CCPC Minutes 02/01/2001 RFebruary t, 2001
TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE
COLLIER COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION
Naples, Florida, February 1, 2001
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 Building "F" of the Government Complex, East
Naples, Florida, with the following members present:
CHAIRMAN:
Gary Wrage
Ken Abernathy
Russell Budd
Russell A. Priddy
Joyceanna J. Rautio
Dwight Richardson
Lora Jean Young
NOT PRESENT: Michael Pedone
Sam Saadeh
ALSO PRESENT: Ron Nino, Current Planning Manager
Mar]orie M. Student, Assistant County Attorney
Page
AGENDA
CLERK TO THE BOARD
MAUREEN KENYON
COLLIER COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION WILL MEET AT 8:30 A.M., THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1,
2001 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. INDIVIDUALS SELECTED TO SPEAK ON BEHALF OF AN
ORGANIZATION OR GROUP ARE ENCOURAGED AND MAY BE
ALLOTTED 10 MINUTES TO SPEAK ON AN ITEM IF SO RECOGNIZED
BY THE CHAIRMAN. PERSONS WISHING TO HAVE WRITTEN OR
GRAPHIC MATERIALS INCLUDED IN THE CCPC AGENDA PACKETS
MUST SUBMIT SAID MATERIAL A MINIMUM OF 10 DAYS PRIOR TO
THE RESPECTIVE PUBLIC HEARING. IN ANY CASE, WRITTEN
MATERIALS INTENDED TO BE CONSIDERED BY THE CCPC SHALL BE
SUBMITTED 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 COMMISSIONERS 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
3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
4. PLANNING COMMISSION ABSENCES
5. BCC REPORT
6. CHAIRMAN'S REPORT
7. ADVERTISED PUBLIC HEARINGS
A. V-2000-32, Stanley Whittemore, representing Ferdinand and Catherine Fountain, requesting a 5
foot variance from the required 30 foot rear yard setback to 25 feet for property located at 355
Kings Way, further described as Lot 8, Block G, Foxfire Unit 3, in Section 6, Township 50 South,
Range 26 East, Collier County, Florida. (Coordinator: Fred Reischl)
Bo
PUD-2000-06, William Hoover, AICP, of Hoover Planning and Development, Incorporated,
requesting a rezone from E Estates to PUD Planned Unit Development to be known as the "Ragge"
PUD for a mixture of commercial and office uses on property located at the northwest comer of
the intersection between Pine Ridge Road and Whippoorwill Lane in Section 7, Township 49
South, Range 26 East, Collier County; Florida, consisting of 4.78 acres. (Continued from 1/18)
(Coordinator: Ray Bellows)
Co
PUD-86-22(2), William L. Hoover, AICP, of Hoover Planning & Development, Inc., representing
Peter and Mark Longo, requesting a rezone from "PUD" to "PUD" Planned Unit Development
known as the Pine Ridge Center PUD having the effect of revising the PUD Master Plan to show a
reverse frontage, re-label part of Area "B" between Pine Ridge Road and the reverse frontage road
as Area "C", and revising the PUD document to correct the project acreage from 8.79 acres,
change the address of the landowner's, and add additional permitted and accessory uses similar to
the C-3 Zoning District, for property located on the south side of Pine Ridge Road (C.R. 896)
approximately 660 ft. west of Whippoorwill Lane, in Section 18, Township 49 South, Range 26
East, Collier County, Florida. (Companion to PUD-88-11(2) (Coordinator: Ray Bellows)
Do
PUD-88-11(2), William L. Hoover, AICP, of Hoover Planning & Development, Inc., representing
Anthony F. Jancigar, Trustee, requesting a rezone from "PUD" to "PUD" Planned Unit
Development known as the Pine Ridge Center West PUD having the effect of revising the PUD
Master Plan to show a cross-access road and re-label part of Area "B" between Pine Ridge Road
and the reverse frontage road as Area "C", and revising the PUD document to show the
neighboring landowner's current address, re-label existing exhibits and add exhibits "D", "E", and
"F", add Section 3.4L pertaining to architectural standards, add parking and loading standards, and
add additional permitted and accessory uses similar to the C-3 Zoning District, for property located
on the south side of Pine Ridge Road (C.R. 896) approximately 660 ft. west of Whippoorwill
Lane, in Section 18, Township 49 South, Range 26 East, Collier County, Florida. (Companion to
PUD-86-22(2) (Coordinator: Ray Bellows)
Eo
CU-2000-17, Herb Ressing of VoiceStream Wireless, requesting a Conditional Use in the "E"
Estates zoning district for a communications tower for essential services per Section 2.6.35.6.3. for
property located at 13240 Immokalee Road (C.R. 846), in Section 27, Township 48 South, Range
27 East, Collier County, Florida, consisting of 2.3_+ acres. (Coordinator: Chahram Badamtchian)
CU-2000-20, Jeff L. Davidson, P.E., of Davidson Engineering, Inc., representing B.C. Excavating
of Naples, Inc., requesting Conditional Use "1" of the "A" zoning district for earthmining, for
property located North of Immokalee Road on the East side of Friendship Lane, in Section 24,
Township 47 South, Range 27 East, consisting of 4.4 + acres. (Coordinator: Chahram
Badamtchian)
8. OLD BUSINESS
9. NEW BUSINESS
10. PUBLIC COMMENT ITEM
11. DISCUSSION OF ADDENDA
12. ADJOURN
02/01101 CCPC AGEND/RN/im
February 1, 2001
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Let's call to order the meeting of the
Collier County Planning Commission for Thursday, February 1st.
And we'll start by calling the roll call. Russell Priddy.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Here.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Commissioner Young.
COMMISSIONER YOUNG: Yes.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Commissioner Abernathy.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Here.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Commissioner Rautio.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Present.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Commissioner Wrage is present.
Commissioner Saadeh is excused. Still out of the country, I
believe. Commissioner Budd is absent. Commissioner Pedone,
I'm told, had quadruple bypass last week. MR. NINO: Last week.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Obviously, probably will not be here
today, and our prayers and concerns go out to him and his family.
And Commissioner Richardson.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Yes.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any addenda to the agenda?
Hearing none. I had no minutes in my packet.
We'll move to planning commission absences. Hearing
none. I expect everybody will be here. BB, excuse me, BCC report, Ron.
MR. NINO: The -- most of all the items were continued, but
the Sabitino petition was denied.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: The which?
MR. NINO: Sabitino.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Oh, yeah.
MR. NINO: Side yard variances. And there are appeals
pending on the -- the docks, that Vanderbilt lagoon area, and
those will be heard at the next meeting of the board of
commissioners.
No other report.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I'm not sure from which this comes, but
in front of me is -- is a memo from Sabitino. Anybody that's
interested in reading it, I will have it after the meeting. I haven't
read it. I don't know what's in it. I have no report with that.
We'll go right into the advertised public hearing. The first
one being V-2000-32, Stanley Whittemore.
Page 2
February 1, 2001
All those wishing to give testimony on this please rise, raise
your right hand and be sworn in by the court reporter.
(The speakers were sworn.)
COMMISSIONER WRAGE: Fred.
MR. REISCHL: Good morning, commissioners, Fred Reischl,
Planning Services. This is a request for a five-foot variance from
the required 30-foot rear yard setback in Foxfire, and on the
visualizer you can see the location. It's at the north portion of
Foxfire. You see Radio Road and Kings Way. That's the subject
property abutting a stormwater lake. The petitioner wants to
enclose a screen patio, and basically move it out a little farther
to make a Florida room. And, again, on the visualizer you can
see the -- the house itself. In yellow is the existing screened
patio and the green is the extent of the proposed Florida room,
photo of the -- a photo of the rear of the house. You can see the
slab that the Florida room will go over.
As I said, there is a -- a stormwater lake at the rear of the
property and a 20-foot lake maintenance easement around that.
Basically, this encroachment is still going to be
approximately 40 to 50 feet from the water's edge; however,
there is no land related hardship. So staff was constrained from
recommending approval. I did receive a letter from the
homeowners' association expressing no objection, and no phone
calls or letters from the public.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Mr. Chairman.
COMMISSIONER WRAGE: Any questions of staff, and let the
record show that Commissioner Budd has arrived?
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Yes, I have a couple of questions.
In the handwritten information the petitioner provided to us, the
petitioner makes several statements about -- that they want
additional room for a third bedroom, much needed for their
family. They talk about a glassed in, screened area, living area
for apparently a lot of other houses. And it does say here on
page six of eight that others have been granted variances. How
many variances have been granted? How many people have
glassed in? Do you have any feel for this, because it looks like
we're going to probably have just a whole load of these coming
in?
MR. REISCHL: There were several, however, it was an
unusual circumstance. Apparently, something -- because the
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February 1, 2001
Foxfire PUD was an older PUD. There was another method of
approving this called a master plan amendment, and there was a
big file full of this, MP type of file, and it was done through a
different process, not through the variance process.
So, yes, they were granted, but not technically through a
variance process, which now that process -- through an
amendment in the PUD is changed, and the petitioner has to
seek a variance.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: And one other question. It did
state that building code changes in the past two years require
you to make your lanai, if you glass it in, meet the new wind load
codes for habitable structures, something or other, creates a
setback problem.
So we're talking about new building codes that are forcing
this, in addition to a master plan procedure that used to be in
effect?
Are we talking about two things here?
MR. REISCHL: I think it's two different things, because the --
the building code may have changed to allow stricter wind code
requirements; however, once you glass -- a screened patio is an
accessory structure, and can meet the accessory setback. Once
you make it a more solid structure, at least according to
planning, it becomes part of the principal structure and has to
meet that setback.
Mr. Whittemore has photos of the proposed structure so you
can see a Florida room basically, a lot of windows, and minimal
amount of concrete block.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: The presentation was pretty clear
in most cases; however, it looks like we're going to set a ma]or
precedent here if there are, say, 20, 30 other houses that want to
do something different than they have right now, either glass in
or put a Florida room, we're going to be swamped with variances
and as you know, and the public knows, I'm not a great
proponent of variances.
Is there a potential for a great many variances to come?
MR. REISCHL: There's always that potential, and, again,
there were several that were granted through that MP process.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: And it did not come before the
planning commission?
MR. REISCHL: It was very hard to tell from our records.
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February 1, 2001
They -- it was -- it looked like a -- an executive summary type of
packet, but there was no record that I could find in the -- in our
records.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY:
busy, isn't he?
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO:
The hearing officer is going to be
I think the hearing officer is going
to be overwhelmed from Foxfire.
COMMISSIONER WRAGE: Is that a new pad that we're
looking at?
MR. REISCHL: I believe that's the existing.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I mean, it was already -- it almost looks
like it was brand new. The pad that's out from the screen. MR. REISCHL: It's been existing.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any further questions of staff?
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Fred, the patio there, is
there any restrictions on how far a patio can come out from a
structure?
MR. REISCHL: Ten feet from the property line.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: So that could come out
quite a ways further.
MR. REISCHL: Correct.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: So in the next case that we
have that has -- has a pad already out, that's where they'll want
to put their Florida room?
MR. REISCHL: That's a possibility.
COMMISSIONER WRAGE: Any further questions?
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Fred, I'd just like to renew
my request administratively here that would somehow line up the
numbers and the letters from the two. MR. REISCHL: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: It just seems like it's a little
more difficult to try and track this.
MR. REISCHL: Sorry. I inherited this project from another
planner.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. Would the petitioner like to
address the Commission?
MR. WHITTEMORE: Good morning. My name is Stanley
Whittemore. Just a little background of myself. Before I retired
and moved to lovely Naples, I was in the building business for all
my life. In the last 20 years I was Director of Code Enforcement
Page 5
February 1, 2001
for the City of Nor (sic) where I was in charge of building and
zoning and conservation and have done many of these.
What we're asking for today as Mr. Reischl mentioned is a
five foot variance of the 30 foot yard setback. I have another
photo of a side view of Mr. Fountain's house. And that's what it
looks like now. And we want to glass that all in, and I heard one
of the questions about the building code and what's going on
now. If we wanted to take that screened lanai now and put
windows in it, we couldn't do it like they used to be able to do it
like this photo.
Now this one happens to be a 10-foot variance that was
granted and it was allowed to do it all with metal and windows.
And we can't do that type now, because the building code is
changed.
Now, if you want to do an addition, you have to make it
comply with the wind loads and the hurricane loads that they
have now.
So consequently it has to come out looking like -- like that.
That is -- that is a -- that is when it was done three years ago.
And that was a screened lanai like Mr. Fountain had and that's
what the new one is proposed to look like. That's one view of it
and here's the side view of it, of the same thing. And so it will
conform with the house and aesthetically look good.
Now, the other thing that I did on that map that he showed
you of the lake, there's 38 parcels on the lake, and of the 38
parcels, there is 12 swimming pool cages that go within 10 feet
of the property line. And over here, this is the lake. And there is
-- there's 12 of those. There are also eight that have what they
call a permanent roof over a screened area, which is 10 or 12
feet into the encroachment, which is like this. And this part out
here is a permanent roof over a screened lanai, which
encroaches in, and what we're asking for is just a minimal of five
feet, and we put on there for the third bedroom. What has
happened since Mr. and Mrs. Fountain retired and bought this
house, her mother might have to come to live with them. So
they're looking to -- they need a third bedroom, and if you know
these houses, they are very -- very small rooms and so on, and so
is the screened lanai, they want to -- want to make part of the
air-conditioning of the house.
This is a photo of the lake and of some of the places that
Page 6
February 1, 2001
have the bigger lanai in, but there is still a lot of land room
around there.
We have one that was granted, which I don't know how it
was ever granted, but it was, of 12 to 14 feet, across the street,
and that was granted in '86 or '87. That's a 12-foot variance into
the setback.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Excuse me, who was that granted
by? Who granted -- who had the authority to grant that?
MR. WHITTEMORE: We -- we looked up in the records for it.
We know it was done, because I got signed -- I got a notice when
I bought my house in '86 that -- it was going to do it. Mr. Duff
was the one that applied for the variance and got it and it was
granted. And this was done sometime in the late '80's, and we
looked up all the different variances as you'll have on your sheet
there, the ones that we could find and find portions of, and on the
map that shows the variances, there's a V in the box where there
is a variance granted and some of them we saw the V, and we
saw the work was done, but we couldn't find the records of it.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: So it would be records of the
County?
MR. WHITTEMORE: In the County, I did that with Don
Murray before he resigned from the County.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay.
MR. WHITTEMORE: Oh, I also, we have an architectural
review committee in Foxfire, which you have a copy of the letter
of -- we went before them, and they had no problem with us doing
what we're doing, because it would be in conformance with the
rest of the single-family houses.
I might add right here that in Foxfire it's very unique, we
have 230 single-family homes. We have 94 of these smaller type,
they call them detached villas, and I would say over 50 percent
of them have done something similar to this on their house with
closing in the lanai within the setback or -- or put big swimming
pool cages, whatever, but it would'ye still kept in conformity with
everybody else around, and that -- but that board has given us
approval, and of all the neighbors that are around that have come
over and asked about it, we had no, no complaints of anyone on
this.
I thank you for your time.
Page 7
February t, 2001
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any questions of the petitioner?
Just one final question, Fred, you told me there was no
objections to this? No one --
MR. REISCHL: None that I received, no.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Mr. Reischl, just for my
education, could you explain to me what the term constrained
means in your recommendation of that?
MR. REISCHL: Well, we -- part of the land development
regulations for variances, one of the criteria that you look at is
the fact that the encroachment could be ameliorated. We feel
that it is by the large lake maintenance easement and the fact
that it is adjacent to a lake, however, there is no land related
hardship, and due to your and the board's direction, we're looking
at that criterion as, you know, a very strict one right now, and so
that's what we use as the dominant factor, the dominant criteria.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I have a question. Does the
30 foot rear yard setback, does that come from the PUD?
MR. REISCHL: That's in the PUD, which is unusually large
for a rear yard.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: So actually the setback is quite a ways
from the lake?
MR. REISCHL: Correct, it's -- that makes the house 50 feet
from the edge of the water.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any further questions? Anyone from
the public wish to address this issue? If not, I'll close the public
hearing.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Mr. Chairman, I move that we
forward Petition V-2000-32 to the Board of Zoning Appeals for the
recommendation of approval.
COMMISSIONER BUDD: Second.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Motion made by Commissioner Priddy,
seconded by Commissioner Budd. Any further discussion?
