CCPC Minutes 09/19/2001 SSeptember 19, 2001
TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE
COLLIER COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION
Naples, Florida, September 19, 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 5:05 p.m. In SPECIAL SESSION
in the Supervisor of Elections Training Room, Martin Luther King
Building, County Government Center, East Naples, Florida, with the
following members present:
CHAIRMAN:
Joyceanna J. Rautio
Russell A. Budd
Kenneth L. Abemathy
Michael Pedone
Dwight Richardson
Lora Jean Young
David J. Wolfley
NOT PRESENT: Russell A. Priddy
ALSO PRESENT:
Marjorie M. Student, Asst. County Attorney
Ray Bellows, Principal Planner
Ron Nino, Principal Planner
Page 1
CLERK TO THE BOARD
MAUREEN KENYON
AGENDA
COLLIER COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION WILL MEET AT 5:05 P.M., WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2001,
IN THE SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS TRAINING ROOM, MARTIN LUTHER KING 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 WRI~N 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 AVAIIakBLE 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. CYCLE 2A - 2001 "SPECIAL" LAND DEVELOPMENT CODE (LDC) AMENDMENT
4. ADJOURN
CCPC AGENDA/SM/lo
September 19, 2001
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay. I'd like to call this meeting of
the Collier County Planning Commission to order. Today is
Wednesday, September 19th. Before we call the roll, I'd like to have
everyone rise and pledge allegiance to the flag.
(The pledge of allegiance was recited in unison.)
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Roll call. Mr. Priddy is absent but
excused.
Mr. Budd.
COMMISSIONER BUDD: Here.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Mr. Abernathy.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Here.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Ms. Rautio. Here.
Mrs. Young.
COMMISSIONER YOUNG: Here.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Mr. Wolfley.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Here.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Mr. Richardson.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Yes.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: We do have a quorum.
First item on the -- second item on the agenda is the addenda to
the agenda. Do we have any, Mr. Bellows?
MR. BELLOWS: Yes. For the record, Ray Bellows, planning
services staff. We have handed out a new packet with information
for you. As you can see, it's somewhat thicker than the one you
previously received. This revised packet contains the final corrected
copy of the excavation ordinance for amendments to the LDC. I've
been informed by the engineering staff that they had problems getting
the final copy to you. And this is the final copy, so there shouldn't be
any other drafts floating around.
And the other, which is the bulk of the added information, is the
readoption of the sign ordinance that's previously went through the
Page 2
September 19, 2001
Planning Commission. And Marjorie's here to --
MS. STUDENT: Good evening. Marjorie Student, assistant
county attorney, for the record. And I won't take a long time
explaining all the detail. However, there was with this amendment --
the Planning Commission's seen it before. Nothing's changed. It
went through the fall 1999 cycle and was adopted by the board on
January 5th of-- excuse me, 25th of 2000. However, when the Board
of County Commissioners was considering it, there was a bit of a
problem with continued meetings. And so in an abundance of
caution, we're bringing it back through the process to readopt it, but
nothing's changed.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Thank you. So that would cover pages
11 through 34, I believe, when we get to that discussion.
Okay. The first item that we have, we're going to give it over to
you, Mr. Bellows. Lead us through it.
MR. BELLOWS: Okay. The first item is notification
procedures and public participation. It's amending section 2.7.2.3 of
the Land Development Code. And its purpose is to accomplish the
following objectives, and they're listed on your summary sheet: To
require property of 1 acre or larger to sign -- to post a sign with a
minimum area of 32 square feet and to require the applicant to erect
the sign at their cost.
They also -- part of this is to enlarge the area where the property
owners are notified by mail. Currently we require a 300-foot distance
from the subject site when notifying property owners of, say, a
rezone request. That's going to be expanded to 500 feet for land
within the urban designated area. And because of larger properties in
the rural areas or agricultural areas, we've expanded that to 1,000 feet
around the property. This is to pull in more of the adjacent property
owners and have them have a chance to be aware of petitions as they
come forward.
Page 3
September 19, 2001
The other items that are being changed as part of this
notification procedure is to require written notice to clearly describe
what the rezoning application extends in the way of proposed uses
and relevant development standards. Many times we just note a
posting of rezones to PUD and may not get into specifics as to what
the development standards are or uses, and this is to help alleviate
that problem.
And the fourth one is to create a new subsection in Section
2.7.2.3.5 that requires applicants to hold public informational
meetings prior to submitting an application to Collier County for
rezoning and conditional uses, and this establishes a procedure to
accomplish this objective. So right now when staff has a
preapplication meeting, we'll have various staff members review the
proposal from engineering-- landscaping, environmental, planning,
engineering, and then we all provide comments to the developer.
And then from there we prepare the plans, and we go through the
review process.
And the public is really not made aware that a petition's being
submitted until we're ready to advertise and go before the public
hearing process. And there's always complaints that there's been very
little time for the residents to make their input known to staff. This
-- right up front, prior to submitting their applications, these
petitioners will have to meet with the local residents, through the
procedures established in this amendment, to meet with them on
getting their input. And then when staff reviews it, we'll have their
comments up front.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: So after preapp but before
application; is that right?
MR. BELLOWS: That's correct. And the fifth one requires
applicants for variances to document contacts with all property
owners within 150 feet of the subject site and property owners and
Page 4
September 19, 2001
association -- property owners' associations. The intent here is that
an applicant for a variance will exert a greater effort to advise nearby
property owners concerning the content of the variance.
This was brought before the Development Services Advisory
Committee, and they recommended approval to this change but
objected to the following, and that's listed on your summary sheet
too. And they objected to the photograph of the sign by the petitioner
and submit it to the planning services department. I guess they feel
that county staff should be taking the pictures, and that should be the
responsibility of staff and not the applicant.
The other one was the requirement to place advertisement in the
newspaper and public information -- for the public informational
meetings; and to allow any other mailing list than the official latest
tax roll of December 31 st of the prior year.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I couldn't find --
MR. BELLOWS: Any comments or questions on this one?
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I couldn't find that mailing
list. It must be buried in there somewhere, but I didn't run across it.
As drafted it allows -- what mailing list can they use if they -- if they
don't have to use the December 3 lst? They just use the rolling tax
roll, whatever is now current? Is that -- MR. BELLOWS: It's my--
MR. NINO: Ron Nino for the record. That was what we
intended; however, the objection of the DSAC was accommodated,
actually. In the way the language currently is crafted, it's the last
official assessment roll. So that comment is incorrect at this point in
time.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: So it's December 3 l st?
MR. NINO: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: However, I had asked in an e-mail to
staff about the phrase that's used several times -- and you see it, I
Page 5
September 19, 2001
think, the first time on page 4, where it says "and any other persons
who have formally requested the County to be notified." And I
wanted the clarification of how that happens. I know homeowners'
associations want to be notified, but how do people request or get on
this list of notification?
MR. BELLOWS: The list that we draw the names from can be
only expanded through this proper notification process. And that
quote that you mentioned allows property owners who may be
outside of the notification limit that we provide, now 500 feet, to
request to be notified if they hear it from some other source and want
to be on the list. Or people within the notification area but not on the
latest tax rolls, they can also be placed on the list and not be on the
certain tax roll.
