CCPC Minutes 01/03/2002 RJanuary 3, 2002
TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE
COLLIER COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION
Naples, Florida, January 3, 2002
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 8:33 a.m. in REGULAR
SESSION in Building "F" of the Government Complex, East Naples,
Florida, with the following members present:
CHAIRMAN:
Joyceanna J. Rautio
Kenneth L. Abemathy
Lindy Adelstein
Lora Jean Young
David J. Wolfley
Dwight Richardson
Mark P. Strain
NOT PRESENT:
Russell A. Budd
Paul Midney
ALSO PRESENT:
Marjorie M. Student, Asst. County Attorney
Ray Bellows, Chief Planner, Planning Services
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AGENDA
COLLIER COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION WILL MEET AT 8:30 A.M., THURSDAY, JANUARY 3, 2002, 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. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
2. ROLL CALL BY CLERK
3. ADDENDA TO THE AGENDA
4. APPROVAL OF DECEMBER 6, 2001 MINUTES
5. PLANNING COMMISSION ABSENCES- RUSSELL BLrDD
6. BCC REPORT- RECAPS OF DECEMBER 11, 2001
7. CHAIRMAN'S REPORT
8. ADVERTISED PUBLIC HEARINGS
A. PUD-2000-22, William L. Hoover, AICP, of Hoover Planning and Development, Inc., representing Pine Ridge
Redevelopment Group, requesting a rezone from "RSF-4" and "C-I" to "PUD" Planned Unit Development to be
known as Goodlette Comers PUD for a maximum of 60,000 sq. ft. of commercial uses, for property located on the
southwest comer of Goodlette Road and Pine Ridge Road, in Section 15, Township 49 South, Range 25 East, Collier
County, Florida, consisting of 8.52+ acres. (Coordinator: Fred Reischl)
PUDA-20001-AR-431, Tim Hancock, AICP, representing Park East Development, LTD, requesting an amendment to
the Founders Plaza PUD by updating the existing PUD for the purpose of including language that permits additional
retail and commercial uses on parcels that exceed 150' in depth for property located on both sides of Golden Gate
Parkway at the Santa Barbara Canal Crossing in Golden Gate City, Section 28, Township
49 South, Range 26 East. (Coordinator: Ray Bellows)
C. PUDA-2001-AR-1494,Cindy A. Penney, of PMS, Inc. of Naples, representing Kenco Development Inc., requesting a
rezone from PUD to PUD to be known as the Richland PUD for the purpose of reducing the maximum number of
dwelling units from 650 to 400 and increasing the commercial acreage from 21.8 acres to 25 acres for property located
on the southwest comer of Immokalee Road and Collier Boulevard (C.R. 951), in Section 27, Township 48 South,
Range 46 East, Collier County, Florida. (Coordinator: Ray Bellows)
D. LDC Amendments
9. OLD BUSINESS
10. NEW BUSINESS
11. PUBLIC COMMENT ITEM
12. DISCUSSION OF ADDENDA
13. ADJOUR31
1/3/01/CCPC AGENDA/SM/lo
January 3, 2002
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
I'd like to call to order this meeting of the Collier County Planning
Commission in regular session for Thursday, January 3rd, 2002.
Please stand and join me in pledging allegiance to our nation's flag.
(The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.)
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Next item on the agenda is roll call.
Mr. Midney, absent but excused. Mr. Adelstein.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Here.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Mr. Budd, absent but excused.
Mr. Abernathy.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Here.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Ms. Rautio, present.
Mrs. Young.
COMMISSIONER YOUNG: Here.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Mr. Richardson.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Yes.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Mr. Wolfley.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Here.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Mr. Strain.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Here.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: We do have a quorum. Thank you.
Do we have addenda to the agenda that you're aware of,
Mr. Bellows?
MR. BELLOWS: Yes. On Item-- Agenda Item 8-B, that's
PUDA-2001-AR-431, it's come to my attention there was an
advertising error on this petition. And the petitioner and I have
discussed this, and we request that this be placed on the next
Planning Commission agenda.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay. So that would be the January
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January 3, 2002
17th meeting?
MR. BELLOWS: Yes.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: So moved.
COMMISSIONER YOUNG: Second.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO' We have a motion and a second; a
motion by Mr. Abemathy, a second by Mrs. Young for removal of
Item 8-B under public hearings to the January 17th Planning
Commission hearing. All in favor?
(Unanimous response.)
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO:
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO:
Those opposed, same sign.
Motion carries.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Madam Chair, just on a
narrow point, in that particular packet, 8-B, I appear to be missing
some information, so you might want to check that before the next
meeting.
MR. BELLOWS: Yes. Since we're on that item, I'd like to
address certain things that have come to my attention since I got back
from vacation. One is the applications that-- some of the staff
reports in your agenda packets may be missing some pages. And the
reason for that is -- and not every planner does it the same way but --
or every application that we receive. Sometimes those pages are
missing because those are pages that are informational. They have
information on how to prepare and submit a traffic impact statement.
Technically, they should not be part of the application packet and
that because of the numbers -- sequential -- sequence makes you
think that there's information missing. Really, it's just an
informational part of that application. It either should be attached as
an exhibit or given out separately and not attached. So I apologize
for that confusion, but it's really not missing information on the
application; it's just an exhibit that's not -- it's been removed because
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January 3, 2002
it's redundant information.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And you might be considering
changing the --
MR. BELLOWS: Oh, definitely.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: -- format. Go ahead if you want to talk
about that.
MR. BELLOWS: Yes. I discussed this with the-- Madam
Chairman, and I agree that a revision to the application will occur.
We will eliminate those informational parts of the application and
just keep the necessary applicant information on the application, and
that should resolve any of those problems with -- when you get an
application in your agenda packet, all the numbers will be there, so
you'll know nothing's missing.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And we will continue this discussion
under the chairman's report, some additional items procedurally we'd
like to chat about. I also want to point out that under Item No. 9, old
business, we'd like to specifically identify Item A, the ability of LDC
updates and the codes, and that will be handled by Commissioner
Adelstein under 9, old business.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Can I add a couple things to old
business?
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Certainly.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. We also have an issue of
the meeting space. We talked about it a couple meetings ago, and I
would like to find out if that was something we should seek further
on-- further need of.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: For availability of office space; right?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yes. For the commission
members.
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January3,2002
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And you said a couple.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: The other item I think we can
discuss under your chairman's report possibly. It's timeliness of
receiving minutes for some of our meetings.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Thank you. I've identified that under
4, the comment about minutes, under the approval of the December
minutes.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Oh, so we can comment about the
lack of minutes as well as the approval of the current ones under 4?
Okay.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: I will be more than happy to give you
the floor on that issue.
Okay. Any other comments, addenda to the agenda or additions
to the agenda?
Okay. Under Item No. 4, approval of the December 6th, 2001,
minutes, are there any additions, corrections to this particular set of
minutes?
Do we have a motion for approval?
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: So moved.
COMMISSIONER YOUNG: Second.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: I have a motion by Commissioner
Wolfley -- oh, excuse me -- Richardson, a second by Commissioner
Young for approval of the December 6th minutes the way they are
written and presented. Do we have any comment?
No comment. All those in favor say aye.
(Unanimous response.)
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Same -- excuse me. Those opposed,
same sign.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Motion carries. I want to make it
abundantly clear that we're missing LDC minutes of the 14th of
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January 3, 2002
November and the 25th (sic) of November. They have not been on
an agenda that I have whatsoever. And I do know, from having
checked with the court reporting service, that they fulfilled their
contract and provided them adequately. Now I'm going to turn the
floor over to Mr. -- Commissioner Strain to comment, if that's what
he's looking for.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: That's basically what I was
looking for.
And where that came about is we were given some additions,
corrections, deletions, whatever you want to call them, to the LDC
amendments as part of this week's packet. And in order to review
those, I wanted to look at the minutes from the prior meetings to see
what we had recommended or suggested. Well, I went through all
my old minutes of all the meetings since I've been here. And, lo and
behold, there's nothing on the LDC meetings that we had, and they
were well over a month or more ago. So I don't know how we can be
expected to check this kind of stuff without the backup we need from
the prior meetings that should have been in our packages quite a long
time ago.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Right. And then if you were really
enterprising and went to the Web site, you would have found that the
last posted LDC minutes was from the -- I believe the 28th (sic) of
October when we had our special meeting, so you couldn't even pull
them off the Web site. So having done a little extra research with one
of the staff members who's more than concerned that it might be her
responsibility and no one clarified it for her, it turns out that we're
going to try to identify what's happening in IT so that the minutes
truly are available, because it seems to be a difference -- they haven't
gotten over to the planning department itself.
And there's also an issue -- and, Mr. Bellows, if you would
follow up on that since Ms. Murray's not here -- of the ability in IT to
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translate these into a Word document so that they print easily. So I
think we have more than just the issue of what happened to the
minutes. A, they haven't been posted; B, they're not in the format
that staff can press a button and print them correctly. We need some
more attention to this. And I have to agree with Commissioner
Strain. It's very difficult to look through what we have that was
presented to us without being able to go back and look at our
discussions, which went on for hours, on the 14th of November and
the 28th of November. Any other comments?
Okay. Moving right along, Item No. 5, Planning Commission
absences. Today Russell Budd is excused as well as Mr. Midney.
And it would appear that I may not be here on the next meeting, the
17th of January, so I'd like to alert my vice-chair to his needed
services.
Any other absences that you're aware of?.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: The month of February I will
be out.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Month of February you will be gone.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: That is correct.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And, Commissioner Young, you had
mentioned before--
COMMISSIONER YOUNG: I'll be away from February 4th
through March 31 st.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: So we will have to work real hard to
make sure that we have a quorum with two being absent, for sure, in
February.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I'm on the hook for jury
duty the week of the 17th. Surely a judge would excuse me to do the
Lord's work in another pasture over here.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: You might have to use your skills to
negotiate with them on that particular issue. Okay. Week of the
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17th.
All right. We are on Item No. 6, the Board of County
Commissioners' report, the recaps for December 1 lth. Do we have
questions or highlights from Mr. Bellows?
MR. BELLOWS: I have no information to give you on the
recaps. Everything should be in the information you have.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: No questions.
Okay. Now we are at the chairman's report. As mentioned
earlier, we seem to have some difficulty with getting adequate
information in our packets, and this last packet certainly was
illustrative of the difficulties that we've had in the past. And I want
to comment that this board has made it very clear that we want --
when we have an issue of a PUD amendment, we must see the old
document. For example, if it's been repealed once or twice, we really
only need the most current PUD document to compare with the one
that's presented in the packet. And that's a standard of this board.
Care to comment, Commissioner Strain?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: And that has been mentioned at
prior meetings. I know, Ray, you and I talked about some of the
problems with this packet. And they aren't-- they didn't come from
you; they came from your predecessor. You inherited them. It's
unfortunate.
One of the issues I had was with the Founders Plaza PUD that
has already been continued, and that won't be heard today.
The other one I had an issue with was the Kenco
Development/Richland PUD. And your comments to me yesterday
were that there wasn't extensive changes in the Richland original
PUD to the new one. I got a copy of the original Richland PUD, and
there are pages changed. The environmental issues have changed.
The setbacks have changed. The square footage of allowed
commercial is changed. And those are substantial. And I think that
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January 3, 2002
for the benefit of this entire Planning Commission, every planning
commissioner should have had the benefit of the old PUD to
understand what was there and what is being proposed. Based on
that and the fact while I may have had it -- and I was up late reading
it last night because I didn't get it until late yesterday. I know the rest
of this board probably didn't get it. And I would recommend that we
ask to continue this particular hearing on that issue to the next
meeting date.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Well, I --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Continue what?
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Continue the Richland item, which is
C on our agenda. I managed to pick up a copy when I went in to talk
to staff about the inadequacies of the packet. And I, too, noticed that
there were a number of changes and tried to make my comparison
rather late last night myself, and I'm not comfortable with going
forward. Commissioner Adelstein.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTE1N: I don't have a copy of the
Golden Gate Master Plan either, nor have I ever seen one. And
there's no reason we don't have them, but we don't.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Any other comments from
commissioners? What do you-- those of you who may not have
gotten these documents, what do you feel?
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: I would certainly support
continuing it until we get sufficient information to review.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTE1N: So would I.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I'd like to move that we continue
-- and I'll read it specifically-- PUDA-2001-AR-1494 till the 17th of
January.
MR. BELLOWS: If I may, Madam Chairman, can we defer the
vote until this item comes up? There may be some mitigation that the
petitioner may present to help explain the changes during this
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hearing. I -- I don't think there's substantial changes that -- and in
substantial, I mean it doesn't affect the compatibility of the project
with adjacent properties.
I read through Chahram's staff report, and I did notice some
errors in there, but I think they can be straightened out during the
public hearing of this item. And this would give the chance for the
petitioner to explain the changes and those who showed to -- on this
item to comment on it so we -- the petitioner can get their comments
and make changes to the PUD document as -- if they feel and agree
with the comments raised by the public speakers and the general
public.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Thank you. From a procedural
standpoint, at this moment we only have a motion on the floor. We
did not have a second.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: I'll second it.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: You have now seconded. Okay. So --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Discussion on the motion?
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Commissioner Strain has moved that
we postpone this item from today and move it to the 17th of January.
We have a second by Commissioner Richardson. Discussion.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Yeah. Let me just
reinforce that. This is not meant to -- anything against the applicant.
I'm sure she or he -- she in this case -- has done an adequate job,
though we don't have any evidence of it or don't have sufficient
evidence of it. And I think we'd just like to make this point this way
to highlight our concern collectively -- not only on this item, but all
items -- to make sure we kind of sharpen up our -- our weapons here
to give us some better material. And if the changes, as you're - may -
- may convince us later on, are diminimous (phonetic), but we
shouldn't be doing this on the fly at the meeting. Give us a chance to
perform our function. So that's what we'd ask for. That's why I
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support the motion.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And I had a lengthy discussion with
the county attorney, David Weigel, and he indicated to me that we, as
planning commissioners, have a reasonable expectation of having all
available and creatable information available to us so that we can
make reasonable and informed decisions. And if that does not
appear, then we do have the right, in open meetings, to discuss a
continuation. And that's what has brought us to this point right now
on Item C -- 8-C on the public hearings.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Well, is anything lost by
honoring Mr. Bellows' request that we get to the root of this and --
and see whether this remedy is appropriate or not?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I mean, I'm tom between --
I respect the motion maker's feeling that he can't judge the issue on
the basis of what he has, but I also respect Mr. Bellows' position that
perhaps it could be clarified in some way. So I have no hesitation in
supporting the motion later on in the meeting, but I'd like to give Mr.
Bellows and -- and the applicant a shot at clearing all this up.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: From a procedural standpoint, we
would have to open the public hearing for that and then possibly
move for a continuance, just so that we're all clear on that.
Commissioner Adelstein.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: I don't know what they could
bring out later. When I didn't have the old one in the first place to go
over it, I'm not going to have it later on either, so I'm still stuck with
the same position I had.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: I could give you my copy.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTE1N: Well, that's just a little bit
late.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO' It is.
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January 3, 2002
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I -- myself, I can't see why we
would rely on anybody but ourselves to make and review this
information and to know that we've done a thorough job. And that
includes other documentation that we've been missing for as long as
some of the members have been sitting on this board. And I know
that we've been working on getting ULDCs and items like that. My
motion -- I would still like to continue with my motion.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay. Any further comment?
I call the question. All those in favor of continuance for
PUDA-2001-AR-1494, the Richland PUD, say aye. (Unanimous response.)
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Those in favor-- excuse me. Those
opposed, same sign. (No response.)
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Motion carries unanimously. It has
been continued to January 17th, 2002. And I strongly urge every
petitioner in the office -- in the audience to please contact staff to
make sure that you're comfortable with what they are and aren't
giving us. That might be an extra way to ensure all the documents.
Okay. With reference to the chairman's report, I do believe that
if we take the time to look at the -- excuse me -- if staff takes the time
to look at the application itself and rework its format so that the
appropriate pages may be included and they carry through with the
numbering system in our packets, that would help immensely, and
then we don't have the confusion over what is or isn't there. And as
long as we're at this particular point, when it comes to accuracy of the
reports that we're given by staff, I'm going to suggest that maybe
somebody has the job of editing these type of things that come
forward.
There is an example which I'm personally involved with and
have stated on more than, I believe, three occasions as a member of
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January 3, 2002
this Planning Commission for 26, 28 months, one of the items
indicates a reference to the Utilities Code of 88-76. And I went back
and pulled out my information on this, and I just want for the record,
for the utilities -- the standards and procedures ordinance, that 88-76
was repealed as well as 89-23, 88 -- excuse me -- 89-32, and then
also Resolutions 89-127 and Resolution 90-111, which basically was
the collection of ordinances and resolutions for standard utility
procedures. This was all repealed in 1997. And the ordinance that
now governs is 97-17, and it has had an amendment since that time.
But I just want to make sure that staff fully understands that
this is a basic item. And when we see these type things come to us
and we're familiar with it, it tends to make us wonder what else is not
exactly correct in the staff reports. As you all know, we've had some
difficulty with staff, and some people are not working there anymore.
They were already understaffed before the terminations and
resignations that have occurred recently, so we have to give our staff
a chance to catch up.
And if anyone wanted to go and look at Ray Bellows' office at
this point, his desk is totally covered and the entire floor is piled with
applications, documents, and all. And he's doing his best to work his
way through it, but we don't have enough staff. We just had another
person hired. So we have to be patient, but we also have to have
adequate information coming to us. And I want to make sure that
from now on a staff report does not include a utilities procedure
ordinance that does not reference 97-17 and its amended forms that
have happened later.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: And that's just an
example.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO' Just an example; one tiny, little
example, which makes one wonder what we're looking at.
Commissioner Strain.
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January 3, 2002
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: As another item regarding
information, I went through our county codes and ordinances to see
what the duties and functions and powers of this Planning
Commission were supposed to be and what they're supposed to be
based on. And I want to read you-all one sentence, and based on that
sentence, I'm going to ask that staff provide us with the things that we
need. That includes copies of the -- any documents referenced like
Growth Management Plans, ULDCs, and everything.
Under functions and powers, it says, "The functions, powers,
and duties of planning commissioners shall be, in general, 1, to
acquire and maintain in current form such basic information and
materials as are necessary to an understanding of past trends, present
conditions, and forces at work to cause changes in these conditions."
And in order for us to do that, we have got to have the documentation
and the books that we need to do it with. And that means the
ULDCs, and that means the Growth Management Plan, and the parts
that we need. We have gotten the SIC code, and I appreciate that
because that was very effective in looking at these most recent
requests. But based on this information, I would hope that we could
expedite getting us the rest of the information that we need.
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah. And I'll be happy to coordinate that
for the Planning Commission. I'm not sure you gave that previous
request to Susan or to someone else, but I'd appreciate it if you could
also let me know which particular items that you're lacking, such as
the Golden Gate Master Plan and some of the other overlay districts
that we have that would be helpful in your completion of your duties.
I will make sure that we'll get you those copies. COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: I think we'll have further discussion on
that when we get to old business specifically. Commissioner
Wolfley.
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January 3, 2002
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: I just wanted to expand on
what Commissioner Strain was saying. In light of the fact we don't
have our LDC books as yet, if we could just get a copy -- when things
are mentioned in our packages regarding some of those codes, if we
could just get a copy of the page so that we could at least be on the
same page, that would be --
MR. BELLOWS: And I would be happy to do that. And I'd
also encourage each member to give us a call if you see an LDC page
that you need or we --
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Sure.
MR. BELLOWS: We'll get it to you right away.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay. Any further comments on these
issues I brought up in the commission -- excuse me -- the chairman's
report?
Okay. Moving right along to Item No. 8, advertised public
hearings. It would appear that we have one public hearing, PUD-
2000-22, which is a rezone for Goodlette Comers PUD --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Disclosures.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: -- and that's not being continued.
Therefore --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Disclosures.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: I got to swear them in first.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: I'm sorry.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: All those wishing to present testimony
today on this particular item, please stand, raise your right hand, and
be sworn in by the court reporter. (The speakers were sworn.)
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Thank you. Now, disclosures on this
particular item. I'll go first. I had a brief conversation with Attorney
Bruce Anderson, who represents one of the property owners,
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January 3, 2002
yesterday with reference to whether or not there were substantive
changes to this item and whether or not we were going to continue it
today.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY' I had a conversation with
Mr. Yovanovich and Mr. Arnold yesterday.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: I had a conversation with
them two days ago.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: With reference to?
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: This -- this particular plan.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Just in general, the types of subjects
that you might --
COMMISSIONER ADELSTE1N: We went over the -- the
PUD. This is the first time I had done that, and we went over it to
understand what their position was.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Any particular issues you discussed?
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Yes. We discussed the
issue of the lake and my concerns about the traffic impact of this
development.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Thank you. Commissioner Young.
COMMISSIONER YOUNG: I had a conversation with Mr.
Yovanovich, and he -- particularly regarding the traffic impacts, and
he sent me the -- faxed me the further information on the traffic
impacts.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: I had a telephone call from
Mr. Arnold in which we discussed -- I didn't have the packet in front
of me yet, but he discussed the fact that this was coming before the
commission at this time. And the concerns that had been highlighted
-- that he highlighted to me were concerns about the lake.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Nobody called me.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I had a lengthy meeting with
Wayne Arnold, who represents the applicant. We went over my
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January 3, 2002
concerns. The staff report had indicated this is -- intensity's up to a
C-3 use, and I found uses that were much more intense than C-3: C-
4, C-5 industrial. We went over those individual uses, and Wayne is
going to be prepared, I think, to address those today. At the same
time I had asked-- I talked to Ray Bellows and Marjorie Student
about this particular one. One of the things that Ray was going to
research is to see if it was advertised appropriately based on the fact
that some of the uses were more intense than possibly a C-3.
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah. And I did some research and also
looked at the advertising. It appears to be advertised correctly, and
there shouldn't be a problem, especially since the petitioner is willing
to state on the record and make the changes to keep them C-3 uses.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And I could disclose, also, that even
though I did not get an opportunity to speak directly to Mr. Arnold or
Mr. Yovanovich, I did attempt to return their phone calls, and they
attempted to return mine. So we actually never got to discuss
anything substantive about this particular public hearing.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Madam Chairman, while
we're on this subject of ex parte communications, I happened to be up
in Pensacola over the Christmas holidays. My niece just finished a
term-- she's an architect -- finished a term on the Escambia County
Planning Commission, and they flat out prohibit ex parte
communications on the part of planning commission members. To
me, for advisory boards, it's a bit -- to me, it's a bit of an imposition to
have to hash these over when we're going to have a public hearing,
the purpose of which is to hash these issues over. I think there's a
great deal of merit to such a rule in our case. And I'll not force the
issue today, but I think it's worth thinking about.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I would tend to agree with you. I
think that would be a very good idea.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And in that case we wouldn't need
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January 3, 2002
office space here at the county complex to meet with people. But we
will take that under advisement and possibly even --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Of course, we may be
getting -- going out of that business in the foreseeable future if the
hearing examiner comes into being.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO' And the foreseeable future is defined
as four to six months for a couple of items, as presented yesterday in
the Development Services Advisory Committee meeting, which I
attended. So it's going to be a long process yet before we get to have
a hearing examiner and that hearing examiner's duties are defined
specifically. So we may want to follow through on your suggestion.