If not, all in favor of the motion, signify by saying aye.
Opposed?
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: No. I don't want to set the
precedent.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: With that, we will move to Petition
PUD-006, which is the Ragge PUD. All those wishing to give
testimony on this, please rise, raise your right hand and be sworn
in by the court reporter.
Page 8
February 1, 2001
(The speakers were sworn.)
MS. STUDENT: Mr. Chairman -- Mr. Chairman, I just need to
remind you sometime before the public speaks that -- or right
now, you need to make your -- any disclosures that you have on
ex parte communications.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I've reminded this Board of that many
times, and they haven't been bashful about speaking up on other
issues.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Yeah, I was -- was called by Mr.
Frank Craparo, I may not be pronouncing that name right, C-A --
C-R-A-P-A-R-O, who is a neighbor in the area.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATH¥: That's the next two.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: The next two, okay. So I'm early.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY.' That's a change.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. Having heard all of that. Ray.
MR. BELLOWS: Good morning, commissioners, before I get
started I have a handout, I have two additional transportation
stipulations that came in yesterday.
For the record, Ray Bellows, the petitioner is Bill Hoover,
and he's requesting to rezone the subject property from estates
to planned unit development to be known as Ragge PUD. As you
can see on the location map, the subject site is located on the
north side of Pine Ridge Road and west of 1-75. The subject site
is in between two existing commercial PUD's, the Angileri PUD to
the east and the Naples Gateway PUD to the west. And to the
south is the Sutherland PUD, and the petitions that will be heard
next Pine Ridge Center and Pine Ridge Center West.
The petitioner is proposing a commercial PUD, that allows
for a mix of commercial and office uses, hotels, motels,
restaurants, banks are some of the typical uses permitted. To be
noted, that the uses in this PUD document are basically the same
uses as all the other commercial PUD's in this northwest
quadrant of this activity center.
As you can see on the master plan, there is an existing
ingress, egress that serves the Race Trac service station that
was just recently completed to the east. There's also a
right-of-way dedicated. The master plan shows three
commercial -- three tracts, Tract A is a water management and
landscape buffer tract. It's designed to enhance the buffer
between the estates dwellings to the north, provide a water
Page 9
February 1, 2001
management area. Tract B is for the moderate intensity uses,
and the more intense uses would be required to be placed in
Tract C close -- that fronts Pine Ridge Road.
As you can see on the future land use map, the subject site
is located within activity center number 10. It's an Interchange
Activity Center. This particular Interchange Activity Center does
not allow for industrial uses. It's solely a commercial-retail that
services the traveling public. The gateway into the county. So
the petitioner's agreed to provide architectural standards that
meet the county code and also landscaping features in the back
to help provide buffer. And I'll get into that as we go along.
The project is consistent with the future land use map and
the issues regarding permitted uses. Due to the small size of the
site and since the site has been previously cleared or -- and
contains no wetlands, no environmental impact statement was
required and this petition did not go to the EAC.
The Transportation Department has some additional
stipulations that I handed out. And as noted in that handout,
there is a requirement to, or request that Whippoorwill Lane be
expanded, and if you see on the vicinity map, Whippoorwill Lane
would come up -- there's already an existing traffic light there.
The roadway comes up and services the existing Race Trac. The
proposal would have it all the way up the east side of the
property line and connect to Livingston Woods Lane, which is the
estates, residential, local street. The purpose of that is to create
a grid system so residents within that subdivision could access
this commercial project without having to travel on Livingston
Wood -- or Livingston -- future Livingston Road and onto Pine
Ridge Road, servicing the commercial areas that way.
There is also a requirement on the other stipulation to
eliminate the access point here. That should be noted, there is
an existing one serving Race Trac here, but we want this one
eliminated, and they would gain access through this east/west
collector road -- or connection road.
In the compatibility of adjacent properties, as I previously
mentioned, this PUD has been designed to replicate the other
existing PUDs that were approved. Most of the language is
basically the same. The uses are nearly the same. The
development standards are about the same.
As you can see, here's the pictures of the Race Trac, which
Page 10
February 1, 2001
is in the Angileri PUD. This PUD does not allow service stations,
but it will allow for car dealers and things of that nature. The
maximum height is limited to three stories, 35 feet. The
setbacks are the same as the adjacent PUDs on both sides. Staff
has not received any correspondence for or against this petition,
and is recommending that the Planning Commission forward this
to the Board of County Commissioners with the recommendation
of approval. And I'll be happy to answer any questions.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Questions of the staff?
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Yeah, Mr. Chairman, Mr.
Bellows, I'm concerned about several things that I read in this
report. Some inconsistencies, but my main concern is your
comments that Pine Ridge Road is operating at level of service F.
MR. BELLOWS: Yes.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Which means it's a failure,
right?
MR. BELLOWS: Yes. It's currently being improved to a
six-lane facility.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: I understand that, you said
that. Can we be assured that this project won't start until that
improvement has occurred?
MR. BELLOWS: I think the applicant should probably
address when they're planning -- COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: No.
your -- what the staff's view on that is?
MR. NINO: What was the question?
I want to know what
I couldn't even hear it.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: I'm sorry. My voice is -- I'm
just concerned about us approving projects where the level of
service is at F, and we have -- I'm trying to get an understanding
as to if we do -- or if the process approves this PUD can he -- he
can start construction immediately, and we still have a failed
road. That's my concern.
MR. NINO.' You can answer that question.
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah. The roadway is being improved, and
under our concurrency management, as long as it's a funded road
improvement, there is no concurrency to prevent issuing of
building permits. The County Planning Commission and the
Board of County Commissioners can make a stipulation to
prohibit construction until completion of Pine Ridge Road.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: That's certainly my thinking
Page 11
February 1, 2001
on this. Over on your -- you have underlined under the evaluation
page three, that the Whippoorwill Lane be extended, and this
extension will allow residents to have access to the commercial
property without having to use Pine Ridge Road. MR. BELLOWS: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: And back in the
commitment section on 4.7 you say that the internal roadway
design shall prohibit traffic from --
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah. The applicant is not agreeing to that
connection, and that's one thing that we'll get into. The
applicant does not want the --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: So you're approving it with
him not--
MR. BELLOWS: We're recommending, staff is recommending
that the interconnection be made. The applicant, based on
previous board action, feels that this would be an impact to the
residents in the estates. Previous board action, there was -- for
the other commercial PUDs, they did not want any driveway
connection or roadway connection to Livingston Woods Lane.
They wanted it to be kept and remain a private, residential type
street; however, as -- and we have Donna Wolff here to explain in
more detail the purpose of this interconnection, basically, it is to
allow the residents within that subdivision to access this
commercial property without having to go on the arterial road,
which is heavily traveled.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: All right. I'm just confused
about the process. You're saying in your evaluation that it
should be connected, and didn't you also create these
commitments?
MR. BELLOWS: No. These commitments are a combination
of staff recommendations, and the petitioner prepares that
document and submits it to us. If they do not wish to put those
in and they want to contest those conditions, they have the right
to, and I think that's what they're here to do today.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: So the applicant creates
this portion of the planning report?
MR. BELLOWS: The PUD document attached at the end, yes,
which you're looking at, the development commitments that's in
the PUD document is prepared by the applicant.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: So we should be extra
Page 12
February t, 200t
careful, because I thought you guys prepared these. MR. BELLOWS: No, they prepare that.
MR. NINO: But, nevertheless, we review them, and they're
probably one of the more important sections of the Code that we
review and we ensure that they are consistent with the
comments that we've been -- and recommendations that we get
back from reviewing staff that have to do with environmental,
engineering, transportation and what's happened here, quite
frankly, is that our transportation folks have made a
recommendation that Whippoorwill Road be extended through to
Livingston Woods Lane and several of you have been on this
commission, were here at the time when all of the other petitions
came in in that area, and there was a loud cry and opposition
from the folks on Livingston Woods Lane to have any
interconnection, or for that matter, any significant view of the
commercial developments that would be across the road from
them. Quite frankly, in all honesty, folks, this is a departure from
that policy; however, if staff -- staff is of the opinion that -- that
the recommendation is a sound recommendation and we are now
making it a part of our recommendation to you, and I wanted you
to have that background.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: However, it's not included in
what the applicant had agreed to. MR. NINO.' Correct.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: And that was not pointed
out to us. I guess I have concern that you're saying something,
you know, this would be hidden if I hadn't read it very carefully.
MR. BELLOWS: No. The applicant is here to discuss those.
I handed out the handout this morning, has those stipulations
and that's -- the petitioner is here to discuss those.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY.' Mr. Chairman, if I may--
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Let me just finish up with staff right
quick.
MR. NINO.' Quite frankly, I misspoke myself. We don't know
if the applicant is opposed to that.
MR. HOOVER: Thank you. Thank you.
MR. NINO.' We haven't heard from him yet.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY.' Well, let me ask a question,
then. The PUD master plan seems to extend Whippoorwill Lane
north only roughly halfway into their property, is that -- that's
Page 13
February 1,200t
consistent with their view of how far it should go?
MR. NINO: Up until this -- up until this meeting. Since --
since the PUD was presented to us, we've had the
recommendation that, indeed, Whippoorwill Lane be extended all
the way through the project, a stipulation to that effect, to
supplement our staff report, has been added to you. We don't
know if the petitioner is acquiescent to that or not, and we need
to hear from them.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: I do have one question, please.
Would you clarify for me, is it not the policy of the Board of
County Commissioners to try to provide as many interconnects
as possible so that, indeed, we keep people off our main
arterials? Am I in the right ballpark here?
MR. NINO: No. You're in the right ballpark. We'd like to
think so. We'd like to think so. Although, the proof is not yet in
the pudding because there have been instances when that policy
has not been carried forward.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Because I think that's important
to what we're doing here from a policy standpoint. So if the
transportation wants to add to that, please do.
MS. WOLFF: Good morning. For the record, my name is
Dawn Wolff, I'm the Transportation Planning Department
Director. The county's growth management plan provides a
policy which encourages the interconnection between properties
such as to provide access via local streets for local trips to keep
them off the major arterials. This is a prime candidate location.
The Board of County Commissioners has committed to
actually improving Whippoorwill Lane in providing an east/west
connection from Livingston Road up to Pine Ridge Road, to
provide a collector level road to help alleviate some of those
local trips of them having to use Livingston and Pine Ridge Road.
This would be a logical extension of that to the north side of
Pine Ridge Road, allowing access from that residential area
north of these commercial areas to Pine Ridge Road, such as to
limit the length they have to travel, in order to, say, come out to
the interstate. At this point in time, under the current access
conditions and the planned improvements to Livingston Road,
they would have to travel within that estate area up to a single
point on Livingston Road, then come south on Livingston and
across Pine Ridge to the east in order to make any trips towards
Page 14
February 1, 2001
the east.
With this type of an interconnection we would eliminate a
lot of those trips that would have to go to Livingston and then
Pine Ridge before being able to travel east.
So it's a logical interconnection to try and shorten trip
lengths, and eliminate a number of trips on several of our arterial
segments.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Thank you. I'm sure the applicant
will have something to say.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: But at this point the transportation
department can only encourage, only the Board of County
Commissioners can demand; is that right?
MS. WOLFF: Correct. The growth management plan
specifically states, encourage.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay.
MS. WOLFF: And we are supporting that recommendation
here along with the -- some policy issues that are coming before
the board.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. Thank you. Any further
questions of staff?
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: One last area. Mr. Bellows,
in the 80 feet that it's set back, and I think it's important,
because that puts those structures further towards the road.
You have a buffering requirement of type D, that takes care of
the first 20 feet, and I understand there's going to be a wall,
masonry wall, and I understand from the picture that it's going to
have a sidewalk all along there, and I'm wondering if that
sidewalk's going to have connections through that wall. Has
Would that be reviewed as you go through
that been specified?
this process?
MR. BELLOWS:
pedestrian gates.
No. It's my understanding there is no
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Oh, no, wait. It shows it
very clearly on your handout, that it's there. So I'm taking that
as a fact. Now, on the inside, the 80 feet, you got 20 foot for the
scheduled type D buffer. Just, can you give me an idea of what
the water management area -- will it have any kind of vegetation
on it, or any buffering, or is it just going to collect water, or what
MR. BELLOWS: Well, at the time of site development plan
Page t5
February 1, 2001
we'll get into the actual landscaping plans. The conceptual plan
presented by the applicant basically just shows the buffer area
requirement, the width and the area --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Right.
MR. BELLOWS: -- where the lake would go for water
management purposes.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Okay. It's going to be a
lake, then, that's --
MR. BELLOWS: At the time of site development plan, the
engineering will be completed, and --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: What are our rules about
water management areas? Are they for lakes or can there be
vegetation there, or you said there's not any -- that this is a
cleared lot.
MR. BELLOWS: There's a landscape buffer where water
management really can't encroach into. That's a separate buffer
requirement.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: That's the 20 feet?
MR. BELLOWS: No -- yeah -- no, around the water
management areas, the petitioner is free to develop that any
way, landscaping-wise, as they deem --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Then I should picture a lake
in my mind, then?
MR. BELLOWS: More than likely, or a dry lake.
MR. NINO: Let me give you some history. They're -- let me,
again, give you some history, there is a proposed -- there is not a
proposed. There is a landscape plan that includes the wall that
has been master planned for the entire length of the south side
of Livingston Woods Lane, that wall requires -- will require
vegetation on either side of it, that wall, based on this master
plan, which is really an in-house plan, that we've developed with
the consent of all of the property owners on Livingston Woods
Lane, varies five feet in certain -- it juts out five feet here and
there, so it doesn't have the monotonous effect of a solid wall,
and landscaping is provided on either side of it. When these
folks come in with their site development plan, we will make
sure that they are consistent with that in-house overall master
plan that we have for the wall and for the landscaping of
properties along the south side of Livingston Woods Lane.
There are no other openings, and none would be allowed
Page 16
February 1, 2001
because the folks on Livingston Woods Lane made it
unequivocally clear that they didn't want pedestrian access to
any of those properties, nor vehicular access, obviously.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Ron, that wall is described
somewhere in here as an opaque masonry wall. How do you
make a masonry wall opaque?
MR. NINO: I don't know, and the word "opaque" shouldn't be
in there. It's a wall with landscaping on either side of it.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. Any further questions?
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: I think they forgot to take out the
word "opaque."
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: So you put the master plan
together, then?
MR. NINO: Yeah. Our office did that.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: So I should be questioning
you folks.
MR. NINO: And we probably should have sent it to you.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Then that --
MR. BELLOWS: Well, I have a copy here of the master plan
for the landscaping wall where we have the 10-foot setback
requirement and a five-foot setback at 10, but the setback
requirement which is the Ragge subject site, and the Angileri has
a five foot, so as you go down the line.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: It's an eight-foot wall, right?
MR. NINO: Yes.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: And you say there'll be no
breaks in it, but there's got to be breaks in there for the roads,
right?
MR. NINO: Well, in this -- with -- if you approve this petition,
it will have a road in it.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Okay.
MR. NINO: That we hadn't intended previously, but we think
it's a very sound recommendation.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: That's not exactly so, either, is it,
we can approve this without a road in it?
MR. NINO: If that's your wish, and you need to hear from --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: We can recommend --
MR. NINO: -- the petitioners as to whether or not they're
objecting to the road.
MR. BELLOWS: And then it's up to the Board of County
Page t7
February 1, 2001
Commissioners, they make the final decision whether this
interconnection should be made versus residents' concerns
about traffic in their neighborhood and such issues that will be
brought up.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. With that, Mr. Yovanovich, I will
allow you an opportunity of rebuttal of your colleague as to your
status in the -- in your firm, if you would like. He referred to
himself as being the first team when he was here previously.
MR. YOVANOVICH: I recall that and we have -- we have --
that's a private matter that we've -- that we've addressed.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Good morning, commissioners, for the
record, Rich Yovanovich. I'm working with Bill Hoover in
representing Mr. Ragge. I don't believe that there's any planning
related issues related to this PUD. I think everybody would
agree, it's compatible, but if you do have any questions for Mr.
Hoover regarding that.
I want to address my -- my comments primarily to this road
issue. And some comments that Commissioner Richardson
made. First of all, when we submitted our PUD document, we
submitted it based upon what the residents in that area had said
regarding the access road for Whippoorwill Lane. So our
document was prepared to be consistent with all the other PUDs
in the area, which prohibited access to Livingston Woods Lane;
is that --
MR. NINO: That's correct.
