preferred that it would be
industrial.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Well, that's --
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO-' It says light industrial.
MR. BLAIR: Where?
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: That's what you're saying that we
ought to look at putting there before we do this commercial.
MR. BLAIR: Where does it --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I think what I would like to do is ask
staff and petitioner to sit down and we'll ask for a little input
from the public and then we'll re-visit this issue.
Anybody from the public that wishes to give testimony on
this, I would ask that you line up along this wall, step forward to
the microphone, state your name and spell it for the court
reporter.
MR. NINO: I don't have anybody registered on this one.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Do we need -- are we registering for the
comp. plan, the amendments?
MR. NINO: Well, anybody that wants to speak normally fills
out a slip, yes.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Well, I will entertain that.
Hearing no comment or seeing no comments from the
public, then we're back to, any further questions from the
commissioners of staff or the petitioner?
Realizing this is a straw vote, I would still take someone's
motion.
Page 17
October 19, 2000
COMMISSIONER BUDD: Mr. Chairman, I make a motion on
the straw vote --
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Marjorie wants to make a
comment.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Excuse me. I'm sorry. Just a minute.
COMMISSIONER BUDD: I'm sorry. Go ahead, Russell.
MS. STUDENT: Marjorie Student, Assistant County Attorney.
I've discussed this with the petitioner but there's some
language in there that says that a re-zone has to be a PUD and
there's case law that local government can't impose a PUD on a
property owner and they've agreed to change that to "shall be
encouraged", and the only other thing in there, and I've
discussed this with them too, there's language "other uses
permitted in the plan" and I assume that's retail uses, but I just
felt that ought to be cleared up a little.
That's all. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay.
MR. YOVANOVICH: If I can. Actually --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay.
MR. YOVANOVICH: -- what we would like to clarify, that it
would be uses permitted in activity centers so it doesn't stop us
from having a mixed use residential component of the project.
So that, it would be the retail as well as the residential aspects.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. I will entertain a motion or a
straw vote.
COMMISSIONER BUDD: Okay. I make a motion for a straw
vote that we transmit this with a recommendation of approval
subject to the petitioner's modification of an activity center type
use, not a PUD.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: So moved --
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Second.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Moved by Commissioner Budd,
seconded by Commissioner Priddy.
All in favor to transmit this with a recommendation for
approval, signify by saying aye.
Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Motion carries.
Thank you.
With that we go back to the head of the schedule,
Page 18
October 19, 2000
CP-2000-02. Logan Boulevard/Pine Ridge Road transmittal.
Deborah.
MS. PRESTON: Good morning. For the record, Deborah
Preston with your comprehensive planning section.
This petition before you is for an amendment to the Golden
Gate area master plan. It is to create a new sub-district entitled
the Logan Boulevard residential -- Logan Boulevard/Pine Ridge
Road transitional use sub-district.
The property site is located on the corner of Pine Ridge
Road and Logan Boulevard. It is approximately six acres. It is
currently zoned estates and it is vacant.
To the north of this property site is a residential
development, also in the estates zoning and is zoned estates. To
the south of this property is Pine Ridge Road, which is a four-lane
collector which is currently being widened to six lanes and will
be completed on August of '01. To the east of this property is
Logan Boulevard, a two-lane collector. Across from Logan is
vacant estates property. And to the west of this property is the
Vineyards PUD, which is not in the Golden Gate Estates area
master plan. It's not.
This proposal is to allow for conditional uses, such as
assisted living facilities, schools, day care centers or churches,
and/or office uses. No retail uses would be permitted. And the
petitioner had originally requested a maximum of 40,000 square
feet.
I have received one letter of support or not opposing this
project from the property owners directly to the north of this
property site, the single family owners. And I've received a letter
from the Vineyards saying that they are not in opposition to this
change.
I have as of today received a petition with 320 signatures
from the residents surrounding this site that are against any
changes to this site.
This site would currently be allowed to develop with one
unit per two and a quarter acres, so it could have two residential
units on this site if no change took place.
Staff had recommended transmittal of this petition, provided
that additional conditions were met. I had requested increased
buffer requirements and also limiting the office to 30,000 square
feet.
Page 19
October 19, 2000
As of today the petitioner has met most of my
recommendations, except we are in disagreement with the buffer
requirements on Pine Ridge Road. My feeling is that we need to
make sure we buffer both Pine Ridge and Logan adequately so
that we are preserving sort of the integrity of those four corners.
Staff recommends this change only because it does border the
urban site to the west, and it is on a six-lane collector.
If you have any questions of me, I would be more than happy
to address them at this time.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Questions of staff? If not, we can hear
from the petitioner.
MR. YOVANOVICH.' Good morning again, Commissioners.
Rich Yovanovich representing Ross Mcintosh, the petitioners,
and Bob Duane is here with me as well.
Essentially Deborah did a very good job explaining our
petition, and I believe we are in agreement with the 30,000
square foot limitation that she's recommending, as well as most
of the buffering she's talking about.
Mr. Duane will get into a little bit more details regarding the
type of buffer at this time. That's more of an issue for the zoning
hearing, but -- and so we would hope that that could be deferred.
Mr. Mcintosh has owned this property since 1986. He
acquired the property because he envisioned that Pine Ridge
Road was going to expand and become a major transportation
facility, as well as Logan Boulevard becoming a major
transportation facility.
So, frankly, Mr. Mcintosh waited until the appropriate time
to make his request for the comprehensive plan amendment.
And we believe it is the appropriate time. And we -- you know,
your staff also believes that what we are asking is appropriate
for this -- for this intersection.
Mr. Mcintosh, Mr. Duane and I met with the property owners
in the area between the last Planning Commission meeting and
this Planning Commission meeting, when we were made aware
that there was -- they wanted to meet with us to talk about our
proposal. We outlined for them exactly what we planned on
doing. And I wish I could report to you that we received a warm
reception and that we were able to cooperate and resolve things,
but you did get a petition from the property owners, who -- I
would not say are the surrounding property owners, but they are
Page 20
October 19, 2000
in that vicinity. The immediately adjacent property owners do
not have an issue with what we are -- with what we are
proposing.
Our meeting -- I will -- and, frankly, the points that they
raised at their meeting were legitimate concerns, concerns that I
think all of us would raise. I would say they are more emotional
concerns than factually supported concerns. And I will -- I'll
summarize the concerns, as what I saw, as three concerns.
They wanted to know what the impact of the project would be on
the character of the community. And they felt it would be a
negative impact. They wanted to know what the impact of the
project will be on property values. And again, they felt it was a
negative impact. And will the approval of this project result in all
four corners becoming basically commercial corners? That's
what I believe the three major themes were in our conversation.
Frankly, there are no infrastructure-related issues regarding
transportation or any other issues relating to what we are
proposing. Mr. Diaz with Wilson, Miller got up and spoke. And
he's opposed to our project, but he got up and acknowledged
that, from an engineering standpoint, there are no infrastructure
issues for this project. Traffic would be safe and could be
adequately accommodated.
(Unidentified mumbling from the audience.)
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY.' Well, there's some dispute of
that.
MR. YOVANOVICH.' Well, I'm just saying that that's what Mr.
Diaz said.
(Unidentified mumbling from the audience.)
MR. YOVANOVICH: Okay. Well, he can correct me.
What I heard him say was that transportation was not an
issue, that traffic could go in and out of that project safely.
COMMISSIONER BUDD-' In any case, Mr. Yovanovich, I'm
sure we'll hear from Mr. Diaz and he'll state his own position.
MR. YOVANOVICH: I appreciate that. If people could stop
whispering in my ear, I would also appreciate that.
With respect to the impact on the neighborhood, we have
proposed standards that require that this office complex look
like residences. We have limited the size of the buildings to no
more than 6,000 square feet. The architecture of the buildings
must be of an architecture you would find in a residence. The
Page 21
October 19, 2000
building height has been limited to one story. There -- the buffers
for this project are extensive, and Mr. Duane will tell you that we
are retaining a vast majority of the vegetation around this
project. I mean, we're retaining over two acres just in buffers
and we'll be retaining over fifty percent in open space for this
project.
So I would submit to you that the standards we've
incorporated assure that this is compatible physically in look
with the surrounding neighborhood. Your staff has already
acknowledged that the intensity of use is compatible with the
neighborhood.
Regarding the reduction in property values in the area, we're
talking about medical offices and professional offices. This will
provide additional, you know, services to the area. And frankly,
the people who will be having their offices there I'm anticipating
will live in the area and will -- we don't believe there's any impact
to the property values in this area by this project.
And the other concern about the three corners, which I
believe, you know, what I heard was a major concern, is we don't
believe that this is going to lead to commercialization of this
corner. In fact, we're not asking for retail uses. We're talking
about office uses, which is a lower intensity use than a
Walgreen's.
We are immediately adjacent to the urban boundary. We're
asking for office uses, which, frankly, will set the standard for
what the worst case scenario will be for the other three corners.
We're setting a standard of office. I don't think your staff or this
planning commission or the Board of County Commissioners
would approve a transition from urban that leads to office that
then goes to retail. So, from a planning perspective, we are -- we
are asking for a use that in fact discourages the proliferation of
retail uses on the other parcels.
In addition, as your staff pointed out, the property to the
northeast is estates zoned property, adjacent to estates zoned
property, and the same for the two corners to the south. So we
are a unique corner, because we are immediately adjacent to the
urban boundary.
What we want to do -- I mean, this is one step in a many step
process. This is just basically the transmittal hearing on
whether or not it's worth sending up to DCA, to get their opinion.
Page 22
October 19, 2000
We would propose that after the transmittal to the DCA that we
come forward with a more specific site plan, with more specific
architecture, that gets into the site planning issues they are
concerned about, which is access off Logan, access off Pine
Ridge, what is the project going to look like. We are more than
happy, prior to the adoption hearing, to bring a more detailed
plan to the residents and give them an opportunity to comment
on that more detailed plan, since I think that's -- would hopefully
go a long way to alleviate the concerns or the hypothetical
concerns that may occur.
It's gotten to where we are -- comp. plans amendments are
getting to the point where they are almost zoning hearings. And
we had anticipated just having the opportunity to come to you
with a specific plan in the future to show you how we would
implement something if we were given the office zoning. But
we're happy to expedite that process and bring you a specific
site plan with architecture at the adoption hearing.
So we would request that you would recommend transmittal
of this petition. Recommend that the board transmit this petition
to DCA. And Mr. Duane can get into a little bit more of the details
of the actual plan.
MR. DUANE: For the record, Robert Duane from Hole,
Montes and Associates. I'll be brief because, frankly, I think
Richard distilled the issues quite well this morning.
The aerial photo on the wall depicts the six-acre subject
property. My first point I would like to share with you is that it's
obvious that conditions are changing in this particular area,
particularly since my client bought the property in the middle
1980s. We have Pine Ridge Road going to a six-lane road
condition today. We have four lanes of traffic on Logan
Boulevard, two through lanes and two turn lanes. So we have
ten lanes of traffic on either side of this property. Ultimately
Logan Boulevard is going to go to four lanes, at a minimum. So
we're going to have ten or twelve lanes of traffic bordering this
property.
Today there's almost 40,000 vehicles that travel through
this intersection a day. In fact, 35,000 vehicles were reported
between Pine Ridge Road and 1-75, with 17,000 vehicles passing
the Pine Ridge Road portion of the property and 10,000 vehicles
passing the Logan Boulevard portion of the property.
Page 23
October 19, 2000
Assuming a six percent growth in traffic, we think that
ultimately there's going to be as many as 40,000 vehicles within
the next decade traversing this intersection. Subsequently, we
do not think it's an optimal location for a single family home.
Frankly, we think that there are limited opportunities for
conditional uses and these kinds of transitional uses in the
estates area. We think, given the vehicular access and the
location of this particular property, that it's good or better than
many other sites that could be brought before you. So much for
existing conditions.
The conceptual plan you see was prepared based on a
40,000 foot envelope. This is one of many plans that I could
present before you, because there are conditional uses, as
Deborah mentioned to you, that are permitted. But this
particular plan has ten buildings. They average about 4,000
square feet per building. We're going to be taking two and a half
buildings off now.
This particular plan has between -- has almost fifty-five to
sixty percent open space on it with the 40,000 square feet. So
we are -- we are prepared to up the bar again this morning and
submit to you that, for office uses, that there will be a minimum
of fifty percent open space on the site. It will be comprised,
seventy-five foot buffers along the north property line, fifty foot
buffers where the existing native vegetation will be retained
along Logan Boulevard and a minimum of a fifty foot buffer along
Pine Ridge Road and a thirty foot buffer to the west, which is to
the Vineyards. So we will have approximately 2.3 acres of our
site in buffering, more than fifty percent in open space. And our
gross development intensity is 5,000 square feet of office,
whether it's medical or regular office, per acre. And I would
submit to you, by any standard, that that is not a high density
project as I have just described it to you.
In addition, as Mr. Yovanovich said, we have limited our
building height to one story. At one time we were contemplating
two stories on the Pine Ridge Road portion of this property, but
we have changed our proposal.
Just to summarize the development standards, we believe
the buffers, which are extensive, limitations on building height,
mirroring the character of residential structures, certainly makes
this proposal, in our opinion, very compatible.
Page 24
October 19~ 2000
And I would also submit to you that our land development
code requires us to preserve at least one acre of the native
vegetation on this site. We have 2.3 acres proposed in our buffer
areas. The Land Development Code requires thirty percent open
space. We're committing this morning to a minimum of fifty
percent open space.
So I would like to think that we are raising the bar. These
are higher standards than many other similar kinds of projects
that are of a transitional nature and they are fully compatible in
my own mind.
The one issue that we have not achieved agreement with
staff is on the type of buffering on Pine Ridge Road. We are
willing to commit to a Type C buffer on Logan Boulevard, which
is substantially an opaque buffer. Frankly, I think the existing
vegetation is going to do that for us but we will meet the C
standard buffer on Logan Boulevard and to our neighbor to the
north. And I would also submit to you that the Golden Gate
master plan for retail uses requires a twenty-five-foot Type C
buffer. And we're proposing a Type C buffer with fifty feet and
non-retail uses.
Again, we believe that we've raised the bar. However, I
don't think providing a hundred percent opaque buffer along Pine
Ridge Road is necessarily desirable for this particular project.
However, the existing vegetation will remain. At the time of
zoning we're prepared to come forth with more detailed
proposals for our Pine Ridge landscaping. But I would submit to
you that, at a minimum, a Type D buffer will be provided. In fact,
I think this vegetation substantially exceeds a D Type buffer
along Pine Ridge Road.
Just to summarize, the conditions have changed in this
particular intersection. There appears to be a demand or a need
for conditional uses and transitional uses in the estates district.
That has never been an issue with staff. We have had the
Cleveland Clinic developed near this property within the last few
years, something that was never contemplated when the Golden
Gate master plan was initially adopted.
Again, the prohibition of retail uses, I believe, on -- at this
particular location can -- we can find that these uses that are
proposed are certainly compatible. We've tried to maintain a
rural or an ambience to our development with the standards that
Page 25
October t 9, 2000
we've set.
As Miss Preston and Mr. Yovanovich indicated to you, we
are adjacent to urban designated property in the Vineyards,
which can be developed with either single or multi-family uses.
That sets us apart from the other quadrants of the intersection,
which are bounded by estates districts on both sides.
So we think this particular property merits some other
treatment than a single family use, and I believe good planning
principles and practices would support the proposal that we're
making before you today. And I will be happy to answer any
questions that you may have.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Bob, you're creating a lot of
impervious surfaces there between buildings and parking. Is it
premature for us to be talking about stormwater retention? I
don't see any --
MR. DUANE: We are going to come forth with a very detailed
plan at the time of zoning that is going to provide for the needed
retention areas. Yes.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Okay.
MR. DUANE: Ms. Rautio?
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: I just had one question. When it
comes to the Type C buffer with that six foot wall of the opaque
or the berms along Logan, that probably would serve the function
of more or less hiding the development from the residential. You
aren't going to really see it. But along Pine Ridge, if you have a
Type C buffer would that not be creating a safety problem for the
sheriff patrols, if you don't use a D, you know, where you can
actually see into the site? Is there not a safety issue and a
problem that the sheriff's department is going to have to deal
with if we just sort of hide this whole entire project?
MR. DUANE: I've heard that issue raised before. I'm not a
safety expert. But I think it is desirable to have some visibility
from the road of this particular development. Frankly, we have a
cypress hedge along this portion of the property right here. And
we're going to be retaining most of that cypress area within our
fifty-foot buffer. I think, with the existing vegetation, after you
remove the exotics, I'm sure we're going to rise above the
standard of a D buffer, which is one tree every twenty-five feet. I
mean, I think the aerial photo speaks for itself.
But, to answer your question, we don't want to hide this
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October 19, 2000
development from our Pine Ridge Road frontage and we'll go into
more detail at the time of zoning.
MR. RAUTIO: And I would think that they may be some of
the concerns of the residents in the area of just how this
particular project, will it stand out, the visibility. But we also
have safety issues. Thank you.
MR. DUANE: Your point's well taken. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any other question? Any comment?
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Staff.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Pardon?
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY.' Staff.
MS. PRESTON: If I might, I just want to point out, Ed Kant
had just also noted that the access to this property would most
likely be constrained to just Pine Ridge Road so there won't be
any access available from Logan Boulevard.
And also, just to go over the buffer on Pine Ridge Road, I
think it was staff's intent to create something like this which is
at Poinciana, where you don't quite see the buildings. All you do
is see the trees and there is a small sign, so that it isn't
something where you see parking lots when you're driving down
that corridor.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any further questions?
MR. KANT: Mr. Chairman, if I may?
Edward Kant, Transportation Operations Director.
While Mr. Mcintosh and Mr. Duane are picking themselves up
off the floor, this site is almost identical in nature, in nature, to
the site which you will have examined and have in the past
examined at the corner of Santa Barbara and Golden Gate. And
the access constraint on Logan Boulevard is because, when we
go through to four lane, that there is most likely going to be a
lengthening of that southbound right turn lane, and we have
typically constrained access where we don't want to get
driveways entering into turn lanes. Now, that doesn't mean that
it will -- I'm not going to stand here and say it's absolute, but in
order not to have any surprises down the road, we felt it would
be appropriate to bring that up at this point, that we may want to
enter into some access constraint, depending on what their final
site plan looks like and depending on what our final design at
some point in the future may look like.
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October 19, 2000
It's better to bring it up now than to have to fight with it in
two or three or five years. Thank you. CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
Anyone from the public that we should enter testimony on
this?
MR. NINO: Yes. We have a long list of registered speakers.
Jim Sponnias, David Nelson, Mary Lou Hull, Donald Boultbee,
Gary -- Cheryl Sheldon, Wait Smith. I'll call out some more after
that.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. When you step up to the podium,
if you give your name, address, spell your name for the reporter,
please.
I will allow certain latitudes but, please, let's not be
repetitive. If you simply agree with a previous speaker, state so.
You don't have to beat us over the head. As my previous
chairman has said, we will get the message.
MR. SPONNIAS: Thank you. Good morning, ladies and
gentlemen of the Planning Commission. My name is Jim
Sponnias and I live on Mahogany Ridge Drive. And it's certainly
not my intent to beat anyone over the head or engage in
emotional displays. I don't think that we have to to convey our
points.
We oppose this measure, and, like these folks said, some
people very strongly, for a variety of reasons. Before I begin I
would like to mention that myself and others have taken effort to
find out what our neighbors want, their position on this proposal.
And we have collected, like Miss Preston says, approximately
320 names that were submitted this morning. They are coming
in all the time. I do have more. And I would like to just have
everyone who is here today raise your hand if you're here on this
matter and you're opposed to it. (Show of hands.)
That's a lot of folks here.
If there's anyone who is here in the community who is a
resident and for it, please raise your hand. (No hands raised.)
I just wanted to bring that to your attention.
We realize this is a process. This is a very important
process. Our input, we hope, has some merit with you folks.
I heard some interesting points this morning. I was rather
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October 19, 2000
discouraged that the staff in a previous matter seemed to want
to protect the residential character of an area and in this case
didn't.
We can clearly see that these folks and the staff are not
giving us the worst possible thing that could be, which would be
retail use. I don't think, though, that if something could be worse
is a good reason to have this.
Mr. Duane pointed out that it's not suitable for a residential
use. How are the people that own this parcel going to take that?
They are right across the street. What will they be told?
I don't know if it would even be fair to deny them the use of
commercial or some limited activity if this is changed.
The point was made, changes are occurring in our area.
That is correct. This change will certainly guarantee and invite
the change for the other three corners. There's one way to keep
this matter in check, and that's, we hope, that you can
recommend to the county commission that this not go through,
that you do not recommend this. That would be one way to
ensure that those other three corners are not utilized in any
commercial sense.
This is a neighborhood. People that live in the estates like
ourselves, we pride ourselves on independence. We pride
ourselves on sort of doing our own thing. There is a mix of
people in the area. There's a mix of homes. We have million
dollar homes. We have modest homes. We all agree on one
thing. We do like our privacy, and that's the sort of input that
you see today. We want to keep our area residential. And we're
not embarrassed about that. And we do respectfully disagree
with the staff and Mr. Mcintosh.
We recognize that Mr. Duane has eloquently pointed out that
he has raised the bar and he has higher standards. That's true.
He's not asking for a 7-Eleven. Maybe at one time a 7-Eleven or a
retail use was considered. I don't know. That wasn't the result.
We learned of this a few weeks ago after Mr. Duane and Mr.
Mcintosh made a proposal to the county, made an application
back in April of this year. We learned of it three weeks ago.
Some of us felt that it would have been better to ask the
residents' opinions at the time of application or somewhere
before to measure how people felt. I think that would have gone
a long way to minimize some of the emotional display that was
Page 29
October 19, 2000
visited upon these gentlemen last week at a meeting that they
did hold.
I want to speak briefly about the need for this. The Golden
Gate master plan designed certain areas for commercial
activities. This clearly was not one of them. There had to be a
reason for that. And I know on the roster one gentleman will
address that in more detail.
There are commercial properties in our immediate area
which are open for rent. There is the DePena Building, which,
unfortunately, is a part of our neighborhood. And I think
everyone here that did not participate in the process to oppose
that is greatly -- regrets that. And, as a member of this
community, we are committed to not letting anything like that
happen again. But there is space at the DePena Building. There
is space at the Crossroads Shopping Center which is available.
There is also space in buildings that were built on Pine Ridge
Road that are office condominiums. There is space there. There
is plenty of space everywhere else to do the sorts of things that
-- to serve the needs of the community.
I will close now and let the other folks speak. I do thank
you for allowing us the opportunity to present our views. And we
do hope that the will of the people has some impact this
morning. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you. Next speaker.
Your name and spell it, please.
MR. NELSON: Okay. David Nelson. I live at 5281 Palmetto
Woods Drive. I'm nervous.
One of the things that in their proposal they didn't mention
and they told us at that meeting at the community center, that
the traffic will increase. Their engineers said that the traffic will
increase approximately two percent on Logan Boulevard. That's
two percent too much.
As far as the need for more office space, number one~ at the
Crossroads Plaza where the Publix is, there's 1,200 square feet
available. Granted, 1,200 feet is small, but it has been available
for a year now.
The second is the Cambridge Square buildings on Pine Ridge
Road. It's next to the three story Hawthorn Suites. It's just south
of Livingston Road. I don't have the square footage, but there is
seven units occupied, thirty-seven unoccupied. And the
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October 19, 2000
significance of this is, the CO was June 28th.
There is another office building on Pine Ridge Road even
closer to this one. And it's -- it's called the Napa Ridge Building.
It's right across from the Publix and the Mobil station right there
at that traffic light. In the second building there is 2,080 square
feet available. And in the third building it's totally empty, which
is 15,000 square feet. That's 17,000 square feet in one area
alone, or one building alone. And that was CO'd October 6, 1999,
over a year ago and there's still 17,000 square feet available.
There is absolutely no need for more medical, slash, office space
in our area.
If this corner is rezoned it will spread like cancer to the
other three corners, which has been brought up. Once --
obviously, once people see that this corner has been rezoned,
you can't tell me that the other three corners aren't going to try
it too, in a worst case scenario. That is why we have both sides
of Logan Boulevard. north of Pine Ridge Road and south of Pine
Ridge Road people here because we don't want that to happen.
And -- okay. And the rest is redundant. And, thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
MS. HULL: Good morning. My name is Mary Lou Hull. That's
H-U-L-L. I live at 5370 12th Avenue Southwest.
I think it's scary to think in this democratic process that a
bunch of people who don't live in a community can make
decisions directly affecting its residents. It's scary to think in
this democratic process that one man can persuade the
community development environmental services division to
approve his pocket-lining scheme without even notifying the rest
of the community.
Hole, Montes has prepared an application to amend the
master plan for Ross Mcintosh in April of this year. The
community development division sent their approval to the
Planning Commission in September. The residents of the
neighborhood didn't even hear about this until a few weeks ago
after Mcintosh received support from community development
staff. I personally didn't find out until last Saturday.
If we, the residents of Logan Woods, had the opportunity to
prepare since April, like our friend here, we would have signature
upon signature protesting this change. We would have had the
opportunity to influence the community development division
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October 19, 2000
with our need to stay residential and most likely wouldn't even
be here today, knowing you nice people. How can the staff at
community development -- and I would like to stress here
community development -- recommend rezoning without even
consulting the members of the community? How can they say
what's in the best interest of a neighborhood when they didn't
even notify us or ask our opinions?
