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BCC Minutes 03/15/2004 W (Stormwater)March 15, 2004 COLLIER COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Stormwater Workshop Board Meeting Room E, 3rd Floor, Administration Building 3301 Tamiami Trail East, Naples, FL 34112 9 o'clock a.m., March 15, 2004 LET IT BE REMEMBERED, that the Collier County Board of County Commissioners, in and for the County of Collier, having conducted business herein, met on this date at 9 o'clock a.m., in WORKSHOP SESSION in Board Meeting Room E, 3rd Floor, Administration Building, 3301 Tamiami Trail East, Naples, Florida, with the following members present: Chairman: Donna Fiala, District 1 Fred W. Coyle, Vice Chairman, District 4 Frank Halas, Commissioner, District 2 Jim Coletta, Commissioner, District 5 Tom Henning, Commissioner, District 3 Collier County Staff: Jim Mudd, County Manager; Dave Weigel, County Attorney, Peter Hayden, Jerry Kurtz; Steve Preston, Project Manager, Stormwater Collier County Page 1 Board of County Commissioners Stormwater Management Workshop Monday, March 15, 2004 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Collier County Government 3301 E. Tamiami Trail Naples, FL 34112 Third floor of the Administration Building Hosted by Board of County Commissioners Participants South Florida Water Management - Big Cypress Basin City of Naples Introduction Overview of Stormwater Management in Collier County Primary System - South Florida Water Management District Big Cypress Basin Secondary & Tertiary System Collier County Staff Funding Options for Stormwater Improvements Maintenance Roles and Responsibilities For Tidal Receiving Waters Comments and Questions March 15, 2004 The Collier County Board of County Commissioners, Stormwater Workshop meeting was called to order Monday, March 15, 2004 at 9:03 a.m. by Commissioner Coletta. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited. I. Introduction Commissioner Jim Coletta, District 5; Commissioner Frank Halas, District 2; Commissioner Fred Doyle, District 4; Commissioner Donna Fiala, District 1; Clarence Tears, Director of Big Cypress Basin, South Florida Water Management District; Jim Mudd, County Manager; Commissioner Tom Henning; Norman Feder, Director of Administrative Transportation and Stormwater Division; Mary Ellen Hawkins, Vice Chairman of Big Cypress Basin; Fred Thomas, Big Cypress Basin; John Boldt, Big Cypress Basin; Alicia Abbott, Secretary, Big Cypress Basin II. Overview of Stormwater Management in Collier County Jim Mudd - Stormwater is a large issue in the county. Collier County is blessed, because not all of the South Florida Water Management District has to be dealt with at the same time. Collier County is ably represented by the Big Cypress Basin Board, which is a governor appoint board that works under the South Florida Water Management District. Their entire jurisdiction falls within Collier County. Peter Hayden and Jerry Kurtz provided double-sided copies of a Power Point presentation that they narrated. The three levels of the Stormwater System were defined. Norm Feder - there is a need to get the water to the primary system and coordinate efforts with Big Cypress Basin. III. Primary System- South Florida Water Management District Big Cypress Basin Clarence Tears - discussed the five-year plan for the Big Cypress Basin that is reevaluated every other year. Mr. Tears also narrated a Power Point presentation. A copy of this presentation was not supplied. Planning and interaction of ecosystems are very important. Flood protection is also very important. Discharging this water is voluminous amounts into the Gulf and Bay that impacts the estuaries. Various contracts Page 2 March 15, 2004 were mentioned for water quality data. Roughly 5 million dollars a year are spent on Capital Improvement Projects. That is about all the budget will allow at this time. Storm levels (20, 25, 50, and 100 year storms) were explained, along with the costs and benefits of weighed out. Commissioner Coletta - expressed concern about improvements to Naples Bay and the expenses that the residents will have. Commissioner Halas - would like to limit density. As they start to build more, more parking lots and structures, those are impervious to stormwater. That stormwater has to go somewhere. As the ground is covered, the water is less likely to percolate back into the system. Fred Thomas - recommends looking back at the TDC 2 million dollars was focused on beach access and neglected looking at the interior lakes. IV. Secondary & Tertiary System Collier County Staff Jerry Kurtz - continued on with the Power Point presentation. Areas for standing water issues were identified. Lely Area Stormwater Improvement, Gordon River Basin, and Gateway Triangle projects were discussed. Permitting issues for the Lely project were briefly mentioned. Peter Hayden - covered the discussion of the Gateway Triangle Area. There are no lakes in this area and they are greatly needed. Mr. Hayden explained street by street what has occurred already, what is planned to take place, FEMA's requirements and the county's role in this. Adolpho Gonzalez, Project Manager, Wilson Miller - discussed the Gordon River Basin. They are currently in phase four. A 100-acre pond, storing water at 5 feet deep, is needed to keep the current rate and achieve some flood reduction or flood control improvements throughout the basin. The Fleischmann parcel will only give a 27-acre pond, storing at 1-2 feet deep. Norm Feder - added that in addition to Fleischmann, they are looking up and down that corridor, even in some of the private lakes along that area, trying to get storage capacity. Jerry Kurtz - discussed the tertiary system, specifically the roadside swales. Roadside swales are critical in water management. The alternative to roadside swales would be Page 3 March 15, 2004 the curb and gutter and pipe system with water management lakes. To focus on roadside swales, Livingston Woods area was mentioned and used as an example for this conversation. V. Funding Options for Stormwater Improvements General Fund Revenues, a Stormwater Utility, a Basin wide or a countywide MSTU, Unincorporated County Areas MSTD, a Franchise Fee, Local Option Sales Tax, and Grants, Federal and State were suggested for possible funding sources. Cost Sharing with the property owners was also suggested as an option during the discussion of Livingston Woods. Replacing upgraded driveways upon completion of these projects will need to be considered. Replacing landscaping will need to be considered. Policy direction will need to be considered. Peter I-Iayden - explained the current and proposed 