MR. YOVANOVICH: -- Livingston Woods Lane. So that is
why there is a difference between the document and staff's
request that the road be extended through.
We do not have a position on extending that road through.
We simply prepared the document to be consistent with the
neighborhood and what the neighborhood wanted. Frankly, I met
with staff after the condition, and I told them, if you want to
punch the road through, that's fine, but, you know, be prepared
for the neighborhood to come out and be upset by that
requirement, and Ms. Wolff and I have worked through those
issues and she says she's willing to address that policy decision
both to you and the Board of County Commissioners. If the
Planning Commission insists that the road be -- that Whippoorwill
Lane be extended all the way through, and the Board of County
Page 18
February 1, 2001
Commissioners, you know, insists that the board -- that be
extended all the way through, I don't see that the petitioner has
much choice. It's a condition that is going to be imposed upon
us and we would not object to that condition based on the
stipulations that both Ms. Wolff and I have worked out. And
those stipulations have been modified briefly. We will deal with
access to the front parcel, if you will, off of the north/south
segment at site planning, instead of here, and we'll remove the
arrows that show on the master plan right now.
So we'll deal with that issue at site planning. And Ms. Wolff
and I have agreed that the county would purchase the
right-of-way from us since it's a -- it's an exaction that benefits
the public, and it's not a site related exaction.
So with those two caveats, we will agree to the condition if
it is imposed upon us. We have not objected to it. We have not
requested it. We are simply willing to work with staff, if that's
what their policy decision's going to be. We simply designed our
project to be consistent with what the neighborhood has
directed and this board has directed in the past.
So if that policy change is going to be made, it's going to be
made by the Planning Commission and the Board of County
Commissioners and staff, and we will not -- we will not hinder
that change in policy.
I would like to make another comment, is we do not prepare
your staff report. We prepare our PUD based upon comments we
receive from staff, and where there is a disagreement, we will
address those issues here.
So we are not the author of your staff report. I think the
staff report was generated prior to finalizing some stipulations
from your transportation department.
So that's why there's some inconsistencies between the
staff report and why we're here today.
So I don't want us to be characterized as disagreeing with
staff in this petition. We are working with staff, and whatever
the Planning Commission decides on the extension of
Whippoorwill Lane and the Board of County Commissioners, we
will -- we will go with either alternative.
The sidewalk, Mr. Richardson, is outside of the wall. It's not
within -- within our wall, and I believe if that gets constructed,
it's someone -- I guess, the neighborhood's responsibility and not
Page 19
February 1, 2001
ours.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Well, question, isn't that
part of your property?
MR. YOVANOVICH'- What's that?
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Isn't that part of your
property?
MR. YOVANOVICH: It is, but we agreed to dedicate it to the
public basically by putting a wall there and working with the
neighborhood, but I don't believe -- we agreed to construct the
wall, but I don't believe -- and landscape both sides of the wall,
but I don't believe we agreed to build a sidewalk.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: There's been a title change,
then there will be a title change to the county?
MR. YOVANOVICH: Yeah. It will just be on our site plan.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: I'm not sure I understand.
MR. YOVANOVICH: There will not be -- we will not,
basically, give you the property. We will construct on our
property a wall that is internal to our property. It will remain in
our ownership, but it will be, basically, there for the public to
walk on.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Well, the picture shows
that you're going to build a sidewalk. I was just curious as to
what the dimensions of that are?
MR. YOVANOVICH: No. The picture shows a sidewalk. It
doesn't show that we're going to build it. And I just want to
clarify that for the record, that we don't have an obligation to
build it.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: It's part of the commitment
document that you've submitted.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Where does it say we're going to build a
sidewalk?
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Well, it refers to this as an
example of what you're going to do, that's the wall, it's eight-foot
high, and it obviously has a sidewalk. It's got people walking
there.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Exhibit C.
MR. YOVANOVICH: And I would check with Mr. Nino, but I
don't believe that that's a requirement. We're required to build
the wall and landscape it, but I don't believe we're required to
build the sidewalk.
Page 20
February 1, 2001
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Well, I'm being misled by
the staff report then.
MR. BELLOWS: The staff report doesn't reference a
sidewalk. The PUD document has an attachment provided by the
applicant based on general design philosophy of what the area's
going to look like. The actual wall may not look like this at all.
This is just a conceptual type of plan to show what the buffering
wall with landscaping would look like. The county may in the
future build a sidewalk on the right-of-way portion of this, but it's
not guaranteed, and it was never promised to the residents of
Livingston Woods Lane subdivision that there would be a
sidewalk.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Let me -- let me -- let me -- let's just -- I
don't believe that this is really a big issue, if everybody else
along that area pays for the sidewalk, we'll pay for the sidewalk,
okay. We just want to be treated consistently with everybody
else, and I believe that's what the document says, similar to the
other PUDs, so.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: I was just going to say just as an
observation, Exhibit C, which, I think, is what we're looking at,
without any other wording on it, would imply to a reasonable
person that this may be what's going to be there. So you might
want to be more careful in the future to, you know, say
conceptual or something, because I can understand where Mr.
Richardson, being somewhat new at this, would assume that,
and he couldn't find sidewalks in the document, and, of course,
you know how we love docks -- we love sidewalks on this board,
SO.
MR. YOVANOVICH: And we're not saying you can't have a
sidewalk, just whatever you do to everybody else along that wall,
do to us. Okay.
And a final point, regarding a stipulation that we cannot
begin construction until Pine Ridge Road is completed, I don't
believe you can include that stipulation. Your comprehensive
plan specifically addresses those issues regarding roadways and
a level of service, and we're totally, 100 percent with your
comprehensive plan.
So you cannot legally, and I'll let your lawyer address that,
require that we not go forward with our -- our site development
plan. I can tell you at this point, we don't have a site
Page 2t
February 1, 2001
development plan in for review. So it may be a moot point, you're
talking about probably a six-month process at best if we got it in
today, and I think that road is moving along a lot faster than that.
With that, I think -- if we needed to respond to anybody in
the public we would -- we would request that we'd be allowed to
do that. If you have any specific questions for me, I'm happy to
answer them, if you have any questions for Mr. Hoover.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: I just have one quick question.
Could you clarify how long ago it was that the residents strongly
objected to having any interconnects, because I'm not that
familiar with this?
MR. YOVANOVICH: Bill --
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Frequently, I can tell you from
being here for the last seven and a half years.
MR. Yovanovich: Every PUD that has come through, they
have strenuously said, please, no connection. And, frankly,
that's one of the reasons of the -- of the reverse frontage road
that goes east/west, is to keep traffic off of that -- of that other
road.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY:
times.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO:
clarify that.
We've had the road built many
Thank you. I just wanted to
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: And any further questions?
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Could I -- Mr. Chairman,
could I--
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Sure.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: -- go back to staff for a
moment and perhaps to the traffic -- or the applicant is saying,
and I'm not familiar with your road schedule there, saying that
his project undoubtedly won't get underway until after this is six
lanes. Can you assure me that that's the case?
MS. WOLFF: I can assure you that as of this point in time we
are actively under construction on the widening of Pine Ridge
Road from Airport to Logan Boulevard. That is a 30 month
project. We are well into that project, but we are probably
looking at at least a year and a half before we actually complete
it, if not, you know, 24 months before it's actually completed and
open to traffic. I believe we're still in the utility relocation stage
of it and the prep. work to actually start building those extra
Page 22
February 1, 2001
lanes, that's what -- when people really see the road widening
occurring out there. Although, I do believe that Mr. Yovanovich
is absolutely correct in terms of there is provisions within the
comprehensive plan, and adequate public facilities that permits
that if there is a funded construction project, and in this case
this project is actually under construction, that that capacity is
considered to be in hand and, therefore, the existing conditions
of level of service F do not necessarily apply, because it's an
imminent increase in capacity available.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Okay. But I understand
imminent means 24 months in your words and six months in his
terms. So we're going to have 18 months of worse than level F
service.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Mr. Richardson, if I may, I never said
that the road was going to be done in six months. What I said is
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Your project's going to start
in six months.
MR. YOVANOVICH: I never said that. I said my project
doesn't even have an SDP. I said if we started today in the SDP
process, at best it's a six-month process. I never committed to a
construction schedule or told you what the construction
schedule would be.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: So you're suggesting it
might be longer than 24 months?
MR. YOVANOVICH: You know, whatever -- whatever the
market dictates. What I'm suggesting to you is you cannot under
your comprehensive plan tell my property owner that he can't go
forward.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Well, your attempt at
intimidation is -- is not successful. I feel I have a responsibility
to represent the public in this process, and the level of service,
you know, go on any road in Collier County, and we've got some
serious problems here, and I -- I don't want to be one to
participate in adding to that problem if there's a way we can
work it out.
MS. STUDENT: Mr. Richardson, if I might -- Marjorie Student,
Assistant County Attorney, for the record. State law that our
comp. plan is modeled after, whether you feel it's right or wrong,
the law is that there's a three-year window allowed and Ms. Wolff
Page 23
February 1, 2001
is correct in her assessment of the law. And I would say that you
would be constrained from denying the project on the basis of
concurrency, because of the three-year window that exists in
state law, that gives the local government time to fund a road,
get it under construction, and that's specifically written into the
concurrency rules.
So I just have to put that on the record.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Mr. Chairman, I have a question of
staff. If -- if there is no interconnect, which means that wall
becomes a solid wall, and someone builds a sidewalk all along
there, who's going to use that sidewalk? There's no houses on
that side of the road. It would dead-end into -- deadend into the
interstate on one end and into -- into a road on the other end.
So is there anyone that might use that sidewalk, if someone
built it?
MR. NINO: This thing -- let me answer that. This exhibit is
unfortunate. I mean, this was artistic license, nothing more than
that. It was not meant to construe that there was going to be a
sidewalk on the south side of Livingston Woods Lane, and since
this caused so much controversy, I suggest to you -- you pull this
exhibit or modify it.
MR. HOOVER: That exhibit came clear back from the first
PUD in there called the Race Trac that some artist up in Atlanta,
Georgia drew to portray to the public what the wall might look
like back there.
MR. NINO: However, Commissioner Richardson wasn't on
the commission at that point in time, and these things bother him
and we -- and he's technically correct, you show it, build it or
change it.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: I support that concept. You might
want to get rid of Exhibit C when you get to the Board of County
Commissioners.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: The only -- the only objection I have to
that, and we have seen a lot of conceptual conceptions, and I --- I
personally can tell a difference between what's going to be and
what we think it's going to be. And -- and I think most of the
folks on the commission understand that, because we've seen a
lot of those posted up there, that this is kind of what it's going to
look like, but we realize that's not a guarantee, and I -- I don't
have a problem with it.
Page 24
February 1, 2001
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: I accept the exhibit then.
MR. HOOVER: If the Planning Commission would include in
their recommendation whether they want the exhibit maintained
or not or you don't care, then we'll just use our best judgment.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Because we constantly hear from the
public what's this thing going to look like. And we're not in site
development plan at this point, where you're going to find out
what it's going to look like.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Well, and quite often what we find
is that the market dictates that it looks better than what was on
the plan that was brought to us.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: And I certainly understand that. But
having said all of that, back to the petitioner.
MR. NINO: You have two speakers.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. But--
MR. YOVANOVICH: I don't have any further questions or
comments.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Anyone from the public wish to address
this issue?
MR. NINO: Linda Falls and Don Falls.
MR. FALLS: I think it was Mr. Richardson that said --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Could you give your name for the court
reporter, please?
MR. FALLS: Don Falls.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
MR. FALLS: I believe Mr. Richardson said that the planners
are encouragers, or the proponents or whatever, of ideas and
that the commissioners were the demanders of whatever is
passed. Well, last time when we met the commissioners
demanded that the wall be put up and separate the community
from the high density commercial development, and now they're
talking about, well, we're just going to punch this road through,
and I say, what road? You talk about a road, there is no road.
It's just woods that you people decide, in your wisdom, we're
going to put a road right here.
Well, when I was putting my house here, and I just decided I
wanted some peace and quiet, I wanted to live on Livingston
Woods Lane, and at that time Pine Ridge Road was just a dirt
road. Now, all of a sudden you're going to put a road right in
front of my house, and that's going to be the gateway to Naples.
Page 25
February 1, 2001
MR.
MR.
MR.
MR.
there.
And you talk about, well, we need more flow of traffic. Well,
yeah, fine, but they have egress and ingress at one location now.
When they put the new road in, we're going to have two egress
and ingress roads.
Now you want three. Why? So all of the people come off
1-75, the first light they come to, well, they're going to start going
through our community, and do the people want it, no. Nobody
wants it. They all voted to keep it separated, and that's what the
commissioners decided. They wanted to separate our property
from the high density properties, and they put this wall up with
the sidewalk, and incidentally the people thought, well, there's a
sidewalk, it looked nice, they thought they were getting one, but
they were more concerned with just the separation of the
community from the high density. And now all of a sudden this --
this road's going to come through.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY'- What's -- where's this --
excuse me, sir. Sir, where is the western terminus of Livingston
Woods Lane? Does it go through to Airport Road?
MR. FALLS: The western terminus of what?
COMMISSIONER ABERNATH¥: Your street, Livingston
Woods Lane, where if you go west on it, where do you end up?
MR. FALLS: If you go west, you go to Livingston Road.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: No, that's east.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: That's west.
MR. NINO: That's west. Commissioner, it goes to the
freeway and then parallel to the freeway.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: That's going east.
MR. NINO: That's going east, correct.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Livingston Road is west.
MR. NINO: No, Livingston Woods--
MR. FALLS: Livingston Woods Lane runs east and west.
NINO: - is east and west off of Livingston Road.
BELLOWS: This is Livingston Road --
FALLS: Perpendicular, which goes north and south.
BELLOWS: Livingston Woods Lane is a dead end right
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: So people could use that as a
cut-through to avoid the intersection of-- of Pine Ridge and
Livingston.
MR. NINO: That's possible.
Page 26
February 1, 2001
MR. FALLS: But then you'd have all these people coming
into our neighborhood and there's no place to go. All you've got
is a residential area. It's not like there are commercial places
there. And they already have -- they'll have two entrances and
exits. And everyone before has all signed the petition saying
they don't want this road.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: I have a question of Mr. Falls.
Where actually do you live on Livingston Road? How close are
you to this particular project we're discussing today?
MR. FALLS: It would come out right in front of me, like 300
feet.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO:
MR. FALLS: Yes.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO:
Three hundred feet.
And you've been there for how
long?
MR. FALLS: I've there for like 30 years.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Wow.
MR. FALLS: And they said there'd be a road. There was
never a road. They talk about a road like it's there. There's no
road.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any further questions?
If not, thank you, sir.
Next speaker.
MR. NINO: Linda.
MRS. FALLS: Hello, my name is Linda Falls. I'm not going to
repeat what my husband just said, but I'm going to emphasize a
few of his points. And one is the fact that the entrance to
Livingston Woods community and I am -- we are here
representing our community, will be the same with the new
development, without Whippoorwill opening up as it has been
since the conception (sic} of this community; that is, that
everyone on each street goes west onto the existing Livingston
Road to exit and then makes a left-hand turn on Livingston Road
and gets onto Pine Ridge Road. The new road will allow us to
make a right-hand turn going north on the new Livingston Road.
It is not -- we do not have and will not have a better flow of
traffic in our community because of Whippoorwill and it's ironic
that this particular site is being used to open into our community
because the Race Trac site was the very reason that the wall
was mandated. The Race Trac grass -- gas station was the
Page 27
February 1, 2001
whole purpose and initiated that eight-foot wall that runs along
Livingston Woods Lane. And now there is a proposal to open
right at the very point that we objected so strongly about.
And so we are here to appeal to your -- indulge in your
kindness and your thoughts on this and not allow this to happen
or not recommend to the Board of County Commissioners that
this be opened, because, apparently, the Board of County
Commissioners is wanting to access these roads for the benefit
of the people in the community, and I'm here to tell you today
that the people in the community do not want this road opened.
That we will be -- we are satisfied with the way we are accessing
Livingston Road as it exists today, and we will continue to be
satisfied with that.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: About how many people are in
your particular community?
MRS. FALLS: What would you say?
MR. FALLS: Two hundred and fifty.
MRS. FALLS: Yeah, about two, 250 people.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: And you're here representing that
group of people?