The Golden Gate Estates area along Logan Boulevard is
among the highest value real estate in Golden Gate. And why is
this? It's because of the character of our area. The redeeming
qualities include homes that are built on spacious plots, most
averaging two and a half to five acres, tall pine trees and other
native foliage, often secluded, and privacy, and most important
of all, it is all residential.
My father bought property there fifteen years ago. He built a
house and spent thirteen years enjoying this area. And when it
came time for him to downsize, he sold the house to me. My
family and I are now enjoying this area. And when it comes time
for us to downsize, my niece has already expressed interest in
the house to carry on the legacy and keep it in the family.
This area, this neighborhood, this Logan Woods, should be
preserved for future generations, to be passed on and
appreciated.
I stand here today asking you, please don't change the
zoning. Too much development is eroding our neighborhoods.
With the glut of office space available in the Naples area, why
are we even considering ruining a pristine community?
I understand the Golden Gate master plan allows for
variances, but granting these variances should be driven by
necessity and not habit. We don't need office in our
neighborhood. What we need is to preserve our neighborhood so
we have something of value and beauty to pass on to the next
generation.
Mcintosh may argue that there is too much traffic at the
intersection of Pine Ridge and Logan for a home, but this doesn't
explain all the other homes along Pine Ridge. What about at
Livingston and at Goodlette? What about all the homes along
1-757
No. There isn't too much traffic for a home. The real reason
is Mr. Mcintosh can make more money with commercial property
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October 19, 2000
as opposed to residential property.
Mr. Mcintosh, we don't want your office or whatever
commercial development you have up your sleeve in our
neighborhood. But you're more than welcome to build a lovely
home, to loin our community and experience for yourself why
Logan Woods is so special.
So, gentlemen and ladies, I'll end this with one final plea.
There is no other community quite like Logan Woods. So don't
spoil it, please. Please keep Logan Woods residential and listen
to the people who actually live here.
We are currently lacking the proper representation to stand
before you today. We are lacking the time necessary to band
together and give a proper fight. We're just regular working, tax
paying, voting citizens who love our neighborhood and don't want
to see it destroyed by greed.
And in the spirit of all that's fair and right we, as a
community, as a neighborhood, the very backbone of American
society and culture, oppose the change in zoning. We deny --
please deny this petition to fezone, if not for maintaining the
heritage of our neighborhood, then for the fact that we do not
have representation.
Thank you.
(Applause.)
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
MR. BOULTBEE: Good morning. My name is Donald
Boultbee. Difficult spelling. B-O-U-L-T-B-E-E. I'll speak slowly in
case you can't get my nice English accent. After thirty years I've
still got it.
The difficulty with being the fourth speaker is that all the
good lines have been used up. But regardless, regardless, I'm
going to be one of the emotional speakers who was referred to
by the opposition.
I live on Tamarind Ridge Drive, which is the second street
north of Pine Ridge Road in the area known as Logan Woods. My
wife and I strongly object to the proposal which you have before
you. It's zoned residential and should not be changed to any
commercial, rather, use designation, we believe.
We purchased our property because of its location, a
non-commercial area in which homes typically sit on nice lots of
anywhere between two and a quarter to ten or even twelve
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October 19, 2000
acres. It's calm, semi-rural, away from the commercial rush and
the traffic of all the urban areas to the west. We do not want to
see the nature or character of Logan Woods modified or changed
from its current residential status.
Mr. Mcintosh, a developer, and his colleagues, purchased
their property, as he's told us, about fifteen years ago, knowing
full well that it was zoned for residential use only. He knew that
at the time. At a meeting last week Mr. Mcintosh told me,
because I raised the question with him, that he had never
planned nor even considered using the land for residential
purposes. That's strange because there is a clear and
demonstrable need for nice new homes in Logan Woods. There
are new ones going up every month. So why did Mr. Mcintosh
buy this particular piece of property?
Your friends spoke on behalf of us. I'm going to speak on
behalf of you for a moment. Forgive me.
If he can persuade you to change the zoning from residential
to some commercial use designation, then obviously he stands to
make a considerable amount of profit from it. That's his
business. Good luck. But on what basis can he persuade you to
support an alteration to the Golden Gate master plan?
He has already caused a market study, which I believe is a
misnomer. I haven't read it. It's just referred to. I think a more
appropriate title might be a study of our most profitable use
options, provided we can get the zoning changed. How
persuasive can that be to the public? Certainly my neighbors
don't seem to buy into it.
There is no established need by the general public for
commercial buildings of any sort at any of the corners of Pine
Ridge and Logan Boulevard. There's no compelling reason to
change the zoning for the property in question on the northwest
corner.
Your staff may have been misinformed in their findings and
conclusions, Item Number 3 on the document you have.
Cleveland Clinic is not a hospital. It's a clinic. I understand that
the doctors who do not work for Cleveland Clinic will not be able
to admit patients to the new bedded facility. They don't have
admission rights.
Cleveland Clinic has its own specialists, testing and
analysis capabilities, on site. They are not going to locate them
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October 19, 2000
off site. So external doctors will have no reason to take offices
nearby.
Now, I got this from two physicians who are not officers of
Cleveland Clinic, and I would suggest that you might want to
have this point reviewed with the clinical -- Cleveland Clinic
administrator, not local realtors, as I think it's central to the
petition in establishing need.
Just because this is a corner lot does not automatically
qualify it for commercial use. However, developers seem to have
been remarkably successful in obtaining zoning changes for
corner lots. And these then become the hinge pins for further
zoning changes. This has already been referred to by previous
speakers.
Well, the residents of Logan Woods and the surrounding
area, the people who have created this nice, well taxed
residential area, do not want to see the nature and character of
the area changed. We don't want the very entrance to Logan
Woods blighted and impacted by a commercial enclave which
will bring up to 1,400 vehicles per day. Those were Mr.
Mclntosh's figures. I don't know where they came from. They
could easily be 2,400 or 2,800 vehicles a day. I don't know the
basis for the numbers. But you can figure out the access and
egress problems from this site and their impact both on Pine
Ridge Road and on Logan Boulevard.
Quite simply, there's no need for this development. There's
no call for it. There's no justification for it.
Almost 100 percent of homeowners contacted in our area
have signed the petition to retain residential zoning. Had we had
more time, I think you would have seen many, many more names
on that petition.
As you well know, the topic of ever encroaching
development is probably the number one issue for Collier County
homeowners. There is a master plan for Golden Gate. All we ask
now is that you follow that plan and do not support the request
to change the plan. Don't chip away at it corner by corner,
developer by developer. Because eventually the master plan
becomes a meaningless mess of changes and modifications and
that, in my view, is not planning.
So, to summarize, we, the residents, the taxpayers and the
voters, we ask you not to support this proposal to change the
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October 19, 2000
zoning of the property in question. We don't want the change
and we'll fight it as well as we're able.
As a final thought, we would welcome Mr. Mclntosh's new
home on this site because he seems to be a nice person. Or,
once you refuse this request, he might want to donate the land
for a nice piece of open space and a park.
Thank you for your time.
(Applause.)
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
Just so you understand, I'm allowing a little more latitude
here than normal. But one thing the commissioners do not like
to hear is personal attacks. Okay? You may disagree, but no
personal attacks, please. And, please, try not to be redundant.
Okay?
MS. SHELDON: Cheryl Sheldon, 655 Logan Boulevard South,
S-H-E-L-D-O-N.
Very short, no redundancy. I live five driveways north of
where this property is supposed to go in. Sunday a neighbor
came to me and told me what was going on. Again, I don't
understand how any of us could have not been notified that this
change was about to happen.
The traffic on Logan right now, at forty-five miles an hour,
causes me to have to drive past my driveway, turn around to
come back and get in. I've nearly been rear-ended five times in
the past week and a half. People drive off of the road into the
ditch to get around. I don't know how we can accommodate
1,400 more vehicles a day.
And that's all I have to say. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
MR. SMITH: Good morning. My name is Wait Smith,
S-M-I-T-H. And my wife Betty and myself have lived in the Golden
Gate Estates off Logan Boulevard over twelve years. We have
been there and seen a lot of new homes developed. I'll try not to
be redundant but there are some things I think need to be visited
a second time.
Basically, I have a single message and that single message
is being echoed by everyone who is here. It's also being echoed
by everybody who took the time or were contacted to sign our
petitions. And that message is, we don't want, we don't need
commercial buildings in our neighborhood.
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October 19, 2000
Naples has probably more than its share of developers who
are willing to build anything anywhere and then take their bags
and leave because, what do they care? They don't live there.
We do.
We want to encourage you, we want to ask you to do the
right thing. We have no commissioner to represent us. When we
do get one, you can be sure we're going to remind them they are
in office to serve the constituents.
All of us have invested, at a great expense, in our homes, in
our well-being and also in our future. And I think this impacts all
of those items.
There are more than enough available spaces, and you've
already heard one of our speakers mention where they are and
how much is available in Collier County.
Let me ask you if any of you have driven along 951 starting
at Pine Ridge Road, once you get past the mess on the corner,
and drive west until you get to Logan. That's a beautiful area. I
think that's a visual statement of what the estates are all about.
You see the trees. You see the greenery. You see the scenery
that basically is the character of our landscape and where we
live. You don't get that same feeling when you drive by rows of
condos, do you? You don't get that same feeling when you drive
by shopping centers. You certainly don't get that same feeling
when you drive by a lot of office buildings and homes side by
side.
I would like to leave you with one last item. And that last
item is also my first item. I want to tell you that we would like
for you to see that they put commercial buildings somewhere
else. We don't need them.
I thank you for your time. I thank you for the decision on our
behalf of not granting a zoning change in this neighborhood.
Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I would just like to clear something up.
I assume that when you say you don't have a representative
commissioner you're talking about the Board of County
Commissioners.
MR. SMITH: No. A county commissioner, yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Because you do have a representative
on this board.
MR. SMITH: Yes. And that was my -- I had county
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October t 9, 2000
commissioner written down but for some reason or another, zip.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
MR. PRYER: Good morning. My name is Gregory Pryer,
P-R-Y-E-R. I reside at 5570 10th Avenue Southwest, which is one
block south of Pine Ridge Road.
Not to be redundant, I'm going to skip a lot of the things that
I've said (sic), but at all times when I bought my property, from
1986 and built my home in 1992, I've relied upon the
comprehensive plan for Golden Gate Estates and that it would
remain residential. And the fact that no commercialization would
occur within -- it was my belief, the five miles of the Crossroads
Shopping Center.
If you start to dismantle the comprehensive plan on a
piecemeal basis there's no doubt that the other three corners
will be affected as well. And I live right across from the southern
corner of Pine Ridge and Logan.
Just one point that I would like to make. In the community
development memo that was given to you, under the
compatibility criteria area it states that the subject property
shall be directly adjacent to nonresidential use zoned or
developed. The Vineyards is already advertising their new
extension into the Pinetree Farms area. Obviously they must
have zoning approval if they are advertising it. So therefore I
don't understand how this particularly criteria can be met when
the property is adjacent to the Vineyards. Now, maybe you're
saying it's outside of the Golden Gate area. But still, if the
criteria says it cannot be directly adjacent to residential use, I
don't understand how, you know, this property can meet that.
One other point. An article in the Naples Daily News
yesterday stated that the county issued more home permits for
Golden Gate Estates than any other part of the county. Now,
how can anyone say that there is no need for additional
residential? And the fact that we have any number of properties
on 10th Avenue, which they enter off of 10th Avenue and they
abut Pine Ridge certainly doesn't speak for the fact that Mr.
Mcintosh says that, you know, he could not use his property for
residential because it's on Pine Ridge Road. That doesn't make
any sense to me.
In conclusion, the fact that one individual can see gold in
the commercialization of his property, this should not outweigh
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October 19, 2000
that ninety-nine percent of the residents contacted believe
otherwise.
And I thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
A question, Deborah. The adjoining property to the
immediate west is part of the Vineyards PUD? MS. PRESTON: That's correct.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: And that is all residential, right?
MS. PRESTON: Right. I think that the criteria this
gentleman was speaking of is the criteria that is included in the
Golden Gate area master plan for what you need to have for a
conditional use, which is you cannot be abutting residential
areas. This property does not fall under the criteria that's
included in the Golden Gate area master plan for conditional
uses. And that was stated in the staff report. So that's why they
are doing the comp. plan amendment.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you. Next speaker?
MS. COLOSIMO: Good morning. My name is Melissa
Colosimo, C-O-L-O-S-I-M-O, and I'm also real nervous.
I'm speaking today as a concerned homeowner. I have a
residence located on Logan Boulevard. However, much more
importantly, my concern is as a parent of school-aged children
whose safety -- whose safety and welfare is directly impacted
every weekday by the excessive speed and traffic on Logan
Boulevard and the surrounding area. Almost every street from
Golden Gate Parkway all the way to Vanderbilt Beach Road
Extension has a scheduled bus stop. I personally witness every
morning and afternoon the speeding cars and trucks traveling
down Logan. I'm sorry.
Logan is a -- Logan Boulevard is a residential street with
many driveways and intersecting streets. All of the parents I
have contact with and have spoken to have a grave concern
regarding our children's safety.
Please, let me ask you. Would you have your child exposed
to a hazard and a threat of their welfare every day? Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
MR. SNELLING: My name is William Snelling, S-N-E-L-L-I-N-G.
I became a resident of Collier County in 1956 when the
population was 8,000. I held a real estate license here. I worked
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October 19, 2000
for Ad Miller back in the 1950s. I'd like to tell you about
contamination.
Well, first I want to tell you, I probably live closer to this
property than anybody else in the room. My -- the back of my
property is 200 feet from Pine Ridge and 300 feet from Logan, on
the diagonal corner. It doesn't quite show it. But it would be
right about here. That's where my property starts.
Contamination is what happens where bacteria are or
sometimes where people are. The more people that come into
an area as contrasted to driving through in their cars, the more
likely we are to have problems in the neighborhood from people
that get into mischief.
And one of the things that I liked about my home when I
built it, which was in 1979 when there wasn't even a Pine Ridge
there, I must tell you, is that it was not contaminated. The
allowing of something in there other than a home definitely
contaminates it and it also defeats one of the things that Collier
County keeps worrying about~ which is, population density.
There is no more wonderful big development in the whole
country than Golden Gate Estates with its very, very low
population density. And as soon as you start bringing in other
things, you, you increase that and you decrease the pleasure of
the people that live here.
And I want to call attention to the fact of the incentives.
The difference of the incentive of the person that's coming in
here to make profit -- which I approve of as a principle, that's
how America was founded -- but the incentives of all of us that
have come in here is, if anything, worry about our property
becoming worth less. But we have other motives besides profit
and they are very important because this is a residential area.
And I thank you very much for your time.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
(Applause.)
MR. NINO: I have other speakers.
MR. WILSON: My name is Dan Wilson, 1080 Logan
Boulevard. I have a brief statement.
For the past eighteen years I have resided on Logan
Boulevard, approximately a block and a half south of the property
in question. This lot is surrounded by residences, has also been
zoned residential and should remain residential. It is unfair to
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October 19, 2000
the property owners in the neighborhood to change the zoning
after all these years.
We who live in this area will be watching to see if you, our
representatives, will listen to the people or to monied interests
who stand to profit from this proposed change.
Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE.' Thank you.
(Applause.)
MR. NINO-' Fermin Diaz, Gary Carlson, Gall Geary, Kenneth
Hatch -- Hutch, Gregory Pryer, Frankie Anne Tester, Frank
Craparo.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: Take a breath, Mr. Nino.
MR. NINO: Don Wilson. Thank you.
MR. CARLSON: I'm Gary Carlson, C-A-R-L-S-O-N, and I live at
5155 12th Avenue Southwest.
I don't really have a whole lot to add except that I think that
some of us in this room ought to think back in the early eighties
when the state was smart enough to pass the growth
management legislation to say that we needed to slow it down
and we need to do it right. There were a lot of us that spent a lot
of hours and a lot of burn -- and a lot of midnight oil. And we
thought -- we thought we had a good plan. And part of that
reason that we thought we had a good plan is people like me
who wanted to live here the rest of our lives and tell our
grandchildren that we did a good job, that we could be proud of
what we did and our grandchildren would stay.
To go back now and starting to chip away at that plan
because of the fact that we are outside of this activity center
that we set up in the late eighties, and we drew those lines in
the sand. And all of a sudden now we're chipping away at what
we as a group did in the eighties. And it's just not compatible to
start chipping away at what we thought was a good plan,
because nothing's changed out there except that we have some
major roadways. And I really think it's wrong if we start doing it
at this location. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY.' Where do you live in relation
to -- where do you live in relation to the intersection?
MR. CARLSON: Who is talking?
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY'- I am.
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October 19, 2000
MR. CARLSON: Sorry. I live -- I live, from Pine Ridge Road, I
live on 12th Avenue Southwest.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I heard that. Now, where is
that?
MR. CARLSON: Okay. It's across the intersection, right
down in here.
We have the impact right over here. I'm on the other side of
Pine Ridge.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: South of Pine Ridge.
MR. CARLSON: The thing is that we have the issue with the
traffic trying to get through Pine Ridge right now and turn right or
left in the morning, coming home in the evening. Logan
Boulevard is loaded with traffic and the last thing we need to do
is have people stumbling along trying to find their way off Logan
into any of the commercial sites that could happen in that four
corners of that area.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I think using drawing lines in
the sand to describe the comprehensive plan was an unfortunate
metaphor on your part because you know what happens to things
that are drawn in the sand, they disappear, so --
MR. CARLSON: Well, that's --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: It was a living document
then and it's a living document then (sic). It was not set in
concrete then and it couldn't possibly have been.
MR. CARLSON: Well, I understand what you're saying. But I
think one of the things that we hoped to do was to protect those
residential areas that some of us lived in. And that's why we
rolled up our sleeves and all worked together. And maybe that is
washing away. And if it is washing away, that's very
unfortunate, because what we're doing is we're changing the
character of our community. And there are some of these things
that I don't believe need to be changed. There's just not a need.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I understand what you're
saying.
MR. CARLSON: Thank you.
(Applause.)
MR. DIAZ: Good morning. Mr. Chairman, I would, just like
the presidential debates, I'm going to do a minute rebuttal.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Even though most of us know who you
are, we still need your name for the reporter.
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October 19, 2000
MR. DIAZ: Thank you very much. I appreciate that.
For the record, my name is Fermin Diaz, spelled F-E-R-M-I-N,
middle name A, and the last name is D-I-A-Z.
I reside at -- also on 12th Avenue. I'm actually across the
way from Gary. And it's kind of hard to follow such eloquence in
some of those presentations that have been made but -- and I do
not want to be redundant. But I want to digress for a minute and
clarify the points that were raised this morning about my name.
And please note that this is not a -- Wilson, Miller is not a
part of this issue. This is -- I am coming to you as a resident, as
a property owner. So I did not want that name actually to be --
my firm's name to be confused with why I am here. I am
representing myself and my wife.
I will tell you that the public hearing or the public meeting
that took place last week was very debated -- was very heated.
There was a lot of debate.
And, Rich, what I said -- and I will tell you that there were
about sixty folks that spoke, all against the project, that were -- I
did not hear anyone speaking in favor of it. And, after a lot of
conversation, really the whole conversation was deteriorating to
a point where it was getting into situations were people were
negotiating where the access points were going to be, how many
driveways, how many acres of wetland mitigation. So I stood up.
And what I tried to do is get the group together. And I made the
point that this was not the issue. The issue was not, you know,
driveway connections. You know, obviously there's adequate
highway there, you know, to connect to. And the issue for that
meeting was not water management. The issue was not water
or wastewater. That was not the issue. The issue, in my
opinion, was one of compatibility. So now that I've clarified that
point, I will take just a couple minutes.
You have been provided up to now the bird's eye view of this
project. Allow me to present to you the eagle's point of view of
the project, because it's always good to look at the whole
picture. And the whole picture is that, as you can see from this
aerial photograph, the nature and the character of the project, as
has been well established by my predecessors, it's very low
density, residential. We are in the vicinity of an activity center,
and right at the corner of 1-75 and Pine Ridge. And there's
another one on County Road 951 and Pine Ridge Road. Those are
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October t9, 2000
existing. Those aren't under development.
And I will tell you that the argument could be made that the
proposed use for this project would be better suited either here
or here, for the simple reason that activity centers provide a very
well defined use. Mr. and Mrs. Driver, in going to an activity
center and going to the bank, buy gas, buy groceries, buy
prescription medicine, have lunch or dinner, depending on the
time of the day, all with one trip. That is a benefit. That's why
that worked great in the first place.
By creating an additional -- and irregardless of what has
been said, it is my opinion -- my personal opinion, that creating
and -- a different land use in this intersection will stimulate
future growth of similar type uses in -- will create, quite frankly,
another activity center. That is not what you have heard the
residents who spoke prior to me address and that is not in
compliance with the master plan that we all have worked so hard
for for many, many years. And I have been a practicing engineer
for the last twenty-three years, same firm, proud to say.
So there's some history for some of us who were here in the
good old days. So, as Gary said, you know, let's see if we can
preserve some of that. We realize that there's some growth and
we realize that zoning issues are very site specific. I'll be the
first one to admit that. But I think we need to look at this site
and we need to look at particularly the conditions that really
affect this area.
That's all I have to say. I appreciate it. And I would urge
you to and ask you to please not consider the re-zone to
commercial and -- not commercial but medical or office.
Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
(Applause.)
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Next speaker.
MS. TESTER: Good morning. My name is Frankie Anne
Tester, T-E-S-T-E-R. I live at 830 Logan Boulevard South. I am
the first driveway north of Pine Ridge Road. Basically my
property is straight across the street from the northern end of
the property that is being discussed this morning.
I will not reiterate everything that has already been spoken.
I can only ditto everything that has been spoken this morning. I
already have been impacted by the expansion of Logan
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October 19, 2000
Boulevard. I no longer have direct access to Logan Boulevard
South. I have to go out of my driveway, go to the right, make a
U-turn to get -- to head south on Logan Boulevard. So I'm very
concerned about the addition of any commercial property in the
area in terms of traffic, but also because it goes against
something that a member of your commission told me a number
of years ago. He is no longer on this commission. But when I
said to him, "Do you think this will ever be re-zoned on the
corners to commercial?"
He said, "No way, Frankie. The commission would not do
that. This is estate zoned. This is residential zoning. You are
very protected." That was seventeen years ago. I would like to
say that I am now concerned because that protection is no
longer in place.
I would ask that you not pass positively on this petition.
Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
(Applause.)
CHAIRMAN WRAGE.' Any other speakers from the public?
Would the petitioner like to respond to any of the testimony
we've heard this morning?
MR. YOVANOVICH: First of all, I want to apologize to Mr.
Diaz. When I said the firm Wilson, Miller, I in no way meant to
indicate that he was speaking on behalf of that. It's just that
that's how I know of him~ so I associated his name with that firm.
But I did not want to in any way implicate, in any way, that he
was part of the firm for today's purposes.
We've listened -- again we've listened to the concerns of the
residents. And there were a couple of statements made about
trying to make a quick buck and then leave town. I mean, you
need to understand that Mr. Mcintosh has been here over twenty
years. He's not here to make a quick buck and leave town. He's
not, you know, he's not a developer who is trying to do that.
We -- we still believe our project is compatible with the
neighborhood. Mr. Kant has raised the issue of whether or not
we would even be permitted to get access off of Logan
Boulevard. We're prepared right now to just say we won't even
request access off of Logan Boulevard. We'll limit our access to
Pine Ridge Road. You will see the buffer. I mean, we're talking
about a significant buffer on Logan to where you are not going to
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October 19, 2000
see the project.
Compatibility is in a large way taken care of, and Bob will
tell you this, by sufficient buffers to distinguish the areas.
Now, regarding property values, we're all familiar with the
Livingston Woods area. And the entranceway to Livingston
Woods is an activity center. And I would submit to you that
those property values have not suffered by having an activity
center in front of it. We're not asking for an activity center, we're
not asking for commercial uses. We're asking for office or
conditional uses. That is a very different request than an activity
center and you are not going to get an activity center on all four
of those corners. So that's not up for discussion. We're not
asking for retail uses. We're taking about office uses. I don't
think it's a fair comparison of this intersection to an activity
center intersection. And, in any event, Livingston Woods has
done very well over the years. And we really don't believe we're
even approaching anything as far as Livingston Woods. So we
don't believe we are asking for anything incompatible with the
neighborhood.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
Any questions?
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Yes. I have one, Mr.
Chairman.
Rich, didn't you at one point say that you were limiting the
project to one-story buildings?
MR. YOVANOVICH: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Aren't there two stories
permitted on the Pine Ridge, on the --
MR. YOVANOVICH: No. We have -- we told the people at the
meeting and we have told staff that we are withdrawing the
two-story request to just one story on Pine Ridge.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I missed that. I'm sorry.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Right. Any other questions?
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any further questions?
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: I have a statement, Mr.
Chairman.
I have a conflict on this petition, therefore I shall not vote on
it. I'll abstain, according to the county attorney's suggestion.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: So noted.
Ma'am, if you've got something new, I will take the
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October 19, 2000
testimony. Okay? Please be brief.
MS. HELMER: Yeah. My name is Beverly Helmer and I'm at
5300 12th Avenue Southwest, and we moved in there in 1980 for
one real good reason. We loved the woods and we loved the
wildlife. And this corner you're talking about is a beautiful
woods. What happens to all the wildlife? You guys keep -- you
know. They keep building and building and, you know, it's
disappearing little by little. I really love animals and I really love
the woods and I didn't think anybody had brought that up so I
just thought I would say that.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
(Applause.)