No further disclosures?
Mr. Bellows, you have the floor.
MR. BELLOWS' Yeah. For the record, Ray Bellows. I'm
chief planner with planning services presenting petition PUD-00-22.
This petitioner is requesting to rezone the subject 8.52-acre property
from C-1 and RSF-4 to a planned unit development to be known as
the Goodlette Comers PUD. As you can see on the visualizer, the
subject site is located on the southwest comer of Pine Ridge Road
and Goodlette-Frank Road. It's this long, rectangular piece. The
subject site currently is partially developed. It contains single-family
residences and a strip plaza zoned RSF -- property zoned RSF-4 and
C-1 on the comer.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Comment, Mr. Bellows. Whomever
might be listening in the back for technical assistance, none of our
visualizers are actually coming on. If someone wants to come out
and help us, like Katie. Oh, the court reporter has identified that
Katie is not here. We'll punt.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Is there a surrogate Katie?
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Is there a surrogate Katie? I can't even
get color on ours.
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January 3, 2002
You may continue.
MR. BELLOWS: The master plan -- I'll show you a copy of
that-- is broken up in three tracts: Tracts A, B, and C. As listed in
the PUD document -- or the staff report, the intent is to create a
unified commercial office-type PUD. The proposed PUD will have
retail office uses and office space uses similar to the C-3 zoning
district. We had discussed prior that the PUD document may contain
some additional SIC codes that went into other zoning districts higher
than C-3, but in discussions with the applicant, we are going to
ensure that those are going to be all the C-3 uses. That was the intent
of the application.
Maximum building heights have been designed to be compatible
with the existing development by limiting the commercial structures
to a maximum height of three stories, not to exceed 50 feet in height.
And that would be on the master plan, Areas B and C are limited to
45 feet in height. So the 50 feet in height would be on Parcel A,
which is next to the hotel. There's a hotel off to the west.
Lastly, there is an existing lake on the south portion of the
project that buffers the residential community to the south that's
zoned RSF-4. The petitioners will -- proposes to modify that lake to
suit their development. It won't necessarily hurt lake views or buffer
requirements that the lake currently serves.
The project is consistent with the future land use element of the
Growth Management Plan. It allows for office and commercial infill
development on small parcels, 12 acres or less, within the urban
mixed-use area and along arterial and collector roadways where
residential development, as allowed by the density rating system,
may not be as compatible or appropriate. And this is a highly
traveled commercial arterial road on Pine Ridge Road and Goodlette,
and the suitability of continuing residential development there is
difficult at best. And the staff is supportive of that concept of
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January 3, 2002
meeting the commercial infill criteria.
The traffic impact statement indicates that the project will
generate 4,908 weekday trips, 448 during the peak hour. This will
not lower the level of service below its adopted level-of-service
standard. Therefore, staff is recommending approval from a traffic
standpoint.
This petition was reviewed by appropriate staff for
environmental concerns, and there was no adverse comments from
environmental staff in relation to this project.
I have been contacted by several staff-- or residential owners to
the south. They had concerns about some of the uses and the -- and
what would happen to the lake and the buffering from this project to
theirs. The petitioner has provided an adequate buffer, landscape
buffer. The project will be an upgrade from the current conditions of
some of the structures in there, and I feel that they've met all the
minimum requirements for landscaping and buffering. So this
appears to be consistent with that criteria.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Mr. Bellows, did you say you had been
contacted by residents?
MR. BELLOWS: Yes.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: That's in addition to what might have
been in the report and the file that Mr. Badamtchian had -- MR. BELLOWS: That's correct.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay. And how many were they --
were there?
MR. BELLOWS: Approximately three calls.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Three calls.
MR. BELLOWS: Some just left messages. One was able to get
through, and I was able to have a nice conversation with them. But I
don't think they have any real concerns based on the type of
landscaping proposed. And the petitioner can go into more detail
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January 3, 2002
with the type of landscaping.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: One other question I had. Would you
refresh my memory by looking at this map where that historical
cemetery is along there? Does this property touch it or not?
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah. That was another issue that was raised.
And I'll zoom in on it. Across -- or the shaded area here is the
possible location of an old historic cemetery that was along the lines
of the creation of Tamiami Trail and Pine Ridge Road. It's purported
to be the burial of some construction workers at that time. As you
know, down the road a little bit, there's Rosemary Cemetery, which is
a cemetery of some of the early founders of Collier County, and they
were reinterred at that location. This particular site is not a marked
graveyard per se such as Rosemary Cemetery was. These are
unmarked burials, and it's outside this PUD project boundaries. They
moved the PUD around it, so it's kind of outside of this project and
not within it.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Not -- Rosemary's not within it, and
you're saying this --
MR. BELLOWS: This --
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: -- cemetery is not within it also?
MR. BELLOWS: This unmarked burial area is not within it.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Unmarked burial area. Because I just
sort of questioned the historical/archaeological impact statement
indicating that it's outside of an area of historical and archaeological
probability. But with --
MR. BELLOWS: That's correct.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: How could it be outside of an area of
probability when it's so close to Rosemary Cemetery, and we know
there's something there? I don't understand that statement.
MR. BELLOWS: I'd like to clarify that. I'm currently the
coordinator for the preservation board, so I -- I have a lot of
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January 3, 2002
experience with the preservation board. The county has adopted a
series of maps, historic and archaeological probability maps. And all
petitions when they come in, such as this one, is reviewed for the --
with those maps. So we check the property location and compare it
to the maps. Those maps indicate areas of defined
historic/archaeological probability. They're shaded areas. And if the
project falls within the shaded probability area, the property owner is
required to hire a certified archaeologist to do a survey and
assessment of the site.
This particular site is not within that probability area. There
is an unmarked burial, but it has not been deemed to be historically
significant at this time and, therefore, is not shown on our maps. So
technically that statement is correct; it is not in an area of historic
probability. That concern was raised with the applicant at the time of
submission, and I believe they've made sure to exclude that from this
application.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Who does the deeming?
MR. BELLOWS: We've hired a consultant. They prepared our
maps.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I see. So they're looking
for graves that go back further in time? Is that what they're --
MR. BELLOWS: They look at Indian burial mounds,
archaeological -- other archaeological sites, burials. There's -- I don't
believe there's adequate evidence of existing graves at this location,
just purported. And that needs to be researched further.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Just folklore.
MR. BELLOWS: And through the preservation board, I'm sure
that will be done.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I have a couple of
questions. At one point in the PUD, there's talk about architectural
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January 3, 2002
embellishment can be as high as 60 feet above whatever this mark is.
So it would seem to me that buildings can present a mass of 60 feet,
whether they're 45 feet tall or 50 feet tall, can't they?
MR. BELLOWS: I don't believe an architectural embellishment
-- it would take the full massing of the building. I don't think that's
the intent of it. But we can work with the applicant to clarify that
language, and I agree that maybe that needs to be clarified a little
better and defined what they mean by architectural embellishment, a
spire, belfry. But I don't think it would be a massing of a wall to --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: The other -- the other area
of-- of grave concern to me is the traffic along Pine Ridge Road. I
travel that occasionally, and there are times of day where you don't
travel it; you just sort of sit there, particularly when the school is
letting out. The number of traffic -- the number of trips that this
project will generate, of course, is exaggerated by the fact that it
replaces trips that are already in existence. MR. BELLOWS: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: This Level of Service C
that is assigned to Pine Ridge Road sounds to me like the same kind
of inflation we have in grading in schools these days. If that's a C,
that's a very liberal grade for it, but I'm sure there's some technical
measures that it lives up to. But when you talk about a project not
adding 5 percent to the total that is now there, I understand that if it
does, all -- that doesn't say you can't do it; you just have to do some
ameliorative things; is that right?
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah. Basically we have policies in the
Growth Management Plan, the traffic -- transportation element
Policies 5.1 and 5.2, which basically state that the project cannot
generate traffic that significantly impacts a roadway operating below
its adopted level of service or projected to operate below its adopted
level of service. This particular statement basically says there's a
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January 3, 2002
significance test of what is a significant impact on the roadway. And
the transportation element contains some language that 5 percent of
the roadway's designed Level of Service C volume.
So there's traffic volumes or levels from A to F, and there's
defined volumes for each of those. So you take the Level of Service
C, take 5 percent of that, and if that trip -- project trips exceed that
amount, then that's deemed a significant impact. I'd like to point out
that language has since been modified, and it's not quite the 5 percent
of the Level of Service C anymore, but it's a similar concept of
defining what a level -- significant impact is.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Well, the problem with all
of this, to me, is that if you take this project in isolation and say does
it add 5 percent to the road -- and does -- does the figure that you're
adding this number of trips to, does that include Barron Collier's
shopping center across the street?
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah. I can speak to that issue too. When I
first started here, I worked with the transportation department.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: It sounds like you could
have four or five 5 percent projects.
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah. And what I used to do, when I did that
review of the county a few years ago, was that we take the
background traffic of all the existing projects, and we use that as a
defined growth rate along the roadway. And we work with the
Metropolitan Planning Organization, the MPO, the long-range
planning organization. They provide us with traffic growth for each
roadway segment based on historical trends they can see from traffic
counts taken from a 1 O-year period, the past 1 O-year period, and they
can define the projected continued growth of traffic volumes along
that roadway. So we add that to the project traffic also to anticipate
future build out conditions. So if this project was going to be built
out in three years, we increase the traffic volume on Pine Ridge Road
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January 3, 2002
from the current count by that average growth rate.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: So the Barron Collier
project is in this number somewhere?
MR. BELLOWS: Supposedly, yes. In the traffic impact
statement submitted by the -- I haven't -- this is Chahram's project,
and I haven't read through the traffic impact statement to be sure of
that. But our transportation staff has, and they have not objected.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Have you ever seen a
traffic impact statement submitted by an applicant who said that the
burden would be excessive?
MR. BELLOWS: We have disputed claims from traffic impact
statements submitted by petitioners and work with --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: You do your own -- you do
your own analysis.
MR. BELLOWS: We review their work. And where there's
insufficient information or incorrect information, we make them
revise it. And Dawn Wolfe, the new transportation director, is one of
the best at making them revise the traffic impact statement, that I've
seen. She's very good at that.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: My last question refers to
the rezone findings, in particular No. 15. These are a series of
questions that all start with "whether." I'm assuming it's whether or
not. "Whether it is impossible to find other adequate sites in the
county for the proposed use in districts already permitting such use."
And then we have this boilerplate answer that says, "This is not the
determining factor when evaluating the appropriateness of a rezoning
decision."
Why do we play this little game of setting up a straw man and
then knocking it over? What do we gain by that? MR. BELLOWS: Well, this is--
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Is this written in stone
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January 3, 2002
somewhere that you have to ask this question and answer it in this
way?
MR. BELLOWS: That's correct. The Land Development Code
has this criteria in there. And over the years, since I've been with
Collier County, that particular question has evolved into this
boilerplate language. And staff has numerous debates and
discussions whether we should amend the Land Development Code
to remove language that really is not pertinent to the review that's --
can't be defined. There's no criteria that we can judge to make this a
workable review item, and that's -- hence, that's the way this language
came. And this language has pretty much been in the staff reports for
the last five or six years.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I know it has. And my
point to you, Ray, is that if one is at all pressed for time and you start
reading these questions and you see these boilerplate answers, you
tend to skim over it and, in that process, may miss something that's --
that's of some importance.
MR. BELLOWS: I agree. And-- and we have had discussions
recently. We've -- if you've noticed, we've changed the format of the
answers somewhat, eliminated the pro/con type format in these
answers because it really is not a -- it was a response to previous
commissioners wanting a little more staff indication of the positives
and negatives. However, I think it was kind of a -- redundant, and it
also got boiler plated. So we tried to summarize it, just to provide a
summary. In some cases the summaries are freshly written because
there is criteria that we can use to make that summary. This
particular item is something that there's no way to provide adequate
summary. So -- but -- and that's where we decided that maybe we'll
amend the Land Development Code to eliminate these questions that
we can't really answer.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I realize you're busy
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January 3, 2002
putting out fires now, but this certainly is a project that should be
undertaken sometime when you have a little spare time, in the
summer or whatever.
MR. BELLOWS: I agree.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Well, that was one of my concerns
about the statement with the historical and archaeological impact, that
it would seem reasonable to me, having been a staff person before in
other places, that knowing that there were some unmarked graves
here and knowing it was very close to Rosemary Cemetery, that I
would have at least acknowledged that and indicated that it wasn't an
impact, and it wasn't on the maps. But for some reason, we've gotten
into the pattern of such standard boilerplate answers that we, as
commissioners, have to ferret out all sorts of information. And we
should be able to read in the executive summary and find more detail
or find more ideas that, oh, that's really not a problem, because we
have to think through it.
And I had a long conversation with John Dunnuck on Monday
the 31 st about this particular aspect: What can we do to help staff
find better ways to present the information? And let's put it in more
English language rather than just planning jargon and that, you know,
you try to give us a little bit better idea. And one of the examples, of
course, was the Silver Lakes PUD long, involved adventure, because
certain statements were missing, and we had to go elsewhere in ex
parte communication to find out what the real problem was. And so
that's another thing that may be coming down from above as Mr.
Dunnuck changes to Mr. Schmitt, that they'll look at the staff reports
and give us some more details that really relate to the project we're
talking about.
MR. BELLOWS: Yes. You make a good point concerning the
-- the cemetery. I think maybe Chahram, when he did the staff
report, was prepared that it was outside the project area, so maybe
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January 3, 2002
that's why it didn't get into greater detail. If it was within the PUD
boundaries, definitely that had to be addressed.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And, see, you can almost anticipate
that that was going to be a question from us. And sometimes that
helps move these along a lot faster and then some of the public
reading these and some of the professionals involved also, then, can
anticipate what it is that we're concerned about up here, and it's on
the record, and you move past it. Commissioner Wolfley.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: I had a question in the Growth
Management Plan consistency regarding the lake. Throughout here
there seems to be -- well, on that part it says that the lake is going to
be partially filled. Another portion says that it -- well, on the -- the --
I guess it's up there. It shows the lake to be filled or partially filled
on the -- on the blueprint there and on our last page. And then under
No. 16 of the rezone findings, it says that it's -- that the applicant is
proposing to fill the existing lake on the property. And I just -- it
seems to not be very consistent on what is going to happen with the
lake.
MR. BELLOWS: It's not completely filled, and the petitioner is
here to -- and he has a map, and I believe he can show you the
amount of fill that's going to occur. It's basically a reshaping of the
lake.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Okay. Well, it just seemed as
though it was left open to do whatever they wanted to do with it.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Commissioner Adelstein.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Ray, are you saying that you
don't do the traffic impact study; you just review it?
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah. The petitioner hires a certified
engineer or transportation planner to prepare a traffic impact
statement. That's submitted with the application. And that packet is
prepared and is submitted to the various review agencies from fire
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January 3, 2002
department, transportation, environmental, down the line, utilities,
stormwater management. They get the packet of information, either
environmental impact statement, traffic impact statement. And those
review agents review that criteria, and they respond back to the
planner with any proposed changes to the PUD document.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: How do you come to a
number when there's potentially 32 different varieties of tenants that
could go in there? If you took one, for example, of an insurance
agency and instead of-- in that space you put a fast-food, sit-down
restaurant. One would have probably 30 or 40 per day, and one
would have 300 or 400 a day. And how do we determine which is
going to be the tenant when they don't know who the tenant is going
to be?
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah. Basically the traffic impact statements
reflect the highest and most -- the highest traffic impact uses, such as
fast-food restaurants. The uses that are generally found in the C-3
district, let's say, are general retail. The Land Development Code --
or excuse me. There is a transportation trip generation manual that
staff uses and that the consultants use. It's the Institute of
Transportation Engineer's Manual, and they provide the trip
generations for retail uses.
They don't break them down, say, the difference between a book
store and a -- and a hardware store, let's say. The retail uses are listed
in there. And they, in some cases, do break it down for freestanding
uses such as a hardware store, but they also have shopping center
based on square footage. So the amount of traffic is based on the size
of the retail facility, if it's a shopping center versus office. So all of
that is in a manual that transportation engineers use when they
calculate trip generations.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Are you indicating, though,
that they take the highest traffic uses --
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January 3, 2002
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: -- of each --
MR. BELLOWS: That's right. So if they have a fast-food
restaurant, then they have to show that as a -- part of their trip
generation. If it's part of a shopping center, then it's integrated in the
traffic impact -- trip generation for a shopping center.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Speak into the mike. Okay.
Commissioner Young.
COMMISSIONER YOUNG: Thank you. Aren't we upgrading
our standards of road usage? I mean, isn't that in the works?
MR. BELLOWS: Russ Muller with the transportation
department shakes his head yes, so I guess -- he's involved with
Dawn Wolfe in making those improvements. I believe they're -- as I
recall in discussing this with Dawn Wolfe, that they are making
amendments to the transportation element and the Land Development
Code to make it so that it's more responsive to the current needs.
And they will be modifying the level-of-service standards in that
language.
COMMISSIONER YOUNG: See, I'm very con-- I'm very
much concerned that we're dealing with a total lack of responsibility
from previous administrations so that our roads are seriously below
standard. Even though they have widened Pine Ridge Road, as one
of my colleagues said, with the accumulated use along the way and
the fact that we are now talking about development impact according
to today's standards, if we raised those standards to what I would
consider an acceptable level for the future ...
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah. And that's a valid question. The -- I
think it goes hand in hand with what's there now, the existing
development on this site, and what it generates and the existing
access points not meeting -- that may or may not meet the proper
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January 3, 2002
turning radiuses that we require on a new development. So this gives
the transportation department and our transportation engineers a
chance, when they file for their site development plans, to put in the
proper turn lanes and access. So that would also improve traffic flow
along Pine Ridge Road, having proper decel lanes and turning lanes.
So that's one factor that goes -- involved in this.
The other factor is we have a currently developed property that
generates a certain level of traffic, and the difference between this
proposed amendment versus that and the benefits derived from
improved access is something that staff takes into account in making
its recommendation. And plus, as was discussed at several other
petitions at previous Planning Commission, staff is constrained from
going beyond what's currently in the Land Development Code and in
the Growth Management Plan in relation to level-of-service
standards. So we're kind of constrained. I know the transportation
department is working at a fast pace to get those amendments in.
COMMISSIONER YOUNG: Well, Marjorie, if staff is
constrained from considering future beneficial standards for adequate
road uses, is -- are we also constrained from thinking about that?
MS. STUDENT: I don't think that that's what Mr. Bellows said.
I believe he said that what's coming before the commission will be
some changes in the Comprehensive Plan and the Adequate Public
Facilities Ordinance about how concurrency is looked at. So until
those are in place, we can't really apply that to developments until --
we have to apply what the law is at this moment.
COMMISSIONER YOUNG: So we are constrained.
MS. STUDENT: Until it's -- until a new ordinance is passed.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: So the answer's yes.
Madam Chair.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Commissioner Richardson.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Just on this narrow point, I
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January 3, 2002
notice in the traffic circulation element that they talk about
development phasing, and I thought that was perhaps the traffic
department's input to perhaps feather this in a little better so it
wouldn't have as much impact on our traffic patterns. MR. BELLOWS: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: However, I do not see that
reflected in the development commitments. Perhaps I missed it.
MR. BELLOWS: Okay. I believe Item --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: It talks about access points
on Item D on page 16, but I don't get the sense that that's a phasing
which I put into context of a time line.
MR. BELLOWS: I agree. We'll have the petitioner add that.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: So your question, Mr. Richardson, is,
on the traffic issue, the phasing?
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Right.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay. I'm just making a list here to
make sure that -- I know they're thinking too, but I don't want to miss
these questions.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Because I'm sure, as
responsible developers, they're also concerned about putting their
new tenants in a situation where they're going onto a roadway that it
doesn't function properly, so I think it would be in their best interest
as well as ours for the project to be phased in a manner that would
have the least amount of impact. I hope I'm understanding the
developers' interests.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And we'll let them talk to that issue
specifically. Did you have something else you wanted to say about
that particularly?
MR. BELLOWS: No.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: I just want to point out to each of the
commissioners, in your packet, in the PUD itself on page 16, traffic,
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January 3, 2002
4.8F, as in Frank, that we do have the new language of the LDC and
the access points with reference to the access control policy.
Apparently that's an acceptable standard language now to this
particular petitioner, even though it hasn't been finally approved by
the Board of County Commissioners.
It was explained to me by staff that when those type of situations
are going through the process, that if a petitioner agrees to have that
type of language included in their PUD in advance, that's acceptable,
which does show that we're trying to work out the access point issues
that Dawn Wolfe presented to us in the Land Development Code
cycle that we just went through and that there is some flexibility and
there is cooperation, apparently, with-- I thought, with the look on
the face and we'll deal with this -- of the petitioner in their PUD
document.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: It does raise the question,
though, and one of my concerns is, the number of curb cuts there are,
the number of accesses. And we may just be puffing smoke here
today because Dawn Wolfe has reserved all of that to herself. What
can we do about it? I'm not even sure it's proper for us to be talking
about it because it's -- it's her call.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Well, Mr. Abernathy,
there is a statement on page 5, though, that says all committed road
improvements shall be in place prior to the issuance of COs for each
tract. And that's talking about the designed five driveways and
connection to Pine Ridge and Goodlette-Frank Road. So it seems
like that's the hook.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: That's right. But that's for
Dawn Wolfe at the time of SDP. We don't see SDPs. We can't --
well, I think we could ask a developer to limit himself to, say, two
right-out onlys on Pine Ridge Road, but what if Dawn thinks he
really should have three? Where do you go from there? Anyway,
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January 3, 2002
that's a rhetorical question.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: I think I'll add 4.8, traffic, F and the
LDC comments to something that our petitioner would like to address
and satisfy us as we move forward. Do you have any further
comments for us? Any further questions of staff, Mr. Bellows, at the
moment?
Okay. We'll continue on and let the petitioner present.
Mr. Yovanovich, it's your mm.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Thank you. For the record, Rich
Yovanovich on behalf of the petitioner. I have with me Bob Soudan,
who's contracted to purchase a portion of this property and will be
doing the self-storage that's referred to in the PUD; Wayne Arnold,
the planner on the project; Dean Smith, who's the traffic -- who's a
traffic engineer and can answer some questions on behalf of Mr.
Hoover, who is ill. But Dean Smith can answer some of the
questions you may have regarding traffic. Bruce Anderson's here.
He represents Mr. And Mrs. Shepard or the Shepard parcels. He
doesn't plan on speaking, but if you have any questions of him, feel
free to ask him any questions.
