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DSAC Minutes 03/05/2003 RMarch 5, 2003 TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE DEVELOPMENT SERVICES ADVISORY COMMITTEE NAPLES, FL March 5, 2003 LET IT BE REMEMBERED, that the Development Services Advisory Committee, in and for the County of Collier, having conducted business herein, met on this date at 3:30 PM in regular session in Conference Room "E", 2800 Horseshoe Drive, Naples FL, with the following members present: Members: Charles M. Abbott, Dalas D. Disney (arrived at 3:30PM), Robert L. Duane, Marco A. Espinar, Blair A. Foley, Brian E. Jones, Dino Longo (left at 5:20PM), Robert Mulhere, Justin Martin, Thomas Masters (left at 5:20PM), Herbert Savage, Thomas Peek, Peter Van Arsdale Collier County: Patrick White (left at 5:10PM), Ed Riley, Denny Baker, Ed Perico, Gary Mullee, Margaret Weurstle, Joe Schmitt, Tom Wides Public: Deborah Forester, Bonita Bay; David Ellis, CBIA; Len Berringer, SW Florida Conservancy. Page 1 DEVELOPMENT SERVICES ADVISORY COMMITTEE AGENDA March 5, 2003 3:30 p.m. I. Approval of Agenda- Minutes- February 5th, Meeting II. Staff Announcements A. Development Services Update B. Transportation Division Update C. Public Utilities Division Update III. Old Business V. Subcommittee Reports A. Land Development Regulation (Justin Martin) B. Construction Code (Dino Longo) C. Utility Code (Tom Masters) D. Ad Hoc Committee on Fees VI. New Business A. Sub-Committee Appointments B. Subdivision and Site Development Plan Approval Process (letter) VII. Committee Member Comments March 5, 2003 THE DEVELOPMENT SERVICES ADVISORY COMMITTEE Conference Room "E" 2800 Horseshoe Drive Naples, FL 34104 3:30 PM Minutes March 5, 2003 The meeting was called to order at 3:30 PM. A Quorum was established. I. Approval of Agenda and the minutes of February 5, 2003. -A discussion on the pre-application schedule, (length of time to schedule), was added under new business. (Item D under New Business). -Tom Wides will go first on the staff announcements; (Public Utilities Update). -Mr. Peek made a motion to approve the agenda with the listed additions. It was seconded by Mr. Foley. All were in favor; the motion passed unanimously. 12-0. -Mr. Van Arsdale stated that he felt it was unnecessary to make negative comments toward Collier County staff as had been done at the previous meeting. He asked that derogatory comments be held. He stated if anyone had a problem with any staff, they could take their issues to the Director. -Mr. Peek made a motion to approve the minutes of February 5, 2003. It was seconded by Mr. Masters. All were in favor; the motion passed unanimously, 12-0. II. Staff Announcements A) Public Utilities Update - Tom Wides -Mr. Wides, Operations Director for Public Utilities, stated that Public Utilities, water & wastewater impact fees were approved by the board. They will take effect on April 1, 2003. He added that the second tier of the transportation impact fees will take effect on October 1, 2003 when the user rates go into effect. In terms of operations, water and wastewater are doing fine. The crunch could be in the first week of April. He explained that water usage is up this year, but they are not getting the "spikes" that they had last year. Although it is starting to dry up, he does not anticipate the same kind of problems Page 2 March 5, 2003 III. IV. as in the previous year. The contract with the North Naples Plant is not resolved, but they are moving in the right direction in the next few days. B) Development Services Update - was discussed later in the meeting. C) Transportation Division Update -Mr. Van Arsdale stated that he spoke to Mr. Scott earlier that day about giving a presentation on March 21, 2003. Mr. Scott will speak about transportations involvement and the STP approvals at that meeting. -Mr. Savage noted that Livingston Road was very impressive. Old Business -There was no old business to discuss. Sub-Committee Reports A) Land Development Regulation - Robert Duane -Mr. Duane stated that they have accepted most of the amendments and will provide a more detailed report on March 19, 2003. -Mr. Mulhere added that there were only a few amendments that required additional work or were voted down. He added that there are some important amendments and recommendations, therefore he suggested that a written report be sent to the BCC on their comments. He also urged committee members to attend the meeting if possible. Mr. Longo agreed with this and stated that he believed it was staff's responsibility to accurately and fully portray their comments and recommendations. The LDC meeting is on March 19, 2003 at 2PM, Conference Room "E". Mr. Van Arsdale agreed that staff should do most of the legwork and stated that they should express this to staff when Mr. Schmitt arrives. B) Utility Code - Justin Martin -Mr. Martin stated that he did not attend the February 18, 2003 meeting and the minutes have not been distributed yet. He did speak with the public utilities