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I really do thank the people that took
time out of their lives to come here today, both job, home,
otherwise, and I'm going to set a precedent, or ask a question of
all of the commissioners here. After the motion is made I would
really like a brief synopsis from the commissioners as to why
they vote one way or the other. And I'll be more than happy to
lead that off after the motion.
Straw ballot. Someone needs --
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: I'll just -- I'm not going to make a
motion on this. I'll say that I think this is a very good project. I
think they did go above and beyond. I am not going to have or --
support the project, and I'm going to use compatibility for that. I
think there's just too much neighborhood opposition to that.
I would -- would like to point out that someone mentioned
green space earlier and protecting wildlife. We've struggled with
open space in this county for the last few years. I think there's
an opportunity here today while you-all are organized. This man
is entitled to profit from what he owns. It sounds like there's
enough people and money that he might get what he wants in the
way of profit and you-all might get what you want in the way of
open space if you put those two together without a building
being built.
And, with that, I'll pass it along.
COMMISSIONER BUDD: I'll make a comment and a motion.
My comment is that, is that personally I don't find this to be
an objectionable use. I think it's pretty well buffered and it -- I
think it could probably fit the neighborhood. However, although
I'm not an elected official, I'm appointed from this area and I
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October 19~ 2000
have been on the planning commission for seven years. And I
know to get this many people out on a Thursday morning when
they've got other things to do, they are pretty ticked off about it.
And I've got to respect that. And on the basis of incompatibility
I would like to make a motion that we transmit this to the Board
of County Commissioners with the recommendation that it not be
-- that they in turn not forward it to DCA for approval.
In other words, I make a motion that we deny this.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: I'll second that.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Been moved by Commissioner Budd,
seconded by Commissioner Rautio.
No further the comments, I am going to support the motion
to deny. I do think -- I commend the developer and the folks for
raising the bar. Personally, I think that's a good location for that
particular type of a development. Although I have heard -- I have
been on the commission also starting my fifth year, and I've
heard the people. Like I said, you don't have to beat me over the
head.
The other issue is the other four corners. I think this would
start the development of that, of those four corners, and they
may eventually come back. (Applause.)
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: The other issue being, and as Mr. Diaz
eloquently stated, the two activity centers. But basically I guess
that what's changed my mind has been the testimony of the
neighborhood here this morning.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Call the question.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Well, I would like to --
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: I want to say something.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: -- say a couple of things. I
probably vote no as often or more often that anybody on this
commission. But in this particular case I'm persuaded that,
given the inexorability of growth in Collier County, that it's
unrealistic to expect that where you have an intersection of two
six-lane roads that the parcels on those corners -- going to be six
lanes, on its way to being six lanes, that it's unrealistic to think
that residential uses are what are going to end up on those
corners.
Given that, this use that's proposed seems relatively benign
to me. And, for that reason, I'm going to support forwarding this
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October 19, 2000
to the county commission recommending that they in turn
forward it to Tallahassee.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Well, I came here today thinking
that this was a good proiect. I have a lot of respect for the
people that have put it together. They have raised the bar.
There's a number of issues here that I would have normally
supported. As you noticed, I seconded the motion to not
transmit.
I'm persuaded by the neighbors. I know a number of people
in this room and I glanced through the petition. I'm surprised, as
Mr. Budd indicated, that this many of you will come out here and
talk to us today and support your neighborhood the way you're
supporting it.
I do have -- I do feel that it's probably a compatibility issue
at this point, although I recognize what Mr. Abernathy is saying,
that these corners probably would be commercial under normal
circumstances. And I'm not sure what you are going to do with
that property.
One or two other comments that were made, I was taking
notes as you-all spoke, and I do believe that the comment about
donating the land, that's a nice statement, however, I honestly
think that Mr. Mcintosh should be presented with a purchase of
this property, if it were to stay wooded or protect wildlife. That's
part of our American way, to be able to develop and to earn
money and there's nothing wrong with a person taking the time
to develop. Now, some of the comments were a little personal,
and I feel that they are not necessary. And Mr. Mcintosh
probably at some point, if he doesn't get an opportunity to
develop this property, maybe he would sell it to you-all and
you-all could do something.
I recognize Mr. Priddy said that, hey, you're an organized
group now, maybe you will want to purchase this property from
Mr. Mcintosh. But he does have a right to develop and he does
have a right to make some money.
I do support the concept that your neighborhood would
change dramatically if this were here. That's why I've been
persuaded to go ahead and support the motion to deny
transmittal.
MS. PRESTON: Mr. Chairman, if I might? The petitioner has
requested that you not vote on this project. He's wants to
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October 19, 2000
withdraw his petition at this point.
COMMISSIONER BUDD: Marjorie, is that possible?
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Marjorie, is that --
MS. STUDENT: The -- well, let's see. You already are
discussing it. I think, since the public hearing is closed, it may
be -- I haven't been faced with a situation quite like this before --
it may be appropriate to withdraw it between now and the board,
since you're already at the --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I would be inclined to go that route.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: What happens if Mr. Budd
withdraws his motion and there's not another motion made?
MS. STUDENT: Okay. If--
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Well, as I recall, if we don't take an
action it basically goes forward as recommended, right?
MS. STUDENT: I think that if the motion is withdrawn and
the commission doesn't take any action then that could change
it and the petition could be withdrawn. I haven't been faced with
a situation like this before, so --
COMMISSIONER BUDD: If Marjorie doesn't give us legal
opinion otherwise, then I withdraw the motion. MS. STUDENT: I beg your pardon?
COMMISSIONER BUDD: Unless you're telling me I can't do
it, I'll withdraw the motion. MS. STUDENT: Okay.
COMMISSIONER PEDONE.' But by withdrawing the motion
that means that this will go before the Board of County
Commissioners with the --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: No, it won't.
COMMISSIONER PEDONE: -- a recommendation for
approval?
MS. STUDENT: No. He's going to withdraw it.
MR. YOVANOVICH: We're withdrawing our petition. We will
not proceed.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Wait a minute.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: That's not the issue here.
MR. YOVANOVICH: I don't believe you can go forward and
vote on a petition we don't want to be heard. So, I mean, I would
-- you know, we've heard the people and we have withdrawn our
petition.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Please, call a vote.
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October 19, 2000
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Please. Listen, we've been ladies and
gentlemen up to this point. It's a procedure. We're following it.
The discussion's up here.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I apologize.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Isn't this just a straw vote
anyway, because we have to vote on everything, Marjorie, at the
end when we finish listening to these?
MR. STUDENT: That's how we generally do it, it's a straw
vote. But the motion maker didn't nip that. And since there was
this situation with one person needing to abstain, that would
cause a problem too at the end because we take them all
together and then those that are abstaining, I mean, they have to
abstain on it all, unless we separated them out.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Now, see, that didn't make sense
to me in the first place, that we have to vote on all of the comp.
plan amendments, but then I've only been here for one year, so I
was going to ask for a clarification at some point.
But if Mr. Budd -- I'm the second, so if I withdraw my second
then --
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: There's nothing to vote on.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: There's nothing to vote on and it's
pretty clear what this commission feels to the people in the
audience that showed up here today. So you've met your
objective. Because it will not be transmitted as an approval, as
the staff is saying.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Ron?
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Won't be transmitted, period.
MR. NINO.' Moreover, it will not be presented to the board
because the petition is being withdrawn.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. Thank you.
The second's been withdrawn, withdrawn by the motion, or
vice versa.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Can we take a break?
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: And I think, with that, before we start
the next item, I thank you folks for coming. We're going to take a
break while the room clears.
(A brief recess was taken.)
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I would like to reconvene the meeting
of the Collier County Planning Commission.
Page 51
October 19, 2000
The next item on our agenda is CP-2000-03. Due to the
absence of our vice chairman, I'm going to turn this one over to
our secretary to be the chairman on this one, because I have to
remove myself due to some items in here, the fact that my
employer has some commercial banking interests in this area, so
COMMISSIONER YOUNG: Mr. Chairman?
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Yes, ma'am.
COMMISSIONER YOUNG: Regrettably, I had made a prior
commitment to give a speech before the Leadership Institute
today before I knew that I had been appointed to this board, and
therefore I have to leave at 11:30.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: So noted. Thank you.
You have been relieved, Sammy.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: The vice chairman is here I will abstain
from any part of this.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Sorry. Okay.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I've already called it.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Hi, Mr. Weeks. Sorry about that.
MR. WEEKS: Good morning, Commissioners. I'm David
Weeks of the comprehensive planning staff.
The subject site of this amendment is designated rural
settlement area. It's commonly known as the Orangetree PUD.
And on the visualizer you'll see the subject location. It's on the
east side of Immokalee Road north of Randall Boulevard and it's
bisected by County Road 858, also known as Oil Well Road.
A brief review of the history of this project is that it was
originally platted in the late sixties, early seventies as North
Golden Gate, North Golden Gate City. Essentially it was a
duplication of Golden Gate City, simply located to the north and
to the east. It allowed for over 11,000 dwelling units. It allowed
for t80 something acres of commercial, 70 plus acres of
industrial, et cetera. Typical urban style zoning and development
was authorized.
Part of the history is that the County Commission around
1982 down-zoned the property to an agricultural district. A
lawsuit was filed and eventually, through a settlement and
zoning agreement, the Orangetree PUD was born.
The comprehensive plan was amended to reflect that
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October 19, 2000
settlement agreement and it specifically refers to that
settlement agreement. And it originally identified the types of
uses permitted within this settlement area.
In 1997 when we adopted the evaluation and appraisal
report based amendments, we deleted the specific list of uses
and simply kept the language that referred back to the
settlement agreement.
Essentially what the petition is doing is saying we want to
put that list of uses back in place and add one use that is not
there, and that is a provision for RV parks.
So staff has no objection to the addition of the uses. It
simply returns to what was previously there. It does not provide
them any additional uses other than what they are presently or
were previously allowed, the one exception being the RV park
use.
The Department of Community Affairs in 1986, as part of the
history of this project, at the request of the property owner at
that time wrote what is referred to as a binding letter. And it
identified that the -- that the department's position was, yes, this
project is vested. It is vested for the uses identified in that
Orangetree PUD document. And it also goes on to say, if you
make any changes, you need to contact us, let us review it, let
us consider the impact.
What you have before you today is that one additional use of
RV parks, and DCA has not been consulted. And that's a little bit
of a concern to us. However, our recommendation to you is to
transmit this petition. We will wait and see what, if any,
concerns DCA, Department of Community Affairs, reports back to
us and their response to this petition.
So our recommendation is to support or transmit this
petition. And there's been no correspondence received.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Do we have any questions of
staff? No questions.
Do we have any registered speakers?
MR. NINO: I have a Steve Morgan -- is that right
COMMISSIONER SAADEH:
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO:
heard from the petitioner.
MR. NINO: I'm sorry.
-- registered
Do we hear from the petitioner?
You know, it would be good if we
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October 19, 2000
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Sorry.
MR. PIRES: That's okay. For the record, Tony Pires with the
law firm of Woodward, Pires & Lombardo here representing the
petitioner, as well as Wayne Arnold from Q. Grady Minor &
Associates, and we would request that the Planning Commission
follow the recommendation of staff and forward it to the county
commission with a recommendation of transmittal to DCA and
the regional planning council.
And we're here available for any questions that you may
have or for any responses to issues raised by Mr. Morgan.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Now I think we can have the
speaker.
MR. NINO: Is Steve Morgan here? If he -- if he's not here --
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Is Mr. Morgan out in the hall?
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: Madam Chairmam, it's probably
for the last petition, you just numbered it wrong.
MR. NINO: You're probably right.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Okay. Do we have a comment,
sense of the board, straw -o
COMMISSIONER BUDD: Ready to make a motion. I make a
motion for the straw poll that Planning Commission forward
Petition CP-2000-3 to the Board of County Commissioners with
the recommendations that they in turn transmit it to the DCA and
the regional planning council for approval.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Second.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Motion by Mr. Budd, seconded by
Mr. Abernathy.
Any discussion?
I'll call the question.
All in favor?
All opposed, same sign.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Motion carries as a straw ballot.
MR. PIRES: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
And the next one on our agenda I believe is GP-2000-5,
future land use element on Livingston and Pine Ridge
commercial infili district. And it's --
MS. TAYLOR: Good morning. For the record, my name is
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October 19, 2000
Amy Taylor. I'm with the comprehensive planning section.
Before you is Comprehensive Plan Amendment Number 5,
2000-5. The petitioner is requesting a change to the future land
use element and map to allow the creation of a new commercial
sub-district entitled Livingston/Pine Ridge Commercial Infill
Sub-District.
This is a 17.5 acre piece of property. its location is on the
southeast corner of Pine Ridge Road and l,ivingston Road. And I'll put the location map up here for you.
The petitioner is specifically requesting commercial uses,
both office and retail, not to exceed 125,000 square feet.
The existing conditions on the property for allowable uses
are the following. The property is currently developed as a
driving range, the -- and it's zoned agricultural. The potential
development of the property, based on its current land use, is
single family or multi-family up to, if using several density bonus
allowances, fifteen units per acre.
The property is located within an interchange activity center
residential or density band. And, with using the affordable
housing, they could add an additional eight acres, which would
allow them fifteen acres.
To the north of the property are a commercial PUD, the
Cambridge Square PUD. This is across the street from -- of Pine
Ridge. This PUD is 12.79 acres.
The property immediately to the east of the subject property
is developed first as a fire station. And then there is an
agricultural zoned piece of property immediately adjacent to the
east.
To the west is the Livingston Road corridor. Across the
street is the I. acosta Apartments, multi-family dwelling units.
There are 276 dwelling units on these thirty-nine acres.
The property to the south is -- and this is the property that
would be along Livingston Road -- is currently zoned agricultural.
Its future land use designation is urban mixed use district,
urban residential sub-district.
Staff has evaluated this petition based on compatibility of
the surrounding uses. The property to the east is partly
developed as a fire station. The fire station reports that in the
first three months of operation there were over 250 calls. The
property -- the subject property is along two six-lane facilities.
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October 19, 2000
The property east that's zoned agricultural would be eligible for
commercial under criteria because of the properties further --
that they are adjacent to to the east.
Therefore, staff recommends that this property -- this
petition be approved for transmittal with a recommendation for
approval.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Just a clarification. You said
potentially for two six lanes. Is that -- you said there was two six
lanes -- MS. TAYLOR: Did I say potentially? No. I meant that it
will be six lanes.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I didn't think the last time I went
through there it was six lanes. Any questions of staff?
Does the petitioner wish to address the commission?
MR. ANDERSON: Good morning, Mr. Chairman. For the
record, my name is Bruce Anderson on behalf of the applicant.
I have with me here today Mr. Allen Kann of Baldridge
Development, Incorporated, which is the applicant.
I'll be happy to make a presentation. I do understand that
there is a member of the public that wishes to address this. I
wanted to give you a little background on our application before
you heard from them, and then I'll be happy to respond to any
question that you may have.
This is a site specific plan amendment. It's currently used
for the Jon Ebert's Golf Driving Range and golf school at the
corner of Pine Ridge and Livingston, as Ms. Taylor noted. Both of
these roads are scheduled to be six lane facilities.
This comprehensive plan amendment limits the amount of
commercial square footage to t25,000 square feet, which is
considerably less than the normal retail commercial formula of
10,000 square feet per acre.
The size of this parcel is seventeen and a half acres. Under
the normal commercial square footage ratio, that would equate
to 175,000 square feet. So we're more than -- we're 50,000
square feet under the normal ratio.
As the language in this amendment indicates, we will be
exploring the possibility of a loop road along the south and
eastern boundaries of this property in order to allow motorists
and the North Naples Fire District, to provide them with an
access road that would enable them to avoid the Pine
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October 19, 2000
Ridge/Livingston Road intersection. This issue would be
resolved one way or another at the time that we would file for an
actual re-zoning of the property.
We have submitted a market study by Julian Stokes, a local
appraisal expert, that indicates that this property is not
economically viable for residential development because of the
activity and noise generated by the confluence of Pine Ridge
Road and Livingston Road, and the fire and EMS station abutting
the eastern property line. This market study also recognizes that
within two years there will be a shortage of sufficient retail
space within the two mile primary trade area surrounding this
property.
And lastly, I would just note that approval of this plan
amendment merely makes this property eligible to apply for
commercial re-zoning in the future.
I will be happy to answer any questions that you may have
now or later.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any questions of the petitioner? No?
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Sounds like the Logan
Boulevard people could have used Julian Stokes, from what you
said.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any members of the public that wish to
give testimony?
MR. NINO: Frank Craparo.
MR. CRAPARO: My name is Frank Craparo. I live on the
property that adjoins it to the east. It's agricultural. And the
spelling is C-R-A-P-A-R-O. My address is 3480 Pine Ridge Road.
And the purpose of my statement today is to give whole-hearted
support of the conscientious -- comprehensive plan amendment
and give you a history of my property, because it does affect
what can be done there.
It has not yet been purchased but there is an idea of linking
my property with other commercial property that's just to the
east of me, which would~ I would think~ benefit everyone.
And I agree. No one wants their residence -- I am way back
there, about 800 feet from Pine Ridge Road, and you hear that
fire station pretty good. And they go out quite often, which -- I'm
friends with Mr. Rogers and I respect the fire people. And that's,
you know -- that's what they have to do, but it's not a good
residential area.
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October 19, 2000
I've watched the Planning Board on TV. And I applaud the
rigorous defense of private property rights. And sometimes the
whims of the community just don't get it, that private property
does have rights.
I consider this meeting friendly and, like I say, I do -- I do
appreciate your efforts on this part because you're probably not
paid for it either. No. That's what I thought. All right.
My property is now a plant nursery and livestock operation.
I have been in Naples since '77. I have been on that property for
twenty-three years. Pine Ridge Road was a sand road and it ran
east from Airport Road. And I developed the last quarter mile
from where it ended at Pine Ridge and Livingston to my house so
I could move to the property twenty-three years ago.
I had support -- I had sought permits for -- to build a lake and
abate all the ordinances. I went through your board and got
approval. The engineering at the last minute at the county --
county commissioner meeting disapproved my lake that I needed
to complete my nursery business. And I had complied with
everything, other than they said I was too close to Pine Ridge
Road. So I had to sue to gain my property rights. And I didn't
want to sue. And this is where it comes in, this project.
In the settlement in February 1982, I was given certain
rights and the rights were they were going to construct a drive
on my east border, they were going to let me construct a drive,
which I did, on my west border. So I have two drives. And they
specifically in this settlement of this lawsuit gave me a median
cut across Pine Ridge Road as part of my settlement on the east
drive. And they gave me certain drainage rights to construct
Pine Ridge Road and all the canal systems that would drain my
property two foot below ground level as it was before they built
the road. And that agreement is still in effect. All of these
agreements are still in effect.
I've tried to get the staff to get all this property just
committed to a master plan so it could be re-zoned because I
think that's the obvious use for it.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I take it you are for the project?
MR. CRAPARO: I am for the project but -- Allen has
attempted to buy my project. We're right now in condemnation
proceedings with the county --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I don't mean to interrupt you, but that's
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October t 9, 2000
kind of irrelevant to what we're trying to decide here today.
MR. CRAPARO: Okay.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: If you can offer testimony why it
shouldn't be or it should be, I would be glad to accept it.
MR. CRAPARO: All right. Well, the testimony is, any median
cuts are going to stay where I'm at~ are going to cost the county
a considerable amount in lawsuits and to settle --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: And that's not --
MR. CRAPARO: So that may come back into later -- this is
just as a history, that if someone else wants a median cut and
they're getting it in preference to me --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: But that's not before us today.
MR. CRAPARO: That's not before you today. But I am in
favor of it.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: It will come.
MR. CRAPARO: And I am in favor of this commission.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
Anyone else from the public wish to speak on this? If not, I
would -- no further questions, I would take a motion for a straw
vote.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I will make a motion that we
forward Petition CP-2000-5 to the BCC with a recommendation of
approval and transmittal to DCA.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Second.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: So moved by Mr. Abernathy, seconded
by Mr. Priddy that we forward with a recommendation of
approval.
All in favor signify by saying aye.
Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Carried. Next item on the agenda is
CP-2000-07.
She's here? Just a very brief break while we change
reporters.
(A recess was taken.)
MR. WEEKS: Good morning, Commissioners. Again, David
Weeks, of the comprehensive planning staff.
This petition site is located at the northwest corner of Santa
Barbara Boulevard and Golden Gate Parkway. It should be
familiar to most of you because you've dealt with it previously.
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October 19, 2000
Last fall, this site was the location of a petition requesting
the same designation but different uses. At that time, it came
before you for office, bank and pharmacy. That was for the
transmittal hearing, and then when it came before you in the
spring of this year for the adoption hearing, some retail uses had
been added. Both times the planning commission supported the
petition.
The Board of County Commissioners did transmit it, but on
May 9th of this year, by a vote of three to two, they did not
transmit the petition, hence the applicant has reftled.
The difference between the last time you saw it in the
spring of this year and today is that a few more retail uses had
been added to the property.
The site is 6.8 acres. The properties to the north, west and
south are designated residential estates in the Golden Gate
master plan, and to the east is Golden Gate city. The property
there is designated urban residential but is, in fact, zoned C-4
and developed with commercial uses, a retail center.
The building heights for this site as proposed are limited to
one story with a maximum height of 35 feet and only one
freestanding drug store or bank -- they could not have both uses,
one or the other will be permitted in addition to the office uses
and the other retail uses listed in the application, and then
there's a variety of development standards listed as well in the
petitioner's submittal.
The short of it is, our position, staff's position is the same as
the previous times that you've seen this, and that is that we have
concerns about the traffic safety regarding access to the
property, some concern about the need for additional
commercial opportunity in the Golden Gate master plan, concern
about the character of the area and how it will be impacted by
this commercial proposal, and one additional point which we
made in the report previously when you saw this but we would
now emphasize is that this does not seem an appropriate
location for the specific subdistrict that they are asking for. The
existing County Road 951 commercial infill subdistrict, which
they propose to change the name of and then designate for this
site, was put in place for two properties located on Collier
Boulevard, the largest of which was located in the estates, and it
was sandwiched between the 12 acre FPL substation, this is on
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October 19, 2000
the west side of 951, and to the south, C-5 zoning within Golden
Gate city. So that's an additional specific issue that we raised,
that this isn't the appropriate subdistrict.
Regardless, our recommendation is not to transmit it. As a
secondary position, if you do, we would recommend that you
limit the site to conditional uses only as allowed in the estates
zoning district and then about three or four access restrictions
that we would also recommend.
We've received one letter in opposition to this petition, and
that is by the Ceriou, C-E-R-I-O-U, family. They own the property
adjacent to the north, and you might recall representatives of
that family have previously spoken at your hearings in
opposition.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: David, as I recall, one of the major
issues was egress and ingress, and I know we don't have it here,
but there's still only one off of Golden Gate, right; there being
none off of Santa Barbara?
MR. WEEKS: I'm not sure -- I'm going to let the petitioner
address that. Originally, it was --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I'm assuming it's still the same; nothing
has changed in the transportation segment of it.
MR. WEEKS: I don't think so, but I'll defer to the petitioner.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: I have a question.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: David, long range planning keeps
coming in here and using as a reason to deny that there's ample
commercial space out there, and if you add all the half acre and
acre and three acre parcels together, yeah, you come up with
some number, I don't know, 50,000, 80,000 square feet available,
but it's obvious to me that for people to spend the amount of
money that it takes to get to this point today, that something is
driving that. It's not, you know, some farfetched scheme that
they are coming up with. There's something driving that, so why
do we keep -- I mean, there's obviously, with the growth we've
got, need for commercial in that area. Why do we keep hearing
that there's ample space out there when there's, obviously, not?
MR. WEEKS: Again, the distinction that staff makes in
saying that there's not a need, again, as I've said before, we are
not saying there's not a need for commercial at this location in
the sense that if they develop this project, that it's going to be a
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October 19, 2000
bust. We're not saying that. What we're saying is that the
opportunities in the Golden Gate master plan are not needed.
That is there's no need to amend the Golden Gate master plan to
provide additional opportunity for commercial rezoning and then
subsequently development of the property, that there's -- we're
looking at it from a standpoint of inventory control as opposed to
a specific market driven notion of if I develop this property, will it
be successful. I agree with you, I don't think the petitioner
would be here if he thought he was going to lose money here, but
we're saying there's just --
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: I'm saying to you, he wouldn't be
here if there were other places to put the project, is my point --
my question. I mean, these people wouldn't keep coming in here
asking for these places to put things if there were ample space
already there.
MR. WEEKS: I think from their perspective, even if there are
other -- and that's the staff position, that there are other
locations available for this use. I think their perspective is, this
is where we want it to be. Certainly their position is, it will be
successful if we develop it here, and we want it here, not
somewhere else. They don't own or control that property
elsewhere. This is where they want it to be.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: I disagree, and, Start, I would ask
you as the head of that department to rethink some of the logic.
MR. WEEKS: One last comment if I may, and that's I think
what you consistently hear from staff as well, is that is not the
only reason we recommend not to support some of these
petitions. I think you consistently hear us on some of these
petitions, say use -- excuse me, the need is part of the
recommendation, but that is not the sole foundation of our
recommendation for denial in this case and in some others. It's
character of the area. It's traffic impact. It's compatibility, and
that's the case here. There are other reasons. That is not the
only reason, and certainly we've heard it enough from this
commission that we're well aware that you don't always agree
with us on the assessment of need.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I have a question.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Mr. Abernathy.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: David.
