CCPC Minutes 08/01/2006 LDC
August 1, 2006
TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE
COLLIER COUNTY LDC MEETING
Naples, Florida
August 1,2006
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 8:30 a.m. in SPECIAL SESSION
in Building "F" of the Government Complex, East Naples, Florida,
with the following members present:
CHAIRMAN:
Mark Strain
Lindy Adelstein (Absent)
Donna Reed Caron
Tor Kolflat
Paul Midney (Absent)
Robert Murray
Brad Schiffer
Russell Tuff (Absent)
Robert Vigliotti (Absent)
ALSO PRESENT:
Joseph Schmitt, Community Dev. & Env. Services
Catherine Fabacher, Principal Planner
Ray Bellows, Zoning & Land Dev. Review
Jeffrey Klatzkow, Assistant County Attorney
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(Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Welcome to the continuation of the
Land Development Code Cycle 1 reading.
This is our first hearing. And we hope to get through most of this
today.
We left off, we have completed two elements of the
environmental section and the smart growth issues.
And I'd like to start where we left off on the environmental and
wrap up all the environmental issues this morning, if Mr. Lorenz and
his staff are ready.
MS. FABACHER: Excuse me, Mr. Chair.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, ma'am.
MS. FABACHER: I think we probably need to state for the
record that this is a continuation of the June 1 st meeting.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I said it was a continuation. I didn't say
the date. So yes, it's a continuation of the June 1 st meeting. How's
that? Sorry.
MS. FABACHER: That's okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: What I'd like to do is go back to the
method that we had used in the past to get through these, and that
simply was less staff presentation and more questions, should the
panel have any, and then questions from the public.
The first couple issues, Bill, that you had were much more
intense and probably less understood than some of the ones we're
going to be going through now, so maybe we can expedite this by just
getting you to respond to questions rather than make a presentation,
unless there's some changes that you feel are necessary to put on the
record.
MS. FABACHER: I have -- I'm sorry, excuse me, Mr. Chair.
For the record, Catherine Fabacher.
I didn't get to distribute this latest version. Would you like to do
that?
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MR. LORENZ: Is this for the stormwater where we --
MS. FABACHER: Stormwater, where you just made some
minor changes, Barbara, with corrections. Or is it not important?
MS. BURGESON: That was really created for the DSAC
meeting.
MS. FABACHER: Oh, okay, good. Sorry.
MR. LORENZ: And just for some more reference, that was also
based upon some comments we received from the public. And we
will try and work through ideas for the stormwater.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is that an issue -- we have not -- well,
we discussed one aspect of the stormwater. Is there any others or is
that the same issue?
MR. LORENZ: It's the same issue.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I'd just as soon not give it to us
today because we certainly can't digest it. Let's just discuss it on the
final hearing when we go for our second hearing.
MR. LORENZ: That's where I was going.
And then the rest of the amendments all basically turn over to
Barbara. Barbara will be answering the questions, or I may weigh in.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And Barbara, if it's convenient, we can
take them in the order that they appear on the packet and then we can
just work through them page by page, if that's okay.
MS. BURGESON: When we met last, I don't believe that the
board had any discussion on the stormwater amendment. I know we
were running a little bit late and it was a little bit after 8:00. So the
public was able to provide their comments before the meeting closed,
but I don't believe that you got into any discussions on that. So I think
that's where we need to pick up.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Generally we would have asked
our questions before the public came up. But let's go back to that
section, take a second look at it and if we have any questions we didn't
ask before, let's ask them right now and get them over with.
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Do you know what pages those are on?
MS. FABACHER: Mr. Chair, that would be on Page 93.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
MS. BURGESON: Just to refresh your memory, what was
discussed at the last meeting was a question of the three-foot control
elevation. We did meet with staff and felt it was appropriate to leave
that in place.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Barbara, I'm looking at my notes. I had
asked all of my questions, so I know that we did have some panel
interaction prior to the public then or after.
This one takes us from Page 93 through 94- F, I think it is.
MS. BURGESON: Next amendment is on Page 95.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Let's make sure. Is there any questions
from the planning commission members on the issue of stormwater --
the stormwater issue that we had previously discussed? Does anybody
have any lingering questions on Pages 93 through 94?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yeah, I have one question.
By allowing preserves to be used for treated stormwater, does
this have the potential for just creating more impervious surfaces in
developments?
MS. BURGESON: It would in the fact that -- in the past you
used to have more separated preserves and retention or detention
areas. So the more these areas are potentially shared, the more
potential there would be.
Now, there are other regulations that say that you can't have more
than -- and the open space regulations might be 60/40. I'm not -- that's
more of a planning issue on open space. But I would say that this
would create the potential for that, yes.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Thank you.
MR. LORENZ: Let me -- I think that that's correct.
MS. BURGESON: Or allow for that.
MR. LORENZ: Because what you would be using the preserves
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as, there's additional land area available to be utilized for storage of
your stormwater.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Another way to ask the question, does
this change the maximum allowed use of impervious area -- yeah,
impervious area? Is there a maximum impervious area that one can
apply to a site?
MR. LORENZ: The way the impervious area factors into a
system, and it would be good if I had a stormwater engineer here, so
let me just kind of condition this to my knowledge, that the
stormwater is regulated through the water management district
through off-site discharge requirements, rate of discharge. That rate of
discharge -- or that -- the amount of treatment that you have to provide
to get to that rate of discharge will depend upon your impervious area.
So to the degree that you've got more land available to capture
those -- that stormwater to meet your allowable discharge rates, would
then -- should allow that you have more impervious area in your
development.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you, are there -- go ahead, Ms.
Caron.
COMMISSIONER CARON: I have another question. We had a
discussion during the EAR amendments on the term benefit. Are we
going to run into the same situation here?
MR. LORENZ: In the EAR based amendments, we proposed
and the board transmitted the term no adverse impacts.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Exactly.
MR. LORENZ: And these regulations are being designed to give
us the -- as much as we can in terms of certainty. As we apply these
amendments, these amendments will give us that no adverse impact
condition for the vegetative communities and preserves that will
receive stormwater.
COMMISSIONER CARON: And then one final question. How
is it that you're going to monitor this? How are you going to know?
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MR. LORENZ: The -- on Page 94-E, there is a monitoring
program that's specified. And for the first five years, the owner, the
developer, whoever is responsible for the system will need to be
submitting annual monitoring reports looking at the various
parameters that we've listed here. So that will be self-reporting to the
county, and then we'll be evaluating -- if we're seeing -- for instance, if
we're seeing lots of problems that are occurring, then obviously we
need to come back and relook at the criteria.
COMMISSIONER CARON: But it is a self-reporting situation.
MR. LORENZ: Correct.
MS. BURGESON: As a reminder, the EAC's recommendation
on this LDC amendment was threefold: One, was to require
stormwater be fully treated, with the second and third related more to
this question. And that's to evaluate future need for stormwater
quality monitoring, as opposed to the water quantity monitoring,
which is really what's being addressed here.
They were looking at stormwater quality monitoring, evaluate for
that for the potential next cycle. And the last stipulation was that if
vegetation monitoring identified a problem, then they wanted to
require additional water quality testing.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Before we go further, Ms. Caron, there's
one thing I'd like to ask you to do. And I completely forgot the roll
call.
COMMISSIONER CARON: And so did I.
Mr. Kolflat?
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Here.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Here.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Mr. Midney is absent. Ms. Caron
is here.
Mr. Strain?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Here.
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COMMISSIONER CARON: Sort of here.
And Mr. Adelstein is absent.
Mr. Murray?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Here, I hope.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Mr. Vigliotti and Mr. Tuff are both
absent.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Adelstein had notified me that he
may not be here today because he is a sixth-time grandfather of a
daughter. So he's very excited and he's attending to family affairs, so
he will miss the exciting meeting we're going to have today.
Now, back to Brad. Do you have something?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Bill, if a site's designed out and
we tend to maximize everything when we do it, and there was a
problem with this and the problem would be is that the stormwater is
kind of destroying the wetland, what would be the -- how would we
solve that? What would we do to back away from that?
MR. LORENZ: Well, at this point the requirement would be that
the vegetation would have to be replaced with suitable vegetation that
would meet the new hydrologic conditions.
So you wouldn't be in a position -- I mean, the assumption I'd be
making is that you're not going to be in a position to retrofit the
stormwater system, and so therefore you'd have to --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Change the preserve.
MR. LORENZ: -- change the preserve character with regard to
the vegetative communities that would be planted in there.
MS. BURGESON: What's complicated about that is that you
have a soil type existing and you're changing the hydrology. So we're
going to have to evaluate what's the appropriate vegetation for one soil
type when the hydrology might not be completely compatible with
that soil type. So we'll probably be looking at having them restore or
replant a slightly transitional community.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: All right, thanks.
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COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Could I --
COMMISSIONER CARON: Go ahead. If I could just follow up
on one thing. But once you have to replace or make a correction,
won't the same thing happen over again because you can't go back and
retrofit the stormwater management system itself?
MR. LORENZ: Well, the assumption there would be you'd be
selecting a set of plants that are --
COMMISSIONER CARON: More tolerant.
MR. LORENZ: -- more tolerant of the, quote, new conditions.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Okay, thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Murray?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: In that same vein, if you're going
to actually change the preserve and it's a matter of soil, would there be
any basis, any good reason to change the soil as well if we're going to
acknowledge that we're effective? Is this observed, maybe?
MS. BURGESON: You really can't do that. We're talking about
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I mean, that's my point. It's
absurd. So we really do have an ongoing process of replanting plants
that are tolerant to water in soils that may not support it. That's what
you're -- if I understand you correctly.
MS. BURGESON: Hopefully that won't be the case. We really
can't say.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, any other questions on
stormwater? If not, we can move on to the first new environmental
item in our package.
MS. BURGESON: Actually, let's move back to the very
beginning and go back to Page 1. I'll try to go quickly through this.
The first one is very simple, it's just adding FLUCCS identification to
the code that's not already been in there.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, it may not be that simple.
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MS. FABACHER: Mr. Chair?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes.
MS. F ABACHER: Could I suggest that we start off on the
right-of-way permits, vegetative removal permits, Page 83. I think
that's your first substantive --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I wanted to start and get Barbara's
department done with through the book. And I thought she said Page 1
is hers.
MS. FABACHER: Oh, okay, that's fine.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: No, is it? I mean, whose is it?
MS. BURGESON: Yes, it is.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: It is.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Some of it.
MS. F ABACHER: There's a whole bunch of it that's everybody
else.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. So Page 1 is just your FLUCCS
code entry. That's the only thing you have in that.
MS. BURGESON: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Will we be bringing Page 1 back for
further discussion?
MS. FABACHER: We certainly will.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We'll hold our questions until then.
MS. BURGESON: On Page 7 with LDC amendment, in the
definitions and in reference, cross references to the potential services
sections, we've identified and added a passive recreation definition.
And if you have questions to that, I'd be more than happy to answer
those questions.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Barbara, would this have applied to, for
example, the Keewaydin issue? And if it did apply to the Keewaydin
issue, because they were claiming passive recreation under the
agricultural conditional use, I don't see a clubhouse listed in some of
the uses that would include passive recreation. Although you didn't
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list -- they're not limited to those listed, but I just was curious how it
would fit in.
MS. BURGESON: By this definition and our interpretation of
this definition, that would not have qualified.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's what I thought when I read this.
MS. BURGESON: This clearly wasn't intended to reflect
anything recently. This is something that has been an issue for a little
while, and mostly has to do with Conservation Collier's concerns.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I think if you were to look at the
Attorney General's site, you'd even see that the definition of passive
recreation is not defined in Florida Statutes and has been a
troublesome issue for his department as well, because it isn't defined.
I'm glad to see we're defining it.
It's also interesting that this would eliminate even applications
such as the Keewaydin application.
MS. BURGESON: Right. If they were limited to passive
recreation, yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: County's going to be challenged by that
soon too. Interesting.
Brad, then Catherine.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Catherine can go first.
MS. F ABACHER: I want to say that this also applies to
Conservation Collier lands, and that's -- essentially, Alex Sulecki
worked with Barbara. So this is to also apply to those Conservation
Collier and it comes from her too, so that's kind of why it's --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right. I realized that was the intent of
its creation, but the way it's being entered into the code, it would be a
definition under the definition section. It wouldn't be exclusive of --
MS. FABACHER: No, absolutely.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- Conservation Collier, so it would go
across the board.
MS. FABACHER: Yes, sir.
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CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's what I thought.
Brad?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yes, what kind of structures
would be allowed? Some of these activities would require I think at
least restroom facilities. So does this mean that no structures are
allowed in passive recreation areas?
MS. BURGESON: No. For instance, you do have small
restroom facilities that are associated with some parks. You do have
structures that are overlooks or for --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Oh, okay.
MS. BURGESON: -- watch towers, things of that nature. We've
even had some very small chickee structures that could be used for
educational purposes, if you have a small classroom learning situation.
But you have to remember, there's -- passive recreation is one
definition, and then there's preserve limitations, too. So even though
we would allow passive recreation to be identified with more
structures associated with it, those structures would not be permitted
in the Collier County preserves unless they were identified in a
different section. Unless they would not be causing that preserve to
have less than native vegetation requirements.
MS. F ABACHER: Beach -- so kind of jurisdiction, whether it be
a preserve or whether it be in RLSA, or wherever it is, can still have
additional language, like they did when you see the Conservation
Collier, that they said passive recreational activities, but also others.
Now, generally in Conservation Collier lands, if you're going to
build something clear for a pad, you know, put in restrooms, then that
would be a conditional use that they would have to come -- this is just
in the preserves -- I'm sorry, Conservation Collier lands.
So whenever it went in the code, it could be limited, and at this
point if the meaning wasn't clear, because it says examples of passive
recreation include but are not limited to, it's still open to kind of an
interpretation. Plus wherever you put it, you could add other uses or
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make other uses conditional.
So if you're thinking it applies across the board, I just wanted to
say that's how we would use it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: But it does apply across the board if you
put it in the definition section. Jeff?
MR. KLA TZKOW: I'll tell you, from a legal standpoint I'm not
entirely sure what the intent was when we included the non-motorized
access to that. And I don't want there to be later a misinterpretation of
the intent and have some significant impacts or shutting down access
towards Conservation Collier lands or preventing right-of-way
through these areas or you being able to get there.
I would consider passive recreation to be kayaking, for example.
I don't know how I'm supposed to get there if I don't have a car that
can carry my kayak.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You can do that. They weigh 42
pounds.
MR. KLATZKOW: Yeah, they're kind of heavy, yeah. So I'm
not entirely sure why we included non-motorized access in the
definition, and I would ask that it be eliminated.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any problems -- Bill?
MR. LORENZ: One thing, and I kind of look to Catherine. I
think that we've kind of worked this language through with Susan
Murray and David Weeks to try to create a definition of passive
recreation that would be the basis for utilization throughout the code.
And then whenever some type of activity is specified -- is to be
allowed, it would utilize this definition and then could go on further
and establish some additional uses to tailor upon the situation.
So I think that was kind of the thinking of how this was going to
be the framework and structure. Again, I think it's probably
worthwhile just to make sure we can confirm that with David and
Susan.
But if you think of that along those lines, if you don't specify any
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additional uses when you say passive recreation, then you would of
course be limited to this definition.
MS. BURGESON: Right. And as it's written, it does state
activities typically characterized by that. So it doesn't absolutely
preclude motorized access but it says activities that are typically
characterized by non-motorized access.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: As complicated as our code is to
interpret and as different types of interpretations I certainly see, I don't
know why we wouldn't want to take legal advice and drop those
words. I don't see what it harms. And that would eliminate the
confusion.
And also the word below that, it says in addition these activities
are not deemed to be harmful to the natural resources. Instead of the
word harmful, maybe we want to look at the language that
Commissioner Caron was previously referencing, not deemed to have
negative impacts, something consistent with the language as we
typically would have used so we don't have to get into what or how
something is too harmful or less harmful or any degree of harm.
I think if you made those two corrections, it would help.
Anybody else have any comments?
Yes, Mr. Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I think probably if we just got
rid of the word access. And then you would state that it would be
minimal site impact when we have non-motorized, we refer more to
the activities. The access does sound like how you get to the activity.
Your intent is I don't think you want motorized activities.
MS. BURGESON: Correct.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I think if you get rid of the word
access, I mean, how we design the parking lot would be --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Does that work for you, Jeff?
MR. KLATZKOW: I understand where we're getting at.
Perhaps we can get there by -- on the example saying, you know,
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examples of passive recreation include, and then at the end, you know,
but exclude motorized activities such as ATV use.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: You don't want any electric
motors on boats or any motorized, so --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, Barbara, with the discussion that
we've had, do you see some ways that you could come back at our
final hearing with some changes to this to clarify the intent?
MS. BURGESON: I can.
One thing I want to make sure is I understand your intent. From
time to time you get requests for, for instance, a swamp buggy slow
tour through a preserve area. Panther preserve utilizes them. That
would be motorized use. So we're not looking to completely remove
that, are we? Or are we?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Wouldn't that require a variance
to get that use? And then it would go before a public hearing, rather
than be a permitted use?
MS. BURGESON : Well, the conditional use process is included
in the Conservation Collier program. But I would have to talk to
David Weeks and to maybe Susan Murray to find out whether or not
there's a conditional use or a variance to passive recreational
definitions throughout the code. So we can look at it a little bit more.
Is the intent to remove it if it's appropriate if there's another way
to have motorized use of the property through a variance?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I think that's an open avenue to anybody
at all times, isn't it? I mean, anybody can come in for a variance --
MS. FABACHER: No, you can't vary a permitted use. You can
only vary dimensional through the variance process.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So you have to have a rezone.
MS. FABACHER: You'd have to put in a conditional use, or it
would be a permitted use, otherwise there's no way to do that. Okay?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, the only thing I'd suggest, too,
Barbara, is before you bring it back to us, ask legal to review it so that
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we don't have any conflict in the language as far as whether motorized
vehicles -- I don't -- I think that where we have allowed the motorized
vehicles in the past, such as that Janes Scenic Highway one down off
41, that went through the public process, it was adequately styled to
work in that facility. And I thought that was a positive, not a negative.
So I think we ought to make sure there is some way to allow that.
Do the rest of you have any concerns on that?
Ms. Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yeah, I mean, I think it should
come back via conditional use. And I think that Mr. Schiffer's point
on that first sentence certainly takes care of it, if you just say and
non-motorized activities. Then Mr. Klatzkow can still get his car to
the parking lot and get his kayak into the water. And me, too, I might
add.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I think with that direction, you can
come back to us with something a little cleaner.
What's the next one?
MS. BURGESON: The next one is on Page 83, and that's
amendment 3.05.02. We're adding exemptions for work in publicly
owned right-of-ways and providing for clarification for exemptions for
single- family clearing.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, is there any questions from the
panel?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I have a note here for myself.
Who's charged with the inspection and the enforcement on this?
MS. BURGESON: The inspectors out of the engineering
department staff would do the inspections for the single-family homes.
And I'm not sure whether there's inspections for publicly owned
right-of-way construction, but I can check into that, if you're
interested.
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COMMISSIONER MURRAY: No, I think that's good for now,
thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer, then Mr. Kolflat.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I have no questions.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Kolflat?
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: On Page 84, on Item D, last line
there I think is a redundancy -- it said existed and existing. You
probably want to delete existing.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's existing language that he's
referring to. It's actually the word existing for existing language. If
you can change existing language, I know that's not the topic of
today's but if one of those words are inappropriate and you could
change it, you might as well clean it up.
Anything else, Mr. Kolflat?
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: No, that's it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Brad?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah, I did. On Page 86, item
number six, and I guess the intent of this is this gives them the ability
to do this over private land if there's an existing easement; is that
right?
MS. BURGESON: No, actually, the intent of this was to -- this
is after the right-of-way for those lines or public utilities have been
established and constructed. So you're looking at the county would
already have acquired that land.
