CCPC Minutes 10/21/2019 AUIRSpecial CCPC/AUIR, October 21, 2019
TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE
COLLIER COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION
Naples, Florida, October 21, 2019
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 5:00 p.m., in SPECIAL SESSION in Building "F"
of the Government Complex, East Naples, Florida, with the following members present:
Mark Strain, Chairman
Karen Homiak, Vice Chair
Edwin Fryer, Secretary
Karl Fry (absent for roll call)
Joe Schmitt, Environmental
ABSENT
Patrick Dearborn
Stan Chrzanowski, Environmental
Tom Eastman, Collier County School
Board
ALSO PRESENT:
Corby Schmidt, Principal Planner
Heidi Ashton-Cicko, Managing Assistant County Attorney
Sally Ashkar, Assistant County Attorney
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Special CCPC/AUIR, October 21, 2019
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CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Everybody, if we could have your attention. We're going to start our meeting.
It's 5 o'clock.
Welcome to the special meeting for the Collier County Planning Commission, Monday, October 21st.
This is for the Annual Update and Inventory Report.
If everybody will please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.
(The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Will the secretary please do the roll call.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Yes, sir.
Mr. Eastman?
(No response.)
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Mr. Chrzanowski?
(No response.)
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Mr. Fry?
(No response.)
COMMISSIONER FRYER: I'm here.
Chairman Strain?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Here.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Vice Chair Homiak?
COMMISSIONER HOMIAK: Here.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Mr. Schmitt?
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Here.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Mr. Dearborn?
(No response.)
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Mr. Chair, we have a quorum of four.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. The others had let me know they may not make it tonight. Mr. Fry is
on the way. He's running late. If someone knows he's at the door, don't answer it.
With that, we'll move into our first and only public hearing tonight. It's been continued from
October 3rd. It's the Annual Update and Inventory Report, PL -20190000983. It's legislative. We won't need
any swearing in or any disclosures.
But I do kind of want to layout, quickly, how we're going to go about this. I don't know how many
people are in the room from each department, but after Corby gives his introduction, I'll ask everybody from a
common department one at a time to raise your hands. And what I'd like to do is get you out of here and home as
quickly as we possibly can.
So if you've got three people here now and transportation's got three, go out and get somebody else to
come in and sit so they'll say they're with you, and then you'll be first up.
COMMISSIONF,R HOMIAK: Look at Trinity.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Trinity's going to run out. So anyway. Jamie can pick whatever side he wants
to benefit that cause.
Which takes us to Corby. Corby, if you can lead off, we'll move right into it.
MR. SCHMIDT: This year the AUIR is presented with a few changes from last, of course, and the staff
has revised the staff report to refresh it a bit. And we gave you an at -a -glance section to show you what's new
from last year, some continuing projects we listed midway down the first page, and if you have reviewed it,
you've seen them listed already.
Projects from the previous AUIR that have changed in this schedule: The Golden Gate Golf Course; the
county forensic science facility, and you'll see some new dates. That's been moved up in time; Heritage Bay
county government services center; Heritage Bay parking garage; and a number of roads and bridges projects.
New in the AUIR since last year, a number of EMS stations, law enforcement firearms training range,
correctional facilities, the mental health step-down facility, and tentatively an Immokalee Jail addition. So these
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Special CCPC/AUIR, October 21, 2019
are asterisked to show you they're associated with the surtax.
(Commissioner Fry is now present.)
MR. SCHMIDT: Typical background section has been updated to just give you an idea of history of the
AUIR, why we do this each year and why it's important.
The growth management impact, we've tried to point out the changes, and we gave an additional look at
populations this year. And in order to make another comparison with the way we use populations throughout the
AUIR and in the Capital Improvements Elements throughout facilities planning, we used a number of different
measurements, a number of different populations. And instead of spreading them out and seeing them in each of
the facilities, we put them into a table that 1 think you see beginning at the bottom of Page 5, continuing onto
Page 6.
You see how special districts use certain populations. Some of the facilities use permanent population
projections, such as your public facilities. Your peak populations are used most by your Category B facilities,
your government buildings, your EMS, your library collections and buildings, your law enforcement and your jail
and correctional facilities, parks and rec facilities, and so forth. And then there are those that do not use
populations in their needs or their levels of service, and those are your roads, your stonnwater management
facilities, and your Category C facilities, coastal zones.
The chart on the bottom of Page 6 shows you certificate of occupancy figures. As we do each year, we
update that to give you a flow or continuum of activity in the county.
Moving on to fiscal impacts and recommendations. And as with each year, by the time we're done today,
your recommendation coming from today is fivefold: To make a recommendation to the county board to accept
and recommend approval of the CIE and AUIR; to accept and recommend approval that all Category E and C
facilities set forth -- and the Category A facilities set forth in the capital improvements schedule to be approved;
find that there are no inconsistencies with the school district's Capital Improvement Plan compared to other
improvements within the AUIR or CIE; to consider alternative levels of service for individual components where
deemed appropriate; and, five, to recommend adoption of the capital improvements update by reference of the
school's Capital ILnprovement Plan and their district facilities work program.
With that, simply move forward to those in the audience who are here represented by the most
representatives.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Before we do, I want to make sure, does anybody on the Planning Commission
have any questions of Corby's introductions? That take us through Page 11.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Ido.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. By the way, just out of curiosity, do we all have the same document? I
have 306 pages.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Two hundred ninety-four here. Close.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Two ninety-four.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Two ninety-four.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I'm working for the government, so I should have a different number.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: You have the bonus.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: I had myself setup here, then I lost my little place.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Do you want Joe to go first?
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Sure.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Joe.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Yeah. Corby, on Page 9, you show the population projections. I think
the chart is clear, but just to make sure, when I look at 2019 and I see 374,994 and then the following number is
382,800 and so on, I'm assuming those are the out -years then.
So you probably should label the top of that graph as -- am I looking at this correctly? So I look at 2019,
and then that would be Year I through 5 of the projections of growth from 2'19 -- 2019; is that — do you follow
me on the chart?
MR. SCHMIDT: I do.
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COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: You show numbers, and I assume those are the five-year projections,
Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4 and 5, though it's not labeled.
MR. SCHMIDT: Oh, but they are, yes.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Okay. Just for clarity. And you may want to label that next time you
make that chart.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ned.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Corby, Page 8 out of the 294 -- so I don't know where that's going to hit on
yours, Chair. We've had this conversation, you and I, in previous years. And I'm really just kind of confirming
what I think is the case -- and this will be quick. But at the top of that page you say the process of capital
improvement programming for the county is a linear equation for most components of the AUIR, and the
equation, new population times level -of -service standard equals capital improvements.
And so I'm confirming, then, my understanding that the CIE and the impact fees and other components of
the revenues that can flow into the CIE, these are for additional or improvements as opposed to for maintenance
and repair, correct?
MR. SCHMIDT: That's correct.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Could you just refresh me, then, is it out of the county property tax? I
know it gets into the General Fund. Primarily, where are maintenance/repair items funded from?
MR. SCHMIDT: Those dollars come from a number of sources, and perhaps Susan Usher may answer
that better for you, because it's different each year.
MS. USHER: Hi, I'm Susan Usher from the Budget Office.
If it's general governmental, primarily it would be, like, General Fund. If you're talking about an
enterprise fund, like water/sewer, solid waste, they have their own funding sources through user fees. I'm trying
to think what -- I think those are the two.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. That pretty much answers my question. I didn't see any reference
in here to property tax receipts. So those real -property tax receipts, they flow into the General Fund?
MS. USHER: Yes, with many other funding sources. So we just refer to it as General Fund because it's
a mixed bag that includes ad valorem and sales tax revenue sharing, many other revenue type sources.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. Good. That's what I wanted to just reconfirm. Thank you very
much.
My next question is on Page 9, and there is a chart at the top of Page 9 with the AUIR year running down
the left column, and then BEBR estimates is the next one over to the right, and then there are several columns that
don't have headings, and I just don't understand them.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: That's the same one I referenced.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Oh, okay.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: I said Page 2, bull was mistaken. Page 9.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: That should have been the out -years 1 through 5 which are not labeled.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. Got it, same answer then. Good. They -- let's see. Then on the
same -- no, excuse me, Page 9 out of 294, there's a reference here that says the projected population increase totals
36,030 for the five-year period or 7,206 period (sic) for people per year using the county's 2.38 persons per
household rate.
Now, when we were hearing from Rivergrass, they were using a 1.2, but that -- the 1.2 is not consistent
with the county numbers, is it?
MR. SCHMIDT: No. This is the figure that we use.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Yeah. Okay. And this would be the official county figure, the 2.38;
would it not?
MR. SCHMIDT: It is.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. Then I go to Page 12, bullet point -- or No. 5. The various choices
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that would be before the Board of County Commissioners in the event that the revenues and expenditures do not
equal themselves. And No. 5 says, not issuing development orders that would continue to cause a deficiency
based on the facilities adopted level -of -service standard. Is that ever likely to happen? Has it ever happened
before? Does that --
MR. SCHMIDT: I'm not aware of it happening in the past, and it is unlikely to happen in the future.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. That's what I thought. Then I go to Page 13.
MR. SCHMIDT: However --
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: In answer to your question, we've had moratoriums issued in the past but
for traffic not -- which halted the issuing of permits.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Yeah. Those are, like, for one year or less, moratoriums?
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: It depends.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: But other than moratoriums, that hasn't been something that's happened,
okay.
Then I noticed -- and I reference it here on Page 13, but the place where at least I first saw and my word
search -- my electronic word search first disclosed the aggregate CIE number, its $1.33 billion, right? And that
comes up on Page 287, but I guess my only comment would have been maybe it should have been mentioned a
little earlier as well just to give us the order of magnitude that we're talking about. Am I correct on that number?
MR. SCHMIDT: You are.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. Thankyou. Let's see. Igo to Page 19.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We're going to just do Corby's question.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. Then I'm finished with that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead. Karl?
COMMISSIONER FRY: More of an observation, Corby, just to make sure I'm understanding. The
same chart that Joe and Ned have asked about on Page 9.
MR. SCHMIDT: Okay.
COMMISSIONER FRY: It seems tome this model is based on the accuracy of the forecast, since
population is one of the main multipliers for your formula. But if I'm looking at this table correct, it looks like
you've been pretty darn accurate in terns of forecasting the growth. Growth has been rather consistent during
this period, but if you look at this table and you look down at 2019, that first number, 374,994, that equates to the
estimate in the next column for 2018, correct, 376,086?
MR. SCHMIDT: Approximately, yes.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: So last year they estimated that we'd have 376,086 people here, and this
year we actually had 374,994. And even if you look back to 2014 and you extend out, say, to 2018, the actual
number is 45. It's only different by 45 people for four years in the future. So just observing that. It seems like
the forecasting element of the population has been pretty accurate, at least during this time period.
MR. SCH IIDT: Those estimate years seem further apart, but once projected later that year or in the
next year, they become very accurate, yes.
COMMISSIONER FRY: That was it. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. The next opportunity, I guess is who --how many from each
department? It looks like transportation, utilities --how many people from transportation are here? Two?
Three, okay.
How about utilities? You guys win. So let's go to utilities next.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Utilities.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You can go home and get out of here as soon as we finish.
So with that, would -- whatever one of your gentlemen want to start with your presentation or discussion.
We'll probably have more questions than you'll have talk, so -- at least Ned will.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Actually, I don't on this.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: He won't then. And you've got to give us what page out of 306 you're at. Do
you know that? You do, good. You're the only one. Or 294, whatever the real number is.
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COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: The page of the report.
MR. FEY: For the record, Eric Fey, principal project manager for Public Utilities and Engineering, the
Project Management Division.
Just to be sure, you want to go through potable water and wastewater or solid and hazardous waste?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You have all three, right? Let's just take them in the order that you want, and
we'll get through all three of them.
MR. FEY: All right. Well, as long as I'm up here, I'll take you through --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Now, if transportation would have figured this out, Amy would have stood up
and said we're going to do drainage, stormwater, but she didn't.
MS. PATTERSON: And all the impact fees. Next time.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Too late.
MS. SCOTT: We love you guys.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead, Eric.
MR. FEY: We do have some additional information and modifications I just wanted to highlight for the
Planning Commission.
Starting with the potable water, Mr. Chairman, last year you had requested that we address wellfield
capacity in the AUIR, so we did that this year. You'll find that beginning on Page 79 of your packet we provided
a summary of each of the wellfields, and then a level -of -service standard assessment table on Page 82.
And on that table, you'll see an asterisk that's explained on the following pages in the notes that basically
when you see an asterisk we are meeting our plant capacity with the wellfield that we have in place -- with the
wells we have in place.
And then there's a chart on Page 85 of your packet that shows graphically in red the total wellfield reliable
capacity with the stacked columns underneath it representing each of the individual wellfield facilities. And then
the blue line is the required finished water for maximum three-day average daily demand. As you can see, we've
got plenty of wellfield capacity.
So I can pause there and see if you have any questions on that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: My only -- you're still monitoring our aquifer levels, and are they still holding?
I know I asked that last year, and the reportwas it was. And I get that question a lot. Residents seethe amount
of population we have here, and they're -- one of the first things they ask about is, do we have enough water? I
assure them it's covered because of all that great monitoring you do. And I just want to make sure we haven't had
a change in the monitoring status. You're still monitoring, and they haven't depreciated?
MR. FEY: That's correct.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: They're holding strong.
Is anything going to change because of the dry --we had a very dry September and October as well. I
mean, those are usually the two wettest months. Are they causing you any concern?
MR. FEY: I'd let Steve Messner, if he'd like to come up here and address that specifically. I will say
that we've done some wellfield rehabilitation projects over the course of the past few years, and those have helped
restore some of our wellfield reduction capacity, and he can speak more so to the aquifers.
MR. MESSNER: Good afternoon. Steve Messner, director of Water Division.
To answer your question, Chairman Strain, we monitor aquifer levels very closely, actually, weekly, as
soon as we get into the drier season. We did have a very dry September/October, so we're actually -- we actually
stepped that up to do what we would normally do during the dry season.
We also have a very detailed specific wellfield monitoring schedule or well rotation plan that we filed
with South Florida Water Management District, and we follow that. In other words, it's kind of simply to spread
the use around from the wellfields and not just use one area or one zone of the wellfield all the time.
So short answer is, we're in good shape.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: How about saltwater movement? Are you seeing any saltwater lands (sic)
moving inland at all? Are you guys monitoring where that -- how that location's changing?
MR. MESSNER: We monitoring that very closely. We have seen --traditionally, we have seen
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somewhat of saltwater intrusion on the western end of the north RO wellfield, but we've always seen that for
years. So we monitor that, we have not seen that encroaching further east on any other wellfields.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you.
MR. MESSNER: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else have any questions on water?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. We'll just move to, I guess, sewer system.
MR. FEY: Again, for the record, Eric Fey, principal project manager at Public Utilities Engineering and
Project Management.
Your wastewater section begins on Page 92 of your packet. We did have some changes in the structure
of the report this year. In former years we had everything divided into two service areas, north and south. This
year you'll see four -- excuse me, three. One being added was the northeast service area. We broke that out
separately this year because of all the activity -- development activity anticipated there.
On Page 95 of your packet is the service area map. You'll see some of our subregional service areas
highlighted indifferent colors. I just want to point out that Orangetree and Golden Gate City are lumped in with
our north service area. That's because they are now or to be in the future interconnected as a more regional or
subregional system.
The south and north service areas are also interconnected, and you'll see that. h1 your table there's some
diversion numbers in future years that show some transfer of flows from south to north.
The interconnectedness is still under development with our western interconnect, and I believe that's also
highlighted in the constraints section of this report. We did -- obviously, we wanted to address the major service
areas separately, which is why we broke northeast out because it -- while it will be interconnected for water, it
will also be interconnected on wastewater, but we're building a new plant, so we felt it deserved its own
breakdown.
The planned improvements are addressed in your level -of -service standard tables. The north plant on
Page 101, you'll see .375 MGD added in Year 2021. That is the $5 million expansion to the northeast utility
wastewater treatment plant at Orangetree, not the new northeast utilities facilities. I just want to make that
distinction. There's some confusion over what's northeast.
On Page 105, the level -of -service standard table for the northeast shows a one -and -a -half MGD expansion
in Fiscal Year 2021, so that work is in design -build process now, and 1.5 MGD is the interim wastewater
treatment plant. You'll see that come off in the Fiscal Year 2027 because that will be retired upon the completion
of the permit for MGD new plant at the northeast utility facilities.
The wastewater collection and transmission system constraints section was updated based on current
master planning efforts and capital improvements updates, but no additional constraints noted.
And then you can see our checkbook concurrency was included again this year. And that's basically all I
wanted to highlight for you. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Just a couple. I noticed on the map on -- I think it was -- well, my Page 94, the
first map you started with. On the big --on the northeast wastewater service area, you've got all of Big Cypress
Stewardship District, which now has three villages so far proposed for it, I thought they were going to cut a deal
with Ave Maria to get some of their services from Ave Maria. Is that the --did that not happen?
MR. FEY: No, sir. That was under discussion in the earlier stages with the Town of Rural Lands West,
but we negotiated to serve their entire district. An agreement on that is pending. I know they're --they've been
taking a lot of your time here lately, and so one of the conditions of approval for their petition is that we serve the
entire district per interlocal agreement.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You're doing Hyde Park, then, too?
MR. FEY: We are.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I notice you've got Hogan Island down here. They came in for a pre -app but
they never followed up. Are they still active as far as you -all are concerned, or did you just put it here just for
future reference?
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MR. FEY: We've had no — to my knowledge, any dialogue with the developer on Hogan Island. I'm
not sure of their status. We did include them in our expanded service area, which was amended September last
year to include them. And, if you recall, there was some discussion at the Board meeting about them wanting to
get service from Ave Maria.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's right. Since it's the same.