I feel kind of badly for Ray because he was asked a lot of
questions as not -- and he's not the original planner on the project and
doesn't have the background. That's why I tried to jump up and --
and tried to help him. I did that one time -- MR. BELLOWS: Please do.
MR. YOVANOVICH: I will. I did that one time for a
colleague in law school, and the professor turned on me, and I swore
I'd never do that again. But I felt like I needed to help Ray.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I thought he did all right.
MR. YOVANOVICH: He did. He did considering he didn't
have the knowledge that -- that Chahram had. Generally the overall
overview of the project, Ray did a very good job. I do want to
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January 3, 2002
mention that we did meet with the property owners to the south, the
residential homes. And I know there's some inconsistencies in the
staff report. And what you need to know is we don't get to see the
staff report before it's published. We have no input into the staff
report, so we don't catch what's being -- what's been reported to you
in the staff report. There are some inconsistencies on what's going to
happen to that lake. We have told the residents to the south that--
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Yes, there are.
MR. YOVANOVICH: We have -- we have told the residents to
the south that they should anticipate worst-case scenario, and the
worst-case scenario would be the entire lake would be filled.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Yeah. That's pretty bad.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Well, that's the worst-case scenario, and
we're going to take you through -- let me -- I want you to know that
we're -- we didn't say that anticipated portion of it. But what the
Planning Commission needs to understand, that that is not a lake.
That's a borrow pit that is wholly within (sic) our clients' property
and owned by our clients. They control that borrow pit. It -- it
belongs to them, and it doesn't belong to the people to the south.
With that being said, they have the legal right to that lake, and they
have the right to do with that lake whatever they want to do with that
lake. If it were to be developed as residential, they would have the
right to fill in that lake.
As you can see from the aerial that's up there, that is an
extremely narrow piece of property. Over time -- and you will hear
from one of our-- one of the original property owners who's part of
this petition, that was a two-lane road, and she's moved and left the
area because it's now a six-lane road. Now, she kept the home as an
investment, but nobody -- if you've driven past there, nobody would
really want their house that close to the road. I don't think anybody
would really want to build a house under -- on that road at this time.
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January 3, 2002
Your Comprehensive Plan recognizes that that property, as well as
the property across the street, should be redeveloped from what it--
currently is there. And I don't think anybody can say what's currently
there is what the people of Collier County want on that roadway.
So what we've done -- and which is no easy task. We're talking
about 11 different property owners who own all that property. We
got them all to agree to a unified planned development to -- which
meant they sacrificed. They gave up some -- some access they have
to their property right now. There is going to be reduced access
points. The rules of the game seem to change. We -- at one point
we're told to show our access points on the master plan. Now we're
told not to show our points on the master plan and that we want to
leave that to a later decision with the site development plan.
There will be a reduction in access points currently on Pine
Ridge Road. It will be improved. There'll be deceleration lanes that
will occur, which will get the traffic and reduce some of the friction.
We're -- we're happy to address all of these concerns today, later,
whenever is the appropriate time to address the traffic concerns.
That's why we have Mr. Smith here. But what I wanted to point out,
this is changed circumstances. This isn't the way it used to be.
So also, on the commercial landfill, the language in the
Comprehensive Plan -- I had some -- I represented a client who got
that language into the Comprehensive Plan. It was some
modifications. There's no -- there's nothing in that Comprehensive
Plan that says it has to be C-3 uses. What it says is you look on a
case by case and you look at compatibility as to the proposed uses.
It's supposed to be -- and I'll read the language that's in -- on page 21
of the Future Land Use Element. But it discusses lower intensity
office commercial development attracts low volumes --
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Slow down. The court reporter does
have to --
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January 3, 2002
MR. YOVANOVICH: Okay. Lower intensity office
commercial development attracts low traffic volumes on the abutting
roadways and is generally compatible with nearby residential and
compatible development. The criteria listed below must be met for
any project utilizing this subdistrict. The purpose of the district is to
allow areas that have commercial -- in this case, on two sides; you
have the Shepard parcel on the comer of Goodlette-Frank Road,
which is basically industrial-type uses as not conforming uses; and
you have a C-4 hotel on the other side -- is to look at what would be
compatible taking into consideration those two types of commercial
uses. C-3 has been generally bandied about as the lower intensity,
but you look at the different uses to make sure that they fit within that
lower intensity.
So if there are some uses that you feel are more intense, even
though they are in a different zoning category, they may be
acceptable under the circumstances for this particular petition. And
that's what we're here -- you know, anything that wants to come up
and you want to talk about specific uses, we're happy to discuss
regarding -- based on the intensity. But I don't think we're limited to
C-3 uses anywhere in the Comprehensive Plan.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: While you're there, Rich, could I
just --
MR. YOVANOVICH: Sure.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- interrupt? And I know why
you're saying this, but let me read you the first sentence of the staff
report, and that's why I read-- that's why I focused on it. "The
proposed PUD will contain three different tracts with a list of
permitted uses allowing office and retail uses similar to the C-3
zoning district." Now, based on that as being put forth as what we
were basing our review on, part of it, I then took that application and
applied it to your PUD and found out that your intenses do go all the
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January 3, 2002
way to industrial and some business park applications. And I can --
when we get into this item by item, I can tell you which ones are
industrial, which ones are C-4, and which ones are C-5. That's why
we got to the C-3 issue versus what's being used there.
MR. YOVANOVICH: And I appreciate that, and that's why I
was just trying to clarify a little bit of the legislative history of the
Comprehensive Plan, to hopefully-- because there was questions
regarding consistency with the Comprehensive Plan, and I wanted to
point out that what we're proposing is consistent with the commercial
infill provisions of the Comprehensive Plan. That doesn't mean we
still don't go through the analysis of the intensity.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: My concern is that what you say
is what you do. And if C-3 is what was said, then C-3 is what it shall
be, and that's where I'm coming from. And if C-3 was put in by staff
and not by you, then we'll discuss that as we --
MR. YOVANOVICH: And that's what I'm--
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- go through your presentation.
MR. YOVANOVICH: That's what I'm trying to address is the
issue of we don't write the staff report. We -- we submit a proposed
PUD. It gets massaged by staff. And a good point is I looked so
puzzled when you referred to a Traffic Condition F in the PUD.
Well, I'm looking at my PUD, and there is no F. There's -- you know,
we give a disk to staff now, and staff changes things, and they submit
to you what they propose to be the PUD. Well --
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Rich, isn't there some procedure by
which you get to see the last draft of a PUD?
MR. YOVANOVICH: Well, you know, we --
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: This is ridiculous.
MR. YOVANOVICH: We're supposed to.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: I'm seeing heads shaking no.
MR. YOVANOVICH: We're supposed to. And I understand
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January 3, 2002
the -- this is not your normal, normal procedures. There have been
some changes that occurred and some -- some coordination. So we're
-- some coordination issues. So we're working with them. We've
looked at it. While you were talking, we've looked at it. It's fine. It's
-- we understand that's what Ms. Wolfe and the transportation
department wants. They want us to work with them on access points.
And we've looked at the language, and we're okay with the language.
I just hadn't seen it when -- when you had brought up Condition No. -
- or Letter F in the PUD.
So what I'm trying to point out is that we -- staff may say it,
but it doesn't necessarily reflect our intentions. And I'm trying to
clarify those issues for Mr. Strain as to where the staff report doesn't
reflect what we submitted.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Well, then I'm going to clarify the fact
that I was so impressed that you were cooperating, as the petitioner,
to use new language coming through. And I just learned something
new in this whole process about who does and doesn't get to read
these, which harkens back to my particular idea of-- I've -- over the 2
1/2 years I've been here, I've found so many mistakes that there
seems to be need for an editor, which right now we know there's not
time hardly to even reread them. But that just completely surprises
me that I would think you are cooperating because it's in the
document that goes forward, and it's put in by staff and you don't
even know it's there until you're standing in front of us.
MR. BELLOWS: Madam Chairman, if I may, the petitioner has
approved the language with staff previously. They were in
agreement with this language. It wasn't a surprise to them. It was
maybe a surprise that they didn't get a copy of the PUD document in
adequate time, but staff does send copies of the revised PUD
document to the applicant prior to the Planning Commission meeting.
Due to the change in staff, there may have been a case where they
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January 3, 2002
may not have gotten this copy. But the procedure is set in place that
they do got get a copy of the staff report and the revised PUD
document prior to these meetings so they can provide comment.
That's the process.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Thank you. Mr. Richardson.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: I would support staff,
though, a little further in the sense that what we get in the way of a
staff report is the basis for their recommendation. So they're going to
make whatever they need to make in order to give their view, and that
may not completely agree with where you're coming from, but that
should be ironed out or highlighted for us as something we can work
on at this meeting.
MR. YOVANOVICH: And that's what I'm trying to point out,
is there's some things in the staff report -- and we did not get the
PUD. There's a glitch. It's okay. I mean, we'll work through this.
We understand the circumstances. The language, the concept was
always discussed with us, and we were comfortable with the concept
on access. We did not see the specific language. We've seen it now.
And, yes, we have been cooperating. We just-- there's some
glitches, and it's nobody's real fault in this particular case, and we'll
work through the process.
I -- it's very important to me and my client and, I know, Wayne
and the other consultants that what we tell you is what we're going to
get. We don't tell you anything in the staff report; we tell you
something in the PUD document. So I'm pointing out -- I don't want
to say I said it was going to be C-3 uses. We didn't say that. We
gave you the list of permitted uses, and those are the types of uses
we've discussed with the neighbors.
We've discussed the lake issue with the neighbors. We've
discussed buffering and berming and walling and landscaping as to,
you know, what would the -- would the neighbors want in light of the
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January 3, 2002
fact that they don't own the lake and that we own the lake and that we
can -- we have the legal right to fill in that lake. We've had an
environmental audit done of that lake because there were some
concerns that this is really a natural lake. It's not a natural lake; it's a
borrow pit. There is nothing environmentally sensitive about that
lake. I know there's differences of opinion from the neighbors, but I
can't-- they're not experts. You know, we've had an expert, Boylan
Engineering, look at it -- not Boylan -- Boylan Environmental. I'm
sorry. We've had that looked at. We've also had the water in that
lake tested. There -- that lake is not good quality water, and we've --
and, you know, it's very poor quality.
Now, we do know we're impacting some of the neighbors and
some of the people who front on that lake, but overall what does this
PUD do? It redevelops an area of Collier County that is not the most
attractive area. What we're proposing to do -- and I'll enter this into
the record and ask that it be passed down. Mr. Soudan is doing
another project in Naples. He's doing it in the City of Naples, and
you may have seen it in Saturday's paper. We're doing an indoor --
and that's on this portion.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Tract A, is he not?
MR. YOVANOVICH: This is Tract A, okay, nearest the hotel.
This is the portion that's going to be the indoor self-storage, okay,
storage suites. It is completely carpeted in the units, in the hallways.
You pull your vehicle into an area; the door closes behind you for
security reasons. It's manned at a desk so that people can come in --
it's a low, low intensity use. And it was approved by the city council
and the City of Naples. And what I -- what I want to show you is
we've committed that it will look like an office building. It's not your
typical self-storage and it is on this portion right here.
So for the record, this is the architecture of what's going to be
in the Gateway Shopping Center, which is by the mall, okay, by the
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January 3, 2002
high school. I would submit to you that that's a pretty -- pretty busy
street, and the use of self-storage there in that particular case really
greatly reduced traffic impacts in that area. So what we're proposing
-- and I think that's a -- you know, a very nice looking building. He's
done that in many other areas of the country that -- you know, Naples
is, you know, a nice area, expects more from its developers than other
areas and he's developed-- he's delivered on that. And your-- your
staff has looked at the architecture, and we're working with your staff
on making whatever changes they want to the actual architecture of
the building.
There'll be uniformity as far as the architecture on the site.
There's not uniformity there now. Unfortunately, with the current
circumstances on the property, if there's not a change, if we are not
given a PUD to -- to make some changes, I don't know that there's
another opportunity to get everybody together to do a uniform PUD
and redevelop that area. I think what you have is what you're going
to get if-- if we cannot work towards a redevelopment plan for that
parcel. You'll hear from some of the property owners that it doesn't
make any sense to rehab those existing structures or build new ones
because they cannot get tenants who can afford to pay for that. It's
not a high-end area for a residential development. It is commercial.
I can also tell you that -- I do a fair amount of some eminent
domain work here in Collier County, and I can tell you across the
street, the county is appraising that property for purposes of eminent
domain for the highest and best use being commercial. The county
recognizes the changing conditions along that roadway, that it's not a
residential area anymore. And that's what we're bringing to you, is a
-- a redevelopment plan for that property. It's got commercial on
both sides.
We've -- we're consistent with the Comprehensive Plan. We're
-- as far as the infill, we're consistent with the Comprehensive Plan.
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January 3, 2002
As far as redeveloping the property, the Comprehensive Plan talks
about redeveloping the property. We meet all the existing traffic
standards. We have to apply today's rules, not tomorrow's rules,
because for one, we don't know what tomorrow's rules may be. I
mean, they go through a legislative process of being adopted.
We've -- we've made some commitments to the residents to the
south that we would put in -- Wayne will take you through it. There
will be a wall with nice landscaping. It will -- the wall will be offset
5 feet on our side so that they, in effect -- even though they don't
have legal title to that 5 feet, they, in effect, get a little bit bigger
yard. They can-- we'll provide some landscaping on their side. They
maintain it. We've talked to them about that. We have tried to be
sensitive to the five homes we affect that front on that lake.
Now, overall we think our plan's a better plan than what's there
today, and it's been sensitive and -- with the property owners to our
south, taking into consideration our clients' property rights and the
right to develop their property. We think we're compatible. Wayne
will take you through that. If there are specific uses, Mr. Strain, that
you would like us to talk about maybe taking out or have some
questions on, you know, Wayne will answer any of those questions.
We haven't really heard any objections to -- we've not heard any
objections to the storage. There's been some concerns about what
other things may be there. That's what the list of the PUD does; it
tells you what other things may be there. I can't tell you that I know
that's what's going to be on B and C. I don't have a purchaser for that
yet. I can tell you that it'll be whatever the uses are in the PUD, and
that's the purpose of the PUD. I can tell you that Area A is under
contract for this self-storage, and I've shown you the quality, through
the architecture, of that self-storage.
And with that brief-- rather lengthy, brief introduction, I'd
like to turn it over to Wayne and reserve any --
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January 3, 2002
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Question of you before you do.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Question from Mr. Strain and then Mr.
Abemathy before you walk away.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: The -- who do you represent
again?
MR. YOVANOVICH: Who do I represent?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yes. Who are you representing
here today?
MR. YOVANOVICH: I am the attorney for the PUD, which
means I represent -- I'm the authorized representative of all of the
property owners for the purposes of the PUD.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. So you do represent the
Pine Ridge Development (sic) Group.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Yes, which is listed in the application as
to who those individuals--
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: That's what I was checking,
because I thought you had said you represent the gentleman with the
storage facility, and I wanted to make sure you represent all the
property owners there so that you're speaking for all of them. And
then I heard Mr. Anderson is here, and is he on the same team, then,
that you're on?
MR. YOVANOVICH: Yes.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. So you've got two people
representing the group.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Well, he's -- no. He's representing some
individual members within the group.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Thank you for the
clarification.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Mr. Abemathy.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Mr. Soudan is the contract
purchaser of all of Tract A?
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January 3, 2002
MR. YOVANOVICH: All of Tract A.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: How many property
owners are there of that? Five, more or less?
MR. YOVANOVICH: Yeah. I think it's five, and a portion of
B as well.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Is his storage facility
dependent upon the acceptance of this PUD? Can he go ahead and
do -- do his irrespective?
MR. YOVANOVICH: No. We have to rezone the property.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: So you could rezone it as
something other than PUD.
MR. YOVANOVICH: I could-- I guess I could come in and
rezone it as C-5, but you'd get --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Whatever's appropriate for
a storage facility.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Right. But the -- I could, but the beauty
of the PUD is you -- you get to dictate standards. If I went straight to
C-5, you would be stuck with the standards within the Land
Development Code versus being able to craft a PUD document that
can impose higher standards. Like, what we're going to show you on
the landscaping far exceeds code minimum.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Okay. Now, he has set the
standard for architecture, so to speak, with this elevation that you've
shown us. Are the other six property owners more or less
acquiescing to or agreeing to those architectural sorts of standards?
MR. YOVANOVICH: I haven't heard any objections from the
property owners as to the architectural --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Of course, they're not
going to develop it; they're going to sell it to somebody to develop.
MR. YOVANOVICH: And the purchaser will be stuck with
those standards as well as the landscaping standards and -- that we're
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January 3, 2002
setting.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: But wouldn't he be thrilled to have
those standards as an enhancement, not stuck?
MR. YOVANOVICH: Well, I think that that building's a very
attractive building, and then anybody who purchases knows that
they're going to have to meet a high standard. CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Well, I was just quarreling
a little bit with your statement that this is the only way to develop
this. It seems to me that the storage facility, Mr. Soudan, could go
ahead and follow a different path and leave the others to their own
devices. But I guess I've made that point.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Madam Chair, just
perhaps -- does this fall under the new public participation ordinance?
Where in the time frame did this --
MR. BELLOWS: No. This petition was submitted far prior to
the public information meeting request, but the petitioner has held
meetings to try to conform with that as much as possible.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: And I certainly applaud
that. It's just that some words like commitments have been made to
the property owners. And in our public participation process, those
commitments then get brought forward as part of the permanent
record and --
MR. BELLOWS: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: And so as much -- if we
can replicate that as much as we can, it -- MR. YOVANOVICH: We will.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And you're not going to address the
traffic phasing aspect of it; that's going to come from someone else?
MR. YOVANOVICH: I guess we can, but at this point, you
know, there's nothing from staff that indicates there's any need for
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January 3, 2002
traffic phasing based upon the traffic we have. There's not been a
request or a requirement. I mean, we are -- obviously we've got to
put in our turn lanes and all the necessary improvements to make sure
that each site is safe, and we're going to develop a safe project. I
mean, nobody's going to go out there and develop something that is
unsafe as far as people that are coming to their businesses. So we're
-- I mean, we're going to do that as the natural course of
development. I don't think there was any need for phasing, to address
the concerns with the amount of vehicles generated from our project,
raised by staff. And we've had many, many conversations with
transportation staff regarding --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Well, this was an item that
was put in by transportation, so perhaps transportation could speak to
that.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And I'm trying to identify where it is in
the PUD document versus in the --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: The findings --
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: -- executive summary.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Findings for the PUD on
page 2, Exhibit B --
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: That's staff.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: -- traffic circulation
element. You know, they farmed that out to the traffic people, I
presume.
MR. BELLOWS: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Is there someone from
traffic that could speak to that?
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: I didn't want to lose that aspect, and I
still want to talk more about the lake issue, too, before we lose
Mr. Yovanovich, or maybe one of his other people will come up and
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January 3, 2002
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Before we lose the lake, as
it--
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Before we -- I don't see transportation
leaping forward.
MR. BELLOWS: What section are you reading from again?
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Findings for PUD, which
is Exhibit B, page 2. That's after the rezone findings. Then you've
got the findings for the PUD.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And it says, (as read): "Traffic
Circulation Element, analysis of the subject petition conclude with a
finding that with development phasing this petition is consistent with
the policies of TCE." Is that your focus, Commissioner Richardson?
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Yes.
MR. YOVANOVICH: My -- I think what they meant, if I may,
is the fact that we're developing three different parcels with the
intensity of uses getting less intense as you get closer to the comer.
And I think when you're talking -- I mean, if you'll look at the PUD,
you cannot put a self-storage on the comer. That's limited to A, and I
think that's what they meant by phasing, as far as the development of
the tracts.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Mr. Yovanovich, I am not an attorney,
but to me, development phasing does not mean intensity.
MR. BELLOWS: IfI may, Madam Chairman --
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: I think I heard you say that. And I just
don't want to be too esoteric on the words, but for the record, I don't
agree with what you just said this says in front of me.
MR. BELLOWS: Just a point of clarification. That language, I
believe, came from Chahram, and I think it was his intent that each
phase -- each tract be phased, that Tract A would come first and then
after that -- I just had a previous discussion with Mr. Arnold. I don't
believe he has a problem with keeping Tract A as Phase I, and maybe
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January 3, 2002
he'd like to agree to that on the record.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: We do need to clarify this because you
can just tell by the heads going back and forth of the representatives
that something needs to be on the record. And perhaps transportation
wants to stand up and comment or not? Is it you who did this, or was
it Mr. Badamtchian?
MR. MULLER: For the record, Russ Muller. I'm with
development services, by the way, not transportation.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Oh, you're not transportation. Darn.
What happened to transportation?
MR. MULLER: But we all play on the same field, and I like to
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: I beg to differ.
MR. MULLER: -- think of us as one. We are the county. I
would guess that -- that Chahram put this in, and it probably has do
with the different tracts. I don't think it came from transportation
planning department as a request, and I think it probably has to do
with Item D in your PUD as far as access points, existing and future.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Which is saying, "Until such time as
Area C and the easternmost lot of Area B are redeveloped, all
existing access points on Pine Ridge Road for these two areas shall
remain as they exist on the date of approval of this PUD." MR. MULLER: Right.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay. So the people out there have
some idea of what we're talking about.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Is Ms. Wolfe on vacation
or out of town or--
MR. MULLER: No, I don't believe so.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: She just didn't want to
come. Well, you know, perhaps this is, you know, a -- and I don't
mean to overplay it, but we're just trying to sort out some of the
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January 3, 2002
language problems here, because there is, you know, statements here
that say there will -- committed road improvements shall be in place
before CO. Now, that's pretty specific. You know, we don't usually
get that kind of language at this point either. And we're talking -- and
some sense that there's going to be some phasing, which suggests to
us laypeople that perhaps traffic would be feathered in at a time when
these other improvements were really going to be available. You
know, maybe you can just let us go on and perhaps hear more about
the project and what you plan to put there and maybe give us a better
comfort level.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And, Wayne, are you going to speak
specifically to this lake issue?
MR. ARNOLD: I certainly will try to address it. I know you've
mentioned you have specific questions.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Because when we're talking about, you
know, the executive summary versus what's in the document, I did
want to focus on the document because that's what will control
eventually because it will be the ordinance. Did you want to say
something first, or should we let Mr. Arnold go?
MR. BELLOWS: Just a point of clarification on the traffic
issue. I had a discussion with Norm Feder. He's the transportation
administrator. We will be sending them the staff reports for their
reviews to -- just to make sure that the language contained in the staff
report is acceptable to them. That wasn't the case with this one. This
was before that agreement. But they will be getting the staff reports,
for your future reference.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: As Mr. Abemathy just observed, I
thought they already were getting the staff reports before they got to
US.