MRS. FALLS: Yes. We are going to have petitions signed so
that you will not go by our word, but that you will have people's
signatures and objections to this for the Board of County
Commissioners.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any further questions? If not, thank
yOU,
MRS. FALLS: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any further comments from the
petitioner?
MR. YOVANOVICH: If I may, I want to point out a very
important point in this -- the objections you've heard all relate to
traffic, not to any of the uses. So I think that I'd like to keep
those issues separate, and I believe that there is no objection to
the uses, so.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Anyone else from the public? If not,
any further questions from the commissioners? If not, I'll close
the public meeting and entertain a motion.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Mr. Chairman, I'd like to
move that we forward this petition recommending approval. To
Page 28
February 1, 2001
me there's a certain inconsistency, the staff recommends that
we forward it recommending approval, and if we do that as it's
written, that doesn't include punching through the road.
So on the one hand they have said we want to punch the
road -- our transportation people want to punch the road through,
and on the other hand, they're recommending that we forward
petition PUD 00. -- -6 with the recommendation of approval and
that petition does not include the northward extension, so.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: So what you're saying, your motion
does not include the addition we got --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: That's right.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: And I would second that.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. Moved by Commissioner
Abernathy, seconded by Commissioner Priddy. Any further
discussion?
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Does that include then the -- oh,
that's right. I think you discussed the east/west acc -- crossroad,
that the north access, the first point of access, you're going to
take care of that in the site plan, right?
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: That's where it should be, I
think.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Rather than here. Okay. So we
don't want any part of this. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Seeing no further discussion, all in
favor of the motion, signify by saying aye. Opposed?
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: I'm opposed, with
explanation.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Sure.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: I really am concerned about
the direction that we're going by putting more and more traffic
on roads that are failed. And without any linkage by -- to benefit
everyone, to try and link these things together to make this
concurrency happen. I think it's just really improper for us to
continue to pour more traffic onto roadways that are not ready
yet. We've got a plan. Why can't these things be developed --
why can't these developments be timed to work and come out at
the right end so it benefits everyone? So I'm willing to risk the
legal concern that the attorney has raised.
I would strongly vote, no.
Page 29
February 1, 2001
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: So noted. I, you know -- and when I
first got on the commission I had the same thoughts you did. I
would suggest you get with -- with the transportation department
or probably Marjorie, and have her go over that. It might --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Well, what she's going to
tell me is the law says we can't have an opinion on this matter,
and I'm going to have an opinion.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Well, I didn't say that. I'm just saying
what -- where it puts the county's position in terms of the legal
position.
MS. STUDENT: It's just -- I think the predicate for the law is
it takes awhile to get developments done and it takes awhile to
get roads done.
So if the road is being worked on, and the development is
coming in, this is just a reason it's not getting building permits or
anything, that they both take time, and I think that's the
predicate for the reason. And I think, I mean, I don't want to go
into a lengthy discussion of concurrency and everything here, but
it is in the state law that there is a three-year window for
roadway. And a lesser one for parks and rec. facilities.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: I just would like to make the
observation that in a sense we could be destroying a
neighborhood, so we have to pay attention to that concept also,
and it does get very difficult to balance the interconnects and
the ability to travel around various parts of our county, which I
do support, but you also have to balance that with the major
impact on a neighborhood, and I think this neighborhood is going
to be very organized to explain what their impact is, and how
they perceive it.
So that is another very serious concern that we have to look
at. And that's why I could vote, yes, not to have that road there.
MS. STUDENT: And I might add that we have a process for
this. We don't do it really case by case, unless there's an issue
with the five percent rule under policy 5.1 of the transportation
element where reasons are looked at and assessed, and if
there's a certain level of impact. We do this through a process of
the annual update and inventory report, and areas of significant
influence, and it's something that the Board of County
Commissioners has to do to establish the areas of significant
influence, and then look at, you know, deferral of development at
Page 30
February 1, 2001
that time.
So it's not something that's done case by case either. And
there is a process that we have in our adequate public facilities
ordinance that addresses it.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: I'd just like to point out to our --
the rest of the planning commissioners, and I've sat here for
seven and a half out of the last eight and a half years, I'd like to
make rules up as we go, and I'd like to have the final vote, and
our job is to work within the law, within the envelope. We don't
have the wide-open world. Our job is not to look at everything.
Our job is to make recommendations based on inside the lines,
and those lines are drawn before we come to meetings. And it's
hard for the public to understand sometimes, that we just can't
sit up here and -- and have it our way. But we've got to go by our
land development code, the future land use map, and the other
laws and ordinances that are in place, and, you know, we're not
sitting here making judgments and making decisions, having the
freedom to do what we might really want to do, but make
recommendations based, you know, within those guidelines.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: And enough sermons. Let's go on to
the next -- petition PUD 86-22 (2). Is the staff's recommendation
that we hear the next two together, and vote separately? MR. BELLOWS: That's correct.
MR. CRAPARO: I'd like to hear them separately, because I
have different issues on each one of them.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE.' Well, we're going to hear on -- on both
of them, but we're going to hear them together. We will vote
separately at the end. So we're going to hear petition PUD 86-22
(2), and we're also going to hear PUD 88-11 (2), Pine Ridge
Center, and with that --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Are we going to waive
disclosure?
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I have received communication from, I
believe, one of the objectors here or concerned citizens of Mr.
Craparo, I think that it's perhaps the same one.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: That's also my disclosure. Just
put that on the record.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY.' I had the same.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Me too.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Obviously, they didn't care to talk to
Page 31
February 1, 2001
us. Okay. With that, Ray.
All those that wish to give testimony on this, please rise and
raise your right hand and be sworn in by the court reporter.
(The speakers were sworn.)
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
MR. BELLOWS: Okay. The petitioner is requesting to amend
the currently approved Pine Ridge Center PUD and the Pine Ridge
Center West PUD. Basically, they're going to add an east/west
collector road, and add some additional, or additional uses as
noted in the staff report, basically to serve an end user, like a
contractor's office.
As you can see on the location map, the subject site is
located on the south side of Pine Ridge Road and approximately
660 feet west of 1-75. It's adjacent to the approved Pine Ridge --
or Pine View PUD, which also has -- which was approved with
this east/west interconnect frontage road, and to the west is
vacant agricultural land.
As you can see on the master plan, it's designed similar to
the Ragge PUD, and the other PUDs in this quadrant. It has three
tracts, tract A, which abuts agricultural land to the south, as the
water management area and a buffer. The Pine Ridge Center
PUD's to the east. The Pine Ridge Center West is on the other
side of this little cul-de-sac that accesses off of Pine Ridge Road.
This is the currently approved PUD document or master plan
with the addition of an east/west road or interconnect road,
which creates then tract C up front.
And that's the difference between the currently approved
PUD versus what's being proposed now with this amendment.
The subject site's located within the interchange activity center,
which permits these types of uses. So, therefore, it is consistent
with the future land use map.
The environmental staff has recommended approval of this
project. There are no wetland concerns on this site. It did not
have to go to the EAC. So there is no recommendation from the
EAC.
I have received two letters this morning requesting that this
project be -- or having concerns with this project. Basically,
they're concerned about traffic in the area, but this is an existing
approved project. They can build without the approval today of
this amendment. Compatibility analysis of the existing PUDs
Page 32
February 1, 2001
versus this PUD is that they're very similar in nature, in the uses.
The east/west road was designed to connect up with the one
that was approved for the Pine View Center PUD to the east, that
would allow for a frontage road to relieve traffic off of Pine Ridge
Road.
I'll be happy to answer any questions. Staff is
recommending that we approve these -- this PUD amendment.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: These limited changes that
we're talking about today give rise to traffic concerns?
MR. BELLOWS: The letters that were given to me, and I
seem to have misplaced them.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I'm sorry. No comments from the
audience.
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah. And maybe it has to do with the
median cuts for Pine Ridge Road.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Well, the primary change to these PUDs
is internal traffic; is that right, and access to adjoining parcels?
MR. BELLOWS: The PUD was currently approved with the
median as shown.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay.
MR. NINO: The change in the mix of land uses -- Ron Nino --
has significant no change to traffic generation patterns, as a
matter of fact, some of them -- some of them are even less.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you. Any further questions?
MR. NINO: It's important, you know, I think -- I think it's
important for you to recognize that there is an approved
development order here. They can go forward and impact Pine
Ridge Road currently. So the issue that bothered you in the last
petition really should not apply to this one.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Mr. Bellows, just to follow
up on that point, though, I see in there, the stipulations that is,
the development commitments, and I presume -- I don't know
who created this this time, did you guys or did you guys?
MR. BELLOWS: The development commitments back --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Nonetheless, it says the
road improvement required for the project, both site specific and
system capacity, shall be in place prior to the issuance of any
CO. How am I to read that relative to Pine Ridge Road?
MR. BELLOWS: I believe that is --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: It's on 4.8, item G. Is this
Page 33
February 1, 2001
our opportunity?
MR. BELLOWS: That is something that the petitioner has
agreed to in the PUD document.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Then I'm satisfied.
MR. HOOVER: That's relating to like arterial level street
lighting.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Excuse me, can we finish with staff,
please, not to interrupt you? And if -- any further questions of
staff, and then we can hear from the petitioner, sorry.
MR. HOOVER: Oh, my apology. William Hoover, Hoover
Planning, representing the petitioners. We actually volunteered
on the -- when we submitted this to the county. The Pine View
PUD -- let me put this on the overhead. The Pine View PUD came
in since this petition was last heard, and they've went ahead and
shown a cross access road to line up with Dudley Drive. Can you
show Dudley Drive on there, Ray?
So that's the one that's basically a reverse frontage road
behind the, I think it's the Summerlin PUD. So the Pine View
PUD, they've carried that cross access road, conceptually across
to their west property and given us a cross access. And we
further carried this across to the property that's west of our two
PUDs that's owned by Mr. Craparo and the fire station was
carved out of that larger 16 or 18 acres. So what we're doing is
allowing, and I think Mr. Craparo qualifies for commercial under
the office infill commercial district. And the Johnny Ebert's
driving range is further to the west, and it's under a
comprehensive plan amendment to allow commercial there.
So what we have here, I think is going to be one of the
better, if we're going to distribute some traffic and things, we've
got one of the better things going in this case, because
everybody's working together to have a reverse frontage road all
the way from Whippoorwill Lane, all the way, hopefully, to
Livingston Road. But, anyway, we're doing our part to link those
two up. And the uses we're adding here are primarily C-3 land
uses, except for the contractor's office that would be in the
middle, the area B, and those have strict architectural
guidelines, as well as limitations on the size of vehicles and
things like that.
So it's been very carefully monitored or put in so that it
would have a Iow impact.
Page 34
February 1, 2001
CHAIRMAN WRAGE.' Questions of staff -- or excuse me, any
questions of the petitioner?
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Yeah. Mr. Hoover, the --
you've made a right-of-way donation, then, for the expansion of
Pine Ridge Road?
MR. HOOVER: Yes. That's already been accomplished.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any further questions?
If not, can we hear from the public? Ron.
MR. NINO: Mr. Craparo.
MR. CRAPARO: Well, I'll probably refer to some of these
things. My name is Frank Craparo, C-R-A-P-A-R-O. And I hate to
say, there wasn't any right-of-way donation. I have the deed
here, where they got paid 87,000 for -- for the road. And --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: He said it was donated.
MR. CRAPARO: Not according -- it's donated in one section,
then they've got warrants for 83,000, which I was (sic) heard was
checks, which the proof of it will be in here. I'm going to give
you these packets. And if anyone doesn't know, they proposed a
median cut there to replace mine, which has been there since
the road has been concepted. It was a settlement. There's a
copy of the settlement. Let me give you -- give you these
packets so you can follow along. There's not one for everybody,
so if you can share two here, I'd appreciate it. Because they just
got finished at 8:30 this morning. Sorry.
Well, gentlemen and ladies, and fellow citizens, I have a
deep conviction that every property owner, has the right to equal
protection under the government. Today you are the
government. My intent here is to hold up my constitutional right
and everyone's constitutional right to equal protection under the
law, irregardless of special interests or big money or politics or
whatever.
There's another median cut planned besides this that you
probably have -- are not aware of, at the golf driving range. The
deal has been worked out and they're not telling you this. My
median cut is halfway between Livingston and Pine Ridge. It's
been there. There's been no accidents. When they come to
condemn my property they told me they were going to take it
because it was unsafe, which there's never been an accident
there. I told them if they would need lights I would contribute to
Page 35
February 1, 2001
it, as well as any developer would, and under these situations
here, Pine Ridge Center West is abutting what could possibly be
residential property. They have a 10-foot setback on their side
yard, which abuts my house. That's not vacant agricultural land,
like they tell you. It's a house and a plant nursery.
Well, you can see where my property is, 13 opens up to
show you the lay of the land where my property's kind of right in
the middle between Livingston and Pine Ridge. And number two
gives you the court ordered stipulations, the approval by the
county government, and in number six -- page six tells you that I
have a median cut with no qualifications, that they can take it
away without compensating me for it. And Heidi Ashton, the
County Attorney, assured me last year, we'll compensate you for
it, but they've never made any attempt to do so. And I think
we're -- we're falling for, more or less, a trick here because
there's deeds here, number 20 shows a warranty deed by Tony
Jansinger and the same one was presented by Mr. Longo on the
8th of March, 2000 and then evidently their lawyers probably
didn't like that agreement, because it didn't give them a written
right to the median cut, and maybe even only a verbal right, and
another purchase agreement was executed several weeks after
it, March 29th, including this median cut, as one of their rights, in
the purchase agreement, and they have already, according to the
courthouse records, issued a warranty deed on the 8th. So I
don't know -- I'm not represented by anybody but myself. My
lawyer recused himself because the Ball Ridge Company, I think,
made offers on my property, and in their offers, they said they
get rights to the median cut and my lawyer didn't want that
median cut bought out, since it's an expensive part of the deal.
So now I have no lawyer to represent me under the comp --
under condemnation. And as far as the county record, they didn't
donate anything. They were paid 87,000 apiece, 83 or 84, a little
bit of difference in square foot. According to the county records,
is all I can go by. They may have given it back to the county for
signalization or whatever, but there's a lot of discrepancies in
what's going on, and all I can tell you, that median cut, if they
take it, it's going to cost the county quite a bit of money. And I'd
like to settle. I just want to get my -- keep my median cut and
keep my drainage rights that I got under my original agreement.
That's all I want to do. I'm not out to hold the county up, but as
Page 36
February 1, 2001
it is now, I'm residentially, you know, it has a house on it and
nursery, agricultural, the side yard setback cannot be 10 feet on
Pine Ridge west towards my properties. In Livingston Woods,
they want as much as 90 feet, and I think it should be at least a
50-foot setback. There's people from East Coast Developments
who say, well, we'll see you Monday, and maybe buy my property
from -- they have an option on Tony's. I don't know what's going
on, but no one's stealing my property. And I'm going to stick up
for the constitution. I have rights like anyone else, and it's going
to be a hard job to kick me out of there.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you. Any questions of this
petitioner?
MS. STUDENT: Mr. Chairman, Ms. Ashton is here, I know
that she was quoted by the gentleman, and she has a meeting to
go to. So if you have any questions about the history of this
project and the median, she's our condemnation attorney and
she's here for a very limited time. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: I have a question, if I may.
This does seem to be a bit of a conflict here in terms of what
appears to be something that is granted to him by a consent
decree or whatever the right language is and yet in the
development commitment under traffic, it says that the county
reserves the right to change their mind anytime they want to on
median cuts. And that's -- well, I paraphrased, but I could read it
specifically. It reserves the right to restrict and/or modify a
location use of median elements on Pine Ridge Road.
So that tells me that the county can do whatever it feels is
appropriate in terms of larger public interest. Yet Mr. Craparo
says that -- has records that I think you're probably familiar with,
that says he's guaranteed a median cut where it is.
MR. CRAPARO: Well, that was entered into in '82.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Just a minute. He's directed a
question to the attorney. Let her answer, please.
MS. ASHTON: Okay. For the record, I'm Heidi Ashton,
Assistant County Attorney. I need to preface my statements
with, I don't know anything about what this matter is before you.
I just got back from a meeting and I was called down here. So I
need to preface that with I don't know what you're rezoning or
whatever is -- is before you today. But I can tell you that the
county acquired property from Mr. Craparo as part of the Pine
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February 1, 2001
Ridge Road project. The issue of final compensation has not
been resolved with Mr. Craparo. I'm limited in what I can say
today, because it is a pending case. But I can tell you that the
county can go forward with closing the median cut, but I really
can't get into the specifics of the case at this time.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY.' Well, Mr. Chairman, I
appreciate Ms. Ashton's being here, but I don't think anything
she has to say is germane to any issue that's in front of us.