MR. FEY: So they questioned it, but we ended up agreeing. They reserved the right to comeback to
the Board to protest in the future if we don't workout a deal. But I don't have any updates on the status of any
negotiations because they have not moved forward with their development.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And I noticed you've got the Immokalee Rural Village north of Orangetree.
When we have requests for places like Orangetree that have a certain density that you may have counted on -- we
had one come in recently that wanted to bump their number up by almost a third, 350 units, does that -- how do
you take that into -- I mean, can you take that in stride, those kind of jumps in density, without too much
problems, especially in that northeast area?
MR. FEY: I think you're referencing the Orange Blossom Ranch PUD amendment.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes.
MR. FEY: We had Barraco on that one go through the exercise of demonstrating pipe capacity. Plant
capacity isn't a concern at this point. We are, just for information, constructing a pump station that will be able to
shave peak flows off that plant and ship them to the north plant.
We've got plenty of plant capacity. There was a concern about conveyance capacity, but they addressed
that through the zoning process.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. I don't have anything else.
Anybody? Karl?
COMMISSIONER FRY: Eric, two questions on the chart on Page 101 where you first pointed out the
.375 MGD growth or the enhancement in 2021. The column that says "retained operational treatment capacity,"
want does that mean?
MR. FEY: That is the balance of treatment capacity. When you subtract Columns 5 and 3, that's just
the difference between those two. So it basically means we have excess capacity at that plant.
COMMISSIONER FRY: I see. And then if I look at the maximum three-day average flow for 2021, it
says 21.6. You have a --I guess the permitted operational capacity's 26. So .375 is one and a half percent of
that or so. So I guess, what are you doing for $5 million that only adds one point -- if I'm reading that right.
Correct me if Ion wrong. It's my first time doing this. But what -- $5 million and what is -- and it's adding
under 2 percent additional capacity. So what kind of an improvement is that? What's actually happening?
MR. FEY: I might call Tom Chmelik up hereto speak to that. I know we're doing some RIDS out there,
and he can speak in more detail to your question.
MR. CHMELIK: Tom Chmelik, for the record, public utilities. I think part of what you're seeing, the
number, .375, was in relation to the 21.6 that's the whole north service area. So if you look just at Orangetree
today, the capacity of that facility is much less at .75. So it's a substantial increase if you look at the facility
itself.
COMMISSIONER FRY: So you're doubling Orangetree --or you're adding 50 percent capacity to the
Orangetree facility?
MR. C1 MELIK: That's what we're reviewing, yes.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: One more question. On the areas that you have constraints, North Naples, the
Activity Center No. 9, and up by Immokalee Road at the bend, should we be, from a zoning perspective, looking
more carefully at the densities that go in there and requests that come through and tying them -- possibly tying
them to when your constraints will be less constrained?
MR. SCHMIDT: That would be very helpful, yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, the reason I'm bringing it up is someone has to give us that hint, because
we won't remember that now. But if you have occurrences like this, a lot of times we can request the developer
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to phase in based on the needed infrastructure that will be in place and will be better suited for their operation. If
you give them letters ahead of time that basically says everything's okay, it doesn't give us a foot in the door to
suggest that we need some phasing on a project.
So seeing that we have three constrained areas, it might be helpful to keep that in mind for us when we
hear those, because I know you -all are getting our records as what we're doing. We look for your input, so that
would be helpful.
MR. CHMELIK: Well, we would appreciate the opportunity to do that, but that in these cases we are in
good shape, but in the future we'll certainly take advantage of that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Joe.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Just for clarity, but if you issue a certificate of adequate public facilities
for the entire development, then it becomes a nonissue.
MR. FEY: Yes, it does.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: I mean, you would have to tell us that there's not adequate capacity
available and then suggesting that there's some kind of phased development.
MR. SCHMIDT: Understood.
Anything you want to add?
MR. FEY: Again, for the record, Eric Fey. I just wanted to add that in each of these constraint
situations we have improvements being planned now to address those. So by our ordinance, "readily available
utilities" mean that the capacity will be there in the next five years, so --
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Okay.
MR. FEY: --we take that into consideration with our zoning petitions that --you know, if there will be
capacity in the next five years, we support the petitions. And depending on what comes -- depending on how
quickly the development permit applications come in, that's when the certificate of public facility adequacy is
issued, and that's when the detailed engineering analysis is done, when we know exactly what they're planning to
build. And if there's a problem, we work it out then.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Thank you.
I think we can move on to solid waste, if they're here.
MR. FEY: Thank you, Commissioners.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Good morning, young lady.
Now, I was expecting this big tall guy named Dan Rodriguez. He's doing something else now, I hear,
isn't he?
MS. HODGSON: He certainly is.
For the record, my name's Kari Hodgson, director of Solid and Hazardous Waste Management.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Joe wants to know where Dan's at. I don't even know his title anymore.
MS. HODGSON: The director -- deputy director for Utilities.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So he's kind of overall of us, not just one.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Oh, all right.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anyway, go ahead.
MS. HODGSON: I'm a shorter version of Dan.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: In a number of ways.
MS. HODGSON: I introduced myself at presentations. You are probably familiar with Dan Rodriguez,
who was born working for Collier County.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That he was.
MS. HODGSON: Notable in the 2019 AUIR for solid waste is a loss of eight years capacity to the
landfill life, and the reason for that is recognizing the finite capacity of the landfill in the county versus the
contracts that allow for capacity at an out -of -the -county location.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
MS. HODGSON: And that's the only major change, and I'll be happy to answer any questions you might
have about that.
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CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody?
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Your charton Page 128 --
MS. HODGSON: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: --indicates you're good out to about 2052; am I reading that correct?
MS.HODGSON: That is correct. Twenty --it would be -- 10 years life would be about 2051.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: At what point do we need to start looking at additional land? This came up
years and years ago as well, and then we found ways to extend the life of the one we have by increasing the height
and other things.
MS. HODGSON: Yeah. That's a great point to bring up.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, we're dealing without east now. Look what's happening. I mean, we're
going to see a population out there double the urban population we have today rather rapidly, at least what I think
is rapidly, compared to how we've been growing it for the past 40 years. And I'm wondering if we need to start
looking out there while the land is still available and we have an opportunity to grab it.
MS.HODGSON: That's part of my job. I do that on a daily basis seeing what the different options are
for Collier County for long-term sustainable solid waste disposal, whether it be land here in Collier County,
agreements elsewhere. So those are all items that I've been looking at.
The AUIR highlights that at 2041 the initiation should be started, but it's never too soon to start looking.
So that is something I look at on a routine basis.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead.
COMMISSIONER SC14MITT: And I would agree, because anywhere you're going to put this is going
to involve a significant amount of permitting, state and federal.
MS. HODGSON: And NIMBY syndrome, absolutely.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: And, of course, the objections of the community wherever you're going
to put this. So, yeah, delaying planning is only going to complicate the issue. But you've already stated you're
looking at it. This is probably the most critical thing right now in the whole AUIR.
MS. HODGSON: Thank you for understanding that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: How many acres are we going to look at when you go to acquire a new
location? Just out of curiosity.
MS. HODGSON: Part of what I've started doing -- I've only been here about seven months -- is getting
someone on board for strategic planning looking at where there's land available, what's involved with that, the
cost associated as well as partnerships with other disposal facilities, whether it be a neighboring county.
While Collier County's growing at a very fast rate, as you indicated in the northeast, counties like Lee
County have already maxed out capacity of their waste to energy and are now routing most of their waste to their
landfill which impacts their landfill life.
So the impact overall will be what is -- what's going to happen with the waste in Collier County, whether
it be a new landfill, partnerships, transfer stations. There's already two contracts in place with Okeechobee
Landfill. So those are all the different factors I'm looking at.
So I don't have a definitive answer for your question, but I'm looking at strategically planning to make
sure that something's getting put in place for the future of solid waste disposal in the county.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are we still operating the Immokalee Landfill?
MS. HODGSON: Not the landfill, but a transfer station is there. The landfill was enclosed.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. And all the plastics are still there?
MS. HODGSON: There's two small piles of it that still exist there.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: What about recycling; how we doing there?
MS. HODGSON: As of right now, this county is doing just fine with all the changes that have been
going on, but that's something that I take into considerations when I look at the numbers for projections is,
overall, what will be the impact of the challenges facing the industry.
Right now Collier County has franchise agreements in place that guarantee the disposal of the recyclables.
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That contract expires in seven years. So where will we be in seven years is more of the question. So I take this
into consideration when I'm looking at numbers and projections for the future and taking into consideration with
the life.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And commercial recycling is?
MS. HODGSON: Commercial recycling is not -- it's mandatory for one item to be recycled, but it's an
open market, so it's not something the county controls.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is it something we can control?
MS. HODGSON: Yes, through ordinances. They are required right now to recycle one item that they
produce.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mostly cardboard, isn't it?
MS. HODGSON: For the most part, yes, which still has good value, so that's a saving grace.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Well, as I expected, everything --you guys are on top of it, so thank
you.
Anybody else?
MS. HODGSON: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Thank you. That takes care of the Utilities Department and Solid
Waste. So thank you -all for your time tonight.
And I guess we'll move on to, what, Transportation. Now, if I were to ask how many people are here
from Transportation, does that get more hands this time around? You gained the idea. Okay.
Trinity, it's all yours.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: And Utilities has to stay and listen. No?
MS. SCOTT: It's okay, Joe. We'll just talk bad about them after they leave. All kinds of questions.
For the record, Trinity Scott, Transportation Planning manager. I'm open to questions.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's a good way to start out. I know — I bet Ned has questions on
transportation.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Ido.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's a subject you seem to like. Okay.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Ido like that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go for it.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Let's see. I starton Packet Page 19, which is Page 5 of 171. It's
Attachment B, Transportation, Existing Conditions Report. And at the bottom of that page there's a --the last
bullet point in the last sentence it says, LOS standards already set at the lowest acceptable levels of D or E. And
I just wanted to flag that, because I think that's an unfortunate situation in which we find ourselves. And it's
certainly not a problem of staffs making, but it's something that I think is serious and could become even worse
than serious if we don't deal with it in some form or fashion.
I know we can change our levels of service, or we can spend more money, or we can rearrange where we
spend money. But somehow, this -- for a county that has the wealth that we have and the high standards that we
set for ourselves, I just -- I think that this is an unfortunate situation in which to find ourselves.
So that's just an observation, unless you wanted to make a comment on it.
MS. SCOTT: Well, what I would say about Level of Service D and E with regard to roads is you also
don't want to have an adopted level of service which is A which would mean you'd have a lot of pavement out
there that's not being utilized but you still have to maintain, and there's a balance.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: That's a good point. Thank you.
My next goes to Page 20 of 294, which is still Attachment B, Page 6 of 171, Packet Page 20. And here
we have a list of segments that have increased and those that have decreased from the previous AUIR. And in
some cases the result -- a decrease has been the result of construction avoidance, and I certainly understand that,
and that that would naturally be a consideration.
My question is: Is there any -- have you been able to identify any other innovative solutions or tactics
that are being employed that have brought about an improvement in the cases where the traffic has decreased?
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Anything that we could use to replicate in other areas, any successes?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Diversion diamond.
MS. SCOTT: We are looking at -- we are looking at alternative intersection improvements. In
fact -- and I was remiss at the beginning. I also have Jeff Perry here from Stantec who assists with preparation of
the Transportation portion of the Annual Update and Inventory Report.
And some of the things that we're looking at, particularly on our roadways that are already built out, are
innovative intersections and how to be able to move traffic more efficiently and be able to increase that capacity
of the roadway.
So there are innovative things that are happening all around the United States and up in Lee County as
well, close to us. That's usually the question we get when we're looking at how to --how to make things more
efficient; where have they deployed these measures?
Europe. Lots of, you know, roundabouts are well known, as well as the alternative intersections, but also
gaining popularity here in the United States.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: So roundabouts, I know, are used in the City of Naples. Are they also
being looked at in the county?
MS. SCOTT: We actually are. We have our first roundabout that opened this past year at Tree
Farm/Woodcrest, which is a roadway that connects Collier Boulevard and Immokalee Road, as well as
Whippoorwill. We were --one of the programmed projects that we have within this AUIR is a connection of
Marbella Lakes Drive and Whippoorrwill Lane which will also be a roadway that will connect Livingston and
Pine Ridge. We will be utilizing roundabouts within that section as well.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Would it be appropriate to ask Mr. Perry if he wanted to augment or add to
that in any respect? I mean, it's not required, but anything that you're looking at innovative techniques to help
reduce traffic that don't necessarily involve spending a lot of money.
MR. PERRY: For the record, my name is Jeff Perry, transportation plarmer with Stantec working with
the Transportation Department.
Keep in mind that when you see traffic volumes that are increasing, that's obviously an indicator that we
have population growth, and that's going to occur regardless.
You did mention that there's oftentimes a diversion of traffic from one facility to another perhaps because
of construction. Also, when you add a new facility. For instance, Vanderbilt Beach Road extension is likely to
reduce traffic on parallel facilities: Immokalee Road and Golden Gate Parkway.
The other — what you're not seeing in these particular numbers is how well they're operating. You could
have increases in traffic, but that may not be creating any problems, may not be creating a deficiency so that
it's -- just looking at the volumes and not necessarily the entire picture.
As Trinity mentioned, we're proposing operational improvements that would help improve the efficiency
of the system so that it can accommodate that additional traffic.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Thank you.
Trinity, the Big Cypress Parkway will relieve traffic from Everglades, which is one of the areas that is
near deficient, and that's a good thing if we can get that going. How far south do you think that will go? Will it
go all the way to 75?
MS. SCOTT: Big Cypress Parkway?
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Yeah.
MS. USHER: In the Long Range Transportation Plan it calls for it to go to Golden Gate Boulevard.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. Okay. My next question has to do with this tollway that's being
planned as an alternate way going through the central part of the state to relieve from both 95 and 75 and, I guess,
4. Where exactly would that find itself in Collier County? Where would we see that under present planning?
MS. SCOTT: That's a great question. So currently the Florida Department of Transportation is going
through a programming --a planning exercise right now. But one of the things that they have stressed is that
they are not drawing a line on the map. So we have our elected officials who are working through this process.
And I know Mr. Cohen's behind me, and he's been to the fust meeting up in Tampa with regard to that. But they
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have stressed that they are --with this phase of the project, they will not be drawing lines on the map. Sol
cannot tell you today where that roadway would go.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: I see. I mean, there are various considerations such as the cost of eminent
domain and the like that would enter into it.
Are there any obvious places that it would go, or all of them involve a balance test of pluses and minuses?
MS. SCOTT: It's a balance test. We will wait and see. My crystal ball is as good as anyone else's, so...
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. Thanks.
Then I go on to Attachment F, and thankfully, Trinity, you and your colleagues had sent us the full Excel
spreadsheet for all of the attachments, including F, which I find enormously useful and use it throughout the year.
I'm glad we have that because for some reason the one that was in here, the PDF version, got cut off, and a lot of
the columns are not visible. But I think, at least from my perspective, that problem is alleviated by virtue of the
fact that you sent us the full Excel spreadsheet, so I'm happy with that.
Then, let's see, I go to Attachment G. I have several questions on this. This identifies how present
deficiencies are to be addressed. And I want to go through a couple of these with you.
First of all, the ones that are existing at the top, in the case of Pine Ridge between Shirley and Airport, it
says "continue to monitor." Maybe you have something tangible in mind when that phrase is used, but it doesn't
light up a clear tactic in my mind of what you're doing.
MS. SCOTT: So with this particular segment of roadway, what we will do is initiate a planning study
that will not rise to the level of being listed specifically within the Annual Update and Inventory Report.
Transportation Planning staff routinely does these. We actually have one ongoing right now for Immokalee
Road. Previously did one for another section of Pine Ridge Road. So right now what we're doing is working
with our catalog of consultants to start initiating some operational analysis to see if there are any of these
alternative intersections that can be initiated within this area to be able to assist, and also looking at parallel
facilities as well, if there's anything that we can tweak to have it work a little better to be able to bring that within.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Good. I mean, that is — that's one that a lot of people in the urban part of
the county --urban parts of the county see all the time. And so it's on a lot of people's radar screen. It would be
nice if we could somehow find a good solution to that sooner rather than later.
MS. SCOTT: As .Teff also talked about with Vanderbilt Beach Road extension, we certainly anticipate
that not only Immokalee Road will see some relief, but also Pine Ridge Road.
Now, that's specifically right in that industrial park area, but we will be looking at that to see what we can
do to make that roadway work better.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. Then let's see. Pine Ridge/Livingston and I-75. Well, no, let me
first go to Old 41 at The verytop. You say "pursue federal funding." Is there anything really tangible on the
horizon that might provide federal funding for it?
MS. SCOTT: There is currently a project development environmental study that's ongoing with the
Florida Department of Transportation. Because this roadway completes its terminus in Lee County within the
City of Bonita Springs, we worked with our partners, our regional partners, to fund that through the federal
process.
So in order to be eligible for federal funding, the first thing you must do is a project development study
underway right now, anticipated to be completed within probably the next year or so, and then we'll continue to be
working through the Florida Department of Transportation as well as with Lee County to initiate those follow-up
phases of design, perhaps right-of-way, and construction.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: So at some point I assume you're going to have to file a formal application
with the federal government.
MS. SCOTT: It's ongoing right now as part of that project development and environmental study.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: So that application's already been filed?
MS. SCOTT: Well, what happens is is that that study makes the roadway eligible to receive federal
funding.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. But is there --in the process is there an application that must be
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submitted and --
MS. SCOTT: No.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: No, there isn't. Okay.
MS. SCOTT: We work through the Florida Department of Transportation because federal funds filter
through them to get to the county level.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. And then the other Pine Ridge segment, Livingston to 75. I guess
your answer's the same if I ask what are the chances for federal funding. This one is not a multi -county thing.
MS. SCOTT: It is not, but I --so the AUIR we start developing this March/April time frame of this year.