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October 19, 2000
MR. WEEKS: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Your fall back position
imposes five conditions, one of which is to limit the entire site to
conditional uses allowed by the E-estates zoning district.
Can you rattle off a few of what those conditional uses are
and how they differ from what the petitioner wants to do?
MR. WEEKS: Yes, a child care center, church, nursing home,
adult congregate living facility, social and fraternal organization.
There's many examples, if you're familiar with the area, further
down the Parkway of those very same types of uses, as opposed
to what the petitioner is asking for, they are asking for eight or
ten retail uses, all of the C-1 zoning district uses, which, in
addition to those same institutional or conditional uses, includes
professional and medical offices.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: So, the conditional uses are
public interest type institutions?
MR. WEEKS: Yes, sir, institutional type uses that -- they are
certainly -- most if not all of them -- well, most of them are
commercial in nature -- I mean, somebody is operating a nursing
home to make money. It's not just the goodness of their heart,
so in that sense, it's --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: But it's not a retail business?
MR. WEEKS: That's correct; nor are these office uses.
They're what we sometimes call --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: That's the cutting edge
between them, one is retail and the other isn't; is that --
MR. WEEKS: Well, also, the office use. An office use would
be allowed by what the petitioner is proposing, but a church and
a child care --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Would not.
MR. WEEKS: -- those aren't office uses either.
So, commercial uses they are asking for. Institutional uses
is what staff is suggesting.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Commissioner Rautio, do you have a
question?
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Yeah, I wanted to ask the -- was it
the Ceriou family, they were here before and really pretty
adamant. What did you receive from the family, unless they are
here to speak? I don't see --
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October t9, 2000
MR. WEEKS: I don't see them here. Actually, what I've
received was a -- is a copy of what it says was faxed to Mr.
Wrage. I have it here. Would you like me to read it for the
record?
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: I assume it's still in opposition.
MR. WEEKS: Yes.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I guess I assumed everyone had gotten
the same fax, so perhaps --
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: I did get it.
MR. WEEKS: It's dated October 2rid. It's to Mr. Wrage from
the Ceriou family, 2925 Santa Barbara Boulevard. Dear board
member: Coming before you at the October 5th planning board
meeting will be CP-2000-07, that's this petition. Last year it was
CP-99-2, John Jassy requesting zoning change on property on the
northwest corner of Golden Gate Parkway and Santa Barbara
Boulevard. We would like to acquaint you with the history of this
request. The CP-99-2 was allowed by the planning board
approximately a year ago. It went through the whole process.
The Golden Gate Civic Association voted it down with the
reasoning they had enough commercial property at that time and
didn't need any more traffic problems. The Collier County
Commission voted it down, in paren, information can be found in
the minutes of commission meeting of May 9, 2000, end
parenthesis, with the reasoning the property was not big enough
to solve their ingress and egress problems and when the
Parkway is six laned, if you want to go east, you would have to
make a U-turn across three lanes of traffic. We hope you would
deny the request of CP-2000-07 and not cause the imposition of
all the meetings and time lost for everyone concerned. As of this
date, the property in question has not been added to, and
according to the commission, they cannot solve the traffic
problems without more land. We thank you for your attention
and concern. The Ceriou family, one of the adjoining property
owners.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Do you know -- and maybe you said this
-- exactly where -- do you know exactly where their property is?
MR. WEEKS: Adjacent to the north.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: To the north. This is -- okay.
MR. WEEKS: The visualizer here, the subject property and
the bold dash line.
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October t9, 2000
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any further questions of staff?
If not, we hear from the petitioner.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Commissioners, Rich ¥ovanovich
representing the petitioner in this case. With me is Bill Hoover,
the planner on the project; Chris Hagan, the transportation
engineer on this project; as well as the petitioners.
! can assure you, Mr. Priddy, that my client doesn't just like
giving me money to send me up here because they want to give
me money. They truly believe that the market for this property is
for commercial uses.
It comes down to a question of the quality of the inventory
and the location of the inventory and, frankly, the location of the
inventory, and the quality of the inventory is not appropriate for
what is being requested. If it were, I'm sure they would go to the
easy sites first and work on the hard sites later.
This petition is dramatically different from the previous
petition. We listened to the comments from the commissioners
and from the civic association and from Mr. and Mrs. -- or Mrs.
Ceriou, I think she's a Mrs. -- or Ms. Ceriou, and we incorporated
those changes into our proposal.
First of all, the previous proposal wanted or requested both
a bank and a drug store. This proposal is for one or the other.
That dramatically reduces the traffic impact. Did we include
some other retail uses that were not previously in the petition;
yes, we did, but that -- we did not increase traffic generation. We
eliminated one of the -- one of the two, it's an either or, dominant
uses on the parcel.
So, I would differ with any characterization that we are just
bringing back the same petition to you that was previously shot
down.
I don't really want to get into a whole lot of debate over, you
know, the market for this. I mean, we totally disagree with staff
on that position. I don't think things have changed since the last
time you disagreed with staff on that position, so we'll focus
mainly on the location and the compatibility.
We've also increased a buffer, and Bill will get into more
detail, from what was previously a 50 foot buffer to a 100 foot
buffer. We have reduced what was previously two story
buildings potentially to one story buildings. All of these things, I
think, are significant changes from what we previously proposed.
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October 19, 2000
The primary concerns that were raised by the civic
association -- and we -- we take part of the blame for that. We --
the petitioner probably didn't meet with the civic association
enough to present the petition, and, frankly, someone else got
involved and changed what they wanted, and that messed things
up from what was previously approved by you-all and the Board
of County Commissioners, somebody else got a little bit too
greedy. We learned our lesson, and we have scaled back what
we are requesting.
We have met with the civic association on this project.
Their concern is not retail uses. Their concern are traffic issues.
We -- again, I said this earlier, we are now getting into site
planning and zoning in the comprehensive plan. I don't know
why we have to do that, but, again, we'll address that.
The concern I heard from the commission and from the
people of the civic association at the previous hearings was the
concern that people would try to get back on Santa Barbara and
cut across that traffic to get to the left turn lanes to head east
on Santa Barbara, and there's going to be multiple stacking
lanes. We, today, will agree that there will be no right-out on
Santa Barbara. We would like the ability to study the possibility
of a right-in on Santa Barbara. We would like to address that
when it is appropriate, which is at the site planning stage and
the rezoning stage, but, I mean, if you need it at an earlier time,
you know, we suggest, again, at adoption, we will resolve all the
traffic issues at the adoption hearing.
So, we believe the site is compatible with the neighborhood.
We are working with the civic association to resolve these
issues. Frankly, we are meeting with the Cerious to see if we can
come to some type of an agreement regarding easements across
their property to resolve not only our traffic concerns, but
potentially their traffic concern. I don't know if that will work
out or not work out, but we are -- we are dialoguing, and we are
trying to work with our neighbors to the north.
In any event, we have taken what we believe are the
appropriate steps to protect one of the other concerns the
Cerious had, which was a privacy issue, by reducing the height of
the buildings, increasing the buffer on the most western and
northern portion of the property.
So, I believe we've done a -- we have done what we
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October 19, 2000
promised the board we would do when we asked originally to be
able to come back into the process after the time line had ended,
because as you remember, everything dragged on to where we
got a denial after the submittal date. We promised we would
make a dramatic change and not bring back the same thing and
try to pitch the same thing, and we've lived up to that promise,
and Bill can get into more of the details if you need him to on the
project, and I can answer any other questions that you may have.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Commissioner.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: I just wanted to recount. You
said that you've scaled things back and the big differences are
that you wanted both a bank and a drug store before, and now
it's one or the other.
MR. YOVANOVICH: It's one or the other.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Okay, and that you -- the buffer
has been increased from 50 to 100.
MR. YOVANOVICH: On a portion of the project. What was
previously -- it's the, I'm sorry, setback.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Okay, setback, because you did
say buffer.
MR. YOVANOVICH: I did say buffer, you're right.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: And now you've reduced from two
stories to one story buildings.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Correct.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: And those are the major
differences.
MR. YOVANOVICH: And now the elimination of a right-out
onto Santa Barbara.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any further questions?
MR. YOVANOVICH: Unless you have specific questions of
Bill regarding the project --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Just a comment. I have to go to
Eckerd on Airport Pulling and Vanderbilt, and that's got a right-in
only, and I'm a creature of habit where I go in, I think I ought to
be able to get out, and I sympathize with you here, and I
remember all the argument -- well, it's got to be, it's got to be,
but I really wish there was a way you could get in and out of
there more than just off of Golden Gate.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Well~ quite candidly, we would welcome
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October t9, 2000
the opportunity to resolve those issues, but we seemed to be
backed into a corner early on in the process to resolve issues
that are site planning issues, and I -- I don't believe that's what
the comprehensive plan is for, but we'll address that.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Agree, because you do a right-in, which
you have to do to go back to the north. It's almost like
gymnastics. You almost want to go someplace else, but I
understand your problem.
Any questions of the petitioner?
If not, anybody from the public who wishes to address this?
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Let me ask the staff one
question. Petitioner contends that the ingress/egress issues are
not properly before us at this time. You've put them in play. Do
you disagree with their conceptual position on this, philosophical
position?
MR. WEEKS: Yes, the comprehensive plan has kind of a
mixed bag. You'll go to some subdistricts that leave some of the
site planning issues until a later stage, typically the rezoning
stage, and other instances, those specific details will be
provided in the comprehensive plan. One example is the
neighborhood centers, they have very specific criteria regarding
access and buffering and so forth.
We view this property as comparable to a neighborhood
center in the sense that the size is similar. It's 6.8 acres. They
are specifying the particular categories of commercial uses that
they're proposing. We do think it's appropriate to address that at
this point.
Part of the issue before was not just exiting -- that certainly
was a point, a safety concern of exiting onto Santa Barbara
Boulevard, as Commissioner Wrage has stated, but it was also
entering the property as well, because if you are in a turn lane
going to head west onto Golden Gate Parkway, you may be
conflicting with traffic that wants to make a right turn into the
subject site. The conflict being that if I'm in a car and I'm in that
turn lane but I'm going into the shopping center or whatever the
use is here -- yes.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Wait a minute, David, you're
getting into the factual particulars of right-in and right-out and all
of that stuff.
MR. WEEKS: Yes, sir.
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October 19, 2000
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I'm talking about whether we
should even be talking about it at all or not. Is there a bright line
in the code somewhere where Mr. Yovanovich ought to know
that this is properly before us at this point?
MR. WEEKS: I don't think there is a bright line. As a general
rule, the smaller and more site specific the provision is, the more
detail you have. An opposing example, activity centers, which
are, generally speaking, 40 acres per quadrant, 160 acres, they
don't have this type of specific limitation. It is always addressed
at the later stage.
MR. YOVANOVICH: If I can just add real briefly. The
problem with putting it in the comprehensive plan, if you adopt
today there shall not be a right-in or a right-out on Santa Barbara,
you don't give us an opportunity to go out and find what may be a
better solution to that whole intersection, which could be to find
another engineering solution and including maybe a frontage
road, working with our neighbors to solve a solution. These are
issues we can resolve at the PUD and the site plan. Why do we
have to resolve it now in a comprehensive plan?
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Well, the public, I think, has
a fear, perhaps unfounded, that if it isn't addressed now, that it
comes back later and say, well, you didn't say anything about
that when we were amending the comp. plan, so the horse is out
of the barn, and that may be unfounded, but that's a fear that
people have, I think.
MR. YOVANOVICH: I understand the fear, but I believe it's
unfounded.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: And I'm noticing the same fear. If
staff has the fear, there's a lot in the public, because I've
attended meetings out in Golden Gate Estates, and I'm real
concerned that people can be this specific so early in the
project, and we came back to that issue of the type C versus
type D buffer and a safety issue for the little neighborhood
centers in Golden Gate Estates, and I'm not a planner, but -- and I
like detail, but this is getting out of hand, and I think we are
creating monsters or creating ties for, you know, full employment
for planners and engineers like putting things in the comp. plan
so early in these stages.
So, I'm not really impressed by the fact that the staff seems
to think that they are going to handle all this detail so early in
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October 19, 2000
the process.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: That came back to bite the public
by having that in that plan earlier, and I think that we ought not
do that with this.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: With that in mind, no further comments
from the public or questions, would anybody like to make a
motion to that effect?
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Mr. Chairman, I move that we
support submitting this to the county commission with the
recommendation that they forward this to DCA for comment and
ultimate approval.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY'- I'll second.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Been moved by Commissioner Priddy,
seconded by Commissioner Abernathy. Any further discussion?
All in favor, signify by saying aye.
Opposed?
COMMISSIONER YOUNG: No.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: It carried --
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: We have a no.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: We have one no? I'm sorry.
COMMISSIONER YOUNG: Yes.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: With that, Commissioner Young is
leaving us, and we're moving on to CP -- CP-2000-11, future land
use element, direct principal access for travel trailer
recreational vehicles. Michelle.
MS, MOSCA: Good morning. For the record, my name is
Michelle Mosca with the comprehensive planning section.
Comprehensive plan amendment 2000-11 is a BCC directed
amendment. The board directed staff at their April 2000 meeting
to modify the definition of direct principal access as contained in
the travel trailer recreational vehicle park provision of the future
land use element.
The amended definition would allow access points from
intervening properties onto driveways or local roadways,
provided the portion of those driveways or roadways is not
located within a residential neighborhood and does not service a
predominantly residential area.
$taff's recommendation to the planning commission is to
forward this amendment to the BCC with the recommendation to
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October t9, 2000
transmit to the Department of Community Affairs.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any questions?
Anyone else wish to speak on this?
If not, I'll entertain a motion.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Well, I'll make a motion that
we forward this petition to the Board of County Commissioners,
since they want it, with a recommendation to transmit the
amendments to the Department of Community Affairs for their
objections, recommendations and comment report.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Second.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Motion made by Commissioner
Abernathy, seconded by Commissioner Rautio.
All in favor, signify by saying aye.
Opposed?
(No response}.
COMMISSIONER WRAGE: Carried.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Are these still straw motion
votes?
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Yeah. Now we're down to Item B. Is
that still a legislative --
MS. STUDENT: Yes. Item B, however, is a different item
because what you're acting on now would be transmittal, and if I
understand correctly the way this is worded, Item B is adoption.
So, that's two separate items. So the appropriate time to fold
the whole comp. plan amendment into a motion on the several
items that you just heard would be right now, and we're going to
have a problem with the one where there was an abstention on
Orangetree, so I guess we'll have to take those separately.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: So, what you're telling me, we need to
take all of them but Orangetree separately?
MS. STUDENT: Yeah, because of the abstention.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Because I have to abstain, okay.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Mr. Chairman, I move that we
forward this on to the Board of County Commissioners based on
our straw polling with the exception of Orangetree.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: With the exception of 2000-03?
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Yes.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Been moved by Mr. Priddy.
COMMISSIONER BUDD: Second.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Second by --
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October 19, 2000
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: Budd.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: -- Commissioner Budd.
All in favor, signify by saying aye.
Opposed?
(No response).
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Carried.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Mr. Chairman, I move that we
submit the Orangetree proposal to the Board of County
Commissioners based on our straw poll. COMMISSIONER BUDD: Second.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: We have a motion by Mr. Priddy,
second by Mr. Budd to transmit.
All in favor?
Opposed, same sign?
Motion carries.
MS. STUDENT: Just let the record reflect that Mr. Wrage
abstained from that vote for the same reason he abstained from
the straw vote.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. Now, moving on to our regularly
scheduled items, CP-2000-10, ordinance to approve the
Immokalee master plan.
MR. LITSINGER: For the record, Start Litsinger with the
comprehensive planning staff.
This particular amendment is a proposed adoption ordinance
for what we will call an administrative amendment to the
Immokalee area master plan to designate an urban infill and a
redevelopment area designation on the land use map. It's very
important to note that this has no regulatory effect relative to
land use. Its sole purpose is to designate an area which would
qualify for grant funding from the Department of Community
Affairs and is being expedited without review and an ORC report,
as we're all familiar with, with direct adoption, we don't expect
any problems from DCA, in order that we can have -- grant
applications -- Department of Community Affairs with the
appropriate area designated by November 15th. CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any questions?
Anybody from the public wish to comment on this one?
If not, I'll entertain a motion.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I'll recommend that we
forward Petition CP-2000-10 to the Board of County
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October 19, 2000
Commissioners with a recommendation to adopt this
amendment.
COMMISSIONER BUDD: Second.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Been moved by Commissioner
Abernathy, seconded by Commissioner Budd.
All in favor, signify by saying aye.
Opposed?
(No response).
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Carried.
Also, henceforth, note that we will be taking testimony on
the rest of them, that we will be under oath. So all those wishing
to testify on BD-2000-15, please rise, raise your right hand and be
sworn in by the court reporter.
(The speakers were sworn).
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Cheryl.
MS. SOTER: Good morning.
MS. STUDENT: Excuse me, are there any disclosures on this
item?
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I also need to remind the
commissioners that on any of the following items, we need to
have disclosures if you had any contact with the petitioner.
MS. SOTER: Good morning, commissioners. For the record,
my name is Cheryl Soter of planning services, BD-2000-15.
The petitioner is requesting approval to allow a boathouse
to be placed upon an existing boat dock with lift. The property is
located at 396 Connor's Avenue in Connor's Vanderbilt Beach
Estates.
The width of the waterway at this site is approximately 125
feet. The proposed boathouse consists of adding a 28 foot by
nineteen and a half foot roof to cover only the boat slip portion of
an existing boat dock and lift. The existing dock protrudes
approximately 20 feet into the waterway within the requirements
of the LDC.
There are three existing boathouses in the immediate
vicinity of the subject property. We have received one letter of
objection from the property owner of adjacent lot six to the east
stating that the proposed boathouse would obstruct their view of
the waterway. We also received two letters from neighboring
property owners in support of the proposed boathouse, including
one from the owners of adjacent lot seven to the west.
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October 19, 2000
This project meets all criteria, and staff recommends
approval of the boathouse petition. Are there any questions?
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I have a question, Mr.
Chairman.
Does our code define a boathouse as an essentially
horizontal structure without vertical sides or can it be either?
MS. SOTER: No, our -- our land development code prohibits
them from enclosing that in. It has to be open on all sides to
qualify under the criteria of a boathouse.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: So, essentially, it's roof only?
MS. SOTER: Roof only.
You can see this a little bit better. This picture here was
taken from the neighboring property owner that had the
complaint about their view. I stood right here on their property.
This is the existing boat dock and lift, and you can see the
supports here where the roof that's proposed would go on, just
this portion. This is the full boat dock facility that they have
currently, and they will be only putting the roof over this portion
of the boat that has a lift currently.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any questions of staff?
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: I would just ask, did you talk to
the property owners that -- the ones that were in favor of it? Did
you get a feeling we're going to be seeing another request for --
soon?
MS. SOTER: I personally did not speak to them. They only
notified me by way of a letter.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: And does the petitioner wish to
address the commission on that? Let it show that he said no.
Is there anybody from the public that wishes to address this
issue?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I have one statement --
COMMISSIONER WRAGE: Well, you have to come up, sir.
MS. SOTER: This is the property owner, Mr. Olla.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Please give us your name, and spell it
please for the reporter.
MR. OLLA: My name is Carl Olla, O-L-L-A. I'm the property
owner that's requesting the roof.
The people to the west have a boathouse, and the people to
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October 19, 2000
the east have a boathouse, and there's about eight to ten of them
on our canal as it is now, and I don't know if you're familiar with
that particular canal, it's the extra wide one. It's about double
the width of any others, and it really doesn't obstruct much of
the view.
That's it. I just wanted to tell -- you asked the question
about if they would be coming.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any questions of the petitioner?
Anyone else from the public wish to address this?
If not, I'll close the public hearing.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Mr. Chairman, I move that we
approve BD-2000-15.
COMMISSIONER BUDD: Second.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Moved by Commissioner Priddy,
seconded by Commissioner Budd.
All in favor, signify by saying aye.
Opposed?
(No response).
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Carried.
Next item, boat dock 2000-23.
Ross, prior, you handed me during the meeting some photos.
Is this from you or from the petitioner?
MR. GOCHENAUR: Those are from the people in the
neighborhood who are objecting to the petition.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. So, we'll talk about these later
then.
MR, GOCHENAUR: Yes, sir.
(The speakers were sworn).
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I'm sorry, let's try that again. I was
waiting for them to clear.
All those wishing to give testimony on this, please rise and
be sworn in by the reporter.
(The speakers were sworn).
MR. GOCHENAUR'- Good morning, commissioners. For the
record, Ross Gochenaur, planning services.
First, I'd like to correct something in the staff report under
staff comments, Item F, which addresses whether or not the
moored vessel is in excess of 50 percent of the length of the
water frontage. I indicated that the vessels in combination were,
and according to the petitioner, they have one 40 foot, two 35
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October 19, 2000
foot, two 30 foot vessels. That's actually not in excess of the 50
percent. It's about 36 percent, so it does meet that criteria.
I've had quite a few phone calls. We have eight letters of
objection to this petition, and for the record, I'd just like to
briefly go over the nature of a boat dock petition and also for the
people here from the public who are probably going to be
speaking.
A boat dock extension is not a variance. The land
development code recognizes that there are circumstances
under which a longer boat dock than the 20 feet that's allowed
by the code would be acceptable. We judge -- the staff judges
the petition on certain criteria in the land development code, and
from this, we make a recommendation. This goes to the planning
commission which decides the petition. It does not 9o to the
Board of County Commissioners.
The planning commission is not bound, of course, by the
staff recommendation. However, the land development code
says that the planning commission shall base its decision on the
code criteria. So, that's what we'll be addressing here today,
code criteria.
The petitioner is requesting a 40 foot extension to create a
docking facility protruding a total of 60 feet into the waterway.
The actual dock is going to protrude 56 feet. The petitioner was
asking for the four additional feet to account for possible vessel
overhang, since the land development code states that a dock
facility comprises the dock and vessel in combination.
The property is located at 9207 Vanderbilt Drive, site of a
five unit multifamily residence. The water frontage of the
property is about 295 feet.
The project consists of the construction of two floating
concrete docks accommodating a total of five slips which would
result in one slip per 59 feet of water frontage. The dock
extension to 40 feet has been approved for a residential lot to
the north, here, and I've indicated the people who are objecting
to the petition in blue, the site is in yellow.
So, we have a 40 foot dock to the north, here, and we have a
25 foot extension for the Chateau Vanderbilt multifamily condos
to the south.
The Chateau Vanderbilt facility has a dock that
accommodates ten slips, and that works out to approximately
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October 19, 2000
one slip per 35 feet of water frontage, whereas the petitioner is
asking for one slip per 59 feet.
We've received eight letters of objection from local property
owners. These cite obstruction to navigation and access to
neighboring docks, obstruction of the view of neighboring
property owners, environmental issues, including manatees and
pollution and boat traffic in the waterway.
With regard to the obstruction to access to the neighboring
docks, I've indicated here that the facility is going to be set back
50 feet from the actual dock at Vanderbilt Chateau and about 60
feet from the 40 foot extension, which is to the north. The
hatched areas are the building envelope and do not reflect the
entire facility for either of these projects.
We've also got questions about obstructing the view of
neighboring property owners, and one of the folks objecting has
sent some very clear panoramic views taken from the residential
docks to the north. The view is subjective. In any case, staff
still feels that the impact on the view of property owners is going
to be minimal here.
The questions about mariatees and water pollution are
outside the scope of this petition since they are not asking for
ten slips, which is the cutoff for review under the manatee
protection plan, that doesn't apply. Water pollution is addressed
by the Department of Environmental Protection by the state.
Staff believes that the petitioner has successfully addressed
all of the criteria. We feel that the remaining issues are basically
outside the scope of this petition, and we, therefore, recommend
approval of this extension.
Are there any questions?
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I have questions.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any questions of staff?
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Ross, Item F talks about the
word vessel being in excess of 50 percent of the length of the
water frontage. If it is, is there some sort of presumption that it
would interfere with the views of adjoining property owners?
Why do we go into that?
MR. GOCHENAUR: That was included originally when this
section of the code was drafted. I inherited this, and it was
mainly to address a vessel moored parallel to the waterfront on a
single family lot so that if you had a one hundred foot lot,
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October 19, 2000
theoretically you could have a 70 foot vessel. This, we thought,
would have an impact on the view of the neighboring property
owners.
In this case, I don't think that really applies with the vessels
that are going to be moored perpendicular to the shoreline and
also a multifamily facility.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: But the combined lengths of
those vessels by my reckoning is 170 feet, which is more than
half of the 295, is it not?
MR. GOCHENAUR: Okay. What I came up with here was a
40 foot vessel -- let's see.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Two 30s is 60, that makes a
hundred, and two 35s is 70 makes 170.
MR. GOCHENAUR: Yes, sir, you're correct. That was how I
originally did the math.
As I explained earlier, I did flunk math.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: The other question I had is, if
you could put that schematic up there again that showed the
neighboring properties, who is the owner of that 190 feet
immediately adjacent, that little hundred feet down there in the
corner? It's hard to say that --
MR. GOCHENAUR: The name of the property owner?
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Well, it's hard to say that
that property wouldn't be -- that their view wouldn't be impacted
by extending these docks out there, isn't it?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I'm the owner of the one --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: No, please. You'll get your opportunity
to testify, okay.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Okay, well, the owner is
here, so she can speak for herself.