So this gets around that requirement that just because your
name's not on the tax roll, the latest tax roll, you don't necessarily
require to get a notice. If you formally request one, we will provide
you with all the notices throughout the process.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: So the assumption is that maybe
several of the homeowners' associations or condo associations in an
active area, such as North Naples, would know that something's
happening, and they'd make a written request to you-all?
MR. BELLOWS: Correct.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I had a little problem with
the language there in (v). When I just read that starting out, I got the
notion that any contacts that an applicant had with property owners
would have to be documented, much in the same way we come in and
admit the contacts we've had with petitioners or opponents. The
language in this section says they have to contact them all, I think.
MR. BELLOWS: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: And this language that says
Page 6
September 19, 2001
make a greater effort to advise, it poses an absolute requirement to
advise.
MR. BELLOWS: That's the intent.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: So the language doesn't
match up with -- you know, I don't have any objection to it, but the
language doesn't match very well.
MR. NINO: Appreciate that items sub (i) through (v) are not
really part of the change.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I know that.
MR. NINO: They're the editorial that leads to the change.
Perhaps it wasn't worded as well as it could have been.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Well, then I think that brings you to
the portion on page 5 (2) talking about how the applicants that -- they
use the word -- the verb "consulted," and I tripped over that word. I
didn't feel that "consulted" was very specific, or I think an attorney
might want to discuss that. And I think it's notified, informed, or
contacted maybe, because they do have to identify their contacts.
Page 5. You do refer to contacts, but consulting has sort of an
implication to it that I'm not sure I'm comfortable having the --
MS. STUDENT: I think "contacted" is a better word.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: So we would want to change the word
"consulted" in two places in that paragraph to contacted if the board
feels --
MR. BELLOWS: Contacted or informed.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Which paragraph?
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: We're looking on page 5, paragraph 2
where it says "Applicants requesting variance approval."
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Right.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: It shows up the fourth line down and
then five, six, seven, eight, nine lines down in the middle of the
paragraph. It's referring to consulting. So if they contact them, then -
Page 7
September 19, 2001
MS. STUDENT:
would work.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY:
consulting.
MS. STUDENT: Yes.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And then --
Contacted or notified. Either one, I think,
To the exclusion of
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Well, just on that narrow
issue, in fact don't we want to have them talking to these people?
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Yes, we do.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Well, contact wouldn't
necessarily mean they'd say anything.
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah. That was the gist of my e-mail, is that
we wanted to elicit their input and gain their opinions as to -- if we
just say "notify," they may just say -- leave you a quick notice and
adios, and that--
MS. STUDENT: How about contacted and consulted?
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Well, what about just
consulted then? Because you can't consult if you don't contact.
MR. NINO: I think that's what staff was intending. Consulting
-- consulting goes beyond merely contacting. It means carrying on a
discussion, describing the program, and asking, "How do you feel
about it?" Now, maybe "consulting" is still the wrong word, and Ken
Abemathy is pretty good at word --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Why don't we just
substitute consultations for contacts, if that's what we want.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: And then there's a written
account that is made part of the record.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: A written account of the
consultations, a list of property owner--"contacts" I guess is the
word there.
Page 8
September 19, 2001
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Contacts works twice -- it would be
three times in that sentence.
MR. BELLOWS: I think that's something we can have the
county attorney's office--
MS. STUDENT: We can work that out. We know what the
intent is.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And if somebody else doesn't want to
mention on the record, further up, the paragraph right above that, No.
1, where we're being very specific -- almost toward the bottom, if you
could spot "seven days prior to." All right. So we are going to have
the Collier County staff planner assigned to attend the preapplication
meeting shall also attend the public informational meeting and shall
serve as the facilitator of the meeting. There's a lot of very specific
direction there, and I would hate to find people who are opposed to
something start arguing that that staff person was not there. I didn't
know how to solve that, but it seemed like our specificity here was
too great. Could it not be a designee? I know what your point is.
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah. I think we could add the words "the
staff planner who attended the preapplication meeting or" -- MR. NINO: Designee.
MR. BELLOWS: -- "a proper staff" --
MS. STUDENT: His or her designee.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Could you throw that in just in case we
get some very interested people who want to complain and say that
person was not around; like, Mr. Bellows got called out of town and
couldn't appear? Does that create any problems for the informational
meeting or not?
MS. STUDENT: Somebody might want to make a technical
argument out of it.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Isle of Capri argument.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Just in those paragraphs
Page 9
September 19, 2001
could I raise --
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Sure.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: This section is really
talking about -- among other things, talking about the distance away
from the project that requires notification. And you make a point
here that the variances and conditional uses have a lesser requirement
for notification consultation than the other sections with PUDs in,
etc., which are 500 feet and, you know, agricultural area, which is a
thousand feet.
I'm just wondering why we want to have -- you know, this is a
big push towards public participation. Why don't you have the
consultation distance be the same for all contacts? I mean, why is it
brought down to 150 feet? Why isn't it the same number as we'd
have for any other impact to the neighborhood? I don't see that --
because variances and conditional uses can be very upsetting to a
large number of people, and if you -- I think arguably the same
number of people --
MR. NINO: It's not for a conditional use. It's for a variance or a
parking exemption. And the argument I would make is that a
variance is of far lesser import than a conditional use or a regional --
and, you know, you're talking about varying a side yard from 7 feet to
5 feet. I mean, that really impacts a much smaller area than --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Would you --
MR. NINO: But, nonetheless, a homeowner association -- in
addition to the 150 feet, if there is a particular homeowner
association, they're going to be notified. So everybody's going to
know about it one way or another.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: There's been degrees of
variances, and I would certainly buy into your 7-foot-to-5-foot kind
of variance, but other variances have larger impacts. I don't know. I
just hate to set up a condition where we exclude the possibility of
Page 10
September 19, 2001
more interaction by the public. But if this covers the universe -- if
you're satisfied that this universe --
MR. NINO: I don't think that this -- this is far more
comprehensive than the current regulation. It's far more effective that
you, as an applicant, are required to knock on the door of your
neighbors than to merely say that a notice has to be sent out to people
within 300 feet, if that seems to be your preference. It doesn't require
notification of homeowner associations. It doesn't require you to
knock on the door. It doesn't require you to submit a report of the
results of your contacts. I mean, you know, this does make a giant
leap forward.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: I'm just trying to nudge it
a little bit further.
MR. NINO: I know you are.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: So the conditional use
falls under the larger --
MR. NINO: Under the rezoning, yes.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Okay. Thank you.
MR. BELLOWS: Anything else?
MR. NINO: Of course, you all appreciate that these same
amendments were discussed before the board at a workshop, and the
board directed that they be --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: That often doesn't defer us
from making comments, however.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And just so the rest of the boards here
knows, I did ask staff to make sure they were consistent in their
capitalization and consistent in what they actually called the various
entities, the departments and that type of thing. If we are the
Planning Commission throughout the LDC, we're the Planning
Commission, or we are the Collier County Planning Commission,
those kinds of things, because my pages are covered with red from an
Page 11
September 19, 2001
MR. BELLOWS:
something that --
MS. STUDENT:
editor's red marks, and I just want to make sure that that does happen,
we see that cleaned up next time. I guess the county attorney's office
is very good at that.