Soon Friday I actually received the --what FDOT calls their draft tentative work program. So for the Pine
Ridge/Livingston to I-75, half of those improvements are within the county, and the other portion are within
what's called the Florida Department of Transportation's limited access right-of-way. So it's that interchange
area.
So we've been working with the Florida Department of Transportation to partner with us with funding,
and they have come to the table I believe it's to the time of about 7 or $8 million to improve that interchange.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay.
MS. SCOTT: And that would be within the next five years.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. Then the last one here at the top, at least, State Route 29 where the
LOS standard is currently a B, and we're downgrading it to a C.
MS. SCOTT: And that actually has come out. We had inadvertently changed the level of service, and
we have since talked to the Florida Department of Transportation who accepts our level of service. So we
need -- we will be changing -- all of the State Road 29s will actually come out. They are not deficient.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. All right. I mean, the conditions are the same; it just is no longer
on our list of problems?
MS. SCOTT: Correct. They've accepted our level of service, our adopted level of service.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Which is B or C?
MS. SCOTT: I believe it's D.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: D? I thought I looked --I believe I looked back at the 2018 AUIR for this
segment. I thought it was currently B.
MS. SCOTT: Oh, it may be operating at B, but I'm saying the adopted level of service would be D.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay, okay. Then down on the projected deficiencies 2020 to'24, again,
there's some cases where we've actually achieved some improvements that are to be noted, and I think those are
good things. Sort of the same question I had previously about, are there any lessons that can be learned, any
ways that we can apply the wisdom that we've applied to these segments to other segments and achieve similar
results of at least postponing the time it becomes deficient?
MS. SCOTT: I think it has a lot to do with, as Jeff mentioned, new facilities opening. We monitor this
to look at if projects are under construction as well, because there's a diversion with regard to that, typically, as
well. So we do look, but nothing really jumps out at me as a success other than, you know, we can keep
something under construction a little bit longer.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. Then, let's see, Pine Ridge from Airport to Livingston has gone
from 2025 to existing, so that's going, obviously, in the wrong direction. This is a critical segment to
transportation in the county, particularly the urban part of the county.
MS. SCOTT: In the study that I spoke about with the Shirley Street to Airport Road, we actually asked
the consultants to scope out all the way back to Livingston because we want to look at that as the entire -- I
shouldn't say the entire corridor, but a longer corridor.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. All right. Then I go to Page 30 of Page 294, which is a visual, an
image showing 29, and it shows a little red piece there. And it says, existing deficiency, PD&E complete. Is
that the evaluation that you're talking about?
MS. SCOTT: It is. But, once again, that -- this map will be swapped out because the level of service
is --
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COMMISSIONER FRYER: Off our books.
MS. SCOTT: Correct. But just to let you know, that Project Redevelopment Environmental Study is
complete. We're working with the Florida Department of Transportation. They have design funded. And,
actually, they're not going to widen through Immokalee proper. It will become an alternative, what we calla
loop road. It will go around Immokalee. And so there maybe some conversations with the Florida Department
of Transportation in the future about possibly — I'm certain they're going to come to the county to ask us to take
over State Road 29 as a local road through Immokalee proper.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. Then on Page 31 there is an excerpt of, I think, the spreadsheet. It
looks like Attachment F, and there are other references as you continue, subsequent pages after 31 that also appear
to be excerpts snipped from Attachment F.
Is it fair for us to conclude that they're identical to that Excel spreadsheet?
MS. SCOTT: Is this Attachment I?
COMMISSIONER FRYER: No. At the bottom --well, for instance, on Page 32, the footer says master
attachment F2019, Excel SM.
MS. SCOTT: What that actually is, if you look up at the actual header, it's Attachment 1. And this
begins your --
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
MS. SCOTT: -- Transportation Concurrency Management Report.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: So these additional attachments are excerpted from F?
MS. SCOTT: Yes.
MR. SCHMIDT: Yes.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Got it. And verbatim?
MS. SCOTT: Yes.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. That's what I -- thank you.
And let's see.
MS. SCOTT: It gives a little different information as far as the lane miles and number of lane miles that
are operating at acceptable levels of service, because that's our measure for the Transportation Concurrency
Management Areas is the percentage of lane miles meeting the standard.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Thank you.
Let's see. On Exhibit A on Page 161; I go all the way to 161.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Getting there. Halfway through.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: And this has to do with arterial and collector roads and bridges. This is
the overall '20 to '24 showing half a billion dollars roughly.
This is a question about accounting techniques. And I think I understand. I'm not sure -- I'm not as
familiar with fund accounting as I am with, you know, the rules that apply in the context of business
organizations. So maybe this is the way it's typically displayed. But there are -- this looks to me like a revenue
and expenditure statement that contains balance sheet items, I think. Items that, in a business context -- for
instance, the General Fund and available cash, these are -- these are balance sheet, not income -statement items.
So is it just that I don't have a good understanding of fund accounting, that this is — this is the way it's to be
displayed?
MS. SCOTT: Ion looking to Ms. Usher.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Who could usher in an answer for us.
MS. SCOTT: I was hoping.
MS. USHER: These are different revenue sources. So the General Fund would be a revenue source.
Impact fees would be a revenue source. Gas tax would be a revenue source. These are all the different revenue
sources. They're not balance sheets.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. So it's --it's -- it would be a balance sheet item for the county as a
whole, but it's a revenue source for the transportation people?
MS. USHER: It's not a balance sheet. It's an income statement. You have the expenditures on top and
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the revenues on the bottom.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Well, no. I get that. But when you have an item like cash, available cash
is --
MS. USHER: Beginning, that's -- we -- for budget purposes we have an item called carryforward, and
the definition of carryforward, by Florida Statute, we have to show how much available cash we can carry
forward into the new fiscal year so that these guys can all budget to spend.
So it's carryforward. It's a budgetary term. The Florida Statute dictates that we have to disclose that.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. All right. I'm not being critical of it at all.
MS. USHER: So its revenue.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: It's mostly just out of my lack of understanding. Perhaps this is either
conventional fund accounting that nonprofits and government agencies use or mandated by aspects of Florida law
or some combination.
But the way I was -- the way I learned accounting is that cash is an item that appears on the balance sheet,
not the income statement.
MS. USHER: And this is true, but in the Florida Statute for budgetary purposes you have to take that
cash, and you have to budget it as revenue because it's available cash that the folks here can use to spend.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay.
MS. USHER: So that's -- I can understand the confusion you have.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much.
MS. USHER: You're welcome.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Igo to Page 162. And this is Appendix H, arterial and collector road
projects, and there's an item on here that says impact fee refunds. So my question is: What are these, and why
do we have to give refunds?
MS. SCOTT: I'm phoning a friend. Amy Patterson, our director of Capital Project Planning.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: All right.
MS. PATTERSON: Hi. Good evening. Amy Patterson, for the record.
Every one of our impact fee funds has a line item for refunds that has to do with canceled permits. We
always leave some money in there for prior -year refunds as well.
Some years there are none and some years there can be a lot, millions of dollars sometimes, particularly
when we had the downturn in the economy.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: So it would add up to various kinds of excess collections or
over -collections that then has to be remitted back?
MS. PATTERSON: No. Only, really, to the extent that it has to do with permit cancellations or
changes to building permits that require a refund of the impact fees.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay.
MS. PATTERSON: So over -collections and things. There's another way that we deal with excess
collections after a seven-year period. That never happens in our current state of capital projects. But this is
mainly to do with refunds related to building permits.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. Thankyou.
MS. PATTERSON: Uh-huh.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Let's see. That's all I have on transportation.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else have anything on transportation?
COMMISSIONER FRY: One question.
Trinity, at town halls, you mentioned a term "alternative intersections."
MS. SCOTT: Uh-huh.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Are you describing where the travel lanes actually crisscross one another?
MS. SCOTT: That is one of them, yes; continuous flow intersection, yes.
COMMISSIONER FRY: So can you just tell us where those are planned and which ones actually are in
the short- versus long-range plan.
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MS. SCOTT: Right now we have a continuous flow intersection planned at Pine Ridge and Livingston.
We have what's called an R cut, and I forget what that R means. Restricted crossing U-turn land for
Whippoorwill and Pine Ridge Road which would mean, essentially, the folks coming off of Whippoorwill are
coming south from the commercial area would make a right and go make a U-turn to go in the opposite direction.
And then we have a diverging diamond interchange planned at Pine Ridge Road, which is where you
cross over to the other side as well. And there are animations of those on the Transportation Planning's website.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Same thing. That's what she's talking about. You saw all that.
COMMISSIONER FRY: We see a lot of presentations.
MS. SCOTT: So there are animations on our website for those two.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Three of them are imminent right on Pine Ridge Road, basically?
MS. SCOTT: Yes. We're in the middle of a study right now for Immokalee Road to see if any of those
can be utilized along hnmokalee Road from Livingston over to Logan, and then we will be picking up and
looking at additional sections of Pine Ridge Road as well as looking at Golden Gate Parkway as well. And I
should also state that there are other alternative intersections.
A jug handle can be -- is something that we have looked at as well as overpasses, the overpass right out
here at Golden Gate Parkway and Airport Road. Those are --instead of just adding lanes, we're looking at
different ways to be able to utilize the same amount of space but be able to move traffic more efficiently through
it.
COMMISSIONER FRY: When you say "overpass," same thing as a flyover?
MS. SCOTT: Yeah, that's similar, or a single point urban interchange.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Okay. You lost me at hello.
MS. SCOTT: We use lots of terms.
COMMISSIONER FRY: I've heard reference to a potential overpass or flyover at hnmokalee and
Collier --
MS. SCOTT: Yes.
COMMISSIONER FRY: --Boulevard, 951.
MS. SCOTT: Yes.
COMMISSIONER FRY: But that was not in the short-term plan, correct? That's way out?
MS. SCOTT: Itis not. We are --we've set aside the right-of-way for it and now the water management
to accommodate it. So once it's necessary -- and most likely that will probably come about along with a potential
Collier Boulevard extension. When you start seeing that fourth leg come into that intersection, that is most likely
when that will be necessary.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Any other prominent locations where a flyover might be?
MS. SCOTT: Collier Boulevard and U.S. 41.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Randall and Immokalee, too.
MS. SCOTT: And Randall and hnmokalee. Sorry.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Randall and Immokalee.
MS. SCOTT: Yes.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else have any transportation questions?
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Nope.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Trinity, thank you.
MS. SCOTT: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And Amy's department, then, since you want to finish up your people, Amy, do
you have anybody else here that -- Jerry or however you want to handle it?
MS. PATTERSON: If it's okay with you, we're going to jump to Coastal Zone, Category C.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Sure, that's fine. Gary's is always simple, I hope.
MR. McALPIN: I'm Gary McAlpin with Coastal Zone Management, and I'll answer any questions you
have about Category C.
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CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I like that. That's a good approach. Anybody have questions about Coastal
Zone Management?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Could never make it as complicated as that, Gary. Thank you.
MR. McALPIN: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is there -- how about -- oh, Corby?
MR. SCHMIDT: Yeah. Commissioners, before we move on further, I wanted to mention that
inconsistency between two different charts in the stormwater section, just --it's in the background. It's not a
major issue, but staff will be taking care of it between your version and the Board's version.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: That's the one you wanted to see if we caught?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We just got into --I was just going to --I thought we'd go to stormwater next if
Amy's --
MR. SCHMIDT: I've got the ribbon right here. Did anybody notice it?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: All right.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Hiding of Easter eggs.
MS. PATTERSON: Good evening, again. Amy Patterson.
I'm here for questions on stonnwater. I also have members of stormwater team here with me.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody have any questions on stormwater? Joe?
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: The AUIR doesn't get into anything, I couldn't find it --regarding
stormwater utility. That's still being debated, but there's no forecasting or funding forecasting for that program
yet.
MS. PATTERSON: The stormwater utility concept has been put on hold indefinitely.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Okay. So in regards to that, then, are funds being allocated from the
General Fund or other sources to attack some of the areas that are in definite needs of improvement for
stormwater to come into compliance with the water -quality issues?
MS. PATTERSON: Yes. So --
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Naples Park and some other areas.
MS. PATTERSON: So it's a two-pronged approach. In FY2020 --well, after we --the Board
considered the stormwater utility proposal for a second time this winter, they decided to put additional funding
into the maintenance side of stormwater to get after some of the issues as described throughout the county, which
was discussed in great detail during the stormwater utility conversations.
We are -- the Board's desire is to move towards an industry standard for stormwater maintenance. And
so there's additional funding that's been allocated to the maintenance side of the house.
On the capital side of the house, there was a little bit of additional funding that was put into the capital
program with the intent to consider options for debt funding in the future as a larger package of debt, potentially,
in the future. So we are maintaining our cash-and-carry position right now on the capital side of the house,
moving projects forward but looking at some different scenarios for financing those, because there's quite a bit of
work through several master plans in the upcoming years. And the Board will -- we'll look at different ways that
they can fund those.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: And the follow-on, other areas where they're already existing permits
through special districts, CDDs, and others where they have their own water quality or water management, and it's
funded through CDDs, you don't have any visibility on any of that from the county, all the different special
districts that have their stormwater.
MS. PATTERSON: (No verbal response.)
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Does the county --and probably a question for Jerry, and maybe his
staff. But is the county monitoring stormwater performance of systems as designed, especially outfalls?
MS. PATTERSON: I can let Jerry answer that question. But that falls to the Water Management
District within private communities or compliance with the permit, but if Jerry wants to add to that.
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COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Well, I know for a fact that Water Management District isn't funded nor
are the --is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers funded for follow-on. I'm just wondering if the county is looking
at it. I know we looked at an ordinance, and I'm hoping there's some money that was earmarked for that
ordinance that we looked at earlier this year.
MR. KURTZ: As far as specific monitoring of stormwater discharges, we had that going on in our Lely
Area Stormwater Improvement Program area. So we have a water -quality monitoring program there, principally
the main three outfalls: Treviso Bay Isles of Collier, over there.
And then the second one that we monitor regularly is the Freedom Park discharges of stonnwater
Freedom Park system. Those are principally the two systems that we're currently monitoring, as well Pollution
Control has a pretty extensive surface -water monitoring program.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Pollution Control still works for you.
MR. KURTZ: Amy, yep.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: I just have one other question. I'll come back to it. I just lost it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's one of the things --
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Yeah, I know it. You get to be 70 years old, it gets pretty tough, you
know I mean?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else have any stormwater? Karl?
COMMISSIONER FRY: Hey, Jerry.
MR. KURTZ: Hello.
COMMISSIONER FRY: A question about stormwater management in the Estates areas. And I'm sure
that -- I noticed on Page 44 you have a chart, a colored chart, and then you have a list of about 21 stonnwater
improvement projects that equated to that. I'm sure you get a lot of requests, my neighborhood being one, where
water or stormwater flow is impeded down the swales through Estates -type neighborhoods by culverts that are old
and are higher than the current standard.
And I'm --I guess I'm wondering, how do these projects make the list? How are they prioritized? And
what is the prognosis for all those hundreds of sheets in the Estates where we do have flow issues because of
culverts and swale issues?
MR. KURTZ: Most of the projects listed there are the capital projects, the ones that we need design
consultants to help us, more an improvement project.
In the Estates is something that would need permitting and things of that nature. In the Estates
rehabilitating the roadside swales and the roadside system is more of a maintenance activity, and, you know, not
necessarily needs permits. You just need a plan to go in and go through whole sections of the Estates slowly but
surely and deal with the culverts that are too high or too small and that sort of thing, and that's our -- road
maintenance group, Road Maintenance Department's working on that. And we'll be developing a more
wide -reaching plan to attack that in a logical manner.
But, historically, street by street there always has been a digging effort, a clearing effort, a mowing effort
in those roadside systems.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Is that considered -- all those Estates -type streets, is that considered a major
issue, or is it just a minor issue when you consider the whole stormwater picture?
MR.KURTZ: My opinion, and I think the opinion of the program, is it's more of a minor. And, I mean,
I don't want to discount it. It's a major maintenance chore, burden, and event, but the system works pretty well in
the Estates; just because the density's lower, there's a lot of room.
And, for example, if we had every ditch cleaned out super clean, we then have concerns about speeding
up the delivery of the water into the primary system.
So a lot of the things in that system that may not be highlighted to everybody is that, you know, a slow,
more trickling flow in those ditches and seeing those ditches full in the summertime pretty regularly, almost daily,
it's not necessarily a bad thing, and it doesn't necessarily indicate a problem.
Those roadside systems, the function really serves three things. Of course, conveyance, but capturing
and holding as well where you get that water -quality treatment. And, you know, the low -impact development
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techniques and movement is still pretty — going on pretty strong, and that's literally the collection, hold, and
treatment of the water at the source where the runoff is being generated, and that actually occurs very well in all
of the Estates, really.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Okay. So it would be safe to say that that's not going to rise to the level of
being a major capital project at any time in the future?
MR. KURTZ: Not a major capital project unless, you know, one particular street is identified where all
the culverts are wrong.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Right.
MR. KURTZ: You know, that gets to be more -- the magnitude of that could be -- cost -wise and
construction -wise could be bigger, but it's a major maintenance effort, for sure, but it's something that, you know,
you put on a schedule and just --like, you'd cover the whole county. Say, in X number of years every ditch
would get dug on a ditch cycle, and that's what we're doing right now. With a little bit more funding, we should
have a little bit more robust effort in that regard.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Thank you.
I know Commissioner Schmitt had something to ask.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: I was going to ask about the rehydration of Picayune Strand, but that's
stormwater. Gary's gone. Is that in your funding purview as well, or that's a long-term project?
MS. PATTERSON: It is.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Oh, there's Gary. I see him back there naw. Is that being foreclosed
for funding?
MR. MCALPIN: No, because what we're looking at this point in time is to have that funded, the balance
of the project that hasn't been funded, to be funded by Pot No. 2 with the -- out of the BP oil spill funding.
