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BCC Minutes 10/30/1979 W Naples, Florida, October 30. 1979 LET IT BE REMEMBERED, that the Board of County Commissioners in and for the ~ounty of Collier, an~ also acting as the Governing Board(s) of such special distric~s as have been created according to law and having conducted business herein, met on this date at 1:35 P.M. in Workshop Session in Butlding "F" of the Courthouse Complex with the following members present: CHAIRMAN: Oavid C. Brown John A. Pfstor C.R. "Russ" Wimer Thomas P. Archer ABSENT: Clifford Wenzel. Vice Chairman ALSO PRESENT: County Manager. C. William Norman; County Engineer, Clifford Barksdale; Darlene Davidson, Deputy Clerk; Currie Davis, repre- senting Seaboard Coast Line Railroad; Wes Oc,wning, Chairman of the Railroad Neg6ttating Committee; Richard Taylor, of Hilbur Smith and Associates, who prepared the "Naples Rail Line Study"; and Al Tompkins, representing the Florida Department of Transportation. WORKSHOP AGENDA 1:30 p.m. 1. Discussion of Florlud Department of Tr~n~portation evaluation study of petition by Seaboard Coast Line Railroad for Collier County service abandonment; *2. Continued use of St designation and TOR's (Board directive of 7/31/79); *3. Proposed revision to formula controlling multiple family density standa~ds (BCe directive of 8/21/79); and *4. Need for revision to Comprehensive Plan to add industrially zoned lands to Work Study Are~ '4 (BCC directive 8/7179). * Denotes deleted items, resulting from action taken at Regular ~Ieeting, earlier today. eooi. .050 rAtE 101 . .,. &OOK 050 rACE 102 October 30, 1979 PRESENTATION BY WES DOWNING .RE GOALS OF NEGOTIATING COMMITTEE CONeERNING S.C.L.'S PROPOSED RAIL ABANDONMENT IN eOLlIER COUNTY Mr. Wes Oowning of thp. Railroad Negotiating Committee, noted that his Committee. has been carefully studying the possible effects on the County and the Seaboard,Coast Line Railroad concerning the proposed railway abandonment in Collier County. He said the Committee has been involved in talks with the D.O.T. and the Railroad that covered the conclusions resulting from the "Naples Rail Study" and tried to incorpor~te the best interests of ,the three entities - DOT. SCL and the County - in the nego- ' tiations they have undertaken. He referred to today's position of the Committee as being - "At ~he end of the tracks J" and stated he was pre- pared to make recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners for their consideration on behalf of the Negotiating Committee. Following his introduction by Mr. Oowning, Mr. Al Tompkins of DOT said that he was responsible for the Committee's obtaining the "Naples Rail Study" and enumerated some of his additional responsibilities as being: (1) Reviewing the relocation problems which have resulted from the proposed S.C.L. abandonment and (2) The recommendations made in behalf of the State of Florida concerning same. Mr. Downing explained that the Negotiating Committee's goals were twofold: 1. Assisting in the meeting of the S.C.L.'s requirements for meeting the deadline to file for a short'..form regard lflg the rail abandonment - (Time involved for the short form - approximately 90 days and for the long form - maximum of 2 years) 2. Aiding in the retention of a S.C.L. terminus within the County. He further explained that it is the consensus of the Negotiating Commit- tee and the Department of Transportation that if Collier County cannot meet the requirements for filing the short form, the S.C.L. will file the long form and by so doing, will probably be successful in securing the abandonment of all the railways in Collier County. Continuing, Mr. Thompson concluded, that S.C.L.'s next step would be the establish- ment of a new terminus at Estero, within Lee County. Mr. Downing urged that the Commissioners take both the recommendations of the Negotiating Committee and the "Rail Line Study" into consideration October 30. 197~ when. making a decision. He stated that later in the workshop he would I make the Negotiating Committee's recommendations to the Board and turned the mpeting over to Mr. Richard Taylor. Project Coordinator of Wilbur Smith & Associates. SUMMARIZATION OF "NAPLES RAIL LINE STUDY" BY RICHARD TAYLOR Mr. Richard Taylor, Project Coordinator of Wilbur Smith and Associates. told the Board that his firm had been contracted to prepare the "Naples Rail Line Study" by the Florida Department of Transportation. He stated the report deals with the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad line from Estero to Naples and covers not only the use of the line but alternate proposals that have been proposed. Mr. T~ylor said the Naples Rail Line Study was begun after the Joint Task Force had completed their study and because of this finished work his report includes a review of the Joint Task Force's papers and the pertinent data contained therein; an inspection of the line from Estero tO,'Naples and interviews of those shippers identified by the Joint Task Force as substantial users together with other interested par- ties. He explained that the aforementioned information was assessed by his firm as to what impact the proposed abandonment would have on the three following areas: the community; the shippers and the Railroad. From thi s assessment an "economi c impact study" for all the concerned peoples was completed. Mr. Taylor continued that there were three view- points considered while making the impact study - 1. The Railroad's desire to abandon the rail lines all the way to Estero 2. The community's desire to keep the rail lines somewhere within the County but locating it out of the urban area of Naples . 