MS. STUDENT: Yeah. I'm -- I have not completed my editing
for things like that, but I generally catch it.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And along that same line, one last verb
that caught my eye on page 3, toward the bottom of the page, is now
No. 5, talking about the notice, starting with the underline "Where
applicable, the notice shall clearly describe the land uses that are
intended to be developed." What does that mean, intended to be
developed, the land uses? Are they available, or are we going to get
very specific this early into the game?
MS. STUDENT: It could probably be something like the
contemplated land uses. That can be cleaned up.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: That would be --
I think you're correct. Intended means
Contemplated land uses is probably --
MR. NINO: Well, if you're dealing with a PUD, I would
assume intended means, what are the uses that your PUD purports to
allow?
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And that are available without any
question because people out in the public don't seem to understand
some of the processes that we go through and what categories of
zoning allow what types of activities. And looking at that, "well, that
developer didn't intend to do that, and now he's doing it" could create
a problem further down the process.
MR. BELLOWS: Maybe proposed uses.
MS. STUDENT: Proposed would work too.
COMMISSIONER YOUNG: The land uses that are planned?
MR. BELLOWS: That may also be a problem. If you're saying
Page 12
September 19, 2001
you're creating a plan for those specific uses, then you might create
unreasonable expectation that that's exactly what's going to happen. I
think if we do proposed, that's vague enough to allow flexibility.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: The underlined portion on
page 3 is--
MR. NINO: The new page 3?
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah, the new page 3, No. 5.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Sorry. Let me make sure -- I slipped.
I didn't go back to my newest one. Well, I guess I'm not using that
because the copier, as Sally pointed out, got a little whacko here.
Okay. I think I'm through with dealing with verbs in this particular
section.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: I have just a larger issue
I'd like to discuss with the board and with staff. And I don't think this
was intentional, but I believe we have a -- we need to repair some --
put some language in here that will repair a problem that I'll describe.
This whole idea about participation is to get the applicants and the
citizenry together on a project that's upcoming to see if there's any
problems and whether or not the applicant can work those issues out
in advance. Would you agree with that as a premise? CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Right.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: What has happened in the
past is that the applicant will get together -- and I've been in a number
of these meetings -- with citizens, have a discussion, hear their
concerns, and then make certain commitments to the citizenry that he
or she will do certain things. And the application -- let's call it a PUD
-- goes forward, and the -- I guess it goes through the process,
references may or may not be made to -- let's say they are made to the
commitments that the developer has made. And they might be more
than the underlying code actually requires: A higher berm, an
invisible fence, more shrubbery than the actual code -- the Land
Page 13
September 19, 2001
Development Code might require.
The citizenry passes on it. They say, "Okay. We've had our say,
and it looks like this thing's going to go through okay." It's going to
meet their expectations. And then lo and behold, it gets down to the
point where the applicant comes in to get his final papers and start
building, and he decides that he doesn't want to do all of the things
that he said he would do by way of commitments. And, as a
consequence, he comes into the planning groups and says, "Well,
instead of doing it this way, I'm going to do the following." And as
long as it fits within the Land Development Code, it amounts to an
insubstantial change to what had been approved, and they go off to
the races. And the citizenry then gets, you know, another bad feeling
about the whole process.
So to summarize, what I'd like to see is a section in this part of
the Land Development Code that memorializes these commitments
that are made by developers to the citizenry, and we've got a process
here. We've got to get written reports. We've got that information as
part of our whole process. And that then -- then that there be specific
language that the -- in the processing of this PUD, for instance, that
the planning group would not be permitted to make a change that was
in violation of the agreements that had flowed from this participation
process. In other words, they wouldn't be able to make an
insubstantial change and would lose out on what the public had
intended to have happen. Maybe I didn't make that clear, but that's
the thrust of it.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: I know where you're going.
MR. NINO: First of all, you're dealing with a PUD. If you're
dealing with a PUD or a conditional use rezoning, those are very
specific things. If a public -- if a petitioner represents to the public in
their informational meetings that they're going to do this, that, and the
other thing in excess of current requirements in the Land
Page 14
September 19, 2001
Development Code, then those things better be in the PUD, or the
planner who's in charge of that coordinating effort is not doing their
job. So those things should be in the PUD. MR. BELLOWS: And I'd like to--
MR. NINO: And in the conditional use development. Now, if
it's a standard rezone, this is where you oftentimes get the problem.
You know, a standard rezone, C-4 or C-3 or whatever it is, a
petitioner is really not required to commit to a specific use or a
specific set of development standards in conjunction with a standard
rezone because those requirements that are deemed appropriate for
the public health, welfare, and safety are already in the codes for that
specific rezoning action.
So I don't quite understand -- and then the last part of your -- of
your statement that we make insubstantial changes to SDPs that
reflect conditions that were not promised, I don't believe that that
happens, Dwight, at all.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Well, it has happened, and
I can show you cases. But let's just say that -- let's say that it could
happen. I'll show you a specific case where it did happen. I don't
want to make that part of this record. But if--
MR. NINO: Was it a standard rezone or a PUD?
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: It was a PUD.
MR. NINO: Well, if it wasn't in the PUD and the --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: It was. It was. And -- but
the applicant came to the planning staff and said, "Look, this is what I
want to do," and it was viewed as an insubstantial change because it
did not -- because it was still above the minimum requirements in the
PUD.
MR. NINO: That can't hap -- oh, it was above the minimum
requirements in the--
MR. BELLOWS: In other words--
Page 15
September 19, 2001
MR. NINO: -- PUD.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: One at a time. And I do know that
Mrs. Barker would like to stand up and say something.
MR. NINO: If it's above the minimum requirement in the PUD
-- in other words, if somebody presents a site development plan to us
and they -- and that site development plan increases the standards that
are in the PUD that are applicable to that project, they certainly have
the right to say we want to amend our site development plan to go
back to the standard that's in the PUD. And that's a legal right they
have. Now--
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: In other words, if they
made a commitment to the people, that would be gone.
MR. NINO: However, if they made a commitment -- the
commitment to the people would have had to be made at the rezoning
stage, and that should have been reflected in the PUD.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: And the rezoning is the --
established in the PUD.
MR. NINO: Yeah, established in the PUD. If it wasn't in the
PUD, then you know that the --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: You're saying --
MR. NINO: -- ball was dropped.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: What I'm hearing staff say
-- and I want to hear it correctly -- is that this problem cannot happen
and has never happened in Collier County.
MR. NINO: It shouldn't happen if the planner is responsible --
we make darn sure that the zoning order reflects the promises made at
public meetings. Now, that has happened, but it's a mistake. It's a --
it's a deficiency. And we're hoping that in the future that that won't
happen.
MR. BELLOWS: I think what Ron is saying is that there may
have been a case where someone wasn't diligent in checking a PUD
Page 16
September 19, 2001
document. When a petition comes in, that's our standard procedure.
When an insubstantial change comes in for a site development plan,
they always are required to pull the PUD document to see if that is
consistent with all the stipulations that are incorporated.