So we're looking to -- we have $18 million right now. The balance of that is we are looking to have that
funded by Pot 2, which is the consortium. We have some agreements with Department of Transportation in
Tallahassee, that they have set some money aside for us, and we'll work through that. And then if it needs to be
funded, if there's a balance needed to be funded, then we'll talk about the general revenue funds.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: So you're still moving forward then.
MR. McALPIN: Absolutely.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Okay. Amy, the stormwater, in lieu of a countywide maintenance fee,
are you looking at the possibility of a basin by basin MSTBU of some sort? If you recall, many years ago when
we looked at the Naples Park situation, of course, we went to the residents, and they overwhelmingly opposed it.
Of course, they wanted the county to pay for it. But none of that's being considered. You're still just doing it on
a basis of countywide through additional funds that are allocated for maintenance then?
MS. PATTERSON: That is correct.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Okay.
MS. PATTERSON: And just a note on the RESTORE project, we do --in future fiscal years, are
anticipating at least some offsetting dollars into the stormwater program for Mr. McAlpin's project for the county
portion.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Yeah. Are we --do we have any violation out there right now for water
quality?
MS. PATTERSON: On the Picayune?
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Any ofthe outfalls. I noticed --I believe the City of Naples was --
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: --hit with a water quality, but I don't believe there was anything in the
county that was cited.
MS. PATTERSON: Well, 33 percent of the water bodies in Collier County are impaired, but we don't
have any BMAPs right now.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Right. Okay.
MS. PATTERSON: And Pollution Control section is working hard with DEP and others to be sure that
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we keep it that way for as long as possible.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you, Amy. Was that the last of your department?
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, but I'll be around for anything with the impact fees for the rest of the sections,
but my folks are gone.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you very much.
MS. PATTERSON: Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Those that are left -- Barry, you've probably got two --or at least a couple items
we maybe have questions on, and we can let you go home. You've got all the parks?
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: What page is Barry?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And the library you're doing tonight?
MR. WILLIAMS: Yes. Good evening, Barry Williams, Parks and Recreation director.
And so, certainly if the Commission has any questions, I'm here to answer them.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Barry's got both the regional community parks and the libraries. So does
anybody have any questions?
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Just based on Corby's introduction for the golf course, Golden Gate Golf
Course, I didn't see anything in there as far as forecasting of what you guys are going to do with it, and I just
didn't know if it was in the funding forecast.
MR. WILLIAMS: No. Good question, Joe.
And so with the golf course, we did include it as regional park acreage. It's 167 acres acquired.
There is a process that the Board is pursuing in terms of doing some master planning of the site. The
whole purpose of the purchase of the property was to look at some possibilities for some of the surtax projects and
to convert a portion of the golf course that way.
We have had some interest, as you're aware, public interest as well as far as a public golf course. And so
one of the things that we're doing is working with First Tee and KOVA Management. KOVA is actually mowing
the grass out there now. But the Board will consider the possibilities of, on a short-term basis, perhaps,
re -opening the course until the long-term plan is determined.
There area lot of possibilities with that. And Davidson Engineering is going to be doing the strategic
master plan for that project. And so as we gather public input on the project and see what the possibilities are,
certainly we want to make available the portion that's set aside for the surtax projects, but the remaining land
we're going to look at that as well in terms of what we possibly could do.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Will there be a full pro forma done as far as users' fees paying for the
service, or do you think it will be subsidized with county tax dollars?
MR. WILLIAMS: Well, I think that's part of our understanding of the Board's concern about getting into
the golf course business, especially in this area, whether, you know, you could cover your expenses. We have
peers in Florida that operate golf courses. Some operate -- West Palm Beach, for example, or Palm Beach
County, rather, they do a pretty decent job.
A lot of the counties, though, that own and operate municipal courses, they are subsidized. They don't
pay for themselves. And so, absolutely, to your question, in terms of the Board analyzing the potential of a golf
course, we do understand that they would look closely at the numbers and whether it made sense financially.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Okay. Manatee Park, where are we with that?
MR. WILLIAMS: Manatee Park is a 60 -acre parcel right off 951.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: I'm looking for it on the sheet.
MR. WILLIAMS: It currently is used -- its a vacant piece of land that's used by a local club that flies
model airplanes. The park itself, the lands were considered for affordable housing in the last year or so. The
Board chose not to pursue affordable housing at that location.
The park -- we don't have any particular plans in the future. It is in the park's master plan for
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development. We have gotten some input primarily from Fiddler's Creek about developing that park into a
passive park. We've got some good ideas for that, but we don't have plans in the near future to develop it.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else? Parks or libraries?
MR. SCHMIDT: Libraries is a separate presenter.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Oh, is it? Barry, I thought that was under you. I'm sorry.
MR. SCHMIDT: No, sir. I think Tanya Williams is here.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Oh, I don't know why I would think that.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Barry, nice to see you again. It's been a longtime. Bary helped us with the
Oaks Estates neighborhood park.
MR. WILLIAMS: Yes, thank you.
COMMISSIONER FRY: We were --Joe brought up the Golden Gate Golf Course. I guess there are
two other items on Page 150. I was just wondering what's going on with the Collier County Sports Complex.
How's that developing? And then the Vanderbilt Beach access, what is that?
MR. WILLIAMS: Well, the sports complex is under construction. The first phase of that is anticipated
to be delivered spring --late spring, early summer. The first phase includes five athletic fields. The cool thing
about it, it's artificially turfed. That's a tremendous thing for us in Florida. You know, when you have grass,
you've got to keep people off of it to re -grow it. With artificial turf, you can play everyday. You can play in
the weather, as long as its not lightning. So that first phase is going to get delivered.
They'll be working on the second or third phase of that project in subsequent years. Final buildout you're
looking probably 2022/'23.
COMMISSIONER FRY: When was the first phase?
MR. WILLIAMS: First phase is going to be delivered May/June of'20.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: On time and within budget.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Budget.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Sure.
MR. WILLIAMS: Absolutely.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Joe certifies that.
MR. WILLIAMS: The Vanderbilt Beach access, that's just an addition that we have. We have some
access points along Gulf Shore Boulevard. We realized in our review of the AUIR that they hadn't been included
in the inventory, so we are adding those at this time.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you, Barry.
MR. WILLIAMS: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: How about libraries? I got her mixed up. For some reason I thought libraries
was --
MS. WILLIAMS: Barry and I have been working closely this last fiscal year, so we're good.
For the record, Tanya Williams, library director.
Just a few things I did want to bring to your attention that were changes to this year's AUIR that you may
not have -- that were not part of prior years.
We did make an adjustment in the available square footage for libraries. We had to reduce that by 7,000
square feet. The old Golden Gate library, at one point in time we were anticipating reclaiming some of that
space. That has not happened. None of the 7,000 square feet from the old building is being utilized for library
services, so we removed that from our building capacity square footage.
That will now show you -- that actually now shows us as reaching a deficit by Fiscal Year 2028. So
that's the first time you'll see a deficit in your library square footage in a very long time.
The other thing that -- that's the major thing that I wanted to draw your attention to. I am available for
questions if you have any questions you'd like to ask.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Joe?
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COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: My compliments to the library. When I --
MS. WILLIAMS: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: My wife, I tell her to get online and say, why don't you ask the library to
get this book, when I just finished, and you guys get it within --as soon as it comes out. And it's filling all my
free time when I'm not reading 10,000 pages for the Planning Commission.
MS. WILLIAMS: Awesome. We like to hear that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Good luck with that.
Ned?
COMMISSIONER FRYER: What percentage of your visitors, people who come to the library, are there
to access hard copy material versus electronic material?
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Oh, that's a good question.
MS. WILLIAMS: That's a very good question. I can --I can best answer that based on our circulation
statistics. So you're looking at now we're averaging anywhere from 35 to 37 percent of our circulation is through
e -resources.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Thank you.
MS. WILLIAMS: And that number continues to rise.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Thanks.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Anybody else?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you, ma'am. Appreciate it.
MS. WILLIAMS: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is there any other department personnel here on a specific department we
haven't already talked about?
CHIEF BUTCHER: EMS.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Oh, hi. You don't look like Dan Summers. That's good.
CHIEF BUTCHER: No, I'm not.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: He's usually the one that I think brings --talks to us, or somebody does.
CHIEF BUTCHER: It's usually me. Tabatha Butcher, chief of Collier County EMS.
So our AUIR for this year is pretty consistent as far as the growth units that are projected that you've seen
in the past couple of years.
We do have three units planned within the next few years. One of them is for the growth that is going on
out east. We have a word to the Land Trust to acquire five acres at the DeSoto Boulevard and Golden Gate
Boulevard, so we're currently working on the finalization of that purchase of that property.
After that we are looking at Immokalee Road and Collier Boulevard, and then we're looking at Old 41
after that. All of these stations that we do have projected, we have been in discussion with the fire departments
as well as law enforcement personnel to make sure that we're collocating in those facilities.
And that's pretty much it as far as our growth units that are planned. You will see in this year's AUIR
that we did have $6 million that was set aside from the surtax money to fund some of those EMS stations. That
was strictly for the building. That did not include the ambulance or the equipment that goes along with that.
So with that, if you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Joe.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: I noted that you still show Fiddler's Creek. Is that just a proposed, or is
that actually moving forward? That's on 41.
CHIEF BUTCHER: Sure. Right now that is just a proposed station. Since we have --when that
facility or that development came on, there was discussion about setting aside the property for an EMS facility.
COMMISSIONER SCIIMITT: I know the property's still set aside.
CHIEF BUTCHER: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: But that would be just an EMS. 'There's no fire station proposed.
CHIEF BUTCHER: Potentially. So what we do with the fire districts is when each of us have a unit
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that is planned, you know, the county has property, the fire districts have property. We get together, and we talk
about what we have coming up in the future. And we look and say, okay, should we locate on the county
property or should we locate on the fire district property? What's the better for the two of us?
So depending how that goes -- I do know Greater Naples has some property at Lakes Park and 41, which
is just a little bit further east. So as we get closer to that, that will be discussions that we have with them on what
piece of property that we locate on.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else? Ned?
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Hi, Chief.
CHIEF BUTCHER: Hi. How are you?
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Good.
The Chief and I have ongoing conversations about issues that arise in EMS, and the department does an
excellent job with the resources given and are to be commended. All departments really are, but I just have a
special level of knowledge detail with EMS, and so I wanted to say thanks to Chief Butcher and all her people
who are great.
There are some challenges. And at some point I think the Board of County Commissioners and others
are going to have to make some difficult choices that are going to be necessary in order to continue to provide the
excellent service that is currently being provided to the residents of Collier County.
We at the Emergency Medical Authority look at -- on a monthly basis we look at the statistics for
response tunes and divide it into the urban and the rural part of the county, which is roughly Collier Boulevard.
CHIEF BUTCHER: Correct.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: And the target to be hit for ALS, let's say, is eight minutes or less
90 percent of the time in the urban and 12 minutes or less in the rural. And those are -- those are proven to be
very aggressive if not elusive goals to achieve. And the department does everything that it possibly can to get
those numbers as good as they can.
But without additional resources, it's difficult for me to see how we're ever going to get to the point where
the department can perform as well as I know it could perform if it had those resources.
I'd hate to see the LOS be reduced, but that's one option that the BCC would have in front of it to say,
well, we just can't on a regular basis achieve eight minutes and 12 minutes. And so rather than fall short --we
don't fall short in every district, every zone, but we do in enough of them that it's worth being concerned about.
One way of resolving or remediating that problem would be to lower our level of service and say, well,
nine minutes and 13 minutes should be the targets that we could achieve 90 percent of the time, and then our
statistics would look better. But I think Chief Butcher agrees with me that that's not what anybody really wants
to do in the county. We'd like to get those numbers lower rather than higher.
And so at some point I think more dollars are going to have to be committed to EMS which, as everybody
knows, is a money-losing operation annually. It's not something that if we increase volume we could make it up
in volume. You can't do that with losses.
So what is needed, I think, is more money, more stations, and more personnel. When DeSoto
opens -- and DeSoto's probably going to be the first of the new ones to open, my guess is is its capacity is going to
be completely absorbed by Rivergrass and Rivergrass' siblings. They're going to bring in thousands of potential
patients. And so I would be surprised if, as a result of the addition of that DeSoto station, those numbers are
going to get appreciably better. We're going to have to wait for the other stations that we hope can be brought
online sooner rather than later.
And, Chief, would you maybe comment upon my comments? And if there's away that you could be
more reassuring than I've been, I know everyone would like to hear that.
CHIEF BUTCHER: Okay. Sure. So Mr. Fryer is correct, we have had those conversations. And if
you take a look at Page 222 in your packet under our ALS resources, this is the response tines that he's referring
to.
So we're -- you know, we meet the 90 percent in many of our zones; however, if you look at the
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nine -minute, we're pretty much hitting it in every zone. So we're kind of between that eight- and nine -minute.
One of the challenges that we've noticed that we're having is a lot of the zones that we have ambulances,
or like the geographical areas within the county that we have ambulances, they can get to, say, the neighborhood
that they're responding to within quite a -- you know, a couple minutes. Some of the challenges we're having is
these gated communities. It takes us quite awhile to get through them, especially if the address is way in the
back. So that's some of the challenges that we've noticed.
We have hired a consultant that's currently working on a report to take a look at our current geographical
zone where ambulances are located and how we add ambulances in the future. So that will be done within a
month or so. So definitely next year coming back to this AUIR based on what they have given us, we'll be able
to say, okay, this is what we think we should add. It may not be a station with an ambulance, but it may be
12 -hour ambulances, or it may be vehicles that do not necessarily transport to the hospital but that can get on
scene and provide care in a timely manner.
So next year it may look a little bit different when we have this conversation again.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Chief, you should also comment upon --well, I won't ask her to brag. I'll
brag for her. She and her staff have done a great job in jawboning the issue with the hospitals of reducing the
offload time, which has been a real success story.
When I first went on the Emergency Medical Authority, l took a look at those numbers. And in the
experience that I've had in the city of St. Louis where we were serving teaching hospitals, we just -- you know,
having to wait -- having to have a paramedic wait in the emergency room to give care over to nurses and have to
wait for sometimes an hour or even an hour and a half keeps that ambulance off the street and reduces the services
capacity to take care of the residents.
But those numbers have really improved particularly this year. And so kudos to you, and, of course, to
the hospitals as well. Because we can ask them all afternoon, but then they have to be responsive, and they have
been responsive by adding on resources.
And as you probably know, emergency rooms are not profit centers for hospitals. So you could
understand from a business standpoint why they don't want to add staff to emergency rooms and, therefore, there
is a built-in conflict, if you will, between our needs and their desires.
The other thing I want to say that Chief Butcher and her people have brought about is we're getting a new
EMS helicopter. And you may not know this, but there are no trauma centers in Collier County. And so if you,
as a patient, are involved in a severe, let's say, motor vehicle accident or other instance where you really need to
get into the operating room within what's called the golden hour, it can't really be done using the hospital facilities
in Collier County. So having a good robust helicopter system, our MedFlight, to get patients to Lee County or to
Miami -Dade or Broward County is essential in order to get the care for those very, very seriously injured patients.
And so I think it's wonderful that we're getting a new helicopter. That's good stuff.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else have any questions of EMS?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Miss, thank you.
CHIEF BUTCHER: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Thanks, Chief.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Corby, the remaining ones are law enforcement and government buildings. Is
anybody here to take care of those, or are you going to add --we just ask you any questions? I can't recognize
people.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: I don't see anybody.
MR. SCHMIDT: Not seeing familiar faces.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Does anybody have any questions that we need to ask of those items?
COMMISSIONER FRYER: I just have one comment.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: And it's in the nature of a complimeitto the Sheriffs Office. I justthink
these statistics -- in 2003 there were 3,000 instances of crime per 100,000, and that's been cut in half in 2018.
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And I think our Sheriffs Office is to be congratulated for doing an amazing job.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else?
MR. SCHMIDT: We share that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Questions? Go ahead, Karl.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Yes, Mark. I just noticed on Page 173 of our packet that the jail facilities are
ahead of the game for this year but then they move into a deficit status starting next year, and they -- it seems to
get worse and worse as we go. The blue line is higher than the red line pretty much for the rest of time. I was
just wondering if there's any plan to catch up with the number of jail beds that are needed, if I'm reading that
correctly.
MR. SCHMIDT: You are reading it correctly. And the study is underway to close that gap by the time
we reach it, so to speak.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Thankyou.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Corby, that brings us to the end. Do you have any --other than that, we'll
just -- ask for a motion, and that's about all you need at this point?
MR. SCHMIDT: Just a reminder to include all five points of the recommendations in your record --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Does anybody want to make a motion to recommend to the Board of County
Commissioners a recommendation as outlined by staff on the recommendation page, which is Page 9 of their
report? Is that where you're going?
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Yeah. I was going to --I closed my system down, but I make a motion
that we forward this AUIR to the Board of County Commissioners for their final approval.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Second.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion made and seconded consistent with the recommendation --
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Consistent with the --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- of staff.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: --recommendation. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: All those in favor, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONERFRY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONERHOMIAK: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carries.
And that takes us to the most difficult part of our agenda tonight -- well, public comment. There's not
really any public here.
Motion to adjourn?
COMMISSIONER FRYER: So moved.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Second.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: All in favor, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONERHOMIAK: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
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Special CCPC/AUIR, October 21, 2019
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We're out of here.
There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting was adjourned by order of the
Chair at 6:40 p.m.
COLLIER COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION
MARK STRAIN, CHAIRMAN
These minutes approved by the Board on , as presented or as corrected
TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF U.S. LEGAL SUPPORT, INC.,
BY TERRI LEWIS, COURT REPORTER AND NOTARY PUBLIC.