We're here talking about a couple of PUDs and modifications to
them, and we don't have jurisdiction over median cuts.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: My -- I'm glad you brought that up. My
point exactly.
MR. NINO: Mr. Chairman --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE.' We have listened to this gentleman, but
I'm not sure --
MR. CRAPARO: Well, there's going to be two. If you approve
this one, there'll be two, because the golf driving range is in the
process --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: And that's fine. And that's not even
within our -- today. Okay. That's not what we're looking at
today. Okay.
I really appreciate your testimony, but I'm going to have to
say that I think it's borderline irrelevant to us in what we have to
look at. Okay. And I do thank you for your testimony.
MR. CRAPARO: Well, we need the side yard setback
addressed, because we cannot have a 10-foot side yard setback,
when on Livingston Woods, these people required them to have a
90-foot setback behind their house. And I have -- my house is
there and if we do make a residential development, it hasn't been
sold yet. So I want my options open. It's bad enough I have a
fire station that makes a lot of noise. I would -- I would
extremely doubt it'll be residential, but until it's zoned, it is a
residential piece, or potential residential piece, and this side
yard setback is not flying.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I appreciate that. But we do need to
move on. And I've allowed you a certain amount of latitude and
time. Okay. Thank you, sir.
MR. BELLOWS: The PUD document lists--
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: And I thank the County Attorney's
Office, too.
Page 38
February 1, 2001
MR. BELLOWS: -- yeah, the side yard setback in the PUD
document, external to the PUD boundary is 15 feet, not 10.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you. Okay. Anyone else from
the public wish to address this issue?
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: I have a question of staff. What's
the setback -- his property is agricultural, right now? MR. NINO: Correct.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: What's the setback to agriculture
for this PUD --
MR. BELLOWS: This PUD --
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: -- in the code?
MR. BELLOWS: -- for building setbacks aren't based on
adjacent zoning. It's the zoning district setbacks that apply.
This PUD was approved with 15-foot setbacks from the property
line on the side from the PUD.
Now, if they subdivide this into other kinds of tracts or their
buildings may have an internal lot line, then that would be 10
feet internally to the PUD.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Another question for staff,
the traffic person. When this commitment was put in here, I just
want to -- I don't want to misrepresent it. In the development
commitments, where it says, the road improvements for the
project, both within the site and for the system capacity, which I
take to mean all of the traffic around there, it shall be in place
prior to the issuance of the CO.
You support that point and is that accurately stated here?
MS. WOLFF: I would actually ask Ms. Student if she could
give some clarification on that. I have an interpretation of it, but
I believe it would be more of a legal interpretation.
MS. STUDENT: Would you please read the language again?
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Yes. Road improvements
required for this project, both site specific and system capacity
shall be in place prior to the issuance of any certificate of
occupancy for the development. And I'm very comforted by
those words, but I want to make sure that I understand them the
way you understand them.
MS. WOLFF: The way that you are reading it, system
improvements, could be referring to the Pine Ridge Road
widening improvements, which under concurrency, would need
Page 39
February 1, 2001
to be in place or under construction within a five-year period, and
as the language stipulates that they be in place --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Before a CO?
MS. WOLFF: -- before a CO, that's why I -- I'm asking Ms.
Student's --
MS. STUDENT: Well, one of the problems is I did not draft
this language, and so lawyers are constrained by what the intent
is, and what the meaning -- at first blush it certainly looks like it
would be both site related, and further than that, would be
required before any, you know, issue -- rather, before the CO is
issued. However, these stips, come from transportation folks,
and I know Ms. Wolff probably was not here when -- I don't know
if these stips, were changed from the prior PUD or not? MR. HOOVER: I don't believe so.
MS. STUDENT: Ms. Wolff was not here at the time, and they
probably would'ye come from other transportation staff, but it
was -- I think you could make the argument that system capacity
could mean, you know, a lot larger than what's related to the site
or anything internal to the site. So I would have to defer --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: I'm satisfied to the
stipulation. I will press that point no further. Let me ask this
question, if I may. The applicant has said he made a right-of-way
donation, and then I heard the other opponent, if you will, or
concerned citizen, indicate that he'd been paid for it. Which is
it? Did he make a right-of-way donation or did he get paid for it?
MS. WOLFF: I'm not exactly sure if they -- their donation, if it
was an actual donation, or if there was a -- a payment on that. I
don't have that specific information. I do -- do believe we are
either in the process of having -- are in the process of either
condemnation or have the right-of-way in hand for the entire Pine
Ridge Road project, which we're required to, in order to proceed
with the construction.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Then I'll accept his
evidence, then, that he did make the donation. So we can settle
-- that's all right. That's fine. I just wanted to clear that up in my
mind.
COMMISSIONER BUDD: I heard something a little bit
different. The question that was presented to Mr. Hoover was
sort of on the lines of had you stopped beating your wife yet; in
other words, it was no good answer. You asked him if it was
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February 1,200t
donated. He said, the matter has been resolved. I don't think he
said it was donated, and the bottom line is, for the items in front
of us, we don't care. It's not relevant to the petition in front of
US,
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: It's one of the stipulations.
COMMISSIONER BUDD'- It's been resolved.
MR. HOOVER: I just wanted to clarify that. I understood,
apparently, I misinterpreted your question, Commissioner
Richardson. I thought your question was have we ended up
taking care of that issue, and, yes, we didn't fight the county,
take it to court, all that kind of stuff. The county offered to
purchase the land. The two petitioners did end up selling the
land to the county. Yes, it was not donated. So that was not my
intention to say that it was donated, but that the issue had been
resolved.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: I'll try to make my questions
more clear next time. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any -- okay. Any further question of
staff?
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: I have a question of Mr. Hoover.
Mr. Hoover, if you did not come here this morning and had gone
to Horseshoe Drive and pulled permits, what could you do -- what
could you go get permits for without asking us any questions, for
this property?
MR. HOOVER: Well, we could pull permits to put up
commercial structures. Now - now one issue that Mr. Craparo is
saying, I think he's -- we did not change the access where it was
shown. So there's a median opening shown out there. We did
not change that on the PUD master plan; however, when we went
ahead and applied for a site development plan to put up a
commercial structure, the engineer would apply for a
right-of-way permit through the county transportation
department, and at that time they, based on the language in the
PUD document, they always have the ability, they can cut that
median off, or we can even build it later on based on the PUD
document three years later, maybe there's not a safe way to
make a left-hand turn into the project. The county transportation
department could cut -- cut our left turn into the project.
So that's -- the PUD master plan is intended to be
conceptual in nature, and when the project comes in, and you
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February 1, 2001
show all of the engineering details, that's when the county
issues the right-of-way permit and tells you exactly what type of
access you're going to get.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: My real point is, if you pull the
permits today, build something in six months -- MR. NINO: May I answer that question?
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: -- can you move into it? Can you
occupy it, or do you have to wait for Pine Ridge Road to be
completely widened to six lanes and the pretty flowers planted
and all that?
MR. HOOVER: Well, we can occupy it as soon as we get --
MR. NINO: May I answer that question? That decision is
going to be up to our office, quite frankly. And I wasn't aware of
that item G, and the way I read item G, they're not going to get a
building permit until Pine Ridge Road is completed. Now, if they
don't mean that, they better change item G.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: You said building permit?
MR. NINO: Correct.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Didn't you mean --
MR. NINO: Correct. No, the certificate of occupancy.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Certificate of occupancy, big
difference.
MR. NINO: They'd be awfully foolish, yeah, --
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Big difference.
MR. NINO.' They'd be awfully foolish to get a building permit
when a certificate of occupancy is 18 months away with the
completion of Pine Ridge Road.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Well, they could get a slow
contractor. It would work out.
MR. NINO: If you don't believe, I mean, I interpret item G to
mean that Pine Ridge Road widening has to be completed before
you can get any certificate of occupancy.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I certainly would not want to be the
lender on that project. If you're going to build it --
MR. HOOVER: I don't -- based on what we've heard earlier
from Rich Yovanovich and the county attorney, I think we can
request that system capacity -- the sentence -- the part where it
says both site specific, that can be required, but and system
capacity, I don't think the county can require that to be done. So
we would like to request that that be taken out.
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February 1, 2001
MR. NINO: I don't think you have to do it. I agree. And I
suspect that this language got in here about four years ago, and
the board at that time expressed that concern, and that's why it
got added. I don't remember the history, but I suspect -- I
suspect that's the way it came about, but we're now in a
different environment, and you're correct, legally you don't have
to do this under our growth management plan, but -- and you
should ask to have it taken out.
MS. STUDENT: And Ron -- Ron's correct, and when people
come in, and the PUD document is developed -- and just explain
this for the new members on the board, yes, the petitioner
always brings in a PUD document that's -- that's like their first
draft and stuff they'd like to see. Our office reviews it. Staff
reviews it and things get changed around based on legal
requirements and so on. It looks as though a PUD, the court's
have ruled, are consensual really in nature, between the
applicant and the government. So if they agree to do something
that's more restrictive than the law, that's okay. If it comes
down to an argument over it and can we make them do it, then
that's a different story. And I would look at that as something
that had been previously, you know, agreed to. CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: A procedure question, I'm not
sure who's supposed to answer this. But I think I'm looking at a
document that was filed, previously. Are we looking at a new
PUD document? Is that what we're talking about, or was this
incorporated once before? In the interchange here, you've
confused me a little bit.
MR. BELLOWS: These are amended PUD documents.
Basically, the language that's carried over from the original
approval, with whatever modifications are being proposed and
discussed today.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: So it's fair to say that, and system
capacity was included in the original PUD document. MR. BELLOWS: May have definitely been.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Therefore, in the procedural logic
that I'm following here, we're making a bunch of changes and
this is going to be one more we're going to add here to pull out
that specific, and system capacity, from this document?
MR. HOOVER: I did not support that.
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February 1, 2001
MR. NINO: If that's what you decide to do.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: If-- now it's not an if yet. It's --
I'm trying to find the procedure. MR. NINO: Correct.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Because --
MR. NINO: That would be the procedure.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: So in our motion we would need to
say, we'd need to change item G on page 15. I just want to be
clear on this, whether I agree or don't agree with it. MR. NINO: Correct.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Further questions? Let's close the
public meeting. And remind -- before I ask for a motion, we have
two items, we need to have a motion on each separately and
vote separately, and with that I'd entertain a motion?
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Mr. Chairman, I will make a
motion to approve the PUD 86-22 (2}, on our agenda item C, to
forward it to the -- where did it go, Board of County
Commissioners for their final approval.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Motion made, is there a second?
COMMISSIONER YOUNG: Second.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Motion made by Commissioner
Richardson, seconded by Commissioner Young, any further
discussion.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Point of clarification.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: As we have discussion, I would
like to have the language cleaned up so that it does not
stimulate or cause a lawsuit to the county or with Pine Ridge
Road being completed. I think the law's clear, or the intent
there, so I'd like to see that portion of this cleaned up. MS. STUDENT: Is that item G, you mean?
MR. NINO: So why not -- so why not offer a motion, an
amended motion, and under parliamentary procedures, the
amendment gets voted on first, so you can get a second there.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: We have a motion and a second
on the floor right now. We have to ask the motion person -- MR. NINO: No, no, no, no.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: I would simply offer an amended
motion --
MR. NINO: You can put a -- you could pull -- you can put a
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February 1, 2001
motion to amend up, and if you can get a second then you vote
on the amendment first.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY.' Then -- then I would propose that
we clean up the language in item G to not require the completion
of the road work on Pine Ridge before CO.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: I second it.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: So moved by--
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Question on that motion, Mr.
Chairman.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Let me -- let me -- let me get the
document A part of it first, because there's been a motion made
-- an amendment motion made by Commissioner Priddy,
seconded by Commissioner Rautio, that item G be, basically,
resolved, is that --
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Only the portion of the system
capacity issue.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. So noted. Okay. Discussion on
the amendment?
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Discussion on the
amendment. I would remind the commissioners that this is not a
brand new PUD. This is one that has -- that this applicant,
through this process, has approved this -- has approved, agreed
to this stipulation many years ago, and as the -- our attorney has
suggested to us, an applicant can agree to something that's
more restrictive than what our code calls for. I feel he has done
that and this has been carried, and I object, therefore, to having
it amended to now give him a -- a new lease on life, that he
already has given us by allowing that capacity to be in place.
That's my logic.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Where I'm sympathetic with that
statement, Commissioner Richardson, I feel that I would not
want to be in a position to have a real legal issue argued here,
such as Commissioner Priddy had brought up, that's why I
seconded his motion. And I would like to see it out of whatever
we do with this project.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Reality is also that by the time
they get -- get something constructed, the timing is going to be
real, real close, anyway.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: But I asked that question to
staff, and they were -- there was an 18-month discrepancy to
Page 45
February 1,200t
what their answer --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATH¥: Technically, in this PUD to
PUD process, we're not amending the old PUD. We're just
making a modification to the current PUD.
MS. STUDENT: That's -- that's not really what -- you're
readopting the whole document again. If we did it by way of
strike through and underline language, where just the specific
piece that was taken out was stricken through and underlined,
so what you're really doing is modifying the PUD document, and
really readopting it, because I don't have the language of the
ordinance right in front of me, but I believe there's repealing
language for the prior PUD.
So that would mean you're adopting this new one, as --
which contains a lot of the old stuff, but also with the changes,
and that's what --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I thought that's what I just
said?
MS. STUDENT: Well --
MR. NINO: Well, you know, may I offer something for the
record? And I really don't want to get -- well, let me offer
something for the record. You just passed the petition for a PUD
on the north side, which doesn't have that stipulation, you know,
which -- which is not constrained from going forward
immediately. And isn't there an issue of fairness here, I mean,
you're going to let the guy across the street, who's coming in the
door at the last minute, get building permits, and go forward, but
somebody across the street not go.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Mr. Nino, I'm sympathetic to
that, but this applicant has provided this language, and has
supported it throughout perhaps several years. I don't know the
history of this PUD. And so why give it up?
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I think we heard the petitioner ask us
to remove it, if possible.
MR. HOOVER: Could I make a statement on --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Actually, we're out of the public
hearing.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Well, let's call the question
and get it over with.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: I have one more comment and
point of clarification, just so it's on the record. The ordinance
Page 46
February 1, 2001
that I have in front of me, under section two, definitely says that
the ordinance number 98-32 known as the Pine Ridge West PUD,
adopted April 28, 1998, by the Board of County Commissioners of
Collier County, is hereby repealed in its entirety. So it's in there
to repeal.
MS. STUDENT: I can -- I can explain it later. It's a -- it's a
way to -- instead of doing a line-by-line strike through and
underlining, we make the changes in the new PUD document,
repeal the old one. So you're really readopting the whole thing
again, even as it existed before with the changes and it's
different than an amendment, because the amendment -- the old
thing stays and all your changing is the stricken through and
underlining part.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: We all agree to that.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Which we agree to that, and
that's why I'm going to stick with my position that we pull out
the terms that we discussed before in G, and system capacity,
comma.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: With that, all those in favor of the
amendment to the motion, signify -- in favor of the motion, signify
by saying aye.
Opposed?
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Opposed.
COMMISSIONER YOUNG: No.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Two nos.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Yes.
COMMISSIONER YOUNG: Yes.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. Now we need to vote on the
motion.
MR. NINO: As amended.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: As amended. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: I withdraw my motion.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Mr. Chairman, I move that we
forward PUD-90--
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Wait a minute, don't we have to
withdraw the second on that also?
COMMISSIONER YOUNG: Oh, in that case I do too, yes.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Mr. Chairman, I move that we
forward PUD-86-22 (2) to the Board of County Commissioners
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February 1, 2001
with a recommendation of approval, with the change in language
in item G.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Second.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Just a point of clarification, because
we have a new motion, the amendment is moot and gone, right?
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Right.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. The motion was made by
Commissioner Priddy and seconded by Commissioner Abernathy,
any discussion on that motion?
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: It does include the removal of the
system capacity issue?
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Yes.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: All in figure -- all in favor of that motion,
signify by saying aye. Opposed?
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Opposed.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Six to one. Okay. I would hope we
have some consistency and we have a motion on the second half
of this -- of the PUD that we're talking about today.