20-year budget. Janet Vasey, Member of the Revenue Commission - The Revenue Commission recommends against having franchise fees. Reason being that franchise fees don't work for these kinds of projects. A franchise fee is a 5.9% fee on top of the electric bill for the unincorporated area. If the unincorporated is the only area charged, you are missing about 40% of your tax base. Of the 310 million, 195 million dollars of that is for projects that are classified as countywide. Why would you charge only the unincorporated area for projects that are countywide and should be paid for by the whole county? This 310 million dollar, 20-year budget, breaks down to roughly 20 million dollars a year. Cost sharing was highly recommended. A lot of these projects benefit local homes. The property values will increase, when the home, the road, and the yard no longer floods. The Immokalee area, there are some big projects that would be eligible for grants, up to 75%, if there is a funding source dedicated. Ms. Vasey mentioned bonding against impact fees. Commissioner Halas asked Jim Mudd where they stand right now with the bonding of revenues. Jim Mudd - we are pretty well locked in against all the sales tax we have. You can bond against impact fees. You won't get the same low rate, because the impact fee predicated upon how much growth you are going to have or not. There is the possibility to referendum and ask the taxpayers if they want you to bond on general revenue tax dollars on the ad-valorem dollars. Page 4 March 15, 2004 Commissioner Coyle - need to consider the impact of reductions in transportation funding dollars from the state in future years. That will create serious shortages. Also need to consider, as a donor county, we get upset when people take our money and send it elsewhere to be used for purposes that don't have a direct benefit to us. Commissioner Coyle couldn't disagree more with Ms. Vasey that these are all Collier wide projects. They are not Collier wide; some of them benefit very specific areas. Collier wide general fund tax is totally inappropriate for many of these projects. The City of Naples has a stormwater fund. They take care of their stormwater issues with their fund. To require them to contribute, perhaps 100 million dollars over the course of this project, to benefit stormwater programs that do not have any relationship to the City of Naples at all is irresponsible. Commissioner Coyle strongly discourages people from assuming that the best way to handle this is a countywide ad-valorem, property tax increase. He likes the idea of having MSTU or MSTD. There would be an argument to help the communities that cannot afford this. Jim Mudd - clarified that in no way are they looking for any particular direction on this issue today. On March 23rd, the BCC will be shown budget guidance. Mr. Mudd would like the BCC to think about this for the next 6 months for when the 2005 budget is started. Peter Itayden - informed Janet Vasey that last year money was directed to a funding study on this issue. A full plan of funding recommendations will be completed in the next 6-8 months. VI. Maintenance Roles and Responsibilities for Tidal Receiving Waters Peter Itayden - Up until now, we've done a pretty good job on the fresh water system. As soon as we get into the brackish water we have not. Gulf Harbor, Palm River Horse Creek, Gordon River and Main Golden Gate Canals, Rock Creek, and Henderson Creek all need to be addressed. The BCC was briefed on these topics. Public Speaker: Les Lezak, Palm River Shores resident - shared photographs of his neighborhood waterways. The weir system that is now in place has caused dramatically changes in the Cocohatchee River. Last summer when these weirs were opened up and this water flow came down, Hydrilla came down river and accumulated in (guessing) 1000 metric tons. Hydrilla is a fresh water plant. It dies and decomposes in brackish water. There is not enough tidal flow in this river to ever get this to wash out into the Gulf of Mexico. The water level has risen in the Cocohatchee River, over the last three years close to one Page 5 March 15, 2004 foot. Previously that river was never more than 4 feet deep anywhere from Immokalee Road to Wiggins Pass Road. The river has already silted up in some areas. Public Speaker: John Steffan - lives on Horse Creek. When there is a big storm and the weirs on Immokalee Road are opened, the water behind Mr. Steffan's house will go up at least two feet. There is a serious flooding issue that needs to be considered. It gets worse every year. This issue has been mentioned several times, with no action ever taken. Steve Preston, Project Manager, Stormwater Collier County - briefly discussed the NPDES (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) permitting program, TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load), and how to avoid TMDLs. VII. Comments and Questions John Boldt - expressed concerns that most of this information was discussed during a workshop that took place August of 2000. The real problem is that there is not a dedicated funding source to make this happen. It was not discussed today about where these monies are coming from. The County is doing most of the work on Lely and Gordon River and Big Cypress Basin ought to be a major funding parmer in those types of projects, especially as it relates to water quality issues, water resource, and ground water recharge. More time needs to be spent folding these things together, identifying in each other's plans what the costs are and how cost sharing would take place. Fred Thomas - is going to be cycled off; has been on Big Cypress Basin for 2 ½ terms, will not be reappointed. Aquifer storage and some deep wells need to be looked. Mr. Thomas feels that if the issue were brought to referendum, the residents would respond positively. Commissioner Coyle - the County has already begun reverse osmosis water processing and has done so for about ten years now. (Drilling deep, finding brackish water, and treating it through reverse osmosis) The goal is to have 80% of the supply through the reverse osmosis. The county is also evaluating mixing brackish water with reused water to extend irrigation waters. Jim Mudd- confirmed this and stated that the long-term goal is to get that figure down to a 50/50 split for cost effectiveness. Page 6 March 15, 2004 VIII. Adjourn There being no further business for the good of the County of Collier, the meeting was adjourned 12:02 p.m. by the order of Commissioner Donna Fiala. Chairman, Do a ' ATTEST: D .W,, IGHT E. BROCJ~,,CLERK These ~nutes approved by the Bo~d on as presented Z..-''/'' or as corrected Page 7