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CCLAAC Minutes 01/19/2017January 9, 2017 MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE CONSERVATION COLLIER LAND ACQUISITION ADVISORY COMMITTEE Naples, Florida, January 9, 2017 LET IT BE REMEMBERED, the Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Advisory Committee in and for the County of Collier, having conducted business herein, met on this date at 9:00 A.M. in REGULAR SESSION at Administrative Building "F", 3 r Floor, Collier County Government Complex Naples, Florida with the following members present: CHAIRMAN: VICE CHAIRMAN: Bill Poteet Michael Seef Tracey Dewrell Susan Calkins Pat Sherry John Psaras (Excused) Jacob Winge ALSO PRESENT: Alexandra Sulecki, Conservation Collier Coordinator, Program Manager Jennifer Belpedio, Assistant County Attorney Christal Segura, Sr. Environmental Specialist Kris Van Lengen, Community Planning Manager 1 January 9, 2017 I. Roll Call Chairman Poteet called the meeting to order at 9:OOAM. Roll call was taken and a quorum was established. II. Election of Chair and Vice Chair Chairman Ms. Calkins nominated William Poteet as Chairman of the Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Advisory Committee. Ms. Sherry moved to close nominations. Second by Mr. Seef. Carried unanimously 6 — 0. Mr. Poteet was remained as Chair. Vice Chairman Mr. Seef nominated Patricia Sherry as Vice Chairman of the Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Advisory Committee. Ms. Calkins nominated Michael Seef as Vice Chairman of the Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Advisory Committee. Ms. Sherry moved to close nominations. Second by Ms. Calkins. Carried unanimously 6 — 0. Chairman Poteet polled the Committee and Ms. Sherry was declared Vice Chairman. III. Approval of Agenda Mr. Seef moved to approve the Agenda. Second by Mr. Dewrell. Carried unanimously 6 — 0. IV. Approval of October 10, 2016 minutes Mr. Seef moved to approve the minutes of the October 10, 2016 meeting as presented. Second by Mr. Winge. Carried unanimously 5 — 0. Ms. Sherry abstained as she was not present at the October meeting. V. Old Business None VI. New Business A. Logan Woods Preserve — boundary pines — neighbor request Ms. Sulecki reported: • An adjacent landowner on the west side of Logan Woods Preserve notified Staff a dead pine tree on Conservation Collier lands was dropping debris on their property and requested it be removed. • Staff reviewed the situation and agreed to remove the tree which had been struck by lightning. • Other neighbors north of the adjacent landowner contacted Staff and expressed concern the live pines on the Conservation Collier property are dropping debris on their property causing issues such as clogged gutters, damage to a lanai cage structures, etc. • The neighbors requested they be allowed to remove the trees at their expense and replace them with a suitable species. • Staff contacted tree experts and was apprised an adjacent landowner is allowed to trim trees up to their property line as long as the tree's health in not permanently compromised. 1A January 9, 2017 Speakers Douglas Campbell, adjacent landowner reported the tree on the Conservation Collier property is a "nuisance tree" and drops debris on his property. He would cover the costs to remove the tree and replace it with a suitable species. Jeff Margolis, adjacent landowner reported the pine tree adjacent to his property lost limbs during a storm and damaged his pool cage and wants to trim or replace the tree. The Committee noted: • A policy should be developed as the request may be a reoccurring issue in other preserves as time goes by. • The main concern is establishing a precedent if the request is immediately granted without certain parameters in place. • It would be advantageous for a Subcommittee to review the issue and provide a recommendation to the full Committee. The Committee appointed Chairman Poteet, Mr. Winge and Ms. Sherry to the Subcommittee requesting they bring a Resolution forth for consideration by the full Committee. B. Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) Program — A Primer — Kris Van Lengen Mr. Van Lengen presented the PowerPoint "TDR Rural Fringe and Golden Gate Estates Possibilities " dated January 9, 2017. • The Board of County Commissioners (BCC) directed Staff to undertake restudy of 4 areas of the Growth Management Plan. • The reviews are being overseen by a Committee (Growth Management Oversight Committee) with extensive public outreach conducted with the end goal of developing recommendations for the BCC to consider. • One area of restudy is the RFMUD which includes a TDR program where lands are designated as sending lands (those environmentally sensitive lands to be protected) and receiving lands (those intended for development). • The program is voluntary for the owners of the lands with specific geographic boundaries for the two categories of lands where the TDR activity is required to take place. • The owners of sending lands receive credits if they sever their development rights and sell the credits to willing buyers in the receiving areas. • There are 4 credits available for the sending land owners: base, early entry, restoration and conveyance. • Staff prepared a "White Paper" which contains recommendations for the Program. • There are two areas of the restudy that are of interest to the CCLAAC: 1. Should other areas in Golden Gate Estates such as the multi parcel projects assigned to Conservation Collier (i.e. Winchester Head and Red Maple Swamp) be qualified as sending lands and; 2. Given there is not entity available in the North Golden Gate Estates Natural Resource Protection Area for conveyance of a sending land restricting the owner's probability of garnering the 3rd and 4th credit, should the County steward a mitigation program through a Regional Offsite Mitigation Bank (ROMA). January 9, 2017 • One advantage of a County ROMA would be the availability of mitigation credits (i.e. Panther, wetland, etc.) for the County to purchase from "themselves," reducing the costs of capital projects. • Other benefits include improving the hydrology in the areas, the County "retaining" their funds used for mitigation instead of the monies being transferred to entities outside the County. • Staff continues to identify any other Agencies or Conservation groups that may have an interest in holding the lands. • Phase I of the concept has been completed with the further analysis necessary under Phase II (economic studies, etc) ongoing with the findings due to be submitted to the BCC in April. The Committee requested Staff to provide them with a copy of the "White Paper" developed for the BCC. C. Conservation Collier Reauthorization Ms. Sulecki noted: • Commissioner Saunders requested the BCC consider investigating the feasibility of reauthorizing funding for Conservation Collier and Staff was directed to return to the BCC with a report in January or February of 2017 on the item. • The initial concept would be to address the issue in Fiscal Year 2018 however various Conservation groups support instituting a public poll to determine public opinion and would participate in the endeavor. They expressed concern in delaying the item until 2018. • An Executive Summary will be prepared for presentation to the BCC at their 1/24/17 meeting. • She provided a Memorandum dated December 20, 2016 — "Subject: Conservation Collier Program Status " prepared for the Committee for information purposes. • The Memo addresses the current status of the program, provides a list of pending properties suitable for acquisitions and identifies planned and pending improvements for the preserves. The following was noted during Committee discussion: • Reinstituting the program may generate more interested sellers given acquisition has been dormant for several years. • Acquisition of certain properties would be beneficial to the community given there has always been public support for the program. • No referendum would be required to reinstitute the funding if a bond is not required to fund the program. • It would be beneficial to conduct a poll to determine public opinion and the activity should not be delayed until 2018 given land values generally continue to rise over time. • The proposed amenities for the CDC parcel should be added. Ms. Sherry moved for the Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Advisory Committee to support reinstating funding for the program as proposed by Commissioner Saunders. The level of funding to be at the same millage rate as previously approved by the County with the funding to be renewed annually through the budgeting process. The monies to be utilized for 11 January 9, 2017 acquisition, management and capital improvements. Second by Mr. Seef. Carried unanimously 6-0. D. CCLAAC Applications — Poteet and Seef Ms. Sherry assumed the Chair for the item. Ms. Sulecki reported Michael Seef and William Poteet have applied for reappointment to the Committee for a term of three years. Mr. Dewrell moved to recommend the Board of County Commissioners appoint Michael Seef and William Poteet to the Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Advisory Committee. Second by Ms. Calkins. Carried unanimously 6 — 0. E. Gordon River Greenway and Pepper Ranch Preserve Draft Brochures Ms. Sulecki provided copies of the Brochures for the Gordon River Greenway and Pepper Ranch