The -- these two were added on as a result of state statute
proposed change about two or three months ago. And at that point it
was likely that the state was going to obligate the counties to adopt
similar language. So we just took a proactive position to take the
language -- this is practically verbatim from that proposed state
statute.
But it's to remove staff from the need to review publicly
established -- and so that would be however you need to publicly
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establish that you have that right-of-way, and whether that's by
ownership or by -- if a road right-of-way can be an easement, I'm just
not too sure.
The other items, number seven, are similar in that the publicly
owned, again that language, publicly owned right-of-ways and canals.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Does that answer your question, Brad?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I mean, they just have free rein
then, you have no control over them?
MS. BURGESON: Well, through the last sentence in each of
those paragraphs, all the environmental permits and management
plans have to be obtained prior to them doing any work on that land,
particularly itemized here are listed species issues and wetland
impacts.
So they're still an obligation for those departments and agencies
to obtain all those permits. We just will not -- we probably will not
have any enforcement capability since they are not going to be
required to get any permits.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Just out of -- go ahead, Bill.
MR. LORENZ: Just to add, these are within publicly owned
road right-of-ways. So the intention here is you're going to be putting
the road in the right-of-way, certainly for number seven. So in that
sense, when, let's say, transportation, county transportation comes into
the county's staff and they've got a right-of-way, the question we
would have is it just seems to be a paper process for us to issue a
permit for something that's going to occur. The county agency DOT
still has to get, you know, federal and state permits for clearing
through that right-of-way.
MS. BURGESON: Right. And remember, this is also after both
the languages here, after right-of-way has been established and
constructed. At that point these have gone through Board of County
Commissioners reviews in terms of typically the budgeting and the
proposal for that construction.
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August 1, 2006
If it's like electrical transmission lines, such as what FP&L is
putting through right now, those power lines went through probably
two years worth of meetings, public meetings and hearings and
permitting processes to get to the point where they're ready for
clearing.
The only issue wouldn't be that they haven't gotten all the
permits. The issues might be if in the construction they make a
mistake or overclear or do something that we wouldn't have permitted,
this takes us out of that process and we would have to defer to state
and federal permitting agencies for them to do the mitigation or the
compliance.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: The question I think is on
number six -- this is only for a right-of-way. In other words, they own
the lands, it's not an easement. A lot of transmission lines are on
easements. So this would not apply to that condition then.
MS. BURGESON: They would have to create a right-of-way.
I'm not saying --
MR. LORENZ: It applies to these --
MS. BURGESON: The first one doesn't specifically say--
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: One at a time, please. Let her finish and
then I'll call on Jeff.
MS. BURGESON: The first one doesn't specifically identify that
it's a publicly owned right-of-way. But if there's some legal inferral
that transmission lines and public utilities have to be in
publicly-owned right-of-ways.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Jeff?
MR. KLATZKOW: The way it's constructed, the right-of-way
could be fear by easement, that's the way it's drafted.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: So then it could be going over
some private property via the easement.
MS. BURGESON: Right. And that is how that power line,
transmission line that FP &L created, they actually go through a lot of
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August 1, 2006
private lands.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Does the property owner have
any -- what does he do in this case, he just sees this happening --
MS. BURGESON: I did attend those meetings for those
transmission lines, and there were a lot of public attending those
meetings and they presented their case. Some were clearly unhappy
about major transmission lines going adjacent to their property and in
some cases over their property.
The negotiations were through, I think, some mediation between
the agencies and property owners and then whatever process might be
needed to finalize those transmission line routings is probably a legal
Issue.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: My question is specific, we
have a, like a PUD, some of them we get there's a transmission line
running through it. So what this states is that within that PUD, they
would not have to get any permits to do any kind of activities that
you're describing here?
MS. BURGESON: Listed here, clearing within that power line.
If they need to do clearing or maintaining or trimming of vegetation
within that power line, we would not need to issue them a permit.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And the property owner can do
that, not just the utility?
MS. BURGESON: When a -- by definition, the underlying
owner is the one that is the responsible party. Whether FP &L permits
the homeowners association to clear, it would have to be in
conjunction with a need in that easement.
It clearly is not the intent to say -- because there are some
existing FP&L easements that are fully vegetated right now. The
intent is not to permit anyone to fully clear that. The intent is only in
the maintenance of those power lines and those utilities that the
clearing and the trimming be permitted.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Jeff, did you have something you
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August 1, 2006
wanted to add?
MR. KLATZKOW: Yeah, this language doesn't diminish or
increase any existing legal rights that the property owner would have.
It's simply saying that if you want to clean a power line of trees, you
don't have to come to the county for permission.
If our county right-of-way folks want to put asphalt down, they
don't have to get a vegetative permit before they put the asphalt down.
It only deals with the county. It doesn't deal with state or federal
permitting. And it doesn't alter or diminish in any way the rights of
existing property owners. These things are in easements.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Doesn't it increase their
abilities?
MR. KLATZKOW: I don't think it does anything.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Because we do get plans where
a lot of times parking is in there. So that means that once we approve
it they can't go back and just asphalt the whole thing over and we have
no control over that?
MR. KLATZKOW: No, this is right-of-way. So if the county
owns a pIece --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: In the right-of-way?
MR. KLATZKOW: If the county owns like right-of-way along
Immokalee Road that we acquired when we expanded, we don't need a
vegetative permit.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I'm not at all concerned about
road right-of-ways. What I'm concerned about is there is a lot of
right-of-ways that go across private property. I call them easements.
You're saying they fall under the definition of right-of-way.
And we do see that on properties where they don't build buildings
and stuff, but they put a lot of parking, they put landscaping in there.
MS. BURGESON: This is just to not require them to have to get
that clearing permit. They would still have to -- for instance, it says
trimming and pruning shall be in accordance with --
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August 1, 2006
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Let me -- enough said.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I have two questions, Barbara. Number
6, after the right-of-way for an electrical transmission line or public
utility distribution line has been established and constructed, local
government may not require any clearing permits. If it's already
constructed, what would they need a clearing permit for?
MS. BURGESON: This is, as I said, verbatim out of that state
statute. And the purpose for it was so that with vegetation over the
years that grows up within the right-of-way or if they're expanding
and adding an additional utility line within the right-of-way, or they're
just looking to maintain areas more free of vegetation, clearing a --
trimming trees down to the point where they're going to cause them to
die is considered removal. And so the way that FP &L clears
vegetation or maintains vegetation, it's actually considered vegetation
removal.
But again, this is strictly out of the state statute, this is as they --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Barbara, I understand. You've said that
numerous times. I don't necessarily think our state statutes make
sense most of the time. So I'm not coming from there, I'm trying to
make our code clear and understandable. I don't -- could care less
what state statutes say, as long as we somehow meet their intent.
All I'm saying is if it's been constructed, as this one seems to
indicate, we now are saying that after construction, if you want to go
out and maintain it, clear regrowth, you don't need a clearing permit.
Would you normally have need of a clearing permit?
MS. BURGESON: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So you go clear property and if it grows
back, you can't reclear it without another clearing permit?
MS. BURGESON: If it's a commercial piece of property and
you need a -- or a conditional use or public property such as the
right-of-ways, they are required to get a permit for vegetation
removal, if it's regrowth, yes. Single-family homes are exempt.
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August 1, 2006
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: No, but 1-- if the county -- I mean, I just
drove by the east section of Vanderbilt Beach Road where they're
going to remove all those homes and they've got some dirt piled up on
the current construction area, and it's got a lot of growth on top of that
dirt pile. They need a vegetation permit now to clear that growth?
MS. BURGESON: Not on a spoil pile, that type of --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, what about on flat surfaces? I'm
just wondering. It seems pretty absurd. If they've already got a
clearing permit and they go ahead and put the lines in, now we're
telling them to maintain that line area they have to get another clearing
permit?
MS. BURGESON: Not if their clearing plan -- if their site
clearing plan for that project identifies it as that area could be cleared,
then they can maintain that area clear. If the site clearing plan
identified that area was not initially to be cleared, then they wouldn't
be able -- they wouldn't have to maintain it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, well, then we're right back to my
original question. If they got a construction permit -- a clearing permit
originally, they don't ever need to get another one then? I'mjust
wondering why -- it seems like we have to fix some absurd
interpretation of a prior code by providing silly language just to make
it fit. And I'm just -- it just doesn't -- if it helps the situation, fine.
MS. BURGESON: Right. In most cases, for instance, site
clearing plans that identify preserves as the only area to not be cleared
are fairly recent items. Prior to the mid-1990's, you had a site clearing
plan that showed only the infrastructure that could be cleared for your
building and your parking and the necessary infrastructure.
Everything outside of that on a site clearing plan you could not clear,
including the vegetation that was between the buildings and the areas
that were preserved.
So in a case like that where you might want to come in and clear
between buildings, your site clearing plan would require that you get a
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August 1, 2006
permit to do that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right, because it's new clearing.
MS. BURGESON: Right. And it was not identified in the initial
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And I think that's a good interpretation,
and it's always been that way. And that's -- anyway, this is going to
attempt to clear something up, I'll go along with it. I just wanted to
explain that, it doesn't make a lot of sense -- but anyway.
Let's go on to number seven.
MS. BURGESON: Well, actually, a freestanding vegetation
removal permit is good for six months.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Number seven, the first sentence after
publicly-owned right-of-way or publicly-owned canal has been legally
secured, a local government may not require clearing permits for
vegetation removal, maintenance tree pruning or trimming within the
established road right-of-way. Okay.
Well, how does that help the publicly-owned canal? Is the canal
in a road right-of-way always? What's your intent here? Because you
seem to address the first part of the sentence which says
publicly-owned road right-of-way and you went on to further describe
a publicly-owned canal like it was a separate thing. But then you said
this exception is only for the road right-of-way, you don't re-mention
the canals.
MS. BURGESON: Again, I'm just taking that verbatim out of
the state statute language. It would, to attempt to answer your
question, from discussions I've had with the transportation department,
the publicly-owned canals adjacent to publicly-owned road
right-of-ways are part of that right-of-way.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: What about all the canals in Golden
Gate Estates? I can tell you, they're not road right-of-ways, they're
canal easements. So would they be allowed to be cleared?
MS. BURGESON: If they're publicly-owned canals, yes.
Page 23
August 1, 2006
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: It doesn't say that. It says only the road
right-of-ways. And all I'm suggesting, since we can embellish it, why
don't we make it clear, so when the public or somebody comes in and
reads this we know exactly --
MS. BURGESON: This says or.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Pardon me?
MS. BURGESON: This says or, and/or publicly--
MR. LORENZ: Just -- I think Commissioner Strain, you're
talking about the last fixes within the established --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Road.
MR. LORENZ: Say, right-of-way or the established. Ifwe just
simply say within the established right-of-way, then it's the
right-of-way for either the road or the canal.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's correct. That's all I'm -- yeah,
that way there's no question.
MR. KLATZKOW: The established right-of-way or canal.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Fine. I just wanted to make -- it just
makes it clear. Okay.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I have a question.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead, Bob.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: On that very same paragraph
seven, Commissioner Strain was using the white paper and I'm using
the brown. And I note that he called it what it was previously, local
government in the second line. It's now changed to Collier County.
But my question has to do with the third line up where it says from the
appropriate local state and federal agencies.
Just for my information if you would, please, what are the other
local agencies that might be involved in that?
MS. BURGESON: If there's a county or a city.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: You already took out county, so
there would be city? In other words, city permits?
MS. BURGESON: Right.
Page 24
August 1, 2006
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I just didn't know. Ifwe have
Collier County that would seem -- you've indicated that previously it
was listed as local government, now it's become Collier County.
Okay. So I just wondered who the other local authorities were.
MS. BURGESON: I don't know legally if there's any other entity
that's considered a local agency. Whether the Department of Health --
I'm just trying to get to definition, whether any of those would be
considered local agencies.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I just wondered whether the
local really belongs in there. That's the root of my question.
MS. BURGESON: Probably not.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: You might want to think about
that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, we move on to Page 87. I'm
assuming that's the next section, that's yours, Barbara and Bill?
MS. BURGESON: Yes. And that's just to clarify a reference.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Now, that reference that you're
clarifying here refers to the dimensional criteria. Wasn't that the shape
factor, ratio issue that's going back for restudy?
MS. BURGESON: It references the current language as well.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Any questions on Page 87?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah, I--
MS. FABACHER: Excuse me, Mr. Chairman, I think we have a
public speaker on that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Mr. Murray. Before the public
speaker, let's finish the panel. Mr. Murray, do you have a question?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay. I'm not trying to quibble
over words but I just want to be clear. I made a note to myself. Under
A-I, emphasizing, and I put the word qualification, which was in
question, around emphasizing. Is that standard language for you that
you can emphasize the large --
MS. BURGESON: Where are you?
Page 25
August 1, 2006
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I'm sorry, I'm on Page 87, A-I.
It's the second line down.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Existing language, Barbara, in the
middle of the sentence.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I'm just curious of the word
emphasizing. I'm trying to become more clear in my own mind, is the
thing. Is that standard language, emphasizing? Is that fairly
commonly used?
MS. BURGESON: I would say so.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay. All right. That was it for
me on that language. Thank you.
MS. BURGESON: We can take a look and see if that's GMP
language.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. The one public speaker we have
on that matter. Thank you for bringing it to my attention, Catherine.
MS. FABACHER: Douglas Lewis.
MR. LEWIS: Good morning. My name is Doug Lewis, I'm an
attorney with the firm of Roetzel and Andress. I'm here on today
behalf of certain clients.
I wanted to comment -- echo your comment. In looking at it, it
appeared that when we had addressed earlier on in the planning
commission the withdrawal of the shape factor requirement, it appears
this change, kind of a companion change, probably isn't necessary. I
wanted to make sure we don't create future ambiguity in interpreting
these provisions. It changed one of the subsections, and I want to be
clear it appeared to be a companion item.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I agree with your concern, because I had
the same one. Barbara, you're telling me this is describing existing
dimensional criteria in the code?
MS. BURGESON: Regardless of whether we made that change
or not, this was an appropriate amendment.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Unless someone points out an
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August 1, 2006
error in 30.05.07, we're probably comfortable with it. If you see
language in the code that is a conflict because of this in regards to the
reference, let us know.
MR. LEWIS: The concept with the shape factor criteria which
has been withdrawn was that it is essentially the circle would be in
fact be the largest contiguous area possible. And so that would be
consistent with what they were attempting to do with the change.
However, now that that shape factor has been withdrawn, the prior
text read, creating essentially a carve-out to the standard where we had
the largest contiguous area possible. And we had certain width
requirements. So I think this creates a little confusion.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you.
I -- before the next hearing, I'll make sure to review that
reference to the code for my clarification alone.
Anything else on Page 87?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: If not, I guess your next page, Barbara.
MS. BURGESON: Eighty-nine has been removed.
And you just went through stormwater amendments. So the next
one is on Page 95.
This is to delete the requirement to identify 75 percent of the
preserves on the PUD master plan. And the reason for that is -- I'll
give you a little history as to why it was in there in the first place.
Before we had the current GMP requirements for where preserves
should be located, it was really more negotiation between staff and the
applicant as to where they should show their preserves on their site
plans.
Weare not requiring in this amendment any additional data or
any additional submittals from the applicant to do our evaluation. We
will take the current requirements, review where the preserves should
be, identify that area on the site and ask the applicant to show all of
their preserves.
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August 1, 2006
And just so that you know, staff has told me that roughly 90, 95
percent of petitions come in showing all of their preserves anyway.
This is just to preclude problems that we have on those that choose to
use this language as a way to show just the 75 percent and then come
in at the next development order and show us the remainder of that.
Because the GMP language and the LDC language is so specific
now, it's very easy for staff to identify where all the preserves should
be. So we're asking that they be identified up front.
It precludes some of the problems that we're facing right now
where if you only show 75 percent of the preserves up front and in
larger PUDs where pieces of that project are sold off, when the
development order comes -- the next development order comes in, a
property owner didn't have preserves shown on the piece they
purchased but our analysis identifies that the remainder of the 25
percent needs to be on that property, we're confronted with that
problem. And there doesn't seem to be a need for the -- for that to
continue to occur.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are there questions from the panel?
Barbara, I have one. In order to show -- what you're saying is
you want 100 percent of the preserves shown on the PUD. Which
means when it comes to our review, we'd be seeing where there are
proposed to be 100 percent of the preserves; is that --
MS. BURGESON: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- a fair statement? Okay. In order to
show those 100 percent preserves, while you may not need much, the
owner of the land will need a lot to either verify what your assumption
is or show where you're wrong so that they can put the preserves in the
most logical place based on wetland jurisdictional lines and other
issues that come up from the agencies. What this would mean is, in
my reading of it, because the 75 percent allowed some flexibility for a
landowner to include the balance of the 25 percent based on wavering
jurisdictional lines or EISs that came in or further studies that came in
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August 1, 2006
afterwards, now they're locked into 100 percent. In order to get there
accurately so they know what development they've got to have so they
have to come back here for master plan changes, they're going to end
up having to deal with a lot of agency review and a lot of agency
permitting costs way before they know if they even got the zoning.
MS. BURGESON: They're not asked to do any more than
they're currently being asked. Currently you're obligated to provide
an EIS. They're obligated to provide the South Florida Water
Management District jurisdictional lines, the listed species surveys,
the FLUCCS mapping and aerials and information regarding adjacent
preserves. That's currently required.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Do they ever change between the time
that they get a PUD and they actually come in for the SDP when they
actually get their actual permit from the Corps and their actual Florida
permit -- South Florida permit?
MS. BURGESON: Yes. And there -- there's a process in the
code to permit for insubstantial changes through master plan changes.
And what we're proposing here is far greater flexibility than what's in
the code currently by allowing for an administrative change, not a
PUD master plan change for all of the preserves to be relocated, not
just to be limited to the five percent number.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, and that bothers me, too, because
the adjoining public and the staffs criteria for compatibility a lot of
times is hinged on the amount of distance between neighboring and
adjoining non-similar uses. And now you're saying staff, after a
public hearing that the public relies on and the due diligence that
would normally adhere to the public during that process, basically can
be done away with by a simple tweaking of the changes internally
with staff, and the public then wouldn't even know that the buffer they
relied on for compatibility is no longer there.
MS. BURGESON: This doesn't say -- it says in here, as long as
they are -- does not exceed other thresholds that would permit the
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August 1, 2006
change to be done administratively. So if there are other thresholds
that would require you to do PUD -- master plan amendments, this
doesn't preclude any of those. This just says that given that all of the
other reviews could be done with an administrative change to the
master plan.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Barbara, I do know what those other
thresholds are. I've reviewed them many times. The threshold that
you have now for preservation changes on a master plan would at least
alert the public if a change is being made and there's a radical move to
the preservations. In this case you're saying preservation changes on a
master plan can be done administratively because you're now going to
require 100 percent. You realize that there needs some flexibility in
the final determination of those lines.
I'm thinking in one way it doesn't work for the development
community or the property owners because of the accuracy they need
to be at before they go to their PUD, which is inordinate compared to
today. And on the other side it doesn't work for the public, because
you cannot rely on the public document that is a record of this hearing,
because now you're saying that staff can administratively change the
location of those preserves to a point where it may affect adjoining
property owners.
I don't see the gain in this. I think that at least if we have 75
percent shown and a change in that of any nature triggers a public
hearing, that's better than having 100 percent shown with no trigger of
a public hearing and the public's left in the dark.
So that's where my concern is on it. And I'm expressing that.
This is only our first hearing on this. We'll certainly have another
discussion on it. But I'm -- unless you find a way to convince me, my
position is not going to change too much on this.