MR. BELLOWS: Well, the procedure technically is they
provide us with the language, and it goes in. Now, whether it got
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January 3, 2002
massaged with Chahram, I'm not sure of the exact sequence of
events. Sometimes calls go back and forth, memos, and it gets pretty
difficult to keep track of what all different changes occur when you're
balancing 20-some projects at the same time. But Chahram has this
language in here, and it appears to me that there was meant to be a
phasing of the project. And I personally think that a phasing of Tract
A first is a reasonable request, and I don't believe that it would cause
a hardship on the project overall.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: What appears to be in the PUD
document makes sense --
MR. BELLOWS: Yes.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: -- now that we've looked it over and
read it out loud. Mr. Arnold.
MR. ARNOLD: I'm Wayne Arnold with Grady Minor
Engineering and land planner on the project. I'll try to go over just
very briefly the master plan and its orientation and hit a few items
that Mr. Yovanovich didn't. I'll show you the buffer plan that we've
shown to the neighboring property owners to our southern boundary,
and I will also try to address the lake issue. And I'd like to do that
first, and then I know Mr. Strain had several issues related to the C-3
zoning. And I think between the newest supplement to the Land
Development Code and maybe how the Comprehensive Plan's been
interpreted, we can maybe reach a consensus on most of those points.
So I'll move over here and start a little bit of that presentation,
and then if you have questions, then we'll hit those too. Okay. As
Mr. Yovanovich pointed out earlier, we have Areas A, B, and C. The
indoor, climate controlled self-storage goes on Area A.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Excuse me. Is -- anyone in the back
with technical, can they spotlight the Goodlette Comers map that Mr.
Arnold is looking at?
MR. ARNOLD: Mr. Bellows has it up on his visualizer. If he
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January 3, 2002
wants to possibly move it over or stand back so you can get the fuller
orientation of it, I think the audience could follow along too.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Well, that's a little better. That camera
doesn't seem to be moving at all. Do we have a staff member that
could go back to talk to whomever's in technical to see if they could
maybe listen and help? Thank you. Go ahead.
MR. ARNOLD: First of all, the project area is about -- a little
over 8 1/2 acres. It's a small infill parcel. Keep in mind we have
almost a 4-acre tract on the comer of Goodlette-Frank Road and Pine
Ridge Road that formerly was industrial, now zoned C-1 and has
nonconforming use status that allows all those nonconforming uses to
be interchanged in perpetuity as long as businesses are retained there.
What you have is, under the comp plan, two scenarios that
Mr. Yovanovich talked about. One is the office and infill provision
that gives us one of the opportunities to come in and request the
commercial zoning. The second is a policy in the plan that says this
is a corridor that should have a redevelopment effort. So between
those two policies, we're qualifying.
And one of Mr. Abemathy's comments that I touch on was, why
can't you just do the self-storage? And let me tell you what happens
if we did. We can qualify one time to use the office and infill
provision under the comp plan. If we came in and said the two acres
adjacent to the Houlihans and the hotel site is our one and only time
to use the office and infill, what you end up with is Area B, 2.78
acres, that is residential and forever, under your current comp plan,
must remain residential. It has no provision for becoming a
commercial land use under the Comprehensive Plan.
We don't believe that is in the best interest of Collier County,
to end up with a less-than-3-acre residential parcel that qualifies for
three units per acre residential. That area is almost entirely
encumbered by the existing lake area, which diminishes its
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January 3, 2002
redevelopment potential entirely unless you want to go ahead and pay
to fill in the lake that's a little bit over an acre to get three units per
acre residential on the property unless you do affordable housing;
then you can get up to 11 units per acre. But at that point we're still
talking around 30 units. Not a high number considering the cost of
filling the lake to make those numbers work. But anyway, that's the
scenario we're facing, the one and only time we can use this
provision.
And, as Mr. Yovanovich said-- he's been working with all the
property owners for almost two years now -- this was the opportunity
to get all the property, the existing commercial as well as what
qualified anyway for commercial, to come in as one unified plan,
have common development standards, a common landscape theme,
common architectural standards, etc. We think that, and I know that
staff has felt all along, that is very much in the interest of Collier
County and consistent with our long-term planning efforts.
With respect to transportation, I know that I've personally had
two meetings with Dawn Wolfe related to the project. I spoke with
Ed Kant yesterday. We've spoken with county staff at development
services over the last year, at least, on this project, and we're very
comfortable. There are major intersection improvements that are
occurring at Goodlette-Frank Road. They're putting dual left tums
in. They're putting a dedicated right-mm lane in south onto
Goodlette-Frank Road. Those alone are big enhancements to Pine
Ridge Road.
We know and we understand, because we've met with the staff,
that they are expecting us to go ahead and put in mm lanes, as any
other project is required to that generates certain volumes of traffic.
So we will be putting in deceleration lanes. We talked about the
number of access points right now being over a dozen on Pine Ridge
Road, albeit many of those serving single-family homes. The
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January 3, 2002
county's looking at this as an opportunity to have a unified look at
how they treat access management on a quarter-mile segment of a
very busy roadway, a big advantage. They're getting a relocated
access point on Goodlette-Frank Road that moves it further away
from the intersection, a very big safety enhancement for the county's
roadway system. So we think those are very positive benefits.
And Mr. Kant, the reason he called me yesterday was to remind
me I don't have any full access to this site. We know. We have
right-in, right-out-only access to these parcels. There is no left-mm
movement out of this project. East Avenue, which has a full median
opening now and a left-mm lane into the Shepard parcel, when they
go ahead and redo the intersection improvements at Goodlette-Frank
Road, they're bringing the dual turn lanes far enough back that the
median opening gets reconfigured. There's no southbound left-mm
movement into our project anymore.
You have a left only into East Avenue, and East Avenue will
only be a right out onto Pine Ridge Road. You no longer will have
an ability to mm out of East and make a left and go east on Pine
Ridge Road to the intersection. Those alone are big enhancements
that the county's doing. We don't have any effect on those, but we
have to live with them. And that's -- hence, one of the requirements
that you see is the newly added language that says the county is going
to be modifying access.
We, at great length, have worked with the county, and we've yet
to get their firm commitment, but looking at the opportunity to have a
directional left into our project site that pushes it further down near
Mr. Soudan's intended indoor storage facility. That puts it generally
equidistant between the intersection and the left-mm facility that
serves the Ramada Plaza Hotel further to our west. You can see it on
the aerial photo. That appears right here. Our proposed access point
puts it about here, in about the middle of that landscaped island that's
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January 3, 2002
currently on Pine Ridge Road. So I just wanted to set that out as sort
of how we've gotten to where we are today and how we've looked at
this from the transportation perspective, the comp plan perspective.
With respect to Mr. Strain's questions on the C-3, Mr.
Yovanovich read the language out of the Comprehensive Plan that
says nothing about C-3. I'm not exactly sure where the language
came from in the staff report, other than I will tell you that your long-
range planning staff says when the comp plan says you can have
office and low intensity commercial, they generally said C-3 is that
threshold of lower intensity commercial uses. It doesn't say lower
intensity office uses. And I think that's where Mr. Strain had pointed
out to me when we met that some of the uses only appeared in the
business park district, for instance. They're nowhere else in our Land
Development Code. A travel agent, for instance, appears nowhere
else in our code, yet we've asked for one. We think that that's a pretty
traditional office-type use that qualifies for what we want to do.
I think that one of the other things that Mr. Strain pointed out
to me with respect to those uses are that some of them don't appear in
C-3. One of them was, I think, one of the medical facilities, and I
was puzzled, too, yesterday when we sat down. And after I had a
chance to look at the staff report that I received late in the day
yesterday, I've looked at those, and our last supplement to the Land
Development Code included all the health services under the C-1
zoning district.
So those go all the way back to a C-1 use, and I think those start
at SIC Code 8011 through something, and I can certainly look that up
if you'd like a specific reference. But, for instance, that was one that
was a C-1 use.
I think there was another question related to lawn and garden
and hardware category, and I find those two uses to be in C-2 and C-
3 after I went back and looked at the code. One of those was a
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January 3, 2002
Supplement 12, which appeared to be one of the last changes that had
been codified.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Wayne, while you're on it, health
service in C-1 is a conditional use for Sections 8011 through 8049.
You're asking for health services for 8011 to 8099. 8050 through
8059, 8062 through 8069, 8071 through 8072, 8092 through 8099 are
all C-4, from what my code is saying.
MR. ARNOLD: And those uses, if I can get my --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: One's a psychiatric hospital.
MR. ARNOLD: And I -- I've spoken with Mr. Yovanovich and
pointed out that there are a couple of those -- one of the other
categories was educational categories, and it allows things like data
processing school and vocational school and things of that nature.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yes, it does. That's one of them.
MR. ARNOLD: Even though I think we're certainly justified
under the code, because our real test is compatibility and transition --
and keeping in mind we have a hotel/restaurant that establishes the
intensity to our west -- we're transitioning to, albeit, C-1 zoning that
has an entitlement to C-5 and industrial uses. So what our test is, is
really finding what's compatible between those two and to the
residences to the south. And I guess what I'm here to say is if you
have a specific issue with the compatibility of an indoor-type of
vocational school or a data processing school or something, I think
that we can commit on the record we would eliminate those specific
uses. The same thing with the psychiatric hospital and others.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: The problem that I have is that
you've put in wide ranges. Number 6, depository and nondepository
institutions, you've said everything in Groups 6021 through 6199.
Well, 6011 to 6099 is C-1, but when you get to anything above 6099,
which is almost -- I don't know how many elements -- it's all
industrial. Now, you -- I think Richard said on the record that the
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January 3, 2002
residents didn't oppose the uses you're proposing there. And if that's
the case, then I really -- I'm not that concerned.
MR. ARNOLD: I didn't mean to interrupt. I think Rich was -- I
don't think he said they didn't oppose it. I think what he said, we
haven't heard any specific reference to certain uses that they may
oppose. I mean, this is really the public hearing opportunity for
anyone who wasn't at the two informational meetings we held.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: So you're assuming that all the
residents have these SIC books, and they were to look up those --
each one of those codes and then tell you if they had an opposition to
each one of them; is that where we're coming from?
MR. ARNOLD: No. But I did bring the book to the meetings
we had. And one of the things I would tell you, the version I still
have was sort of a strikethrough, underlined version that we dealt
with where we had, for instance, deleted automobile dealership. We
deleted hotels and motels. We deleted certain business services, like
saw sharpening shops, that were, again, much -- part of a much
broader group. And we had made those eliminations that are
reflected in what you have before you today.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I think this can be cleaned up. I
don't -- but, I mean, I just -- when you put these broad ranges in, I
think that's where the problem becomes because it opens it up to a
lot. But the other concern I had is if staff's report stated that it's -- in
staff's opinion, they were C-3 uses, then does staff's report or staff's
opinion change in its findings based on revealing that these are up to
industrial and even business park uses?
MR. ARNOLD: Well, I can't speak to staff, but I can tell you
that the list of uses that are in -- in the PUD document you have
before you today have been in there for nearly two years. Staff has
reviewed those at various levels, including your long-range planning
staff that looked at these with consistency to the comp plan. We
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January 3, 2002
made certain eliminations from the original list we started with based
on the give and take with staff to this point. And what I'm telling
you, if there are specific concerns such as a psychiatric hospital or
some of those types of uses, we would make that elimination as well.
I don't think it's sized appropriately for it nor anybody has told me
that we're going to have a hospital use there.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: And, again, I mean, I'm just more
-- my point of concern would be staffs analysis. Was it based on--
Ray, you didn't do the analysis, did you?
MR. BELLOWS: No. Chahram did the analysis, but I believe
the intent was that the majority of the uses were in the C-3 or similar
category. The purpose of the PUD is to allow for, as was previously
mentioned, a wider range of uses that you would normally find in one
zoning district, such as the C-3. And that's why they're proposing the
additional landscaping and mitigation. So personally, you know, I
am not opposed to having a wider range of uses, but I would agree
with you that a psychiatric-type use is not appropriate at this location.
I would prefer, myself, to see more of a -- retail-oriented uses along
with some professional office.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: I have a comment here. I just want to
make sure I'm clear. Commissioner Strain, when you're talking about
the health services, you said from 8011 to something --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yes.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: -- were the categories. Would you
give me that number again, please.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, it's quite a few. The -- from
8011 to 8049.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: 8049.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: And then 8082. Those categories
are all in C-1.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: All right.
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January 3, 2002
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: And anything else that falls in
between those I -- was found in C-4, and that's 0850 through 59, etc.,
like I said earlier.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And to follow the pattern of the PUD
that we have before us, then there are absolutely no exceptions listed
in No. 11, the health services --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: That's --
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: -- whereas previously, like in 7, they
have the numbers, "except" --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yes.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: -- in words. And I think that's partly
what the difficulty is here. And it's unfortunate we have to take this
kind of time to walk our way through this, but we're going to need
some comfort zone on how we're going to know what those
exceptions are, and I need to have some comfort knowing what we're
accepting, because you're making a commitment, standing there, to
us to a psychiatric hospital. We may need to look through this a little
bit when we give our court reporter a break, because she's been
typing for quite some time.
MR. ARNOLD: We can try to put that list together, if you will.
I mean, I have the book in front of me, and if you want to hit the
specific codes -- and some are very inclusive and some are -- are not.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Right.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: It doesn't seem to me,
Mark, that the planning -- Collier County Planning Commission
ought to be scrubbing these uses at this point. That, I would have
hoped, would have already been done between staff and the
petitioner.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I -- I fully agree with you, Ken.
It's just that staff had said they're C-3, and when they aren't --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Right.
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January 3, 2002
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- and they're more, I -- I don't
think we would be doing our job by letting it go through without
correcting it.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I agree with you, but
hopefully we can mm the comer on this.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: By the way, if we take a long
enough break, maybe 15 minutes instead of 5 or 10, I could -- I got
all my codes numbered, so I can bring them out to you guys, and you
could take a look at them if that would help.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: That would probably be helpful,
because I am concerned how these SIC codes show up and what they
actually involve when you go look at a particular-- the code book
and you look at what's in the zoning. I attended one of the first
public community participation hearings on a -- an item that's going
through in another area in North Naples, and it was absolutely
fascinating the total misunderstanding of what could or couldn't
happen with the zoning. And there were literally pages of documents
provided. And I, on the fly, went through those and was still amazed
at what could have been on that parcel and what people thought could
be on that parcel. And it's -- it's very frustrating to have this kind of
thing happen.
So you can finish your additions. We'll do that at the break,
which is going to have to be here fairly soon, but you can continue on
with --
MR. ARNOLD: Maybe, if you'd like, I'll jump off this C-3
issue, and I'll move on, and we can come back after your break and
deal more specifically with that if that --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Lake.
MR. ARNOLD: I'll move on to the lake. I hope it picks up on
the aerial, our property boundary along Pine Ridge Road. You can
see the outline of the lake. There are five homes that front on the
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January 3, 2002
lake that's on our property.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Front on or back on?
MR. ARNOLD: I guess back on would be the appropriate term.
Their -- their back yard abuts the lake back there.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Big difference.
MR. ARNOLD: That lake -- I think if you need somebody to
attest to it, Mr. Anderson represents the gentleman who apparently
dug the lake, so I think that without question we know that's a man-
made facility. We have had an environmental analysis prepared.
There were allegations that it's a wildlife sanctuary and that it's a
wetland environment and things. We have a certified biologist who's
done an analysis of that, already met with the water management
district staff. They've determined that it is surface water. It is not a
wetland. There's no specific vegetation there. There are no listed
species obviously on the property. We don't have environmental
issues with respect to the lake.
I think the sole issue involving the lake is that we have people
who have, for 30 years, enjoyed the view of the lake. I think if you
ask your county staff personnel, any of these single-family home
owners who own through this lake to their property line can qualify
to go to the county tomorrow and get a clear and fill permit to fill that
portion of their lake. What we have said -- and I'll make it real clear -
- the conceptual master plan you have in front of you says existing
lake area to be filled or resculptured.
When this was originally submitted two years ago, it said that
the lake area would be resculpted. When we started looking at this
over a year ago, we said, "This doesn't work." You can't physically
redevelop any portion of the western part of the site without affecting
the lake. You can't do it for residential. You certainly can't do it for
commercial, and we can't do what needs to be done to make this a
viable redevelopment effort.
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January 3, 2002
We made no bones about it, as Mr. Yovanovich said, when we
went to the immediate neighbors: "Expect that the lake will be
filled." It may be filled in phases. I can tell you that Phase 1 for Mr.
Soudan requires about 50 feet of that width to be filled to support his
indoor self-storage facility. That affects five total lots. The lake area
encroaches onto a portion of three of those, and it would require
some filling. That leaves an area of about an acre of lake that would
remain that would have to be dealt with subsequently in a future
phase. Whether it's Phase 2, Phase 3, who knows, because we
already have development on Area C.
So at some point the lake would need to be filled. We think we
can do it today by going to the county with our permit application for
clearing and filling by each of the property owners. We explained
that to the neighbors. And obviously if you are backing up to the
lake and that's the view you enjoyed, I wouldn't be too happy about it
going away either. But we're looking at this on a little bit bigger
picture than the five residences that are immediately affected, and
that is trying to take into account something that the county is
supporting.
We know this corridor is developing. I'm not sure we'll ever
have another opportunity to pull a dozen property owners together in
a unified effort to try to make this happen.
So we went out there, and we originally talked to them and said,
"What would you like to see in terms of something other than the
lake?" We showed them what the county minimum was which would
be a 5-foot hedge and a tree every 30 feet and a 15-foot landscape
buffer. They said, "No. We don't like that. What we really would
like to see is a more physical barrier." We had quite a debate whether
or not it would be a 6-foot-high solid fence or an 8-foot-high solid
fence. I don't think there was clear consensus from the people in the
room, but I think we said, "Trust us. We don't think you want an 8-
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January 3, 2002
foot-high fence. Let us show you a 6-foot-high fence."
So what we did, we created two images. We said, "Here's the
proposed elevation of a building with a 6-foot-high fence, solid fence,
and a tree every 30 feet," which is the alternate that the code would
require. Mr. Soudan, who was paying for that analysis, said, "I don't
like it." We said, "We don't like it, and we don't think the neighbors,
when we take it to them and meet with them again, are going to like it
either."
So in him trusting us, we ended up putting a lot more vegetation
in that landscape buffer, pulled the wall back enough so that you
could have supplemental plantings on, let's call it, the residential
property side, albeit on -- still on our property. We would offset the
wall 5 or 7 feet and install some low level landscaping to help break
up the fence. But the only difference we did here is inserted --
staggered cabbage palms about 10 feet on center into that picture.
And obviously I'm not going to tell you that's at time of planting,
because cabbage palms don't come at installation typically with their
heads completely mature, but that's a little over a year out.
And what you end up with are trees that -- I'd like to make a
commitment on how high exactly they're going to be at time of
planting. I think I'm safe to say that between 12 and 20 feet, because
the price is about the same. But what I don't want to have as a
commitment is that every tree is 20 feet because I'm not sure that's
what we want either.
But what we've -- what we've designed and showed them is
6-foot-high wall, still a canopy tree every 30 feet, supplemented on
our side with cabbage palms -- or I guess I would say some similar
material. I'd defer to someone, maybe Nancy Siemion, to help us
craft the specific language because I'm sure there are like trees that
maybe are just as effective or maybe even more effective. But we
know that the cabbage palms are a very common tree to get, and it's
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January 3, 2002
easy to make that commitment. So that's what we showed the
neighbors at our last meeting -- I don't know, it's been a few weeks
ago. But on our second meeting we showed them this, talked again
about the lake, and I think that nobody could have left that meeting
thinking anything else other than we had full intent to fill the entire
lake.
And, again, I would tell you that from a functional standpoint, it
may have some remedial benefit for water management, but it was
never dug for that purpose. It has varying depths. It's real shallow in
some places. It's got a couple pockets that are deeper. It was never
meant to be a water management lake. It doesn't have any easements
around it for maintenance. It was never dug to the proper depths. It
doesn't have the proper littoral shelves. It doesn't have a lot of things
that are normally required to be a water management lake.
So best case, if we were to try to use it, to satisfy it, it has
to remain a hundred feet wide, which still gives us only about a 150-
foot building envelope along Pine Ridge Road. And with a 15-foot
landscape buffer, a 15-foot-wide deceleration lane, 60-foot double
row of parking, and a nominal building depth of 70 feet, I'm into the
lake. And I think that under that scenario, to try to maintain a lake
that's a hundred feet wide so I can qualify to use it for my water
management calculation, still doesn't satisfy what I need.
And to provide them with anything other than the body of water
that they're used to looking at probably isn't going to satisfy those
neighbors either. You know, if they're looking at something that's
150 feet wide and it gets narrowed down to 60 or 80 or 70, I don't
know that it has any real effect, and then I can't use that property for
my own water management criteria because it doesn't meet the
minimum size criteria that the water management district tells me I
need.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: How is your drainage going to
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January 3, 2002
get to the canal on Goodlette from there?
MR. ARNOLD: Probably we'll end up with a series of outfall
structures that will go all the way across toward the rear of the
property, an outfall. One of the things we've talked to the neighbors
about was making provisions for accepting some of their yard
drainage and either putting weep holes or catch basins along the
fence, to go ahead and accept that water - that there may be some
historic discharge back off their property as it slopes back, to go
ahead and accept that into our system and take care of it. It's nominal
at best. We've driven the area. We've looked at it. We've talked to
the district. We've talked to the county staff.
Practically speaking, our water management can be satisfied
either by recreating some lake-type area on the site, or we could do it
more as a dry retention area. And at this point, not knowing exactly
what's going to occur beyond the westernmost 2-acre parcel, I can't
tell you exactly how we're going to reconfigure it and deal with that.
But we can certainly get to the outfall ditch on Goodlette-Frank
Road.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Commissioner Strain.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Wayne -- Richard, I don't mean to
put words in your mouth again, but I think you said the water quality
in the lake was not good. Nod of his head means yes. Is it polluted?
Is it hazardous? Does it need remediation?
MR. ARNOLD: It was tested by, I believe, the Collier County
Public Health Unit, and it tested very high for fecal counts. And I
think what's been told to me by our client is that it could be a
combination of things. It's a small lake. It's not well aerated. You've
got fish, ducks, other wildlife that obviously are utilizing the lake, but
also there are -- may be some long-term septic tank leakage that's
occurred that's also in there that would account for some of that.
They said it's definitely not a safe condition for eating or swimming.
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January 3, 2002
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: And I would assume that should
you fill that lake, you would have to handle this poor quality water in
a manner that doesn't cause us any public concern.
MR. ARNOLD: I assume so, yes.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Mr. Wolfley.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Done.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay. Then since we're focusing on
the lake -- and that would appear to be on page 15, 4.6 and water
management, when I looked at this language A, B, and C, B and C
tell me, just reading it as a casual but very interested observer, that
the lake's still going to be there. It does not state in here that you
have intentions to completely fill that lake in. It says in one place,
"Permits may be required for filling in a portion of the on-site lake,
cleaning the lake, and/or resculpting it."