Now, this process that we're adopting here requiring public input
prior to submission and providing proof of that correspondence
between agreements made by the developer and the residents, staff
will have a copy of that up front and will ensure much easier than we
typically do now, because a lot of times these agreements with
private property owners never get explained clearly to staff, if at all
in some cases, unless they show up at the public hearing. And then
they say, "Wait a second. This guy agreed to do this additional
landscaping." But if that correspondence was never forwarded to
staff, then that's not going to be incorporated into the PUD.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I think that's what we're
talking about. When somebody -- if they said 8 feet of fence instead
of 6 in this conference with the property owners in the neighborhood
and it got into the PUD and the planner didn't know why it was in the
PUD and then he comes along and says, "Well, 6 is all that's really
required. Can I reduce it from 8 to 6?" He wouldn't know that it was
a --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: And that's an insubstantial
change.
MR. NINO: But we can't do that. If the PUD -- if the PUD says
the fence is 8 feet, then they've got to build an 8-foot -- well, first of
all, PUDs don't usually say 8. They don't -- they're not worded that
way. They say you can build up to an 8-foot fence. They've never
said you have to build an 8- or a 1 O-foot fence. It's usually the
maximum you can build. And we've never heard of that being a
concern, that somebody builds a fence less than is allowed by the
PUD. So, you know, our regulations are structured that the PUD
Page 17
September 19, 2001
provides the maximum development standard. If you want to do
something greater than that or, in the case of a height, something
smaller than that, then you're entitled to do it.
MR. BELLOWS: You know, where I see these --
MR. NINO: Now, what I see this doing, though, is this now
creates a forum where those promises should come through. And in
the past you never had to have this forum. They were simply trans --
you know, things that happened between developers and the public
on an informal basis. This now formalizes the process, and those
promises made at those public meetings will be documented and
better become part of the PUD -- the zoning order.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay. Now I want to hear from Mrs.
Barker, please.
MS. BARKER: For the record, my name is Sally Barker, and I
am to blame for the problem that Mr. Richardson has just raised
because I dumped it on him the other day. And I hate to disagree
with Mr. Nino, but there is a case now in North Naples in which this
very thing happened. During the approval process, the dexYeloper and
the neighboring development -- I'm not going to name names,
because this may go to litigation, and I don't want to screw things up
for whatever that process is.
But anyway, this developer got together with the neighbors, and
the neighbors were upset about the amount of buffering that was
being provided. And the developer said, "Okay. We will do this nice
berm with nice heavy landscaping, put this nice invisible fence
through it." And that was okay. They signed an agreement. The
agreement was incorporated into the PUD. The ink was barely dry
on that PUD and filed with the state when the developer turned
around, went back to planning services, and said, "Oh, hey, I would
like an insubstantial change." And golly gee, it got approved. So all
the fancy landscaping is out. They have a straight fence, buffer now,
Page 18
September 19, 2001
and some sort of halfhearted little bushes planted in front of the
fence.
And at the meeting that was held at planning services, the
complaining neighbors were told, "Okay. You had an agreement, but
gee, there's no problem here. This meets the county's minimum code;
therefore, done deal." And this is exactly the sort of situation that we
are trying to prevent in the public participation process, where the
public comes together with the developer, and they reach an
agreement on what they would like to see done. And then to raise the
possibility the developer will then go back later through the
insubstantial change process and have all of that eliminated is still
very much here.
So there needs to be -- I don't know if it's in this particular
process or maybe an LDC process down the line, but there has got to
be some way to flag those agreements so that a developer who comes
in and wants to change that agreement has to be required to bring all
the parties back to the table before it's approved.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: I understand what you're saying, Sally.
And there's another example in North Naples where a particular
neighborhood, due to some errors at the county level and errors in
changes by the developer, did not have access to Goodlette-Frank
Road, and that was part of the master plan that was planned for that
neighborhood. And when the adjoining development went in, it was
made very clear that there was documents, it made mistakes, etc.
No matter where it was in the county, it still did not happen
because the next developer talked to a staff person who very clearly
said, "We don't have to give them access. They do not have to have
egress to Goodlette-Frank Road." And it was all documented very
clearly. There was a mistake because of some particular public
entity, the sewer treatment plant that was there. But I know exactly
what you're talking about. This does happen. I think part of it will be
Page 19
September 19, 2001
that staff is much more aware that they have to monitor it, and they
have to get the information.
MS. BARKER: But they knew about it, and they didn't care
because it met the minimum code requirements.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And see, now, that's unfortunate. You
have a --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Madam Chair, I would
like to see staff-- I'm asking for support from the board -- from the
commission to ask for language to be put in -- and I'd be glad to craft
some -- and forward it and show it to everyone. But I'd like to see
some language in here that ties this thing up so that we can close this
gap.
Now, Mr. Nino says it can never happen again, but we have
several examples where it has happened, where the effect of public
participation has been there, and the agreements have been worked
on -- you know, I just don't -- I just don't have a comfort level that --
we're a big administrative group, and there's a lot of people looking at
a lot of different things. It just seems to me we need to have this tied
down more tightly, and I'd like to do it in the code so that we can
have a firm basis for it to be in the code.
MR. BELLOWS: Before we move on, I'd just like to point out
-- I know somewhat of this case that's being discussed. The PUD
document contained additional landscaping requirements above code
requirements. That is still in effect, and it's still a requirement of the
developer to provide that additional landscaping above minimum
requirements of code. There was a site development plan for the
clubhouse that was submitted and a preliminary subdivision plat that
was provided, and those plans are consistent with the PUD document.
However, the developer and the -- had reached an agreement with the
homeowners' association to provide even additional landscaping, and
a time specific for installation of that landscape buffer was not
Page 20
September 19, 2001
incorporated into the PUD document. It was a private agreement.
Now, this is a perfect case where this new process that we're
setting up here would require that information to be provided to staff
prior to the submission of the PUD document and that we would have
that agreement in hand when reviewing the PUD document and
would ensure at that time that those conditions and stipulations are
placed in the PUD document. Now, the homeowners' association
representative attended the board meeting but failed to make that a
stipulation that the board acted on. She was under the impression
that that agreement would be automatically incorporated. And unless
it's presented to staff and made a part of the record officially, it's only
a civil matter between those two entities.
But this process -- and you still may want to tweak it a little bit
more, but this process is a way to get those private agreements
between the developer and the private property owners' association,
to get them to staff even prior to submission of that petition or at the
same time as that petition.
MR. NINO: Let me say I -- I don't -- I don't think you can write
into an ordinance that what I tell a person has to be carried out. I
don't think you can write into ordinances that kind of thing. I mean,
you're venturing into a whole untried area here, and I don't think you
can do that. I don't think you can say if I go to a public meeting and I
make a bunch of promises, that I have to do all of those things in -- in
the legal -- in the legal text of the ordinance.
But staffs responsibility as a functionary in dealing with the
development order needs to say to that developer, "Look it, if you
don't make these changes that you promised at the public hearing,
then our staff report is going to be an adverse staff report, and it's
going to point out those deficiencies to the county board and make
them recommendations for approval." That's the way you get at
those things.
Page 21
September 19, 2001
MS. STUDENT: It has to go --
MR. NINO: You don't write things into the law.
MS. STUDENT: Marjorie Student, assistant county attorney. It
has to find -- whatever is promised, assuming it's legally sufficient --
that's one thing I have to make sure of-- needs to go into the
ordinance and become a part of the ordinance. Having side
agreements, private agreements and things, I'm concerned if we were
to write something like that in there, we're starting to get into some
contract zoning stuff which is not permitted in the law. You know
where the developer makes a contract over here, and the county says,
"Okay. You've got this" without considering it. It needs to be fully
considered, not just say, "Okay. You've got this agreement. That's
the end of it." Whatever that may be can find its way into the
ordinance. And assuming it's legally sufficient and so forth, it can
become a part of the ordinance.