MS. BURGESON: For an example, there's an attorney in the
room that could represent his concern on a proj ect we sat down with
just a couple of weeks ago. And that's Grey Oaks. They're coming in
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August 1, 2006
with their final parcel for development. And because the preserve
areas are not identified up front, he has to go through the onerous,
rigorous process of identifying, and accumulating and analyzing all
the previous preserves that have been identified to find out whether or
not he's required to do above and beyond the 25 percent or none at all
on his parcel.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You know, that's called due diligence
and you do that before you go under contract. So I don't have a lot of
sympathy for that.
Any other questions on this one?
MS. FABACHER: You have another speaker, Mr. Chair. Mr.
Lewis would like to speak again.
MR. LEWIS: Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name is Doug Lewis.
I'm with Roetzel and Andress and here on behalf of various clients of
the firm.
Although I think we understand the intent, there's a little bit of, I
guess, questions and maybe concerns about flexibility, costs and
timing as a result of what we're looking to do.
First is from a cost point of view, an expense point of view. To
the extent that there is required vis-a-vis agency permitting
requirements, I need to alter the preserve area. It would require an
administrative change, and that could be expensive, time-consuming.
There's really no clear standard that I could see as to what would
necessitate an approval. There's no guarantee or insurance.
I think clearly it may be an enhancement if we can at least clarify
where it's necessitated by a permit requirement. That would be
something that would be -- would be an acceptable criteria for
approving the change to the master plan.
As you pointed out, the land development code currently
provides a procedure for amending the master plan. Any substantial
change, at least that would be the type of change that would be
required, there's procedures that are addressed, there are very good
Page 3 1
August 1, 2006
reasons to address that. I'm not real clear at this point how this would
conflict or how this would interact with existing procedures to amend
a master plan.
The other point I want to make is we do have a PUD monitoring
report requirement. And in the project that I've been involved with
there are annual monitoring reports that are filed that establish
compliance with the preserve requirements per the PUD. Clearly we
have a system in place that allows and should allow us to monitor how
preserves are being maintained per the PUD requirements. And I'm
not clear exactly how that's broken or how that's not working and why
we need to go to this extent on the front end.
It's very difficult for many developments that have wetlands
jurisdictional issues to have the rigidity of establishing in a fixed sense
so early on in the process the preserve area.
So from a fiscal impact point of view, I'm not sure if we really
analyzed the cost and the expense to the development community. I'm
not sure from a flexibility point of view if this provides the most
flexibility to allow for -- clearly I understand that there are some
monitoring questions in terms of determining compliance, especially
when you look at a PUD that has different owners within a PUD,
different developments within a PUD, in determining in an aggregate
sense if the preserve requirements have been met.
Clearly there is a PUD monitoring report process in place, and
that could be something to look at. But those are the concerns and
questions I have.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you. And I -- you know,
Barbara, and I think you or Bill have admitted that this isn't that badly
broken. Ninety-nine percent of the people that come through or
whatever percentage you said earlier don't have a problem with this
process, and it seems that the ones that do maybe because of their lack
of experience in doing adequate due diligence and they dump that
burden on the county staff.
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August 1, 2006
At this point, without that being broken, I don't see the necessity
for this kind of change when the ramifications could be much more
than we're thinking they are today.
MS. BURGESON: We can withdraw this amendment. But just
so that you know the process, we will not be asking for anything less
or more if this amendment went in place.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, that's even more of a reason why
we don't need to work up new language. At least that's my thoughts.
If anybody else has any comments, you're more than welcome to
say so.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I just want to get something
clear in my mind.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Sure, Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: If I understood you, your intent
was to help later on to avoid issues that might be -- that might fall on
associations and the like, perhaps. To deal-- I'm sorry?
MS. BURGESON: I'm sorry, it's to prevent property owners
from purchasing property and having a difficult time with a potentially
onerous preserve requirement that they were not --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aware of.
MS. BURGESON: -- aware of. School board's got a couple of
major issues right now on properties.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: So your intent was basically to
alert and find a means by which that people would know in the future
what --
MS. BURGESON: By setting aside all the preserves on-site, not
only do the adjacent property owners know what to expect, but the
people purchasing pieces of the PUD know what to expect. The
modifications that occur in terms of adjusting preserves through a
master plan amendment, I can't recall a single master plan amendment
that I've reviewed that's changed a preserve. So that just doesn't
happen very often. And if it has happened since I've been here, other
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August 1, 2006
staff have done those amendments.
So this was to identify and assist the property owners. It doesn't
__ I mean, as far as staff is concerned, we can come into the next
development order and require that the preserves be set aside. But let's
__ just as an example, the next development order on a 100-acre PUD
is for half of it to be developed with a plat and plans. Now we're
telling that property owner the remainder of the PUD preserve
requirements have to be identified. So you're looking at two property
owners going to have to either negotiate or work together to identify
where those preserves will have to be for the remainder of the PUD
and we have a very difficult time with that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Barbara, why don't you look at maybe
another level to pull this in at, if it's that important. Why don't, instead
of making it the first development order, which is basically your PUD
process, call for this at the very -- say you have 100-acre PUD, the
first plat or the first SDP within that PUD then has to solidify all of the
preserve areas, and therefore you've got it locked in before you go to
that last plat that you're so concerned about protecting.
MS. BURGESON: Well, it's the same issue. It's not going to be
different than what we have right now unless you have a small
property. If you've got your first plat that comes through on a portion
of the PUD, now you're talking about getting all the property owners,
because they're not always owned by the same person when the first
plat and plans or first SDP comes in.
When that first plat and plans comes in with one property owner
who owns a quarter of the property, we're going to require that that
person get together with all of the remainder of the property owners to
evaluate where the preserves should be. And there's no -- through that
process there's no obligation, for instance, if a plat and plans comes in
for the 50 acres, where do we get a legal binding document to identify
where the preserves will be on the 50 acres that's not in for review?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: First of all, you'd have 75 percent of the
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August 1, 2006
potential preserves already shown on the site plan through the PUD
process, that would be a public hearing and the public would know,
for compatibility issues, where they have a house next door to a
preserve instead of next door to a preserve that might go away the next
day.
For you to require the balance of the 25 percent to be solidified at
the next level down after the public process to get some assurance as
to what can be expected, all you're doing then is expanding on what's
already there, not making it less generally. And that would allow at
least you to lock it all in at the earliest stage of development.
I don't know why a developer who has an entire PUD, as we see
these come through, they're under single ownership or ownership of
parties, but there's a single applicant, before they sell off their first
plat, it would have been their obligation to clarify this for themselves,
why wouldn't they? And if they don't, then that's a due diligence item
that's up to the property owner to clarify.
MS. BURGESON: We're just trying to assist here.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I'm just trying to suggest a better way so
that the public process is protected. Because I don't see administrative
deviations to the extent that could occur here as protecting the public
in regards to compatibility issues that they may have in the future.
So if you could look at that as an alternative, maybe there's a
solution there that would work for your department better, that's all
I'm suggesting.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Mark?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Barbara, would it help if you
just raised the percentage -- I know you wanted 100 percent, but what
if you -- because it does give the developer or whoever a chance to
work a fuzzy edge. What if it was a 90 percent?
MS. BURGESON: That would certainly be an improvement.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And I understand what you're
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saying is it could be a situation where the last buyer is stuck with all
the preserve requirements -- or at least that 25 percent.
MS. BURGESON: Right now the way the section of the code
reads for amending a PUD master plan, if you -- if there's more than a
five percent change, they have to do a PUD master plan amendment.
So I mean, if you want to be consistent with the way the code is
written, you could even say 95 percent.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah, that would make sense.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: But see, you're going back though and
administratively allowing changes, which is --
MS. BURGESON: We're saying on an environmental basis, if
it's consistent with the GMPs and consistent with the LDC, we're
saying environmentally we have no concern with those changes if they
still provide the best preserve area on-site for preservation.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I think that you got the drift from the
board that we have some concerns on it. Maybe you could come back
with some improved language the next time around.
Let's move on to the next item. Is there any other environmental
issues in this package?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yes, page 201.
MS. BURGESON: On Page 160, we're just deleting a required
site visit for boat dock inspections.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: You say 160?
MS. BURGESON: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Actually, it's 159, I think.
MS. BURGESON: One 160 on is the page with changes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right. But the issue starts on--
MS. BURGESON: The amendment is on 159.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any questions concerning this
language?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I have -- if I may?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead, sir.
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August 1, 2006
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay, in the reason, second line
down, beginning of the next sentence, often. And it brought to my
mind the question of the health of estuaries. Often but not always.
The premise, okay, often the presence or absence can be determined.
My impression when I read that was, okay, we can go out and we
probably can see that a lot and we're okay, we can look at it by profile,
we can look at it by aerial often but not always. And I wondered
about what the implication of the not always would be.
I need a general sense of an understanding, because I know that
seagrass is a pretty important issue, the cleanliness of the estuary.
MS. BURGESON: Right. We're still saying by the code that the
location of seagrasses has to be verified. So if you cannot verify the
location of seagrass beds by a definitive other means besides a site
visit, then you're obligated by that site visit. You still have to verify
that.
We're just saying right now staff has felt compelled to go out and
do site visits when they felt that they have other definitive means at
their disposal identifying or verifying the presence or absence of
seagrass beds.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I'm also a little confused by this
paper. I'm looking at the white sheet here and I made a note for
myself what was removed, because it ends at 4. This is not a brand
new -- I was looking for the underscore language.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Second line from the top of the page.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: It says by a site visit.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: More words were omitted. That's the
only change you're making.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That's the only change, okay.
Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Did you have a question, Ms. Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yes. So once again, this is going
to become rather a self-regulating situation and not one that staff __
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August 1, 2006
MS. BURGESON: This is where staff has been provided with
data, for instance, another staff member in the county may have done
seagrass bed mapping in that area in the immediate past and has been
out recently and verified that. Instead of our staff being obligated to
then go out and do a site visit by the way the code is written now, we
want to verify that and save staff that site visit if it's not necessary.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Kolflat.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Is the code now written to
require the site visit only pertaining to seagrass, or is there other things
they should be looking at?
MS. BURGESON: The staff will look at seagrass beds and we
will look at existing, for instance, mangrove fringes. There are zoning
staff site visits, but not on every -- not on every boat dock review. So
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Will this change eliminate the
site visit totally then?
MS. BURGESON: It's possible that it would eliminate it for the
environmental staff, but it does not deal at all with the zoning staffs
requirement to do a site visit.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: So you would not be looking
into mangroves or any other issue that might affect the environmental?
MS. BURGESON: We will continue to look at mangroves and
do site visits when there's existing native vegetation on the site. But
for instance, if we look at an aerial and somebody's looking to put a
boat dock where there's a seawall, and we can clearly tell by the aerial,
and we know the area because we do site visits periodically out there
that there's no vegetation whatsoever on the property, then we don't
feel a need to go out there and verify.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, any other questions?
(N 0 response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, what's your next issue?
MS. BURGESON: Page 193. There's an amendment to the EAC
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August 1, 2006
to clarify when the EAC reviews stormwater and preserves as allowed,
and to correct a reformatting error and to add two alternates to the
EAC.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Mr. Chairman?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, sir, Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: It struck me when I read this that
the predicate for this really is whether or not we would agree that
stormwater should be allowed in preserves. And I recognize it's
concurrent or -- but it's -- it struck me that this is a little early to --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Bob, I think we're on Page 193.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That's what I am.
MS. BURGESON: I'm on Page 194, number two.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Anyway, it just struck me that it
was -- that it was perhaps early, maybe we should be looking at
qualifying the other first. And I know we probably can't do that.
MS. BURGESON: In actuality, staff is on a case-by-case basis
right now permitting stormwater in some preserves. And without
adding this language, the EAC is precluded from doing a review of
that.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Oh, interesting. Okay. Thank
you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any other questions?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Oh, there's one more piece on
194. Seems to be at the bottom two lines, each appointment shall be
for a term of, and then it struck four years, and I don't see any other
number put in place.
MS. FABACHER: Excuse me, Mr. Chair. That's just kind of the
notation that Municode is using now. It's leaving the number, the
numeral four and then spelling out the --
MS. BURGESON: But you've struck them both -- or I struck
them both.
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August 1, 2006
MS. F ABACHER: No, actually, this looks like that because of
the way the four crosses. Not, but that's what it's doing.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: So the number four subordinates
the letters?
MS. FABACHER: Well, it's the convention now according to
Municode not to double up what we say, you know, FIV and then
paren. five. So now we've kind of gone to numerals for the numeric
part and then spelling out, like 50 percent, 5-0 percent.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Oh, we're using numerals.
MS. FABACHER: That's the convention, so --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Thank you. It surely looked like
it was deleted.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Kolflat.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Yes, on Page 194 there under
membership, you're proposing to add two new members to the
commission or the council. That brings it up to 11. Isn't there some
limit to the effective size of a group to review some of these things?
And in lieu of using nine plus two alternates, what about
reducing it to seven regular plus two alternates, it would still maintain
a number of nine.
MS. BURGESON: This was by Board of County
Commissioners direction in an attempt to prevent or preclude the lack
of quorum on the EAC in the future.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: I understand the lack of quorum,
but that could be obtained by suggesting using seven plus two rather
than nine plus two. But this is at the commission's direction?
MR. LORENZ: Well, we're taking direction from the
commission to add the alternates to the existing membership. So
we're not making any recommendations to change the existing
membership, simply to add the alternates per the board direction.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: My only concern is the
commission become so large that it's not very effective. Is there a
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August 1, 2006
limit to the number of people that can meet on an issue and discuss it
intelligently?
MR. LORENZ: These alternates would be -- let's say we have a
nine member -- existing nine member EAC. Two members cannot
make -- two members cannot make that EAC meeting. The two
alternates would come in and you would still have the nine member
discussion. It's not -- they would not be added -- they would not be
part of a discussion and make an 11 members discussion.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: But they do participate in the
deliberations, according to this, don't they?
MR. LORENZ: Oh, excuse me, I'm sorry.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Do the two alternate members
do participate in the deliberations?
MS. BURGESON: That is how it's written in that the two
alternates would only be able to actually vote if there's a -- if there's a
lack of quorum and that they need to fill a spot.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: I understand that they wouldn't
be able to vote but they would participate in deliberation of comments
or questions and anything else.
MS. BURGESON: The way it's written right now, they could,
yes.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: They would?
MS. BURGESON: The way it's written right now, they could.
MR. LORENZ: Yes, I stand corrected with my comments
before, sorry.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: But that's what concerns me,
that this commission gets so large that it ceases to be effective.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Just so Mr. Kolflat isn't alone, when it
got to me my comments were going to be exactly what he has just
said. It makes no sense I can see to have two alternate members
participating in meetings. We've got 11 people up there yakking away
and only nine of them can vote. They'll drag the meetings out and it
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August 1, 2006
will require additional fiscal impacts that aren't listed here for
additional packages of both the development community, the property
owners and for staff to produce.
So I think the fact -- if you have two alternate members, that's
probably a good thing, but to allow them to participate I think is a real
bad thing.
The EAC, just like us, asks for attendance of their upcoming
meetings. When it's obvious someone's not going to have -- they're
not going to have a quorum, they then ought to solicit who's not going
to be there, and those packages would be distributed to the two
alternates on the premise they would be there. Eleven members would
be cumbersome whether they vote or not.
We have a new committee that was just, for example, suggested
in the county, the horizon committee. They're looking for 15
members. That board will with be bogged down for its entire life.
So I'm not sure why this 11 is here, but I certainly think that's a
mistake. And I would have to echo Mr. Kolflat's concerns about that
quantity or participation.
MS. BURGESON: Right. We could rewrite that language to
state alternate members shall only be eligible to participate and vote in
order to maintain a quorum.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, I mean, the concern there
is, I think, that if there's nine appointed members and one can't make
it, I think an alternate should be able to come in and that wouldn't be
just to maintain a quorum.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: But wasn't it BCC direction to maintain
a quorum?
MS. BURGESON: That was their intent of this, yes.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: So there will only be four guys
who just sit around and only be called out if there's a quorum
problem?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That was the issue that I think the BCC
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August 1, 2006
was trying to correct.
I'm sorry, Brad, did you --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah, but I think that these -- I
mean, you want to keep the people active and knowing what's going
on and everything, too. Assuming you don't want them to --
MS. BURGESON: Right, we would be required to sent send two
additional packages out for each meeting. Those alternates would be
treated as if they were full members with the potential for us to need
to call them in at the last minute to attend a meeting.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Are the minutes of the EAC
verbatim or are they summary?
MS. BURGESON: No, they're summary.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay, thanks.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Caron.
COMMISSIONER CARON: I'm not quite sure, if they're having
problems getting nine people, I'm just not sure that this is going to
solve the issue. And besides, you only need five people for a quorum,
so if one person's gone, you don't want to add in another person just to
keep it at nine. You would only add these people in, correct, if it were
only four people that were going to show up that day, and then you
would --
MS. BURGESON: Ifwe needed to call on one person to make a
five member board for a meeting was the original intent.
COMMISSIONER CARON: And this has been a problem that
you've been down to three EAC members so that you would need to
have the quorum? I'm just questioning, I don't know.
MR. LORENZ: Well, we had enough of a problem for the board
to give us direction to provide alternates.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Let's expound on what Ms.
Caron is trying to get at. How many times has the EAC not be able to
meet because of lack of quorum?
MS. BURGESON: I think only once or twice in the past three or
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August 1, 2006
four years.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, so for once or twice in the past
three or four years we're going to add potentially two more members
who would have to meet the participatory requirements, they would
get packages created by staff, which would have to come from
somebody in the public who wants to change, and the cost and all that
just for a couple of times in the four years that might occur. And
maybe now that they've been reprimanded, as I know they have been,
by the BCC that this shouldn't happen, the attendance of the EAC
seems to be -- you've got a lot of good people there who are showing
up like everybody else who volunteers as often as they can.
I think the fiscal impact of this far outweighs the -- is more
negative than the correction that you're going to get from it. So--
COMMISSIONER CARON: Wouldn't it be better just to change
the date of the meeting? I mean, they only have one meeting, correct,
every month?
MS. BURGESON: And then again, even the reason for the
quorum was a medical emergency, so --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: My thought is this doesn't fix anything.
It creates a bigger problem than a fix, so -- maybe because that's the
way it's written. I'm not saying the BCC was wrong in their intent,
their intent was absolutely right, we need to have quorums. But
maybe there's a better way to fix it. I don't think this gets us here.
Mr. Kolflat.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: One way it could be fixed, you
take the nine members there are now and designate seven of them as
being regular members and the other two being alternative members.
And then you would still be able to maintain your quorum, increase
your opportunity to maintain the quorum, but still would keep it
within the reasonable number of 11 members total-- nine members
total.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I don't know if--
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August 1, 2006
MS. BURGESON: Right now we have nine members that could
potentially provide us with the five for the quorum. I'm not sure
reducing that to seven --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Gives you four for a quorum.
MS. BURGESON: Well, the EAC ordinance is written
differently. The EAC ordinance is written differently than your and
then most boards in that you need five members of the nine to be a
quorum for a meeting. And you need that same five for any formal
motion.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I think we've expressed our
concerns, although I'm not sure it's in as much in our corner as it is the
EAC's. They seem to not have a problem with this. I just think it's a
fiscal cost more than the problem that seemed to have occurred at least
only once or twice in four years, so --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But Mark, the last thing that
Barbara said I think is important. You're saying that they need five
votes to approve something. So they really do need more people at
the meetings. So I think if this does it -- I mean, the first thing you
could say is get people that will show up. That doesn't always happen.
Sometimes good people have problems. So I think this is a good idea
to make sure that there's a lot of people discussing an issue before it's
voted on.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Jeff, what would it take to change the
ordinance?
MR. KLATZKOW: It's easy. Changing ordinances, once you
get the process down, changing an ordinance takes a couple of
advertisements and we're done. It's the LDC that's such a problem to
amend.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: But could this solution -- could there a
solution that would not be as impactful through packages and staff
time and distribution and attendance and public hearings and hearing
11 people at every meeting express their views instead of nine. Could
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August 1, 2006
there be a process through a change in the ordinance that would make
this a little easier to do?