COMMISSIONER BUDD: Mr. Chairman, I make a
recommendation that we forward petition PUD 88-11 (2) with a
recommendation for approval, with the same item G
modification.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Second.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Moved by Commissioner Budd,
seconded by Commissioner Rautio. Any discussion? All those in
favor of that motion signify by saying aye. Opposed?
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Opposed.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Same. Anybody need a quick break?
Let's just take a couple of minutes. (A short break was taken.)
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. Let's reconvene the meeting.
And we're going right to, what seems to be the Hoover show this
morning, to, whoops, wrong one. We got rid of that one. Thank
you. Moving on to CU-2000-17, VoiceStream Wireless. All of
those who wish to give testimony on this, please rise and raise
your right hand and be sworn in by the court reporter.
(The speakers were sworn.)
Page 48
February 1, 2001
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you. Chahram.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: Good morning, commissioners,
Chahram Badamtchian from planning services staff. This is a
conditional use for a communication tower for Big Corkscrew
Island Fire Control District. They need a tower for the
communication system, and this tower is going to be 198 feet
high. Our code requires that when building a tower, to make
space available for other users so we do not end up having one
communication tower every few thousand feet; therefore, they
are making space available on this tower. In addition to their
own use, and possible county or other emergency and public
safety users for some cellular phone companies, which is a
required condition of the land development code.
Staff reviewed this. It complies with section 2.6.35.6.3 of
the land development code for essential services. And staff
recommends approval of this conditional use. CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Questions of staff?
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Yeah. We -- we require them to
make space available, but what has taken place in the past, and
I don't know if we've tightened up on it, you know, we don't
actually make the next guy who comes along go there. How are
we working --
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: No, when there's no space available,
we do really allow them to build another tower.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Okay.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN.' First they have to go and make sure
that there is no space available on this tower before we allow
them to build another one, and they are making space available
for other cell phone users.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY.' I just wanted to make sure we
had gotten to the point that -- because we have had some in the
past that were, you know, constructed fairly close together --
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: We are tightening the system.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: -- that turned out to be more of an
ego thing on the engineer's part for the new company, as
opposed to the existing.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN.' These towers are not cheap to build, if
they can pay rent and be on somebody else's tower, they will do
it, and the tower owner makes money by allowing somebody else
to move to that tower.
Page 49
February 1, 2001
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Question of staff. Have you
received any objections to this?
MR. BADAMTCHIAN.' No, I have not.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. With that, can we hear from the
petitioner?.
MR. RESSING: I believe he said it all.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: In other words, you have no further
comment?
MR. RESSING: Not at all.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any further questions of the petitioner?
If not, members of the public wish to speak on this issue? I saw
some people stand up, now's your chance. If not, I'll close the
public hearing.
Do I hear a motion?
COMMISSIONER BUDD: Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that
we forward petition CU-2000-17 to the Board of County
Commissioners with a recommendation for approval.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Second.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Motion made by Commissioner Budd,
seconded by Commissioner Rautio, any discussion? If not, all
those in favor of this motion, signify by saying aye? Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Motion carried.
Please fill out your conditional use petition and pass it down
to the vice president, as our secretary seems to be still out of --
out of the country.
And with that, we'll move on to CU-2000-20. All those who
wish to give testimony on this please rise, raise your right hand
and be sworn in by the court reporter. (The speakers were sworn.)
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: I believe the applicant is outside.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: He was not sworn in.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Somebody will get them while you start
your testimony.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: Chahram Badamtchian from planning
services staff. This is a conditional use for earth mining to be
located on Friendship Lane, approximately a quarter mile north
of Immokalee Road. The site consists of 4.4 acres. And they are
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February 1, 2001
planning on excavating 1.8 acres. And they are leaving enough
room for a house on the site. This is within the NRPA area, and
within the final order of governor and cabinet area; however, that
order exempts earth mining.
So earth mining would be a permitted use under that order.
Staff reviewed this petition. This is one of those small lots
in an area that does subdividing into five-acre lots, and there are
people living in the area. Therefore, staff recommends approval
subject to all of the staff conditions, which are included in the
resolution of approval. I should add that I have received several
telephone calls and people that came to development services to
object to this petition.
MR. NINO: Chahram, are you -- are you sure this is in NRPA?
MR. BADAMTCHIAN.' I'm sorry. That's not in a NRPA area.
I'm sorry. It's not in a NRPA area.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Chahram, you said they're going
to dig out 1.8 acres. They're going to leave .4 for a home site,
the balance of that land is buffer area or setback?
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: The balance of that is basically the
buffer area, allowing the center line -- allowing this Friendship
Lane to have a 60-foot buffer, and other sites they have a 20 to
30 foot buffer.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: I have a bit of a concern, and I'm
-- I'm probably, with at least one little modification, going to go
along with this today. But I have a big concern in that area of
the county that -- that everybody that's got a five acre lot is
going to want to do this, and I would suggest to staff that we
take a look at amending our land development code that would
not allow a small parcel to, you know, dig out, sell the dirt and
build a house, and I don't know what that threshold ought to be,
whether it ought to be 10, 15, 20, or whatever, but I would ask
staff to look at that and maybe get that in the cycle.
MR. NINO: We are in the process of doing that, actually.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Okay.
MR. NINO: And we have a joint meeting with the county
commissioners to discuss the whole issue of excavations,
particularly their impact in the estates area. But we're also
looking at excavations in terms of the agricultural area. That is
underway.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Could you shed some light --
Page 51
February 1, 2001
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Just a second. I'm sorry. I forgot what
I was going to say. I've got a comment, but go ahead.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: You can go first, you're the
chairman.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Well, I'm the one that's been bending
some commissioners' ears about this, and one thing that has
come to mind, and I'm sure it'll be discussed, is those folks that
say, I own five acres and I just want to dig a lake, and one way of
getting rid of the dirt, obviously, and paying for it, and I certainly
have a problem with that, but I do have a problem with the five
acre here, there, everywhere, that I can foresee someday the
county or somebody who buys the tax certificate owning with
weeds and rocks. We've had that discussion before. MR. BADAMTCHIAN: Yes, we had --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I'm sure that's going to be addressed.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: We've had this discussion before.
That's why we're requiring that they leave enough land for a
house. So the county doesn't end up owning a lake with all of
the liabilities--
CHAIRMAN WRAGE:
MR. BADAMTCHIAN:
CHAIRMAN WRAGE:
Right.
-- and with no value.
Commissioner Rautio.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Could anybody shed any light on
why this Friendship Lane area seems to be so popular to dig
these out.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: There's good sand there, I believe.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Good sand?
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: Good sand, and, yes, they are -- that's
what they are trying to excavate.
This Flat Road and Red -- what's that name, Red Deer Road,
Friendship Lane and Lilac Road, that's where all the good sand is
-- is located, and people, they are just buying five acres to
excavate and sell the sand.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: And when you say, good, is there
some criteria that you're talking about, being a contractor who
would buy sand, I mean, I'm just curious?
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: It's suitable dirt, it's --
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Suitable dirt.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Good fill dirt.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: -- good fill or good quality dirt. I don't
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February 1, 2001
know what --
MR. NINO: We can get the engineer to address that.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: The engineer can address that.
There's a reason everybody wants to excavate in this area, and
up on the east Trail, let's say.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Thank you. I'll -- we'll ask when
the petitioners get up here.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any further questions of staff?
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Mr. Chairman, if I may, can
you -- are you suggesting that it's good fill all around here? Are
there other excavation sites that we should be aware of in here?
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: But there are -- there are two on Lilac
Road, which is further to the west. There is one on Flat Road,
which is -- this is Friendship Lane, somewhere -- somewhere in
here, and there's one on Red Deer Road and there's a very large
one in here, that it's called something -- MR. NINO: Song Lakes.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: The one on Red Deer Road,
how does -- how do those excavation trucks get out?
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: I couldn't find any conditional use for
that. I don't know when that thing happened, but they are
basically using several routes to get out and Friendship Lane, I
believe, is one of them. And --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Because I notice one of the
recommendations here is to, or agreements is to pave, you know,
a small portion of Friendship Lane just to serve this site, and I'd
be concerned if there's other excavation trucks using this same
road, that we should have some general improvement on that
entire road.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: Correct, but for that Red Deer Lane
(sic) I couldn't find any conditional use. I don't know if that pit is
a legal one. And the other ones that we have approved in the
past, we always had these conditions and I'm going to ask the
code enforcement to look into that.
stipulations for the Lilac Road ones,
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON:
tract.
And we had these similar
and --
I don't see Lilac Road on the
MR. BADAMTCHIAN.' Lilac Road is further to the west, I
believe, it's outside of this map. It's basically parallel to --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Okay.
Page 53
February 1, 2001
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. Any further questions of staff. If
not, we can hear from the petitioner, please.
MR. DAVIDSON'. I apologize, but we stepped out --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Would you step up to the -- step up to
the mike and we'll have you sworn in.
MR. DAVIDSON: We weren't -- we weren't sworn in yet this
morning.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: We will take care of that.
Okay. Let's start from scratch, those who want to give
testimony on this please raise (sic) and raise your -- that haven't
previously been sworn in, okay, raise your right hand and be
sworn in by court reporter.
(The speakers were sworn.)
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you.
MR. DAVIDSON: For the record, I'm Jeff Davidson, the
engineer for the applicant, and I'm familiar with Red Bird -- the
excavation on Red Bird, I was involved in getting that -- the
conditional use and the permitting of that, as well, that's -- they
do use that -- the same road that we're -- we're proposing to use.
They actually use a lot more of it, because they're further to the
north. They probably use -- probably three quarters of a mile of
Friendship Lane. And it's all -- it's a larger excavation, and it's
completed. I spoke to the owner a few days ago, and that's a
completed excavation, that it was legal. They haven't done their
final report yet, which is due soon. So they can get their bond
released, but they do use the same -- same road.
And one thing I want to say about the one that's before you
today is we're concerned about the stipulation for the turn lane,
and the main reason for that is because this excavation is so
small, I mean, it's only a little over two acres, and it's -- the
duration of this excavation will probably be about six months, to
-- we're limited to 18 months by the stipulation, but I -- we think --
the owner happens to be the excavator, as well. He thinks he
can have this completed within six months. And the number of
trips, if I could, I'd like to read a section out of the staff report.
This is a section in the staff report that -- that relates to traffic
and we agree with this, but I'd like to just reiterate it if I could.
It says, the ITE trip generation manual indicates that this site
will generate 10 to 20 trips on a weekday. Based on this data,
the site generated traffic will not exceed the significant test
Page 54
February 1, 2001
standard, five percent of the level of service C design volume on
any county road.
In addition, the site generated trips will not lower the level
of service between the adopted level of service D standard for
any segment within the project's radius of development.
And based on that, we would like to have the stipulation for
the turn lane removed, because requiring the turn lane in this
conditional use is -- is the same as denial of this project.
If there's any questions, I'll be glad to answer them.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Question for counsel.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Sure.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: If you don't mind. You say
about -- can you give me a -- I can't work the math, 20 trips a day,
that'd be 20 truckloads of dirt, and all over a six-month period, on
a five or six day operation. Would you be able to excavate the
size hole you want there?
MR. DAVIDSON: Yes, sir. And I ran it this morning to -- so I
could answer that question, and if you use a typical 250 day
work -- year, 250 day year, those are workdays in the year, for
this volume, we have 56,000 cubic yards. It comes out to 12
trips per day, and that's only for workdays. So if you go to six
months, or, you know, less than a year, you're probably looking
at 20. So that's why there's a range there between 20 and 10.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any further questions?
Do you have a comment, Ron?
MR. NINO: If that's the case, we have to put a six-month
time limit on it.
MR. DAVIDSON: We may be able to do it in six months, and
-- but we can't guarantee six months. The excavation, just like
everything else, other construction, is market. It's controlled by
the market, and it could take more than six months, but we think
-- weather, things like that, so we'd like to have a longer required
period than six months, and we've stipulated now to 18 months.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: So -- but you'd go for seven
or something.
MR. DAVIDSON: Somewhere in there. I mean, we'll do what
it takes to not have the turn -- turn lane included in the
stipulations.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Well, you're talking about the
owner being the excavator, could somebody just sort of let me
Page 55
February 1, 2001
know how many years of experience he's had, and what he's
going to do? What kind of equipment are you going to use to dig
this hole in six months?
MR. BARRY: Good morning. My name is John Barry. I am
one of the owners of the excavation company. I have a dump
truck business in town, Barry Land Development. It is a service
that we haul to many developers here in town for sand,
aggregate, fill dirt for the home builders. I do have contracts
with a handful of them. Mainly the fill dirt will be excavated out
of there with the sand -- excuse me, to support home building in
Collier County. I'd like to get it out of there as soon as possible,
that is the objective, but, you know, like Jeff Davidson had said,
that there's -- it will be a problem with weather, inclementing
(sic) rain. Rain is hard to excavate dirt, when it -- when it rains.
The lake would fill up. It's impossible to dig out dirt in the rainy
season, or it at least slows it down.
The other stipulation would be that -- that would slow it
down, would be the factor of, you know, the market going a little
bit to the south, that would require, you know, nobody wanting
the dirt at that particular time. I mean, if -- if the -- if the building
market slows down and nobody's building houses, then the dirt's
not going anywhere, but, you know, as of right now, you know, I'd
like to get it out of there in six months. The sooner the better for
me, anyway. But I've been doing this for about six years, to
answer your question.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Okay. I apologize. What was your
name?
MR. BARRY: John Barry.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: John Barry, and --
MR. BARRY: That's correct
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: I mean, this is a technical thing,
but it shows here that BC Excavating of Naples, Inc., percentage
of stockholders, there's no percentage, it only says Brian Carey
owns it.
MR. BARRY: Yes, ma'am. It's a 50 -- 50/50 percent
ownership between that company. BC Excavating is owned by
me and Brian Carey, that's correct.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Okay. Well, then that's an error in
the document we have.
MR. BARRY: That is correct, yes.
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February 1, 2001
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Thank you. Clear that up for the
record.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Mr. Chairman --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Let me -- let me finish that, because I
was looking at the same thing. So there's a 50/50 ownership of B
& C Excavating between John Barry and your yourself; is that
right?
MR. BARRY: No -- no, sir. Between Brian Carey.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Brian Carey.
MR. BARRY: That's correct.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: I'm sorry. Okay. Believe it or not, that
is important to us, and it's important to the board to know in
order that there's no conflict.
MR. BARRY: I understand.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: That should be fixed by the time
this petition -- my recommendation to staff is to get this fixed
when it goes to the Board of County Commissioners.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: The application just gave one name for
the owner of the company. The application just gave one name
for the owner of the company, not two names as --
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: That is correct, but it's obviously
-- when it says percentage of stock, percentage of stock is not
represented by the words Brian Carey, so that was an immediate
flag for me. It was incorrectly done.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Mr. Barry, you can probably live
with a half acre home site left as opposed to .4, that --
MR. BARRY: I'm not following you, you say make it a home
site area larger than what's recommended? COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Right.
MR. BARRY: The lake was already brought down in scale,
only because of the setback on the -- I believe it would be the
south side of the road. There's a big easement there that -- that
is -- is already brought the lake -- the lake was originally
proposed at over two acres, to get the maximum amount of dirt
out of there and still leave sufficient room for a home site. I was
already increased because of that -- I'm not even familiar with
the term for it, but there's a larger easement there on the south --
on the south side of that property that made that home site
actually bigger than what it's originally supposed to be.
Page 57
February 1, 2001
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: My concern is this home site, the
smaller the home site, the smaller the home, and, you know,
we're going to attract something different there than that we
might if we had a larger home site. What I see in this project is
an estate home site when you're done. MR. BARRY: Yes.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: A bigger home, a nicer piece of
property. Not an 800 square foot build it yourself, concrete block
home, put in there after you've, you know, gotten the money out.
MR. BARRY: Yes, I understand.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: So I'm going to attempt anyway to
make that home site slightly bigger for you. Can you live with
working from seven in the morning to five at night?
MR. BARRY: I'd like to be able to start a little bit earlier. I
can live with the five o'clock at night, but the seven in the
morning is too late.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: 6:30 in the morning, which is the
ordinance, I believe.
MR. BARRY: 6:30 I believe is the ordinance.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: 6:30 to five, and you don't need to
work on Saturdays or Sundays?