MR. GOCHENAUR: That's basically what we're looking at
here. You can see the end of the seawall here, the docks would
extend out there, and basically -- again, this is subjective, and
the property owner is going to have a different idea of what
impacts the view, but from our standpoint, this impacts the
property owner's view of a ten story condominium across the
waterway.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: There's also a statement in
here somewhere that side yard setbacks have been -- or
setbacks from the property line have been observed, but it looks
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October t 9, 2000
to me like, from the information we have, that the dock goes
right to the property line on one side, doesn't it?
MR, GOCHENAUR: No, sir. If you look at lot six, you can see
that their property line actually extends to the center line of that
100 foot canal, so the riparian line --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Okay. Well, I hadn't seen
that little notch down there.
MR. GOCHENAUR: Yeah, it's a little bit -- a little bit hard to
see unless you get up close, but the riparian lies approximately
where I drew that line vertically, and the measurement from the
dock to that riparian line is about 50 feet.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Okay. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: I have a question.
MR. GOCHENAUR: Yes, ma'am.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: You said that the issue of
manatee safety does not apply in this case because of a
particular criteria?
MR. GOCHENAUR: Yes, the Collier County Mariatee
Protection Plan kicks in when you have ten slips or more. This
project is only for five slips.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: So in the resolution, they are
going to, at least, put in one mariatee area sign during
construction, that's what it says?
MR. GOCHENAUR: Yes, ma'am. This is a standard
stipulation for boat dock construction.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: And that's only during
construction? It doesn't stay permanently?
MR. GOCHENAUR: It could stay permanently if we added a
stipulation to that effect, which I can certainly do.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: That's why I was trying to make
sure I understood what you had said and what was in the
resolution.
Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any further questions of staff?.
We'd be glad to hear from the petitioner.
MR. SCOFIELD: Good morning. Rocky Scofield representing
the petitioner, Liberty Ventures, with Turrell & Associates.
Pretty much everything that Ross said here is -- we are in
agreement with.
First of all, these are concrete floating docks that we are
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October 19, 2000
putting in.
How do you get that to zoom out? Okay.
You know, obviously, view is an issue, and I'm sure you'll
hear from that, but these are concrete floating docks which are
low profile. I'm sure most of you are familiar with the concrete
floating docks. They have a freeboard of a couple of feet off of
the water. So, the dock structures are not fixed docks sticking
up with high pilings, with high lift beams up. The docks are down
low.
We are currently -- we are only permitted for five slips here.
There are five upland units, and we are permitted for five slips,
and the slips are -- you're starting over here. You have one, two,
three, four, five. This area on the north side has to have a railing
up. Now, these are all DEP stipulations. On the end of this dock
is where the mariatee sign is going to be. We are -- you don't
have to worry about that. That's stipulated in the DEP permit.
That's -- that's part of their permit. We have to do that.
This, we'll have railing along this side and a boat will be able
to moor here, and on the inside here, it's very shallow, but also,
this has to be railed according to DEP, so we can't pull any type
of boat or jet skis or anything inside there. So, it's only five slips.
These two are 36 foot slips. This is a 36 foot slip. These
two are 30 foot slips here. The reason they are separated is
because of the way that these apartments are built. You have a
wall coming out right along here, right up to the seawall and also
over here. These have access out through their wall onto this
one. These people have to walk around down to here. Now, the
reason that this dock is sticking out a little bit further than this
one is because this one is made handicap accessible. The ramp
has to -- the gangway to the dock -- the dock had to be a little
wider here to handle the handicap. Also, the angle of the ramp
had to be a little bit further out, therefore, the distance out. So --
which puts the total distance out here at 56 feet, and then the
submerged land lease that we had to get from the state extends
out -- they always make you extend out four feet further, so we
included that into our boat dock extension of what we're asking
for, a total of 60 feet.
This is the Chateau Vanderbilt apartments here. This is the
-- this is the canal here. It was brought -- we are 52 feet away
from our property line over here, which runs down the center line
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October 19, 2000
of this canal. The canal is -- excuse me, the canal is a hundred
feet wide right here, so we're away from there.
Originally, the plans we were -- we were going to put the
docks inside along here extending out and over here. We
submitted a dredge plan to the DEP. The DEP rejected our
dredging plan when they saw the entire area with our depths,
and they would not allow the dredging inside the canal here, and
they said the least impact would be to move the docks out front
and into a little bit deeper water. We have the objection. DEP
gave us papers saying that we will not approve the dredge plan.
So, this is -- they said to move them out here, and this is your
least impact, so this is where the docks are now.
We are 25 feet away from the property line of Chateau
Vanderbilt. What we did for the -- this grid pattern, I don't know if
you can see it very well there, but we hired surveyors to go out
and do the whole lagoon. The entire lagoon, we had a
bathymetric survey done. There's no impact to navigation, which
we have here. The depths for the boats -- let's see.
Can you go out further, out the other way?
MR. NINO: Can't read it though.
MR. SCOFIELD: Oh, yeah. Your light is off.
These are where the -- this is the applicant's property right
here, the Chateau Vanderbilt and the canal over here. The docks
are extending out in this area right to where these first set of
numbers are. We have about four feet of water. These
measurements are pretty consistent over the entire lagoon out
here. The depths you see here or NGVD, to get to mean low
water, you subtract four-tenths of a foot, so we have four to four
and a half to five feet to almost five -- it's about four and a half to
four over the entire area. So, there is no particular method of
navigation through where we're putting these docks. This entire
area out here is all the same depth. So, we don't believe there's
any impact to navigation, and if you have any questions, I'd be
glad to answer them.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: I have a question.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I'm chairman, I'll go first, okay.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: When you look at this drawing, if I'm
standing over here on the platform or the deck, how tall are the
pilings? Is it like four foot?
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October 19, 2000
MR. SCOFIELD: No, no, the concrete pilings extend up about
ten feet.
Are they ten feet, Tim, six feet?
MR, HALL: For the floating dock?
MR. SCOFIELD: For the floating.
MR. HALL: It can be anywhere from six to ten feet.
MR. SCOFIELD: Six to ten feet. Normally, if --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I guess what I'm saying, if I stand here,
am I looking over the top of them or right along the top of them
probably?
MR, SCOFIELD: If you're standing on top, the concrete
pilings that anchor the floats will probably be right above your
head, right at your head height.
What they do on the design of floating docks, they usually
design for storm surge so the docks don't float off of the pilings
and go hit into someone's house, and usually they like about six
to eight feet above the high water line for these docks to allow
for that much surge if we get a --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: What I was getting at is I'll be looking
at the boat probably and not some pilings? You'll be able to see
them, but the boats are going to be taller than the pilings at high
water.
MR, SCOFIELD: On high water, it would probably be close.
It depends on what the profile of the boat is.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: My question was, and, Rocky, you
can answer it or someone else, but the property is in blue on
Ross' diagram that would -- that were complaining or saying that
their view would be blocked. Do they got docks in front of their
house?
MR. GOCHENAUR: Yes, sir, most of these properties have
docks. As I pointed out, one of the properties has a 40 foot dock
that was approved for a 40 foot extension. The others have
approximately 20 foot docks that are permitted.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Well, if you're standing on their
seawall, you have to look across their boats before you get a
view of these proposed docks; is that safe to -- is that fair to say?
MR. GOCHENAUR.' In some cases, I think that would be
correct. Again, this picture sort of shows a dock that's slung
from davits on -- let's see, this is on lot one.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: And the proposed docks would be
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October 19, 2000
to the right of the boat we're looking at?
MR. GOCHENAUR: The proposed dock -- actually, this is on
the north. The proposed dock would be to the south here.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Okay.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I have a question for Rocky.
The gangways that you have from the shore to the floating
docks, do they ride in tracks of some sort on the dock?
MR. SCOFIELD: No, they don't. They -- they're on coasters.
They're on wheels, and then they just roll back and forth when
the -- on the tide.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: What sort of a tide range do
you have in there?
MR. SCOFIELD: Normal tide range is about two feet. That's
the normal. You get extreme tides, you know, full moon,
whatever, and you're going to get three feet of --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: And your gangways are going
to be placed far enough out onto the --
MR. SCOFIELD: That's one of the reasons we had to go out a
little further out with the docks, one was the handicap ramp and
the other one was to allow for the tracking back and forth.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: If you're expecting a storm
surge, you just pull those things in or --
MR. SCOFIELD: They should.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any further questions?
Members of the public who wish to speak on this, if you
would line up, please.
MR. NINO: Joan Ferro, Linda Rogers, B.J. Savard-Boyer,
Mary Griffith.
MS. SAVARD-BOYER: Good morning. My name is B.J.
Savard-Boyer, S-A-V-A-R-D, hyphen, B-O-Y-E-R. I live at 479 Palm
Court.
I'm the one that took the pictures, and there's --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Are these the pictures that you're
referring to?
MS. SAVARD-BOYER: Yes, sir, the ones --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. We'll pass them down to Mr.
Priddy, who will start them.
MS. SAVARD-BOYER: Okay, but I have an additional one
that Ross did not put up, and if I could -- can I talk over there?
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October 19, 2000
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Sure.
MS. SAVARD-BOYER: I'm kind of starting backwards here. I
had a lot to say before I showed you that picture.
Can I say it before we get into the picture?
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Sure.
MS. SAVARD-BOYER: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Can we raise that a little bit?
MS. SAVARD-BOYER: Raise -- oh.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: There you go.
MS. SAVARD-BOYER: Maybe we have to --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: There we go.
MS. SAVARD-BOYER: Okay. Well, looking at this picture
right now, you see the piling there and the dock to the left, this is
the dock that is -- belongs to lot two of the owner on Palm Court,
Mary Griffith and Clarence Griffith. The dock, the proposed dock
goes from the seawall, which you can't see, but it goes complete
coverage of their property into ten feet of lot three, which is 442
Palm Court. It's hard to explain it because you're not getting this
whole picture here.
See this dock over here, this is the 40 foot dock that they
are talking about, all right. This is on lot three, 442 Palm Court.
This is on 474 Palm Court. If we measure the seawall here
across the Griffith property, you'll -- the sea -- well, let me go
back here. The seawall on Liberty Ventures is into lot one. So,
when you go and do 60 feet, you're going ten feet beyond the
third lot. So, this lot here is looking, right now, directly across,
has a wide open water view. Yes, we do have high-rises here but
we couldn't help it.
Over here you will see the 25 foot docks for Chateau
Vanderbilt. They have a boat that extends past their 25 foot
dock, so maybe it's a 30 foot boat, I don't know. I couldn't get in
there to measure.
Anyhow, this waterway is -- Rocky is right, it's -- it's deeper
around the edge, shallower in the middle. If you were on a boat
and you got out there, you would know about that.
The people that used to own this land over here where we
got it is -- I believe their names were Garland. Alex Garland, Sr.,
I spoke to personally. He told me that when his father owned
this property, there was high land under the water here. He said
to navigate this, you have to go around. Okay, that's one of our
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October 19, 2000
concerns; the view.
When this dock goes 60 feet out, these people are going to
have one heck of a time getting in and out and so are the Ferros
on the corner.
When I read the code, Section 2.6.21.1 of the current code,
docks and the like are primarily intended to adequately secure
moored vessels and provide safe access by users for routine
maintenance and use while minimally, and I stress that,
impacting the navigability of the waterway, native marine
habitat, manatees and the use and view, view of the waterway
by the surrounding property owners. I dare say there will be no
view from lot one or lot two, and yes, the one in lot three, they
can look out to the west. They will be able to see water, but
these people cannot see water. These people have lived there
for 25 years and enjoyed the view, and now you're going to put
60 feet of floating dock, 45 foot boats -- it's awful. It's awful.
I did call the mariatee organization, and I'm waiting for them
to get back to me, because I do feel -- and I took the pictures of
Mamma Manatee having her baby, and I do feel, yes -- I mean,
we're getting so impacted with things back there that you're
ruining our -- you're ruining our waterways. We have 56 boats
proposed into the Regatta, 56. We have this guy going out -- I
don't understand -- I guess my point is, why can't he go out 20
feet and have five individual docks like the rest of us? Why does
it have to be a monument? I don't understand that.
The other thing is, the docks are at either end of their
property, leaving the middle open so that they have a nice view
of the waterway. I don't know whether that's fair. I mean, they
are ruining the view of the homeowners that have been there
forever, but they're maintaining their view.
I can't say whether this will impact their property value or
not. I can't say that. Nobody knows what property is going to be
worth on the water, whether you can see anything or not. I can't
say that, but the thing is, these people have lived there for 25
years, and they have enjoyed this pristine water, and I just am
sick to death of everything that's going on around us.
I also talked to Mark Miller. He personally sent me
everything that Rocky talked about, but he also told me that, yes,
they could dredge. Now I find that very interesting that we have
a conflict of the story here, so I guess I'll have to get back to Mr.
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Miller. He sent me all the things that Rocky had up here with the
depth. It does look fairly simple. It does look like three feet and
four feet are just as close to the seawall as anybody else has to
the seawall.
In talking to -- after talking -- after this thing -- let me back
up a little bit. Our petition arrived in the mail on October 5th.
The date on the petition said September 29th. The sign went in
on the property probably close to September 29th, and right after
that was when I called Mr. Gochenaur, and following that we got
the letter in the mail. Funny that it was October 5th, the day that
we were here before, but anyhow, we started with asking the
neighbors -- I do have here a petition from other neighbors that
we went around and collected. We have property owners in
Vanderbilt, Connor's Vanderbilt that do not want 60 foot docks.
We don't want to start with 60 foot docks because then
everybody on these open waterways are going to want 60 foot
docks.
So, I have a petition here, Mr. Nino.
MR. NINO: Thank you.
MS. SAVARD-BOYER: We didn't have time to get the 300
signatures that Golden Gate got, but we got enough that we
could, you know, have some support here.
In closing~ I found out -- and what I would like to say here,
the codes dealing with the dock extension, when this code was
put through either sometime in '99 or early 2000, it was put
through because they needed dock extensions in the Isle of
Capri, and I said, how can you compare the Isle of Capri to the
Connor's Vanderbilt waterways? Well, it's a Collier County code,
and we're in Collier County, but I think that it's time that codes
were sensitive to the different bodies of water and different
geographical locations, and I also feel that if you compare the
two, it's -- it's like apples and oranges, they don't compare.
So, in closing, I would like to say thank you for giving me the
time to say this. I know my neighbors have something to say, so
thank you for your time.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. Thank you.
Next speaker, and please, your predecessor eloquently put
it. If you've got anything to add or simply to reaffirm what she
said, please.
MS. GRIFFITH: I'm Mary Griffith, and I'm the one who has
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October t 9, 2000
lived 25 years at 474 Palm Court, and we will have no view, sir,
no view.
Would you buy a property with no view? I don't think so. I
think our property value will go down.
It shows clearly it will be right across -- well, you took -- it's
down, but it will go right across our whole house. We won't -- we
won't see anything but what; bland floating docks. It's sad.
That's all I have to say.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE.' Thank you.
COMMISSIONER PRIDD¥: I have a question for her.
Ma'am, if there were a 20 foot dock there, what would your
view be?
MS. GRIFFITH: Well, there's no picture, but the ones at
Vanderbilt -- at Chateau Vanderbilt, they would come -- see~ we
have a boat, but we've kept it to the left side of our property
because of the view. It would come out slightly in our view, but
we still would have that open -- open water, you know, in
between.
I really think that what Chateau Vanderbilt has done is
appropriate for our area. Sixty foot docks anywhere are too
much.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: I ask that question because
you-all would be allowed to put a 20 foot dock without coming
here today, and I wanted to see what the comparison of your
view with a 20 foot dock was -- I mean, if that 20 foot dock kept
you from any view, then it's kind of a moot point whether it's 20,
30 or 40.
MS. GRIFFITH: No, it would not. You see -- if you can see
where that comes --
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Yeah, I've got that picture in my
mind.
MS. GRIFFITH: Okay. All right. It would go that far all the
way across so that we have no -- because it even goes adjacent
to our neighbor, number three, lot three, and if we wanted -- if we
wanted to bring our boat in, we've got to go between that dock
and his dock, maneuver in -- I mean, that's another point.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: But that would be true if it were a
20 foot dock, you would still have to --
MS. GRIFFITH: No, it would not -- no, it would not be as
difficult, no. It's because -- because of those extra feet, it just
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covers our whole property and you know very well if you allow
one 60 foot dock, that opens the door for many, many, and
there's the group across from us who want docks, and they'll
think, well, maybe we can make ours bigger, and, you know,
once you okay one, it's difficult to say no, and I plead with you,
consider this strongly.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
Next speaker.
MS. FERRO: Hi. My name is Joan Ferro. I'm sorry, I have
laryngitis, but it's important for me to come.
We are building a million dollar home there, and I'm lot
number one, which the view would be even more impeded as
Mrs. Griffith said. So, lot number one puts me way in the corner
opposite the property, and I just think -- I'll definitely have no
view, and here we are in the middle of building a home, and I
never thought that they would allow this, first of all. Sixty feet,
isn't that for commercial?
I mean, I don't understand why they couldn't dredge in front.
They said they weren't allowed to dredge on the side, but what
about the front, why didn't they go after that dredging so that
they could only have 20 feet like everybody else, and once that
starts a precedent, everyone else will want 60 feet.
There's only -- there's only five families there. Why do they
need 60 feet? That's all I have to say.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. Thank you.
Next speaker.
MS. ROGERS: My name is Linda Rogers, R-O-G-E-R-S, and I
live at 428 Palm Court, and don't worry, all this is not for you, but
I do want to make one comment before I forget about the docks
on the side.
Before this property was sold, the people who owned it
before had two boat docks on the side in the side canal, and to
my knowledge, watching those two boats come and go -- and
they varied in sizes during the length of the years as different
people were tenants in that building. Those boats came and
went. That property wasn't dredged, and when that property was
sold, those boat docks were there, and they were working, and
they didn't impede anybody's view. I don't understand why two
of the docks can't be there, you know, just to replace those, but I
would ask the commission to look into that before making a
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October 19, 2000
decision here, and I'm not here to oppose Liberty Ventures' right
to have boat docks. My husband and I are boaters as well, and I
believe in the right of every person who buys on gulf access
waterway to have the right to build and use a boat dock that is
compatible with whatever neighborhood they buy in.
That's why we didn't write to oppose when we were notified
of their first plan for docks along the seawall, but when the
second plan came along, I didn't write. I was going to be down
here, and so my letter was not counted because I'm here in
person.
The second -- the plan that's before the commission now is
not in any way or is not in any way compatible with the docks
that are already in the neighborhood and the ones that outline
Vanderbilt lagoon. To my knowledge, there's not another floating
dock, other than a commercial one. There is the dock that's 40
feet out, but it's not 20 feet from the seawall, and it most
certainly can be handicap accessible.
Being handicap assessable doesn't mean you need to move
it out into the bay. It means you need to be level and have a
ramp that is accessible by a wheelchair. It doesn't have to be 20
feet long. It could be five feet long.
There are boats next to this, boat docks lining the seawall
at Chateau Vanderbilt, these would be concurrent with those if
they lined the seawall and didn't extend out into the bay. They
would be compatible with both the condominium buildings that
line the lagoon and the private residences that line the lagoon
now. None of those go out that far. None of those float up and
down, and none of them accommodate boats that large.
Our waterway is shallow. It's also dead end, and I know
that you are not the DEP, you're not the environmental people,
but somewhere along the way, somebody has to take everything
into consideration, that this waterway is a dead end, it has no
through flow. That was blocked by development years ago,
probably before you-all were involved, and certainly before I lived
down here. So, that may in the future be corrected, but right
now, it's not, and any dead-end waterway is a holding tank for
contamination that flows in. It doesn't have anywhere to go. it
takes longer to get out.
Every boat and boat dock that you add in that space, every
bit of water that you cover inhibits the ability of that water to
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have a better quality, and I know personally, we have worked as
residents of Vanderbilt for years, not just in the area impacted by
these docks, but the area between Vanderbilt Drive and
Gulfshore Drive and Vanderbilt Beach Road and Bluebill, to
improve that water quality because we were fussed at, and we
were fussed at, and we had to change lawn chemicals or use
none at all, and we had to go by all these specifications and
regulations, and I would like to think that our work didn't go for
nothing, that we didn't try to better that environment so
somebody else could come in and cover the waterway with more
dock than is absolutely necessary for their pleasure and their
view, and I would like to address the property values.
My view is not affected by these docks. It's -- it's only
affected by the sight when I go out to the side of my house and
see whatever they put there, but I know, and I think you do as
well, that here in South Florida, the view has a considerable
value to the property. One on a waterway and with a view of the
water has a definite monetary value over and above a property
that is sitting across the street and has no view or access to that
water.
So you cannot as a whole ignore what it would do to the
properties that would be adversely affected by looking at 60 feet
of dock and big boats rather than 20 or 25 feet and still have the
partial view outside.
That's all I have to say about that issue.
I would ask that you would consider putting a parking
garage here to help the people who need access to the
government services. I think that's more important than having a
400 space parking garage so people can get to Vanderbilt Beach.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER PEDONE: Mr. Chairman, I have to leave at
this time.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Let it show that Mr. Pedone is leaving.
Yes, ma'am.
MS. DORAZIO: Hi. My name--
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Were you sworn in, ma'am?
MS. DORAZIO: Yes, I was.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. Thank you.
MS. DORAZIO: My name is Dorothy Dorazio, and I live on
Oak Avenue, which is adjacent to Palm Court.
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October 19, 2000
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Could you spell your last name, please?
MS. DORAZIO: D-O-R-A-Z-I-O.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
MS. DORAZIO: I've been spelling it for 30 years.
Anyway, I'm here in support of the people who live on Palm
Court, and I wanted to reiterate the fact that we all do feel that
this is an important issue for our waterway.
We not only have this dock under consideration, but we also
have ones from Regatta and one on our own street of Oak
Avenue that will be before you, and that was one thing I wanted
to point out.
I know that it's your -- it's your manner of operation to view
each of these items individually, but on an overall basis, one by
one, even this covered dock, which is a small issue to you, taken
in consideration with all of the other things that are coming up in
Vanderbilt Beach are going to have a very large impact on what
it's going to do to our community.
My second point is that we all are boaters or a lot of us are,
and any one of us would be happy to take any one of you or more
than one of you out to view this site, because I don't think
pictures or descriptions or graphs have any real bearing on
what's going to happen in Vanderbilt Beach if this is allowed to
go on. This is only the first step. You know the Regatta wants to
do more. You know that other people are going to submit 60 foot
docks and probably larger, and I think that the commission, to be
fair, really should get a firsthand look at what these people who
are defending their properties are up against.
That's all I really have to say. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: All right. Thank you.
Anybody else from the public?
If not, would the petitioner like to address, and while he's
coming up, Ross, would you just reiterate the notice again, how
notice goes out to the public? There seems to be some concern
that it wasn't done adequately.
MR. GOCHENAUR: Correctly -- correct. At least two weeks
prior to the public hearing, letters are mailed to the public
according to the addresses which they have recorded with the
property appraiser's office. At the same time, a hearing notice is
posted on the site stating what the petition is for and the date of
the public hearing.
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October 19, 2000
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
Mr. Scofield.
MR. SCOFIELD: Just a couple of things, on the navigation
issue, I showed you the water depths, and I'll be glad to -- we
spent quite a lot of money having this whole lagoon surveyed.
What she was -- what she was referring to, right in the center of
this lagoon is the shallowest area. It's about a half a -- according
to our -- it's 300 feet out from where we're putting these docks.
It's point five to point eight feet shallower than the rest of it.
Most of it is four to four and a half feet. This gets down to three
and a half feet in the center here of this lagoon, and I have the
water depths here from Agnoli, Barber & Brundage, surveyors.
A couple of other things, water quality is an issue. It's a big
issue in these things. The DEP scrutinizes it very -- very
carefully. One of the things is we're putting in a concrete floating
dock, which is the environmentally preferred thing to do. We're
not putting in CCA treated wood piles, and the concrete is
non-toxic to the environment. It's much preferred. You get a lot
of growth on these of barnacles and everything else, and there's
no -- there's no impact to the water quality due to the dock issue.
I forgot to say, this site has ten feet wide of riprap all the
way around it. So, the first ten feet of shoreline is basically
precluded -- we had a failing seawall. When they went in to
develop this project, the seawall was failing and falling out. One
of the things to -- there was two things, the riprap was used as
mitigation, which -- which we put in to fortify the seawall, and
also for mitigation for DEP, which makes it a better environment
around it rather than having a vertical seawall and dredging it
out deep.
So, the first ten feet of wall there is precluded from putting
in docks. If we were to dredge there and get a dredging permit,
we would have to start out another five to six feet to eight feet
further from the riprap out and then dredge out. So, we're still
back out to where we are now because you cannot dredge right
up to a riprap or you lose your whole wall, and those -- if you
want to know more about the dredging issue, I'm going to let Tim
Hall, he's with our firm, he did the permitting on this with the
DEP, spoke with them, the original dredge plans and spoke with
them about the denials on the inside and their intent to deny
outside, because we could go out further with the docks.
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October t9, 2000
Now, the last thing I just want to wrap up with, on this
canal, the one lady said that the -- she -- excuse me. She's right
-- these -- I don't know if you can see these blue ones. We
superimposed the proposed docks over here. She's right up in
here in this area. This is a hundred foot wide canal. Most of the
canals in Vanderbilt Beach are a hundred feet wide. Boat docks
come out 20 to 25 feet each side, leaving 50 feet or 60 feet in the
middle to go.