MR. KLATZKOW: I don't see why not.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Would maybe staff get together with
legal and maybe come back with a recommendation that would meet
the intent of the BCC but would be done less and more simply through
an ordinance change?
MR. LORENZ: Let me -- we have to check. I don't think that
there is -- the EAC now is a freestanding ordinance. The EAC is
governed here in the land development code. So if we wanted to
make a change to the EAC's perceived process in terms of voting and
what constitutes formal actions, it would have to be within this land
development code.
MR. KLATZKOW: You can always pass an ordinance, Bill. I
mean, that's an easy process, just pass an ordinance.
MR. LORENZ: To amend the land development code?
MR. KLATZKOW: No, pass an ordinance with respect to the
EAC. You could do that.
MR. LORENZ: Okay. We'll--
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Would you guys work together on that?
Because I just think there's got to be an easier solution than having 11
people go through a meeting on a continuing basis and having staff
having to produce 11 documents.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Amen.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But Barbara, the 11 people
wouldn't be here all the time, would they? Where would they sit, for
one thing, somebody's lap up here?
MS. BURGESON: The way this was created was if we have--
of our nine members, if we only have four that say they could make it
at the next meeting, they would call on one of those alternates to fill
that spot so they would not lose a quorum.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: See, the way this reads is, the two
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alternate members shall have the ability to participate in discussions
during the meetings. And when you volunteer for something,
hopefully you take it to heart. And I can't imagine someone
volunteering to be an alternate knowing that they should be
participating that they wouldn't participate. They should.
MS. BURGESON: I'm not sure there was an intent to preclude
them if they wanted to.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right. But that does bring in -- a
dedicated volunteer is going to be there for all the meetings and you're
going to have 11 people.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And they can sit in the audience
and watch it. And it could be the farm team to become a full member.
MR. LORENZ: Because the alternative is that those alternates
would have to review the packages each and every time they come in,
because we don't know when we would not have a quorum.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I can't see where this hurts
anything. The Xerox machine just hit a number two higher and let it
np.
MS. BURGESON: From time to time you have six members
attend a meeting and two that excuse themselves for personal reasons
of not voting.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: On one vote.
MS. BURGESON: Right. Not that you have a meeting quorum
issue but you have a voting quorum issue. Again, this doesn't happen
very frequently. This is just to preclude -- prevent it from happening in
the future.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You've heard enough concerns, maybe
you can get together and see if there is something that needs to be
modified. W e'lllook forward to hearing that.
What's your next section, Barbara?
MS. BURGESON: Page 201.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is this your last environmental issues for
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today?
MS. BURGESON: Yes, it is.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. For the court reporter, I'd like to
get through this before we take a 15 minute break; is that okay?
THE COURT REPORTER: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Page 201, does anyone have any
questions?
Mr. Kolflat.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Page 201, in the paragraph
under reason, you indicate more appropriate. What constitutes more
appropriate?
MS. BURGESON: If you'll look at page 204, for instance, we're
saying that when you have a conventional rezone and you have no site
plan attached to that and no proposed development plan, we feel it's
appropriate for that EIS to be postponed to the next development order
when we'll been able to evaluate it with a proposed site plan.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Okay. Thank you. I had one
other one, if I might.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead, sir.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: I notice on Page 202 under
A.2.A, there's indication of ST, is that an acronym?
MS. BURGESON: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: That's not listed under the list of
acronyms in the beginning of the LDC. I mean, there's no way to
know what that acronym stands for, if read that and you want to look
it up.
MS. BURGESON: We can certainly add that there. That's
special treatment.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: It should be in the list, shouldn't
it?
MS. BURGESON: Yes, I think it should.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any other questions?
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August 1, 2006
Mr. Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: So Barbara, there's no
circumstance you think that a rezone would have a difficulty based
upon the environmental condition of the site?
MS. BURGESON: If it were a conventional straight rezone?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Correct.
MS. BURGESON: The only benefit would be to the property
owner. If the property owner wants us -- and from time to time we
have people ask us to do the EIS evaluation to identify where the
preserve areas should be so they can look to develop around that. So
that would be the only time where that would be a benefit.
But we're saying that it wouldn't be obligation at that time. I
suppose that if someone requests that we do that review for them, we
still would -- I would think that we would still be able to do that.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I mean, a silly thing would be
somebody has a site, it's total wetlands and they're rezoning it, they
just didn't realize that. Wouldn't this just be a waste of their time and
wouldn't that be something that would stop a rezone? Or are people
not that foolish?
MS. BURGESON: You know -- in a rezoning process they
would still have to provide us with listed species information and
wetland information. It could still be a part -- it would still be part of
the staffreview. We're not precluding staff from doing a review,
we're just saying at that point a whole EIS is not necessary. But we
would still identify wetlands and listed species.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I'm sorry, Catherine, did you have
something?
MS. F ABACHER: I just was reminding you we had another
speaker on this.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Before we get to him and as long
as the panel is finished, I have one question on page 202, the Roman
numeral five. Preserve areas are not in compliance with current
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growth management plan and land development code requirements.
This is the applicability. But what struck me is up on top where it
says it shall be unlawful and the applicabilities apply to even a
building permit, my concern there is that if someone comes in for a
building permit on a PUD that, say, is five years or 10 years old,
they're not going to be in compliance possibly with the current growth
management plan because our preservation requirements have
changed radically over the years.
So does that mean a building permit couldn't be issued?
MS. BURGESON: Well, they could be in compliance. Just -- I
mean --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: They could be, but they could not be,
too.
MS. BURGESON: This would be preserve areas that would
have to be identified through -- this is just the EIS section of the code.
This doesn't affect a building permit review. Environmental staff does
not do building permit review.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Then why do you have no building
permit up in Number A-2?
MS. BURGESON: That's -- right. That's, for instance, if you
have someone that's coming in to do a site plan, an SDP, we would not
allow them to issue a building permit if an EIS were applicable for
that site, prior to doing an EIS.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, but you would catch it on the
SDP stage?
MS. BURGESON: In most cases. And we rarely have SDPs that
require an EIS, but yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Wouldn't you want to change the
reference -- my concern is the word current in reference to existing
PUDs, and up on top where you reference a building permit, because
that's a pretty finite process.
So if you're going to include building permit, I have a concern
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with five. If you're going to modify A-2 so that maybe you mean an
SDP and not a building permit, because that's the review stage at
which you catch your elements.
MS. BURGESON: Right. Let me take a look at that. This may
be in the GMPs as regular building permit in there, so let me take a
look at that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. That may be --
MS. BURGESON: If -- building permit, we're not -- the intent is
not to preclude someone from getting a building permit if their SDP
was approved. But again, recall that those would -- all right, I'll take a
look.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I think I know what your intent is and
it's probably not what I'm concerned about. But what I'm concerned
about is someone else interpreting it in a manner that's different than
what you intended.
MS. BURGESON: I'll look at the GMPs.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Catherine, is there any other questions?
If not, we'll have our -- do you have a public speaker?
MS. FABACHER: Yes, I do. Mr. Lewis again.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Just put him down permanently for
everything.
MS. FABACHER: Well, this is his last one.
MR. LEWIS: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Doug Lewis with Roetzel
and Andress, here on behalf of various clients.
Just looking for a little clarification, just a little bit of pause when
we look at a few of the changes. 10.02.02.A-2 sets out the standards
where an EIS would be required and also provides that no building
permit, conditional use, zoning change, plat, SDP can be approved
without this.
There were two new additional conditions that were added that
trigger an EIS under A.2-D, Roman four, where you -- in the case
where you have a prior EIS and the EIS is more than five years,
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previous standard, in addition, they've asked and where preserve areas
were not previously established.
And currently the EIS requires that you determine, identify the
viable vegetation on-site and demonstrate how the project meets or
exceeds the native vegetation requirement. And I'm not sure in terms
of the meaning of that, trying to construe that when we talk about
preserve areas are established, does that mean that they're putting
conservation easements? What exactly does that mean? So I'm not
sure what that legally means. So we'd like a little clarification on that.
And five, the other standard that was added was the preserve
areas are not in compliance with the growth management plan, the
land development code. You identified one of the examples that -- in
the context of pulling a building permit, changes in the GMP, we have
PUDs that are in phased developments that are older PUDs. And we'd
like to have some clarification on how this would impact current
phased PUDs.
And preserve areas that may not be required. It's a little difficult
from the development community perspective when you identify a
preserve area and you build your development around that, is this
going to require that new preserve areas be established or -- and
especially when you're dealing with multiple owners within a PUD.
And so there's some real questions as to why we're adding these,
what's broken, what needs to be fixed, what are we trying to
accomplish, what are the fiscal impacts to the development
community, how many of the developments in 2005 that would have
to comply with this EIS requirement would be impacted, how many
building permits potentially?
Also, on Page 204D, you have the requirements under Section A,
under A-2 where you have the applicability in terms of where an EIS
is required and then there's certain exemptions, and we've added the
exemption for the conventional rezone. It's more just of a question for
clarification in terms of how it's worded but towards the -- in the third
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sentence it reads after conventional rezone, it says but the complete
EIS shall not be required until the time of the next development order
submittal with the site plans.
And I wanted to just clarify if this is only applicable to
conventional rezone. And what about sites where a prior EIS was
done in the five years, and, you know, there's no impacts to wetlands
or species, you know, that where under the applicability section we
would not be required to get an EIS. Is the intent to require the
developer in the SDP phase or some other development order phase to
obtain an EIS? So just some clarification questions.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, thank you. We'll endeavor to get
your clarification.
Barbara, why don't we start with D. Do you have a response to
that issue?
MS. BURGESON: Yes, the intent there is to permit the EIS to
go to the next development order or submittal, so it would be an
obligation of the next development order whether that would be a plat
and plans or an SDP.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: If there's a way to make it a little
clearer, maybe you could consider that.
MS. BURGESON: We can cross out with site plans, and that
would simplify that, so that it would be required at the time of the next
development order submittal, period. That would just clarify that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And his points on A-2--
MR. LEWIS: Mr. Chair, that's great, we appreciate that. The
second part of that was is there a situation where, in a conventional
rezone context, where a prior EIS was done and there's no real impact
to species or wetlands, is there a scenario where an EIS would not be
required at the SDP stage, or the applicability section, or is the intent
here to in essence make it applicable in an absolute sense?
MS. BURGESON: You'll find that under A-2, where it identifies
when an EIS is required. If the site has done a prior EIS -- where a
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prior EIS was prepared and approved for the same area of land and
where the following exist. So they're saying that you've done a prior
EIS and you've got greater impacts to wetlands or listed species, then
we're going to require you to do another EIS. But if you don't, you are
not going to be required to do another EIS.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: His comment about D-4, ifpreserve
areas were not previously established. What is your determination of
estab lishment?
MS. BURGESON: We can change that to approved. The intent
was approved.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And approved being -- again, that kind
of -- would still probably give me the same question.
MS. BURGESON: Staff would approve--
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Staffapproval.
MS. BURGESON: Right.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
MS. BURGESON: Staff would approve any preserve area
through the PUD review process or through plat and plans or through
SDP.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. As long as we clarify that, I
think that would help with that.
And then five, it's a good point. And that's where I was trying to
come from in the beginning, is if you have a phased PUD or an older
PUD, how does this -- how does Roman numeral five impact that
PUD?
MS. BURGESON: No differently than we're currently doing
right now . You are required to provide a new EIS if you've got a PUD
where, for instance, such as Lely Resort, there's a huge area of Lely
Resort that is undeveloped when -- if we hadn't had a recent
requirement for EIS, and they did have to update their EIS. When
these portions of their projects come in and they're more than five
years old, they need to provide us with a new EIS. So that they could
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be assured that they're consistent with the GMP requirements for
preserve locations.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Mr. Lewis?
By the way, I would hope that prior to the final hearing on this,
maybe you and Mr. Lewis has had several comments on these
environmental issues, you guys could at least e-mail or correspond
prior to the next meeting and resolve, possibly look at some issues.
Go ahead.
MR. LEWIS: Sure. And clearly under the current LDC where
you had an EIS that was dated more than five years, you would be
required to provide an EIS for the development. So just a concern
here is we want to first identify what the concern is, what we're trying
to address and make sure that the net doesn't, as we've identified,
doesn't create implications for owners who are trying to pull building
permits or other developments where you have a PUD that may be,
you know, predate some of the changes to the GMP that can be caught
up in the web.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: One of the better ways to have this
board understand where you're trying to go is to suggest some
language to Barbara and Bill, and they can come back, and if they
don't like it, we'll certainly listen to them too, but at least we can get
the language on the table. It's harder for us to reinvent the language
up here. I like your suggestions, I just think they need to bring them
through the process before the next meeting.
MR. LEWIS: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Barbara, is that the last environmental
issue for you and your --
MS. BURGESON: Yes, it is.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: First I want to thank you and Bill for
your patience and your time with us these, the last two meetings or
three meetings.
With that, I think we'll take a IS-minute break to 10:25 and when
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we resume, we'll start with the canopy issue. Thank you.
(A recess was taken.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, I think we're about to come back
to order.
Do you have a way to put us, turn our mic back on over at your
location, or is it already on?
Now, it's on. Thank you.
And one slight change in schedule. The transportation
department says they really don't have anything to do and they'd just
like to sit here all day and listen to us business so they've deferred to
the engineering department to speak after boat canopies.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Mark, a question. In
preparation for this, I didn't cover the gray issues. Are we going to
hear the gray issues here today? Some of them are transportation.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Gray issues? You mean like the--
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: The ones that were gray in the
book. The impression I got was that there would be further
information or something coming.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, some of the gray ones say
withdrawn.
MS. FABACHER: Yes, and previously the gray ones that you
have just were the ones that hadn't finished with DSAC, and the one I
had handed -- and my apologies, I had a family emergency and I didn't
get to send you the second set. But the one today with the gray that I
gave you the summary sheets today shows the ones that have been
withdrawn for one reason but that doesn't solve Mr. Schiffer's --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: We have plenty to do. It's not
like we're going to run out of stuff.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Not all the transportation items were
grayed out. I think there were one or two. We can defer those until
the 8th if we need to and maybe that will help. And let's just go for
the ones that aren't grayed out then. If we get everything done and we
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still want to do more, maybe we can try to do the gray ones to finish
up. But we'll see.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I'll gladly join in that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. With that, let's go into the boat
canopy issue. And you want to tell us what page that one's on?
MS. F ABACHER: That's on Page -- begins on page 151. And
Mr. Chair, if it's all right, Catherine Fabacher for the record. I would
like to give you a little background on this, because I worked on this
with, you know, Alisa Kohler and Linda Bedlington, as far as we had
four public meetings on this. This was directed by the Board of
County Commissioners to come back to this issue again to just look at
the possibilities because of the past problems with the boat canopy
issue, and it wasn't resolved two years ago and the BCC asked we look
at it again.
We had four public meetings, we met up at Saint John the
Evangelist, which was mostly the Vanderbilt Beach area. We had two
meetings up there. And then we went down to the Isles of Capris and
had a meeting there one night, a public meeting, and kind of explained
and showed the language that you have before you, which the council
kind of basically directed -- I'm sorry, the commission basically
directed that they be looked at as a permitted use, whether you vote up
or down. They just wanted to get it in here so that they could have
discussion, public discussion we could make a decision on this.
I think there's some history with a lawsuit, but I can't really -- I
think that's been resolved. You probably know more about that than I
do.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I don't think it's been resolved. I think
there's a lot of issues out there yet.
MS. FABACHER: I wish I hadn't said that then.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Maybe between this panel and the next,
this can get resolved and maybe things will go away and be better.
Who knows?
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MS. FABACHER: It would be great. And, you know, we failed
to discuss it on the 19th, which had been advertised at all the public
hearings. But the other date that we did say we would discuss it again
and finally vote on it of course would be the 23rd of August, so -- but
we do have five speakers today.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: There may be questions from the panel.
Mr. Murray, did you have any?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah, I do. On page 154, under
seven, the heading speaks to roofing material and roof color, but then
A, Band C and so forth refers to canopies. I don't want to be picky,
but you've referenced here that it needs to be cheekie style or it needs
to have certain colors.
Would we not or should we not include the canopies within the
heading there?
MS. FABACHER: That's a good point. As far as applicability
goes?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yes, ma'am. Because you -- and
then the next several, or the next A through D references canopy, so --
MS. FABACHER: That's a good direction. I think the thinking
when staff drafted it was that roofing material, the canopy could be a
subset of a roofing material. But your comment's well -- point's well
taken on this.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay.
MS. FABACHER: We'll try and redraft something there to add
it in.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I think just adding something
would be useful.
MS. F ABACHER: All right.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is that it?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That was it. You just have to
qualify whether or not this applies.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Kolflat.
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COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: What is the principal structure?
How do you define that?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You need to pull your -- Mr. Kolflat,
you need to pull your speaker a little closer to you.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Under the same paragraph
seven, we were just talking about, you say principal structure in the
first part there. What do you mean by principal structure?
MS. FABACHER: Yes, sir. Catherine Fabacher again.
Meaning the home would be the principal structure and the boat
house would be -- or a canopy would be an accessory use versus a
principal use.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: And if there were several
structures on the property, how would the selection be made?
MS. FABACHER: Well, on residential it would be--
single- family would be one house. The garage would be an accessory
structure. If you had multi-family and it was all one unit or duplex or
whatever, that was all in one building, generally speaking. I can't
think of -- this refers to single-family residential lots, basically.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Well, but it says roofing
material shall be the same as materials and colors used on the principal
structure. Does that mean that if the roofing material was tiled that the
boat structure should also be tiled roof?
MS. F ABACHER: Yes, sir, that's the current requirements.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: But I think where he's trying to add is
the canopy is not going to be made of roof tile. And that's the
clarification you need to make, based on Mr. Murry's --
MS. FABACHER: It speaks to Mr. Murray's issue, yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: One other point. On page 152
under C-l up at the top of the page.
MS. FABACHER: Yes.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: There is an acronym MHWL.t
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That acronym is not included in the definition of acronyms in the
beginning.
MS. F ABACHER: Yes, sir, it will be.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yes. Question I had is what
really is a canopy? I mean, the concern I think it was is that people
were covering their boats with materials unlike required for a
boathouse. But I'm not sure, is the canopy ever defined or is it just a --
MS. F ABACHER: Well, it's a covered structure, so a structure
would not be just a cover on a boat. A structure would be the
infrastructure, the frame that would hold the canopy up. And then the
cover of that would be the canvas. I don't think this covers, the way I
interpret it, boat covers.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: So essentially what we're really
allowing people to do is the developed structure, they have different
wind requirements than the other.
MS. FABACHER: Right.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And the material is -- I mean,
do we define what -- because essentially these are fabric structures.
MS. FABACHER: Exactly.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Should we note that is what a
canopy is? Other than -- I'm not sure that someone couldn't be putting
aluminum decking or something like that.
MS. FABACHER: Yes, we can -- absolutely. We can make it,
whether it's going to be cloth or plastic or whatever.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right. Is there anything in there
that would protect -- in other words, what we really don't want is to
get into some -- they want to downplay these covers, so we don't want
something that doesn't do that. So should we note that the -- when I
read this, there is a lot of things we could abuse this with, the material.
Because that's what we're letting loose is the material not matching the
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principal --
MS. FABACHER: Right. And as a matter of fact, I think Susan
Murray-Stanlis (phonetic) commented that she wanted to just cut
down to perhaps maybe suggested one color, instead of -- you know,
we've kind of given natural habitat colors, beige, blue or green.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But I think you could find every
color in the natural habitat.
MS. FABACHER: Well, that's what I'm saying. So her
recommendation would be to -- as I understand it, would be to cut it
down to perhaps one color, so it would be uniform for all. But she'd
have to speak for herself.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Do we require house structures, roofs to
be one color?