But I think it has to go through all those things or else we could
have a contract zoning problem. And just to say, "Well, there's this
agreement here so, you know, ipso facto it's a done deal because it
exists," I think there's a problem with that because the regulations
have to meet public health, safety, welfare requirements, which I'm
sure in most cases such a thing would do.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Madam Chair.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Mrs. Young wanted to interject real
quickly.
COMMISSIONER YOUNG: I just wondered, Ray, this
stipulation, again, page 5, Section 2, where you say the applicant
shall provide a written account of the result of such contacts and shall
submit all and (sic) written communications to the planning services
department, was that your effort to meet this problem? MR. BELLOWS: Yes. Exactly.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And I want to add, too -- I just want to
Page 22
September 19, 2001
add, too, that the word -- the reason I objected to the word "intended"
when we talked about this before is that there's a lot that you can't
commit this early in the process to, to how this particular property's
going to be developed, and you don't want to raise those
unreasonable expectations. I think that's very obvious, but I'm very
sensitive to what you're saying, Mr. Richardson. So if you come up
with some language that we could work from but does not create a
problem with zoning --
MR. NINO: Remember the scenario. I'm a developer. I have a
public hearing on a PUD master plan. And I don't agree to anything,
but the people say, "I want this, I want that, and I want this." And he
says, "Fine. We'll have those things considered." It goes through the
process. We identify those -- if you were to write a statement that
says all those promises have to be carried out, you'd be setting up a
condition whereby the folks out there hold the developer hostage to
an approval.
MS. STUDENT: And as an attorney --
MR. NINO: You can't do that.
MS. STUDENT: -- if you write something like that, it would
violate -- it would probably violate constitutional due process as well,
because those things have to be fully and fairly considered by all the
bodies that they need to go through instead of just saying, "Well,
there's an agreement, so it automatically is part of the regulations."
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And in fairness to the developer, some
citizens' interpretation of the word "promise" can be totally different
than what the staff person or representative of that developer said at a
meeting. So we have to try to stay in the middle ground here.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Madam Chair, then it
suggests to me that we are developing a feel-good section here
without much real help to the public, and I'm really concerned about
that. I think -- I thought this was really a -- you know, some nice
Page 23
September 19, 2001
words to really push the applicants and the public closer together so
that we can work out some of the problems. But if working out the
problems doesn't allow us to get that committed into the final
document -- which I'm seeing now it's not going to be possible with
the administrative attitude we have here -- then I'm really concerned.
MR. BELLOWS: It does come down to the Board of County
Commissioners, our elected officials, to make whatever
determination they deem consistent with applicable codes and
ordinances.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: I realize we don't have
much power, but I just wanted to --
MS. STUDENT: All that-- I need to explain that because it
doesn't have anything to do with administrative attitude. We have a
constitution in this country, and right now --just editorializing -- it's
precious to me. And that constitution provides safeguards, and the
safeguards are that if there are any laws passed, they're duly
advertised, and everybody gets -- by virtue of the advertisement, gets
put on notice. And they come to a hearing to present their views on
what's being considered, whether it's before this commission or the
Board of County Commissioners or the Board of Zoning Appeals.
So the way I envision this working is that any type of agreement
that -- or commitment the developer may make to surrounding
property owners will find its way into the document or will be
presented to the appropriate bodies with either a recommendation of
final approval, up or down, of what was promised. But it is going to
get in there, either in the document itself or be made part of the staff
report or executive summary, so the board has to consider it.
But if you say it's automatically in there because it was agreed to
at a meeting, then that violates due process because the code says it's
a done deal before it ever gets to a hearing simply because the
developer agreed to it, and that violates due process. Due process is
Page 24
September 19, 2001
notice and opportunity to be heard. And somebody else in the
community may not be happy with what the regulation might be.
And if you say it's a done deal and we are not going to hear it
anymore, that violates due process because if that person has a
problem with it, it's already done, and he doesn't get to come to this
body or the board to voice his concerns about it. And that's what due
process in our constitution means, and that's -- well, we're here
legislatively, so it's a little different but--
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Okay. So just a quick
question. So if we crafted some language that preserved due process
-- and I certainly agree with your constitutional comments -- that
would --
MS. STUDENT: I think that if some language were crafted that
indicated that those -- the conditions that were agreed to -- and not
necessarily an agreement that somebody signs. I get a little nervous
about that because that's kind of getting towards contract zoning
again. But the requirement that staff, in the staff report or executive
summary, take what was agreed to and have it in the staff report, then
that would come to you-all. You could make a recommendation
whether or not to put it in a PUD. Then that staff report gets attached
to the executive summary that goes to the Board of County
Commissioners, so it would still be part of the record.
And then they would ultimately vote up or down whether they
wanted those things in there; or, in the alternative, they could be put
in the PUD document. That's probably safer, that once the developer
has the meeting with the surrounding residents and agrees to some of
these development standards, that it be incorporated into the PUD
document that goes through the process. The only concern I have is
that it's not, as I said, an automatic done deal that can't be considered
at a public hearing because then we have a due process issue.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: If I said that, I overstated
Page 25
September 19, 2001
the case. This would be in the developer commitment section of the
PUD, for instance? What is this --
MS. STUDENT: It could be. Or it could be -- the PUD, as you
know, is broken down into subdistricts with their own performance
standards, and then it also has sections dealing with, under developer
commitments, transportation, utilities, environment, and So forth. So
wherever the appropriate subsection and subparagraph would be,
that's where it could be in the PUD. And perhaps for cross-reference,
staff could maybe identify it in a staff report or something or
generally allude to it so the boards would know.
MR. NINO: Well, I don't think that really addresses -- your real
concern is -- is to supplement or compliment what's proposed in this
amendment to include the proposition that you addressed. That's the
very purpose of the Planning Commission. You're perfectly -- you
know, this staff's not the last word on the amendments. You're
perfectly entitled to craft the language and present it at the next
meeting. And if your fellow commissioners vote for it, then that
recommendation will go on to the Board of County Commissioners.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Madam Chair, with that
encouragement, then, from staff, I would like to craft some language
that is not as vitriolic as I had first stated and try to make it meet all
the constitutional requirements but at least bring this issue to some
sort of focus. And if I may have permission to e-mail it to each of
you before the next meeting, would that be okay?
MS. STUDENT: I don't think -- I think there may be a Sunshine
violation. It would have to go to staff, and then staff could
disseminate it.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: All right. Would that be
permissible, Mr. Bellows?
MR. BELLOWS: Definitely. That's fine.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Thank you very much.
Page 26
September 19, 2001
MR. NINO: I think you could just present it at the next meeting
as part of your final deliberation.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: That's fine, but I'd like
these thoughts to be duly considered and noted. And sometimes in
the --
MR. BELLOWS: Yes. If you get it to me, I'll make sure it's
e-mailed out.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: I think it needs to go to staff and to us
so we can look at it beforehand because I don't want to sit and read
something that's this sensitive and convoluted on the moment and try
to vote on it.