Page 27 of 28
Special CCPC/AUIR, October 21, 2019
Page 28 of 28
Special CCPC/AUIR, October 21, 2019
TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE
COLLIER COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION
Naples, Florida, October 21, 2019
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 5:00 p.m., in SPECIAL SESSION in Building "F"
of the Government Complex, East Naples, Florida, with the following members present:
Mark Strain, Chairman
Karen Homiak, Vice Chair
Edwin Fryer, Secretary
Karl Fry (absent for roll call)
Joe Schmitt, Environmental
ABSENT:
Patrick Dearborn
Stan Chrzanowski, Environmental
Tom Eastman, Collier County School
Board
ALSO PRESENT:
Corby Schmidt, Principal Planner
Heidi Ashton-Cicko, Managing Assistant County Attorney
Sally Ashkar, Assistant County Attorney
Page 1 of 27
Special CCPC/AUIR, October 21, 2019
PROCEEDINGS
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Everybody, if we could have your attention. We're going to start our meeting.
It's 5 o'clock.
Welcome to the special meeting for the Collier County Planning Commission, Monday, October 21st.
This is for the Annual Update and Inventory Report.
If everybody will please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.
(The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Will the secretary please do the roll call.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Yes, sir.
Mr. Eastman?
(No response.)
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Mr. Chrzanowski?
(No response.)
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Mr. Fry?
(No response.)
COMMISSIONER FRYER: I'm here.
Chairman Strain?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Here.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Vice Chair Homiak?
COMMISSIONER HOMIAK: Here.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Mr. Schmitt?
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Here.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Mr. Dearborn?
(No response.)
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Mr. Chair, we have a quorum of four.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. The others had let me know they may not make it tonight. Mr. Fryis
on the way. He's running late. If someone knows he's at the door, don't answer it.
With that, we'll move into our first and only public hearing tonight. It's been continued from
October 3rd. It's the Annual Update and Inventory Report, PL -20190000983. It's legislative. We won't need
any swearing in or any disclosures.
But I do kind of want to layout, quickly, how we're going to go about this. I don't know how many
people are in the room from each department, but after Corby gives his introduction, I'll ask everybody from a
common department one at a timeto raise your hands. And what I'd like to do is get you out of here and home as
quickly as we possibly can.
So if you've got three people here now and transportation's got three, go out and get somebody else to
come in and sit so they'll say they're with you, and then you'll be first up.
COMMISSIONER HOMIAK: Look at Trinity.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Trinity's going to run out. So anyway. Jamie can pick whatever side he wants
to benefit that cause.
Which takes us to Corby. Corby, if you can leadoff, we'll move right into it.
MR. SCHMIDT: This year the AUIR is presented with a few changes from last, of course, and the staff
has revised the staff report to refresh it a bit. And we gave you an at -a -glance section to show you what's new
from last year, some continuing projects we listed midway down the first page, and if you have reviewed it,
you've seen them listed already.
Projects from the previous AUIR that have changed in this schedule: The Golden Gate Golf Course, the
county forensic science facility, and you'll see some new dates. That's been moved up in time; Heritage Bay
county government services center; Heritage Bay parking garage; and a number of roads and bridges projects.
New in the AUIR since last year, a number of EMS stations, law enforcement firearms training range,
correctional facilities, the mental health step-down facility, and tentatively an Immokalee Jail addition. So these
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Special CCPC/AUIR, October 21, 2019
are asterisked to show you they're associated with the surtax.
(Commissioner Fry is now present.)
MR. SCHMIDT: Typical background section has been updated to just give you an idea of history of the
AUIR, why we do this each year and why it's important.
The growth management impact, we've tried to point out the changes, and we gave an additional look at
populations this year. And in order to make another comparison with the way we use populations throughout the
AUIR and in the Capital Improvements Elements throughout facilities planning, we used a number of different
measurements, a number of different populations. And instead of spreading therm out and seeing them in each of
the facilities, we put them into a table that I think you see beginning at the bottom of Page 5, continuing onto
Page 6.
You see how special districts use certain populations. Some of the facilities use permanent population
projections, such as your public facilities. Your peak populations are used most by your Category B facilities,
your government buildings, your EMS, your library collections and buildings, your law enforcement and your jail
and correctional facilities, parks and rec facilities, and so forth. And then there are those that do not use
populations in their needs or their levels of service, and those are your roads, your stormwater management
facilities, and your Category C facilities, coastal zones.
The chart on the bottom of Page 6 shows you certificate of occupancy figures. As we do each year, we
update that to give you a flow or continuum of activity in the county.
Moving on to fiscal impacts and recommendations. And as with each year, by the time we're done today,
your recommendation coming from today is fivefold: To make a recommendation to the county board to accept
and recommend approval of the CIE and AUIR; to accept and recommend approval that all Category E and C
facilities set forth -- and the Category A facilities set forth in the capital improvements schedule to be approved;
find that there are no inconsistencies with the school district's Capital Improvement Plan compared to other
improvements within the AUIR or CIE; to consider alternative levels of service for individual components where
deemed appropriate; and, five, to recommend adoption of the capital improvements update by reference of the
school's Capital Improvement Plan and their district facilities work program.
With that, simply move forward to those in the audience who are here represented by the most
representatives.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Before we do, I want to make sure, does anybody on the Planning Commission
have any questions of Corby's introductions? That take us through Page 11.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: I do.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. By the way, just out of curiosity, do we all have the same document? I
have 306 pages.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Two hundred ninety-four here. Close.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Two ninety-four.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Two ninety-four.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I'm working for the govermnent, so I should have a different number.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: You have the bonus.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: I had myself setup here, then I lost my little place.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Do you want Joe to go first?
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Sure.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Joe.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Yeah. Corby, on Page 9, you show the population projections. I think
the chart is clear, but just to make sure, when I look at 2019 and I see 374,994 and then the following number is
382,800 and so on, I'm assuming those are the out -years then.
So you probably should label the top of that graph as -- am I looking at this correctly? So I look at 2019,
and their that would be Year 1 through 5 of the projections of growth from 2'19 -- 2019; is that -- do you follow
me on the chart?
MR. SCHMIDT: I do.
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Special CCPC/AUIR, October 21, 2019
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: You show numbers, and I assume those are the five-year projections,
Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4 and 5, though it's not labeled.
MR. SCHMIDT: Oh, but they are, yes.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Okay. Just for clarity. And you may want to label that next time you
make that chart.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ned.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Corby, Page 8 out of the 294 --so I don't know where that's going to hit on
yours, Chair. We've had this conversation, you and I, in previous years. And I'm really just kind of confirming
what I think is the case -- and this will be quick. But at the top of that page you say the process of capital
improvement programming for the county is a linear equation for most components of the AUIR, and the
equation, new population times level -of -service standard equals capital improvements.
And so I'm confirming, then, my understanding that the CIE and the impact fees and other components of
the revenues that can flow into the CIE, these are for additional or improvements as opposed to for maintenance
and repair, correct?
MR. SCHMIDT: That's correct.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Could you just refresh me, then, is it out of the county property tax? I
know it gets into the General Fund. Primarily, where are maintenance/repair items funded from?
MR. SCIB4IDT: Those dollars come from a number of sources, and perhaps Susan Usher may answer
that better for you, because it's different each year.
MS. USHER: Hi, I'm Susan Usher from the Budget Office.
If it's general governmental, primarily it would be, like, General Fund. If you're talking about an
enterprise fund, like water/sewer, solid waste, they have their own funding sources through user fees. I'm trying
to think what — I think those are the two.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. That pretty much answers my question. I didn't see any reference
in here to property tax receipts. So those real -property tax receipts, they flow into the General Fund?
MS. USHER: Yes, with many other funding sources. So we just refer to it as General Fund because it's
a mixed bag that includes ad valorem and sales tax revenue sharing, many other revenue type sources.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. Good. That's what I wanted to just reconfirm. Thank you very
much.
My next question is on Page 9, and there is a chart at the top of Page 9 with the AUIR year running down
the left column, and then BEBR estimates is the next one over to the right, and then there are several columns that
don't have headings, and I just don't understand them.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: That's the same one I referenced.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Oh, okay.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: I said Page 2, but I was mistaken. Page 9.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: That should have been the out -years 1 through 5 which are not labeled.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. Got it, same answer then. Good. They -- let's see. Then on the
same -- no, excuse me, Page 9 out of 294, there's a reference here that says the projected population increase totals
36,030 for the five-year period or 7,206 period (sic) for people per year using the county's 2.38 persons per
household rate.
Now, when we were hearing from Rivergrass, they were using a 1.2, but that -- the 1.2 is not consistent
with the county numbers, is it?
MR. SCHMIDT: No. This is the figure that we use.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Yeah. Okay. And this would be the official county figure, the 2.38;
would it not?
MR. SCHMIDT: It is.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. Then Igo to Page 12, bullet point -- or No. 5. The various choices
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Special CCPC/AUIR, October 21, 2019
that would be before the Board of County Commissioners in the event that the revenues and expenditures do not
equal themselves. And No. 5 says, not issuing development orders that would continue to cause a deficiency
based on the facilities adopted level -of -service standard. Is that ever likely to happen? Has it ever happened
before? Does that --
MR. SCHMIDT: I'm not aware of it happening in the past, and it is unlikely to happen in the future.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. That's what I thought. Then I go to Page 13.
MR. SCHMIDT: However --
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: In answer to your question, we've had moratoriums issued in the past but
for traffic not -- which halted the issuing of permits.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Yeah. Those are, like, for one year or less, moratoriums?
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: It depends.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: But other than moratoriums, that hasn't been something that's happened,
okay.
Then I noticed -- and I reference it here on Page 13, but the place where at least I first saw and my word
search -- my electronic word search first disclosed the aggregate CIE number, it's $1.33 billion, right? And that
comes up on Page 287, but I guess my only comment would have been maybe it should have been mentioned a
little earlier as well just to give us the order of magnitude that we're talking about. Am I correct on that number?
MR. SCHMIDT: You are.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. Thank you. Let's see. Igo to Page 19.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We're going to just do Corby's question.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. Then I'm finished with that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead. Karl?
COMMISSIONER FRY: More of an observation, Corby, just to make sure I'm understanding. The
same chart that Joe and Ned have asked about on Page 9.
MR. SCHMIDT: Okay.
COMMISSIONER FRY: It seems tome this model is based on the accuracy of the forecast, since
population is one of the main multipliers for your formula. But if I'm looking at this table correct, it looks like
you've been pretty darn accurate in terns of forecasting the growth. Growth has been rather consistent during
this period, but if you look at this table and you look down at 2019, that first number, 374,994, that equates to the
estimate in the next column for 2018, correct, 376,086?
MR. SCHMIDT: Approximately, yes.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: So last year they estimated that we'd have 376,086 people here, and this
year we actually had 374,994. And even if you look back to 2014 and you extend out, say, to 2018, the actual
number is 45. It's only different by 45 people for four years in the future. So just observing that. It seems like
the forecasting element of the population has been pretty accurate, at least during this time period.
MR. SCHMIDT: Those estimate years seem further apart, but once projected later that year or in the
next year, they become very accurate, yes.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Thatwas it. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. The next opportunity, I guess is who --how many from each
department? It looks like transportation, utilities --how many people from transportation are here? Two?
Three, okay.
How about utilities? You guys win. So let's go to utilities next.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Utilities.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You can go home and get out of here as soon as we finish.
So with that, would -- whatever one of your gentlemen want to start with your presentation or discussion.
We'll probably have more questions than you'll have talk, so -- at least Ned will.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Actually, I don't on this.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: He won't then. And you've got to give us what page out of 306 you're at. Do
you know that? You do, good. You're the only one. Or 294, whatever the real number is.
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Special CCPC/AUIR, October 21, 2019
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: The page of the report.
MR. FEY: For the record, Eric Fey, principal project manager for Public Utilities and Engineering, the
Project Management Division.
Just to be sure, you want to go through potable water and wastewater or solid and hazardous waste?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You have all three, right? Let's just take them in the order that you want, and
we'll get through all three of them.
MR. FEY: All right. Well, as long as I'm up here, I'll take you through --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Now, if transportation would have figured this out, Amy would have stood up
and said we're going to do drainage, stonnwater, but she didn't.
MS. PATTERSON: And all the impact fees. Next time.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Too late.
MS. SCOTT: We love you guys.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead, Eric.
MR. FEY: We do have some additional information and modifications I just wanted to highlight for the
Planning Commission.
Starting with the potable water, Mr. Chairman, last year you had requested that we address wellfield
capacity in the AUIR, so we did that this year. You'll find that beginning on Page 79 of your packet we provided
a summary of each of the wellfields, and then a level -of -service standard assessment table on Page 82.
And on that table, you'll see an asterisk that's explained on the following pages in the notes that basically
when you see an asterisk we are meeting our plant capacity with the wellfield that we have in place -- with the
wells we have in place.
And then there's a chart on Page 85 of your packet that shows graphically in red the total wellfield reliable
capacity with the stacked columns underneath it representing each of the individual wellfield facilities. And then
the blue line is the required finished water for maximum three-day average daily demand. As you can see, we've
got plenty of wellfield capacity.
So I can pause there and see if you have any questions on that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: My only -- you're still monitoring our aquifer levels, and are they still holding?
I know I asked that last year, and the report was it was. And I get that question a lot. Residents seethe amount
of population we have here, and they're -- one of the first things they ask about is, do we have enough water? I
assure them it's covered because of all that great monitoring you do. And I just want to make sure we haven't had
a change in the monitoring status. You're still monitoring, and they haven't depreciated?
MR. FEY: That's correct.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: They're holding strong.
Is anything going to change because of the dry --we had a very dry September and October as well. I
mean, those are usually the two wettest months. Are they causing you any concern?
MR. FEY: I'd let Steve Messner, if he'd like to come up here and address that specifically. I will say
that we've done some wellfield rehabilitation projects over the course of the past few years, and those have helped
restore some of our wellfield reduction capacity, and he can speak more so to the aquifers.
MR. MESSNER: Good afternoon. Steve Messner, director of Water Division.
To answer your question, Chairman Strain, we monitor aquifer levels very closely, actually, weekly, as
soon as we get into the drier season. We did have a very dry September/October, so we're actually -- we actually
stepped that up to do what we would normally do during the dry season.
We also have a very detailed specific wellfield monitoring schedule or well rotation plan that we filed
with South Florida Water Management District, and we follow that. In other words, it's kind of simply to spread
the use around from the wellfields and not just use one area or one zone of the wellfield all the time.
So short answer is, we're in good shape.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: How about saltwater movement? Are you seeing any saltwater lands (sic)
moving inland at all? Are you guys monitoring where that --how that location's changing?
MR. MESSNER: We monitoring that very closely. We have seen --traditionally, we have seen
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Special CCPC/AUIR, October 21, 2019
somewhat of saltwater intrusion on the western end of the north RO wellfield, but we've always seen that for
years. So we monitor that, we have not seen that encroaching further east on any other wellfields.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you.
MR. MESSNER: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else have any questions on water?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. We'll just move to, I guess, sewer system.
MR. FEY: Again, for the record, Eric Fey, principal project manager at Public Utilities Engineering and
Project Management.
Your wastewater section begins on Page 92 of your packet. We did have some changes in the structure
of the report this year. In former years we had everything divided into two service areas, north and south. This
year you'll see four -- excuse me, three. One being added was the northeast service area. We broke that out
separately this year because of all the activity -- development activity anticipated there.
On Page 95 of your packet is the service area map. You'll see some of our subregional service areas
highlighted in different colors. Ijust want to point out that Orangetree and Golden Gate City are lumped in with
our north service area. That's because they are now or to be in the future interconnected as a more regional or
subregional system.
The south and north service areas are also interconnected, and you'll see that. In your table there's some
diversion numbers in future years that show some transfer of flows from south to north.
The interconnectedness is still under development with our western interconnect, and I believe that's also
highlighted in the constraints section of this report. We did — obviously, we wanted to address the major service
areas separately, which is why we broke northeast out because it -- while it will be interconnected for water, it
will also be interconnected on wastewater, but we're building a new plant, so we felt it deserved its own
breakdown.
The planned improvements are addressed in your level -of -service standard tables. The north plant on
Page 101, you'll see .375 MGD added in Year 2021. That is the $5 million expansion to the northeast utility
wastewater treatment plant at Orangetree, not the new northeast utilities facilities. I just want to make that
distinction. There's some confusion over what's northeast.
On Page 105, the level -of -service standard table for the northeast shows a one -and -a -half MGD expansion
in Fiscal Year 2021, so that work is in design -build process now, and 1.5 MGD is the interim wastewater
treatment plant. You'll see that come off in the Fiscal Year 2027 because that will be retired upon the completion
of the permit for MGD new plant at the northeast utility facilities.
The wastewater collection and transmission system constraints section was updated based on current
master planning efforts and capital improvements updates, but no additional constraints noted.
And then you can see our checkbook concurrency was included again this year. And that's basically all I
wanted to highlight for you. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Just a couple. I noticed on the map on -- I think it was -- well, my Page 94, the
first map you started with. On the big --on the northeast wastewater service area, you've got all of Big Cypress
Stewardship District, which now has three villages so far proposed for it, I thought they were going to cut a deal
with Ave Maria to get some of their services from Ave Maria. Is that the -- did that not happen?
MR. FEY: No, sir. That was under discussion in the earlier stages with the Town of Rural Lands West,
but we negotiated to serve their entire district. An agreement on that is pending. I know they're --they've been
taking a lot of your time here lately, and so one of the conditions of approval for their petition is that we serve the
entire district per interlocal agreement.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You're doing Hyde Park, then, too?
MR. FEY: We are.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I notice you've got Hogan Island down here. They came in for a pre -app but
they never followed up. Are they still active as far as you -all are concerned, or did you just put it here just for
future reference?
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Special CCPC/AUIR, October 21, 2019
MR. FEY: We've had no -- to my knowledge, any dialogue with the developer on Hogan Island. I'm
not sure of their status. We did include them in our expanded service area, which was amended September last
year to include them. And, if you recall, there was some discussion at the Board meeting about them wanting to
get service from Ave Maria.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's right. Since it's the same.