3. The user's desire to leave as much of the rail service in the County as possible. He went on to further explain the basis of the above-referenced viewpoints as being: 1. The users will feel an economic impact because the trans- porting of construction materials via rail is cheaper than the alternate transportation by truck. BOOlt 050. 'heF 103 .. aOOK . 050 rAtE 104 '. . Octobe~ 30. 1979 2. Shippers that were contacted reported that they predict a 101 to 20% increase in future shipment of construction materials over the next 10 years. ~. The members of the Community who have expressed their view- point voiced their concern with the excessive crossings that 'lie within urban areas, and their respective traffic hazards. 4. The users have expressed their feeling that all financial losses they may incur due to the proposed abandonment will be passed on to the consumer which means the extra cost must be considered as one the community will have to bear. 5. Practically all the rail lines within the County are S.C.L. owned - being shared with the user - rather than user-owned ratls and that there is only a minimal amount of privately- ow~ed rails in the County that would not be servicable if S.C.L. abandons their service. Mr. Taylor referred to a chart he had prepared t~at depicted both the benefits and the costs involved for each of the aforementioned areas of concern. He explained that his benefit cost ratio had been derived at by dividing the costs into the benefits - i.e. if the costs were equal to the benefits then the ratio would be "1" and stated that the cost benefit ratio in the concerned areas ran between "two" to "six" in most instances. He continued that the cost ratios for the S.C.L. terminus had been based on the following alternate sites: Naples, Pine Ridge Road, County Line and Estero. Continuing his presentation, Mr. Taylor stated that the findings of the Naples Rail Line Study indicate that anyone of the alternates has a cost benefit ratio higher than "~ne" and therefore , are economically beneficial to both the community and"S:C.L. Since there is a desire from both the community and the S.C.L. to abandon certain areas of the rails, the issue should not be concerning the "abandonment" but rather. the "extent of abandonment", adding that any consideration of such an "extent" should include the "user's" costs weighed against the "conmunity's" concerns and benefit as the "user" aspect is almost totally tied into the construction industry. In conclusion, Mr. Taylor said that after reviewi n9 all the alternates, the "county-li ne" alternate is a viable compromise and cited the "Estero" alternate as being disadvan- tageous to the "user" while the Uaples alternate would be disadvantageous from the "community's standpoint" as well as from the S.C.L. ). .. ..-' October 30, 1979 OUTLINE OF PROPOSED TERMS OF AGREEMENT BETWEEN S.C.L. AND COLLIER COUNTY RE THE ABANDONMENT OF RAIL LINES FROM NAPLES TO TERMINUS WITHIN COLLIER COUNTY NEAR THE LEE/COLLIER LINE BY WES DOWNING Mr. Downing said that Ler.au~~ the anticipated result of S.C.L.'s filing a long form regarding their proposed abandonment would be dis- advantageous, he was recommending the adoption of the alternate site in North Collier County, near the Lee/Collier County and was was requesting the approval of the S.C.L.'s proposal to discontinue service from that point south through the existing terminus in the City of Naples. He requested the Board's approval to prepare an agreement between Collier County and the S.C.L. re same including the following terms: 1. The railroad will remain in Collier County for a minimum of ten years. 2. The County will agree to a reasonable agreement whereby. if there is a drastic reduction in services during that time, it wtll come up again for reconsideration. 3. Seaboard will construct "team-tracks" at the northern site at their expense. 4. The County will purchase the abandoned right-of-way, from approximately "Jungle Larry's" to Pine Ridge Road, based on an updated appraisal. 5. The County will actively support the abandonment to the Northern location. 6. The County will authorize the purchase of the right-of-way afore- mentioned. contingent upon the execution of the agreement above. 7. Till! County will approve the site that h.." h..pn selected by the Site Committee. He further requested that the Board accept the recOITII1endations of the Committee, the D.O.T.. and those resulting from the "Naples Rail Line Study" . Mr. Oowning recalled the following fa~ts, and asked that they also be considered by the Board. He said that, contingent upon the County's meeting these requirements, the S.C.L. has agreed to bui'ld, at their expense, a terminus in North Collier County, and will agree to leave it there for 10 years. He stated that the S.C.L. has requested the County do whatever is necessary to remove any protest that may be brought forth 800K 050 'AGe 105 t \ l -~~~ October 30, 1979 from present suppliers, stressing the fact that just one protest from a supplier would result in the automatic long-form filing by the S.C.L. for ~bandonment of rai~way~, and the probable loss to the County of any rail service at all. Hearing no turther comments, nor reports to be made relating to the Railroad's proposed rail abandonment, Chairman Brown adjourned the workshop meeting at 1:57 P.M.