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah. The next meeting is October 10th, so
you got to get it to me as soon as you can if you want --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Thank you for your
forbearance.
COMMISSIONER BUDD: I'm going to be here October 3rd.
MS. STUDENT:
MR. BELLOWS:
MS. STUDENT:
I think it's October 3rd.
What date is today?
Today is the 19th of September.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: The Board of County Commissioners
will hopefully be looking at this on the 10th. MR. BELLOWS: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: You just promoted us all.
All right. Are we through with this public notification section?
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Madam Chair, in all the
places where it says Collier County -- you know, our group, board of
-- Planning Commission, when the hearing examiner comes in, I
guess we'll have to redo all of this and take all that out? Is that what's
proposed?
Where do we stand?
MS. STUDENT: There will be appropriate -- for the record,
Page 27
September 19, 2001
again, Marjorie Student. There will be appropriate amendments
made at that time. As you know, the board is taking the hearing
examiner -- that process and so forth, and the idea is to get this on the
board right now while we're under the current process so we can
immediately start to have greater public participation.
MR. BELLOWS: Okay. The next item on your summary sheet
is Section 2.7.4.3. These deal with notification procedures for
variance and conditional uses. Currently the Land Development
Code has separate notification procedures for conditional uses and
variances, and this amendment to these sections will -- is intended to
implement consistent notice requirements for rezonings and -- similar
to the rezoning standards. The conditional use and variance notice
procedures are amended to reflect the added public informational
meeting requirements that we just discussed and, as to the variance,
to delete that section of existing notification procedures and replace
them with a cross-reference to the property notification procedures
that we're adopting now. The DSAC has not made a specific
recommendation to that one.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Other than the capitalization issue and
what we're actually called for the entity, I'm fine with that particular
one.
MR. BELLOWS: Okay. The next one deals with the C-3 and
C-4 permitted uses. And that deals with Section 2.2.12.2.1, and that's
the C-3.
MR. NINO: C-1.
MR. BELLOWS: And Section 2.2.14.2.1, that's the C-3, and
then 2.2.15.2.1 is the C-4. This is a Board of directed -- of County
Commission directed change to address the uses that are listed in
those specific zoning districts, to eliminate those uses that are
deemed not acceptable. Such as in the C-1 they do not wish to have
the tow-in parking lots as a permitted use. And you can see there are
Page 28
September 19, 2001
SIC codes that are adopted with those specific zoning districts that
would include that. This would specifically eliminate those uses.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Where are they allowed?
MR. BELLOWS: C-5.
MR. NINO: Currently they're allowed in all these districts.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: What about 2, then?
MR. NINO: No, it's not allowed in 2. A tow-in parking lot is
allowed in 1. A wrecker service and tow-in service is allowed in C-3
and C-4, and the board says we don't want them there.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: What about C-27
MR. NINO: They're not allowed in C-2 to begin with.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Any of them?
MR. NINO: That's right.
MR. BELLOWS: Any other questions?
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Ms. Young.
COMMISSIONER YOUNG: This may be a strange question,
but provided that -- I'm on Section 2.2.15.2.1, page 8. Car washes
abutting residential zoning districts are not allowed as -- I just
wonder how would that impact groups like the Boy Scouts and the
Girl Scouts washing cars to raise money? Am I way off the beam or
-- I wouldn't like to stop them from being allowed to wash cars to
raise money for good causes, page 8.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: I think under the new regime here --
MR. NINO: Again, Ron Nino. In the first place, that's really
not an amendment that's proposed. That's in the current ordinance, so
that's not proposed as an amendment. The only thing this amendment
-- this does is eliminate tow-in parking lots from the C-4 district. So
the issue you raised is currently in the ordinance. But to speak more
directly to it, it doesn't prohibit car washes. It allows car washes
subject to criteria, and not all those criteria are here. And that would
not prohibit the kind of concern you addressed.
Page 29
September 19, 2001
COMMISSIONER YOUNG: Good.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: So we're moving along to, I think,
permitted-- industrial permitted uses?
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Right.
MR. BELLOWS: Yes. That's Section 2.2.16.2.1. This is to
allow a general aviation airport as a permitted use in the industrial
zoning district. This primarily pertains to the Immokalee Airport,
which is zoned industrial. And since industrial uses do not currently
permit airport uses, there's a little conflict there, and this allows for
that.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Any questions on that?
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I pointed out in a -- in an
e-mail the word "or" in the second line looks to me like it should be
"as."
MR. BELLOWS: On page 107
MR. NINO: That was changed on the revised -- revised
summary.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I've got the revised. Not
the summary. I'm talking about the --
MR. NINO: It was changed. It was changed.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: -- the ordinance.
MR. BELLOWS: On page 10, general aviation airport which
may include for use of-- during temporary special event activities
such as air shows and the like, a recreational vehicle campground and
ancillary support facilities, is that where you're talking about?
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I'm talking about -- oh, I
see what you're talking about. Change --
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Yours is in the top part.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Mine is in the change up
here.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: You're right. The word should be "as."
Page 30
September 19, 2001
MR. BELLOWS: Second line?
MS. STUDENT: I actually think I may work with staff, not to
change the intent of it, but to maybe do a little wordsmithing on
that. It's a little strained, I think.
MR. NINO: Where is that, Ken?
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: It's in the second line of the
description of what you're changing.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: It really should -- the "or" should be an
"as."
MR. NINO: You're right. We changed it in some places but not
all of them.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: I guess we're now on 2.5, signs.
MR. BELLOWS: That's correct. And as Marjorie Student
previously noted, this is a readoption of something that the Planning
Commission previously recommended approval on. I think we can
just make that a formal readoption tonight.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: I believe it's next time.
MS. STUDENT: Yeah.
MR. BELLOWS: Excuse me. That's correct.
MS. STUDENT: Next time is when the action's taken.
MR. BELLOWS: Sorry. My first time here.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: That's okay. You're doing quite well.
So that means we're on page 35 now, if we have no questions about
signs, of the new packet? Oh, this is my favorite group.
MR. BELLOWS: This is PUD procedures. It deals with
Section 2.7.3.4, and this amendment is to require PUDs to continue --
to commence construction within three years as opposed to the five
years of their adoption date or otherwise be subject to
reconsideration. The Development Services Advisory Committee
recommended approval, but the time limit and sunset review
requirements to initiate and continue physical development shall be
Page 31
September 19, 2001
abated at any time period -- any time periods where physical
development is delayed as a result of a moratorium or other
permitting delays of governmental agencies. So basically they feel
that it shouldn't be counted against the developer if there's a
moratorium that delays their ability to construct.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: How do you define those
other planning-- whose fault they are?
MR. NINO: You might appreciate that that change -- that one
concern of the DSAC is now reflected in the draft that's with you, the
last sentence of page 36.
MS. STUDENT: Yeah. And I think that should say "tolling the
limitation" or say "the tolling of the limitation," but there's a word
that needs to be changed there.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: You're saying tolling requirement or
totaling?
MS. STUDENT: I think it should say "tolling of the limitation,"
or "should not be counted towards tolling the limitation" is probably
the simplest way to say it.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And I just realized I don't have,
possibly, the e-mail that explained a couple of the other aspects of the
use of old page 10, now page 35, the verbiage, because we've got
extra verbs.