We are not going in that canal at all. We're outside. There's
absolutely -- you know, if this canal were extended on out and
there were boat docks to each side, it would be normal on the
other ones, but we're not. We're staying in line with that canal --
with this -- with the end of the property here. So, the navigation
is not impeded by our proposed docks and the position they are
in, and if you have any questions on o-
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Your closer dock there runs
parallel to her seawall; is that right?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: That's right.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: The property owner who says
it comes completely across her view, it runs parallel to her
seawall, right?
MR. SCOFIELD: I'm not sure I follow what -- is that right?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yes, sir, it is.
MR. SCOFIELD: This is -- if I understand what you're saying,
this is the canal end.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Yeah.
MR. SCOFIELD: The seawall runs out, and ours runs straight
along with it. Is that what you're talking about?
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: So, you maintain the hundred
foot separation?
MR. SCOFIELD: That's correct. We don't go in -- we tried to
do that from the beginning. We tried to go inside the canal first --
there was an old dock there. There was an old dock there.
There's only two feet of water -- well, I have the other dredge
plans. There's two and a half to three and a half feet of water
there. Our rock extends out ten feet also in there, and when we
tried to do the dredge plan for the docks in there, the DEP said
move them out to the outside.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Rocky, the point was brought up
by one of the ladies, why didn't you-all design all five docks, say,
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in the center of the property as opposed to two --
MR. SCOFIELD: I -- I covered that earlier. Because the
apartments are built out to the seawall. They have -- I don't
know -- I'll show you the plan again.
Can you zoom out? There, okay. Right here, there's a wall
going along the seawall. These two people will access through
their wall onto this ramp. These people will have to come around
their units and onto this -- onto this ramp right here.
So, that's -- this is a fixed dock. This is a fixed dock a little
over the riprap to attach -- to attach this gangway to, and this is
a little fixed dock right here just to attach the gangway to get
out to.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: My question is, why didn't you put
the dock of boat three next to four and so forth, put all of them
together?
MR. SCOFIELD: That's just the way they designed that.
That's the way they wanted it. Is there any reason, Tim?
Excuse me, let Tim -- he's the one that permitted through
the DEP.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: Let me ask a question. You're
saying there's a wall there. How high is that wall? Is that wall --
it's just a seawall? It's not a regular wall.
MR. SCOFIELD: No, no, no, no, no, no, the wall comes --
MR. HALL: The plans, they're --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Can you give your name, please?
MR. SCOFIELD: I'm sorry.
MR. HALL: Tim Hall with Turrell & Associates.
The architectural plans called for a six foot wall just on the
inside of the seawall.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: A privacy wall.
MR. HALL: Yeah, a privacy wall, basically that extended up
and around. If you see the way the -- each one of those
apartments has a small pool in the back, and they had those
pools walled off as well with a privacy wall.
So, in order to put the -- if we were to put all five boat docks
together as quickly as we could, then the outside apartments,
either one or the other would have had to have gone through one
of the other apartments to get to the docks to minimize the
amount of dock space, or we would have had to construct a
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October 19, 2000
boardwalk that went all the way along the seawall so that all of
the apartments could access out onto it.
So, the actual amount of impacts, the area that would have
been impacted would have been greater.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Tim, what is that -- what are
those diamond shaped structures or whatever they are just
inside the privacy fences?
MR. HALL: I believe those are maintenance -- I don't know if
they are sheds or little maintenance boxes or buildings for the
pool maintenance equipment.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: So, going back to Mr. Priddy's
question, it could have been doable had you had a walkway
outside that wall so they all could have shared the boat docks,
but it was a preference not to?
MR. HALL: It could have been doable -- no, it wasn't so
much a preference, but in the coordination with the Department
of Environmental Protection, we had to come up with a plan that
minimized the impacts to the waterway while still providing
access to everybody, and this was the least impactive as far as
water quality and as far as the amount of shading that would
have incurred in the lagoon. The docks themselves create shade
on the bottom, so you want to design a facility that minimizes
the amount of area that's being covered or shaded, and this was
the one that did it while still providing adequate access.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: Had you developed a bigger
shaded area -- being not a boater, I don't understand these issues
that much.
Had you designed a bigger shaded area, would DEP still
have approved it?
MR. HALL: The letter that we got originally that had the
docks all together in one location would have required some
dredging, and the letter we got back said that as it was
proposed, they would recommend denial of it because it did not
minimize the impacts, both dredging and the amount of coverage
that was -- that was being proposed.
The other thing that -- I notice everybody here keeps talking
about 60 foot docks. These are only 36 foot docks. The
extension is for 60 feet, and that's just to provide, as we said
before, to get outside of the riprap and to get -- also allow for
those ramps to get down to the boats to where the docks and the
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October 19, 2000
boats themselves would be in adequate water and not to cause
prop dredging and disturbance of the bottom while going in and
out.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: So, even if you pulled in
those privacy walls far enough to put a walkway along there and
build five individual docks, it would still go out the same distance
to accommodate your vessels; is that right?
MR. HALL: No, if -- if they were to pull that in and could have
the walkway in there, then you could probably pull them in four
or five feet.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Four or five feet?
MR. SCOFIELD: I'd like to add, the thing is, we would
probably -- were we to put fixed docks in here -- I heard them say
the Chateau Vanderbilt next door, they've got docks out 25 feet
and some of the boats sticking out further and there's lifts on
there. Were we to go in and put in perpendicular docks like that,
we would still have to be out about 40 feet. We have ten feet
precluded from the riprap. If we started there and put in, let's
say a 30 foot dock, which a lot -- out there with boat lifts, I
guarantee you, that view would be much more impeded than
what is proposed here as floating docks down low.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: So, our redesign of your
project wouldn't make much difference?
MR. SCOFIELD: Not that I see it.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Okay.
MR. SCOFIELD: And the other -- what Tim was alluding to,
the environmental -- the rock was -- the rock all along the wall,
all the way around here was part of the environmental mitigation.
To build a boardwalk over that, you know, I guess that could be
done, but the Department did not like that because, first of all,
we put in the rock for environmental mitigation, and they don't
want you to build a dock over the whole thing, shading it.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: I guess the next question
becomes then since we can't rearrange or move these things
around is -- our next question is, why do we need to provide a
dock for a boat that size? I mean, is there --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: A middle ground, is that the word
you're looking for?
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Yeah, is there -- is there a shorter
dock that can still provide these property owners with the right
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October 19, 2000
to have a dock, which I think most of these people have, and yet
not get that big?
MR. SCOFIELD: Well, I don't think -- I mean, two of these -- I
don't know what size boats are coming in there. I don't know
what the people have bought, if they have bought them or not,
but these are -- these are basically 30 and 30 -- 36 and 30 foot
slips. The people that come in there, I don't know if they are
going to buy a 20 foot boat or a 40 foot boat, but, you know, they
are designed for 30 and 36 foot boats, to handle up to that much.
There's a lot of boats in that area that are 30 feet and 35 feet
boats in this area. There's a lot of them.
I received some calls from Chateau Vanderbilt about the
possibility of extending their docks out to incorporate larger
dock -- larger boats there, but the trouble is, they've got to get
into a submerged land lease, so they pulled back on that and
said, well, we don't want to get into that right now.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: I have a question. Could you put
the depth survey up again? MR. SCOFIELD: Yes.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Can you point to the area, Rocky,
that's -- don't pull it out too far because I can't read it.
MR. SCOFIELD: Okay, I'm sorry. I just want to get it --
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: Just point to the area, and he'll
read it for you.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Yeah, what's the -- now I can't
read it at all.
I'm looking for the area that you said was so shallow. Sort
of like draw a little finger circle around it.
MR. SCOFIELD: Here's -- excuse me, here's the property.
Here's the building. Here's where the docks are sticking out,
right in this area. The shallow area in the center of this is -- it's
right here. Now, these are a hundred foot grids. This is one
hundred, two hundred, three hundred, and the 300 foot area out
right in here, this is where the shallowest area is in the center.
Now, when --
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: What numbers?
MR. SCOFIELD: Now, this is back over on the seawall over
here. This is -- these are very -- over here on the seawall on Palm
Court, it's extremely shallow right along where these docks are,
and that's one of the reasons this gentleman with a 40 foot dock
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October 19, 2000
is out so far because he doesn't have hardly any water where his
dock is, but that's the -- the shallow area is right here in the
center where I'm pointing to right here. It's -- the shallowest part
right --
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Could you repeat those numbers?
MR. SCOFIELD: Pardon me?
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: I need the numbers. I can't --
MR. SCOFIELD: Right here is the shallowest -- let's see.
MR. NINO: Four point one.
MR. SCOFIELD: Four point one, you take four-tenths of a
foot off of that, you're down to 3.7 feet. That is right in the
center. That's the shallowest part at low water.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: The center of your property?
MR. SCOFIELD: Pardon me?
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: The center of your property.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: No.
MR. NINO: No, center of the lagoon.
MR. SCOFIELD: No, center of the lagoon.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Right, and --
MR. SCOFIELD: On the big aerial, it's the center of the
lagoon, 300 feet out from our prop -- from our docks.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: And this was -- that wasn't the
area that we were talking about on Oak Avenue before, right?
We're not talking about that same shallow area?
MR. SCOFIELD: No, no, no, no, that's the next one over.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: It's farther over?
MR. SCOFIELD: Yes.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: And you've done -- when did you
do this survey?
yOU,
MR. SCOFIELD: When was this survey done; Monday?
MR. HALL: Last week.
MR. SCOFIELD: Last week.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: So, it is really very new. Thank
MR. SCOFIELD: Yes.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I have one last question.
Your answer to item seven on their proposal says the
structures are located towards the center of the property and the
neighbors both north and south will still have views of the
lagoon.
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October 19, 2000
Well, they aren't really located toward the center of the
property. They're located toward the extremes, aren't they?
MR. SCOFIELD: Well, if you take the 50 -- we own 50 -- we --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Oh, you count that 50 over
there.
MR. SCOFIELD: Liberty Ventures owns 50 feet further over
to the north.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: That brings them towards
the center.
MR. SCOFIELD: That's correct.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any further questions of the petitioner?
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: I guess I'm still trying to find
some other number.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I didn't hear any forthcoming.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Rocky, give us another number
that we can live with.
MR. SCOFIELD: You mean on the extension?
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Yeah.
MR. SCOFIELD: Well, the submerged land lease goes out to
60 feet. The docks go out to 56. If you want to limit it to 56
where no boats can stick out further than that, then we can live
with that.
(Audience members speaking.}
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Please, I offered a lot of latitude here,
but no comments from the audience, please, okay, while they're
giving testimony.
MR. SCOFIELD: The other -- I know view is a sensitive issue.
It always is in these cases whenever we do this. This project --
you know, I don't know too many people that argue or object to
boats actually cruising on the water. These boats are on the
water. They are not up on lifts, and, you know, it's -- we try to
minimize that part of it.
So, you know, if -- if you want to restrict it and take the 60
away back to the ends of the docks, I'm sure they can live with
that.
I don't believe there are 45 foot boats going in here like I
heard. I believe they're going to be 30s and 32s, in that nature. I
don't know that for a fact, but --
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: So, 50 --
MR. SCOFIELD: -- if that is limited, then they cannot -- they
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October 19, 2000
cannot put in any larger boats.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: So 56 is the number I heard?
MR. SCOFIELD: Well, that would limit you to a 32 foot boat
on the two slips and a 36 foot boat on the other slips. Now,
that's overall length. That's bow pulpit to the engine, so you cut
your boat down another five feet from that, so --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I will allow one speaker, ma'am, and
you've had -- no, the lady right behind you, the lady right behind
you, okay. As long as it's something new, I will tolerate -- you've
got one minute, okay. You need to come to the podium.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: And restate your name.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: And restate your name, please.
MS. ROGERS: My name is Linda Rogers, R-O-G-E-R-S.
I can speak directly to the riprap factor because my
husband and I had to do that as well when we built the dock, and
when he's speaking of ten foot of riprap, it is not ten feet straight
out. It is a diagonal line from where the riprap begins on the
seawall to where it ends at the bottom of the waterway.
So, although -- although he's giving the illusion or it seemed
to me that he was, and I'm sorry if that's not true, they must go
out ten feet to get over that, that's not true at all. You only have
to go out maybe half that distance to get over it, and then you
can have the dock, and I think if you look on that chart that you
looked at, you'll see that the boat docks can be built in that
water because that water is just as deep as the water 60 feet
out, and so if you go five feet out from the seawall over the
inclined riprap and you put 20 feet docks or 25 foot docks, you're
up to 30 feet, not 60 as they have suggested, and that's the
experience I had with the DEP, and that's the type dock we have.
So, it's not true that you have to build those large things like
that.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. Thank you.
Rocky, I'm going to allow you to respond to that, okay, and
then we're going to closes the meeting, I'm afraid.
MR. HALL: Tim Hall, again, from Turrell & Associates.
As far as the riprap is concerned, what Rocky was saying is
that we had to stay ten feet out if we were going to dredge at
that point. The rock itself, the distance is based on -- it's all
geometry. It's based on the height it has to come up the wall
and the distance out from it.
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October 19, 2000
In the case of Vanderbilt lagoon, it worked out to where
we're eight feet from the base of the wall to where the
outside-most rocks are. Now, you won't see those because they
are down under the water and they're in the mud on the bottom,
but that's how far out the rock does go.
Then the other, I mean, issue is taking into account, if you
had a boardwalk to access all of those, then you're out -- you're
out ten feet. You've got your ramps down, and then you have
another six feet for the boardwalk to get to all the other docks,
and then you do that.
(Audience member said something.)
MR. HALL: No, but you can't --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: No, nope, I'm sorry, no dialogue to the
audience, okay.
MR. HALL: I'm sorry. Anyway, that's -- that's --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Let me just ask a question. How much
does that extension have to do with the handicap ramp? Does
that impact that at all where you hook that o-
MR. HALL: It's four feet further because of the minimal
angles allowed on the ramp.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: What is a minimum angle then, and
that's obviously based on where it is --
MR. SCOFIELD: Twelve to one.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Twelve to one?
MR. HALL: Right.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: And Rocky, cannot that -- I
understand the twelve to one, but can't, where that comes down,
be further into the dock? I mean, can't the docks be moved
closer to the building?
MR. HALL: If -- if you were to do that, then it's a safety
issue, having to get around the ramp to access the other docks
onto the side where the boardwalk is.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Why do we have to have a handicap?
MR. HALL: That was a request by the owners. They had a
buyer that was looking that was in a wheelchair and still wanted
access to one of the boat ramps.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: I -- I think that --
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: Is a regular dock not handicap
accessible? Again, I'm not a boater.
Page t01
October 19, 2000
MR. HALL: No, sir. No, no, they're not specifically. If it was
a fixed dock, then you would just come straight off the seawall
and out onto the docks, so it's really not an issue. In this case,
the outside dock is wider so that a wheelchair can safely turn
around on it. It also has the railing on the one side to prevent --
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: But if it's not a floating dock and
it's still wider, can that be handicap accessible or it has to be a
floating dock for it to be --
MR. HALL: No, it doesn't have to be a floating dock. It's --
it's -o a fixed dock can be handicap.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: If we eliminate the handicap
portion of this dock extension, how much do we save?
MR. HALL: Four feet.
MR. SCOFIELD: Four feet.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: All right. I'm down to 52 feet.
MR. SCOFIELD: That's correct.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any questions at this point?
MR. SCOFIELD: One more thing, I guess on the view issue,
again, they were saying -- you were asking about this gap in here
also. You know, we've told you about the design. I won't get
back into that, but, you know, if we were to -- if this were moved
over another 15 or 20 feet, whatever, I don't believe that's going
to be that big of a change on any view issue.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: I just want to make sure I
understand something. Maybe staff can answer this.
They have a right to build the boat docks. There's no
question that they have a right to build the boat docks, and I
think they can be 20 feet without coming in here; is that correct?
MR. GOCHENAUR: Yes, ma'am, that's exactly right. They
could, if they wanted to -- somewhere I have a drawing.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Build how many docks?
MR. GOCHENAUR: They are unlimited in terms of slips.
They have a building envelope, so if they wanted to put many,
many 12 feet -- 12 foot boats or several very large boats, if they
put them within that 20 foot building envelope, that would be
legal with a building permit, they wouldn't have to come here.
MR. NINO: Ron Nino, for the record. I think you can safely
say that the issue that's -- the remaining issue or only issue here
is view.
Page 102
October 19, 2000
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Mr. Chairman, if you're looking for
a motion, I --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: No, I haven't closed the public hearing
yet, but -- I apologize to people that probably can talk about this
all day, but other people need to come before us, so I am going
to close the public hearing and entertain a motion.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Mr. Chairman, I move that we
approve BD-2000-23 with a maximum length of 52 feet, that
eliminating the availability of the handicap portion of the dock.
COMMISSIONER BUDD.' Second.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Moved by Commissioner Priddy,
seconded by Commissioner Budd.
All in favor of the motion, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I'd like to have discussion
first.
I am very sympathetic to the lady whose property is going to
be crossed by this dock, but you are in a lagoon, waterway, and
boats are the name of the game there, and it's not as if
somebody is building a wall, an impenetrable wall that will block
out your view of everything. You're still going to look across the
lagoon through boats at some high-rise condos.
So -- if it were not a hundred feet away, I might have a
different view, but I'm persuaded by the hundred foot separation
between the seawall and this dock, that that's a view that many
people would cherish, so I'm in favor of the petition.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any further discussion?
I didn't mean to cut you off. If not, all those in favor of the
motion, signify by saying aye. Opposed?
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Aye.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Carried, Commissioner Rautio in the
dissension. Motion carried.
Moving on. Let me just read, before you-all leave, just for
your information as to any boat dock extension petition upon
which Collier County Planning Commission takes action. An
agreviated (sic) petitioner or adversely affected property owner
may appeal such final action to the Board of Zoning Appeals.
Such appeal shall be filed with the community development and
environmental services administrator within 14 days of the
action by the planning commission. In the event that the petition
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October 19, 2000
has been approved by the planning commission, the applicant
shall be advised that he or she proceeds with construction at his
or her own risk during this period.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Is there a paper to fill out to
appeal, a form?
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Talk to Mr. --
MR. NINO: Get with Ross Gochenaur.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Do we need another break? What's the
board's pleasure? Are we going to proceed right on?
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Yeah, let's rock and roll.
COMMISSIONER BUDD: You move faster when you get
really hungry.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I'd like a comfort break for
five minutes.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I have a request by a petitioner who
says he has to catch a plane out of town, Item G, what's the
pleasure of the board? No?
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: I'd say no. It's awful late in the
game. We're all waiting.
Inc.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Pardon?
COMMISSIONER BUDD: Other people are waiting.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Other people have been waiting.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: No motion.
Next item on the agenda is PUD-95-2(1), Palm Foundation,
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: Good afternoon, commissioners,
Chahram Badamtchian from planning services staff.
MR. NINO-' They have to swear in.
(The speakers were sworn).
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
Chahram.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: This is a petition to amend an existing
PUD which was approved in 1995. Basically, the applicant is
requesting to reduce the front setback from 25 feet to 20 feet,
the rear setback from 20 feet to 10 feet, separation between
structures from 15 to 10 and rear setback for accessories such
as pool enclosures from t0 to 5 feet.
Basically, this is the extent of the request. That's all we are
changing in the PUD document, some numbers.
For the rear setback, which may be an issue, there is a 10
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October 19, 2000
foot wide landscape buffer on the perimeter of this PUD. In
addition to that, there is a 10 to 40 foot wide preserve buffer, it
varies in width, there on the perimeter. So, adding -- adding all
those up, the rear setback for pool will be at least 25 feet from
the property line. Whereas in a regular zoning, we allow pool
cages 10 feet from the property line.
And separation between structures, I am not sure why they
asked for it. These are single family platted lots, and setbacks
are seven and a half on each lot. So, it doesn't matter what the
distance between the structures are, they have to abide by the
setbacks, which would make it 15. Maybe they were thinking
about a single family next to a villa or something that would
require reduced setback to be less than 15, and the rear setback
also for interior lots, there is a 20 foot wide drainage easement
between the lots and the lake. So, the setback for pool
enclosure will be 25 over there too.
And the surrounding properties like the cottages, they have
a drainage easement 10 to -- 10 feet on one side and 20 on the
other side, but those easements are included in the lot setbacks.
So, there's a difference in here. This landscape easement buffer
-- landscape buffer easement, I'm sorry, and the preserve
easement are outside of those lots. On one side, there's also
Poinciana Village which has a 10 foot -- actually 15 foot drainage
easement included with single family lots.
That's the reason staff recommends approval of this petition
or recommends that you forward this to the Board of County
Commissioners for approval.
I received an E-mail in opposition to this yesterday, and I
believe that the lady is here today to speak about that. I also
had a visit from a gentleman who said he's representing a lady
who lives in Poinciana Village, but he also said he may show up,
and that concludes my presentation.
MR. NINO: So, in summary -- I need to clarify. In summary,
we're supporting which amendments, the reduction of the front
yard --
MR. BADAMTCHIAN.' Front from 25 to 20.
MR. NINO: Reduction of the rear yard.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: Rear from 20 to 10, accessories from
10 to 5 and distance between structures, which is basically
meaningless.
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October 19, 2000
MR. NINO: We're not supporting the reduction of the
distance between structures for single family houses? We're ten
feet, aren't we?
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: We can't. The side setback is seven
and a half on each side and staying seven and a half.
MR. NINO: And that's not -- yeah, but they have footnote
number two. Footnote number two would suggest that they are,
in fact --
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: No, that's --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: When they get done discussing it, I
want to know what they finally decided.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: That's in case there's a single family
next to a villa, that the villa has reduced setback, they don't
want to have 15 foot separation between a single family house
and a villa, because the single family house has a seven and half
foot setback, and a villa has a five foot setback, but I don't think
that's going to happen.
I was over there. Basically, they are using two lots for each
single family house. They are building large homes, and what's
going to happen, the density is -- it was approved for 75 units,
and I don't believe they will build over 45, 50 units because each
house -- each house they build, they are using two lots most of
the time. They are building large homes there.
MR. NINO: But let's look at that. I hope staff is not
recommending or supporting any diminution of space between
structures to t 0 feet, whether it's a villa or a single family
detached.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: And did staff have that
conversation with the petitioner prior to the meeting?
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: Staff is not recommending reduction of
the setback with single families to anything less than 15 feet.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: And the petitioner is aware of
that?
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: Yeah, petitioner is aware of it.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: When you talk about
principal structures, aren't you talking about structures on the
same lot?
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: Yes, but--
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: So, this is meaningless
really.
Page 106
October 19, 2000
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: This is meaningless. This is single
family platted lots. You cannot have more than one principal
structure, but the applicant insisted on that and probably has a
good explanation. He's going to explain that to you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I hope so.
With that, we'll hear from the petitioner.
MR. LOVELESS: Good afternoon. My name is Steve
Loveless with Palm Foundation.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE.' Please understand we're confused.
MR. LOVELESS: Thank you. I was a little confused myself.
The purpose of this petition, this request is that I don't
intend to make the setbacks for the villas any different than the
original PUD. What I'm petitioning to do is to keep the setbacks
for when I combine lots for the single family homes, which I
intend to do at this section --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Use the microphone, please.
MR. LOVELESS: -- this section over here, which is phase
three of this development, I intend to combine the lots to make
larger lots to put larger houses on them. I'm decreasing the
density, and I wanted to keep the setbacks, the front and the
rear setbacks the same as the original PUD documents for these
lots here so that when you come into this neighborhood, the
houses are all on the same plane down the streets, and,
basically, that's what I'm requesting.
I'm not -- I do not want to change the side yard
requirements. I have a seven and a half foot side yard
requirement as the original PUD document stated for the single
family. So, when we discussed the distance between the
structures, that means that I'm -- these lots here and all these
lots are zoned for zero lot line as far as the villa lots. I'm keeping
the villas on the zero lot line, and I have ten feet to the next
structure, which would be a zero lot line. However, when it goes
to a single family, I will have seven and a half feet, so I will have
a combine of t7.5 feet between the villa and the first single
family house, which is this over here.
Has that cleared up --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Somewhat.
Any questions? Any further comment?
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: You said you're reducing --
I'm right up here.
Page 107
October 19, 2000
MR. LOVELESS: Oh~ I'm sorry.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: You're reducing density --
MR. LOVELESS: Yes.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: -- you're starting with 75
homes, and you're finishing with 75 homes, aren't you?
MR. LOVELESS: No, sir, I'm starting with 70 -- the ability to
build 75, but I'll end up with 64 at this point.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I missed that somewhere.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: I can explain that. They are not
applying for any zoning change to reduce the density~ but what
they are doing, they are building homes on two lots. That's -- in
fact, they are reducing the density, but they are not asking to
reduce the density.
The density is still four units per acre, and the density still
allows 75 units~ but when they are building it, they use two lots
for every house, so the density is going to go down.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: If they want to tear those houses
down, they still have the ability to go back and build 75 units.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: If they build those -- tear those houses
down, yes, they will be able to build 75 units, thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any further questions?
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: I'm not sure they could if they are
combining the lots.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: If the PUD allows --
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: We don't care about that. That's
not the issue.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: That is not an issue before us.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: I'm being technical.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
MR. LOVELESS: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: I'm trying to figure out how
technical we're being.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Anyone?
Not hearing anything further from the petitioner, anyone
from the public wish to comment on this? Yes, ma'am.