So, A, you would need some permits to do that, but you're only
talking about a portion of it. You're not clarifying that, indeed, you
may fill that whole lake. And then when you use C, talking about the
setbacks, etc., that would lead a reasonably intelligent person who's
reading this to assume that there's going to be some kind of lake back
there. We may need some different language here if it becomes
agreeable to allow you to completely fill this lake in.
MR. ARNOLD: I would--
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Do you agree?
MR. ARNOLD: I would take responsibility for that oversight.
When I sort of assumed responsibility for this, that would be an
oversight, because a permit will be required in some form, whether it
be Collier County or the water management district, to fill in any or
all of that lake. And that would be the clarification, that we have to
get the proper permits prior to filling any of that lake.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay. So that -- and it may be --"any"
may become "all."
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January 3, 2002
MR. ARNOLD: Correct. Any or all --
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: So make sure right now --
MR. ARNOLD: -- maybe would be the more appropriate
reference.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: -- on the record that this Section 4.6,
water management, B and C definitely need to have some new
wordsmithing, and we may need to have an agreement on what that's
going to be before we actually go any further when we approve or
disapprove this particular PUD. And I hate to be so picky, but I've
noticed lately that some of the things we think we did here at the
Planning Commission level and the Board of County Commissioners
think happened are not in these documents.
MR. ARNOLD: That's one of the reasons --
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: It doesn't happen.
MR. ARNOLD: -- staff now controls the disks that we've
provided them and one of the reasons you saw Mr. Yovanovich being
a little bit puzzled because, you know, we had not received that
updated PUD document. So I have to apologize. What I'm looking
at today -- I still don't have what you have in front of you. So I'm
still looking at the last revision I gave staff, you know, six weeks ago.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And you're the one who actually
creates this document?
MR. ARNOLD: That's correct.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay. Then I'd like to admonish you,
Wayne.
You do know--
MR. ARNOLD: I take responsibility for that.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: You do know that under utilities
Ordinance 88-76 was definitely repealed. So you get--
MR. ARNOLD: You'll be happy to know--
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: -- my admonishment too.
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January 3, 2002
MR. ARNOLD: -- that I have noted on the top of mine that I
need to make sure that the staff rereferences Ordinance 97-17
appropriately.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And it's in your document. I want to
make sure you understand that.
MR. ARNOLD: It's now going to be staffs responsibility to
modify it because they now control it.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay. Because I'm sure you
understand how these things change; right? MR. ARNOLD: I do, yes.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Thank you. Okay. Any other
comments about this part?
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Are we referring just to the
lake?
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Are we through with the lake? Do we
want to catch him on a couple other things before he disappears?
And we do need to take a break as soon as -- we want to finish with
you, because I know we have registered public speakers.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Let me close this portion of
the hearing by saying I think the lake is a nonissue. I think the
property owner can fill it if he wants to if it's acceptable to the
authorities that grant permits. Nobody's going to be able to see it
anyway with a 6-foot fence. But even if there were no fence, it's their
lake or their borrow pit. So --
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And we might --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: -- that's it for now.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Thank you. And we may have some
comments from the affected property owners that would like to put
their thoughts on record. Okay. Are we through with --
MR. ARNOLD: I think I mentioned all I feel like I need to on
the lake. I'd certainly entertain other questions and wait for some of
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January 3, 2002
the public comment to address anything else that comes up.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And at this point in time, we are ready
for public comment, as far as the petitioner's concerned.
MR. ARNOLD: I thought we were going to go back and
address some of Mr. Strain's C-3 specific issues.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: During the break.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: We're going to do that during the
break.
MR. ARNOLD: I'm sorry.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: I'd like to take a 15-minute break, let
you-all talk quickly, and be able to walk through so we can get
something on the record what we'd like to see excluded. And I also
want to hear from the public out there, too, because they may have
some thoughts on what they would like excluded or are concerned
about, and then we need to at least talk about it in this open forum.
MR. ARNOLD: Okay. The only other issue that I would touch
on is something that Mr. Yovanovich already did, and that was the
issue of this phasing reference that appears in the staff report. And I
don't want to belabor the point, but I just want to point out that at no
time have we discussed with the county staff a specific phasing
schedule for the project.
The level-of-service impacts to the roadway -- and I think
everybody recognizes we have roads that have, at certain periods of
the day, congestion on them, but we base them on average standards,
peak day standards. The analysis has been done, not only in
accordance with what the standards currently are. I asked Mr. Smith
to quickly recalculate some numbers based on this new 3 percent
threshold that Ms. Wolfe and her staff are working toward. We do
not pass that threshold either.
And on that basis I don't believe that the county staff would
have any basis for recommending a phased schedule for what we're
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January 3, 2002
doing. By the nature of what we're doing, we have a phasing
schedule in place because we're intending that Area A will develop
first; Area C is already developed and may be redeveloped. And I
would -- I'm guessing that Area B may be the last to develop simply
because it does have the challenge of the lake, and it's not at the
comer, and it's not being done by Mr. Soudan. So that I feel
comfortable saying, but I just wanted to go ahead and mention that.
And, like I said, if there are other specific issues, Dean Smith from
our office is here and can certainly answer them.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay. Mr. Bellows.
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah. For the record, Ray Bellows. I -- I
appreciate the additional information on the traffic. If it doesn't
exceed the new transportation significance test, then I agree that
phasing is a moot point and not really required. However, if they
have an automatic phasing by the nature of the project they're
developing, I'd like to see that incorporated into the PUD document.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay. And how many registered
public speakers do we have? MR. BELLOWS: Six.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Six. Okay. Are we ready to take a --
at least a 15-minute break? Okay. Take a 15-minute break, give our
court reporter's fingers a chance to rest and the gentlemen to
negotiate about these SIC codes. We are in recess. Thank you. (A break was held.)
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: We're back in session. We are at the
public hearing on the Goodlette Comers PUD. And I think we were
going to take public comment, but you don't exactly look like public
comment.
MR. YOVANOVICH: I thought what you wanted was for us to
have an opportunity to look at the different items and clarify on the
record --
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January 3, 2002
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: That's right. You were the
representative to talk about the C-3 issue and the SIC codes.
MR. YOVANOVICH: That is correct. And we've had an
opportunity to -- to look at the items highlighted by Mr. Strain, and
he's correct, that not all of-- everything in the list is specifically C-3
or less. But keeping in mind that the C-3 is basically staff's wording
and not ours, we have gone through, and we would agree that Codes
8062 through 8069, which are basically hospitals, should be
eliminated from the list. And Code Nos. 9222 and 9224, which is
prosecutor offices and fire marshal offices and the like, should also
be elimited -- eliminated, I'm sorry.
The remainder of those items, although they're not in the C-3
category, really are office-type uses, and we believe that those are
appropriate in this area. It's kind of like real estate -- real estate
agents, and those are types of offices that would remain, although not
technically in a C-3 category. So we would hope that that would be
enough clarification for the issues, and we'll make those changes to
the document -- or make sure that staff makes those changes to the
document.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: I did write down, Commissioner
Strain, in the 600 group -- or 6099, the depository and nondepository,
did you discuss that?
MR. YOVANOVICH: We looked at that, Commissioner
Rautio, and we believe that that is -- that is keeping with banking
institutions and would be -- are compatible, even though it's not
technically a C-3 use.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay. I just wanted to make sure we
didn't miss that one detail.
COMMISSIONER STRA1N: And my -- again, my objections
were not to the uses as much as they were to the analysis that staff
did to come up with the conclusion that this stuff was C-3. So if
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January 3, 2002
staff's content with it at this point --
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah. I read --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- I have no further comment on
it.
MR. BELLOWS: Pardon me. I read through the uses again,
and the language that Chahram had in the staff report is that --
similar, and he said not strictly limited to. So I have no problem with
the proposed changes eliminating some of those other uses and
allowing the others.
MR. YOVANOVICH: One other point. I did -- I did notice that
during the break some information was handed out to the planning
commissioners, and we were not provided a copy of that information.
So I would request that we at least be given a copy.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: The information was provided by
Donald Clancy and other property owners -- Glancy and other
property owners in the subdivisions south of Pine Ridge Road and
east and west of Goodlette. Apparently that -- sir, you can't speak
from the audience. It was provided, apparently, to planning, and it
didn't make it into our packets, so we all have a chance to glance at
that now.
And just for the record, the information that Mr. Yovanovich
gave us will be in the PUD Section 3.3, the permitted uses. Those are
the changes we've discussed to make those clarifications when this
document goes to the Board of County Commissioners in whatever
form.
Okay. Do we have registered public speakers?
MR. BELLOWS: Yes, Madam Chairman, the first public
speaker is Lori Stresen-Reuter.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: The second one would be?
MR. BELLOWS: Deborah Lawrence.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay. Be prepared to move up toward
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January 3, 2002
the front. State your name and your address, please.
MS. STRESEN-REUTER: My name is Lori Stresen-Reuter,
and my husband Steve and I own the property at 1160 Pine Ridge
Road. Our parcel is the west piece which abuts the Ramada Inn. In
1993 Steve and I purchased the duplex as is, as a part of a plan for
our future retirement. As a self-employed contractor, Steve knew we
had to plan for the future ourselves with no matching retirement plan
from a corporation. We were attracted to the piece because of its
vicinity to commercial property.
By purchasing one of the eight rundown houses on Pine Ridge
Road between two commercially zoned areas, we hoped the county
eventually would want to improve the area by rezoning. In the
meantime, Steve felt that improvements to the duplex, even at our
cost, would not warrant themselves in additional rent because of the
condition of the surrounding houses and the location of the duplex a
few feet off one of Collier County's busiest roads.
In August of 2000, one of the property owners contacted
everyone in this area about rezoning and selling as a group. It has
been amazing that this group, with all its very diverse personalities,
have come this far the last year and a half. Other attempts over the
past years have come, and they have failed. If this area is not rezoned
now, I truly feel that future attempts as a group would fall apart and
the area will deteriorate further.
I also wanted to add at the end also, personally we had
purchased a few acres and built our dream home a few years ago.
And our house is L-shaped, and all the rooms face our swimming
pool, and behind it is the woods. And although the woods do not
belong to us, we have enjoyed them for a long time. And the stakes
just have went up about a month ago, and it never has occurred to me
to go over there and try to stop these people from building their
home, although we have enjoyed their woods. And I would be
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January 3, 2002
thrilled if those people came over to me and said, you know, "I'd like
to make a barrier, a nice landscaping barrier for you" so that we have
-- still maintain our privacy.
But I understand with the lake. And I really wish in hindsight
that we could have brought pictures to show you the condition of the
homes that are on this -- in this area and the condition of the lake.
Thank you for your consideration.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Thank you. Any questions of the
speaker? Next public speaker.
MR. BELLOWS: Deborah Lawrence, and after that Janet
Glancy.
MS. LAWRENCE: Good morning. My name is Debbie
Lawrence. I'm -- moved to Collier County in 1969, and my husband
and I purchased this property on Pine Ridge Road. It's the second lot
west on Pine Ridge Road. It's the lot north of Lot 9. We came --
purchased the property in 1974, and at that time Pine Ridge Road was
a two-lane road.
On the west side of our property, we have, like, an easement that
we can go out onto Pine Ridge Road, and we could go right or left at
that point. Our children could play in the front yards. We could do
lots of things that we -- that would never be able to happen today.
During our stay there -- and we did move in 1989 -- the road was four
laned; that was scary. It was six laned; that was very scary. And
now the front door is approximately 20 feet from the road. I can't
imagine living there now.
They took the frontage from our property. We no longer have
access. When they took the property and said that they were going to
do the four laning, they said that our -- our access road, we'd be able
to turn left or right there. That did not happen. We ended up having
to turn right to go left, and then to come home we had to go left to
come right. There are property owners that are backing out -- I wish
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January 3, 2002
we did have a picture of what it looks like right now. There are
property owners that are trying to back out onto Pine Ridge Road. It
is a very, very scary situation.
It's -- basically the six laning has ruined that property as a
residence. It's a rental property at best, and it's not cost-effective for
us to make it anything else. I truly can't imagine living there now,
and I really would like you to consider what will happen if you don't
approve the zoning. Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Thank you. Next speaker.
MR. BELLOWS: Janet Glancy -- Don Glancy then Janet
Glancy.
MR. GLANCY: For the record, I'm Don Glancy. I live on
Milano Drive. I've been there for 20 years, 34 years in Naples. We
know what's happening here today, the presentation of the Pine Ridge
Development -- by the Pine Ridge Development (sic) Group
representing this proposal for a PUD. Our concern with this -- since
most of that land is currently zoned residential, our concern is that
rezoning it to commercial use is going to make an already dangerous
traffic problem even worse than it is now. Whether traveling east or
west, anyone who's been out there recently knows that the
intersection at 41 and Pine Ridge Road, the intersection at Goodlette
and Pine Ridge Road is disastrous.
The people who are petitioning for the rezoning of this PUD
want to remove the existing housing that fronts Pine Ridge Road, and
I have absolutely no problem with that. I saw that coming when we
moved there and they kept widening the road. And, as Ms. Lawrence
said, now the road is pretty much in their front rooms. I didn't do
that. I wasn't responsible for that. County planning, I guess, did that.
But they want to remove those houses and fill in an existing lake
behind there.
Now, I've heard it called not a lake. Well, it's been a lake in
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January 3, 2002
the 20 years I've been there. My kids and I have been fishing in it for
that long. It is spring fed. We know that, had a diver take a look at
that. And the -- there is a lot of wildlife. Perhaps the coliform
bacteria there has something to do with the fact that there are ducks
and turtles and snakes and fish and so on, an occasional gator, an
otter once in a while.
These developers, as I have suggested in the information I gave
you, will also remove many mature, large-canopied trees from that
area, including native species; scrub oaks, big ones, 24 inches in
diameter, 40-foot canopies; other trees of at least 50 years of growth.
And the established lake habitat would become concrete rectangles
and paved parking lots.
Furthermore, traffic added out there from yet another
commercial center would make things worse. We know about the
development that is coming on the northeast comer of Pine Ridge
Road and Goodlette, the development that's coming over there on the
other side.
We also know that there's a school crossing there. Just on
Milano and Napoli streets just south of this lake, there are 31
preschool and middle school, elementary school children just there.
That's -- I think it's going to make that situation even more dangerous
if this particular thing is done.
Referring to the lake as not a lake, I don't know how that
becomes not a lake. I guess Norris Lake and Cherokee Lake and
Lake Meade are borrow pits too, but they're -- they have water, and
they have wildlife, and there's a wildlife habitat around them. This
particular lake -- as I said, I lived on it for 20 years now -- it has
never dried up, even in the worst drought. It has never been stagnant
in the time that I've been there, so I have come to think of it as a lake.
What we are recommending -- and it seems to be in keeping
with what Collier County has said they want to do -- is that this land
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January 3, 2002
be used as -- perhaps as a passive park. Keep the existing lake, keep
the greenspace, have park areas there for people who'd like to go sit
on the bench, take a walk. It would beautify the area, we think. It
would not hurt the property values in the area, I don't think. And it
certainly would ease the commercial access and the property -- or the
traffic along Pine Ridge Road.
We made a point near the end of the remarks I gave you that
"Collier County has seen fit to preserve the sacred burial ground of
pioneers moved long ago from their original cemetery near the site of
Saint Anne's Church on Third Street in Olde Naples to Rosemary
Center (sic) on Pine Ridge Road. The County has further advocated
the preservation of a number of other graves along Pine Ridge Road
between U.S. 41 and Goodlette Road."
Now, Mr. Bellows' comments confused me a little bit. They are
within this property area, but they are not within an inclusion?
MR. BELLOWS: IfI may, I'd like to clarify. The PUD
boundaries exclude the possible location of these unmarked burial
sites.
MR. GLANCY: Not within that boundary.
MR. BELLOWS: Not within the boundary of the PUD
document.
MR. GLANCY: Where are they located?
MR. BELLOWS: Outside adjacent -- let me show you again on
the map. The reported location is in this comer of the intersection of
Goodlette and -- and Pine Ridge. The PUD property line excludes
that parcel.
MR. GLANCY: And it will just be left as a --
MR. BELLOWS: As currently zoned, in its current condition.
MR. GLANCY: Well, at any rate, if that is a concern, it's
something that ought to be looked at, we think.
Let me add this: As I said before, I have no quarrel with the fact
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January 3, 2002
that the people whose property fronts Pine Ridge Road own the
property that is behind them and that goes into the lake. Absolutely.
I respect property rights, but I am concerned about the use of that
property. If you go to the comer of 41 and Pine Ridge Road, at one
time we were told there was going to be a medical center there, and
that didn't happen. The medical center didn't happen.
What we do have there now is we have an Eckerd's Drug. We
have, from that point over, three restaurants, two bars -- a couple of
them across the street from a church -- and several other fast-food
establishments and strip center developments. I don't know how that
came about. My only involvement with that was at one time to go
before the county commission and object to their putting a sports bar
up there across from the church. They didn't do that at that time.
Later things happened that brought those establishments there.
I don't think we need any more commercial development in that
area. We think a park, a passive park -- we don't mean an active park
with slides and swings and so on, but a passive park where people
can go and take a walk, maybe ride their bike, sit on the bench and
talk, walk the dog, play with the kids -- would be a much better use
of that land than to put more commercial buildings there.
We have been told about -- in our public meetings, we have
been told what would happen as far as the landscaping of the PUD is
concerned. But the only thing we know for sure is that one investor
wants to put one building there now. We have no guarantee of what
else would go there. We have no guarantee of any kind of what the
buffer or the wall or the fence or what any of those things would be.
We've heard all the talk. But those are pictures, and the reality could
-- as we well know in Collier County, reality could be quite
something different. I thank you.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Question for the --
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Mr. Glancy. Up here.
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January 3, 2002
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: As I heard the presentation
from the -- from the applicant, they suggested that this is what they
would do. Now, let me just ask you. If, in fact, this was a
commitment that's part of our record, would that be helpful to you in
your consideration of--
MR. GLANCY: I certainly would be interested in knowing
what it was going to be and when it was going to be. For example, if
-- if the PUD -- or if the applicant for the rezoning change to build a
storage place, if he is granted that, he can build his building and stick
a wall 50 feet out into the lake behind my house. So I look at a wall
here, and who knows what I look at down there.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: The idea of a unified
development, though, under a PUD is that common standards would
apply to the entire project, and that's part of what we're trying to
address here.
MR. GLANCY: I understand that.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: And I'm just -- just
wondering if those common standards -- let's just assume for the
moment the lake is gone. If the common standards are applied, then
what I'm hearing is a commitment from the applicant that this is what
you would see as the development phases in, just what you're looking
at there.
MR. GLANCY: Yeah. And we were told--
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: And I wonder what
comfort level that gives you.
MR. GLANCY: We were--
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: One at a time.
MR. GLANCY: -- told that as well. Time?
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: No. I said, "One at a time."
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: She was just cautioning
me not to talk over you.
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January 3, 2002
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Or you talk over him.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Mr. Glancy -- are you done,
Dwight? I'm sorry.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Yes.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Two questions. The -- I like your
park idea. I don't know how the county could buy such a park and
pay for it, and I don't know if your group explored that, because
obviously the property owner has a right to sell at a reasonable price.
A park would be nice anywhere in Collier County; the more the
merrier. The problem is the money to get -- MR. GLANCY: Particularly there.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I don't disagree with you a bit.
But I don't know if your group has explored that with the county
commissioner representing your area to find out if that's even
feasible, which leads to my next question. You were concerned
about the uses that have ended up at the Pine Ridge Medical Center.
I, too, brought that up during break. It was ironic. It's called the Pine
Ridge Medical Center. There's no medical there, so obviously it went
through under the guise of something else. MR. GLANCY: Yes, it did.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: But in that light has anybody
from your neighborhood sat down, as I tried to do today, looked at
these uses, and had any conclusions as to whether you agree or
disagree or have objections to them? Because I've been making
objections, but I haven't heard anybody else, and I'm wondering if
there's a concern there.
MR. GLANCY: We are recently come to this. We're not
engineers. We're not a company with lawyers. We are residents of
the neighborhood, and we are sort of doing this flying by the seat of
our pants. I don't even know right off-- and I wanted to ask about
this -- your procedure for whether -- whether or not and when and
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January 3, 2002
how this PUD would be accepted. I don't -- I'm not in county
government. I'm not an engineer, builder, developer. I don't have the
kind of ex parte relationship with you folks that they do.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, I mean, you --
MR. GLANCY: I would never have called one of you on the
phone. I would next time, but I wouldn't have presumed to do that
because I assumed that I would come before you with what I had to
say, and they would come before you with what they had to say, and
we would both be dealing with the developer and you. But I see
that's not how it works.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: We're here to provide a
recommendation to the county commission, and then they make a
decision. And after their decision whatever they decide is what really
happens. What I think this board tries to do is find a compromise,
find a way that it works for all the parties involved if that's possible.
That's what leads me to -- my concern is, where specifically are your
issues with the uses? And if you haven't had time to do that, then I
understand that that may not be something we'll get out of you today.
MR. GLANCY: Well, my issue with specific uses I haven't
given a lot of thought to because I don't know. We get one bit of
information one time and another bit of information at another, as
you have. I heard you going over the possibilities of a real estate
office or a psychiatric office, which could be the same, I guess.
Being a Realtor, I can say that. Anyway, if that time comes -- if the
time should come that we are going to have that development, I
certainly would want to make -- give some input. And I would get in
touch with our commissioner, our new commissioner, Mr. Coyle.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Because the time is now for this
board, but the time still is coming up for the next board. And so you
need to be prepared to do that by the time it goes to the Board of
County Commissioners in whatever format it leaves here.
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January 3, 2002
MR. GLANCY: Now, is this, then, the only meeting which we
will have regarding this?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Unless this board votes to
continue it or something like that, this --
MR. GLANCY: In other words, the decision will be made
today.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Our recommendation will be made
today --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Our recommendation will be.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: -- to the Board of County
Commissioners.
MR. GLANCY: Well, I suggest that you look carefully at that
drawing of that park and think about that use as opposed to more
concrete and more parking lots and -- when you do make your
recommendation.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: I did have a couple of questions. I just
wanted to clarify for the record, your drawing here that you've given
with the park and the lake, etc., does that include the full 8.5 acres
that --
MR. GLANCY: Yes.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: -- we're talking about here?
MR. GLANCY: Yes.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: You wanted the whole entire area, not
just the residential or the lake area.
MR. GLANCY: Yes. Because you'd have an existing access
where Pine Ridge Court is now. You would have access off
Goodlette Road where the access is to the commercial property at
that other end. There could be, then, walkways, parking, and so on
around that lake from there.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And I just want to clarify. Have you
or anybody in your group approached any of these good people,
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January 3, 2002
MR. GLANCY:
the county there. We
about the area, people
where we live. We're
that, but we do have a
it seriously.
property owners or their representatives, and asked them to purchase
-- what it would cost for either you as a group to purchase or the
county to purchase? What would the value of the property be to
make it into a passive park?