MR. BARRY: Half a day on Saturday, no Sundays, no
holidays.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: I -- okay. I'm going to attempt to
make that five days a week, and extend it to a year's time period
for you.
MR. BARRY: Can I -- can I -- can we negotiate in between
there, too, I'm thinking maybe we could --
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: I'm just one of the players.
MR. BARRY: I'm just thinking that maybe if it was a
situation of no Saturdays, being able to haul out of there, but if
we are allowed to excavate dirt and bring it up to its surface.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: I think that's more of a nuisance
to the neighbors than the actual loading of the trucks, the
loading of the trucks probably isn't quite as bad as the beep,
beep, beep on Saturday mornings when they're wanting to sleep.
And I say this, because I have several friends that live in
that area, and we just had a petition here about a month ago,
wanting to expand, and that was one of the big problems was the
hours of operation, and the nuisance of, you know, of the noise
Page 58
February 1, 2001
there, so.
MR. BARRY: I understand that. But it just -- it seems kind of
hard for me to get this out that quickly, if you've got -- if I have a
time restriction on it, and then you're also restricting me on the
time I can excavate. I'm trying to work in between two hard ---
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Well, your engineer just assured
us through his calculations this morning, that that amount of
cubic feet could be hauled out of there in a year, with a five-day
workweek. Did I understand that correctly? Okay.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Just one final question, and then -- I'm
not going to be allowed to make the motion, but I'm going to
throw this out. You're talking about a half an acre, 12 months,
6:30 to five, possibly, in exchange for all of that for the
recommendation on the turn lane? MR. BARRY: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Is that what you're asking?
MR. BARRY: That's exactly what I'm asking for.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. I can't make the motion,
because I'm the chairman, but there's some --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Mr. Chairman, just a follow
up of that point with staff, do you have a view as to changing
your recommendation?
MR. BADAMTCHIAN.' We already have a recommendation
from seven a.m. to six p.m., Monday through Saturday.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: The turning lane, if it's a
workless period, can you live without the turning lane.
MS. WOLFF: The issue of the turning lane is -- is not
duration. It's due to the fact that we're -- Immokalee Road in
that area is a two-lane roadway. There -- it is already identified
as a roadway with safety problems it on, high level of accidents,
you're talking about having heavy dump truck vehicles having to
stop, perhaps, and wait to make a left-hand turn onto Friendship
Lane. That is why the requirement was for a left-turn lane to
remove those heavy vehicles from the through lane of traffic, to
prevent one, the impediments from them being stopped, but
secondly, from a safety situation of the large vehicles stopping
there and trying to make the turn onto Friendship Lane.
So it's not really an issue of whether one would offset the
other or not, those vehicles would still be out there.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Okay. Thank you.
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February 1, 2001
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any further questions from the
petitioner?
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: I need some help here, is there on
that road, didn't we ask for a school bus shelter once before,
when we are talking about Friendship Lane?
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: South side of the road.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: South side.
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: That was on Immokalee Road.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. Any further questions for
petitioner? One last comment, petitioner.
MR. BARRY: One last comment, please. I did, before I
looked into purchasing this land, to do this excavation, I did have
a premeeting, and we did discuss a turn lane. I told them the
amount of volume at that premeeting, for the trucks that would
be in and out of there, and that was a concern at that time,
because at a larger -- and for a longer duration, they were
expecting a turn lane to be put in. After Jeff Davidson, the
engineer, had -- had -- had -- or shown the size of the pit
excavation, and the volume of trucks going out of there, it was a
non-issue any more.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY'- I would have, you know, one other
thought here, because the cost of a turn lane, and I don't know,
I'm going to throw out a figure of in excess of probably $40,000
to put it in. And that seems pretty unfair for, you know, one
person to bear that. And I certainly understand the need of it.
Would transportation g along with some contribution towards a
turn lane? Where would we --
MS. WOLFF: That's something I would have to take back to
our division administrator of operations. We already have a very
large plate of commitment in our current budget. And so I
cannot make any commitment that we would be moving anything
else purely for the ability to put a turn lane in for an
intensification of use.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: What -- what I'm getting at is let's
say you-all don't do that, because monies aren't available, and
I'm not trying to, you know, getr yOU to commit to that. But this
would be not unlike a traffic signal where people pay their fair
share when it comes about, I mean, could we not get some
happy medium in there of a contribution towards the future turn
lane?
Page 60
February 1, 2001
MS. WOLFF: Well, this appears to be an immediate issue,
and this immediate issue is more for this project and specifically
coming on board at that point in time. I can't see it as -- if I had,
you know, five other developments coming on line here, of
making a requirement that all parties come in and do this. This
is the only application that's before us at this time. If there was
going to be a delay in startup, you know, it would be -- frankly,
he's the only one here whose proportion of the share would be
100 percent at this time.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Further questions of petitioner, staff, if
not --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Final question of staff.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Sure.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: On the conditions of
approval I see this mystery missing B and J, are there some
things there that I should be aware of?
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: No. I'm sorry, it's just a number and I
missed B and J.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: With that, if we can hear from members
of the public, Ron.
MR. NINO: Zoona Doughman, James Askey.
MS. DOUGHMAN: Good morning. I'm Zoona Doughman. I
own property on Friendship Lane and Red Bird Road, and I
oppose this because I thought it was going to be a nice place to
retire and have horses and everything and the birds was
beautiful around there. Last night I didn't see one bird. I didn't
hear any woodpeckers, nothing. And with so much traffic, the
road is really like this, it's hard to get in and hard to get out of.
And somebody has taken all of the sand that I had on the corner
of my road and put it up on the middle of Red Bird Road, so they
can get in and out better with the trucks. And I think we need,
with the children and everything, we need a turn lane. Because
if we don't, the kids getting on the buses and everything, there's
more accidents, more people getting killed and everything.
And I think that the bus shelter, we need something hard,
something that'll stop a dump truck if a tire blows out or
something, that it could not go into the cage and kill the kids.
And I just can't see a community that was not supposed to
have pits and everything next to a bird sanctuary. All of a
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February 1, 2001
sudden so many of them flurry up and half of them are not, to my
knowledge, have even went through and had permits or anything,
because I was never informed or anything, and by owning a part
almost back to that, I should think that I should'ye been informed
that it is there. And I would like to see the turn lane in. When I
came in, I came in on Everglades Boulevard, and if hadn't of
throwed (sic) the vehicle in reverse gear and backed up, the
tractor would'ye tooken (sic) the front nose off of my vehicle, but
the minute I seen it, he was that close to me. I throwed it in
reverse and backed up about 15 feet.
So I'm really opposed to this. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Question, could you tell us
where you live in relationship to this site?
MS. DOUGHMAN: The site will probably be 300 feet from my
property.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Which direction?
MS. DOUGHMAN: I live farther and it'll be back. And that's
why --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: She must live north if she's on Red
Deer-- Red Deer.
MS. DOUGHMAN: Northeast -- northeast.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Is it Red Deer or Red Bird?
I'm hearing two different things.
MS. DOUGHMAN: I'm not sure. They called it Red Bird one
time, now they call it Red Deer.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: That doesn't make any
difference. I just want to make sure we're looking at the right
place.
MS. DOUGHMAN: And that's another reason, with the -- all
the dust and everything, I think the road should be paved.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay.
MS. DOUGHMAN: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Next speaker.
MR. ASKEY: James Askey. I live on Friendship Lane. I take
my grandkids out to the school bus, and many a time I have seen
trucks, in fact, a few out there, you can see tire marks where
trucks jam on their brakes, and if the truck comes by there and
gets a blowout, they're going to kill a whole bunch of kids,
because they're out there early in the morning. And the dust is
something terrible? I take my kids out there and these trucks
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February 1, 2001
come flying in there, and they get to choking. I have one
grandson that has asthma real bad, and they had to take him out
of school for that reason. And I think it (sic) should be something
done, a turning lane should be there. It's just got to be.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. Any questions?
If not, thank you, sir.
MR. NINO: Danny Samohovetz and Patricia Reeves, Roger
Sharpe and Ronald Dupree.
MR. SAMOHOVETZ:
CHAIRMAN WRAGE:
reporter, please?
MR. SAMOHOVETZ:
CHAIRMAN WRAGE:
MR. SAMOHOVETZ:
This is the most --
Would you give your name for the court
My name is Dan Samohovetz.
Spell that, please?
S-A-M-O-H-O-V-E-T-Z. At 846 is a very
dangerous road. It's probably the most dangerous road in Collier
County or that's what they say, because of all of the accidents
and there's a large rock pit now, that was going to be -- start out
as this one is starting out, as an earth mining, now it's a rock pit
across the street. There is a lot of dump truck traffic on the
road, and it makes it very difficult to turn into that road, because
of all of the dump trucks coming and they all come from the rock
pit going west, and it makes it very much more accident prone,
that corner, and there's a lot of kids. Everybody that lives out
there are working class people, and they all have kids. And so it
makes it a really dangerous corner. So a turn lane would be
quite helpful, but the people that have already had their pits out
there, that they're not -- they're -- they've -- the engineer said that
they've stopped, but they haven't stopped, because they're
taking dirt back there now. They're taking debris or whatever it
is back to that pit, and no one is monitoring it. How do -- who
monitors this stuff after they're done with it? Who -- who takes
care of this hole that they've dug?
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. And we'll ask that question of
staff when you get done, okay?
MR. SAMOHOVETZ: It's a dangerous situation and you're
just making it worse. This is an agricultural area, and now you're
trying to put little holes all over the place. It's just -- it's like a
mine field. It's like World War II with all of the little bomb craters
all over the place, that can't be monitored and that water is what
we depend on. We have to use that water and a lot of the people
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February 1, 2001
out there have small agricultural things like groves and small
farms, and we depend on the water, and these people, they don't
live here. They come out here, dig the hole, and say, oh, well,
now we're done, now we'll go someplace else. They don't live
there. They don't care. They just want to make the money on it,
and we have to live with what they've left.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: And my only response to that, I'm sure
you heard, myself in particular, and some other members have
voiced that concern, and I believe that's being addressed, and
hopefully in the next land development cycle, we will be
addressing some of those issues that you've just brought up.
MR. SAMOHOVETZ: Well, I hope somebody thinks about
that. So far it's only just for the developer, because everything is
just automatically, well, we're going to pass this, you know,
we're going to give this guy this, and there's a lot of people out
that want to dig holes out there, because there is good sand out
there.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. We thank you.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: I have a question, sir, before you
go, sir. I have a question. Did you say you lived on Friendship
Lane, or was --
MR. SAMOHOVETZ: I live on Sanctuary Road. I use
Friendship Lane, that's -- that's the only way we have to get back
there.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Okay. Now, what's your opinion
of the condition of Friendship Lane right now? What does it look
like to you, is it dust free?
MR. SAMOHOVETZ'- Oh, no. It's not dust free. It'll never be
dust free unless they pave it. Now, there's going to be dust, and
the more traffic there is the more dust there's going to be. They
can put lime rock on the road, but every time someone goes
down that road there's dust that goes into the air, and the lime
rock goes into the adjoining pieces of property. It just blows
away, the lime rock essentially just blows away. And the people
that have the 10 acre pit that's back there, the one that's on Red
Bird Lane, it'd be north and east of that site, the site that they
want to put in. Those people are supposed to maintain the road,
but now that they've quit digging fill dirt out, and they're just
taking debris back there, now these people are taking trash or
debris back there now, and they're not maintaining the road.
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February 1, 2001
They say, oh, yeah, we're done. We don't have to do it any more.
Well, they've got big dump trucks going down the road, when the
people that live there, we might have trucks, we have pickup
trucks and stuff like that, because we live there, but not dump
trucks.
These other people have dump trucks, the people that don't
live there.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Excuse me, that was the other
concern I had. You said they're actually hauling stuff in, and
dumping it into a pit. I think that's something you should report
to our code enforcement, because --
MR. SAMOHOVETZ: Yeah, but that doesn't do any good
when you do that. They have too many other things to do. They
don't -- they can't monitor it. How do they monitor it? You can't
have someone out there 24 hours a day. These guys go in when
they feel like it.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Well, there's a property owner
that's got a responsibility to not have trash dumped on his -- in
his pit, and if he's asking for it to be done, code enforcement can
take care of that.
MR. SAMOHOVETZ: Okay. We'll have to address that, I
guess, but they do take it back there. They go back with fill with
full trucks.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. Thank you. Next speaker?
MS. REEVES: My name is Patricia Reeves. I live at 7855
Friendship Lane. If you don't mind, I'd like to read this. I'm not
very good at ad-libbing. I strongly object to any more earth
mining or quarrying in the Corkscrew Island community. We
already have four permitted earth mining sites in the immediate
area, plus at least three unpermitted sites generated by the
opening of the area for excavating.
We also have Big Island Pit on Immokalee Road, whom I
understand has applied for a permit to blast and dig deeper and
wider. I heard they were granted that permit. Although I'm not
sure. I feel there are enough holes in the ground in an area that
was meant to have water flow over it, not to stand and collect in
big lakes.
Also these parcels are now unfit for agricultural use. And if
the petitioners build single-family homes, it will more than likely
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February 1, 2001
attract people who want the charm of the country without the
realities. People who may not be sympathetic toward normal
farming practices; for example, fertilizer spread on our
neighbor's 25 acres of tomatoes, it smells. We don't care. But
people that aren't sympathetic toward farming practices are
going to be bothered by this. I'm concerned about losing my
well, or having it contaminated with diesel or hydraulic fluid. I'm
extremely concerned for the children who wait for the school bus
on the corner. I'm worried that my property value will decline if
the whole area starts to look like an industrial site, like Alico
Road, for instance, at exit 20.
I've been putting all my money and effort into restoring an
old house for the past six years and I was hoping to have
something for my retirement, but I won't if my equity goes down.
I read B & C Excavating's application and I want to point out
that not everyone thinks a lake will enhance the aesthetics in
the area. Some would rather see a field of tomatoes or grazing
cattle or horses.
Aesthetics are a matter of opinion, not a matter of black
and white.
If their permit is granted, I feel strongly that we need some
conditions imposed. We need fencing around the whole site to
keep children out and ATVs. We need weekly grading, including
adding lime rock when necessary and definitely grading and
filling in potholes after the excavating is finished. Daily watering
of road and roadside foliage.
Also our intersection is very dangerous, because when
everyone traveling eastbound on Immokalee Road comes off of
the curve at Sanctuary Road, they all start passing each other
between Sanctuary Road and Friendship Lane, they pass like
maniacs. This is -- this is eastbound on Immokalee Road. I feel
we need a left-hand and right-turn lane from Immokalee Road
into Friendship Lane, especially since we understand there is
another site on Friendship Lane south, we're north. Immokalee --
Friendship Lane goes both ways across Immokalee Road. The
intersection will be crawling with dump trucks, plus the ones
going to Big Island Pit. That's only a half of a mile east of the
intersection of Friendship Lane and Immokalee Road.
Our children have no place to stand out of the way of the
dump trucks. I'd like to see the hours of operation fall between
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February 1, 2001
when the last child gets on the school bus and the first one gets
dropped off, or build a shelter for them that won't be crushed by
an out of control dump truck.
I also would like to suggest that the remote areas of the
estates may be better, as far as property values are concerned
for earth mining, since many people who buy there want only to
live in a country setting and more than likely -- more than likely,
be thrilled to have a two and a half acre lake on a five acre
parcel.
I would ask the board to please spare our dwindling
agricultural areas.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you. Any questions?
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: I just want you to confirm that
Friendship Lane is not in very good condition at this point also,
right?
MS. REEVES: Well, it's in --
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: They're obviously not -- the
previous pit people apparently didn't take care --
MS. REEVES: The previous pit people left it a mess.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: And that's part of the type of
thing that you should be talking to code enforcement, because
we're looking at another petition to allow this person that says,
he's going to leave it dust free during the duration of the mining
operations, and I'm having difficulty from what that lane looks
like, that this gentleman's going to be able to live up to a
dust-free Friendship Lane, and it's already not a very easily
traveled road.
MS. REEVES: It's very bumpy, yes. We've -- the neighbors
and myself-- all the neighbors, we've put quite a bit of money in
lime rock and grading that road. Since '95 when we had the bad
storm, when we were declared a disaster area. We finally got it
livable, and now all this, you know, dump truck business is going
on.
Did I misunderstood your question?
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: No. I just want to make sure you
confirm that the road is not in very good condition?
MS. REEVES: No, the road, it doesn't stay in very good
condition for very long. We have to continually maintain this
road to keep it up.