MS. FABACHER: No.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, just curious.
MS. FABACHER: Also, I think Ms. Murray might be here to
speak on it on the 23rd. She may not -- you know, she may have her
opinion on how she feels about the whole ordinance.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer, did you finish?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, I think so. Just -- I think
my impression of a canopy is not the same shape as a boathouse. Is
the intent here that people could build large canvas --
MS. FABACHER: They're still restricted by sizes of the
structure.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Same as the boathouse.
MS. FABACHER: Yes, exactly.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Isn't the canopy a smaller thing
that just kind of barely covers the boat? I mean, the pictures we've
seen from the Vanderbilt area, they're not the size of boathouses.
MS. FABACHER: And it's some question about some of these
frames that have to be built to withstand -- what was it, the structure
has to be built to --
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COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: The frame has to stay on for --
MS. FABACHER: For 140-mile -- yeah, that wouldn't be just
some two-by- fours slapped up there. They have to be certified and that
would be pretty substantive. They have, I think, the metal ones that
go on that the frame will last 140 -- I think you're talking about some
things where there are two-by-fours and lattice work and all or
something of that order.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I'm talking about the size of it.
MS. FABACHER: Oh, the size.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: You know, the canopies that
people have been obj ecting to are very small and they just barely
cover the boat.
According to this, don't you think somebody could build an
awning structure the same size as the boathouse?
MS. FABACHER: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And I don't think that's -- that's
causing a worse condition.
MS. F ABACHER: Well, it's still the -- it still follows, that's why
it was kind of kept under F, which was the standard for boathouses, so
it would still have to follow those dimensional standards.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But it could be the size of a
boathouse. And my intent is that I think a canopy is a smaller
structure, but maybe some of the neighbors will talk about it then.
MS. FABACHER: Right. But I think it falls under the
restrictions on the sizes, wherever they were. It cannot exceed -- yes,
the 7.5 foot setbacks and then it can't exceed -- well, it's restricted by
how far it has to be from the lot line, those sort of things --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I agree with that. But my intent
is I don't think a canopy is as big as a boathouse. Even though it's
falling under the requirements of a boathouse, you could now build a
big awning, I think. Essentially you could build a boathouse out of
canvas or awning material.
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But let's wait 'til we -- some of the neighbors might have pictures.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Murray first, then Mr. Kolflat.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Just adding to that issue, the
purpose of the canopy is to protect the boat. And the issue, I would
surmise, would be whether or not we develop a bunch of ugly
structures to protect the boat.
And I don't know how you can effectively set up the geometry
for this. I'm talking about the canvas itself or whatever fabric is used.
I would think that a boat owner would prefer to have as much surface
area covered as possible, so I can envision from their point of
reference that they would like to have something that creates an arc, if
you will, and that will give protection and so forth.
I don't know where we're going to go with this, obviously, but for
me, I think it would be important to see if we could come to a
conclusion about whether it's essentially a flat top, a molded top to a
certain point or full -- or whether any of that's even relevant,
ultimately.
So with that comment, I would be interested in hearing what the
public has to say, certainly.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Kolflat?
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Yeah, there are existing
parabolic canvas covers that will cover more than one boat, for
example, two boats. Now, this doesn't preclude that, does it,
Catherine?
MS. FABACHER: I'm sorry, what did you say?
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: There are parabolic covers for
two boats rather than just one boat that exist with canvas and using
over metal frame. This doesn't preclude that kind of construction,
does it?
MS. FABACHER: I believe it does, because it says maximum
number of boathouses are -- I'm looking at F -4 on Page 154, and it
says maximum number of boathouses or covered structures, which is
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the existing language, per site, one. And then--
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But it could have two boats
under one --
MS. FABACHER: Two slips? I suppose it could. I think you
can have that now with the boathouses. Whatever you can have with
the boathouses now you are allowed to have -- that's why -- I'm sorry,
I was going back to see, the dimensions that restrict the boathouses are
the same dimensions that are going to restrict the size of the canopy.
Maximum height 15 feet as measured from the top of a seawall or
bank, whichever is more restrictive to the peak or highest elevation of
the roof. So your height's controlled now as far as -- that did address
something about two slips, I believe. That's what I was looking back
for.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer, did you have any other
questions -- Mr. Kolflat, I'm sorry.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: I was just going to say, the
power boat marina down in Naples lost most of its slip on one side.
They covered it with just a flat cover. And they're contemplating
putting in now some curved arches there that would be the canvas, but
the canvas could be able to blow away should another hurricane occur
without destroying the structure, hopefully.
Now, this would not preclude that, would it? Or would it?
MS. F ABACHER: It wouldn't have anything to do with what
they do in Naples. I don't know, we'd have to look at, you know, what
we want it do with that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Our ordinances don't apply to Naples.
MS. FABACHER: That's what I said.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right. We don't need to look at it
further. Naples does not apply to our ordinances.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: But I wouldn't want to impale
any kind of restrictions in the county relative to the main use of the
boat covers now with canopies for two boats versus one boat or one
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boat.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, I see. So you're worried about
the application --
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Right.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- comparison.
Mr. Murray, did you --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah, I just had that one -- I
spoke before, and Mr. Kolflat has also talked about arc. And Number
5 on Page 154, and it does say all boathouses and covered structures
shall be completely open on all four sides. That would almost suggest
to me an interpretation of a flat -- okay, now, I recognize you can
short -- so that's why I bring again the question of geometry.
MS. FABACHER: I see. I understand now.
We could choose to restrict that ourselves and say that they could
come down eight inches or something, which would actually be better
as far as what the companies have told us provide more shade.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: And probably more structure.
MS. FABACHER: No, more shade. But then there's the issue
then of the visual, the aesthetics of being able to see through it. So
that's why I originally said the boathouse sides should remain
uncovered, so it would be less obtrusive.
But if you're doing it and you want to shade your boat, just
adding maybe eight inches would increase the effectiveness of the
shade. But it's up to what you would like to do. We're instructed to
write this pretty much more or less like the boathouses, so --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any other questions?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Good. I have a few.
Let's start with number seven, what refers to principal structure.
What do you do if you don't have a principal structure?
MS. F ABACHER: You don't have a canopy or boathouse.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: But there are plenty of boat dock lots in
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this community --
MS. FABACHER: Yes, I understand.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Don't interrupt, let's take it one time--
at a time.
And those people purchased those lots with the intention of
having their boats there. And they even have variances or special
treatments to their particular location. And I know that a lot of this
discussion originated because of those people with these boat dock
lots. So why, if we're looking for solutions, why are we not including
them in the solutions?
MS. FABACHER: Because the board specifically said we
address this and not that issue. That's a different issue. So they said
speak to this issue in this amendment.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: It's the heart of the issue, but okay. So
they didn't want to address boat docks lots.
MS. FABACHER: Well, this is the limit of our direction.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
MS. F ABACHER: To just do the canopies now because of all
the canopies. But that would be another issue that we would need to
receive direction on.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, what about the existing canopies
that are out there today? And there are a series of them throughout the
county. Are they all going to be made to come back through an
expensive process that is, by this requirement, a public hearing process
to go before the planning commission and the BCC?
MS. FABACHER: That's what it takes to establish a boat. Now,
I don't know what, we could do something about making them legally
nonconforming if they met the standards. But my understanding is--
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Let me interrupt.
MS. FABACHER: Oh, I'm sorry.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You started your sentence by saying
that's what we need to establish a boat. What do you mean by that?
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MS. FABACHER: That process, when you said they had to
come back and go through the board for permission for the canopies. I
said that's what you have to do for a boathouse.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Oh, no. Okay, so you meant the
boathouse. I'm sorry, I thought you meant that they have to come
back through just to put a boat in their dock. They don't have to do
that --
MS. F ABACHER: No, no, I just meant that the process of
establishing a canopy over your slip would be the same as a
boathouse, you'd have to come and have a hearing.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So a canopy that costs $1,200 or
whatever has to spend the equivalency of a public process, which is a
planning commission hearing and a Board of County Commissioners
hearing and submittals to staff, and God only knows the engineering
and everything else that would be submitted with it, just to get a
canopy over a boat. Is that what staff is saying?
MS. FABACHER: That's what staff is saying. That's what this
language is saying.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And this was determined to be a
reasonable solution to the actions. Okay.
What about the fact that these canopies didn't even require a
building permit in the past and they exist today?
MS. FABACHER: Well, I think that was the issue of the lawsuit
or something. I'm really not -- you'd have to talk to code about that.
I'm really not versed on the issue of that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I'd like to know from the county
attorney's office what is the legal opinion on grandfathering issues that
didn't require building permits in the past that were put up, and today
all of a sudden we find ourselves in the perplexing situation of having
a code that doesn't address those potentially grandfathered issues.
MR. KLATZKOW: Well, I think dealing with the boat canopy
issue, that's why we have this lawsuit. And from my limited
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understanding of this lawsuit, our LDC is very confusing on this issue
and these things need to get worked out.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: But Jeff, knowing that there is an issue
out there and we're not addressing it by the applicants that are
involved, I assume, in the lawsuit. And that is we've got these boat
dock lots and we don't even seem to be addressing that, and we're
putting them through a criteria that is more costly to them than any
number of canopies they could put up. And I'm wondering why. I
mean, how do we see this as a solution? Was that the intent, to
provide a solution?
MS. F ABACHER: I think the intent of having the public
hearings is to allow the neighbors and affected people along the water
body, just like the boathouses, to have a comment, to have some input
and to have a say before a canopy just goes up next door or across the
way. If that's the question you're asking.
As I said before, the lots that can't have boathouses because they
don't have a principal structure, that's a whole nother issue, and we'd
have to get another direction from the board or so forth.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I didn't realize they singled that out as
an issue not to address. I thought they wanted to see the whole --
MS. FABACHER: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- thing addressed.
MS. FABACHER: No.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: They definitely didn't want it?
MS. FABACHER: Yes, that's our direction.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. And there is no -- well, I guess
the issue about the fact that they didn't require building permits before,
that isn't going to be addressed in this language? I mean, there's no --
MS. F ABACHER: Well, we may need to look at that. It's my
understanding right now that people are either up in violation or
they've taken them down, because unfortunately I think part of the
lawsuit was that code had gone out and written a lot of people up. So
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some people have kind of left them up but nobody's been forced to go
to court or deal with it right now. But they're under violation, and
some are taken down and -- I guess we'd have to talk to legal about--
if we wanted to grant the intent, you know, what is your intent, what is
your direction as far as the existing ones that are up? I mean, it's --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's where I'm trying to go. They're
up -- and you're saying they're up in violation. They're only
considered in violation because someone changed the interpretation of
the code. The code was never interpreted this way before. That's why
they were put up there legally in the first place is because they didn't
require a building permit. N ow they do because all of a sudden
everything is a structure, including, I understand, the box that houses
your gear on your deck was purportedly part of a structure, which
we're getting into the extreme of interpretations.
And I'm just wondering how this fixes any of it. It doesn't seem
to, it makes it worse.
Anyway, Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And on that point, Mark, I'm
confused. So you're saying that all these boathouses, or these little
canopies were legally built?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: It's my understanding that they weren't
required to have permits in the past.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And the code says that?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: No, the code didn't address it in the past.
The code's interpretation today seems to be that everything is a
structure and therefore it needs a building permit. It's not the way it
used to be in this county.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But I think state building code
would require permits for that too. So I would hate to have thought in
the past that structures were being built without engineering review
and stuff.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I'll tell you right now, the building
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department did not require building permits in the past for these
structures, if you want to call them structures, for canopies.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: The next hearing, could you
verify that?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Oh, I think you'll hear testimony later
on about that.
MS. FABACHER: I think this is part of the suit, though.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, I'm just concerned about
the code.
MS. F ABACHER: I don't know -- until the suit's settled, I can't
verify it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, why don't we have the public
speakers, if you could, ask them.
MS. FABACHER: The first one we have is Mr. John, I think it's
Gettinger. Forgive the pronunciation.
MR. GETTINGER: John Gettinger. I'm owner of Waterway
Boat Lift Covers in Punta Gorda. Didn't know I was going to be first.
I'm just -- I was invited down by the Collier County Boat Owners
Association. I'm basically just here to answer any questions about
what I do or about what I know, the history of the boat canopies. What
we've gone through with Charley up in -- and Wilma in the southwest
area, mainly, in Charlotte County and Lee County.
You addressed a couple of issues I can speak of just a little bit.
And the one you just finished here was were these permitted or not
permitted. I bought this company in 19 -- or 2001. It was in business
before that, put up most of the canopies in Collier County.
But I want to address something. In the State of Florida, I send
some up to the Panhandle. And I got another competitor that's in
Perry, Florida. His is classified as a permanent structure and they have
to get a permit for them.
The marine contractors up in the Pensacola area and that, they
like my unit because the state classifies it as a non-permanent structure
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because I do not drill or weld into the boat lift, because they're put on
the boat lift.
So therefore, mine are classified as a temporary structure, not a
permanent structure. And that's why some people say there's no
building permit needed.
You have some people -- this is an argument point, that says no,
it still needs a building permit. But in my opinion the majority of
people say it's a non-permanent structure because it's the way it's
fastened on the boat lift.
A couple of points I heard you say earlier. Now, I'm here to
answer any questions I can for you, mainly not to sell anything. But I
went through this with the City of Cape Coral, and a couple of things
like color, I know their attorney finally told them, hey, look, you can't
tell somebody what color to paint their house, you know, so they left
the color out of the issue. I don't know what it is -- whatever you
think.
But 99 percent of the people that get them, they want their
residence to look good, and they're going to take a good color,
something that blends in. The biggest issue when I go out, they want
something to blend in with the sky or their boat or their house. So I
don't think color should be a big issue for you.
As far as the roof coming down, the City of Cape Coral first
came out with an ordinance of coming down on sites 15 percent. Six
months later they changed it, they could come down 25 percent.
Due to a lot of people talking about boat covers blocking views
or anything, I came out with a different model. Again, I'm not trying
to advertise or anything. There's a lot of covers that I build that
doesn't have any sides, it just has an overhang like your roof does on
your house. And I personally feel that does an adequate job as far as
not having to worry about the sides coming down.
I could stand here and talk with you about a lot, but I'd rather
answer any questions that any of you have.
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CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are there any questions of this
gentleman?
Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I do.
When they classified it as a temporary structure, in the code we
do have temporary structures but they're up for a limited amount of
time. So what happens to your structure then? I mean --
MR. GETTINGER: Well, you know, I'm not in the building
department, but it can be taken down. Like my covers can be taken
off. In the City of Cape Coral, they -- the City of Cape Coral is the
only one in Lee and Charlotte County. In Manatee County it requires
you to have a permit, and that just went in a couple of years ago. But
the covers unfasten and they make you take them down if winds are so
high. The rest of the structure -- I understand exactly where you're
getting at. I'm not trying to fish around it or anything else.
Temporary structures are up there for a certain amount of time.
Temporary structures are also -- some people think is it's not in
concrete, it's not welded, it's not that. So it's different interpretations.
This is why you have a foggy point here on your interpretations of
what is temporary. Is it temporary just to be up there for the week tent
sale or what?
But it's not in -- if it's in concrete or bolted down, then it's a
permanent structure.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: It sounds more like it's a
frangible structure.
MR. GETTINGER: Right, right.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Codes -- and the only one I
know of allowed in the code is where you're going to do explosives.
The other question is where it goes over walkways. Or does it go
over the walkways?
MR. GETTINGER: Well, you've got a beautiful one right out
here on your walkway.
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COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: A beautiful walkway?
MR. GETTINGER: A canopy over your walkway out front here.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But the thing we're talking
about here is this canopy, do they go over the deck area, the dock
area? A lot of them I've seen they really essentially go between lift to
lift and they don't really go over the dock. Is that what you produce or
MR. GETTINGER: I hate to keep going back to Cape Coral,
because they're the only ones that have a permit. Now, in certain
places like in Port Charlotte, I've built them over the I -beams or over
the lift. And then I have some people say no, I want my dock covered
too. And I'm able to do that there. In the City of Cape Coral, they
will just let you do the boat lift and come out 30 inches beyond that.
So like a roof over a house.
When you write the ordinance, I guess you got the prerogative to
do whatever you want.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right. I'm just curious. There
is a common product that covers the boat, maybe has a side flap, but it
does not -- let's say since you're building between the lift, it does not
extend past the lift, it stays within the lift area, essentially the boat
area.
MR. GETTINGER: Right. That's what Cape Coral says, I can
go out 30 inches beyond the pilings. So therefore, it gives the boat the
protection like the roof overhang on your house. Most of our houses
have a 24- inch overhang and then you have your gutters another six
inches or so. But they won't let me go out farther than that.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: So within the dock area, you're
within the -- where you have the lift, and the important point is you're
not over the dock, and then you can cantilever out to cover the rear
end of the boat that's sticking out of the lift, so essentially cover the
full boat within the width of the lift area.
MR. GETTINGER: Yes, sir.
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COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any other questions? Okay.
MS. FABACHER: Wait, I had a--
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Oh, Catherine, I'm sorry.
MS. F ABACHER: Catherine Fabacher, for the record.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I heard your voice, I didn't see where it
was coming from.
MS. FABACHER: I'm trying to behave myself today, Mr. Chair.
The definition of structure: Anything constructed or erected
which requires a fixed location on the ground on in the ground or
attached to something having a fixed location on or in the ground.
And we look at it as part of a dock facility and therefore it is a
permanent structure.
And Commissioner Schiffer is totally right, a temporary structure
has to do with the time it's up, in our code. So if they want to put it up
for a week and then come back, get a permit and put it up for another
week, it would be a temporary structure.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's just what the public needs.
Thank you, sir, appreciate it.
Next speaker, please. Whoever that is, Catherine.
MS. F ABACHER: I'm sorry. That's going to be Mark Allen.
MR. ALLEN: My name's Mark Allen. I'm a resident of Collier
County. This is my 50th year here. I learned to drive on Vanderbilt
Beach.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mark, would you mind pulling that
speaker a little closer to you?
MR. ALLEN: Yeah. My name is Mark Allen. This is my 50th
year here in Collier County. We were the third house in Naples Park,
if that means anything to you. I learned to drive on Vanderbilt Beach.
Raised my family here. I'm a product of Lake Park Elementary,
Seagate Elementary, Naples High School, the old annex, product of
the football teams, baseball teams. Love to fish, love to hunt. And
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those things are becoming restricted.
I have some children that I love dearly and we were able to buy a
boat dock lot in Little Hickory Shores. And armed with that boat dock
lot, our access being cut off to the beaches and to the Gulf, I was able
to put in a boat dock with two boats. I was able to buy a new boat,
which is a silly thing to do, but I did. I don't have a new car but I got a
new boat. And I wanted to protect the boat. And there had been
questions about these canopies.
Being a surveyor for 30 years here in this town, I deal with
setbacks, I deal with structures, I deal with mean high water, riparian
lines, view rights, I deal with it every day. They seemed to be an issue
on that. There seemed to be a question. So I took the time to
straighten that out, I thought.
On August 20th of 200 1 I had a meeting with Mr. Ed Perico; he
was the director of the building department at that time. Not only was
he there, Mr. Tom Kuck was there, who was the director of the
building department at that time -- the planning department, myself,
Mark Allen, Bob Davies, who was a neighbor down there, and
Brandon Quant, who was the owner of Waterways Boat Covers
previous to Mr. Gettinger here. We all met with Mr. Perico.
And I told Mr. Perico what I've told you, and I said I'd like to
cover this precious boat of mine, I'm making payments on it, I'm
keeping it insured, I'd like to do that. I went down there armed with
plans, structural designs. I went down there with -- I took the
contractor with me.
And after we discussed this, Mr. Perico said, and I quote, these
are non-permanent in design, non-permanent in nature, and these do
not need a permit. That's exactly what I was told.