MR. GLANCY: Haven't done that, no.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Haven't done that.
MR. GLANCY: As I say, we're late coming to this, and we've
had two -- we had two meetings with the developer. And by the way,
I needed to find out something about procedure on that as well.
Before we had the meeting, I asked Mr. Arnold if there would be a
representative from the county there, from the county planning. He
said Mr. Batram (phonetic) --
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Badamtchian.
MR. GLANCY: Okay. -- would be there -- would have been
there, but his wife was ill. And then the second meeting we had, he
was not there or-- and no one else was there, I guess. He was not
there because he was just not there anymore.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Didn't work for the county anymore.
Yes. And so there was no representative from
are residents, homeowners, people concerned
concerned about the quality of life in the area
not engineers, and we don't have access to all
recommendation and hope somebody will take
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Any other questions? It would
probably behoove you to at least chat with the representatives,
whether it's Mr. Arnold or Mr. Yovanovich, the attorneys involved,
to determine what the value would be if this proposal goes forward as
a PUD, our recommendation, so that you would have an opportunity
to tell the Board of County Commissioners what your information is
on that aspect. And I would suspect, with my background, that it's an
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January 3, 2002
astronomical price because it is -- the highest and best use would
appear to be commercial, and a chunk of it is already commercial
with industrial uses already grandfathered in. So it may be beyond
the reach of the county or your group to come up with money to
purchase this as a passive park.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Madam Chair, I've been--
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Commissioner Adelstein.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: I've been advised that it's --
the price would be between 15 and $18 a square foot.
MR. GLANCY: And you were advised by whom?
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: By -- what the county's
doing across the street is $15 a square foot for eminent domain, so
this would probably go between 15 and $18 a square foot. That's a
lot of money.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: How many square feet do we have? I
can't calculate that fast.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Eight and a half acres?
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: That's a lot of square footage. And
while --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: I'd like to get the applicant
to get that on the record because that's something surely they know,
and that would be helpful to all of us to know that number.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Subject to negotiation of course, you're
looking at about $8 million.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Thank you. At least now you have an
idea, sir.
MR. GLANCY: I happen to have that much with me today.
(Several speakers at once.)
MR. GLANCY: I thank you very much for your time.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Thank you for your time. Next public
speaker.
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January 3, 2002
MR. BELLOWS: Janet Glancy.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Now, you ain't going to
disagree with your husband, are you? MS. GLANCY: No.
MR. GLANCY: Not on this.
MS. GLANCY: Well, initially--
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: State your name and --
MS. GLANCY: My name is Janet Glancy. I reside at 1235
Milano Drive, Naples, Florida 34103, and I have lived there for
almost 20 years. Initially, of course, when Mr. Yovanovich and
Arnold and Soudan brought this possible PUD to our attention, I was
thinking in terms of my own back yard, as most people would.
However, since the first meeting, we did not have copies of the PUD.
No one offered us copies of it, so we really did not know any of the
specific details.
We have tried on a number of occasions, as many of the
homeowners in Sorrento Gardens and Westlake and Northgate
Village and Country Club of Naples have tried, to contact people in
the planning department. Evidently the planning department has
been in some disarray, and we have not been able to contact people,
as evidenced by the fact that you didn't get our packet. So really, we
are coming to this process more than a little ignorant, so I hope that
you will bear with me.
When I began to think in terms of the project, I started thinking,
however, more from a biologist's standpoint. I used to teach botany
and marine studies at Naples High School. I currently teach and
represent the laureate program and advanced placement English.
That's one reason why I would very much like to see the PUD
documents. I would like -- both my husband and I are wordsmiths of
a sort. I would like to scrutinize the wording of the document before
you make a recommendation.
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January 3, 2002
But I began to look at it from a biologist's perspective, and I
began to think in terms of the estuarine area of the Gordon River. I
began to think in terms of the saltwater leading up to brackish and
freshwater in the inner reaches going up the Gordon River. I began
to think about the greenspace along Goodlette Road to the east,
certainly going from the Pulling property up to The Conservancy of
Southwest Florida, going from there to the significant botanical
preserve at Caribbean Gardens, from there to the old Fleischmann
property and now Bear's Paw Country Club which then feeds into
Wilderness Country Club, a Hole-In-The-Wall Country Club, then
Royal Poinciana Country Club, Country Club of Naples.
And then as you follow up the corridor there, you have a chain
of greenspace, and you have a chain of freshwater ponds and lakes.
And you have a change of large -- a chain of large-canopied trees.
And it seemed to me that our lake seems to be a -- call it a borrow pit,
if you will, but it has been an established ecosystem for decades.
And that follows into Pine Ridge Road and up Pine Ridge -- up north
of Pine Ridge Road.
And we have had otters and alligators. We have red-shouldered
hawks, eagles, ospreys. We have turtles of all kinds: Painted turtles,
soft-shelled turtles, snapping turtles. We have indigo snakes and
banded water snakes. We have large-mouth bass that the children
around the lake have caught, for as long as we have been there, of
over 6 pounds. So it is a viable, living lake, not just a borrow pit.
And, therefore, I think that when you -- yes, we have not had
time to explore with the Florida Wildlife Federation, the Sierra Club,
the Isaac Walton League, the Audubon Society, The Conservancy of
Southwest Florida the options that might be out there. We have not --
as my husband said, we have come to this fairly late, but the
community character plan, the Dover Kohl partners consulting firm
technical memorandum, and other articles that we have read indicate
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January 3, 2002
a trend toward passive parks and a trend toward trying to maintain
greenspace.
I'd like you to look at this -- well, you can see partly up on the
monitor but over here as well. The people in Northgate Village and
Country Club of Naples, Sorrento Gardens, Westlake, and the areas
south of there have virtually become prisoners of commercial
development. We have only two ways out of our area. If you go up
to Pine Ridge Road-- and I invite you, please do go into the Eckerd's
parking lot and into the parking lot that extends between Rosemary
Cemetery, and you will find a traffic nightmare.
Not only have -- do you find drunks stumbling over the graves
of-- I'm sorry, but it's true -- that remain outside of Rosemary
Cemetery in little plots of grass here and there dotting that, but the
parking situation is horrible. The traffic is terrible. And if you look
at this -- this aerial here --
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: All you need to do is pick up the
microphone that's right back there, and you can talk and point to the
map if you'd like. Turn it on.
MS. GLANCY: There is at this intersection here no light. All
the people that live in this area that try to get out in this traffic,
because this is so short, take their families' lives in their hands every
time they try to get out there or if they're coming across here and
trying to get in here. The same thing is true on Route 41. There is no
light. You go out Castello and there's no light. The traffic is
barreling up 41 to that intersection at Pine Ridge Road. And the only
way that the neighborhood is able to get in and out is by trying to
brave that traffic, trying to sneak down an alleyway off Castello in
order to get to a street that might have a light.
And this -- to make this commercial is going to exacerbate a --
an already horrendous problem. This is going to be commercial over
here. This is going to be commercial over here, but historically south
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January 3, 2002
of Pine Ridge Road. And this is almost a dormant site. I mean,
there's very, very little traffic that goes in and out of this site right
now. The traffic situation will be unbearable for all the people who
live in that neighborhood, for the school children who try to get to
Pine Ridge and back, to the school children who go to Seagate, and
for all the residents who live in that area.
So you would not only be taking away greenspace, a viable
wildlife habitat, but you would be creating a horrendous traffic
situation. If any restaurants were allowed to go in there, any high
traffic commercial endeavors were allowed to go in there, you would
be doing a tremendous disservice to the taxpayers and the voters of
that whole area of Collier County. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Any questions?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I do for the applicant when he
gets up here.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: When he comes up. Okay. So thank
you very much.
MS. GLANCY: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Next registered speaker.
MR. BELLOWS: Connie Pinckney.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And is there one more?
MR. BELLOWS: Yes.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And who might that be so they can
move toward the microphone?
MR. BELLOWS: Edward F. McCarthey.
MS. PINCKNEY: Hi. I'm Connie Pinckney, and I live at 1120
Lake Shore Place in the subdivision called Westlake. I'm very plain
speaking, so I will speak very plainly. I moved here from Atlanta
seeking a-- a community of families with strong schools. And I
purchased in the Westlake community because it was a very distinct
community with a lot of families with a lot of kids, great school
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January3,2002
districts. It was what I was looking for.
I know that we're going to grow, and I know that traffic is going
-- is a problem. I know that we've got neighborhood and community
development plans that speak to that and set standards. I live on a
daily basis -- my children go to Pine Ridge, and they've gone to
Seagate and now Naples High too. I still have children making that
trek through that traffic, and on a daily basis I use those roads. I
think we need to revisit our -- as you're saying we're doing -- our
neighbor community development plan because it would be insane to
add more of a problem to what currently exists there. I drive. I have
a 13 year old who crosses that street. It's a dangerous place, and it's
not getting any better.
I believe in the right to use your personal property and to sell
it and to make a profit, and I certainly don't oppose those who have
homes and wish to do that.
When I said that I was plain speaking, one of the problems I had
-- and I'm coming lately to this. I learned about this four days ago.
When I hear the rhetoric and the ambiguity and the -- of the language
here, I -- and I know the history in Collier County. The ambiguity is
a license for anything to occur, and I've seen some of the horrors that
have taken place in building when what we thought was going to
happen was not at all what happened. I question it. I believe this
ambiguity may be with intent. And I think one of the first things that
I would like to see with your help is to limit the ambiguity and to
limit what is going to occur here to make sane sense.
We have a community character plan. It states that we're going
to protect the integrity of places that I purchased into. We're going to
build parks around such things. We've heard the worst-case scenario,
which is the -- is the most likely scenario, in reality, with this
development.
I would like a continuance to investigate -- to see if there is --
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January 3, 2002
if we will follow up what the stated goals of the community character
plan, if there is an $8 million possibility. There's development going
all around Pine Ridge. This is just a drop in the proverbial bucket.
I'd like to protect the integrity of the home and the community that I
purchased into, that retains the character of Naples. I would like to
have the opportunity to see if we can't have a park there and have the
time and opportunity -- reasonable time and opportunity. I'd like to
see if we can't have an opportunity to make the best-case scenario.
If not, then I'd like to do the second best, and I need your help to
set some sane standards here and to get rid of this ambiguous
language that could mean anything practically could be placed here.
And I see your -- and I respect your efforts to begin to do that here
today. I don't think we can do the whole picture here today, and
that's why I'm asking for a continuance to give -- I'd like to go to the
Westlake neighborhood community. We haven't gotten this
information. We haven't had a chance to organize a response. I'd
like to have a chance to do that.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: I'd like to respond to that. Tentatively
this petition, in whatever form it goes if we didn't continue it today,
would be before the Board of County Commissioners at a public
hearing on the 12th of February, so you do know that. Keep that date
in mind. And you may wish to chat with some of the representatives
and the property owners in between. And you could, you know,
make an effort to get some additional information to the Board of
County Commissioners with some of your concerns, because we have
tried to make sure that the language in the PUD is much more
specific, and that's why this particular public hearing has taken a lot
longer than it would normally have.
And we have -- I've made notes on what we're going to have to
change. So we are trying to do part of that for you, because we have
certain criteria that we have to use to make our decision, but I
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January 3, 2002
certainly do understand your comments and your concern about how
it's going to change the area and your involvement in the whole
process.
So I want to make sure that you are aware, and anyone else, the
12th of February's the next date. And between that time and now,
some of these additional ideas can be discussed with the
representatives and the property owners as well as the
commissioners, the Board of County Commissioners. Does that help
a little bit on that part? Because I don't think we're going to be -- I
don't have a sense up here for a continuance at this point, which is
your specific request. I didn't want you to think we were ignoring
yOU.
MS. PINCKNEY: Okay.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Commissioner Strain.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I've got a question. The applicant
has indicated there were a couple of meetings. And Mr. Glancy, I
believe, said there were a couple of meetings with the residents. At
those meetings did anybody inquire --
MS. PINCKNEY: I've never heard of any such meetings, so I'd
like to know about--
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Oh, then you can answer my
question. That was -- that's what I'm saying. So not everybody was
invited, or did it -- I'll wait until the applicant gets up there, then, and
try to find that answer out.
MS. PINCKNEY: I'd like to hear their response too.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Right. And staff could probably
clarify that somewhat, too, because I think in Westlake you're much
further down the road if I picture where you are.
MS. PINCKNEY: Right. But I still use the same traffic outlets.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: But so do I and I live in Victoria Park.
I recognize the traffic comments that you made are very --
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January 3, 2002
MS. PINCKNEY: I can't get out; I can't get in. And I don't
want to put my kid on his bike to go to school.
MR. BELLOWS: Just a point of clarification. This project was
submitted prior to the public information meeting requirement where
we have specific notice requirements and procedures; therefore, no
county staff was required to participate in any informational meeting.
That was totally the responsibility and good volunteerism of the
applicant and the petitioner to notify. It was not a requirement at that
time of submission of this petition for them to hold these public
meetings. They did so as a benefit to the citizens. So there is no
specific notice requirement or distance for their meeting. The county
has notified the people per our current code requirements for this
particular meeting.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Thank you for clarifying that, which
we are making changes. Next public speaker.
MR. McCARTHEY: Madam Chairman, fellow (sic) board
members, members of the audience, my name is Edward F.
McCarthey. I reside at 94 Second Street South in Naples. I own a
piece of property, along with Doris Lewis, at 1270 Pine Ridge Road,
which encompasses two lots there backing up to the lake. I
purchased that property approximately in the 1980s, middle '80s, with
the primary intent that I foresaw that this property could go nowheres
except for commercial property, you know, and to make a profit.
So I've paid taxes on that, and I've paid taxes on the lake, and
I've paid taxes on the improvements for that for X number of years.
And let me tell you, it's very difficult to find someone of-- you
know, that will pay the price for an investment to rent there as a
residential property. So it cannot and it should not be left to the wills
of a residential any longer.
The property owners along the way there has a contract on this
piece of property. And, as it was previously mentioned, I don't
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January 3, 2002
foresee that these property owners are going to get together again.
And we have a window here of opportunity to make something viable
for the community to upgrade that area to something. Whether it's --
the individuals want to come up with the dollars to pay the property
owners and buy their contract for a park, that's up to them. I'm here
today to express my opinion in the hopes that you will give some
viable reason -- to give you some viable reason as to why you should
give full consideration for this redevelopment.
You have heard our planners and our attorney tell you and show
you some of the reasons why -- the property owners and the -- our
attorneys have gotten together with the local area people behind us to
-- to make this a very worthwhile project. There are a number of
reasons why the property owners should receive the board's
commitment and support, because it's going to benefit the community
as a whole.
May I suggest a few of the positive reasons for that. I think
each and every one of you have traveled down Pine Ridge Road there
and saw the eyesore that that particular area, from Goodlette Road to
41, has encompassed over the number of years. My piece of property
has the driveway so close that the people have to back out into the
Pine Ridge Road, so it can't stay there like that very much longer.
And I suggest that redevelopment will only add to and enhance the
continued beauty of Naples because that is a primary artery into the
community, and we do need it upgraded, and I think our planners
have developed a great plan for you.
Approval will provide the safety for citizens of Collier County.
It'll provide safety for our visitors who come to Collier County
simply by getting rid of all the curb cuts that's in there now on -- on
the south side of Pine Ridge Road. I mean, that's -- can be nothing
except a fact there will be safety for not only the community and our
visitors. And this could be accomplished, fellow board members, by
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approving this PUD today with some of the changes that has been
made.
I've heard about the lake. I've paid taxes on that lake. It's our
property. And as the planners has mentioned, we can go and get a
permit to fill those in, but it wouldn't be viable for us to do that as an
individual property owner. So that's why we all got together, the
property owners -- and believe me, it was a hard task for getting 11
property owners together to come and get to this point that we are
today. Believe me, it was a hard task.
The lake behind the property, if you look on the surface, it's a
beautiful lake. But it's not very deep, and it's not viable for our-- for
the needs in the future. As I say, it's an eyesore. We want to get rid
of that eyesore, and the property owners are willing to come together,
and we've done that under a contract. And I submit to you today that
we should approve and send to the Board of County Commissioners
your approval of our PUD. If you have any questions, I'll be happy
to answer them if I can.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: I did have one question. Are you
familiar with the concept of whether your lake is a spring-fed lake or
not?
MR. McCARTHEY: I was told years ago that a guy by the
name of Mr. Turner dug that lake out to build Pine Ridge Road in, so
that benefited all the -- that benefited all the property owners in
Collier County. It's nothing more than just a -- you know, a borrow
pit. Where they've dug the land out, Mr. Turner did that. He dug that
one up by the -- behind the bowling alley there also and used that,
you know, the dirt. You know, back years ago they didn't -- they
wasn't too concerned with the roads because, as you know, along
even 41 they've -- you know, they've just filled over the potholes and
made a road. So that's how that lake came about.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay. I just was curious if you, as an
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owner of that lake, had ever been aware of that. Thank you. Any
other questions? Mrs. Young.
COMMISSIONER YOUNG: This is just a flier. But looking at
the map, I wonder if the homeowners' groups got together with you-
all, could you possibly negotiate a price for that lake-enclosed--
MR. McCARTHEY: Anything's possible.
COMMISSIONER YOUNG: -- octagonal --
MR. McCARTHEY: Money talks.
COMMISSIONER YOUNG: -- which might -- would be a lot
less than $8 million?
MR. McCARTHEY: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Thank you. Mr. Yovanovich.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Just to summarize, I am a plain speaker
too. I -- I did -- we met with the neighbors. We met with the
affected neighbors, the people who fronted on the lake, and we
explained the process. We explained that the purpose of the public
meetings with them was to get their input.
Now, some people are very strong-willed, and their input was,
we'd rather it not change. Others accepted that there would be
change, and there would -- you know, what we could do, we'd do to
make the situation best. And people, some people, not everybody at
that meeting, felt that if the lake had to go away, the wall and the
increased landscaping was the alternative they chose. We've
incorporated that. Others said they'd rather see it be a passive
park. Well, you know, you've been around long enough, I've been
around long enough. Every time neighbors come up and say, "We'd
love this to be a park," and they want the county commission to come
buy the property.
We met for the first time November 5th. Mr. Glancy was there.
Mr. Glancy never asked us for a copy of the PUD. Everybody who
did ask us for a copy of the PUD was provided a copy free of charge
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January 3, 2002
by Mr. Arnold. We had a second meeting December 16th to bring
back the revised landscaping plans. Again, anybody who wanted
information from us, we were happy to provide it and did. They're
not new to the process. This process has been going on since
November 5th.
And we've given informational meetings because that's how
Wayne and I do rezonings. We let people who know -- who are
going to be affected what's going to happen. We don't do it because
the codes require it. We do it because it makes sense to let people
know what's happening and try to work out a situation, as Mr. Strain
says, compromise and make it as -- as best we can for everybody, and
we've tried to do that.
We've not -- your traffic -- transportation staff has reviewed
this petition. And I mean this as a compliment when I say this about
Ms. Wolfe. She's very conservative. She puts us through very strict
scrutiny in reviewing our proposed projects. We meet a much higher
standard than past people had to meet. It's a tougher standard. We
will still go through a site planning process with Ms. Wolfe and her
staff to make sure that whatever is developed on that site is safe and
has the minimal necessary cuts onto Pine Ridge Road to provide safe
access. We'll meet that standard. It will be safe.
I don't know where Westlake is. I don't know how close she
lives to -- to this project. To say, well, I travel the roads, you know, I
don't believe there's any direct access in Pine Ridge to a light. I
mean, we all live with where -- the traffic is where it is. Your
transportation staff has reviewed what we're planning on doing. They
believe it's safe. They'll put us through a much stricter scrutiny when
we do the site planning. It will be safe. We will have the obligation
to build turn lanes, decel lanes. There are going to be -- as Wayne
has told you, there are going to be improvements to the intersection at
Goodlette and Pine Ridge Road. There's also going to be changes to
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Goodlette-Frank Road where medians will close.
So you have to look at all of the picture as to the traffic safety.
We don't have any direct impact through their neighborhood, direct
access through their neighborhood. We go to Pine Ridge Road and to
Goodlette-Frank Road. We will have no left-hand turns out. We will
have all right-in, right-outs. Your transportation staff will make sure
it's safe, meets the county standards. We're obligated to do that. We
know we have to do that.
We believe what we have done is we've proposed a project that
is compatible with the neighbors to the south, goes above and beyond
the minimums required under the Land Development Code, takes into
consideration the area we're located in, what currently exists there,
and what our clients' legal rights are to use their property. And it is
change. Nobody -- you know, we -- I can't get around it. People
have enjoyed a borrow pit, a lake. Whatever you want to call it,
they've enjoyed it, but they've enjoyed it at Mr. McCarthey's expense.
He owns the lake; they don't own the lake.
What we're asking for is the redevelopment of a site within our
legal rights. I think we've met the strict burden of proving what we're
asking for is compatible, and we would hope that you would vote
favorably to make a recommendation of approval to the Board of
County Commissioners. And if you have any specific questions
about the project, we're happy to answer any more questions you may
have.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: I have one, but I'll let Mr. Richardson
go first and then Mr. Strain.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Just the -- one of the
issues that came up with the mature trees on this tract. And, of
course, we all hate to see, you know, big trees torn down if it can be
avoided. Sometimes it costs a little more to save a tree. I just -- I
don't know the topography here. Can you give me any indication as
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to whether that might be possible?
MR. YOVANOVICH: I mean, it's in -- I mean, I can't tell you
specific trees that we definitely can save, but it's in -- you know, if
we can save them and use them, we'll definitely -- we'll definitely do
that.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Okay. So you'll put that
on the record?
MR. YOVANOVICH: Yes.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Commissioner Strain.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I have three. Do you want to go
before me?
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay. While we're in our-- while
we're talking about trees at this moment, I'm not sure that it -- you
didn't make the presentation, but Mr. Arnold did. I want to just
clarify a couple things for the record in deference to, I believe it was,
Janet Glancy, and I believe even Ms. Pinckney, the Westlake
resident, mentioned. On your buffering requirements, which are in
3.4H 1, 2, and 3, to make sure this is on the record -- I hope you have
the same wording that we do, but I can read quickly but slowly
enough for the court reporter. The first one was a 15-foot-wide Type
D buffer shall be provided along Pine Ridge Road with the
landscaping as required in Section 2.4.7.4 of the LDC. Do you have
that same statement?
MR. YOVANOVICH: Yes.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay. Because I want to confirm that
this is what you have said and -- you and/or Mr. Arnold so that it's on
the record and that they have some assurance that this is going to
happen.
A 1 O-foot-wide Type D buffer shall be provided along
Goodlette-Frank Road, including along the west side of the off-site
graveyard, with the landscaping standards as required in Section
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2.2.21.5.1 of the LDC. This buffer shall contain canopy trees, the
number of which shall be calculated based on a minimum spacing of
25 feet on center. All canopy trees within this buffer shall be in
minimum -- shall be a minimum of 12 feet high at time of planting.