MR. FEY: So they questioned it, but we ended up agreeing. They reserved the right to comeback to
the Board to protest in the future if we don't workout a deal. But I don't have any updates on the status of any
negotiations because they have not moved forward with their development.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And I noticed you've got the Immokalee Rural Village north of Orangetree.
When we have requests for places like Orangetree that have a certain density that you may have counted on -- we
had one come in recently that wanted to bump their number up by almost a third, 350 units, does that -- how do
you take that into -- I mean, can you take that in stride, those kind of jumps in density, without too much
problems, especially in that northeast area?
MR. FEY: I think you're referencing the Orange Blossom Ranch PUD amendment.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes.
MR. FEY: We had Barraco on that one go through the exercise of demonstrating pipe capacity. Plant
capacity isn't a concern at this point. We are, just for information, constructing a pump station that will be able to
shave peak flows off that plant and ship them to the north plant.
We've got plenty of plant capacity. There was a concern about conveyance capacity, but they addressed
that through the zoning process.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. I don't have anything else.
Anybody? Karl?
COMMISSIONER FRY: Eric, two questions on the charton Page 101 where you first pointed out the
.375 MGD growth or the enhancement in 2021. The column that says "retained operational treatment capacity,"
want does that mean?
MR. FEY: That is the balance of treatment capacity. When you subtract Columns 5 and 3, that's just
the difference between those two. So it basically means we have excess capacity at that plant.
COMMISSIONER FRY: I see. And then if I look at the maximum three-day average flow for 2021, it
says 21.6. You have a --I guess the permitted operational capacity's 26. So .375 is one and a half percent of
that or so. So I guess, what are you doing for $5 million that only adds one point -- if I'm reading that right.
Correct me if I'm wrong. It's my first time doing this. But what -- $5 million and what is --and it's adding
under 2 percent additional capacity. So what kind of an improvement is that? What's actually happening?
MR. FEY: I might call Tom Chmelik up hereto speak to that. I know we're doing some RIDS out there,
and he can speak in more detail to your question.
MR. CHMELIK: Tom Chmelik, for the record, public utilities. I think part of what you're seeing, the
number, .375, was in relation to the 21.6 that's the whole north service area. So if you look just at Orangetree
today, the capacity of that facility is much less at .75. So it's a substantial increase if you look at the facility
itself.
COMMISSIONER FRY: So you're doubling Orangetree --or you're adding 50 percent capacity to the
Orangetree facility?
MR. CHMELIK: That's what we're reviewing, yes.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: One more question. On the areas that you have constraints, North Naples, the
Activity Center No. 9, and up by Immokalee Road at the bend, should we be, from a zoning perspective, looking
more carefully at the densities that go in there and requests that come through and tying them -- possibly tying
them to when your constraints will be less constrained?
MR. SCHMIDT: That would be very helpful, yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, the reason I'm bringing it up is someone has to give us that hint, because
we won't remember that now. But if you have occurrences like this, a lot of times we can request the developer
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to phase in based on the needed infrastructure that will be in place and will be better suited for their operation. If
you give them letters ahead of time that basically says everything's okay, it doesn't give us a foot in the door to
suggest that we need some phasing on a project.
So seeing that we have three constrained areas, it might be helpful to keep that in mind for us when we
hear those, because I know you -all are getting our records as what we're doing. We look for your input, so that
would be helpful.
MR. CHMELIK: Well, we would appreciate the opportunity to do that, but that in these cases we are in
good shape, but in the future we'll certainly take advantage of that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Joe.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Just for clarity, but if you issue a certificate of adequate public facilities
for the entire development, then it becomes a nonissue.
MR. FEY: Yes, it does.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: I mean, you would have to tell us that there's not adequate capacity
available and then suggesting that there's some kind of phased development.
MR. SCHMIDT: Understood.
Anything you want to add?
MR. FEY: Again, for the record, Eric Fey. I just wanted to add that in each of these constraint
situations we have improvements being planned now to address those. So by our ordinance, "readily available
utilities" mean that the capacity will be there in the next five years, so --
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Okay.
MR. FEY: -- we take that into consideration with our zoning petitions that -- you know, if there will be
capacity in the next five years, we support the petitions. And depending on what comes -- depending on how
quickly the development permit applications come in, that's when the certificate of public facility adequacy is
issued, and that's when the detailed engineering analysis is done, when we know exactly what they're planning to
build. And if there's a problem, we work it out then.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Thank you.
I think we can move on to solid waste, if they're here.
MR. FEY: Thank you, Commissioners.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Good morning, young lady.
Now, I was expecting this big tall guy named Dan Rodriguez. He's doing something else now, I hear,
isn't he?
MS. HODGSON: He certainly is.
For the record, my name's Kari Hodgson, director of Solid and Hazardous Waste Management.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Joe wants to know where Dan's at. I don't even know his title anymore.
MS. HODGSON: The director -- deputy director for Utilities.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So he's kind of overall of us, not just one.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Oh, all right.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anyway, go ahead.
MS. HODGSON: ]'in a shorter version of Dan.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: In a number of ways.
MS. HODGSON: I introduced thyself at presentations. You are probably familiar with Dan Rodriguez,
who was born working for Collier Comity.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That he was.
MS. HODGSON: Notable in the 2019 AUIR for solid waste is a loss of eight years capacity to the
landfill life, and the reason for that is recognizing the finite capacity of the landfill in the county versus the
contracts that allow for capacity at an out -of -the -county location.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
MS. HODGSON: And that's the only major change, and I'll be happy to answer any questions you might
have about that.
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CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody?
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Your chart on Page 128 --
MS. HODGSON: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: --indicates you're good out to about 2052; am I reading that correct?
MS. HODGSON: That is correct. Twenty --it would be -- 10 years life would be about 2051.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: At what point do we need to start looking at additional land? This came up
years and years ago as well, and then we found ways to extend the life of the one we have by increasing the height
and other things.
MS. HODGSON: Yeah. That's a great point to bring up.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, we're dealing with out east now. Look what's happening. I mean, we're
going to see a population out there double the urban population we have today rather rapidly, at least what I think
is rapidly, compared to how we've been growing it for the past 40 years. And I'm wondering if we need to start
looking out there while the land is still available and we have an opportunity to grab it.
MS. HODGSON: That's part of my job. I do that on a daily basis seeing what the different options are
for Collier County for long -tern sustainable solid waste disposal, whether it be land here in Collier County,
agreements elsewhere. So those are all items that I've been looking at.
The AUIR highlights that at 2041 the initiation should be started, but it's never too soon to start looking.
So that is something I look at on a routine basis.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: And I would agree, because anywhere you're going to put this is going
to involve a significant amount of permitting, state and federal.
MS. HODGSON: And NIMBY syndrome, absolutely.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: And, of course, the objections of the community wherever you're going
to put this. So, yeah, delaying planning is only going to complicate the issue. But you've already stated you're
looking at it. This is probably the most critical thing right now in the whole AUIR.
MS. HODGSON: Thank you for understanding that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: How many acres are we going to look at when you go to acquire a new
location? Just out of curiosity.
MS. HODGSON: Part of what I've started doing -- I've only been here about seven months -- is getting
someone on board for strategic planning looking at where there's land available, what's involved with that, the
cost associated as well as partnerships with other disposal facilities, whether it be a neighboring county.
While Collier County's growing at a very fast rate, as you indicated in the northeast, counties like Lee
County have already maxed out capacity of their waste to energy and are now routing most of their waste to their
landfill which impacts their landfill life.
So the impact overall will be what is -- what's going to happen with the waste in Collier County, whether
it be a new landfill, partnerships, transfer stations. There's already two contracts in place with Okeechobee
Landfill. So those are all the different factors I'm looking at.
So I don't have a definitive answer for your question, but I'm looking at strategically planning to make
sure that something's getting put in place for the future of solid waste disposal in the county.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are we still operating the Immokalee Landfill?
MS. HODGSON: Not the landfill, but a transfer station is there. The landfill was enclosed.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. And all the plastics are still there?
MS. HODGSON: There's two small piles of it that still exist there.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: What about recycling; how we doing there?
MS. HODGSON: As of right now, this county is doing just fine with all the changes that have been
going on, but that's something that I take into considerations when I look at the numbers for projections is,
overall, what will be the impact of the challenges facing the industry.
Right now Collier County has franchise agreements in place that guarantee the disposal of the recyclables.
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That contract expires in seven years. So where will we be in seven years is more of the question. So I take this
into consideration when I'm looking at numbers and projections for the future and taking into consideration with
the life.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And commercial recycling is?
MS. HODGSON: Commercial recycling is not -- it's mandatory for one item to be recycled, but it's an
open market, so it's not something the county controls.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is it something we can control?
MS. HODGSON: Yes, through ordinances. They are required right now to recycle one item that they
produce.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mostly cardboard, isn't it?
MS. HODGSON: For the most part, yes, which still has good value, so that's a saving grace.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Well, as I expected, everything --you guys are on top of it, so thank
you.
Anybody else?
MS. HODGSON: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Thank you. That takes care of the Utilities Department and Solid
Waste. So thank you -all for your time tonight.
And I guess we'll move on to, what, Transportation. Now, if I were to ask how many people are here
from Transportation, does that get more hands this time around? You gained the idea. Okay.
Trinity, it's all yours.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: And Utilities has to stay and listen. No?
MS. SCOTT: It's okay, Joe. We'll just talk bad about them after they leave. All kinds of questions.
For the record, Trinity Scott, Transportation Planning manager. I'm open to questions.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's a good way to start out. I know --I bet Ned has questions on
transportation.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Ido.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's a subject you seem to like. Okay.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Ido like that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go for it.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Let's see. I starton Packet Page 19, which is Page 5 of 171. It's
Attachment B, Transportation, Existing Conditions Report. And at The bottom of that page there's a --the last
bullet point in the last sentence it says, LOS standards already set at the lowest acceptable levels of D or E. And
I just wanted to flag that, because I think that's an unfortunate situation in which we find ourselves. And it's
certainly not a problem of staffs making, but it's something that I think is serious and could become even worse
than serious if we don't deal with it in some form or fashion.
I know we can change our levels of service, or we can spend more money, or we can rearrange where we
spend money. But somehow, this -- for a county that has the wealth that we have and the high standards that we
set for ourselves, 1 just -- I think that this is an unfortunate situation in which to find ourselves.
So that's just an observation, unless you wanted to make a comment on it.
MS. SCOTT: Well, what I would say about Level of Service D and E with regard to roads is you also
don't want to have an adopted level of service which is A which would mean you'd have a lot of pavement out
there that's not being utilized but you still have to maintain, and there's a balance.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: That's a good point. Thank you.
My next goes to Page 20 of 294, which is still Attachment B, Page 6 of 171, Packet Page 20. And here
we have a list of segments that have increased and those that have decreased from the previous AUIR. And in
some cases the result -- a decrease has been the result of construction avoidance, and I certainly understand that,
and that that would naturally be a consideration.
My question is: Is there any -- have you been able to identify any other innovative solutions or tactics
that are being employed that have brought about an improvement in the cases where the traffic has decreased?
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Anything that we could use to replicate in other areas, any successes?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Diversion diamond.
MS. SCOTT: We are looking at -- we are looking at alternative intersection improvements. In
fact -- and I was remiss at the beginning. I also have Jeff Perry here from Stantec who assists with preparation of
the Transportation portion of the Annual Update and Inventory Report.
And some of the things that we're looking at, particularly on our roadways that are already built out, are
innovative intersections and how to be able to move traffic more efficiently and be able to increase that capacity
of the roadway.
So there are innovative things that are happening all around the United States and up in Lee County as
well, close to us. That's usually the question we get when we're looking at how to --how to make things more
efficient; where have they deployed these measures?
Europe. Lots of, you know, roundabouts are well known, as well as the alternative intersections, but also
gaining popularity here in the United States.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: So roundabouts, I know, are used in the City of Naples. Are they also
being looked at in the county?
MS. SCOTT: We actually are. We have our first roundabout that opened this past year at Tree
Farm/Wooderest, which is a roadway that connects Collier Boulevard and Immokalee Road, as well as
Whippoorwill. We were -- one of the programmed projects that we have within this AUIR is a connection of
Marbella Lakes Drive and Whippooirwill Lane which will also be a roadway that will connect Livingston and
Pine Ridge. We will be utilizing roundabouts within that section as well.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Would it be appropriate to ask Mr. Peary if he wanted to augment or add to
that in any respect? I mean, it's not required, but anything that you're looking at innovative techniques to help
reduce traffic that don't necessarily involve spending a lot of money.
MR. PERRY: For the record, my name is Jeff Perry, transportation planner with Stantec working with
the Transportation Department.
Keep in mind that when you see traffic volumes that are increasing, that's obviously an indicator that we
have population growth, and that's going to occur regardless.
You did mention that there's oftentimes a diversion of traffic from one facility to another perhaps because
of construction. Also, when you add a new facility. For instance, Vanderbilt Beach Road extension is likely to
reduce traffic on parallel facilities: Immokalee Road and Golden Gate Parkway.
The other -- what you're not seeing in these particular numbers is how well they're operating. You could
have increases in traffic, but that may not be creating any problems, may not be creating a deficiency so that
it's -- just looking at the volumes and not necessarily the entire picture.
As Trinity mentioned, we're proposing operational improvements that would help improve the efficiency
of the system so that it can accommodate that additional traffic.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Thank you.
Trinity, the Big Cypress Parkway will relieve traffic from Everglades, which is one of the areas that is
near deficient, and that's a good thing if we can get that going. How far south do you think that will go? Will it
go all the way to 75?
MS. SCOTT: Big Cypress Parkway?
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Yeah.
MS. USHER: In the Long Range Transportation Plan it calls for it to go to Golden Gate Boulevard.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. Okay. My next question has to do with this tollway that's being
plamied as an alternate way going through the central part of the state to relieve from both 95 and 75 and, I guess,
4. Where exactly would that find itself in Collier County? Where would we see that under present planning?
MS. SCOTT: That's a great question. So currently the Florida Department of Transportation is going
through a programming -- a planning exercise right now. But one of the things that they have stressed is that
they are not drawing aline on the map. So we have our elected officials who are working through this process.
And I know Mr. Cohen's behind me, and he's been to the first meeting up in Tampa with regard to that. But they
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have stressed that they are --with this phase of the project, they will not be drawing lines on the map. Sol
cannot tell you today where that roadway would go.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: I see. I mean, there are various considerations such as the cost of eminent
domain and the like that would enter into it.
Are there any obvious places that it would go, or all of them involve a balance test of pluses and minuses?
MS. SCOTT: It's a balance test. We will wait and see. My crystal ball is as good as anyone else's, so...
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. Thanks.
Then I go on to Attachment F, and thankfully, Trinity, you and your colleagues had sent us the full Excel
spreadsheet for all of the attachments, including F, which I find enormously useful and use it throughout the year.
I'm glad we have that because for some reason the one that was in here, the PDF version, got cut off, and a lot of
the columns are not visible. But I think, at least from my perspective, that problem is alleviated by virtue of the
fact that you sent us the full Excel spreadsheet, so I'm happy with that.
Then, let's see, I go to Attachment G. I have several questions on this. This identifies how present
deficiencies are to be addressed. And I want to go through a couple of these with you.
First of all, the ones that are existing at the top, in the case of Pine Ridge between Shirley and Airport, it
says "continue to monitor." Maybe you have something tangible in mind when that phrase is used, but it doesn't
light up a clear tactic in my mind of what you're doing.
MS. SCOTT: So with this particular segment of roadway, what we will do is initiate a planning study
that will not rise to the level of being listed specifically within the Annual Update and Inventory Report.
Transportation Planning staff routinely does these. We actually have one ongoing right now for Immokalee
Road. Previously did one for another section of Pine Ridge Road. So right now what we're doing is working
with our catalog of consultants to start initiating some operational analysis to see if there are any of these
alternative intersections that can be initiated within this area to be able to assist, and also looking at parallel
facilities as well, if there's anything that we can tweak to have it work a little better to be able to bring that within.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Good. I mean, that is --that's one that a lot of people in the urban part of
the county --urban parts of the county see all the time. And so it's on a lot of people's radar screen. It would be
nice if we could somehow find a good solution to that sooner rather than later.
MS. SCOTT: As Jeff also talked about with Vanderbilt Beach Road extension, we certainly anticipate
that not only Immokalee Road will see some relief, but also Pine Ridge Road.
Now, that's specifically right in that industrial park area, but we will be looking at that to see what we can
do to make that roadway work better.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. Then let's see. Pine Ridge/Livingston and I-75. Well, no, let me
first go to Old 41 at the very top. You say "pursue federal funding." Is there anything really tangible on the
horizon that might provide federal funding for it?
MS. SCOTT: There is currently a project development environmental study that's ongoing with the
Florida Department of Transportation. Because this roadway completes its terminus in Lee County within the
City of Bonita Springs, we worked with our partners, our regional partners, to fund that through the federal
process.
So in order to be eligible for federal funding, the first thing you must do is a project development study
underway right now, anticipated to be completed within probably the next year or so, and then we'll continue to be
working through the Florida Department of Transportation as well as with Lee County to initiate those follow-up
phases of design, perhaps right-of-way, and construction.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: So at some point I assume you're going to have to file a formal application
with the federal government.
MS. SCOTT: It's ongoing right now as part of that project development and environmental study.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: So that application's already been filed?
MS. SCOTT: Well, what happens is is that that study makes the roadway eligible to receive federal
funding.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. But is there -- in the process is there an application that must be
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submitted and --
MS. SCOTT: No.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: No, there isn't. Okay.
MS. SCOTT: We work through the Florida Department of Transportation because federal funds filter
through thein to get to the county level.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. And then the other Pine Ridge segment, Livingston to 75. I guess
your answer's the same if I ask what are the chances for federal funding. This one is not a multi -county thing.