I went ahead with the procedure. I had Mr. Waterways Boat
Covers put up my canopies to cover my boats. All was well. The
neighbor across the street put one up and he seemed to not get along
very well with the neighbors. Before long he was in a match with the
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neighbors over the canopies and then it became a big fight and of
course then the county got involved and we have had violations and
ordinances and all kinds of things going on here.
So then we decided well, what can I do to make this right? I
mean, I'm here in Collier County, I'd like to do it right. So I came
back to the county, and the county said, Mr. Allen, you are in a platted
subdivision, you are one of 33 lots that is known as a boat dock lot
facility, and I'm sorry, because you cannot match the principal
structure, the lot will not support a structure, so you cannot have a
canopy, you cannot have a boathouse, you're in violation.
So there I sit. Don't know what to do. Thought I've made all the
right means with this, I believe, taken all the right steps.
It is so comical to me that this has gone on. Your question I
enjoyed about the area covered. I agree. I believe there should be an
ordinance, but there is no canopy ordinance that addresses this issue.
There is a canopy ordinance that you can put a canopy in your yard,
you can put your boat under that canopy in your yard, but voila, if you
put it over your boat dock, it now becomes a boathouse.
Now, this is the interpretation that staff is using, and I just can't
go there. That's not what it is. That's not what it is.
To -- after I was cited for this, I decided to file a lawsuit, and I'm
involved in that lawsuit.
But anyway, I put my canopy back up. And then came -- I don't
know which came first, Wilma or Katrina. I think it was Wilma first.
The hurricanes were brewing. It did the prudent thing, I went to my
boat dock, pulled the cords, dropped the canopy into the boat, took the
boat to the lift -- or to the ramp, put the boat on the trailer, took
everything that was -- that would be bothered by a hurricane and I
took it home and I secured it.
Lo and behold, I get a violation for having the support structure
of a canopy, not a canopy but the support structure.
Well, the reason the canopy was down is because we were having
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hurricanes. That's the prudent thing to do. It's not in the bay, it's not
damaging anybody's house, it was secured. So I find it comical that
we're going to that extent to write tickets for things like that.
I don't know what's going to happen to me. I do know that this is
supposedly a land development code change that should take care of
Collier County. I am in Collier County. I am Lot 12, Block H, plat
book three, Page 97 of the public records which shows a boat dock lot.
Why can I not cover my boat?
I do not understand why we're doing this to me. I don't get it.
Why?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Allen, thank you. We may have
some questions for you.
And Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I think we're here to fix that.
But let me ask a question. Let's go back. When Ed Perico -- and the
word of the building official is gospel for building code issues. When
you got cited, he was still the building official. Why didn't he come to
your defense? And the mistake you made also is you didn't get it in
writing, I mean, and that's like pulling teeth. But--
MR. ALLEN: I have a letter.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: From Ed Perico?
MR. ALLEN: No. I have a letter that I wrote to Mr. Perico,
attaching pictures, telling him thank you for his effort, thank you for
his time, dated certified mail, appreciating him for that information.
Mr. Perico was the guy that you talked to. I used to deal with him on
a daily basis. Ed, what are we going to do about this setback, what are
we going to do about this? Ed Perico wasn't a man that you had to go
in and say sign this. I didn't do it on that occasion, but I did take the
time to write him a letter and say thank you for your efforts, I feel
better about what I've done. And this letter is here.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Sometimes that's the best you
can do. And that's impressive, I'm not downplaying that. But the
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problem here is really zoning issue, which is not under Ed's domain. I
mean, Ed could argue how the structure's built, but he can't argue
whether you're allowed to have a structure or not. So at the meeting
was there anybody there from the zoning or planning--
MR. ALLEN: Mr. Tom Kuck was there. He was the interim
Director of Planning at that time, previous to Susan Murray, I believe.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Did you write him a similar
1 etter?
MR. ALLEN: No, I just wrote to Mr. Perico.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: To cover these boats, is it
necessary to cover the dock?
MR. ALLEN: No, sir, it is absolutely not.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: So a nice low boat cover could
extend down the side. But essentially it's covering and wrapping the
boat. And I wouldn't mind seeing that --
MR. ALLEN: May I come forward? As you notice, I don't
cover the entire boat, I couldn't cover the bow, I don't cover the transit.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And the other concern would be
how do we control the height of the thing?
MR. ALLEN: It is governed by the particular code, 15 feet right
now.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But what ifit didn't need -- I
don't think your thing is 15 feet.
MR. ALLEN: No, it's not.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I mean, what I'd like to do is
somehow keep it as low as we can. Because here's the concern. I'm
not worried about the owner of the property, I'm worried about his
neighbor, who's got this thing blocking his view down the canal.
MR. ALLEN: In my particular case, there are no neighbors
because there can't be any neighbors.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right. And you're special, I
know that. But we're going to write an ordinance and you'll be
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probably covered by that. But can the height be limited to the height
of the boat or something --
MR. ALLEN: The height of the lift. Regulate it ten inches
above the height of the lift. The lift is permitted -- this is what I don't
understand as a surveyor. This is what violates me. We go through
all this procedure, doing spot surveys, building location surveys to put
this dock in a precise location and this lift in a location. Now why are
we going back through this whole process simply to put what is
essentially what is a boat lift canopy. It's not really a boat cover, it's a
boat lift canopy that the boat is underneath.
And furthermore, the thing that I don't understand, I would like
someone to show me the definition of permanent in the land
development code. A structure is in my mind something that is
permanent.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Just so you know, Mr. Allen, we try to
limit speakers to five minutes. Then we can get into questions from
the speakers and that could take a little longer, at the discretion of the
members asking the question, but I want to try to get to the bottom of
this and get through the five public speakers we have.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I just want to say one thing
quick. You don't have to respond to this. What we're trying to do __
code is silent on the issue, and that's why we're trying to give it
requirements, to prevent your frustration.
MR. ALLEN: Am I allowed?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You can respond to his questions, I just
don't --
MR. ALLEN: Because what I'm saying is the issues under F, a
lot of those issues and the canopies, they go back to the structure,
which eliminates me, I'm screwed.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: We won't do that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any other questions of Mr. Allen.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Here's your paper, sir.
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CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you.
And one correction, and Brad, I don't know where you intend to
go with this, but I'm sure open to, as we go further on here today, I
think the BCC, from what I can tell from what Catherine told me, they
did not want to get into the issue of the boat dock lots. I wish they
hadn't have gone that way, but if that's the only direction we've got, I
don't know if we can do anything with that in the end. Maybe we can
make suggestions to them and I hope that's what comes out of this.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: The boat dock lots came before
us, and in that application they suggested canopies that weren't what
we were talking about here, they were much larger, essentially
property line to property line. So I mean, had this ordinance been in
there, we might have allowed that kind of a canopy in that location in
the proper process.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right. Ifwe just -- as we get through
today, maybe we can work on that.
The next speaker?
MS. FABACHER: The next speaker is John Purvis.
MR. PURVIS: Hello. My name is John Purvis and I'm a
resident of Collier County. I've been here about 20 years on and off.
Now I'm permanent. I have a canopy. I spent 35 years in emergency
medicine. My background is safety issues, safety environmental--
safety issues, not environmental.
And in 1997 I purchased me a boat, as all smart people do that,
and they keep throwing a lot of money into it, repairs and so on and so
forth. And then I saw, you know, we need something to protect this
boat. I was going to get a snap-on cover, and I found if you snapped
the cover on, all your electronics will draw the humidity and in two
years you're putting all new electronics back on.
And a guy said, you know, you ought to think about a canopy,
you push a boat up, the air flows through, keeps it dry, it protects your
boat. I said, sounds like a great idea. But me being in this safety
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mind, I thought, you know, let's look at this. So I looked at it, and I
investigated and I thought, great idea. So I put it up.
The prior -- let me back a little bit. I went through the procedure
on a permit for my dock. I have an excellent PVC dock, first class.
Everything, the pilings put in under permit, under regulations. I had
drawings of the canopy. We took it to the permitting. They have
pictures there, they have all the setbacks, they have everything. It's
permitted. They said well, what about the canopy? Waterways is
going to put it up. Oh, you don't need a permit for that.
Now, when you say temporary -- a temporary struc -- you say it's
temporary. How temporary is it? Well, it's temporary for the fact if a
hurricane's coming you take it down. That's -- it's no longer
permanent, it's coming down. All of the folks are going back up north
and you're going to store your boat, it's coming off there. And that's
what we say of temporary.
So how temporary is on the environmental and the weather
conditions and the availability of the person being at this facility.
So with that said, they said you don't need a permit. We put it
up. 1999 or 2000, somewhere around there, they said, you know,
you've got to have a permit for this. We're going to issue on -- it was
on Good Friday. We're going to issue you a citation because you have
an unpermitted canopy.
I said, let me see the ordinance. Oh, this is a boathouse. I said,
who said that? Well, they say it's a boathouse, so it's a boathouse. I
said okay, let me ask you a question: We have a hurricane coming,
right behind my house is a boathouse. Go take that -- how long is it
going to take you to take that boathouse down? You're not. That's a
structure. Mine comes down in 20 minutes.
Now, also, we don't have debris as they had in Punta Gorda, Port
Charlotte, of tiles and wood from boathouses in the canals. It's gone,
it's out of there.
So they said to me, this is going to be -- the issue is a safety
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issue. That's what their song was there. So I stayed through four
hurricanes, videoed all the canopies, everything. We lost two
canopies. And the canopies were lost because the structural was
compromised from some corrosion where they fell into the boat.
N one blew away. But we lost roofs, we lost everything else.
But my point is we're in favor -- I represent, and I got together __
I got together, because I felt I was being persecuted by the county and
by certain people in the county that didn't like canopies. So I got
together a Collier County Boat Owners Association, became
nonprofit. We have about 80 members. We're a boating community.
We want to protect our property and we're being deprived of that.
And we hired an attorney and we joined in a lawsuit. And we're going
to continue that lawsuit.
But I support ordinances, I support regulation, but I think it's got
to be in fairness. And I know you people -- I mean, I appreciate the
time that you're putting in to sit to listen to all this. I know you've
listened to thousands of other programs, and your time is -- you know,
to listen, it's complimentary to all of us citizens.
I would like you guys to do the fair thing. And I appreciate you,
and I want us to move forward and get this thing under an ordinance
that's fair for all the citizens. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you, sir. Any questions?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Next speaker, Catherine.
MS. FABACHER: Our next speaker is Mr. (sic) B.J.
Savard-Boyer? Oh, I'm so sorry, and you've been here every time.
MS. SAVARD-BOYER: That's quite all right. But I do have a
couple of pictures, so can I go over there?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Sure. I need your name for the record
to start out, too.
MS. SAVARD-BOYER: And I have not been sworn in.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: This isn't legislative.
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August 1, 2006
MS. SAVARD-BOYER: I don't need to be sworn in? Okay.
My name is B.J. Savard-Boyer and I live on Palm Court in the
Vanderbilt Beach area.
First, I'd like to thank the staff for trying to clarify the
requirements in the boathouse codes. There have been many different
interpretations and it's caused a lot of time and effort on everybody.
I have two items of concern in Item F, standard for boathouses.
Number seven, roofing materials shall be the same as on the principal
structure or palm frond, chickee style. And Number C under seven is
canopy cover material shall be limited to colors that will blend in with
the natural habitat such as beige, blue and green, and not yellow,
orange, red, et cetera, because those colors are not found in the natural
habitat.
If we are to have boathouses and canopies, it would be pleasing
to see consistency in color. Not a variety of shades of blue or green,
but one basic color of beige. It's the color of sand, it blends in, it's not
a bold color, it's a quiet color.
There are many different shades of blues and greens for canvas.
And as far as structured roofs, the material can be tile, tin, shingle and
the colors can go anywhere from orange, green, white, gray, silver,
turquoise and so on. These colors are not common in the native
habitat as stated for canopies. So how can you have one standard for
canopies for a color and a different standard for boathouse for roofs?
And again, one color would be consistent and a view down the
canal would be pleasing to the eye and not look like a circus tent.
What you're looking at, that picture there just has the natural
color. There's only one boathouse there. But on the other side you see
a cover on a boat of blue. So if we had blues and oranges and greens
-- there's another. Now, this one has the boathouse structure is the
same roofing material as the house. And the houses are all beautiful.
I understand that from the road they look lovely. But if you're going
to have 20 boat covers, whether they're roofs or whether they're
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canopies, and they're all different shades, it's not going to look very
pleasing.
So my idea is why can't we just -- if we're going to have them,
why can't they just all be standard and look nice.
One exception to color might be for a gated community. If they
have a basic color on their buildings and they want their canopies or
roofs to match, perhaps wording could be inserted in the code to
address that preference. And I'm thinking particularly of Baker Carol
Point, their colors, they have one color of an aqua on their -- on all
their buildings. And it doesn't -- at least it blends in with their
buildings. So if you wanted to make an exception there, then that
would be okay.
My other concern is safety. And Mr. Purvis alluded to the
removal of his canopy in hurricane season. However, not all of the
homeowners, our neighbors that go north in the summer, remove their
canopies before they leave. Nor do I -- well, I don't know if they have
someone come in and remove them or not. But there were a lot of
canopies that were left over the docks when they left last year. Some
of them remained standing and some of them didn't. And one of them
went over into Naples Park.
So that's all I have to say. I thank you for your time. Do you
have a question?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Murray?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I do. That's a pontoon boat that's
down there that has a blue cover?
MS. SAVARD-BOYER: The other picture?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY : Yes. Well, you see it in the
other picture, it's closer -- it's a pontoon boat. The third picture you
put up will show it.
Now, that cover's blue. Sometime, maybe there'll be a green and
somebody else will have some other color. Would you expect the
pontoon boat owner to change the boat cover that he has on his boat?
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MS. SAVARD-BOYER: No, because people that have covers
on their boats, you know, if they have a burgundy trim on their boat,
they have a burgundy snap-on boat cover.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: So those colors are all right.
MS. SAVARD-BOYER: Well, you know, what can I say?
Everybody has --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Well, I'm trying to understand
your standardization, what you're intending to achieve.
MS. SAVARD-BOYER: Well, that's -- you know, a cover on a
pontoon boat is a lot smaller than something that's going to be 15 feet
in the air, don't you think?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I'm just asking, ma'am.
MS. SAVARD-BOYER: You know, I would think that a canopy
15 feet in the air covering a boat dock is a lot larger than a cover on a
pontoon boat. I didn't get into pontoon boats.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: First thing on the canopy issue,
are you guys concerned about the ability to cover a boat with this
small canopy that covers just the boat? I mean, I guess it's been
referred to, which I like the word, boat lift cover, which is a small, not
a tall version like those things with a roof. I think the height should be
15 feet.
But do you have a problem with these covers over the boat if
they're down low onto it? You know what I mean?
MS. SAVARD-BOYER: No, as long as they are within the
code. If they are open on all four sides, if they're all one color so that
it looks halfway standard. Lou Schmidt, who is following me, will
have some pictures of different canopies. I don't have any.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: My only concern is like, let's
say you did put that waterway with all one color, like a beige or
something, wouldn't it start to look like a military base or something?
I mean, the variety might be -- add a little to the neighborhood.
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And then -- you don't have to answer this. The next question is
would this be -- the color choice be something that a homeowners
association that governs these canals, would that be the place to have
the color --
MS. SAVARD-BOYER: I don't think the homeowners
association wants to get into that.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: All right. Thank you.
MS. SAVARD-BOYER: You're welcome.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you. Next speaker.
MS. F ABACHER: Lou Schmidt.
MR. SCHMIDT: Good morning. I'm Lou Schmidt. I live at 405
Pine Avenue, in the Vanderbilt Beach area.
I am the vice president of the Vanderbilt Beach Residents
Association. We have 850 dues-paying members. I kind of work for
B.J., and I'm certainly glad to be under her tutelage.
But I want to tell you first on behalf of the association, we thank
you for your outstanding public service. I imagine you don't hear
thank you very often, and I wanted to begin my comments by a
personal thanks, as well as a thanks from our association.
I then want to tell you that the association has not taken a
position on coverage. We are neither in -- covers. We're neither in
favor nor are we opposed. But we are concerned, and we would like
to bring some of our concerns to your attention. And it has to do with
the code and the wording of the code and what will go into the code.
And we do believe you need a code.
The first picture will illustrate some of our concerns. And the
first picture I'm going to show you -- and these pictures were taken
right after Wilma. This is a picture of a boat cover -- boat dock on
Flamingo, which is off of Vanderbilt Drive. It's one of the northern
finger streets off of Vanderbilt Drive.
As you will note, this has been -- this boat cover had a
catastrophic failure. I don't know what the winds were, but you will
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also note that there is a pool cage adjacent to it on the property,
adjacent to it, two panels are missing, but the pool cage survived. If
you'll notice, there's no apparent damage to the boat. But it's obvious
that the cover did not survive.
Contrasted with this one, I have a -- I have a picture of a boat
cover on Heron, that's on the same canal, it's one block south or one
street south of Flamingo. It must have been exposed to the same
winds. And as you will notice, this cover has no apparent damage.
And our question is, why are two similar structures so different?
Why did one fail and why did the other survive? The cover for this __
or the canvas cover itself was found reportedly in Naples Park. That's
the one that B.J. referred to that must have blown across the road into
Naples Park.
We think that if you were going to have a code, you need more
than specifying engineering. These are manufactured structures. We
believe they must be engineered, tested and certified to meet the wind
load that you've established of 140 miles an hour. We think that
certification -- testing and certification would give the neighbors and
the owners some comfort that these structures can survive in a
hurricane.
We're all concerned about collateral damage. We all know about
insurance. We know that the hurricane insurance rates are going out
of sight, if you can get hurricane coverage, and deductibles are
becoming astronomical. So we need something that can withstand the
hurricane.
We have one other concern, and that concern happens to be with
the requirement that the cover, the canvas cover, be able to withstand
winds of 75 miles an hour and that the canopy shall be removed when
storm winds are predicted to exceed 70 miles an hour. How are you
going to enforce that requirement? Is somebody from code
enforcement going to cruise through the area and find out if the
owners have taken them down? Can I call code enforcement and say
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my neighbor has not taken his canopy down and something be done
about it?
I don't think this is an enforceable requirement. I think there
perhaps is a solution, and the solution may be that the cover over this
frame must be designed to break away. If you have a 70-mile-an-hour
wind, it's got to break away. The structure you see, the cover
apparently broke away, blew away and the structure survived. The
other one did not. I don't know where the cover went. Probably with
pieces of the material that were blown around.
So we think that you need to include those two items in the code
to protect the owners and adjacent property owners.
As to aesthetics, let me show you this -- this is another picture of
the same dock. This is a recent picture with the cover put back on.
You'll notice that it's open at the ends, with the bow and the stern, but
it has a side skirt that comes down. I'm not sure how far, but it's
certainly more than eight inches. You'll notice that it is the width of
the dock. Actually, it's not all that obtrusive. It's an interesting
situation. If you'll notice in the other picture, there were three boats
stored on this property during the hurricane. One was picked up with
the davits that are there, one was under the fixed structure roof, and
one was under the canvas roof. I don't know that this meets any of the
codes. You have two structures here, the fixed structure probably is
grandfathered in, but it does not match with the house. That's a
dilemma. Would you permit this? I don't know. And how would the
people in the permitting department know that this is what they are
approving?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Sir, you need to kind of come to a
conclusion.
MR. SCHMIDT: Okay. I thank you very much. That says what
I have to say.
One thing to appearance I'd like to suggest, and I think I
understand where B.J. 's coming from. One of our members said, you
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know, if you look down the canal and you have all of these
multi-colors, it begins to look like a carnival or a circus. And that's
the concern about colors.
Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you, sir. Are there any other
public speakers?
MS. FABACHER: No more speakers.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Final comments from the
planning commission? Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And I don't know how to go
about this. What I'd like to kind of like to do, my opinion is, is not __
to go back to six and let those words stay in there, and have seven
totally cover -- and I think we should call it a boat dock lift. So that __
and then add to seven's requirements the fact that the boat dock lift
shall not proj ect over the walkway.