That was what was stated, and I want to make sure that we agree.
And Item 3, then, was southern PUD boundary buffering shall
consist of a 15-foot-wide Type B, as in bravo, buffer. Those are all
the things that you enumerated up here, and I just want to make sure
that we do have the words in here unless we need to tweak them or
refine them.
MR. YOVANOVICH: We -- we will -- we need to refine the
language to include the wall and the extra plantings that we've
committed to.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: The enhancements you --
MR. YOVANOVICH: The enhancements we've committed to.
MR. BELLOWS: Can you go over that one more time?
MR. YOVANOVICH: We've agreed to a 6-foot wall, and we
agreed to cabbage palms or the similar 10 foot on centers between--
Wayne, I know 20 feet was the upper end. What was the smaller
end? Because we were going to stagger them.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: I think it was 12 to 20.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Twelve to twenty feet. That's what we
agreed to and that -- we need to revise that to embellish it to make
sure that that's clear. And that will be the entire length of the
southern boundary.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Southern boundary.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Do we need to talk about
the -- the composition of the wall? Stucco, is that --
MR. YOVANOVICH: Precast, is that okay? I mean --
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Some of those precasts look pretty nice
these days.
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January 3, 2002
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: What color? Never mind.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I just asked.
MR. YOVANOVICH: It definitely is -- can be --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: It won't be solid. We're not
talking about wood?
MR. YOVANOVICH: We're not talking wood.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Okay.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay. Before I lose you, do we have
any other questions?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN:
away. I've got three questions still.
Oh, yeah. You're not going to get
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay. Go for your questions, but I just
want to make sure that on this when -- whomever makes the motion, I
have the areas that we will have to ask for revisions to so we can
include those, at least in general, in this motion.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Richard, the meetings that you
had with the residents, you talked about this is going to be a
commercial tract. Did you specifically get into the specific possible
uses that would go on that tract?
MR. YOVANOVICH: The only -- the only use I could commit
to was the self-storage. I talked about in general it could be a bank.
It could be a Walgreen's. It could be a restaurant. It could be offices.
Did I talk about, you know, that -- absolute specifics? I did not. I
talked about categories.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. The reason I asked that is
the Pine Ridge Medical Center certainly is not a medical center; it's
anything but. And somehow that is extremely misleading, and it
probably was presented as a medical center at one time, but it had all
the similar uses that you have in yours. And I'm just wondering, in
your presentations to the neighborhood, did the people understand
what those numbers meant? Because until today I'm not sure you-all
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understood what all those numbers meant, because we had
psychiatric hospitals in there and all those kind of things, and that's a
concerning issue. And I want to -- I don't know how far you explored
it with the neighborhood and how much they understood what it is
that could go there based on the ranges of those numbers.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Well, I -- I did not -- we did not go
number by number, Mr. Strain, but we talked about types like I just
described them. You know, candidly none of us anticipated a
psychiatric hospital there, so I didn't bring that up. I mean, that was -
- you know, that was a number that found its way in there. But, no, I
didn't talk number by number.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, you added a lot of numbers
in there. There's one that I wondered if you'd consider adding, and
it's -- first of all, you said you'd sell the property at a negotiated price
starting around 2 million.
MR. YOVANOVICH: I don't believe that was even close but --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Oh, it's not? Okay. Well, we're
starting negotiations.
MR. YOVANOVICH: We'll talk with -- maybe one of the
parcels.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I -- I have been surprised that the
county commission, and pleasantly surprised, that they have
purchased for large dollars some very nice pieces of property for
parks. So that -- something could happen here, and I'm not saying it's
not impossible (sic). On that premise would you be willing in your
document to insert a use for community park as one of the permitted
uses?
MR. YOVANOVICH: Sure. I mean --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: What would that number be?
MR. YOVANOVICH: The county could do that at any time.
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January 3, 2002
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, I just thought it would be --
this would kind of-- if we go forward with this and that's one of the
permitted uses, it allows the residents to explore that a little bit
further with their county commissioner.
MR. YOVANOVICH: We'll be happy to add that as a -- as a
permitted use.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay, then my last question,
which is a caveat to the first two, because of the unclear discussions
you may have had with the residents in regards to what the numbers
meant in the SIC code and the fact that they're willing to maybe
figure out a way to approach their elected officials to purchase this
park, would you consider a continuance for a period of time to further
that discussion with them?
MR. YOVANOVICH: Commissioners -- I mean -- I'm sorry --
Mr. Strain, I'd rather not. If-- if they bring a legitimate offer to us
before the February hearing, we can talk about a potential
continuance of the board meeting. But I've heard this too many times
where they -- where people want to approach an $8 million purchase
on behalf of the government, and I just don't really believe that that
will ever come of fruition.
But there's still an opportunity. There's six weeks before the
Board of County Commissioners' meeting. If there's a legitimate
likelihood that that could happen, there's time to -- to continue at that
point. But at this point I don't think an indefinite continuance while
they try to come up with $8 million is -- is fair to the existing
property owners.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I had to ask, but I appreciate your
comment. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Commissioner Wolfley.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: I just have -- when I reviewed
this -- the informational package that we got and the -- the PUD
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master plan, what I flashed on was the comer in -- in Fort Myers of
Colonial and Summerlin. There's a McDonald's there and all that and
-- because it's right -- right in, right out. And I don't know how many
times I've almost been hit by someone coming out of McDonald's
trying to get over to the far left lane to make a U-turn to go west. I
mean, it's almost an identical situation there. And -- and it just is a --
fairly frightening, as somebody had said, one of the speakers had
said. And that's just what comes to mind. People are going to be
jetting across there trying to go west all the time. And, you know,
that's my biggest concern, is that traffic issue.
MR. YOVANOVICH: And if I may, remember, all these
medians are going away, so nobody will be able to go west out of our
project.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: I understand.
MR. YOVANOVICH: We have had discussions with your
transportation, and they're going to make us have an access point as
far away from that intersection as possible so there is a safe distance
for them to weave if they want to get to the far lanes.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: With that traffic on there now?
MR. YOVANOVICH: Yes. And it's -- I mean, that's your
transportation staff. They're engineers. They go through the process.
They understand the engineering principles, and they're going to
move those access points to the maximum extent they can to make
sure it is safe. And with the unified planned development, you've got
a greater opportunity to do that. If this comes in separately, each
individual parcel is going to have access, and you're going to be
further constrained on how you can address those access issues.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Don't get me wrong. I think
it's an eyesore right now, the whole three parcels, and anything would
be an improvement.
MR. YOVANOVICH: But what I was trying -- my point was
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January 3, 2002
you get a better opportunity to deal with access and the concerns
you're talking about if this is unified than-- than 12 or 13 separate
parcels.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Oh, I agree. It's probably more
dangerous now than it would be. But my biggest concern was that
and the -- and the ingress and egress there. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Any other questions here? I know Mr.
Arnold was still flipping pages.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Looking for that code.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: He's just looking for
community park.
MR. YOVANOVICH: I guess there's no code provision for
community park.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: No, there isn't.
MR. YOVANOVICH: So we'll have to write the words
"community park" instead of--
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Thank you. I've already looked
that up.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: You could have stopped him.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: You could have told us.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I didn't know he was looking for
it.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay. Do we have any--
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: He normally ignores me.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I move we close the public
hearing.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Do we have any further public
speakers here? We close --
MR. BELLOWS: We're closed.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: We'll close the public hearing.
Okay. We've closed the public hearing, and our motion's going to
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January 3, 2002
have to include specific items which I could rattle off now, whoever's
going to make this motion.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Well, I'll make the motion,
and you can start rattling them off. I make a motion to approve PUD-
2000-22, recommend approval to the county commission, subject to
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: The revisions of the PUD: 3.3,
permitted uses, one newly added item would be a community park; to
3.4, which is the buffering, the clarification of some of the
landscaping as we discussed; changes to 4.6, which is the water
management, a major rehaul of that particular section; and the last
one would be 4.7, utilities, to correct the information with that
particular ordinance.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Second.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: We have a motion by Mr. Abernathy, a
second by Mr. Wolfley for approval of this --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: You've got more?
MR. YOVANOVICH: Well, you were, Madam Chairman,
very, very thorough. You missed a couple of things we agreed to
take out.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: That's what I was going to bring
up. I hadn't forgotten those.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: You're right.
MR. YOVANOVICH: We agreed to take out 8062 through
8069 and 9222 and 92224 -- 9224, too many 2s.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: You're right. I had that over on this
piece of paper and not where Mr. Abernathy made his motion. Thank
you for clarifying that. So that is part of the motion.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Was there a second?
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And there was a second. Do we have
any discussion?
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January 3, 2002
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Yes. I -- as the motion
maker, I'm sure some of the people in the audience feel like I'm sort
of slamming the door in their face. When I went to see Mr.
Yovanovich and Mr. Arnold yesterday afternoon, I expressed my
concern about the traffic. I think the traffic is a valid issue. I think
the road is already -- Pine Ridge is already a mess. And I explored
with them the possibility, the viability, of putting some kind of
walled town house or villa community in there. And they assure me
that that's not economically viable, and I have to accede to their
expertise on that.
I'm very, very reluctant to put this in. I'm also concerned about
the number of accesses out onto Pine Ridge. I don't find comfort in
the fact that the county staff is going to approve these things because
if you come out of Eckerd's or come out of the rental -- car rental
place there, you take your life in your hands to get onto Pine Ridge.
On the other hand, that's not the fault of these property owners, and
they do have a right to develop their property. The county is of the
opinion that it's best used as commercial.
I think we walk a very dangerous path if we hold out to these
concerned citizens the chance that the county is going to come up
with $8 million to buy this. There's recent -- I can't disagree that the
county has bought some parcels in the past, but in our -- in our field
of endeavor, I'm reminded of the Palm River doughnut, which
everybody agrees has some ecological values. There are wetlands.
There are turtles verified in large numbers, all kinds of reasons why
that might appeal to the county to buy. But, in fact, they've turned to
the wildlife society and other people, private, to see if that can be
done, and apparently it's not going to be capable of being done. So,
to me, it's all regrettable, but it's all a part of the further urbanization
of Naples and its environs.
I think that rules that we have concerning traffic sometimes defy
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January 3, 2002
common sense. When you can look at a road and see that it's
crippled, to me, it's no answer to say, well, we have some formulas
that we apply to that traffic and find that it's hunky-dory. As a matter
of fact, it gets a C. So given those rules that we have to operate in, I
hope you understand where I'm coming from. I -- I don't like the
rules, but those are the ones I have to apply to the development. And
as far as I'm concerned, applying those rules, it passes muster.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Additional comment. I'd
just like to speak to the process. We do have this public participation
ordinance which has been passed. And I somehow think that we
would have been further along and have less involvement at a public
-- at our public meetings if that process had, in fact, been applied to --
to this project. And I realize the applicant has gone out on his own
and has made an attempt to replicate a portion of that process.
But as I recall and remember the process, when it actually is, in
fact -- and we're catching up with this train. I think a lot of these
issues will be able to be fleshed out, and many more people will have
an opportunity to be involved because of the notice requirements.
And you'll have the documentation, and you'll have an opportunity to
-- to, in a more constructive way I'll say, make your wishes known at
an earlier point where it perhaps can be feathered in more gently.
But, as Mr. Abernathy says, based on what we've got and what
we've got to work with, I think we've pushed the envelope about as
far as we can as far as a recommendation on up to the Board of
County Commissioners. And if-- if in the meantime you can come
up with any additional information, you know, be it to the purchase
price or be it to any other modifications to uses or whatever, you
know, I would encourage you to pursue that process. But I would
stand in support of the motion.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Any further comment? I just want to
say, too, that the public participation will change these types of
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hearings. Specifically Mr. Bellows and I and a few other people in
the audience had the enjoyment of attending one recently on a PUD
that's going back through to have some changes, and it was
fascinating to watch the people be involved and the understanding of
what can and can't be done. And I think as the public understands
these SIC codes and what can happen to a lake and this type of
approach that we have here, better products will be made.
And, of course, I have to agree with Commissioner Abernathy
on the whole concept of the roads and what we can and can't do to the
roads. But we definitely have met all the requirements, that I can tell,
here to be able to go ahead and support this and move forward.
As the chair I wanted to make sure that we did catch on the
record the various changes, deletions which I missed, as well as the
changes that need to happen to this document before it goes to the
Board of County Commissioners. I think you'll see more of this so
that the words in the document -- forget the executive summary or the
staff report, but the words in the document will reflect what is
expected to happen, and they will be as specific as they can be. And
in deference to the people here today, I wanted to make sure that that
was understood, and that was part of my job. And I think we've
made some significant changes, so you-all get those copies before
this goes to the Board of County Commissioners and talk about it at
that point. So I can support this motion.
If there's no further comments, I'll call the question. All those in
favor say aye.
(Unanimous response.)
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Those opposed, same sign.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Motion carries. Next stop, Board of
County Commissioners probably on the 12th of February. Thank
yOU.
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January 3, 2002
The next two agenda items have been continued to the January
17th meeting, so that puts us at 8-A (sic), the public hearing on the
Land Development Code amendments. Marjorie, do we need
anybody to be sworn in on this?
MS. STUDENT: No. It is legislative, and there's no need to
swear anybody in, and there's no need to make any disclosures.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Marjorie, are you
recommending this language for us to adopt?
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Why do we have this before us?
MS. STUDENT: Well, staff is the person that's going to present
it.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON:
ordinance.
All we have is just the
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: It's just the ordinance. There's no
summary; it's just an ordinance, which I find fascinating in itself.
And we're having a conference here.
MR. BELLOWS: Madam Chairman, it's come to my attention
we have a problem with that camera up there, and we were
wondering if we could take a little break so we could get a repairman
on that camera or if you mind having him work while we continue.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: It won't bother us. Let
him work on it.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Well, I guess we'll do that, Mr.
Richardson. Thank you for speaking for me.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Sorry. I didn't --
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: How long will it take to -- five
minutes, ten minutes?
FEMALE SPEAKER: I have no idea. We'll have to get up
there -- he has to get up there and see what the problem is.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: He can go --
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January 3, 2002
FEMALE SPEAKER: He'll be very quiet.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: As long as it doesn't interfere with the
court reporter--
FEMALE SPEAKER: No, he won't.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: -- we can continue.
FEMALE SPEAKER: Nobody will even know he's there unless
you look at him.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Well, we certainly have been
entertained by that camera on more than one occasion today and
other meetings. So go for it, and we'll continue. Thank you.
FEMALE SPEAKER: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Madam Chair, I apologize.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: That's quite all right. I just wanted to
point out that I thought I was Madam Chair. Mr. Bellows, you have a
presentation for the Land Development Code information we have
before us.
MR. BELLOWS: Yes. For the record, Ray Bellows. Susan
Murray asked me to present the Land Development Code
amendments today. I guess the first one that we're going to be
looking at is Section 2.1.15, prohibited uses and structures. This is
Item 6. "In any zoning district, where the use list of permitted and
conditional uses contains the phrase 'any other use which is
comparable in nature with the foregoing uses and is consistent with
the permitted uses and purposes and intent statement of the district' or
any similar phrase which provides for a use which is not clearly
defined or described in the list of permitted and conditional uses,
which requires the discretion of the Planning Service Director or
other staff as to whether or not it is permitted in the district, then the
determination of whether or not that use is permitted in the district
shall be made through the process outlined in Division 1.6,
interpretations."
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January 3, 2002
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: What does Division 1.6
say?
MS. STUDENT: Well, I -- I guess I can address it since Ray's
pinch-hitting for Ms. Murray. But Division 1.6 is the provision that
requires interpretations of land -- of the land code, and it's a whole
process that you go through where you ask for a formal interpretation
from staff. They give it -- notice is sent out to surrounding property
owners. And if somebody has an issue with it, it goes to the Board of
County Commissioners, and they bless it or they don't bless it. And
if there's further problems, it can be appealed further.
And, Ray, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that Susan
presented the idea that this was going to be presented to the Planning
Commission to the Board of County Commissioners, because this
was an add-on, if you will, in this cycle. And that's why it's coming
to you now in this format, so it can still get caught up in this cycle.
And I believe that the Board of County Commissioners wanted to
look at this as a conditional use. And I don't know if Susan has any
notes to that effect.
MR. BELLOWS: No notes.
MS. STUDENT: But that's a recollection that I have from the
county commission meeting on December the 19th.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: The minutes -- or the
summary we have of a commission meeting in December, there are
two or three items where Bruce Arnold -- I mean Bruce Anderson or
somebody else is appealing decisions that Susan made. Is that in a
somewhat similar vein to this?
MS. STUDENT: I think that what you're referencing is the -- is
the -- has to do with the Blind -- what's called the Blind Factory.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Blind is one and there's --
MS. STUDENT: And this was to get at the situation created
there because there was this language in the PUD document for that
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area. And a planner made an interpretation of that language, and then
it was given to the property owner, and they went out and -- they
didn't go so far as to, you know, get the project built yet, but they did
some things that in -- they alleged they did some things in reliance --
they alleged that they did some things in reliance on it that gave rise
to the whole procedure that went to the county commission.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Well, the bottom line of
this is that the planning services director doesn't rule upon --
MS. STUDENT: Right. We have -- and the reason that catchall
language is there -- and I think we've had some discussion today
that's instructive on that point. But when you do your list of
permitted uses under a particular district, you can't think of every
conceivable thing that might encompass. And, in fact, because of
changes in technology and things as you will -- I mean, now we have
computer stores, and maybe if you look at a real old PUD document
someplace, you might not have computer stores in there because
when that was approved you didn't do computer stores.
So that catchall provision is in there to catch those situations
where you couldn't have possibly thought of a use in the list that's
there or just wasn't thought of but is comparable and compatible, and
that's why that's there. So this is an extra safeguard to bring it
through that interpretation process.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: If somebody disagrees with
the --
MS. STUDENT: And if somebody disagrees with it, they have
a point of entry in the process. Is that a pretty fair explanation, Ray?
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah. I'd just like to point out that's the
typical language that many PUD documents have, too, that we've
kind of borrowed that language from. And I'd also like to point out
that the first Board of County Commissioner hearing did hear this
particular item, and they preferred the conditional use process rather
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than the interpretation process. That was their comment on this
particular item.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: That's what I'm trying to clear. Are we
talking about conditional uses process, or are we actually talking
about this whole interpretations, 1.6. I'm confused.
MR. BELLOWS: I think the intent is that instead of having it be
-- go through a Division 1.6 or-- for the interpretation, official
interpretation, that the use would, therefore, be considered a
conditional use and then go through a public hearing process.
MS. STUDENT: And I think what we might have to do, and I'm
going to -- because the Board of County Commission meeting
occurred just before the holiday. And I'm going to have to sit down
and discuss it a bit, but we -- if this involves a change in the list of
conditional uses, we might have to have some additional hearings,
and we're going to have to sort that out. We might bring it through
this time and then just do the additional hearings the next time to, you
know, clear it up. But I would envision that -- as the board was
envisioning this, that this language would find its way into the
conditional use list, then, that-- and that would ensure that it would
come before this body and the Board of Zoning Appeals. Or once we
have the hearing officer, it would go there.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay. And I just wanted to comment
that I attended the Development Services Advisory Committee
meeting yesterday, and this did come up. And Mr. Dunnuck made a
presentation, and I, too, stumbled over the-- where is it going,
conditional use aspect? Is it the interpretation? So I did look up the
section. And I'm truly not clear on what the board is asking to be
done, and I am even less clear listening to today's explanation than
from what Mr. Dunnuck said yesterday. And I did bring this piece of
paper with me just so I'd have an idea of what he was talking about.
But I wanted to make it clear to the commissioners up here that
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in this Division 1.6, it does have a Section 1.6.2 called "Initiation,"
and it says, "An interpretation may be requested by any affected
person, resident, developer, landowner, government agency or
department, or any person having a contractual interest in land in
Collier County." So this is something that I have a feeling people are
going to start wondering what's going on, and people in our public
participation will understand this a little more and start possibly
making some requests for some interpretations if they don't
understand. And we'll need to be careful that we have a set of
procedures that work through something that's not going to be really
burdensome, but can be productive, to clarifications.
MS. STUDENT: Well, in all likelihood, the way I would
envision this happening is it would be the property owner, more than
likely, that would come in because they want to do something with
their property. And they may not have one of the uses on the list, but
they think what they want to do is comparable to what is on the list
and also compatible. So then rather than just ask staff to write them a
letter, they would go through that -- if it went this route, they would
go through the formal process. They'd pay -- there's a hundred-dollar
fee--
MR. BELLOWS: That's correct.
MS. STUDENT: -- hundred-dollar fee for staff to write them
the letter as to whether or not what they propose is comparable in
nature to that zoning district and whether it's compatible, because
there's two aspects to it. And then if-- I think the notice is sent out to
property owners within a certain range of where the subject
property's located. So if any -- what the staff determination is -- and
it's also advertised, I believe.
So then people in the surrounding area have notice of what staff
interpretation was as to that particular use, and then they have the
ability to appeal that to the Board of County Commissioners. That
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would be -- they would appeal staffs determination as to whether that
use was comparable in nature and compatible to the Board of County
Commissioners. So there would be -- if there was a problem with it
and the public is notified of it -- so they would be notified -- then
there is a process for them to appeal.
In the conditional use situation, there would be a little enhanced
procedure because you would have to have some meetings and--
with concerned citizens. It would come here, and then it would go to
the Board of Zoning Appeals.
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah. And ifI may, they would have to go
through the public information process, just like any conditional use
would, just to make that use a permitted use via the conditional use
process.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Insofar as this language
that I guess we're going to be asked to approve or send forward, what
you really want it to say is, in the next-to-the-last line, "in the district
shall be made through the conditional use process."
MS. STUDENT: Well, that's what -- that was what the board --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: That's what they want?
MS. STUDENT: That's what the board wanted. I think staff
originally came up with the interpretation process, and it was
presented to the board on the 19th. And it was explained to the board
it hadn't been to the Planning Commission yet and they would get the
benefit of your recommendation at the next hearing that they have on
the 9th. But they threw out the idea that it be through the conditional
use process.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And I'm thoroughly confused as --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: So am I.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: -- to why it would go through the
conditional use process. I think there's some concepts that I must be
missing or maybe the board missed.
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MR. BELLOWS: Well, I think the concept is you have a use
that's not specifically listed in the list of permitted uses. So,
therefore, traditionally the current planning manager would make an
interpretation; is this use permitted -- consistent with those other uses
based on this language that you see here. Now we want to formalize
that through the interpretation process. Outlined in Division 1.6,
there is a specific process to follow. Instead of-- before we may
have just written a letter saying this is consistent where there was no
public input in the process. This provides for public input on that
process. Now, the Board of County Commissioners, I think,
determined that we want to take it -- they want to take it a step further
and make it a conditional use process and go through the conditional
use process, which requires even greater notification.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: So, Commissioner Strain, since you
have the book in front of you, the conditional use process is outlined
in there somewhere and --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yes. I'll have to find it, but yes, it
is.