MS. SCOTT: It is not, but I --so the AUIR we start developing this March/April time frame of this year.
So on Friday I actually received the -- what FDOT calls their draft tentative work program. So for the Pine
Ridge/Livingston to I-75, half of those improvements are within the county, and the other portion are within
what's called the Florida Department of Transportation's limited access right-of-way. So it's that interchange
area.
So we've been working with the Florida Department of Transportation to partner with us with funding,
and they have come to the table I believe it's to the tune of about 7 or $8 million to improve that interchange.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay.
MS. SCOTT: And that would be within the next five years.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. Then the last one here at the top, at least, State Route 29 where the
LOS standard is currently aB, and we're downgrading it to a C.
MS. SCOTT: And that actually has come out. We had inadvertently changed the level of service, and
we have since talked to the Florida Department of Transportation who accepts our level of service. So we
need -- we will be changing -- all of the State Road 29s will actually come out. They are not deficient.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. All right. I mean, the conditions are the same; it just is no longer
on our list of problems?
MS. SCOTT: Correct. They've accepted our level of service, our adopted level of service.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Which is B or C?
MS. SCOTT: I believe it's D.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: D? I thought I looked --I believe I looked back at the 2018 AUIR for this
segment. I thought it was currently B.
MS. SCOTT: Oh, it may be operating at B, but I'm saying the adopted level of service would be D.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay, okay. Then down on the projected deficiencies 2020 to'24, again,
there's some cases where we've actually achieved some improvements that are to be noted, and I think those are
good things. Sort of the same question I had previously about, are there any lessons that can be learned, any
ways that we can apply the wisdom that we've applied to these segments to other segments and achieve similar
results of at least postponing the time it becomes deficient?
MS. SCOTT: I think it has a lot to do with, as Jeff mentioned, new facilities opening. We monitor this
to look at if projects are under construction as well, because there's a diversion with regard to that, typically, as
well. So we do look, but nothing really jumps out at me as a success other than, you know, we can keep
something under construction a little bit longer.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. Then, let's see, Pine Ridge from Airport to Livingston has gone
from 2025 to existing, so that's going, obviously, in the wrong direction. This is a critical segment to
transportation in the county, particularly the urban part of the county.
MS. SCOTT: In the study that I spoke about with the Shirley Street to Airport Road, we actually asked
the consultants to scope out all the way back to Livingston because we want to look at that as the entire -- I
shouldn't say the entire corridor, but a longer corridor.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. All right. Then I go to Page 30 of Page 294, which is a visual, an
image showing 29, and it shows a little red piece there. And it says, existing deficiency, PD&E complete. Is
that the evaluation that you're talking about?
MS. SCOTT: Itis. But, once again, that --this map will be swapped out because the level of service
is --
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COMMISSIONER FRYER: Off our books.
MS. SCOTT: Correct. But just to let you know, that Project Redevelopment Environmental Study is
complete. We're working with the Florida Department of Transportation. They have design funded. And,
actually, they're not going to widen through Immokalee proper. It will become an alternative, what we call a
loop road. It will go around hnmokalee. And so there maybe some conversations with the Florida Department
of Transportation in the future about possibly -- I'm certain they're going to come to the county to ask us to take
over State Road 29 as a local road through Immokalee proper.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. Then on Page 31 there is an excerpt of I think, the spreadsheet. It
looks like Attachment F, and there are other references as you continue, subsequent pages after 31 that also appear
to be excerpts snipped from Attachment F.
Is it fair for us to conclude that they're identical to that Excel spreadsheet?
MS. SCOTT: Is this Attachment I?
COMMISSIONER FRYER: No. At the bottom --well, for instance, on Page 32, the footer says master
attachment F2019, Excel SM.
MS. SCOTT: What that actually is, if you lookup at the actual header, it's Attachment I. And this
begins your --
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
MS. SCOTT: -- Transportation Concurrency Management Report.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: So these additional attachments are excerpted from F?
MS. SCOTT: Yes.
MR. SCHMIDT: Yes.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Got it. And verbatim?
MS. SCOTT: Yes.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. That's what I -- thank you.
And let's see.
MS. SCOTT: It gives a little different information as far as the lane miles and number of lane miles that
are operating at acceptable levels of service, because that's our measure for the Transportation Concurrency
Management Areas is the percentage of lane miles meeting tine standard.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Thank you.
Let's see. On Exhibit A on Page 161; I go all the way to 161.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Getting there. Halfway through.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: And this has to do with arterial and collector roads and bridges. This is
the overall'20 to'24 showing half a billion dollars roughly.
This is a question about accounting techniques. And I think I understand. I'm not sure -- I'm not as
familiar with fund accounting as I am with, you know, the rules that apply in the context of business
organizations. So maybe this is the way it's typically displayed. But there are -- this looks to me like a revenue
and expenditure statement that contains balance sheet items, I think. Items that, in a business context -- for
instance, the General Fund and available cash, these are -- these are balance sheet, not income -statement items.
So is it just that I don't have a good understanding of fund accounting, that this is -- this is the way it's to be
displayed?
MS. SCOTT: I'm looking to Ms. Usher.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Who could usher in an answer for us.
MS. SCOTT: I was hoping.
MS. USHER: These are different revenue sources. So the General Fund would be a revenue source.
Impact fees would be a revenue source. Gas tax would be a revenue source. These are all the different revenue
sources. They're not balance sheets.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. So it's --it's --it would be a balance sheet item for the county as a
whole, but it's a revenue source for the transportation people?
MS. USHER: It's not a balance sheet. It's an income statement. You have the expenditures on top and
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the revenues on the bottom.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Well, no. I get that. But when you have an item like cash, available cash
is --
MS. USHER: Beginning, that's -- we -- for budget purposes we have an item called carryforward, and
the definition of carryforward, by Florida Statute, we have to show how much available cash we can carry
forward into the new fiscal year so that these guys can all budget to spend.
So it's carryforward. Its a budgetary term. The Florida Statute dictates that we have to disclose that.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. All right. I'm not being critical of it at all.
MS. USHER: So it's revenue.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: It's mostly just out of my lack of understanding. Perhaps this is either
conventional fund accounting that nonprofits and government agencies use or mandated by aspects of Florida law
or some combination.
But the way I was -- the way I learned accounting is that cash is an item that appears on the balance sheet,
not the income statement.
MS. USHER: And this is true, but in the Florida Statute for budgetary purposes you have to take that
cash, and you have to budget it as revenue because it's available cash that the folks here can use to spend.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay.
MS. USHER: So that's -- I can understand the confusion you have.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much.
MS. USHER: You're welcome.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Igo to Page 162. And this is Appendix H, arterial and collector road
projects, and there's an item on here that says impact fee refunds. So my question is: What are these, and why
do we have to give refunds?
MS. SCOTT: I'm phoning a friend. Amy Patterson, our director of Capital Project Planning.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: All right.
MS. PATTERSON: Hi. Good evening. Amy Patterson, for the record.
Every one of our impact fee funds has a line item for refunds that has to do with canceled permits. We
always leave some money in there for prior -year refunds as well.
Some years there are none and some years there can be a lot, millions of dollars sometimes, particularly
when we had the downturn in the economy.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: So it would add up to various kinds of excess collections or
over -collections that then has to be remitted back?
MS. PATTERSON: No. Only, really, to the extent that it has to do with permit cancellations or
changes to building permits that require a refund of the impact fees.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay.
MS. PATTERSON: So over -collections and things. There's another way that we deal with excess
collections after a seven-year period. That never happens in our current state of capital projects. But this is
mainly to do with refunds related to building permits.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Okay. Thank you.
MS. PATTERSON: Uh-huh.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Let's see. That's all I have on transportation.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else have anything on transportation?
COMMISSIONER FRY: One question.
Trinity, at town halls, you mentioned a term "alternative intersections."
MS. SCOTT: Uh-huh.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Are you describing where the travel lanes actually crisscross one another?
MS. SCOTT: That is one of them, yes; continuous flow intersection, yes.
COMMISSIONER FRY: So can you just tell us where those are planned and which ones actually are in
the short- versus long-range plan.
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MS. SCOTT: Right now we have a continuous flow intersection planned at Pine Ridge and Livingston.
We have what's called an R cut, and I forget what that R means. Restricted crossing U-turn land for
Whippoorwill and Pine Ridge Road which would mean, essentially, the folks coming off of Whippoorwill are
coming south from the commercial area would make a right and go make a U-turn to go in the opposite direction.
And then we have a diverging diamond interchange planned at Pine Ridge Road, which is where you
cross over to the other side as well. And there are animations of those on the Transportation Planning's website.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Same thing. That's what she's talking about. You saw all that.
COMMISSIONER FRY: We see a lot of presentations.
MS. SCOTT: So there are animations on our website for those two.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Three of them are imminent right on Pine Ridge Road, basically?
MS. SCOTT: Yes. We're in the middle of a study right now for Immokalee Road to see if any of those
can be utilized along Immokalee Road from Livingston over to Logan, and then we will be picking up and
looking at additional sections of Pine Ridge Road as well as looking at Golden Gate Parkway as well. And I
should also state that there are other alternative intersections.
A jug handle can be -- is something that we have looked at as well as overpasses, the overpass right out
here at Golden Gate Parkway and Airport Road. Those are --instead of just adding lanes, we're looking at
different ways to be able to utilize the same amount of space but be able to move traffic more efficiently through
it.
COMMISSIONER FRY: When you say "overpass," same thing as a flyover?
MS. SCOTT: Yeah, that's similar, or a single point urban interchange.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Okay. You lost me at hello.
MS. SCOTT: We use lots of terms.
COMMISSIONER FRY: I've heard reference to a potential overpass or flyover at Immokalee and
Collier --
MS. SCOTT: Yes.
COMMISSIONER FRY: --Boulevard, 951.
MS. SCOTT: Yes.
COMMISSIONER FRY: But that was not in the short-term plan, correct? That's way out?
MS. SCOTT: Itis not. We are --we've set aside the right-of-way for it and now the water management
to accommodate it. So once it's necessary --and most likely that will probably come about along with a potential
Collier Boulevard extension. When you start seeing that fourth leg come into that intersection, that is most likely
when that will be necessary.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Any other prominent locations where a flyover might be?
MS. SCOTT: Collier Boulevard and U.S. 41.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Randall and Immokalee, too.
MS. SCOTT: And Randall and Immokalee. Sorry.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Randall and Immokalee.
MS. SCOTT: Yes.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else have any transportation questions?
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Nope.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Trinity, thank you.
MS. SCOTT: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And Amy's department, then, since you want to finish up your people, Amy, do
you have anybody else here that -- Jerry or however you want to handle it?
MS. PATTERSON: If it's okay with you, we're going to jump to Coastal Zone, Category C.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Sure, that's fine. Gary's is always simple, I hope.
MR. McALPIN: I'm Gary McAlpin with Coastal Zone Management, and I'll answer any questions you
have about Category C.
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CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I like that That's a good approach. Anybody have questions about Coastal
Zone Management?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Could never make it as complicated as that, Gary. Thank you.
MR. McALPIN: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is there -- how about -- oh, Corby?
MR. SCHMIDT: Yeah. Commissioners, before we move on further, I wanted to mention that
inconsistency between two different charts in the stormwater section, just --it's in the background. It's not a
major issue, but staff will be taking care of it between your version and the Board's version.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: That's the one you wanted to see if we caught?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We just got into — I was just going to --I thought we'd go to stormwater next if
Amy's --
MR. SCHMIDT: I've got the ribbon right here. Did anybody notice it?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: All right.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Hiding of Easter eggs.
MS. PATTERSON: Good evening, again. Amy Patterson.
I'm here for questions on stormwater. I also have members of stormwater team here with me.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody have any questions on stormwater? Joe?
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: The AUIR doesn't get into anything, I couldn't find it --regarding
stormwater utility. That's still being debated, but there's no forecasting or funding forecasting for that program
yet.
MS. PATTERSON: The stormwater utility concept has been put on hold indefinitely.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Okay. So in regards to that, then, are funds being allocated from the
General Fund or other sources to attack some of the areas that are in definite needs of improvement for
stormwater to come into compliance with the water -quality issues?
MS. PATTERSON: Yes. So --
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Naples Park and some other areas.
MS. PATTERSON: So it's a two-pronged approach. In FY2020 --well, after we --the Board
considered the stormwater utility proposal for a second time this winter, they decided to put additional funding
into the maintenance side of stormwater to get after some of the issues as described throughout the county, which
was discussed in great detail during the stormwater utility conversations.
We are -- the Board's desire is to move towards an industry standard for stormwater maintenance. And
so there's additional funding that's been allocated to the maintenance side of the house.
On the capital side of the house, there was a little bit of additional funding that was put into the capital
program with the intent to consider options for debt funding in the future as a larger package of debt, potentially,
in the future. So we are maintaining our cash-and-carry position right now on the capital side of the house,
moving projects forward but looking at some different scenarios for financing those, because there's quite a bit of
work through several master plans in the upcoming years. And the Board will --we'll look at different ways that
they can fund those.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: And the follow-on, other areas where they're already existing permits
through special districts, CDDs, and others where they have their own water quality or water management, and it's
funded through CDDs, you don't have any visibility on any of that from the county, all the different special
districts that have their stormwater.
MS. PATTERSON: (No verbal response.)
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Does the county --and probably a question for Jerry, and maybe his
staff. But is the county monitoring stormwater performance of systems as designed, especially outfalls?
MS. PATTERSON: I can let Jerry answer that question. But that falls to the Water Management
District within private communities or compliance with the permit, but if Jerry wants to add to that.
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COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Well, I know for a fact that Water Management District isn't funded nor
are the --is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers funded for follow-on. I'm just wondering if the county is looking
at it. I know we looked at an ordinance, and I'm hoping there's some money that was earmarked for that
ordinance that we looked at earlier this year.
MR. KURTZ: As far as specific monitoring of stormwater discharges, we had that going on in our Lely
Area Stormwater Improvement Program area. So we have a water -quality monitoring program there, principally
the main three outfalls: Treviso Bay Isles of Collier, over there.
And then the second one that we monitor regularly is the Freedom Park discharges of stonnwater
Freedom Park system. Those are principally the two systems that we're currently monitoring, as well Pollution
Control has a pretty extensive surface -water monitoring program.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Pollution Control still works for you.
MR. KURTZ: Amy, yep.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: ]just have one other question. I'll come back to it. I just lost it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's one of the things --
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Yeah, 1 know it. You get to be 70 years old, it gets pretty tough, you
know I mean?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else have any stonnwater? Karl?
COMMISSIONER FRY: Hey, Jerry.
MR. KURTZ: Hello.
COMMISSIONER FRY: A question about stormwatermanagement in the Estates areas. And I'm sure
that -- I noticed on Page 44 you have a chart, a colored chart, and then you have a list of about 21 stormwater
improvement projects that equated to that. I'm sure you get a lot of requests, my neighborhood being one, where
water or stormwater flow is impeded down the swales through Estates -type neighborhoods by culverts that are old
and are higher than the current standard.
And I'm --I guess I'm wondering, how do these projects make the list? How are they prioritized? And
what is the prognosis for all those hundreds of streets in the Estates where we do have flow issues because of
culverts and swale issues?
MR. KURTZ: Most of the projects listed there are the capital projects, the ones that we need design
consultants to help us, more an improvement project.
In the Estates is something that would need permitting and things of that nature. In the Estates
rehabilitating the roadside swales and the roadside system is more of a maintenance activity, and, you know, not
necessarily needs permits. You just need a plan to go in and go through whole sections of the Estates slowly but
surely and deal with the culverts that are too high or too small and that sort of thing, and that's our -- road
maintenance group, Road Maintenance Department's working on that. And we'll be developing a more
wide -reaching plan to attack that in a logical maturer.
But, historically, street by street there always has been a digging effort, a clearing effort, a mowing effort
in those roadside systems.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Is that considered -- all those Estates -type sheets, is that considered a major
issue, or is it just a minor issue when you consider the whole stormwater picture?
MR. KURTZ: My opinion, and I think the opinion of the program, is it's more of a minor. And, I mean,
I don't want to discount it. It's a major maintenance chore, burden, and event, but the system works pretty well in
the Estates; just because the density's lower, there's a lot of room.
And, for example, if we had every ditch cleaned out super clean, we then have concerns about speeding
up the delivery of the water into the primary system.
So a lot of the things in that system that may not be highlighted to everybody is that, you know, a slow,
more trickling flow in those ditches and seeing those ditches full in the summertime pretty regularly, almost daily,
it's not necessarily a bad thing, and it doesn't necessarily indicate a problem.
Those roadside systems, the function really serves three things. Of course, conveyance, but capturing
and holding as well where you get that water -quality treatment. And, you know, the low -impact development
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techniques and movement is still pretty -- going on pretty strong, and that's literally the collection, hold, and
treatment of the water at the source where the runoff is being generated, and that actually occurs very well in all
of the Estates, really.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Okay. So it would be safe to say that that's not going to rise to the level of
being a major capital project at any time in the future?
MR. KURTZ: Not a major capital project unless, you know, one particular street is identified where all
the culverts are wrong.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Right.
MR. KURTZ: You know, that gets to be more -- the magnitude of that could be -- cost -wise and
construction -wise could be bigger, but it's a major maintenance effort, for sure, but it's something that, you know,
you put on a schedule and just --like, you'd cover the whole county. Say, in X number of years every ditch
would get dug on a ditch cycle, and that's what we're doing right now. With a little bit more funding, we should
have a little bit more robust effort in that regard.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Thank you.
I know Commissioner Schmitt had something to ask.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: I was going to ask about the rehydration of Picayune Strand, but that's
stormwater. Gary's gone. Is that in your funding purview as well, or that's a long-term project?
MS. PATTERSON: It is.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Ob, there's Gary. I see him back there now. Is that being foreclosed
for funding?