Because otherwise, what this is allowing people to do is build big
awning structures, and I don't think that's the intent. The intent is to
allow what they've showed us as these small boat dock lifts. If we
don't do that, then somebody could come in, because it's going to be a
space- framed kind of structure, it's going to be really tall and huge to
be strong.
I think the requirement of why you take it down before the storm,
that really comes from all awnings have that same requirement.
Whether people do it or not, there's no way to enforce it. What people
do do that's smart is they go through and they cut the awning, leave it
there. And that's probably what the fellow did there so that the
awning, if the wind comes, will just take it away and not pull the
structure down.
But my suggestion is to kind of within the boat dock, the
boathouses, which is solely because that way we'll get to have a
hearing for it -- and we may discuss whether we want to let these by
right -- and put in there a section on boat lifts.
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I also think, Mark, that in six we should put an exception to that
which states that the exception be boat dock lots. That is, if the
county has zoned those lots for boat docks, I think that the regulations
for this should apply.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And I would agree with most of what
you say. I do have a question. Since you're well experienced in the
building code, does the building code regulate canopies now?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, see, one of the biggest -- I think
you've cleared up the issue of the boat dock lots. And the existing
structures, if they were to be qualified by the building code standards
to be -- and get a building permit, that would solve their problem. The
part of seven that I find most onerous and offensive is the reference to
5.03.06.F which forces these various property owners to go back
through a public process at two levels that costs a fortune and is far
more expensive and burdensome than the canopy itself.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I mean, I would be comfortable
myself to have these -- the boat lift canopies, I'm going to call them
that from now on. And again, one of the requirements of that is that
they cannot go over the dock itself. I would be okay with those to be
by right.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's where I was going, so--
MR. SCHMITT: Mr. Chairman, can I correct the record here?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Correct the record?
MR. SCHMITT: Yes. I apologize for being late. Many other
duties and responsibilities.
But just so you understand, this is not a public hearing before the
Board of County Commissioners and before the planning commission.
It was written as with a boathouse. You are the approval authority for
a boathouse. The reason this is a boathouse is because it intrudes into
the visual space, just like a boathouse would. That's why boathouses
come to you for approval.
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Now, if you don't -- if you do not want to take that in
consideration, that is the whole principle behind the boathouse itself
having to be approved through the planning commission is because of
the intrusion in the visual space of your neighbor and the neighbor
having a -- the right to comment.
Likewise, the boat canopy, the only way you can, through any
public petition, is define it as a boathouse, which structurally is really
what it is, from a standpoint of intruding into the visual space above
the boat.
And I also want to make sure you understand -- and I would ask
Commissioner Schiffer because of his experience with the structural
issue, let's not confuse the land development code with the Florida
Building Code. All I can do on this is qualify and quantity
requirements in the land development codes.
As far as the certification, product verification, that's up to the
manufacturer, and that's up to the manufacturer to receive state
certification to the structural integrity of this product and whether the
product is going to withstand hurricane force winds. That is
something we do not do nor does my building official do. They
accept the certification from -- it's product certification. It's nothing
we do.
The only reason we have the wind load in there is because
exactly what Commissioner Schiffer says, it does somewhat
indemnify the county for the responsibility of, number one, having to
remove them and, number two, being liable for any damage that is
caused. Because we know from a standpoint the manufacturer's
statements that I have right now show that the only thing that
structurally meets the wind load is the frame itself. The frame with
the canopy does not meet the wind load. And there's no manufacturer
that has brought anything forward to the building official to validate
that.
And in regards to the boat dock lots, and I know I'm going over
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history here, but Mr. Allen is well aware that his petition went before
the board and the board denied boathouses on those lots. It was a
petition before the board and it was denied.
And to attempt to include the boat dock lots into this portion of
the ordinance, that's a zoning issue dealing specifically with the
uniqueness of those boat dock lots. There is a specific language, and
I'll defer to Susan on that and the other part of -- and other portion of
the code that deal with the boat dock lots. This was not an amendment
to deal with that. Even though Mr. Allen and Mr. Davies both
approached the board regarding boathouses and in lieu of boathouses
the canvas or vinyl covers, this was not an attempt by the board to try
to correct that problem.
This was a direction by the board to canvas both the -- I'm sure
Catherine gave you the background, to canvas those who live along
the waters whether they preferred to have or allow for these, but also it
was an attempt to vet this publicly to see if there was any opposition
to it. And that's really all this is.
So the question comes down to, from a standpoint -- the
permitting issue we'll have to deal with through the Florida Building
Code and the through product certification. The zoning issue is
whether the planning commission wants to interj ect itself into this or
simply just allow them to come in, apply for and receive a zoning
permit to allow for the construction of the covers.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you, Mr. Schmitt. My position
still stays where Mr. Schiffer previously suggested.
Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And Joe, one thing -- there's one
thing I disagree with, one of your concepts, is that this is different than
a boathouse to me, these boat lift canopies. In other words, they're a
different creature. They're a smaller creature. And I don't think -- you
know, the fact that they're under here I think we can maybe live with
just because it will provide the hearing if we find it necessary.
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But the only thing they have in common with boat lifts is they're
built over waterways, which are public property. It's a privilege to be
able to do that, it's not a right.
MR. SCHMITT: I don't argue that. It's not that staff disagrees.
What we brought forward is exactly what the board asked us to bring
forward. And that was to allow for -- create an ordinance to allow for
the use of these in Collier County, and then establish a process. And
if the planning commission believes that it is not -- does not want to
involve itself in this from a standpoint, as Mr. Strain just pointed out,
does not want to consider these a boathouse, that -- but that frankly
will -- I will ask Susan to clarify, because we already had an official
interpretation, that was vetted, and that's where we are with this. That
was deemed to be a boathouse and that is -- certainly that's what led to
the lawsuit and all the other things associated with this.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And that's why we're here.
MR. SCHMITT: Right.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: So is the code silent? We want
to give it some words.
MS. MURRAY: Silent on what? Susan Murray.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: On these canopies, I guess.
MS. MURRAY: Well, no, that was decided already through an
official interpretation.
And let me ask you this, too, because we --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: How come we don't have that?
I'd like to see that, if we're going to make --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Who provided the official
interpretation?
MS. MURRAY: I did.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Oh, okay.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Do we have a copy of that?
MS. FABACHER: No. But I can get it for you.
MS. MURRAY: The other question you're not answering is the
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code as it stands now includes any roof structure built on a dock. So--
and one of the reasons why that was put in there, and I'll give you a
little bit of background. Originally boathouses were approved by the
Board of County Commissioners through the conditional use process.
And the board at that time when this was changed, and I don't
remember the date, it's probably seven years ago, asked to eliminate
the conditional use process but still have a public hearing process
because of the concern over view. And so this is where this language
that you're seeing now with the exception of the underlined portions
came into being, and that was when the provision for the roofing
material was adopted at the same time.
So rather than going to the Board of County Commissioners for
final approval through a conditional use, it was thought that they could
reduce the time and the cost by just simply bringing it to the planning
commission for final approval, and this boathouse petition was
developed at that time through this code amendment.
That also included other roof structures on docks, because the
commissioners were getting complaints about people, for example,
building like tiki bars with tiki roof structures, not necessarily
covering a boat but out on the dock and blocking somebody's view.
So they wanted to include that at the same time.
So you've got kind of three different things going on here with
respect to structures on docks. And if you -- and if that's the
recommendation you want to make, and I would need clarification on
that, because I don't understand what you were saying. You said as
long as it just covers the boat. I don't really quite understand that.
And the other thing you have to address is you've still got a
setback requirement here.
So as far as the boat dock lots go, which is a completely different
issue, those were addressed under a separate resolution. They are not
addressed under the land development code. They have completely
different issues that were adopted under a separate resolution, they
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could still not meet that setback requirement, regardless of what you
propose. So I'm not sure where you're going to with that either.
If you want us to carry forward a separate recommendation that
says the boat dock lot should be allowed to have boathouses, that
really is going to have to be something that's addressed under a
separate process with separate setback rules and everything else
because they can't meet this criteria right now.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Let me answer. One thing that I
think is important and we really have to do and that maybe in your
mind you have to do it too, is separate these canopies, which again, I'll
call them boat lift canopies. And what they are is they don't go over
the dock itself, they only go over the boat, essentially.
MS. MURRAY: And where are they attached?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: To the boat lift. Or pile -- I'm
sure somebody could attach it to the structure.
But the important part is that the geometry of them, how they're
structured and configured, that's going to be covered by the building
code, that's not our issue here.
Is this going to be covered by the support or the pile system or --
which is usually what boathouses are. Or there's testimony that they
can cover supported by the lift itself.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Now, are they subject to the
same height requirement as --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, I think that's something
we should discuss. I don't think it should have the same, I think it
should have a lesser height. And I think it should be really based on
the boat that it's protecting.
MS. MURRAY: So what I hear you saying probably is you want
to define a different structure type with a different set of criteria for
setbacks and height, perhaps?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: The setback should be the same.
But what we said is to use the wording of this LDC amendment, not
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scratch it and rewrite it, is to keep the wording in six, which pertains
to boathouses, and to make a subset of boathouses which we'll call
these boat lift canopies, and set the criteria for that, which is
essentially what you have in there with the exception of adding the
wording that it does not cover the walkway. And then I think that
gives the people the ability -- now, if we want to bring it before the
planning commission, I mean, let's do it for awhile, and then if we
decide that that's a nuisance -- how much would that cost somebody to
do?
MS. MURRAY: Go through the boathouse procedure?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yes, or this canopy we're
talking about.
MS. MURRAY: I think it's like 1,500 or $2,000.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Isn't there a way we could --
first of all, it would have to have a boat dock to do it. So therefore,
they met the requirements of a boat dock. Isn't there something we
could do simpler than that?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I think there is. I just think it's --
my first concern, and I'll let Joe weigh in on this too, is that really
wasn't the direction given to us by the board. I'd be happy to take
your suggestion to them and say do you want us to develop this
further.
MR. SCHMITT: Can I ask Commissioner Strain then, I guess,
from the standpoint if you want to take out the criteria under 5.03.06F,
is there another criteria you want to add or just say they can come in
and apply and simply demonstrate that they meet the Florida Building
Code and --
COMMISSIONER CARON: He didn't say that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I did say that.
MR. SCHMITT: Commissioner Strain.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: He addressed it to me.
COMMISSIONER CARON: I thought he said Mr. Schiffer.
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CHAIRMAN STRAIN: No, he addressed it to me.
MR. SCHMITT: Because I'm trying to answer both because I
see a difference of opinion here, and I want to understand the planning
commission's direction that if you do not believe this should be a
public petition, is it simply an application process.
MS. MURRAY: Administrative approval.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Brad has said there are building
standards that apply, and we're imposing standards here that would
regulate the way these would be built as far as heights and everything
else goes. And if they meet all those criteria, why make them pay up
to $2,000 to come before us again?
MR. SCHMITT: Okay. Then I ask the follow-up question then:
Why would we ask them to come in for boathouses?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: It's a much bigger facility. It covers a lot
more than just a boat lift and it's a structure, not a canopy. And I do
not agree that a canopy is a structure. And I think that's probably the
crux of the whole problem.
MR. SCHMITT: Let me go back and ask -- you said Brad
mentioned that the building code would cover these. The building
code really doesn't cover these specifically in the code. There's
nothing --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, no, but there is things in
the -- there's nothing in the building code that allows you to build a
structure that does not have engineering to withstand wind loads.
MR. SCHMITT: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: This is a structure. There's no
minimum threshold. I mean, this would be a structure.
Now, the designer has a choice. He can design it based on the
assumption like you would like an awning, that I'm going to take it
down. Because these canopies in a hurricane, they're not roof
structures, they're wings. So you could take the wing down and then
the structure could go through the storm.
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I mean, I don't think anybody would design it to remove itself. I
mean, the screen patios are designed where the screening comes out at
75 miles an hour. Unfortunately three sides come out and the fourth
side tears it down.
MR. SCHMITT: These are designed for the canopies to be
removed.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I think they would have to be.
But an engineer could design one to withstand loads --
MR. SCHMITT: Yes, he could.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: -- in construction. So I don't
think that's an issue at this table. There's no way you could allow these
without a permit.
MR. SCHMITT: All I would require is manufacturer's
certification that it meets the criteria as defined in the Florida Building
Code.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And they could be individually
engineered and reviewed by your engineering staff.
But I think we should set the requirement.
Mark, could I ask one of the persons -- the fellow who came to
the company that installed --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Donna has a question before we go back
to the public.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Let him finish.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: He wants to bring the person up here.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: The fellow from the company
that makes them.
MS. FABACHER: Mr. Gettinger.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: The problem I would have is
how to set the height on these things. In other words, I think 15 feet is
much too tall and I don't want to see some --
MR. GETTINGER: I'm inclined to agree with you. When I go
out on a sales call, I have the customer say raise your boat to the
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highest level you want it with high wind -- with high water, and then I
measure up so we got the boat covered. We want to keep the top as
close to the boat as possible because you get more sun protection that
way.
I can only remember in the last four or five years maybe one top
that went up 14 feet. Most of them were going up, I'd say, 12 feet, the
most of them. But, you know, it gets into -- and once in a while I have
to refuse to build one for somebody because he's got this huge yacht,
and I'm not going to cover something that's up there two stories high
or something, you know. And most of the time they're not on boat
lifts. Most of this stuff that's on boat lifts is not a big yacht, you know.
That's the one that's really blocking your view.
But Cape Coral has 14-foot high, 35-foot long and IS-foot wide.
And they let me go out 30 inches past the I-beam or piling, so you
have that roof overhang like you do on your building, your house. It's
not covering the dock or anything, but it gives you this sun protection
when the sun is here at 11: 00.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But that could be done by a side
flap better, don't you think?
MR. GETTINGER: I have found it's not. Because if the boat is
down here and this awning is here, directing to the side flap, to me, I
build them but most of the time side flap is just catching the wind.
That's my personal opinion.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Do you think, Brad, we might want to
take a look at the Cape Coral rules to see how they would fit here in
Collier County, since they seem to have a stricter rule than parts of the
state but it seems to be one you can work with?
MR. GETTINGER: They argued over this for several years up
there and it took them 18 months to come up with theirs --
MR. SCHMITT: And there was a lawsuit as well --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: One at a time.
But maybe we can learn something from them and not waste a lot
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of our time.
MS. MURRAY: Can I ask one question about the --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Kolflat had -- did you have a
question of this gentleman, Mr. Kolflat?
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Not this gentleman.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Go ahead.
MS. MURRAY: I'm just curious because I know of course when
people have roof structures over their boats they want to be able to get
to their boat and work on their boat. I mean, they're in the shade. Is
that height adequate? You said 14 feet was Cape Coral?
MR. GETTINGER: Yes, Cape Coral has 14 foot above the
seawall.
MS. MURRAY: Above the seawall, okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Thank you, sir.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: All of this conversation is about
boat lifting canopies, which indicate are small boats. If a person has a
boat that's 44 feet long, it stands 20 feet high clearance, and that
person seems to be -- should be entitled also to put a canvas top over
that area if he has a place to dock it. And nothing that you're talking
about covers that issue at all.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Caron had a comment, too. I'm
sorry --
COMMISSIONER CARON: I'm sorry, I didn't hear the end of
your comment. Just say that again.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Well, I'm talking about a boat
that's 44 feet long, has a clearance generally of about 20 feet high, and
has reason to put a canopy over the top at the dock to protect itself.
There's nothing in here that pertains to that. All the conversation has
been concerning boat lift type of awnings which are for a much
smaller craft.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You're right.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: And so what happens there?
August 1, 2006
Are they just excluded from this ordinance?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: No, I think that it's our job to make
recommendations, and when we get to that point today you ought to
include any recommendation you have in that regard.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Well, the problem I have with it
is if you tell somebody the height's going to be 25 feet, you now are
limiting somebody that purchased their boat that they must clear 25
feet clearance or 20 feet or 14 or 10 or whatever size you go.
And should the land development code really restrict the size of a
boat that a person can own or dock at his property?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I don't know how to answer that.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: It does. It has to fit within your
property line. But I think that anybody -- if we do write an ordinance
that is by right, anybody that wants to do something above that would
come before the board -- would come before us and get that approval.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Caron, I'm sorry I've missed you.
Go ahead.
COMMISSIONER CARON: I think that Mr. Schiffer has some
good points. I believe that keeping boathouses separated from either
boat lift canopies or any kind of other canopy rules and regulations is
a good idea. If some of the requirements in boathouses need to be
transferred down to boat canopies, then we need to write those
regulations accordingly.
I am very much opposed to taking out the public hearing process
on this. The public hearing process is about view corridors, and that's
absolutely true. However, for it to cost somebody $2,000 seems
excessive, and I think Mr. Schmitt, you should be looking at how we
can make it a reasonable fee for people to come before this board on
that issue.
Looking at the Cape Coral statute, since they've obviously done
lot of research, is probably not a bad idea for us to take a look at it and
see what they came up with and see if there's anything missing or
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anything we want to add or anything that we would subtract. And I
would certainly do that before we go much further on this.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, thank you.
Any other comments on this issue? Mr. Kolflat, I think you've
made -- you've expressed your concerns and Brad and I and Donna
and all of us, and Bob. So with that, does staff have enough to go
back and rethink this and come back with some more suggestions?
And we can probably put this to bed for today.
Yes, sir.
MR. SCHMITT: Just clarification. And again, I'm dragging up
history here, but we went over great debate -- and I'm getting mixed
signals from the planning commission and I just wanted to be sure.
We went over a great debate when we did boat dock extensions, and
you made it very clear you wanted the view criteria, I can't think of
the wording that was in there, but that was -- we added that language,
that was very definitive and it was our understanding that, again, with
boathouses you would want that -- it's not in here specifically, but it's
certainly part of the public petition process, and I guess I'm trying to
feel for where you want to go down now. You don't -- I've got one
commissioner, I believe, that says --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Wait a minute. I said something
different. But let me correct you. Her point about view corridors is a
good point, yes. But then we need to address where it doesn't affect
view corridors. And my specific issue is those boat dock lots. There
needs to be an exception to the public process there. They don't affect
view corridors, there's no upland views. They're boat dock lots. They
were created for boats.
And I think if there was an exception for those in relationship to
the public process to address views that don't exist, then I don't know
if we have a problem.
MR. SCHMITT: Well, I'll differ with you on that,
Commissioner. I'll bring back the public record. It was discussed
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extensively during that public petition about the views, that the series
of boat covers or boathouses on those boat dock lots would create
nothing more than a kind of a seesaw effect all the way down that
area. And it is clearly part of the public record.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Caron?
MR. SCHMITT: So I --
COMMISSIONER CARON: The boat dock lots have to be kept
separate, I believe. And -- because I think they have multiple issues,
not the least of which is the view corridor issue. But also the size of
these lots. I think lumping them in with the canopy issue is not a good
idea. It just -- they are worlds apart.
Now, I'm not saying that they shouldn't be able to do this, but I
think it needs to be in a separate -- again, a --
MS. MURRAY: And they are already, simply because, you
know, obviously you can't have an accessory structure without a
principal. And their setbacks, their lot width is much narrower, and so
they had setback issues as well. And so all that was addressed in a
separate resolution.
And I apologize for interrupting.
MR. SCHMITT: I don't debate the merit of this. I just have to go
with where the board put us at the last time this was debated. I will
bring this all back --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Let me just stop for a minute. I'm going
to ask people to refrain from speaking until I ask them or recognize
them. So Mr. Murray was next.
Please, Mr. Murray, go with what you were going to say.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That's okay. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Look, simplistically, stated simplistically, people buy homes that
adjoin a canal or abut a canal. They anticipate buying a boat. A boat
is a piece of property. Property has value. Value needs to be
protected. You protect it by some form of shading in this instance.