Also, with the board's permission, Mr. Gary Becker, who is
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February 1, 2001
an immediate neighbor of this site, was concerned. He faxed a
letter to Mr. Badamtchian, and he wanted me to read it. It's very
brief.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Very briefly, please.
MS. REEVES: Dear Planner, I called and left four messages
regarding the BC Excavating project on Friendship Lane. I
strongly object to the above request for conditional use by
petitioner. This environmentally sensitive area is zoned for
agricultural and is located next to my property. I bought this
property, developed a tree and fruit farm with a purpose of
building a home in a park like setting. I chose the setting
because of the nature and its wildlife. Earth mining would
jeopardize my plans to preserve the environment. Gary Becker.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you. Any other members of the
public wish to address this issue?
MR. SHARPE: Good morning. My name's Roger Sharpe. My
family's been in the excavating business in Collier County for
probably about 60 years off and on. And I live on Friendship
Lane. I have been in the dump truck business. We're in the
excavating business, and Friendship Lane is a very narrow road.
I'm the person that takes both of my kids to the bus stop in the
morning. We have to park in the swale that has been wallowed
in to try to get enough parking space for all of the people to sit at
the bus stop in the morning. You've got a deep swale on one
side, you've got a chain-link fence on the other. There's no other
place to go to sit in the dark in the morning. 6:30 is -- there's no
way that you can possibly put dump trucks in there at 6:30 in the
morning, maybe eight o'clock. I put kids on the bus at 6:30. I put
kids on the bus at 7:30. And there's no place to park that you
can wait for your kids to get on and off the bus. And this area
has more or less become a free for all, for anybody that wants to
go out and buy a tractor and buy five acres, they have now
become in the fill pit business. Roughly because 56,000 cubic
yards of fill will generate $140,000 in revenue. And the reason
that everyone's moving to that area to dig is because the fill in
that area, you have perc sand that goes for about $300 a load.
The top two foot or three foot of the fill out there is per¢ sand,
certified sand for drainfields. Okay. Once you go below that, you
can go about 25 to 28 feet in depth before you hit cap rock.
It's one of the unique areas in Collier County. For instance,
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February 1, 2001
up by 1-75 the cap rock is on top of the ground. When you build a
yard in Willoughby Acres, you haul fill in and cover the cap rock
up. The other pits that have come out there, it doesn't matter
what they tell you when they come in there, they don't ever do --
they've never put a water truck on the road. All they have ever
did on Red Deer Lane, and this is the second time they've been
out there, they've got a 10-acre parcel that they've dug up.
There's no fence to keep the kids out. The kids ride through
there on ATV's. They've got one gate on 10 acres, that's open
farm land all the way around. You've got -- their last pit was not
even permitted. You've got that pit that's still in operation. They
may not be digging, but they have several thousand yards of fill
piled up and they're still hauling it out of there right now.
So you've got this one. You've got the other pit, that they
just finished up, this Triple T Company that was in there. You've
got another pit on Sid Walker's property, which is just northeast
of maybe a five-acre tract, from where this gentleman would like
to dig. And you've got Big Island Excavating digging up directly
across the street from this.
Yeah, we moved out there to get away from all that kind of
stuff. I mean, we pay a high price for the traveling in the time
and everything to be out there and that area, and, you know, you
can make a lot of money in the fill business. I've got 10 acres
down there, and we've never dug up our property. It's your home
front. You don't want to destroy that area.
It's -- there's not another place in Collier County like it.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Quick question, have you called code
enforcement to -- what have they said about -- what you've called
an illegal operation, that's the one that I'm interested in?
MR. SHARPE: Well, that part of it I didn't know until it was
about over with. I kept -- I kept hearing from the different
neighbors and all that, yes, they had permission on that piece of
property, which is Mr. Dupree's road, and then the second parcel,
you know, we kind of thought it was over -- what I'm getting at is
we've dealt with dump trucks on a daily basis out there on our
road for at least the last three years every day, and I'm just tired
of it, you know. Everybody's got to make a living, and
unfortunately to dig fill in Collier County you have to move to the
east to be able to afford enough property that you can actually
dig, that you can justify the excavating of it.
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February 1, 2001
So that's where all of the fill pits have moved to, but
anyway, the road where Mr. Carey wants to dig at, I used to have
to sit there in the mornings and wait for my neighbors to pull
them through -- that road, we finally got enough people out there,
Ms. Reeves got everyone together out there and pooled our
money and had the county come in there and finally fix that road.
I used to have the only four-wheel drive vehicle on the road, and
my neighbors would sit there -- at the very northwest corner of
his property is a flag pond. It's a natural Iow area, and I used to
have to -- my neighbors would sit there in the mornings and wait
for me to come through there, because I had the only vehicle
that would make it through there, I would chain each one of them
and drag them through here. And the only thing you can see out
of a full size car out there in the dry season, if you met them, was
half the windshield and the top of the car. I've got friends in
South America, he says we don't have roads like that down
there.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Thank you. Any questions of this
speaker? We appreciate that. Thank you.
MR. DUPREE: My name is Ronald Dupree. I live at 19435
Immokalee Road, and this is about the first I've heard about all
this going on. I've got a pit behind my house I dug strictly for fill
on the property I built my house on. As far as building a pit, I'm --
I don't know, it's getting like they say, every time you turn
around they're digging another pit somewhere. They're hauling
in on our road, road's never been real good, but now it's getting
worse and worse. I take my baby, my youngest son to the
babysitter down the road down there. I've got a pickup and I'm
beating the heck out of it. It's tearing all of the pieces on me,
because of the road. I live right across from the land he's got. I
live basically west of it, and the front part gets torn up. The
back part on down is even worse.
So, you know, and I'm like this with children, I know my
child will be going to school pretty soon out there and I want my
child to have a safe place to go. And if they put it in here without
turn lanes, what's my child going to do? Where's he going to
stand out of the weather or where's he going to stand away from
the big trucks coming in and out?
Now, I'm not against the man making money, because that's
what life's all about, making money, you got to make a living to
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February 1, 2001
live, to survive in this world, and if you don't, well, you'll be on
food stamps or welfare and I can't afford that either way, so. But
the turn lanes, it's a definite to me, as far as I'm concerned. And
a shelter, and I didn't even know about the one they're going to
talk about building on the south side over there until now.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any questions?
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Did you say talking about building
the one on the south side? It's not there?
MR. DUPREE: I heard they're being permitted for the one on
the south side of Friendship Lane, too, on the south side of 846.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: How long does it take to get the
shelter put --
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: Well, the people that we required
that of have never started that project, is why that's not been --
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: That hasn't been that long ago.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: No. And I don't think they are
going to start that project, because of the conditions that was
put on it.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. Thank you. Any one else from
the public wish to address this issue? Petitioner, want to make
any last comments?
You'll have to ask us, and we'll ask the questions, okay.
MR. DUPREE: He said he's going to go down 20 feet on the
permit, is that as deep as he's going to go, I mean, is he going to
bust through cap rock where our water is going to go down
through the hard pan, because the hard pan in some places out
there is 20 to 22 feet? Some places is 16. I hit cap rock at 12
and a half feet, 16 feet when I was digging my fill.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: We'll ask that question.
MR. DUPREE: Okay.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. Thank you. And with that, that
particular --
MR. BARRY: Are you -- would you like me to answer that,
yes? No, I will not dig through the cap rock.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. Any other comments while you
are up here, because I -- I have some questions of staff.
MR. BARRY: Okay. I think my engineer has a couple of
comments.
MR. DAVIDSON: Jeff Davidson, for the record. We would
like to do something about the dust on the road, and I agree with
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February 1, 2001
the gentleman that got up and said the road is dusty, there's
really, you know, you can water the road, and it'll only last a few
hours, and then it'll be dusty again.
One thing that we can do is there's a product called 57
stone and the county considers it a dust free gravel, same type
of gravel used in septic system drainfields. And it's a uniform
size. It's washed and graded and that's about the only thing I
can think of besides paving the road to make it relatively dust
free. And we would agree to do that from Immokalee Road to the
project entrance. That would help that, and the ground water,
I've done several of these excavations and one of the concerns is
ground water, and in my experience for an excavation like this,
there's no dewatering required, in fact, we would waive the right
to dewater the site, and really the only way you could -- the only
way that you could really affect the ground water in that area is
to dewater for an excavation, and we don't intend to do that.
MR. NINO: Would you -- I think, because it would be helpful,
would you explain the rehabilitation requirements, because I'm
concerned about the record that says people are using them as
refuse dumps afterwards, I mean, the amount of investment
that's made in contouring and everything that we require in our
rehab, which I'd like you to speak to.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Before he answers that, as part of that
question, Ron, is that a code -- who goes out and closes these
pits, is that code enforcement or the planning department? MR. BADAMTCHIAN: I'm sorry.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: When they say they're closed to get
their bond back, who actually is responsible to go out and say,
yeah, everything is the way it's supposed to be?
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: Well, the engineering inspectors of
planning services, they go there and they inspect, make sure
that everything is according to the plans and according to the
code. Then we release the bond. After that, we do not go back
to check on the lake every year, or ever.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE'- Okay. Thank you.
MR. DAVIDSON: That was also one of the reasons to have a
home site on the -- on the -- I think we talked about that earlier,
because we've planned to put a home on this site in the future,
and then they would maintain the lake in good condition, at least
that's the theory behind it.
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February 1, 2001
And there is a bond that would be put in place to guarantee
that the lake would be shaped according to the plan like
Chahram said, and that there's a slope requirement, specific
slope requirement, a littoral planning zone requirement for
seeding purposes and a depth requirement.
All those things need to be in place before the excavator
can get their bond back.
MR. NINO: And as I understand that that has to stay with it
for the rest of its life, I mean, you can't use it as a refuse pit.
MR. DAVIDSON: Yeah, that's illegal any way you look at it.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: I have a question. Did you say,
we plan on putting a house on here? Are you -- are you stating --
MR. DAVIDSON.' No. I'm speaking for my -- my client.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Me, excuse me, your client
intends to build a house on here and is that going to be
something he's going to own?
MR. BARRY: That's to be determined.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Okay. So we don't want to be
assuming that we're doing something really wonderful here by
only digging a part lake, and have the assumption that this
particular owner or the other owner of the company is going to
actually put a house here, and then he's going to watch and
maintain it, because I had that feeling earlier, and I want to
make sure that that's on the record, that that's not part of the
plan, and that it's not that dedication to, wow, this is a great five
acres, and we're only going to dig up two and a half of it or so,
and then we're going to have a house on it. I don't want that to
even exist in anybody's mind.
MR. DAVIDSON: The only thing we can say now is that we're
leaving a place for a house, for a house pad in the future.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: You're leaving a place --
MR. DAVIDSON: We're leaving a house pad for the future.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY.' Mr. Davidson, did I
understand you to say that the left-turn lane proposal is a killer
of the project?
MR. DAVIDSON: Because of the cost. I estimate, we just
did a set of turn lanes for an excavation on Oil Well Road, and it
was 90 -- that was a full set, it didn't -- this doesn't specifically
require a right-in turn lane, without the right-in turn lane, a
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February 1, 2001
left-turn lane is about $70,000, and that's not --just not feasible
for a small -- if this was a 100 acre excavation, or even a 50 acre
excavation, that would be feasible, but not for an excavation this
small. But what Mr. PRIDDY, I think he brought up the idea of
cost sharing or, you know, the county pitching in, or something
like that, that's -- that's the only way that -- these people, it
sounds like they need a turn lane at that location.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I'd say a lot of these things
are inconvenience issues and sort of quality of life issues, but
this one is the one that's really compelling to me.
MR. DAVIDSON.' I agree with that, but if we look at the
number of trips that we generate based on the overall trips and,
you know, the background traffic and the trips in the area, I don't
think we -- and in most cases for, you know, for a development
this -- for a development like this, we're not pushing it over the
edge in my opinion, to have to require the turn lanes just
because of this small excavation. I mean, there's other
excavations in the area. There's Corkscrew Sanctuary. I don't
think they have a set of turn lanes at Sanctuary Road for, you
know, for Corkscrew Sanctuary. I'm not saying it's not required,
but, I mean, we would be the only ones in the area with a turn
lane.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: And since you're talking about
money and cost here, we're talking about doing radius turns at
50 feet, and proper drainage and culverts will be installed, with
the work that you're doing to pave Friendship Lane here, and
that's going to be done before the excavation starts, how much
is that going to cost you-all?
MR. DAVIDSON: That would probably cost in the range of
five to $7,000.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Okay. And then with the addition
of taking the adequate number of loads of 57 rock on that -- on
the rest of the area?
MR. DAVIDSON'- That's probably two or $3,000 to do that.
So that's expensive.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Yeah.
expensive.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON:
question of -- bonding, I'm just not familiar.
does the project require?
Fifty-seven is definitely
Mr. Chairman, just one last
What size of bond
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February 1, 2001
MR. DAVIDSON: I don't recall what size this particular -- that
comes up during the excavation permitting process, is the
reason I can't directly answer your question. But I know it's
sufficient for the county to hire an excavator to go in and shape
the lake or to bring it to some order of semblance. So it's, you
know, a nice looking excavation.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. Any final questions petitioner,
staff? If not, close --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: I just have a comment.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. Let's close the public meeting.
Let's have a motion --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Can I make a comment
before the motion, Mr. Chairman? CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Sure.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: I'm looking at the finding of
fact as a guide to how I should respond to this, and under the
finding of facts, I see consistent with land development code and
the growth management plan, and that appears to be the case,
we can do that, but the other three, and I realize we're supposed
to put wadings on these for our judgment. But it seems it fails on
all the rest of the three, is what I've heard. Can you give me any
reason to say that this should be approved, if we've got three out
of four findings of fact that they fail on?
MR. BADAMTCHIAN: Ingress and egress is one of the
criterion that we have a problem with, and therefore we're
asking for that left-turn lane.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Okay. So the question is, if
we -- you're making your recommendation based on all these
conditions of approval being in the mix. MR. BADAMTCHIAN: Correct.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: So in my mind, we've got a
choice of either killing the project with conditions, or killing it by
the finding of fact. That's just an observation.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: And if you're ready for a motion, I
guess I'll kill it with -- or attempt to kill it with the first one.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Okay. Let's entertain a motion. We'll
have some more discussion, I'm sure.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: I move that we forward petition
CU-2000-20 to the Board of County Commissioners with a
recommendation of denial.
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February 1, 2001
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Second.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: So moved by Commissioner Priddy,
seconded by Commissioner Rautio. Any further discussion?
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Well, I -- I could forward it
recommending approval, if they were willing to adhere to all of
the conditions.
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: I could too --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Well, then --
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: -- with the exception of the
mitigation of the relation to the neighbors, if they put in a turn
lane, I could cross that off. I have checked two things on here,
two out of the four, rather than three out of the four that
Commissioner Richardson did, but --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: So you're taking him at his
word that he can't do the left-turn lane?
COMMISSIONER PRIDDY: I'm quite sure he can't do the
left-turn lane.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Okay.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any further discussion on the motion?
If not, all in favor of the motion, signify by saying aye.
Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Motion carried.
Pass your finding of fact down to Commissioner Rautio.
Any old business?
Someone got -- put something in front of me that says, old
business. I can't read it. Preliminary report on missing minutes.
Oh, okay.
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: Oh, yes, the committee of one.
I've had a couple of discussions with the Clerk of Courts on the
contract, and I unfortunately have not had an opportunity to
discuss the aspects of the county manager's office and how
planning is involved in this.
So I'm going to take a little more time and get some
information to us for the next meeting, and I would like to say
that it did not impress me that we had no minutes in this packet.
So my full report will be ready, I believe, if I can get some
phone calls made, by our next meeting.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: So the effectiveness of your
actions so far has been noted on today's document.
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February 1, 2001
COMMISSIONER RAUTIO: It was absolutely real apparent
that it was not effective.
CHAIRMAN WRAGE: Any other old business? If not, under
new business, I will personally purchase a card for Commissioner
Pedone, and -- and in like, by putting your names on it, that it be
from us, wishing his speedy return.
Any public comments on any item?
If not, we stand adjourned.
There being no further business for the good of the County,
the meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 11:30 a.m.
COLLIER COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION
GARY WRAGE, CHAIRMAN
TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF GREGORY COURT
REPORTING SERVICE, INC., BY DAWN S. MCCONNELL, NOTARY
PUBLIC
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