MR. BELLOWS: Yes. I think I mentioned in my e-mail that
this is something we'll resolve with Marjorie.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay. Because we've got a problem
that pops up. And then as far as the project developer, did you have a
comment about that phrase, "the assumption of ownership"?
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah. I discussed that with Ron, and
property entity is probably a better choice.
MR. NINO: The owner entity would be fine.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: So we can stay consistent, then, with
Page 32
September 19, 2001
that. Okay. That sounds good to me. So we're really language fixing
there from the legal department.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Madam Chair?
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Yes.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Just two questions of staff.
The -- you have a difference in the sunsetting for residential portions
from nonresidential portions. I'm not sure I understand the thinking.
For residential portions they've got a 15 percent, and after -- after
certain infrastructure improvements, 15 percent after year three, and
then every year after that there has to be another 15 percent until it's a
hundred percent done. However, nonresidential you only go to 75
percent, and then they never finish it out.
MR. NINO: The reason for that should be quite apparent.
Many PUDs -- most PUDs, commercial PUDs, have outparcels. And
why should we care if one or -- or two of those outparcels -- as long
as 75 percent of the project is developed and all the infrastructure is,
why should we care if those outparcels take another 20 years?
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Okay. And you have
some analysis that 75 percent is kind of a good number of completion
that would satisfy --
MR. NINO: Well, 75 percent will certainly indicate that the
shopping -- you know, if it's a shopping center PUD, that the
shopping center is there, and the only thing that's hanging up is the --
are the outparcels. A good example is Green Tree. There are many
PUDs that have outparcels that have gone for 15 years, you know.
Why do we care?
MR. BELLOWS: I think that's basically the intent.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: I thank you for that
explanation. My second point -- and I brought this up at our last
meeting anticipating that this section would come before us tonight
officially -- and that has to do with rolling the effective dates of
Page 33
September 19, 2001
PUDs where this re -- as a PUD amendment comes in, we reissue the
PUD and start the clock all over again. I'd like to see some
wordsmithing in there -- and I can suggest some language -- that
would make sure that the PUD would -- timing-wise, the three years
we're talking about here, would start with the approval of the first
PUD. And if there was ever any amendments to that PUD, we
wouldn't change the sunsetting of-- from the first date that the PUD
was approved, because otherwise I can see this as the subject of a lot
of manipulation where an applicant could come in at year three and
make a small amendment, maybe add a little more property. You
know, it happens all the time. And for administrative ease, we redo
the entire PUD, and the clock starts over again.
COMMISSIONER BUDD: Would you consider a compromise
in that instead of the current condition in which it always is renewed,
instead of a new amendment that says it is never renewed, but it's a
specific condition of any PUD amendment that that is a consideration
for specific action, whether it is or is not renewed, which could be
determined at that time at that process according to how expensive,
how relevant, what all the criteria are.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Whether it's substantial or
not.
COMMISSIONER BUDD: Whether it's substantial or
deserving of a renewal.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: I think that would be the
direction I would like to see just so we don't have something that can
MR. NINO: Well, let me offer you another suggestion. When
the purpose -- if I come in with -- the purpose of the sunsetting is to
give us an opportunity that we have a PUD in place that represents,
one, that it's consistent with the Land Development Code -- I mean
the Growth Management Plan and, two, reflects the most optimum
Page 34
September 19, 2001
development standards to give you a good development.
Every amendment to that -- every amendment to a PUD opens
up the entire PUD. And, theoretically, when one applies for a -- an
amendment, the planner should use that opportunity to update the
PUD to those standards that would be approved if it came in the door
afresh. So, you know, I -- I know where you're coming from. In the
past we've kind of taken the view that we wouldn't reopen the PUD
for minor amendments. That doesn't have to be the case. Any time
you knock on the door for an amendment, you could take the position
that an intensive review would be done of the entire PUD to update it
to whatever we would be asking if it came in the door today.
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah. And basically that's the case when we
do the rezone from PUD to PUD. We're actually -- and the pretext is
to amend that PUD to allow for additional changes. But once it
comes in as that, we're treating it like a new rezone at -- currently,
and it goes to every reviewing agency as if it was a brand-new virgin
piece of land coming in for a rezone. And each of those review
agencies have a chance to make sure that it's still consistent with their
applicable jurisdictional areas of review.
So say if the density has changed and the project was approved
at, say, eight units per acre and it's now an area -- and they don't --
aren't vested in any way, they're coming in and rezoning the property,
they will be faced with being consistent with the density rating
system and be lowered to the current consistent density, which may
be four or three units per acre.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: When you go from PUD to
PUD, you get another three years.9
MR. NINO: You get another three years. But in doing that
process -- the purpose of the sunsetting is to make sure that it's a
viable PUD. It represents the best of standards.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: It's supposed to be to get it
Page 35
September 19, 2001
built, too, isn't it?
MR. NINO: No. No, not necessarily. Not necessarily.
MR. BELLOWS: I think the intent was -- and I was there when
the county commission --
MR. NINO: You're not-- you're not forced to zone -- you're not
forced to develop land following zoning.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO:
MR. NINO: Yes.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO:
Mr. Nino.
One at a time. She can't type --
MR. NINO: I'm sorry. The purpose is to ensure that land is
zoned in accordance with the Future Land Use Element, not that it be
developed. Never been a premise of zoning that you get zoning, you
got to develop it right away. That's the free market's choice. But we
want to make sure we don't have a development order standing out
there that if they did decide to develop, we'd be working with a set of
outdated development standards, and that's the purpose of sunsetting.
So when you make -- when you apply for an amendment, and
we do -- because we want to cancel -- we always want to cancel out
the previous one because we don't want to have to look at several
ordinances to find out what it's all about. That opens up the window
to bring that PUD up to today's standards, and that's what we ought to
be doing. And whether it gets developed or not is really immaterial.
But if it is developed, it's developed with current standards.
MR. BELLOWS: And I'd just like to point out what would
happen if it didn't go through a PUD amendment and the sunsetting
were to occur, that process, we would not necessarily do anything
different than what would happen through the PUD amendment
process. So the sunsetting petitions that I've handled in the past when
the project no longer was consistent, say, in density, we would make
a recommendation to the Board of County Commissioners that the
density is now -- now -- the approved density of that PUD is no
Page 36
September 19, 2001
longer consistent with the density rating system, that it should be
rezoned either back to -- to a more consistent density, such as what
would be consistent; or if many items were inconsistent with that, we
could recommend that it go back to its agricultural zoning category.
That has also happened in the past in determining zoning
reevaluation.
But the main thing that would happen with a PUD to PUD
amendment, those same issues would be addressed just as it would be
if it was vacant land coming in for the first time. We would make
sure it was consistent with all of those currently adopted codes and
ordinances. So basically we're updating the PUD anyways through a
PUD to PUD, and that was one of the reasons we gave them another
three years.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Well, I don't agree with
Ron, because if the guy's got a PUD that allows a lot more density
than he could get today, when the three years is about to run out, he's
going to develop it. So that gets it developed.
MR. BELLOWS: That's true. If someone's going to see that
they're going to lose a vital economic interest, they're going to
develop it to try to keep it if possible. They may still not be able to
do that.