MS. GARRISON: Hi, my name is Dale Garrison,
G-A-R-R-I-S-O-N. I live at 3633 Cottage Club Lane, and I'm the
person that the planner referred to. I'm here because my
husband, my family and I and also the neighborhood of the
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October t9~ 2000
cottages, specifically the units located directly along Coco
Lakes and also the houses directly along between Poinciana and
the cottages are opposed to the change in zoning; primarily the
change of the principal setbacks from 20 feet to 10 feet and the
rear yard accessory from 10 feet to only 5 feet. We simply like
our space, quite frankly. It was a very nice wooded area, and I
think they're trying to maintain that wooded effect, and we'd like
to see it stay that way too.
I've received some conflicting information, I think, upon
talking to our planning department and talking to Coco Lakes
yesterday, and I think they kind of verified what I heard
yesterday from Coco Lakes is what they are asking for, and if I
could ask a couple of questions of them, would that be all right?
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: You need to ask us the questions,
ma'am, and we'll allow the petitioner to respond.
MS. GARRISON: Are you -- the changes that you're referring
to in the setbacks, do they only apply to the north section and
not to the area along the cottages and Poinciana?
Okay, but the zoning change apparently changes the entire
zoning?
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: We will ask them that -- they will be
allowed to -- ask your questions, and then we'll ask them to
respond.
MS. GARRISON: Okay. Thank you.
From what I understand from talking to Coco Lakes
yesterday, they were asking only for a four foot change in the
rear setback, and it sounds like that's a little different from the
information that I got from the county.
Also, what I did yesterday upon talking to several neighbors
in the area, I found out that they feel very similar to what I do,
that they really don't want houses any closer together. It's not
that we don't want to be neighborly, but, you know, there is a
noise factor, especially when you have pools, and I did go around
these houses and the cottages, again, along the perimeter only --
I didn't go to the houses like in different areas, just along the
perimeter of the development, and out of 18 homes, I received 11
signatures, all opposed to the changes in the rear setback.
In conclusion, if the changes only -- I was kind of also told --
I mentioned I was told some misleading information. I was told
one of the reasons that the zoning was being changed is because
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October 19, 2000
these slabs were already poured incorrectly. I don't know
whether --
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: Who gave you the misleading
information, ma'am?
MS. GARRISON: Well, like I said, I don't know if it was
misleading or not, but it was Chahram that I spoke to originally,
and originally, I was told that it was being changed only for these
existing structures, and then upon talking a little further, he
confirmed that no, the zoning is changed for the entire area, and
I also went down and spoke to him and got some paperwork on
it, and then when I talked to Coco Lakes, they kind of verified
exactly what they said today.
Again, if it's only affecting the existing structures or only the
northern side of the development, why are we changing the
zoning for the entire development?
I have, you know, 100 percent of the people that I spoke to
yesterday opposed to the rezoning of the rear setbacks primarily.
COMMISSIONER BUDD: Ma'am, can you help me out?
Where is it that you live? I heard the address, but I don't know
where that is. Is that to the east on the south side of Bailey
Lane?
MS. GARRISON: It's to the southeast side, correct, and
where our -- the rear end of our house is directly parallel to Coco
Lakes, and that's really all I have to say. I just don't envy your
job. It's obviously a very difficult one, and I appreciate you
listening, and I hope you'll take into consideration, even though
this isn't a long list of people, it is 100 percent of the people, so --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: If you would like to leave that, it would
have to stay. You can submit it to Mr. Priddy, and he will pass it
down.
MS. GARRISON: Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Would the petitioner please respond to
those questions?
MR. LOVELESS: The amendment to the PUD doesn't affect
the setbacks at all of the villas. The villas to this side -- the
setbacks here -- this is where she's talking about. This is the
cottages here. These setbacks are -- we're not decreasing these
setbacks. These setbacks are to remain the same. We're only
changing the setbacks for these single family larger lots.
Under the PUD documents, there is a size requirement for
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October 19, 2000
the lot itself, and it says that if the lot is less than 5,000 square
feet, then the setbacks are to be those, as you see on your
screen there, the villa setbacks. I'm not changing those at all,
and what I'm building here on these are villas.
So, I'm not changing -- this amendment doesn't affect these
property owners here along this side, nor does it affect these
people here. The only people that it affects are -- is Royal
Poinciana Golf Course, which I have ample buffers over here, and
these people at Hawksridge, and what I'm asking is to have
these houses the same setbacks as the original PUD document
says for these setbacks.
As to the neighbor saying something about the slabs being
poured, I have no slabs poured at all along here, so the houses
that are being built presently are on these interior lots. The only
large house that's being built is over here.
So, I'm not requesting decreasing the setbacks of this
property here. This is already in place, and these setbacks are
not being changed.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: All these heres and there's,
you're talking about the south side of your project; is that not
right?
MR. LOVELESS: Correct. We just began development of this
here. We're digging a lake presently.
MR. NINO: That -- that portion -- Ron Nino, for the record.
That portion of their project abuts a golf course. MR. LOVELESS: Correct.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: So, that should answer the
previous speaker's question, that they're not changing anything
abutting your property.
MR. LOVELESS: Right.
MR. NINO: To make this technically correct -- Ron Nino, for
the record.
(Audience member speaks).
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: One question.
MR. NINO: To make this technically correct, that footnote
two should come out of there, and that footnote two should go
over there, and the NA should come out of there, because what
they're saying is they currently enjoy.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: It makes a lot more sense.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Yes, ma'am.
Page 111
October 19, 2000
MS. GARRISON: My one question was -- this is a letter that I
received from Chahram -- I'll mispronounce his name, Chahram,
thank you, and maybe I'm misunderstanding it. It says the PUD
allows for single family dwellings as well as villas. However, the
entire southeast area of the development is platted with single
family lots. Now, am I misinterpreting what can be put on those
lots or --
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: They are basically platted with similar
size lots. There isn't much difference, and the PUD document
doesn't say which side they can build villas or which side they
cannot. They can decide to combine those lots on the west side
or east side or whichever side they wanted to build single family
lots.
MS. GARRISON: So, they could still build houses on there,
not villas?
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: It is possible to build single family
homes, yes.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE.' Sam.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH.' Are these lots numbered? Maybe
we can make this easy. If these lots are numbered and the
petitioner is saying that we're not going to build anything, we're
not going to affect the neighbors, maybe you can put a
restriction in the PUD that number such and such to number such
and such would not -- since he's agreeable.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: Or replace the master plan with a new
master plan showing villas area and single family area.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: That would solve the problem, I
think, and then she will have peace of mind, and the neighbors
would too, and the petitioner is happy with that, and he'll put
that on the record.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN-' Sure.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: Thank you.
MS. GARRISON: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. Ma'am, were you sworn in?
MS. DAVIDSON: Yes, I was.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: State your name and spell it for the
reporter, please.
MS. DAVIDSON: My name is Sue Davidson, D-A-V-I-D-S-O-N.
I represent Hawksridge multifamily. We're developing the
property to the north of the site, and I couldn't tell from where I
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October 19~ 2000
was sitting if we're even affected, so if I could get that
answered~ it will probably help me.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: That's the area they are building single
families right now.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: No, villas.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: Hawksridge is --
MS. DAVIDSON: Hawksridge is directly north of the site.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: Up here, this is a multifamily tract.
MS. DAVIDSON: That's us. Are we -- are you changing the
setbacks?
MR. LOVELESS: Yes.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: We will have him come up and address
that.
MS. DAVIDSON: Okay.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any other questions?
MS. DAVIDSON: No, that's it.
And being a developer~ we are certainly empathetic to
developers' needs to make these kind of changes, but I'm really
here today on behalf of the property owners who have bought in
our project. Over 70 of our 95 homes have been sold, but,
unfortunately, those people aren't closed yet. Some of them are
out of town, so they aren't really aware of the change that's
being suggested.
The problem I have is these people made decisions to buy in
our project based on what they thought was going to happen on
the adjoining property. By changing this now, we're definitely
having an impact on one of the things that affected their buying
decision. So, on behalf of Hawksridge, I would say we're against
it.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
MS. DAVIDSON: Thank you.
MR. NINO.' Excuse me. Are you not in a multifamily
product? Hawksridge, is that a multifamily product? MS. DAVIDSON: Yes, we are.
MR. NINO-- How many units in a building?
MS. DAVIDSON: Four.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
Would you address the lady's question, just for the record?
MR. LOVELESS: Yes, we are building -- we are effecting a
change, this property line here, and this is where Hawksridge
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October 19, 2000
does abut this property. However, they are building coach
homes and have a higher density and probably have less
setbacks than I'm requesting.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: If I may, as you can see, this is a plat
of -- that Coco Lakes -- as you can see, there's a 25 foot
easement, that's the closest they get to their property line. In
here, we have 56 foot before these lots stop. So, the closest
pool enclosure will be 5 feet from the property line, which makes
it 30 feet from the property boundary line for this PUD.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: But what we've heard is that this
doesn't impact that at all, right?
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: No, this is the area that it's going to
impact. That's the impacted area.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: That's the impacted area.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: Maybe I should have it this way.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. I'm sorry. Thank you.
Any further -- anybody else in the public before we go on?
Yes, sir. Have you been sworn in?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I'm not registered to speak.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Pardon?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I'm not registered to speak.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Come up to the podium, and the court
reporter will swear you in. If you'd raise your right hand, please.
(The speaker was sworn}.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: State your name and spell it, please.
MR. KRAMER: My name is Peter Kramer. I live in the colony
section of Hawksridge, and I am all in favor of what Sue
Davidson has already spoken of.
In addition, I would like to make some comments regarding
the section that we're talking about, which is next to Hawksridge
development, and that is the setback lines that they are talking
about. If it decreases five feet in four directions, that means all
they are going to do is build a bigger house on the same size lot.
The other thing is, the process that they are going through,
they're stripping the land clean. All the trees are down.
Everything is all leveled off, and I'm a great believer in green
space, but they're taking an awful lot of green space. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
Page t14
October 19, 2000
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: I have a question. Would the --
probably for Hawksridge, would you clarify, again, what your
major objection is, for Hawksridge, the lady that's --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: For the young lady.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: Sue Davidson.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: -- Sue Davidson, yes, because we
are shrinking setbacks, and it's going to change something.
MS. DAVIDSON: My concern is we developed and marketed
the site based on the proximity of the structures that would be
there, and laid our roads out and our buildings out based on what
we thought would be the best enhancement of use for the people
who are going to live on the south side of our property and look
over to the north side. By shrinking this rear setback, we're
going to be bringing structures much closer to our property line
and affecting what the people on the other side are going to see.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: And do you have some obligation
then to tell the people that have purchased or have not closed
yet that this is happening?
MS. DAVIDSON: I haven't gone that far yet. We have, as I
mentioned before, about 70 of our 95 are sold but not closed, so
those people were not given notice or probably were not aware
of this change going through.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Commissioner Priddy.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY-' It seems to me if your -- your
people are already going to be closer to your property line than
what this development's people are going to be to their property
line.
MS. DAVIDSON: I'm not following you.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Well, because you're building a
villa, you're able to build closer to your south property line than
what these people that are building single family homes are to
their property line.
MS. DAVIDSON: Yes.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY.' So, I don't see where your
argument is.
MS. DAVIDSON: I'm -- I'm saying that we had -- we have a
buffer in an area between our property and that property, and the
people who were buying along there felt that there was still
beyond our buffer an area on the adjoining property that wasn't
going to have a structure right back on it.
Page 115
October 19, 2000
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: Which there is. Are you aware
that there's a 25 foot easement from what Chahram just
mentioned abutting their property and the closest structure,
even with the approval of this, if it's approved, would be at least
30 feet from the boundary line, and then you add your setback on
the other side, I don't know how much that is, it could be 10 feet,
15 feet, so you're talking about at least 40, 50 feet maybe, but
are you aware of the easement that exists?
MS. DAVIDSON: I guess I wasn't picking up that there was --
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: Okay. Maybe, Chahram, you've
got to go over that --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I think we need to hear from
the petitioner again.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Let -- one at a time.
Are you done, ma'am?
MS. DAVIDSON: Yes, I'm done.
MR. LOVELESS: Let me address this issue. Hawksridge is
marketing a product based upon my 75 villa lots. I'm not -- the
setbacks are no different than what she is marketing. I'm asking
simply to build a single --
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Yeah, you can build a villa lot, and
nothing has changed.
MR. LOVELESS: Nothing has changed. I could build the 75
villas, and the setbacks are still the same. I'm not changing
anything about their marketing at all. Their marketing is
something -- they're marketing their product saying that I have a
5 foot accessory, a 10 foot setback, and I have a 20 foot front
yard setback. I'm not changing that. I'm changing the fact that I
want to combine the lots, make them single family with the same
setbacks.
COMMISSIONER BUDD: So, you're building fewer bigger
houses --
MR. LOVELESS: That's the villa.
COMMISSIONER BUDD: -- and increasing the value, so it
would only be fair then they pick up some of your marketing
costs?
MR. LOVELESS: Wouldn't that be wonderful. Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you, Mr. Budd.
Any further questions before I close the public --
Page 116
October t 9, 2000
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: I just have one question for Ms.
Davidson. Do you have any language in your brochures that says
the minimum setback or the minimum separation between us and
the next development is at least 50 feet or 60 feet? Is there
such a thing in your marketing? Is that --
MS. DAVIDSON: No, not at all, and really, this -- like I said, if
I was here (sic) today and got a better understanding of what his
plans were, then it may not negatively impact my buyers.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: That's correct.
MS. DAVIDSON: But -- but I felt on their behalf, I had to be
here and at least be concerned.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: And that's commendable.
MS. DAVIDSON: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Can I?
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Yes, please.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I'm not sworn.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE.' Well, we can do that.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: We can swear.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Yes.
Raise your right hand, please.
(The speaker was sworn).
MR. TRAPASSO: My name is Frank Trapasso,
T-R-A-P-A-S-S-O. I live on Cottage Club Lane. I just have a
question. I'm a little bit confused by all the discussion here. I
was told that there is a request to change the setbacks
throughout the entire development. The gentleman here, Mr.
Loveless, has --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Use the microphone, please, right
behind you.
MR. TRAPASSO: The gentleman had stated that there's
going to be no change in these lots along -- that abut Cottage
Club Lane. Am I to believe now that he is -- because he's asked
for a change throughout the entire development. If there's going
to be no change in the setbacks, and as these are villa lots, they
are going to be fairly close to the property line anyway, even
though there are easements here, cannot this be excluded from
his request? He stated he's not going to change the setback
anyway.
Page 117
October 19, 2000
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: That may be part of our motion
because that was suggested earlier here in the conversation.
MR. TRAPASSO: That's all I have to say.
Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
No questions? If not, no further comments from the public,
I'll close the public meeting. Any further discussion?
If not, I will entertain a motion.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion
to approve Petition PUD-95-2(1} with the caveat that the planning
staff would put that restriction, and I don't know the lot numbers
abutting the property to the southeast, that the change and our
approval would not affect the setbacks in that area.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: May I ask for a clarification?
Basically, what you are saying is to amend the PUD master plan
to show which lots are to be single family, because the way it is
today, they can build single families wherever they want to or
villas wherever they want to. Basically, you want to say north
portion of it, all single family; south portion, all villas.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Right.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: No, I'm just saying the numbers --
the numbered lots, and I don't know what lot numbers they are.
MR. NINO: That has the same effect.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: Yeah, that has the same effect.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: That has the same effect, Mr.
Nino?
Thank you.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: I'm afraid that the replatted numbers
changed, so --
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Second.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Been moved by Commissioner Saadeh,
seconded by Commissioner Priddy.
All in favor of the motion, signify by saying aye.
Opposed?
(No response).
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Carries.
Thank you.
One minute while we change reporters.
(Recess was taken.)
Page t t 8
October 19, 2000
CHAIRMAN WRAGE.' Next up is PUD-99-25.
Ram, you're up again.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: Chahram Badamtchian from planning
services staff. I believe Karen Bishop is here today representing
the owners.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE.' I'm sorry. It's been a long day. We
need to o- all those that wish to give testimony on this, please
stand and raise your right hand and be sworn in.
(The speakers were sworn.)
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: The petitioner is requesting a re-zone
from agricultural to commercial PUD for a property located on
951, also known as Collier Boulevard, at the terminus of
Rattlesnake Hammock Road. The property consists of 18.15
acres. It is located within an activity center surrounded on two
sides by PUDs with commercial components to the north, C-5
zoning and the rest is agricultural, and swamp buggy or Florida
Sports Park is to the east of this property.
Basically, they are within an activity center which would
allow them to re-zone it to commercial.
The traffic circulation element shows that they have -- that
they will generate around 10,645 weekly trips -- weekday trips,
I'm sorry, which will exceed the five percent of the level of
service C design volume. However, Collier Boulevard is
four-laned in this area and is projected to function at an
acceptable level at the build-out of this project.
Environmental Advisory Council heard this petition and by a
vote of 4 to 2 failed to take official action~ 4 votes against it, 2
votes for it. And the ordinance that established the
Environmental Advisory Board Council requires a minimum of 5
votes for any action. So the vote was negative, but they -- it
cannot be considered as negative since they didn't have the
required 5 votes.
The reason was that the applicant is planning to remove all
existing vegetations on site and then plant native vegetations
and they wanted to save as many native vegetations as
possible. However, the area's infestated (sic) with exotics and
it -- the native vegetation is not of good quality and it's not really
worth saving. And it is customary for commercial developments
to remove all vegetation and then plant vegetation. It's hard to
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October 19, 2000
build a supermarket or hardware store in the shape of a U or W
because you are trying to save cabbage palms somewhere.
Staff recommends that the Planning Commission forward
this to the Board of County Commissioners for recommendation
for approval.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you, Ram.
Any questions from staff?
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Ram, you made the comment
about cabbage palms. I really do believe that they move those,
and I have moved a whole heck of them off the -- a whole lot of
them off the Wal-Mart site over here, put them on the county
property and moved them back. You don't just destroy cabbage
palms.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: I just made that comment -- I'm sorry.
I meant like it's not easy for commercial development to try to,
because of some bushes, redesign the entire development
parking area, the building area, because they are trying to save
some bushes or some trees. And that's customary, that most of
the commercial developments, they basically remove all the
vegetations. They build parking and everything and then they
plant trees and shrubs. Except for North Naples Wal-Mart, that
they have wells for trees.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Well, no. But I'm talking about the
south over here. We moved all kinds of cabbage palms off of
that property and them put them back on.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: Yes. They can be transplanted.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Let's make sure that we have that
concept understood here. You don't just wipe out all the
vegetation.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I have a question for Mr.
Nino. The last time this 4 to 2 vote business came up, the EAR,
or whatever they are called --
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: EAC.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: -- EAC, I established with the
attorney that we could still consider the vote for whatever it's
worth.
MR. NINO: Oh, yes.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Can we dispense with this
litany about it's not an official vote? I mean, we don't care
whether it's official or not. We know it was to 4 to 2 against.
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October 19, 2000
MR. NINO: You're correct. You're correct. We -- it really --
it's redundant.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I think it's -- it may be redundant, but
for those, when we do have members of the public, I think they
need to understand maybe why certain votes of the EAC is not --
it's relevant but it isn't taken to task here. And we specifically
asked for that information, I think here, not too long ago. Thank
you,
And we'll hear from the petitioner.
MS. BISHOP: Good afternoon. My name is Karen Bishop,
agent for Mr. McMullen, who is the owner.
I want to go on record to say, if there was some vegetation
to be saved on this site, we would save the vegetation.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Thank you.
MS. BISHOP: But there is a reality check here about this
property. That's why I handed you out this to look at. And, in all
fairness to the EAC, we were the only public petition that day
and it was a wetland workshop. And, of course, I was coming
there to pretty much nuke my whole site, and that really doesn't
go well with what they were doing that day. So, in all fairness to
them, I probably shouldn't have been there that day and would
have been more prepared had I known they had this thought
process. I would have been more prepared to show them
exactly what's out there and why this is a prime candidate for
mitigation bank because of what physically exists out here.
Now, this property I know, if any of you people have been to
the sports park, as you head down Sports Park Road, this is the
piece on the left-hand side. So this is surrounded by, on the
west, 951, on the south, Sports Park Road, and on the east, the
FP&L easement. So this is essentially a swimming pool of sorts.
There's no flow that goes through here. So we do have
wetlands by virtue of the criteria. But this site or this aerial
photograph that I'm giving you shows you that this is a
melaleuca heaven here. And the open area that you see in that
first aerial is all little baby melaleucas growing very quickly. So
the only real decent vegetation that we have is at the frontage.
And, of course, my outparcels are on the frontage and the fact
that I've got to bring at least three to five of fill on the site to
meet flood, then that pretty much negates the ability to save
vegetation. However, there are ways to re-vegetate and still
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October 19, 2000
make this site look lovely and to have lovely buffers and
vegetation, it's just not feasible to save what is there.
Now, I don't want my client to seem like he's a rape and
scrape guy because he's not. We, in fact -- the mitigation
banking is set aside for these kinds of things and there are
parcels that maybe that's not a good one for, but this one clearly
is one of those that this would apply to.
It's a pretty typical project, commercial. We have two
outparcels, retail shops, you know, the ability to do some
business. I mean, this isn't really rocket science. We've gone
within the criteria of the commercial activity zone. We haven't
done anything outside of that.
One of the questions that the EAC had was, how are we
going to deal with the noise of the sports park? Then I thought
to myself, well, what else would you put here next to the sports
park anyway? Residential probably wouldn't go well. But the
commercial businesses here, my guess, will not be running at
the same time that the sports park is running. Usually that
wouldn't be. So we didn't feel that that was an issue for us.
I have my environmentalist here as well as my drainage
engineer, if you guys have any questions concerning those two
items.
But, all in all, I wanted you to see the degradation of the
site. That one piece that is smack in the middle, from what my
biologist was telling me when I sent her out there, it took her
about thirty minutes to go ten feet inside that to try to get into
that site. That's how thick it is.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any questions of the petitioner?
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Are there really any major cypress
on here?
MS. BISHOP: No. You might see one or two little scattered
ones. But you couldn't save them because they are in the middle
of a melaleuca forest. And you will see -- as a matter of fact,
turn to the third one. I must have the wrong one open here.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: The sample station or --
MS. BISHOP: The sample station.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Right after that.
MS. BISHOP: I thought I had that on there. I saw a lone
cypress tree on one of these pictures I was looking at. Maybe it
was -- oh, I know. She has some other ones. I saw -- hand me
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October 19, 2000
out that other picture.
There are a couple more pictures where I saw a lone
cypress among the -- but they are small. They are very spindly,
small trees. They are not -- the site has not been a good site. It
had a fire going through it a bunch of years ago, which is one of
the reasons why it is what it is today.
Let me show you. There's one in here.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: I just wanted to make sure there
wasn't a bunch of cypress in one place. MS. BISHOP: There's one.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: One tree does not make a forest, right?
MS. BISHOP: Here's the pine.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Put it on the visualizer.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: Karen, just answer the question
and say no. You just did. Just do it on the loudspeaker. Let's
move on.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: We'll take that into account on the vote.
MS. BISHOP: There's one cypress tree. No, there are
probably a couple scattered ones. But, like that picture shows,
they are very small. They are scattered around. That's it. I'm
done.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any questions of the petitioner?
MR. NINO: Ron Nino for the record.
Lest you be concerned that there won't be any vegetation
there, I would like to ask Steve Lindberger to address what they
will have to do in terms of vegetation.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: That would be a good idea, for the
record.
MR. LINDBERGER: For the record, Stephen Lindberger,
developmental services. I'm an environment specialist. I looked
at the site.
The site is heavily impacted with melaleuca on its eastern
side. There was a fire that came through. It burned down most
of the pine trees. There are some cypress over there, but they
are not specimen size trees.
There is in that area a lot of Brazilian pepper around the
remaining cypress and it turns into melaleuca as you go in the
center of the property.
The petition will be saving 15 percent, or actually
re-vegetating for 15 percent of the native vegetation on site. And
Page 123
October 19, 2000
they plan to do that in the retention area on the north side of the
property as well as in the buffer.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any questions?
Anyone from the public that wishes to address this issue?
Seeing none, I will close the public hearing and entertain a
motion.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Mr. Chairman, I move that we
forward Petition PUD-99-25 to the Board of County
Commissioners with a recommendation of approval.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Second.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: Second.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Motion made by Commissioner Priddy,
second by Commissioner Rautio. All -- no further discussion.
All of those in favor, signify by saying aye.
Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Motion carried.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: You're killing enough trees.
MS. BISHOP: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: PUD-02 is the next item on the agenda.
And, Rich, if someone had made the motion, I would have
voted for it.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: I would have too if you asked
earlier this morning.
MR. YOVANOVICH: I had no idea it would go this long.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: I think they left.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: Did they miss their flight?
MR. YOVANOVICH: What's that?
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: Did they miss their flight?
MR. YOVANOVICH: It was me, me personally.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: Oh. Did you miss your flight?
MR. YOVANOVICH: No. If I can get there by three --
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: Well, make it quick.
MR. YOVANOVICH: -- I'll be all right.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: I know some people that would
buy you a ticket out of town. (Laughter.}
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: All those -- all those wishing to make,
Page 124
October 19, 2000
give --
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: One way, right, Mr. Priddy?
MR. YOVANOVICH: Did you watch the City Council last
night, is that where you got that?
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Now, we can -- everybody is getting
punchy.
All those that wish to give testimony on this, please stand
and raise your right hand.
(The speakers were sworn.)
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
Ram, you're up again.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: Chahram Badamtchian, planning
services staff. Yes.