MS. STUDENT: Well, I can -- I can explain it, certainly with
any additions. But what happens is there's a public participation
process now because of the changes that just went through in early
fall. Then it goes -- excuse me -- to the Planning Commission, and
you make your recommendations. And there are four criteria that
you look at in making your recommendation to the board, and that's
consistency with the comp plan and the Land Development Code;
adequacy of ingress and egress; compatibility; and noise, odor, and
glare effects on adjacent properties or, I think, maybe even other
properties in the district. And those are the four criteria that you look
at in making your recommendation.
As you recall, you have the finding of fact sheet where you
check those -- each member checks those off and sends it to the
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Board of Zoning Appeals. Then the Board of Zoning Appeals makes
the final decision on the conditional use.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Well, it makes perfectly
good sense to me. If you have to go through the conditional use
process for a listed conditional use, why shouldn't you go through it
for one that isn't even listed? It seems to me there's a certain
symmetry there.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: So we want to change "Division 1.6,
interpretations," to something that--
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Through the conditional
use process, period, would seem to me to give the county commission
the warm feeling that we agree with them, which kind of--
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And they can come up with the
division --
MS. STUDENT:
MR. BELLOWS:
language.
MS. STUDENT:
MR. BELLOWS:
MS. STUDENT:
the record.
Yeah. I believe it's -- isn't it 27 -- is it 275?
I can't recall offhand, but we'll find that
It's 274 or 275.
The intent is --
Mark, if you've got it there, you can put it on
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: 2.7.4.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: 2.7.4. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I'll rent out my ULDC to the rest
of the members on a periodic basis.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Mine's -- I'm still trying to fix mine.
Thank you. So then as an observation here, are we going to find
ourselves in a situation where there's a whole new category? No.
We wouldn't. You'd just come through as a conditional use, and
you'd have interpretation, interpretation, interpretation, like three of
them. You'd have a conditional use number to them.
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January 3, 2002
MR. BELLOWS: I think for an example, if a zoning district
allowed for a list of retail uses but it didn't include, say, psychiatric
facilities and the petitioner thought there was a similar use in there,
that he would then file for this interpretation that -- instead of
amending the zoning district to allow for that use, he would go
through this appeal process -- or interpretation process and ask for
staff to make an interpretation; is that use permitted based on being
similar to other uses listed in that either PUD zoning district or C-1
through C-5 zoning district?
Now, we are proposing to do that through a conditional use now.
So we would have that petitioner take that particular use of a
psychiatric center and go through the process for that particular site --
so it would be site specific for that property -- and go through a
conditional use.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: So it wouldn't be engrafted
on the list of conditional uses.
MR. BELLOWS: No. We're just providing language in the
Land Development Code that allows for an interpretation of the use
not specifically listed, to go through a public hearing process so
everyone has an ability to comment on that particular use. Could be a
hospital, could be a hardware store.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Do I see something happening that --
with the last one we just did, then, for the health services, the way the
numbers were listed, you assumed the span of numbers were there.
And the number for the psychiatric hospital fell in that, so my
interpretation is that it's in there if we had approved it that way.
MR. BELLOWS: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: That's correct.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: So then -- did I hear you say then --
MR. BELLOWS: But the opposite is true. Now that we took
that out and they -- somebody ten years from now wants to put that
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use in that PUD and those SIC codes aren't in there but they have
similar, maybe, health center uses or medical office uses, they may
try to make that link. And the only process we would have would be
this process that we're proposing today. So you either would make
that property owner go through a conditional use to get that use on
that site or go through the appeal or interpretation process.
MS. STUDENT: They have another option. They could ask for
the land code to be amended to put it specifically in there too. MR. BELLOWS: That's true too.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And what I think is fascinating, then, is
there's a corollary to this. Anybody that's looking at a PUD and
permitted uses and they want to be concerned as a property owner
adjoining or someone close -- nearby, they're going to have to
understand these SIC codes and probably focus on whether you
exempt them in the early part of the process, kind of like we didn't do
today.
MR. BELLOWS: Well, the -- in a way that's true. But, then
again, this is a catchall and creates a process for those uses not
specifically mentioned. So if there was a use that didn't get discussed
through the Planning Commission and Board of County
Commissioners meeting that it turns out the property owner wishes to
have or some other property owner or lessee of a site, there has to be
a process where staff can make a formal interpretation. Now there's -
- right now we have had letters without going through a public
process and created all kind of controversy, and we wanted to avoid
that as much as possible.
So we have several options. As Marjorie outlined, one is
amending the code either C-1 through C-5 to allow for that use or
make an interpretation process where the petitioner appeals or makes
(sic) an official interpretation and goes to the Board of County
Commissioners for a determination whether that use is appropriate at
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that location. Or a much better way, in the view of the county
commission, at least on their first hearing, was maybe through the
conditional use process, which has a more defined set of review
criteria.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And this would not handle the
situation, in theory, where you have a PUD that's got the listed uses
and they have the codes and it covered, say, for instance, a C-3 and a
C-4, if there's a code for a C-5 that's not in there that they want on
that PUD, that doesn't apply to this -- this is not how you would try to
get that C-5 code into that PUD; right?
MR. BELLOWS: That's correct. But--
MS. STUDENT: It wouldn't be comparable in nature.
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah. That's the key here, this language that
says "any other use which is comparable in nature with the foregoing
uses." So the list of uses within that PUD, if it is deemed comparable
in nature, then he doesn't have to go through a PUD amendment to
put that use in there. But the county commission says, "Well, you
don't have to go through a PUD amendment; we'll make you go
through a conditional use to get that use in there." CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Do you want action on any
of the individual items or--
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: We don't--
MS. STUDENT: I think that's -- I don't think that's necessary.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Or do we recommend and find
consistency with the comp plan?
MS. STUDENT: At the -- when you make your motion.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay. And I just want to do this
because I've been in construction entirely too long. The gentleman
that is fixing that camera over there is not standing on an OSHA-
approved standing device. It makes me a little nervous. I would
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January 3, 2002
hope that we have something around here other than that device to do
his work. Enough said, in case he falls.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: The power's still on, too, so --just
kidding.
MR. BELLOWS: Okay. The next item is Section 2.2.3 of the
estates zoning district. This is basically a scrivener's error-type
process from a past LDC amendment where it inadvertently said the
site must be 20 acres in size for earth mining. It really should have
said the site area shall not exceed 20 acres.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: We didn't ask that question?
MR. BELLOWS: It may have come up through --
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: You know, maybe -- I'm sorry. Go
ahead.
MR. BELLOWS: That's all right.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: I was going to say maybe that was part
of that whole ranting and raving I did because we didn't have the
person here the first time around to talk about the earth mining, but I
think that was one of the thoughts that came through somewhere.
But now we've fixed it for sure.
MR. BELLOWS: That's it. I think it was from that first
go-round.
Okay. The next on the list is Section 2.2.12.1. This is the
purpose and intent section of the commercial professional district.
This section deletes some language for the purpose and intent and
replaces it with the language -- I don't know if you want me to read
through the entire list or -- do you have it there? But basically we're
putting in a new definition of-- (as read): "The C-1 commercial
professional office district is intended to allow a concentration of
office-type buildings and land uses that are most compatible with,
and located near, residential areas. Most C-1 commercial
professional and general office districts are contiguous to, or when
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within a PUD will be placed in close proximity to, residential areas
and, therefore, serve as a transitional zoning between residential and
higher intensity commercial zoning districts.
"The types of office uses permitted are those that do not have a
high volume -- traffic volumes throughout the day which extend into
the evening hours. They will have morning and evening short-term
peak conditions. Market support for these office uses should be those
with a localized basis of market support as opposed to office
functions requiring interjurisdictional and regional market support.
"Because office functions have significant employment
characteristics, which are compounded when aggregations occur,
certain professional services shall be permitted to provide
convenience to office-based employment. Such convenience
commercial uses shall be made an integral part of an office building
as opposed to a singular use of a building. Housing may also be a
component of this district as provided for a conditional use and as
further provided to meet the goals and objectives of the office and
infill commercial subdistrict provisions of the Future Land Use
Element of the Growth Management Plan."
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Madam Chairman, we probably
could have read this ourselves. I'm wondering if we could just save
Ray the effort and just tell him if we have any objections to it and
expedite this whole process.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Right. And I would just sort of
suggest from an editor's viewpoint that you eliminate the word
"close" in front of "proximity," because that technically says "close
closeness," because that's what proximity means.
MR. BELLOWS: Okay. I'll make that note here.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: And in the first sentence,
"profession" should be "professional."
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Oh, you're right. It should have an a-1
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January 3, 2002
on it.
MR. BELLOWS: Okay. The next one is Section 2.2.13,
commercial convenience district, C-2. This added that language.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Any comments?
MR. BELLOWS: If you've read it, do you have any comments?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I don't have any comments.
MR. BELLOWS: The next one?
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Next one.
MR. BELLOWS: Is Section 2.2.14, the C-3 zoning district,
strikethrough and underlines.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO:
MR. BELLOWS: Okay.
Any comments? Acceptable.
Section 2.2.15 --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: The thing we just approved
would be a commercial intermediate district then, wouldn't it, except
it's a PUD?
MR. BELLOWS: That's correct. And that was the intent of--
just a sidebar on that one. The PUD document did say, under general
purpose of intent of what that was, is intermediate retail, which is the
C-3 detail. That's, I believe, where Chahram got "similar to C-3."
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: It's a good observation.
MR. BELLOWS: Okay. The next one is Section 2.2.15 1/2.
It's the heavy commercial district, C-5.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: I thought we had --
MR. BELLOWS: Did I miss one?
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Four.
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: C-4.
MR. BELLOWS: 2.2.15 is the C-4 then.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Right. We're all shaking our heads
yes, so you can move on to the next one.
MR. BELLOWS: Okay. The next one is the C-5.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: 2.2.15 1/2.
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January 3, 2002
MR. BELLOWS: That's it. And that's it.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Looks good to me. So we actually
need a motion to accept these that refers to the consistency with the
comp plan?
MS. STUDENT: The motion would be to recommend approval
to the board and, as part of that motion, a finding of consistency with
the Growth Management Plan.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I so move.
COMMISSIONER YOUNG: Second.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Second.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: We have a motion by Commissioner
Strain, a second by Commissioner Abernathy to approve these
amendments -- excuse me -- recommend approval of these
amendments to be consistent with the comp plan and forward them.
Any questions?
MR. BELLOWS: And does this include the recommendation
that it be -- the first one, 2.1.15, be via conditional use?
you
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yes.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON:
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Yes.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY:
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO:
(Unanimous response.)
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO:
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO:
Yes.
Yes.
Any discussion? All those in favor say
conversations with Jody.
Those opposed, same sign.
Motion carries.
We are now at Item 9, old business. Commissioner Adelstein,
have the update.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Yes. I had many
I won't go into what they were.
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January 3, 2002
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And Jody is?
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: From the -- in the planning
commission office where I was told by -- that's the woman I was told
to contact.
MR. BELLOWS: She's the community development services
administrative --
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: What's her title?
MR. BELLOWS: Administrative assistant for planning
services.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: The down -- the bottom line
is yesterday I got notified that they are being shipped today, five of
them, and that they will be in her office by Tuesday and that I will be
called that they're there, and we'll make arrangements for them to be
delivered. Also, on the date of delivery, she's ordering three
additional copies.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: LDC?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: That's only eight so far. Am I not
getting one?
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: I'm sorry. I didn't hear you.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: There's nine of us. Mine is -- as
Marjorie just pointed out, my supplement -- this is not an updated
version. I'm running off an old one I--
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: I was told that there were
only eight needed. Now, I can make -- when I talk to Jody Tuesday
MS. STUDENT: Mr. Budd may have one.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: What?
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Mr. Budd should have one.
MS. STUDENT: Mr. Budd may have one.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Mr. Abernathy has one. I have one,
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January 3, 2002
and I --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: That one's out of date.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: He wants a brand-new one. Well, I've
done the torturous update on mine, and I think I'm going to be pretty
accurate, so eight will work.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I know mine, as of today, is not
accurate. Marjorie actually pointed out some supplements I'm
missing.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Then I might have to have Marjorie
look at mine also. Okay. So eight we know of for sure.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Eight will be here. We know
they're going to have five of them here by Tuesday. I will stay on it
to make sure that the additional three are ordered and delivered.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And those --
COMMISSIONER WOLFLEY: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: -- five come to you, to Commissioner
Young.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: The people who don't have
anything at all.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Right.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Commissioner Wolfley. Nothing at
all. Okay. And, Mr. Richardson, you do have --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Yes.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: -- at least some format of one.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Yes.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Thank you. Okay. Very good job.
We should have assigned that to you two months ago.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Another comment on old
business?
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Well, yes. The meeting space was the
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January 3, 2002
next item, B --
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Okay.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: -- that Commissioner Strain brought
Upi
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, that may not be necessary if
I could bring up another issue. CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Go for it.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. And it's Ken's suggestion
to take a look at Escambia's -- County's way they do ex parte
communication. See, when someone calls and wants to talk about
something being presented, I feel obligated that we have to give them
the time. However, if it was just outlawed altogether, it sure would
make things a lot smoother.
MS. STUDENT: I think what we're going to have to do, there's
a state statute that allows for it, and the prior direction that we had
was to go forth, and we did, with the resolution in 1995. I'll talk to
Mr. Weigel about how he wants to proceed. I don't know if there
may be any problem with the Planning Commission not taking any,
but if the Board of County Commissioners wanted-- I don't know if
that presents a problem, so I will need to discuss it with Mr. Weigel.
And, you know, we will get back with you on that.
But my concern is that as part of an entire process -- say, for
example, you have a conditional use, and you-all don't do ex parte on
the conditional use, but it may -- I don't know what the wish of the
Board of County Commissioners may be. But I have a concern that if
it's "no" here and something else further up the line, do we have a
problem? I don't know if we have a constitutional problem with that
or not. That's -- those are things I need to discuss with Mr. Weigel,
but we'll certainly take that -- I will do that.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: What was the resolution in
'95?
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January 3, 2002
MS. STUDENT: Yes. It was --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: To open the process or --
MS. STUDENT: What happened there was a state -- there was
a case out of Dade County that involved a variance, and there was an
ex parte contact. And the Court didn't say that ex parte contacts
make the thing void. They said it creates a presumption --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Yeah.
MS. STUDENT: -- that it was tainted. And what you have to
do is go through another hearing and so forth. So the State of Florida
came up with legislation on this that provided that a local government
could allow the ex parte with some safeguards, and that being the
disclosures. So at the time the county -- what the county decided to
do -- and it was a resolution passed by the Board of County
Commissioners -- was that they would do the ex parte -- allow for
ex parte with disclosures.
And then in that resolution -- and I believe in the -- I don't know
if the state statute -- state statute probably says something about
advisory bodies too. But that was made applicable to the advisory
bodies in the resolution as well. So my only concern-- and I need to
discuss it with Mr. Weigel -- is if we change part of the process, are
we somehow bootstrapping it onto the Board of County
Commissioners or Board of Zoning Appeals process? Do they want
to go there? And those are things that we'll have to discuss, but we'll
take it under advisement.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Well, point out to Mr.
Weigel that we're a volunteer advisory board, not even paid a dollar a
year --
MS. STUDENT: Right.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: -- and the county
commissioners are paid handsomely to hold fewer and fewer
meetings.
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January3,2002
MS. STUDENT: I understand.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: It seems to me you could
distinguish between the two, where a person has a greater right to
approach his elected representative than he does some bunch of
advisory committee volunteers.
MS. STUDENT: No. I understand, but we want to look at --
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: First of all, see if the
majority of us want to go that way.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: And, Madam Chair, if I
just might supplement that, I was struck by one of the comments of
the public today saying I didn't know we could talk to you. I thought
that we were -- you know, couldn't do that. And that may be a
perception that's out there that, you know, maybe we should honor.
In -- because it does -- the way the process is now, my feeling is that
it gives the developers an unfair advantage in the process. You
know, that's just my perception.
MS. STUDENT: Well, that's the idea behind a disclosure,
because if you disclose with whom you spoke or got a written
communication or an e-mail or whatever and the substance of it, that
gives the other individuals an opportunity to rebut.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Well, it does and it
doesn't.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: It's only a partial remedy,
really.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: It's a matter of timing and
impact and influence.
COMMISSIONER YOUNG: I agree. I feel that if they -- they
have their secretary -- they've got my telephone number. They have
my e-mail number, which the general public doesn't have. And when
the secretary calls and asks me to set up an appointment time, I feel
morally obligated to do so. I think we'd be better off if we abolished
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it.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Plus the -- just recognize
now that the other side of the shoe is here -- the other side of the shoe
-- is that it would put more -- it will put more pressure on staff
because what -- part of what we're getting from the applicant is
information that we're not currently getting from staff or that we have
to ask questions about. And I think if we really remove ourselves
from the process -- and I'm not fighting that -- then I think staff has a
higher responsibility to provide us information that would allow us to
do our job.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: And staff would have a higher
responsibility to have someone in a supervisory capacity review and
make specific comments to include what we need in the PUD -- I
mean in our executive summaries. And I will harken back to the
Silver Lakes example -- probably will not give up on that one for a
long time -- because it was somewhat distressing for me to go to the
opponent's attorney to find out that the storage issue was the big
issue. And we need to clarify some of those types things, probably in
our executive summary, or have a way to summarize what it is that
the people are objecting to as they come in.
It's more of a burden on staff, but I also understand that with
the public participation, that any comments and commitments and
that done at those public hearings will come, in some form, to us in
writing, possibly side sheets or that type of approach, where we can
actually review what it was they were talking about. And I'm telling
you, that could be very creative on the part of staff to try to interpret
what some of the comments are, having experienced that one public
participation public hearing just recently. It's going to be a
fascinating effort to be able to do that, but it'll at least help us know
what those issues are.
MS. STUDENT: Well, I will discuss that -- discuss it with
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January 3, 2002
Mr. Weigel and report back at the next meeting.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I think we have a
consensus.
MS. STUDENT: This is an important issue, an important legal
issue. So we just -- we want to thoroughly look at it.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Well, how about asking
Mr. Weigel if, as a matter of policy, the county doesn't want to
change that '95 guidance, cannot we, as individuals, make an
individual choice not to engage in ex parte?
MS. STUDENT: I'll consider that aspect as well.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: I believe he's already on
the record on that. When we had the ex parte discussions, he said
you could do it or not do it. But if you do it, you've got to disclose it.
But he left it up to us to do it. But I think we were looking for more
of a uniform approach to this if we could.
MS. STUDENT: And what would happen, the resolution would
have to be changed. We'd have to have the Board of County
Commissioners change the resolution.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Easy. Easy.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Any further comments on this, under
old business?
Item No. 10.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: One other -- one other old
business. Sorry. I did find out the minutes from our ULDC
meetings, our hearings, were sent to IT very shortly after they were --
after our meetings occurred. So they've been there for quite some
time, which means it's not -- I'm wondering how we get them. Ray, if
you know.
MR. BELLOWS: Get the minutes --
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Before you answer --
MR. BELLOWS: -- from the last ULDC?
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January 3, 2002
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Right. Before you answer, Laurie
Oldham is working very hard on that because they're supposed to be
e-mailed to, I believe, Susan Murray, and they had not -- that had not
occurred at all. And so Susan is the point person, I believe, and then
she has to say, okay, download or print, whatever, and that's part of
the problem. The 28th of October 2001 was the last LDC that made
it even to the Web site, so they're way behind in it.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Well, it's important that --
if we're going to keep following up things, we need to have those
minutes.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: So we'll keep that -- when the agenda
is made for this next time, under old business please put A as the
availability of the Land Development Code. We'll have a further
update on that. And B would be the process for getting the LDC
minutes. And hopefully they'll show up on the front part of the
agenda under approval at the January 17th meeting, which approval
is Item 4. But if they don't -- actually, even if they do, to get the
explanation of how that process works so we don't have this in the
future, can go as B under old business. Commissioner Richardson.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: Madam Chair, another
item under old business just occurs to me. I did make arrangements
for the personnel pack for each of us, that is the application that each
of us made to serve on this august body, and that was said to have
been forwarded to Ms. Murray. Now, I realize with the holidays and
stuff, we've got -- but perhaps, Ray, you could check on that and see
if that packet might be made available to the members. MR. BELLOWS: Sure.
COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: Moving right along.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: New business.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: New business now.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: I don't have, for example, the
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Golden Gate Master Plan, nor had I heard of it until we went through
this particular PUD. I don't even know what to ask for because I
don't know what's available, and without it, I was curtailed on this
last PUD. These things that -- when we come in new, you know what
is out there for us to have; I don't. But I do feel that I should be given
the equipment to do the job I've been asked to do. Now, I could have
used this this last weekend. There are others that'll come up in the
future, I'm sure. Ray, is it possible for you to put together a list of
what a commissioner should have and then make arrangements for us
to get it?
MR. BELLOWS: Well, I'll discuss it with Susan Murray. We
have a list of the Growth Management Plan items that's easily
download -- transferable to the Planning Commission. The ability to
get it -- because some of it's quite large, and that may take some time.
Hopefully it's not as long as it takes to get the LDC, but that's --
COMMISSIONER ADELSTE1N: Some of us won't be serving
that long.
MR. BELLOWS: -- handled through the comprehensive
planning department.
MS. STUDENT: I think what's needed is not the whole -- the
adoption notebook is probably what's needed, and I thought the
Planning Commission had that. They should have had it. It's
available in house from the comprehensive planning department.
MR. BELLOWS: That's what I was about to say. The
comprehensive planning department, we can get a -- the adoption
notebook, but there's larger volumes of it and more specific detail,
but maybe the adoption notebook --
MS. STUDENT: That's the support document that DCA looks
at to see if the goals, objectives, and policies, and the adopted
portions are based on data analysis. And unless a planning
commissioner had a specific question as to the background of a
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particular part of the comp plan that's adopted, that's available there.
I don't think we need to get that whole set. I think the adoption
notebook is -- should be sufficient.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Thank you.
MS. STUDENT: And, by the way, for the record, the Golden
Gate Master Plan is an element of the Growth Management Plan, just
to put that on the record.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN:
I've -- so that would work.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay. No more new business?
Number 11 is public comment. I see only staff left out there, so
there's no public comment.
No discussion of the addenda for No. 12.
So I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.
COMMISSIONER RICHARDSON: So moved.
COMMISSIONER YOUNG: Second.
CHAIRMAN RAUTIO: Okay. We are adjourned. Thank you
very much.
But it is in the adoption notebook.
There being no further business for the good of the County, the
meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 1:01 p.m.
COLLIER COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION
JOYCEANNA J. RAUTIO, CHAIRMAN
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TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF DONOVAN COURT
REPORTING, INC., BY BARBARA DRESCHER, NOTARY
PUBLIC
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