MR. NINO: Ron Nino. Yes. You're right. If they have -- they
have to -- this -- under this amendment they now have five years to
meet the threshold for retaining the PUD. This is going to require
them now to meet that threshold in -- and if I owned the land and I
had more density than I'm otherwise entitled to, I'd make sure that I
met the threshold required to keep it alive. But if that developer
decides in year two of the three-year cycle that they want to amend it,
to amend that PUD, they open up the window to having the board--
and the board would have to reduce the density.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Right.
Page 37
September 19, 2001
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And I just want to ask this one
question. I'm not even sure how I should ask it, but on old page 11,
page 36, the second paragraph there, No. 2, the residential portions of
PUDs and commercial and industrial, etc., where it says in the event
floor area is not the defining intensity measure, then the 25 percent of
the land area to include, etc., what would be some of the other
defining intensity measures?
MR. NINO: What we mean there -- if-~ if it's -- I'm sorry. Ron
Nino. If it's a PUD that was approved with a maximum allowable
floor area, then we would be measuring that 25 percent or 15 percent
against that allowable floor area. However, many PUDs are
approved without any floor area limitations. They're approved in a
manner that says they will do all of these uses, but there's no
maximum or minimum floor -- total floor area for the project. In that
case we would -- we're saying we want 25 percent of the land area of
the PUD to begin development, and in that 25 percent, they have to
have some kind of a vertical structure.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: So then--
MR. NINO: And we weren't able -- quite frankly, we weren't
able to define whether that should be 5,000 or 10,000 or 15,000
square feet.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay. So then following that, your
statement about the maximum allowable floor area being in the PUD
and other PUDs having these items that are to be done, then the
laundry list of items to occur is the defining intensity measure?
MR. NINO: No. Where-- no. Where there is -- where there's
no reference to floor area, then -- and the PUD only references land
uses, then it's the percentage of the land area.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: The land area only.
MR. NINO: Only. In other words, that's put in a parking --
that's put in a parking lot. They have to put in the aisle ways, the
Page 38
September 19, 2001
access ways to 25 percent of the land in year four where there is no
reference to maximum floor area.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Are there many of those existing
today?
MR. NINO: Yes, there are.
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah. I think there's more the other way than
with specific square footages.
MR. NINO: There are a few.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Because those are somewhat
commercial or maybe transient, hotel, lodging-type things?
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah. I think the intent of the way most of
our PUDs are -- are initiated is that they limit the size of the buildings
based on the development standards: Setbacks, building heights, and
landscaping, parking requirements. That would fill up the hundred
percent of the site, and you could include all of those various issues.
However, in some PUDs we say they cannot exceed 100,000 square
feet of retail floor area. That would be, then, the defining factor with
the first part of that statement. But if they don't list that, whatever
square footage, as what they have to build as their maximum, then we
could go to this percentage of the site.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO:
the acreage?
MR. BELLOWS: Yes.
Okay. Percentage of the site based on
So if we have a 5-acre commercial
parcel that has no limit on square footage other than the development
standards, then what-- how do we measure that? And we're saying a
percentage of that 5-acre site has to be done. CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Madam Chair, just a final
comment. I -- I'm appreciative of staff's explanation of how this
might work. And with that explanation I remove my concerns about
the language.
Page 39
September 19, 2001
(A discussion was held off the record.)
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay. Thank you. Are we down now
to excavations?
MR. BELLOWS: Yes, we are. And as I had mentioned earlier,
our engineering staff intended to be here. Unfortunately, several
conflicts of interest -- or time, I should say, came up, and they were
not able to attend. They passed on their regrets, and they said they
will be ready to be here at the next meeting. That's on the 3rd. And
this will give you time to look at the revised submission anyways that
we presented today, the corrected version.
MR. NINO: Ron Nino. But I can tell you that I reviewed both
Ken's memo and your memo, and some of the issues you raised were
taken care of in the rewrite. Incorrect section citations, for one, they
were taken care of. And there was paragraphs cited twice, and that's
been taken care of.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: I'm just told that in one -- I believe my
memo -- e-mail says instead of "trees," it was "blasting," and one
should have been trees, and one should have been for blasting.
MR. NINO: No. It was just incorrectly cited twice. It was
incorrectly cited twice.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Oh, and I think the other thing I would
like to put on the record now so that engineering really does have to
look at it is the concept of the stamps. When you're going to notify
these people, I don't believe it's a regular approach to mailing to have
double first class rate. I think that's going to have to be changed to
your first class stamp and your next ounce over, because a double
first class rate, the way it was explained to me, would be put two first
class stamps. And why make a -- a developer or person notifying all
these people put 68 cents on when all that's required, I believe, is 57
for that weight. So I hope that someone's going to look a little more
closely at how many pieces of paper go into those and how much
Page 40
September 19, 2001
postage you want to require people to put on. You don't want -- we're
trying to be specific but--
MS. STUDENT: It seems like we're preempted by postal
regulations.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Yeah. But it contradicts itself.
MS. STUDENT: I don't know why -- I haven't been involved
with the engineering, but I'm not quite certain why we'd be regulating
-- postal regulations take care of that.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Well, they want -- they want the
applicant to provide envelopes with enough postage on them to --
MS. STUDENT: Then they can just say with sufficient postage.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: That seems right to me.
MS. STUDENT: I think that may be -- sufficient postage may
be the solution.
MR. NINO: Did you e-mail that?
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: I did e-mail that.
MR. NINO: Stan Chrzanowski is the author of this, and if you
want to e-mail Stan, you can e-mail him.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: It's the old page 19. We're looking at
paragraph 4 in 3.5.6 -- excuse me, no. 3.5.6.1.3, and then paragraph
4 refers to first class plus one additional ounce, and then the next
paragraph says the infamous stamped double first class rate as if
you're going to put--
MR. NINO: You said 3.5.6.1.37
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Well, in mine -- and apparently I have
one of the oldest versions that there could have been, which I studied
very closely. I will send you an e-mail, Ron, because I would like
that clarified.
MR. NINO: E-mail Stan.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: He's already answered my question,
and I want someone else to answer it.
Page 41
September 19, 2001
MS. STUDENT: I see the section. I think just saying sufficient
postage would be --
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Right. Because then you'd know how
many you're going to be sending out the door, and you don't have to
keep changing this section.
MR. NINO: Marjorie, will you--
MS. STUDENT: I made a note.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay. And I'm sure I'll have more
comments when I read the newest version.
MS. STUDENT: And, Madam Chair, I know we've talked
about it, but just for the record would you announce the date, time,
and place of the next meeting, please?
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Yes. The next Collier County
Planning Commission land development amendment scheduled
meeting is Wednesday, October 3rd at 5:05. And I believe that is in
the commission chambers.
MS. STUDENT: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay.
We can adjourn.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON:
tomorrow?
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Yes.
8:30 in the commission chambers.
Any other thoughts, comments?
We have a meeting
We'll see everyone tomorrow at
Thank you.
There being no further business for the good of the County, the
meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 6:24 p.m.
Page 42
September 19, 2001
COLLIER COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION
JOYCEANNA J. RAUTIO, CHAIRMAN
TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF DONOVAN COURT
REPORTING, INC., BY BARBARA DRESCHER, NOTARY
PUBLIC
Page 43