Mr. Hoover of Hoover Planning will be representing Mr. Mark
Linder, Trustee, who is requesting to re-zone a piece of land
from agricultural PUD for residential uses.
The property is located on the west side of 951,
approximately half a mile to three-quarters of a mile north of
Vanderbilt Road, I -- no, Holt Road -- I'm sorry. Almost
three-quarters of a mile from Vanderbilt Beach Road in Section
34. They are requesting 4 units per acre, which comes to 231
residential units, which is what the code allows, growth
management plan allows. And this project would generate 1,322
weekday trips, which will exceed the 5 percent of -- I'm sorry -- 5
percent of the level of C design volume on Collier Boulevard.
However, this road is scheduled to be four-laned beginning in
year 2003. And it's anticipated to take eighteen months to four
lane it, therefore this petition is consistent with the
transportation element of the growth management plan.
This petition was not reviewed by the EAC. It was exempt.
They are not impacting the wetlands. Therefore, this is the first
public hearing for it.
The staff recommends that you approve -- you forward this
to the Board of County Commissioners for recommendation for
approval.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any questions of staff?
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: Two days ago I had two calls from the
Golden Gate Estates Fire District. They own the property west
of the subject property. And their easement is along the eastern
-- western property line. However, they are trying to get an
Page 125
October 19, 2000
easement through this development -- this proposed
development to County Road 951. They are asking for a 30-foot
easement. And I believe the applicants, they have agreed to
grant that easement to the fire district.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. We'll hear from the petitioner.
MR. YOVANOVICH: For the record, Rich Yovanovich,
representing the petitioner along with Bill Hoover.
To answer Mr. Abernathy's question, the two beneficiaries of
the trust are Mr. Linder and Buddy Smith.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Who?
MR. YOVANOVICH: Buddy Smith.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Okay. Thank you.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Essentially, you know, the project is a
pretty straightforward residential project. We are planning to
work with the fire district to address their access issues. That --
the final resolution of that has not been resolved. They may
need a little, a little bit more than thirty feet which may -- it
involves some creativity with sharing of some of their
infrastructure with our infrastructure. So, to accommodate their
needs, I would hope that -- the request we have is that we would
not be required to come back to the Planning Commission if we
need to make some minor changes to our master plan to
accommodate their access -- their access.
With that I -- hopefully this project will not have any
opposition to it. If there is, I'll be happy to answer any
questions. But we want to -- we will be working with the fire
district to accommodate their access issues to 951.
If you have any specific questions regarding the project, I
would be happy to answer any of them, but I think it's a fairly
straightforward petition.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I guess, in other words, what I hear is,
you have agreed to give them a right of way?
MR, YOVANOVICH: We -- the width of the right of way, it
may need to be more than thirty feet, okay, to give them their
access. We're going to give it to them but it may entail moving
some of one of our drainage lakes onto their property to give us
that.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: That was my question. You are going
to give them a right of way.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Absolutely. We're going to work with
Page 126
October 19, 2000
them. It's just a matter of, how do we work it out? We don't
have that -- we don't have that figured out yet.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I understand. I just wanted to make
sure that I heard from you that --
MR. YOVANOVICH: Absolutely.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Absolutely.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any questions of the petitioner?
Any further -- anyone from the public wish to speak on this?
MR. NINO: I have a Christopher Thornton registered and
Peterson.
MR. THORNTON: Good afternoon. I'm Chris Thornton, for
the record, with the law firm Treiser, Kobza and Lieberfarb. I'm
the attorney for the Golden Gate Fire Control and Rescue
District.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: The Golden Gate what?
MR. THORNTON: The Golden Gate Fire Control and Rescue
District. It's an independent special district with an existence
sort of like the --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY.' I understand.
MR. THORNTON: Okay.
As Rich mentioned and Chahram mentioned, the fire district
actually purchased this piece adjacent to the subject parcels
about six months ago. The current -- the only access to the
property currently is from the back, down south to Wolf Road
and out to 951. For emergency response time purposes, we
would prefer to have a more direct access to 951. We're real
pleased to hear that this developer is willing to work with us on
getting a quicker route to 951 for a shorter response time.
So we really don't have any objection to this petition. We
just want to make sure that everybody is aware, number one,
that this property behind this PUD is intended for development
as a fire station and that we are going to be needing access to
951. And we're looking forward to working with this developer
to get the access that we need. We're just not sure of the width
yet because we're not sure how much fill is going to be required
and the slopes. So, we think it will be somewhere a little over
thirty feet, maybe up to fifty, we're not sure.
But we're looking forward to working with the petitioner on
that issue.
Page 127
October t 9, 2000
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I would certainly like to meet their
marketing director that is going to build this next to a fire
station, but that's another issue.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: How big is your piece of property?
MR. THORNTON: I think it's 20 acres less in the easements.
Twenty acre piece.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Thank you.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Mr. Wrage~ I appreciate that comment
because we are -- we are accommodating the fire district. They
do have access. We are willing to work with them to give them
more convenient access.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: And not being a commissioner in a
former life, I know what those calls are at midnight and why did
the truck go when I was trying to sleep. MR. YOVANOVICH: Right.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: So any further questions from the
commission?
Anyone else from the public? Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: Was he sworn?
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Yes.
MR. COLLINS: My name is Jim Collins, C-O-L-L-I-N-S.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: You were sworn in, correct, sir?
MR. COLLINS: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
MR. COLLINS: And I'm an adjacent property owner on over
on Wolf Road. And I was not aware of the fire station going into
this area. And I'm just wondering a little bit more about what
kind of units are being planned for the development, for the PUD.
They're requesting 4 units an acre and do we have any idea
what kind of units they are going to be? Is this --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: We will let the petitioner answer your
question.
Do you have any other questions while you're here?
MR. COLLINS: Yes. This 20 units or 20 acres that the -- is it
Golden Gate Fire Control, is that it? COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Yes.
MR. COLLINS: That they recently bought there, I would like
more information about what's actually going to be there. You
mentioned about sirens and whatnot.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Actually, that's not an issue with us.
Page 128
October 19, 2000
MR. COLLINS: Okay.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: That you will have to take up with
them.
COMMISSIONER BUDD: But the guy in the uniform in the
back can answer your questions. MR. COLLINS: Yes.
MR. HOOVER: Good morning. Bill Hoover of Hoover
Planning representing the petitioner.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: Is it still morning where you're at,
Mr. Hoover?
MR. HOOVER: I haven't eaten lunch yet so it's still morning
for me. Sorry.
(Laughter.)
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Neither have we. Remember, our
vote's --
MR. HOOVER: We're all losing weight today.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Didn't eat dinner last night either.
MR. HOOVER: We've worked on a site plan tentatively but
they would like to develop at least most of the site for single
family, but because of the wetlands taking up a big chunk of the
western half of the southern half, we'll probably end up with
some multi-family in there. Those are more likely 2 to 4 unit
type buildings.
COMMISSIONER SAADEH: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Anyone else from the public?
Any further questions? If not, I'm going to close the public
hearing.
COMMISSIONER BUDD: Mr. Chairman, I would like to make
a motion that we forward with a recommendation of approval
Petition PUD-2000-02 to the Board of County Commissioners
with the addition that there is an easement granted for access
by Golden Gate Fire Department to Collier Boulevard.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Second.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Been moved by Commissioner Budd,
seconded by Commissioner Abernathy.
All of those in favor. Signify by saying aye.
Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Motion carries. Thank you.
Moving on, the next item -- and we remind the
Page 129
October 19, 2000
commissioners to hang on to these particular documents, H and
I, and we'll move on to J, R-2000-3. Mr. Murray, you're up.
All those who wish to give testimony on this, please rise and
raise your right hand and be sworn in. (The speakers were sworn.)
MR. MURRAY: I apologize. I thought we had one other item
here.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: We just disposed of those.
MR. MURRAY: I'll keep it brief.
This petition is for re-zoning from residential tourist zoning
to C-3 commercial for a site that's located approximately one
mile west of State Road -- excuse me, County Road 951 at the
corner of Barefoot Williams and U.S. 41. The site is currently
vacant, undeveloped and cleared property that is bordered by
commercial to the east and commercial to the west and also
across U.S. 41 is the Eagle Lake Community Park. And just to
the south of this site is a residential -- excuse me, a recreational
parcel that serves the Hitching Post mobile home and RV
development back here.
The property we -- staff has looked at it. We believe that it
meets the compatibility criteria and is consistent with the land
use code and the comprehensive plan. And we also believe that
it meets the office and infield commercial criterion that's
outlined in staff's report. Therefore staff is recommending
approval.
Are there any questions?
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any questions of staff?
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY.' Do you know what the
elevation of that piece of property is? That Hitching Post right
next door is subiect to flooding. Is this higher ground?
MR. MURRAY: It looks about level with the property next
door to the south, the Hitching Post, so -- the petitioner is here.
MR. MORGAN: Sorry. I didn't get sworn in.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay.
MR. MURRAY: And he could -- because they have done
surveys, they could probably give you that information.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any further questions of staff? If not,
Mr. Morgan, would you stand and raise your right hand and be
sworn in?
Page 130
October 19, 2000
(The speaker was sworn.)
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you. Now we'll hear from the
petitioner.
MR. MORGAN: Steve Morgan for the applicants and I'm also,
for the record, part owner of the property.
It is about the same elevation as the mobile home to the
south. We understand that any development there would have to
be filled and we would out-fall to the Department of
Transportation right away and meet their criteria.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any further questions of this
petitioner?
Anyone from the public who wishes to address this issue? If
not, I'll close the public hearing.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Mr. Chairman, I move that we
forward Petition R-2000-03 to the Board of County
Commissioners with a recommendation of approval.
COMMISSIONER BUDD: Second.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: It's been moved by Commissioner
Priddy, seconded by Commissioner Budd.
All those in favor of this motion, signify by saying aye.
Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Motion carried.
Any old business?
Please make note of the LDC schedule that was at the
bottom of your packet for November 1st and November 15th.
I assume there's no public comment.
I have a couple items I was going to discuss with you but I
will do it at the start of the next meeting.
MR. NINO: You didn't take into account the -- note the LDC
amendment schedule.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Yes, I did.
MR. NINO: Very good.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: With that, we are adjourned.
There being no further business for the good of the County,
the meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 1:46 p.m.
Page 131
October 19, 2000
COLLIER COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION
GARY WRAGE, CHAIRPERSON
TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF GREGORY COURT
REPORTING SERVICES BY: ELIZABETH M. BROOKS, RPR AND
DAWN M. BREEHNE
Page 132
L FORM'8B
COUNTY, MUNICIPAL,
LAST blAME-~-FIRST NAMETM~DOLE NAME
MAILING AD~RESS--
/
MEMORANDUM OF VOTING CONFLICT FOR
AND OTHER LOCAL PUBLIC OFFICERS
NAME OF BOARD. COUNCIl.,,, COMMISSION. AIJT'HORITY. OR COMMI'Ci'EE
THE BOARD, COUNCIL COMMISSION. AUTHORITY OR COMMIT'lEE ON
WHICH I SERVE IS A UNIT OF;
[3 CITY ~::OUNTY [3 OTHER LOCAL AGENCY
NAME OF POUTICAL $[JEOIVISION:
MY POSITION
rl ELECTIVE ~1~ AFFOhNTIVE
WHO MUST FILE FORM 8B
This form is for use by any person serving at the county, city, or other local level of government on an appointed or e!ected board, council,
commission, authority, er committee. It applies equally to members of advisory and non-advisory bodies who are presented with a voting
conflict of interest under Section 112.3143, Florida Statutes.
Your responsibilities under the law when faced with voting on a measure in which you have a conflict of interest will vary greatly depending
on whether you hold an elective or appointive position. For this reason, please pay close attention to the instructions on this form before
completing the reverse side and filing the form.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMPLIANCE WITH SECTION 112.3143, FLORIDA STATUTES
A person holding efective or appointive county, municipal, or other local public office MUST ABSTAIN from voting on a measure which
inures to his or her special private gain or loss. Each elected or appointed local officer also is prohibited from knowingly voting on a mea-
sure which inures to the special gain or loss of a principal (other than a government agency) by whom he or she is retained (including the
parent organization or subsidiary of a corporate principal by which he or she is retained); to the special private gain or loss of a relative; or
to the special private gain or loss of a business associate. Commissioners of community redeve!opment agencies under Sec. 163.356 or
163.357, F.S., and officers of independent special t&x districts e!ected on a one-acre. one-vote basis are not prohibited from voting in that
capacity.
For purposes of this law, a "relative" includes only the officer's father, mother, son, daughter, husband, wife, brother, sister, Iz-ther-indaw,
mother-in-law, son-in-law, and daughter-in-law. A "business associate" means any person or entity engaged in or carr/ing on a bus;,ness
enterprise with the officer as a partner, joint venturer, coowner of property, or corporale shareholder (where the shares of the corpora*.~on
are not listed on any national or regional stock exchange).
ELECTED OFFICERS:
In addition to abstaining from voting in the situations described above, you must disclose the conflict:
PRIOR TO THE VOTE BEING TAKEN by publicly stating to the assembly the nature of your interest in the measure on which you
are abstaining trom voting; and
WITHIN 15 DAYS AFTER THE VOTE OCCURS by completing and filing this form with the person responsible for recording the min-
utes of the meeting, who should incorporate the form in the minutes.
APPOINTED OFFICERS:
.Ithough you must abstain from voting in the situations described above, you otherwise may participate in these matters. However, you
must disclose the nature of the conflict before making any aftempt to influence the decision, whether orally or in writing and whether made
by you or at your direction.
IF YOU INTEND TO MAKE ANY ATTEMPT TO INFLUENCE THE DECISION PRIOR TO THE MEETING AT WHICH THE VOTE WILL BE
TAKEN:
· , You must complete 'and file this form (before making any attempt Io influence the decision) with the person responsible for recording the
....... minutes of the meeting, who will incorporate the form in the minutes. (Continued on other side)
APPOINTED OFFICERS (continued)
· A copy of the form must be provided immediately to lhe other members of the agency.
· The form must be read publicly at the next meeting after the form is filed.
IF YOU MAKE NO A']q'EMPT TO INFLUENCE THE DECISION EXCEPT BY DISCUSSION AT THE MEETING:
You must disclose orally the nature of your conflict in the measure before participating.
You must complete the form and file it within 15 days after the vote occurs with the person responsible for recording the minutes of the
meeting, who must incorporate the form in the minutes. A copy of the form must be provided immediately to the other members of the
agency, and the form must be read publicly at the next meeting after the form is filed.
DISCLOSURE OF LOCAL OFFICER'S INTEREST
(a) A measure came or will come before my agency which (check one}
inured to my special private gain or loss;
_ inured to the special gain or loss of my business associate,
. inured to the special gain or loss of my relative.
inured to the special gain or loss of
whom I am retained; or
inured to/he special gain or loss of
is the parent organization or subsidiary of a principal which has retained me.
The measure before my agency and the nature of my conflicting interest in !he measure is as follows:
' ,
whi¢
After consultation with the County Attorney, I abstained from voting on the above matter pursuant to Section 286.012, Florida
Statutes, which provides that "no member of any state, county, or municipal governmental board, commission or agency who is
present at any meeting of such body at which an olTzcial decision, ruling or other official act is to be taken or adopted may abstain
from voting... except when, with respect to any such member, there is or appears to be, a possible conflict of interest under the
provisions of 112.311, S. 112.313, or S. 112.3143. In such cases, said member shall corn'' closure requirements of
S.112.3143." --
Date Filed
NOTICE: UNDER PROVISIONS OF FLORIDA STATUTES §112.317, A FAILURE TO MAKE ANY REQUIRED DISCLOSURE
CONSTITUTES GROUNDS FOR AND MAY BE PUNISHED BY ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING: IMPEACHMENT;-
REMOVAL OR SUSPENSION FROM OFFICE OR EMPLOYMENT, DEMOTION, REDUCTION IN SALARY, REPRIMAND, OR A
CIVIL PENALTY NOT TO EXCEED $10,000.
CE FORM 8B - REV. 1/98
PAGE2
FORM 8B
--";OUNTY, MUNICIPAL AND OTi'
~.AST NAME-,.-F1RST NAME--MIDDLE NAME
MAILING ADDRESS
CITY COUNTY
DATE ON WHICH VOTE OCCURRED
MEMORANDUM OF VOTING CONFLICT FOR
ER LOCAL PUBLIC OFFICERS
NAME OF BOARD. COUNCIL. O~IISSIO~.~'AU'rH.'ORITY, OR COMMITrEF
THE BOARD. COUNCIL COMMISSION. AUTHORITY OR CIDMMITT~E ON
WHICH I SERVE IS A UNIT OF:
Q CITY JII~OUNTY r3 OTHER LOCAL AGENCY
NAME OF: POLITICAL SUBDIVISION:
MY pOSITION IS;
ELECTIVE X APPOINTIVE
WHO MUST FILE FORM 8B
This form is for use by any person serving at the county, city, or other local level of government on an appointed or e!ected board, council,
commission, authority, or commRtee. It applies equally to members of advisory and non-advisory bodies who are presented with a voting
conflict of interest under Section 112.3143, Florida Statutes.
Your responsibilities under the law when faced with voting on a measure in which you have a conflict of interest will vary greatly depending
on whether you hold an elective or appointive position. For this reason, please pay close allenlion to Ihe instrue:ions on this form before
completing the reverse side and filing the form.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMPLIANCE WITH SECTION 112.3143, FLORIDA STATUTES
A person holding elective ar appoinlive county, municipal, or other local public office MUST ABSTAIN from voting on a measure which
inures to his or her special private gain or lass. Each etected or appointed local officer also is prohibited from knowingly voting on a mea-
sure which inures to the special gain or loss of a principal (other than a government agency) by whom he or she is re!aJned (including the
parent organizelion or subsidiary of a corporate principal by which he or she is retained); to the special private gain or loss of a relative; cr
to the special private gain or loss of a business associale. Commissioners of community rede,/e!opment agencies under Sec. 163.355 or
163.357, F.S., and officers of independent special t.=x districts e!ec:ed on a one-acre, one-vale basis are nat prohibited from voting in that
capacity.
For purposes of this law, a 'relative" includes only the officer's father, mother, son. daughter, husband. wife, brother, sister. ta,:her-in-la-..;,
realher-in-law, son.in-law. and daughter-in-law. A ;business associate' means any person or enlity engaged in or carrying on a business
enterprise with the officer as a partner, joint venturer, coowner of property, or corporate shareholder (where the shares of the corporahah
are not listed on any national or regional stock exchange).
ELECTED OFFICERS:
In addition to abstaining from voting in the situations described above, you must disclose the conflict:
PRIOR TO THE VOTE BEING TAKEN by publicly stating to the assembly the nature of your interest in the measure on which you
are abstaining from voting; and
WITHIN 15 DAYS AFTER THE VOTE OCCURS by completing and filing this form with the person responsible for recording the min-
utes of the meeting, who should incorporate the form in the minutes.
APPOINTED OFFICERS:
.i3ough you must abstain from voting in the situations described above, you otherwise may participate in these matters. However, you
must disclose the nature of the conflict before making any attempt to influence the decision, whether orally or in writing and whether made
by you or at your direction. '
IF YOU INTEND TO MAKE ANY ATTEMPT TO INFLUENCE THE DECISION PRIOR TO THE MEETING A~ WHICH THE VOTE WILL BE
TAKEN:
· You must complete and file this form (before making any attempt to influence the decision) with the person responsible for recording the
APPOINTED OFFICERS (continued)
· A copy of the form must be provided immediately to the other members of the agency.
· The form must be read publicly at the next meeting after the form is filed.
IF YOU MAKE NO ATTEMPT TO INFLUENCE THE DECISZON EXCEPT BY DISCUSSION AT THE MEETING:
· You must disclose orally the nature of your conflict in the measure before participating.
You must complete the form and file it within 15 days after the vote occurs with the person responsibte for recording the minutes of the
meeting, who must incorporate the form in the minutes. A copy of the form must be provided immediately to the other members of the
agency, and the form must be read publicly at the next meeting after the form is filed.
DISCLOSURE OF LOCAL OFFICER'S INTEREST
~_'~3 t~.%, ~ hereby disctose that on ~ C-.~.T...I.Cl
' , ,
(a) A measure came or will come before my agency which (check one)
· . inured to my special pt/veto gain or loss;
inured to the special gain or loss of my business associate,
inured to the special gain or loss of my relative,
inured to the special gain or loss of
whom I am retained; or
inured to the special gain or less of
is the parent organization or subsidiary of a principal which has retained me.
(b} The measure before my a~;enc'/and the nature of my conflicting inlerest in the measure is as follows:
, by
, whici-
ARer consultation with the County Attorney, I abstained from voting on the above matter pursuant to Section 286.012, Florida
Statutes, which provides that "no member of any state, county, or municipal governmental board, commission or agency who is
present at any meeting of such body at which an official decision, ruling or other official act is to be taken or adopted may abstain
from voting... except when, with respect to any such member, there is or appears to be, a possible conflict of interest under the
provisions of 112.31 I, S. 112.313, or S. 112.3143. In such cases, said member shall comply with the disclosure requirements of
S.112.3143."
Date Filed Signature-
NOTICE: UNDER PROVISIONS OF FLORIDA STATUTES {;112.317, A FAILURE TO MAKE ANY REQUIRED DISCLOSURE
CONSTITUTES GROUNDS FOR AND MAY BE PUNISHED BY ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING: IMPEACHMENT;
REMOVAL OR SUSPENSION FROM OFFICE OR EMPLOYMENT, DEMOTION, REDUCTION IN SALARY, REPRIMAND, OR A
CIVIL PENALTY NOT TO EXCEED $10,000.
COLLIER COUNTY GOVERNMENT
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES DIVISION
November 14, 2000
PLANNING SERVICES DEPARTMENT
2800 NORTH HORSESHOE DRIVE
NAPLES, FL 34104
Mr. Kyle Wilson
Dock Masters
5791 16th AveNW
Naples, FL 34119
REFERENCE: BD-2000-15, Carl Olla
Dear Mr. Wilson
On Thursday, October 19, 2000, the Collier County Planning Commission heard and approved
Petition No. BD-2000-15.
A copy of CCPC Resolution No. 2000-32 is enclosed approving this use.
If you have any questions, please contact me.
Very truly yours,
Cheryl Soter
Planner I
G:/admin/BD-2000-15/CS/im
Enclosure
c:
Carl Olla
396 Connors Avenue
Naples, FL 34108
Land Dept. Property Appraiser
M. Ocheltree, Graphics
Minutes & Records (BD, PSP & PDI)
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PHONE (941) 403-2400
FAX (941) 643-6968
www. co.collier. fl.us
~__ CCPC RESOLUTION NO. 2000- 32
RELATING TO PETITION NUMBER BD-2000-15 FOR
AN EXTENSION OF A BOAT DOCK ON PROPERTY
HEREINAFTER DESCRIBED IN COLLIER COUNTY,
FLORIDA.
WHEREAS, the Legislature of the State of Florida in Chapter 125, Florida Statutes, has
conferred on all counties in Florida the power to establish, coordinate and enforce zoning and such
business regulations as are necessary for the protection of the public; and
WHEREAS, the County pursuant thereto has adopted a Land Development Code (Ordinance
91-102) which establishes regulations for the zoning of particular geographic divisions of the County,
among which is the granting of variances; and
WHEREAS, the Collier County Planning Commission, being the duly elected and constituted
Planning Commission for the area hereby affected, has held a public hearing after notice as in said
regulations made and provided, and has considered the advisability of a boat house over an existing boat
dock in an "RSF-3" zone for the property hereinafter described, and has found as a matter of fact that
satisfactory provision and arrangement have been made concerning all applicable matters required by
said regulations and in accordance with Section 2.6.21. of the Collier County Land Development Code;
and
WHEREAS, all interested parties have been given the opportunity to be heard by this
Commission in public meeting assembled, and the Commission having considered all matters presented;
NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY the Collier County Planning Commission of
Collier County, Florida, that:
The petition filed by Kyle Wilson, of Dock Masters, representing Carl Olla, with respect to the
property hereinafter described as:
Connor's Vanderbilt Beach Estates Lot 7, Block, R, in Section 29, Township 48 South,
Range 25 East, Collier County, Florida, as recorded in Plat Book 3, Page 89, of the
Public Records of Collier County, Florida.
be and the same is hereby approved for a boat house over an existing boat dock in the RSF-3 zoning
district wherein said property is located, subject to the following conditions:
All docks, or mooring pilings, whichever protrudes the greater into the water, regardless
of length shall have reflectors and house numbers four (4) inches minimum size installed
at the outermost end on both sides.
In order to address the protection of manatees, at least one (1) "Manatee Area" sign shall
be posted during construction.
Permits or letters of exemption from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Florida
Department of Environmental Protection shall be presented prior to issuance of a building
permit.
All exotic vegetation as defined in Section 3.9.6.4.1 of the Land Development Code shall
be removed from the site and the property shall be maintained exotic-free in perpetuity.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this Resolution relating to Petition Number BD-2000-15 be
recorded in the minutes of this Commission and filed with the County Clerk's Office.
This Resolution adopted after motion, second and majority vote.
Done this [C~ ~7~ dayof (~{'~r~,(,9~sr" ,2000.
ATTEST:
x lNCENT A. CAUTERO, AICP
ecutive Secretary
COLLIER COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION
Community Development and Environmental
Services Administrator
Approved as to Form and Legal Sufficiency:
Marjori~M. Student
Assistant County Attorney
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