noting the design was approved by the Subcommittee. The Committee noted the text in the brochures should either be white or black to ensure ease of readability, especially for online users. Staff reported they would make the text changes where applicable. Mr. Winge moved to approve the Gordon River Greenway and Pepper Ranch Brochures subject to Staff making the necessary changes to the color of the text Second by Mr. Sherry. Carried unanimously 6 — 0. F. Owner Interest to Sell in Multi -parcel Projects Ms. Sulecki reported: • Two landowners (Romak — Red Maple Swamp and Wallace — Winchester He have expressed interest in selling their 1.14 acre parcels in the multi project areas. • The cost for both parcels is $15,000 and there is currently $23,000 of acquisition funds available. • She queried the Committee if they are interested in recommending the parcels be acquired. The Committee noted the parcels are in the multi parcel project areas and it has always been the intent to acquire parcels as they become available. The lots are internal to the project area and adjacent to parcels already owned under the Program. Mr. Seef moved to recommend the Board of County Commissioners acquire the two parcels (Romak and Wallace). Second by Ms. Sherry. Carried unanimously 6 - 0. G. General Land Management Update Staff presented the "Land Management Report for Preserves Prepared for the Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Advisory Committee January 9, 2017" for information purposes. The following was noted during discussions: General Staff is placing 4 visitation counters at various high usage preserves (i.e Gordon River Greenway, Freedom Park, Caracara Prairie Preserve, etc.) to measure attendance. The cost is $3,500 in total 5 January 9, 2017 and they will be used as a test program to determine if they should be placed in any other preserves. Logan Woods The understory is becoming increasingly dense and users have requested the area be thinned for personal safety purposes. The Committee noted the property is a preserve intended to be left in a natural state and clearing and/or thinning of the underbrush should only occur if it is deemed a fire hazard or the Collier County Sheriff's Office declares it a security threat to users. Ms. Calkins left at 11: IOam VII. Coordinator Communications A. BCC Items 10/25/16 — A land donation to Red Maple Swamp was approved. 11/15/16 — 2 monetary donations (Chatham Woods and Richmond Park) were considered and continued to future meetings. 12/13/16 — Reauthorization of Conservation Collier was discussed; Re -applications for hydrologic grant applications for Pepper Ranch were approved; Chatham Woods land donation was approved. 1/10/16— Applicants for the Richmond Park land donation will be requesting a continuance. 1/24/16 — An Executive Summary regarding re -authorization of Conservation Collier funding will be presented. B. Misc Items Staff noted: • Volunteers completed 639 hours service to the Program since October 2016 — a volunteer appreciation event will be held in April of 2017. • Zoe Potter interned with Staff for a week and she addressed the Committee expressing her appreciation for the opportunity. • Staff is considering adding the internship program to the education syllabus. • Staff participated in Picayune State Forest fire burns for training purposes. • Florida Gulf Coast University has completed draft mock ups for the educational panels for the Gordon River Greenway. • Staff has been attending meetings held by the Comprehensive Watershed Improvement Committee. • The proposed land use amendments developed by the Development Services Advisory Committee and the Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Advisory Committee regarding land management endowments and monetary donations is being forwarded to the Collier County Planning Commission in March of 2017 for review. • Completion of the requirements for the Panther Habitat Units for Pepper Ranch is near. • Staff is seeking a residential officer for the Pepper Ranch cottage. VIII. Subcommittee Reports A. LDC donation Endowments — Chairman: Tracey Dewrell None 6 January 9, 2017 B. Trails — Chairman: Michael Seef The Committee met in December to review the "rack cards" and the next meeting is scheduled for 1/11/17. C. Education — Chairwoman: Susan Calkins None IX. Chair Committee Member Comments None X. Public General Comments None XI. Staff Comments None There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting was adjourned by order of the chair at 11:42A.M. Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Advisory Committee Bill Poteet, Chairma These minutes approved by the Board/Committee on '/— /0 — 17 as presente or as amended 7