staff in the interim and they requested to incorporate some further changes to the utilities ordinance and the technical standards manual before bringing them to DSAC. DSAC should have these changes by next week. C)- Construction Code - Dino Longo -Mr. Longo stated that this sub-committee has not met since December 2002 and may not be needed any more. He asked that they rename the ad-hoc committee so that they can concentrate on the fees aspect more so than the construction code. He explained that in the previous year they spent most of their time discussing fees. Page 3 March 5, 2003 Ye -Mr. Savage did not want to see the construction code deleted. -The committee decided to rename the sub-committee "operations and Budget" and eliminated the Ad-hoc committee. -Mr. Peek made a motion to rename the sub-committee "Operations and Budget". It was seconded by Mr. Foley. All were in favor; the motion passed unanimously. New Business Committee Member Comments A) Sub-committee Appointments -Mr. Longo passed out a current copy of the list of members in each committee. He read the list to the committee. The list identified the chairman, vice chairman, and staff contacts as well. Corrections were made to the list. -Mr. Martin stated that the utility committee was unique since there are a lot of members that are non-DSAC members. He stated that he would like more DSAC member participation and asked if the non-DSAC members should be voting members. -Mr. Savage was impressed with the fact that this committee used all facets of the community and felt that they should be able to vote. The DSAC committee had previously, (in the past few years), decided that non-DSAC members would be voting members. Mr. Longo felt that ifnon-DSAC members disagreed with the DSAC members on a vote, then it should be noted to the full DSAC committee. -Tom Peek took on the responsibility of updating and making corrections to the list of members in each committee. B) Subdivision and Site Development Plan Approval Process (letter) -Mr. Masters stated that this letter took two months to get a response, which proved his point. He added that the only project brought up, was not an issue until halfway through the 2 ½ month period. They did get their meeting. -Mr. Mulhere stated that he is involved with a committee, The Promised Land Section of the Florida Chapter of the American Planning Association, that had a member suggest that they initiate a workshop to review the development plan process and result in recommendations to enhance the process. CBIA, EDC, FEPA, and Chambers also had the same idea in mind, so they are now going to work as a group in order to set up a meeting. The meeting is on March 21, 2003. The meeting is open for anyone to attend. -Mr. Disney stated that he was glad this letter got out and he felt that it was timely. He stated he was late to the meeting because staff is unable to track a problem down. He is frustrated with the system and feels that it is a broken and inexcusable system. Mr. Van Page 4 March 5, 2003 Arsdale agreed that the problem is out of control and invited Mr. Disney to go to the meeting. Mr. Longo noted that comments at the meeting should be very specific. Mr. Mulhere explained that the point of the meeting is to put everything on the table, establish how the following meeting would go, and do so in an expedited fashion. -Mr. Van Arsdale stated that one of the topics should be how to deal with the inefficiencies in the process. -Mr. Mulhere stated that the problem is that the focus of the meeting may be too large. He explained that the main focus at this point is to initially look at the Development Review process. Then, from time to time, they would review smaller issues as they come up. C) The length of time for a pre-application meeting - Robert Duane -Mr. Duane stated that he has had problems scheduling pre-application meetings in an appropriate time frame. He has waited a month for a pre-app meeting in the past. -Margaret Weurstle stated that they are currently backed up and they are trying to round everyone up to see if they can commit to an extra day. -Mr. Mulhere added that he attended a pre-app meeting that morning and he applauded staff for being very productive and putting a lot in writing. He felt that they addressed a lot of issues and he was understanding of the backup since the meeting took 1-½ hours and had nine staff members present. -Mr. Duane stated he was glad they were attempting to have an extra day, but asked if they could work towards a performance standard for what length of time it will take to schedule. Margaret Weurstle stated that she would work on this and she would come back to the committee with this information at the next meeting. -Mr. Jones suggested that they streamline some of the pre-app meetings for simpler projects, by allowing the planner to waive the meeting. -Mr. Masters suggested scheduling the pre-app meetings in a like fashion to the board meetings. He explained that they could schedule a number ofpre-apps