MR. McALPIN: No, because what we're looking at this point in time is to have that funded, the balance
of the project that hasn't been funded, to be funded by Pot No. 2 with the -- out of the BP oil spill funding.
So we're looking to -- we have $18 million right now. The balance of that is we are looking to have that
funded by Pot 2, which is the consortium. We have some agreements with Department of Transportation in
Tallahassee, that they have set some money aside for us, and we'll work through that. And then if it needs to be
funded, if there's a balance needed to be funded, then we'll talk about the general revenue funds.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: So you're still moving forward then.
MR. McALPIN: Absolutely.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Okay. Amy, the stormwater, in lieu of a countywide maintenance fee,
are you looking at the possibility of a basin by basin MSTBU of some sort? If you recall, many years ago when
we looked at the Naples Park situation, of course, we went to the residents, and they overwhelmingly opposed it.
Of course, they wanted the county to pay for it. But none of that's being considered. You're still just doing it on
a basis of countywide through additional funds that are allocated for maintenance then?
MS. PATTERSON: That is correct.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Okay.
MS. PATTERSON: And just a note on the RESTORE project, we do --in future fiscal years, are
anticipating at least some offsetting dollars into the stormwater program for Mr. McAlpin's project for the county
portion.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Yeah. Are we --do we have any violation out there right now for water
quality?
MS. PATTERSON: On the Picayune?
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Any of the outfalls. I noticed --I believe the City of Naples was --
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: --hit with a water quality, but I don't believe there was anything in the
county that was cited.
MS. PATTERSON: Well, 33 percent of the water bodies in Collier County are impaired, but we don't
have any BMAPs right now.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Right. Okay.
MS. PATTERSON: And Pollution Control section is working hard with DEP and others to be sure that
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we keep it that way for as long as possible.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you, Amy. Was that the last of your department?
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, but I'll be around for anything with the impact fees for the rest of the sections,
but my folks are gone.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you very much.
MS. PATTERSON: Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Those that are left -- Barry, you've probably got two -- or at least a couple items
we maybe have questions on, and we can let you go home. You've got all the parks?
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: What page is Barry?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And the library you're doing tonight?
MR. WILLIAMS: Yes. Good evening, Barry Williams, Parks and Recreation director.
And so, certainly if the Commission has any questions, I'm here to answer them.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Barry's got both the regional community parks and the libraries. So does
anybody have any questions?
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Just based on Corby's introduction for the golf course, Golden Gate Golf
Course, I didn't see anything in there as far as forecasting of what you guys are going to do with it, and I just
didn't know if it was in the funding forecast.
MR. WILLIAMS: No. Good question, Joe.
And so with the golf course, we did include it as regional park acreage. It's 167 acres acquired.
There is a process that the Board is pursuing in terns of doing some master planning of the site. The
whole purpose of the purchase of the property was to look at some possibilities for some of the surtax projects and
to convert a portion of the golf course that way.
We have had some interest, as you're aware, public interest as well as far as a public golf course. And so
one of the things that we're doing is working with First Tee and KOVA Management. KOVA is actually mowing
the grass out there now. But the Board will consider the possibilities of on a short -tern basis, perhaps,
re -opening the course until the long-term plan is determined.
There are a lot of possibilities with that. And Davidson Engineering is going to be doing the strategic
master plan for that project. And so as we gather public input on the project and see what the possibilities are,
certainly we want to make available the portion that's set aside for the surtax projects, but the remaining land
we're going to look at that as well in terms of what we possibly could do.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Will there be a full pro forma done as far as users' fees paying for the
service, or do you think it will be subsidized with county tax dollars?
MR. WILLIAMS: Well, I think that's part of our understanding of the Board's concern about getting into
the golf course business, especially in this area, whether, you know, you could cover your expenses. We have
peers in Florida that operate golf courses. Some operate -- West Palm Beach, for example, or Palm Beach
County, rather, they do a pretty decent job.
A lot of the counties, though, that own and operate municipal courses, they are subsidized. They don't
pay for themselves. And so, absolutely, to your question, in terns of the Board analyzing the potential of a golf
course, we do understand that they would look closely at the numbers and whether it made sense financially.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Okay. Manatee Park, where are we with that?
MR. WILLIAMS: Manatee Park is a 60 -acre parcel right off 951.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: I'm looking for it on the sheet.
MR. WILLIAMS: It currently is used --it's a vacant piece of land that's used by a local club that flies
model airplanes. The park itself, the lands were considered for affordable housing in the last year or so. The
Board chose not to pursue affordable housing at that location.
The park -- we don't have any particular plans in the future. It is in the park's master plan for
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development. We have gotten some input primarily from Fiddler's Creek about developing that park into a
passive park. We've got some good ideas for that, but we don't have plans in the near future to develop it.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else? Parks or libraries?
MR. SCHMIDT: Libraries is a separate presenter.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Oh, is it? Barry, I thought that was under you. I'm sorry.
MR. SCHMIDT: No, sir. I think Tanya Williams is here.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Oh, I don't know why I would think that.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Barry, nice to see you again. It's been along time. Barry helped us with the
Oaks Estates neighborhood park.
MR. WILLIAMS: Yes, thank you.
COMMISSIONER FRY: We were --Joe brought up the Golden Gate Golf Course. I guess there are
two other items on Page 150. I was just wondering what's going on with the Collier County Sports Complex.
How's that developing? And then the Vanderbilt Beach access, what is that?
MR. WILLIAMS: Well, the sports complex is under construction. The first phase of that is anticipated
to be delivered spring -- late spring, early summer. The first phase includes five athletic fields. The cool thing
about it, it's artificially turfed. That's a tremendous thing for us in Florida. You know, when you have grass,
you've got to keep people off of it to re -grow it. With artificial turf, you can play everyday. You can play in
the weather, as long as it's not lightning. So that first phase is going to get delivered.
They'll be working on the second or third phase of that project in subsequent years. Final buildout you're
looking probably 2022/'23.
COMMISSIONER FRY: When was the first phase?
MR. WILLIAMS: Fust phase is going to be delivered May/June of'20.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: On time and within budget.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Budget.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Sure.
MR. WILLIAMS: Absolutely.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Joe certifies that.
MR. WILLIAMS: The Vanderbilt Beach access, that's just an addition that we have. We have some
access points along Gulf Shore Boulevard. We realized in our review of the AUIR that they hadn't been included
in the inventory, so we are adding those at this time.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you, Barry.
MR. WILLIAMS: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: How about libraries? I got her mixed up. For some reason I thought libraries
was --
MS. WILLIAMS: Barry and I have been working closely this last fiscal year, so we're good.
For the record, Tanya Williams, library director.
Just a few things I did want to bring to your attention that were changes to this year's AUIR that you may
not have -- that were not part of prior years.
We did make an adjustment in the available square footage for libraries. We had to reduce that by 7,000
square feet. The old Golden Gate library, at one point in time we were anticipating reclaiming some of that
space. That has not happened. None of the 7,000 square feet from the old building is being utilized for library
services, so we removed that from our building capacity square footage.
That will now show you -- that actually now shows us as reaching a deficit by Fiscal Year 2028. So
that's the first time you'll see a deficit in your library square footage in a very long time.
The other thing that -- that's the major thing that I wanted to draw your attention to. I am available for
questions if you have any questions you'd like to ask.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Joe?
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COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: My compliments to the library. When I --
MS.
MS. WILLIAMS: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: My wife, I tell her to get online and say, why don't you ask the library to
get this book, when I just finished, and you guys get it within --as soon as it comes out. And it's filling all my
free time when I'm not reading 10,000 pages for the Planning Commission.
MS. WILLIAMS: Awesome. We like to hear that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Good luck with that.
Ned?
COMMISSIONER FRYER: What percentage of your visitors, people who come to the library, are there
to access hard copy material versus electronic material?
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Oh, that's a good question.
MS. WILLIAMS: That's a very good question. I can --I can best answer that based on our circulation
statistics. So you're looking at now we're averaging anywhere from 35 to 37 percent of our circulation is through
e -resources.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Thank you.
MS. WILLIAMS: And that number continues to rise.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Thanks.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Anybody else?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you, ma'am. Appreciate it.
MS. WILLIAMS: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is there any other department personnel hereon a specific department we
haven't already talked about?
CHIEF BUTCHER: EMS.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Oh, hi. You don't look like Dan Summers. That's good.
CHIEF BUTCHER: No, I'm not.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: He's usually the one that I think brings --talks to us, or somebody does.
CHIEF BUTCHER: It's usually me. Tabatha Butcher, chief of Collier County EMS.
So our AUIR for this year is pretty consistent as far as the growth units that are projected that you've seen
in the past couple of years.
We do have three units planned within the next few years. One of them is for the growth that is going on
out east. We have a word to the Land Trust to acquire five acres at the DeSoto Boulevard and Golden Gate
Boulevard, so we're currently working on the finalization of that purchase of that property.
After that we are looking at Immokalee Road and Collier Boulevard, and then we're looking at Old 41
after that. All of these stations that we do have projected, we have been in discussion with the fire departments
as well as law enforcement personnel to make sure that we're collocating in those facilities.
And that's pretty much it as far as our growth units that are planned. You will see in this year's AUIR
that we did have $6 million that was set aside from the surtax money to fiord some of those EMS stations. That
was strictly for the building. That did not include the ambulance or the equipment that goes along with that.
So with that, if you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Joe.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: 1 noted that you still show Fiddler's Creek. Is that just a proposed, or is
that actually moving forward? That's on 41.
CHIEF BUTCHER: Sure. Right now that is just a proposed station. Since we have --when that
facility or that development came on, there was discussion about setting aside the property for an EMS facility.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: I know the property's still set aside.
CHIEF BUTCHER: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: But that would be just an EMS. There's no fire station proposed.
CHIEF BUTCHER: Potentially. So what we do with the fire districts is when each of us have a unit
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that is planned, you know, the county has property, the fire districts have property. We get together, and we talk
about what we have coming up in the future. And we look and say, okay, should we locate on the county
property or should we locate on the fire district property? What's the better for the two of us?
So depending how that goes -- I do know Greater Naples has some property at Lakes Park and 41, which
is just a little bit further east. So as we get closer to that, that will be discussions that we have with them on what
piece of property that we locate on.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else? Ned?
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Hi, Chief.
CHIEF BUTCHER: Hi. How are you?
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Good.
The Chief and I have ongoing conversations about issues that arise in EMS, and the department does an
excellent job with the resources given and are to be commended. All departments really are, but I just have a
special level of knowledge detail with EMS, and so I wanted to say thanks to Chief Butcher and all her people
who are great.
There are some challenges. And at some point I think the Board of County Commissioners and others
are going to have to make some difficult choices that are going to be necessary in order to continue to provide the
excellent service that is currently being provided to the residents of Collier County.
We at the Emergency Medical Authority look at -- on a monthly basis we look at the statistics for
response times and divide it into the urban and the rural part of the county, which is roughly Collier Boulevard.
CHIEF BUTCHER: Correct.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: And the target to be hit for ALS, let's say, is eight minutes or less
90 percent of the time in the urban and 12 minutes or less in the rural. And those are -- those are proven to be
very aggressive if not elusive goals to achieve. And the department does everything that it possibly can to get
those numbers as good as they can.
But without additional resources, it's difficult for me to see how we're ever going to get to the point where
the department can perform as well as I know it could perform if it had those resources.
I'd hate to see the LOS be reduced, but that's one option that the BCC would have in front of it to say,
well, we just can't on a regular basis achieve eight minutes and 12 minutes. And so rather than fall short --we
don't fall short in every district, every zone, but we do in enough of them that it's worth being concerned about.
One way of resolving or remediating that problem would be to lower our level of service and say, well,
nine minutes and 13 minutes should be the targets that we could achieve 90 percent of the time, and then our
statistics would look better. But I think Chief Butcher agrees with me that that's not what anybody really wants
to do in the county. We'd like to get those numbers lower rather than higher.
And so at some point I think more dollars are going to have to be committed to EMS which, as everybody
knows, is a money-losing operation annually. It's not something that if we increase volume we could make it up
in volume. You can't do that with losses.
So what is needed, I think, is more money, more stations, and more personnel. When DeSoto
opens -- and DeSoto's probably going to be the first of the new ones to open, my guess is is its capacity is going to
be completely absorbed by Rivergrass and Rivergrass' siblings. They're going to bring in thousands of potential
patients. And so I would be surprised if, as a result of the addition of that DeSoto station, those numbers are
going to get appreciably better. We're going to have to wait for the other stations that we hope can be brought
online sooner rather than later.
And, Chief, would you maybe comment upon my comments? And if there's away that you could be
more reassuring than I've been, I know everyone would like to hear that.
CHIEF BUTCHER: Okay. Sure. So Mr. Fryer is correct, we have had those conversations. And if
you take a look at Page 222 in your packet under our ALS resources, this is the response times that he's referring
to.
So we're -- you know, we meet the 90 percent in many of our zones; however, if you look at the
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nine -minute, we're pretty much hitting it in every zone. So we're kind of between that eight and nine -minute.
One of the challenges that we've noticed that we're having is a lot of the zones that we have ambulances,
or like the geographical areas within the county that we have ambulances, they can get to, say, the neighborhood
that they're responding to within quite a --you know, a couple minutes. Some of the challenges we're having is
these gated communities. It takes us quite awhile to get through them, especially if the address is way in the
back. So that's some of the challenges that we've noticed.
We have hired a consultant that's currently working on a report to take a look at our current geographical
zone where ambulances are located and how we add ambulances in the future. So that will be done within a
month or so. So definitely next year coming back to this AUIR based on what they have given us, we'll be able
to say, okay, this is what we think we should add. It may not be a station with an ambulance, but it maybe
12 -hour ambulances, or it may be vehicles that do not necessarily transport to the hospital but that can get on
scene and provide care in a timely manner.
So next year it may look a little bit different when we have this conversation again.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Chief, you should also comment upon --well, I won't ask her to brag. I'll
brag for her. She and her staff have done a great job in jawboning the issue with the hospitals of reducing the
offload time, which has been a real success story.
When I first went on the Emergency Medical Authority, I took a look at those numbers. And in the
experience that I've had in the city of St. Louis where we were serving teaching hospitals, we just --you know,
having to wait -- having to have a paramedic wait in the emergency room to give care over to nurses and have to
wait for sometimes an hour or even an hour and a half keeps that ambulance off the street and reduces the services
capacity to take care of the residents.
But those numbers have really improved particularly this year. And so kudos to you, and, of course, to
the hospitals as well. Because we can ask them all afternoon, but then they have to be responsive, and they have
been responsive by adding on resources.
And as you probably know, emergency rooms are not profit centers for hospitals. So you could
understand from a business standpoint why they don't want to add staff to emergency rooms and, therefore, there
is a built-in conflict, if you will, between our needs and their desires.
The other thing I want to say that Chief Butcher and her people have brought about is we're getting a new
EMS helicopter. And you may not know this, but there are no trauma centers in Collier County. And so if you,
as a patient, are involved in a severe, let's say, motor vehicle accident or other instance where you really need to
get into the operating room within what's called the golden hour, it can't really be done using the hospital facilities
in Collier County. So having a good robust helicopter system, our MedFlight, to get patients to Lee County or to
Miami -Dade or Broward County is essential in order to get the care for those very, very seriously injured patients.
And so I think it's wonderful that we're getting a new helicopter. That's good stuff.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else have any questions of EMS?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Miss, thank you.
CHIEF BUTCHER: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Thanks, Chief.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Corby, the remaining ones are law enforcement and government buildings. Is
anybody here to take care of those, or are you going to add --we just ask you any questions? I can't recognize
people.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: I don't see anybody.
MR. SCHMIDT: Not seeing familiar faces.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Does anybody have any questions that we need to ask of those items?
COMMISSIONER FRYER: 1 just have one comment.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: And it's in the nature of a compliment to the Sheriffs Office. I just think
these statistics -- in 2003 there were 3,000 instances of crime per 100,000, and that's been cut in half in 2018.
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Special CCPC/AUIR, October 21, 2019
And I think our Sheriffs Office is to be congratulated for doing an amazingjob.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else?
MR. SCHMIDT: We share that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Questions? Go ahead, Karl.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Yes, Mark. I just noticed on Page 173 of our packet that the jail facilities are
ahead of the game for this year but then they move into a deficit status starting next year, and they -- it seems to
get worse and worse as we go. The blue line is higher than the red line pretty much for the rest of time. I was
just wondering if there's any plan to catch up with the number of jail beds that are needed, if I'm reading that
correctly.
MR. SCHMIDT: You are reading it correctly. And the study is underway to close that gap by the time
we reach it, so to speak.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Corby, that brings us to the end. Do you have any --other than that, we'll
just -- ask for a motion, and that's about all you need at this point?
MR. SCHMIDT: Just a reminder to include all five points of the recommendations in your record --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Does anybody want to make a motion to recommend to the Board of County
Commissioners a recommendation as outlined by staff on the recommendation page, which is Page 9 of their
report? Is that where you're going?
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Yeah. I was going to --I closed my system down, but I make a motion
that we forward this AUIR to the Board of County Commissioners for their final approval.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Second.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion made and seconded consistent with the recommendation --
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Consistent with the --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: --of staff.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: --recommendation, Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: All those in favor, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HOMIAK: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carries.
And that takes us to the most difficult part of our agenda tonight --well, public comment. There's not
really any public here.
Motion to adjourn?
COMMISSIONER FRYER: So moved.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Second.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: All in favor, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER FRY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FRYER: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HOMIAK: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHMITT: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
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Special CCPC/AUK October 21, 2019
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We're out of here.
There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting was adjourned by order of the
Chair at 6:40 p.m.
COLLIER COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION
MARK TRAIN,
These minutes approved by the Board on I I — 7,1 — I , as presented ✓ or as corrected
TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF U.S. LEGAL SUPPORT, INC.,
BY TERRI LEWIS, COURT REPORTER AND NOTARY PUBLIC.
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