and take them as they are ready. Mr. Van Arsdale stated that these are good points for the meeting on March 21, 2003. He also felt that it would be a good idea to look at other areas and how they do things. D) Development Services Update and Update on Fee Changes -Mr. Schmitt stated that he directed staff to raise the fees as appropriate to stem the current fiscal crisis. He is proposing to the board to raise fees and the construction evaluation tables. He provided the committee with a handout that reviewed all the fee Page 5 March 5, 2003 changes. The reason for the change in fees, since the last meeting, is the current fiscal crisis. -Mr. Mulhere stated that overall he does not have a problem with the proposed fees, but he feels it would be helpful if they look at the revenue trends, five-year track records, and find the average number of petitions with a total for the following. He feels that this projection may help to justify the fee increases. He was concerned about the environmental impact statement increase. Mr. Baker replied that they did projections in a "modeling way" for year-end projections. Mr. Mulhere suggested using more than 1 year for the projections. Mr. Schmitt stated that he will discuss the environmental impact statement fees with Barbara Burgeson and report back to Mr. Mulhere on his concerns. -Mr. Disney felt that it is redundant to charge a fee for dwelling unit and residential building structure. He also felt that there should not be such a large difference in fees for temporary use permits for sales and political signs. He recommended that they all be treated the same in regards to fees. Mr. Disney also asked that the exhibit for the fee schedules become part of the packet so that they can fully review it. He added that staff should keep in mind that the number of permits is going down, the revenue is going down, and inspections are going up. He believed that the inspections will "eat" a good deal of the $10-12 million contingency. Mr. Schmitt stated that this was correct and his point as well. He will make this point to the BCC on Tuesday. -Mr. Longo stated that he believes there will be a lawsuit because building and permit fees have been used in the past. He suggested that the county attorney review the ordinance that states what these fees can be used for. Mr. Mulhere agreed and sugges.ted that they try to quantify the amount of time that is spent on each petition. He felt that if this was done the county would be more efficient. Mr. Schmitt replied that this is what he is striving for. Mr. Baker added that they are fighting battles to protect the 113 funds. -Mr. Savage stated that money allocated for a certain function should not be called "reserves", but "committed". Mr. Schmitt stated that he agreed this needs to be changed. Mr. Longo agreed. Mr. Mullee stated that FL statutes dictate what you can carry forward each year in a reserve. He explained that the reserves they are speaking of are cash-carry forward. Mr. Longo asked if the staff to look at a "accounting procedure" to get away from calling it reserves. Mr. Van Arsdale asked if they could deal with this point on the sub-committee level. Mr. Schmitt stated they would do so. Page 6 March 5, 2003 -Mr. Savage stated that each member of DSAC has an acquaintance on the BCC, he suggested that each member of DSAC speak directly to the BCC about 113 funding outside development matters. -Mr. Mulhere made a motion that they support the fee increases with the understanding that as they move further into the budgeting process there will be a further analysis on time study and the "true" costs associated with these revenue sources. It was seconded by Mr. Savage. Mr. Mulhere added that he would include Mr. Disney's suggestion about matching the sign fees. -Mr. Schmitt stated that he proposes this be effective on April 1 st, 2003. Mr. Longo requested that public notice be given on the fee increases. The committee discussed 30 versus 90-day notice before the fee increases go into effect. Mr. Disney stated that he believed there should be at least 90 days notice before the fees go into effect. -The motion was recalled. Mr. Mulhere added that the effective date should be April 15, 2003. Mr. Savage seconded the addition to the motion and the sign increase added earlier. The motion passed, 8 for-5 against. -Those who were opposed to the motion agreed that it was because they were against the timeframe for the effective date. They believed 90-day notice was needed. -Mr. Schmitt stated that he could make the effective date April 15, 2003 and would try to make it May 1, 2003 if possible. Committee Member Comments -David Ellis stated that there is a meeting with the FL DEP. He invited to hear any comments and invited the members to attend the meeting. -Mr. Savage stated that he wanted to note, he has heard many rumors that people are leaving the county because the impact fees are too high. Adjournment - There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 5:23PM. Page 7