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Structure is the question. What is structure? I don't know how
many -- I don't know how many angels are on the head of this pin, but
it seems to me that the intent is to provide -- as long as there's going to
be a boat lift and a boat, it would seem that it should be a permanent
intent.
The structure itself may not be permanent and it may be subj ect
to removal and reinstallation. That is to say the canvas or other
materials.
So coming to the board -- coming to us and spending $2,000 to
go through the whole process may satisfy everything quite legally, but
I think it is a matter of equity. People who are entitled to protect their
boats who do not bring the issue to the level of a boathouse should not
have the same level of requirement as has been offered here.
I can't -- I mean, I've listened very carefully and tried to figure
out. I think this needs a lot more work. And I'm not criticizing
anybody. This is a little more complicated.
And I will say, if you have mixed signals from this board, I will
tell you mine then. I believe, whether the board -- whether the
commissioners or not agreed to it, I believe that those who are in those
lots have the same equitable right to have some kind of protection for
their boats. And if that means that we can have some kind of a
protection in the form of a canopy for them, then I would be an
advocate for that. So I hope that qualifies that.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you, sir. With that, Mr. Schmitt?
MR. SCHMITT: Would you like us to develop two options?
Option A, as I just heard some commissioners saying through the
public petition process, we'll modify this. And option B, where maybe
some criteria that would define what and what would not qualify or
just simply an application for a permit.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I think Mr. Murray's comments were
very accurate in the sense that this board is really confused -- not
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confused, but has different opinions on this. The more you can do to
clarify that and bring back options for us to pick from, I think would
be a better way for us to get to a resolution.
MR. SCHMITT: I'll do that. And I would like to include in this
the resolution that was developed to resolve many of the issues at the
boat dock lots. There's only one place in Collier County, that's in
Little Hickory Shore, where we deal with these. There's no other
place. And we'll make sure you have the background on that as well.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are they platted?
MR. SCHMITT: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That means they received county
approval, including Board of County Commissioners.
MR. SCHMITT: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Mark?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And Joe, just one thing we'd
like to do, just to add onto what Bob was saying, is that we really want
to separate these canopies from the boathouses. So what we want to
do is offer people two ways to cover their boat: one with the
full-blown boathouse and one with these canopies. So the more we
mix it, the more that gets confusing.
MR. SCHMITT: I understand. And the canopy certainly is the
least expensive, probably not as structurally -- I mean, there's other
things -- the canopies will have to be removed. But we'll come back.
We'll structure it and look and it and come back with a couple of
options for you to debate.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Kolf1at?
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: The other thing about canopies,
Joe, I think you ought to not limit it to a specific height or size of
canopy, it should be all-encompassing so it does not exclude any
particular range.
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August 1, 2006
MR. SCHMITT: If I could comment on that, though, you can't
build a boathouse that high. So are you asking for a canopy to even
go higher than a boathouse?
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: No, we're talking about having
the canopy separate from the boathouse.
MR. SCHMITT: Yes. So you're talking about unlimited -- no
limit on how high the thing can go over the boat?
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Well, there is a limit, but it's
certainly higher than the limit we've been talking about here for these
boat lifts.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: And I don't think those boats
should be excluded.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I mean, Mr. Kolflat, with all respect, I
think Brad had said earlier one of the solutions to that may be in those
special circumstances where someone has a yacht. Why they would
cover it with a canopy, I don't know, because they probably have
enough money to buy an entire building for it. But if they have a
yacht that they want covered and it's bigger than what we would
normally attribute to a boat lift, then I think certainly that has got to
come back through a much higher standard of process than a boat lift
-- than a small canopy that we're talking about here.
I'm not sure if the other panel members -- I don't know what your
opinions are on this, but I would hate to see staff go and draw on the
language based on these larger yachts when I don't think any of us
would want to see that, except maybe one.
You need to look and see what all of us want.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And also, these boats wouldn't
be permitted on the geometry of these lots anyway. Your yacht isn't
going to be in one of these canals.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: In addition to it, the draft of a
boat that size will not likely pass through any of our areas, and it's
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very unlikely you'll find it.
But I respect what you're offering. But I agree with Mr. Strain
that we would like to, and we should, go through a full process on
that, should that ever occur.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: I recognize that the ordinances
for the county differ from the city, but I only again reflect that in the
city they are currently contemplating this kind of construction, which
will cover boats of that height, be covered with canvas canopies. And
that might occur sometime in the county in the future.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, staffs heard us. I'm sure they'll
come back with something trying to address all the issues as best we
can.
With that, I think it's time to go to lunch for one hour. We'll be
back here at 1 :00. Then we'll resume with the county engineering
department.
(A lunch recess was taken.)
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: We left off with a very
noncontroversial issue of boat canopies. Let's go into the engineering
issues. Stan, if you could guide us to where the first one is in our
packet, that sure would be helpful.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yes, sir. I think it says -- the first one is
on page 2, but that's just an acronym, NA YD.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I think what -- yeah. And I think
what we'll do with page -- the acronyms is after we get staff mostly
done and we're just sitting here with Catherine we can go through the
acronym because there's probably 50 acronyms that are going to have
to be added to or questioned so ...
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: If I have the--
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Let's go with engineering.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Good afternoon. I'm Stan
Chrzanowski. I'm with the Engineering Review Department, and the
first item I have is Section 4.03.05, subdivision re -- design
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requirements. It's on page 97.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: That's what we need. Okay.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Okay. What we have in Collier County
at the present time -- and this issue, even though it's being written
now, goes back to the time of Ed Perico.
F or a long time we've known that we have a little problem with
fill pads in Collier County. They -- they are getting larger and larger
because of -- sometimes, like in the estates, it's actually their
requirement to build so far above the road, and then you have to worry
about being so far above the water table with your drain field.
And your septic tank is above that, and then you have a cover
over your pipe to fall back to the house. The -- the thickness of the
slab -- and you end up with a slab that -- that in the estates a lot of
times is four to five feet above the road.
In Pine Ridge we have a couple of sites where the topography
actually shows a mound the house pads are so high. One of them I
would -- I would say standing at the road appears to be higher than the
top of my head, and I'm six feet. And that's the pad itself. That's not
the -- the fill pad. That's not the elevation of the finished floor.
So we've been mulling this over because as you -- as you build a
pad higher the -- the amount of fill required increases geometrically
because you're dealing with volume, and we have a four-to-one side
slope. And it's like a truncated pyramid. The more you add to the
bottom of the pyramid to get the next two feet is substantially more
than it took to get the first two feet.
And this encroaches into floodplains. We have issues with
floodplain compensation to where -- an example would be if you had a
bathtub with so much water in it and you go dumping a pile of fill in
there it raises the water up. You dump a little more fill, it raises the
water up a little more.
Well, most of our sloughs and wetlands around here are like
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bathtubs. We end up throwing fill in them, and each -- each effect that
goes in is what they call de minimis. You know, you can't really
gauge it, but by the time you do -- like, in the estates there's probably
15,000 more homes going in. By the time you do those at 1,000 yards
apiece you've done 15 million cubic yards of fill into a floodplain
somewhere, and that's going to cause something.
So we -- like I said, we've been looking at it for a while, but the --
the issue really hit the fan within the last year. We had some -- a lot
of complaints about the size of fill pads and -- and how they occupy
quite a bit of the lot, and we tried coming up with a solution.
The solution we came up with is -- simultaneously we're dealing
with FEMA, and FEMA wants us to have our floor -- base flood
elevation, floor elevation higher. If we get everybody in the county to
build a foot above BFE, our insurance rating goes up, and -- and the
amount of insurance -- you get a discount off your house insurance, so
we're working at cross purposes here.
But we figure we've got a solution in that what you see is -- is an
ordinance where we're going to try to limit the height of your fill pad
so you're not using a whole lot of fill, but yet we don't limit you from
building your first floor higher. We just recommend that you do stem
wall or some kind of structural slab over a foundation that can support
it or something like that.
That's -- that's the entire thrust of this amendment, and if you
have any questions I'll be glad to answer them.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Brad, I see you do. Go ahead.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Stan, first of all, why don't we
-- why don't we eliminate pads altogether? When FEMA -- we came
through and we reviewed some of our FEMA stuff. One thing we did
vote on -- and I don't know what happened to it after it left here --
would be we have one feet of free board, so we have that now, and
then we also put in there an amendment that actually makes the slab
strong -- I mean, the -- the pad stronger, the compaction and all that.
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The requirements for how to build a pad we toughened, so, therefore,
they're kind of more expensive.
And then we also have the requirement that every bit of area
displaced by a pad including the septic tank pad has to be replaced
with a depression; in other words, essentially the same amount of
water would be held. So why don't we just eliminate them and make
life easy for everybody and not have people digging ruts all over the
place?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: We thought that was a little extreme.
We -- we could go -- I -- I wouldn't have a problem with that, but I
don't think you -- I think you'd have a lot more people in this room
talking against that because in the estates when they dig that little hole
in the back, the containment area, they use the fill to raise the pad up
that first little bit.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: This way you'd allow them to do that.
You do need some dry ground around the house. A lot of those areas
-- if you have a water table that's at or above the ground, then digging
a hole doesn't contribute anything because the water was there
anyway.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: I wouldn't have an objection to it, but I
don't think --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: I think that's a bit extreme.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: All right.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Then Caron, then Mr. -- oh, I'm
sorry .
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Let me say --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I didn't know you had anymore.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: One question that is -- where is
this actually measured to? In other words, there's going to be 18
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inches on a paved road, I guess 24 on a gravel road. What are we
measuring actually to?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Where -- where your driveway meets
the road, the center of the road at the point where your driveway meets
the road.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. But, I mean, the -- the
upper dimension. The lower one I'm okay with. In other words, where
do we measure?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Oh, that -- that is the upper dimension
of the pad. You can build your pad to an elevation 18 inches above --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. And then you measure
the --
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: -- the crown of the road where your
driveway meets it.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But are you measuring the pad
where it touches the building? In other words, the pad's obviously
going to be under the building out in the site. So are you going to
measure to the grade at the building?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Right.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. And -- and the definition
of grade has always been a tough one. It's tough in building codes and
stuff. Can we use the same definition in building codes? It's a grade
plain?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: In other words, there's a way in
which you define it in the building code.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: The plain that exists 18 inches above
the crown of a paved road, you cannot exceed that with -- I could get
real fancy with the wording, but I -- I prefer what's here. You cannot
exceed that with the height of your fill pad.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: It just -- it just -- what you're--
so what you're saying is that no part of the pad can exceed that height?
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MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Right.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. That's even more
restrictive, so let's keep that.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: And, actually, you can put four inches
of slab above that, so you do have a little extra room.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah. You have to be above it
because your footing has --
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Right.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: The bottom of your footing's
got to be 18 inches below the -- the -- okay. I'm fine. That's good.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Miss Caron.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yeah. We had a long discussion
about this, and I'm not sure whether it was in dur -- or in the Bayshore
overlay or what, but everybody on this panel recognizes that this is a
good piece of legislation.
And I think it's -- I just have -- really have a comment and not a
question. I think this is a classic example of why de minimis impacts
should not be allowed.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay. Well, mine is also a
comment. Pardon me. Pardon me. I -- I would guess -- and I know
you've -- under the fiscal and operational impacts, you've kind of
alluded to it, but I would guess that with the cost of fill and the rest of
it, all the expense of bringing it and compacting it and the whole bit,
stem walls and other methodology will soon become cheaper. Is that a
fair statement on my part?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yes, sir, that's what we're
assuming.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah. Good -- good grounds to
assume this based on all the things we know, so this is a good move at
a good time.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yes.
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COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Mr. Schiffer and then Tor,
Mr. Kolflat.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: The -- the site's slope, you're
saying, can't be greater than one to -- or four to one?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Steeper than four to one.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And when some of these
properties -- how close could they be to the property line? What kind
of setbacks?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Well, that -- that's one of the problems.
In -- in the estates you have a 75-foot-wide lot, actually, narrower than
a Golden Gate City lot, which is 80 feet, and we allow you to build a
house within 7 1/2 feet of the perimeter of the -- of -- of site property
line.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: And it's tough to have to come up with
your -- with your pad. A lot of times people have to put in retaining
walls.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. So in that case of7 1/2
feet, 6 feet would be -- if you're taking that slope, would be your 18
inches.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: So what you're saying is that
extra foot and a half you would be sloping away from the property
line into some gully or something, I mean, because you can't drain
onto your neighbors.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: No, but you -- you would drain front
and back when your neighbor builds. At -- at the present time, we --
and I should have brought one of the lighter topographies. We have
pads that the adjacent pads touch each other. They -- they overlap
each other, and you end up forming a dam that doesn't allow the water
to flow from front to back.
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You have to remember in the estates -- it's a lot of sheet flow. It's
not that you're shedding water onto your neighbor. It -- it sheds to the
front or to the back and generally just keeps going.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Staying on a -- on a monolithic
footing, what is the width that the top of that mound would have to
be? Isn't it five feet?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: A flat spot? We like to see a flat spot at
the top of the mound outside the house, but --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: So if -- you know, would that
one -- in other words, that one to four, I don't think, by building code
can break away that fast either.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: I know. That's another reason for
putting in stem walls.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. Good. I mean, you're --
I think you're right. The harder we make it the more that trail will be
taken.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Mr. Kolflat.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Yes. For Catherine just a
couple of minor ones. On page 98 under B, the fourth line there are
two acroments (sic) that don't appear in our index of acroments, SWN
and ERP. Maybe they could be included.
MS. FABACHER: Certainly will.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Catherine, I bet your acronym
page ends up being the longest discussion we have on this panel by the
time we get there.
MS. FABACHER: I bet we'll add three pages to the code too.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: We've got the acroment banks.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, before there were others.
Believe me it's not an issue.
Stan, I've just got one or two questions. The house pad height
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requirements apply where there is no South Florida Water
Management District permit required, no ERP, and no master
stormwater plan.
Now, that would generally mean then none of the -- this would
not apply to any of the PUDs, so I think almost all of them apply to
one -- have -- have their own stormwater management. Subdivisions
like Lely and stuff like that it wouldn't apply to, but where would it
apply? I mean, I understand Golden Gate Estates. And you used the
reference to a 7 1/2 foot setback for a home on a 75-foot lot in Golden
Gate Estates.
In comparison in Vanderbilt Beach on the fingers, if they've got a
60- or 80-foot lot there, isn't their setback 7 1/2 feet also?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yes.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. So where would this apply
then if it's not applying -- it's going to apply just to your ordinary
subdivisions?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Vanderbilt, Naples Park, Pine Ridge,
East Naples, all the countless little subdivisions around.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: That's what I thought because
most of your newer projects that are PUDs are required to have all this
addressed anyway.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yes, sir. They all have water
management district permits, but there's a lot of the older ones that
don't, and those are the ones where we really have the problems.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Well, that's the only
question I had. Thank you. Anybody else have any comments? If
not, we'll move on to your next one, Stan.
MS. FABACHER: Excuse me.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Oh, is there a speaker?
MS. FABACHER: Mr. Chair, we have a speaker here, Mr.
Lewis again.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Oh. Mr. Lewis, welcome. We're
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just going to put your name at the end of every single one of these.
MR. LEWIS: It's more ofa question than a comment. I think
this is the intent. I certainly understand and appreciate that. This falls
under 4.03.0 -- 05, subdivision design requirements. It's been added
as Item B. And in terms of applicability is this intent -- I -- I know the
intent is that this would be applicable to existing subdivisions, is that
correct, or new -- new subdivisions?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Well, the new subdivisions generally
have a water management district permit, or presently we make them
provide a -- a stormwater management plan. The older subdivisions
don't have that. On your stormwater management plan you list your
ground elevation and your floor slab elevation.
MR. LEWIS: And the -- really the question is the location of this
provision in -- in the placement of this in the -- in the land
development code under subdivision design requirements B. I just --
just wanted to --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, I think if you were going to
Vanderbilt Beach to build a new home or in Golden Gate Estates to
build a new home, you'd be triggering this clause.
MR. LEWIS: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: That -- that's what I -- is that -- is
that a fair reading of it?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yes.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: They're all existing subdivisions,
and it -- it would apply there equally.
MR. LEWIS: And the other thing just -- is just more of a
comment just in the context of the minimum elevations that's required
for building sites established under 4.01.01. I just -- again, just to
quantify the fiscal impact I think it was helpful to hear the
communities that -- that we're looking that would -- would be
potentially impacted by this. But, specifically, you know, what--
what type of impact given -- given the requirements that are needed to
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be met for the minimum elevation for the habitability of their -- the
structures to see how that interplays with the pad and the pad height.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: The pad height would be 18 inches
above the crown of the road, and to get there, if they needed more fill
than what they're indicating here, they'd end up having to put in a stem
wall. Is that --
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Right. Go ahead, Mr. Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Was your question, though, the
concern of the designer wouldn't know how to find it in the
subdivision ordinances?
MR. LEWIS: That's just the question that I--
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: You could be right. In other
words, if I'm -- if I've -- I've got a lot in Vanderbilt Beach and I'm
looking at this and I'm doing it, what would make me get curious to
look at the design requirements for subdivisions?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: I don't design houses. I -- you know,
I'm not really sure.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: We -- it should be put in the land
development code.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Somewhere.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: But it's possible that maybe we should
put it in some other ordinance.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, I think it's good here, but
I think we should find some way to point to it from someplace else.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: That -- could you look into that,
Stan?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: We'll-- we'll give a copy to Bill
Hammond and have him put it out in the building blocks but...
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right. I think the way to maybe
do it is to put a definition of the word "house pad," and then
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August 1, 2006
theoretically if I'm going to put a house pad hopefully I stumble across
it in definitions which might send me back here.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: I'll ask Bill Hammond where I can put
it in one of his ordinances. I assume the building construction
administrative code or whatever took its place, the one that has that
whole list of how high you have to build your --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: -- your pad, and we can put it in there.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But a lot of people -- the
building blocks is just the legacy of codes.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Right.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I mean, it's not up to date or
anything.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: But we do have a list of exceptions
that are issued to the building code that we adopt for -- tailored to
Collier County. There are separate pages that go in front of the code.
Why couldn't we put it in there?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: In the front of the building
code?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: We do have an ordinance of
things. Yes, that would be an excellent place for it.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: There's -- there's an ordinance. It used
to be called the building construction administrative code. Now I
think they've changed it. But it lists that you have to be 18 inches
above the crown of the road, 24 inches above an unpaved road, at or
above Elevation 7 no matter what, at your base flood elevation
according to FEMA or the engineering -- the water management
district permit or whatever an engineer decide -- designs the project--
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: -- and says it can be at. I can add it to
the bottom of that list in that ordinance because that's where people
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would look.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And that is what you said,
Mark. That's the -- that's 2001-02.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: It's the building code.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: They didn't update it. They
should update it every three years.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: That's 2001-02, I think.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: They are tardy on it. But that's a
good place for it.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Thank you, Mr. Lewis.
And, Stan, are you ready to go your next one?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yes, sir. The next one is in a bunch of
locations simply because when I -- when I tried to figure where to put
it we knew we had to change NGVD to NA YD. And I did a search on
NGVD on the -- the new county muni code web site, and every place I
saw the term I just added this. So, you know, we could go through the
numbers, or I could explain to you what it's about, and you can decide
whether that's important.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, I think -- first, I think what
we're talking about is pages 99 through 114. Is that fair to say?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: I don't think it goes to 114, but, yeah,
it's 99 through one oh whatever -- 106.
MS. FABACHER: Yes.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Well, I had some on -- I
just want to make sure we get the entire area of that here. Well, mine
has 114. Do yours have --
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: I have 99 through 106.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, you're missing some pages.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: I might be. There were a bunch
of them.
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MS. FABACHER: No, Mr. Chair, I think we removed some of
the text. They asked me to remove some of the existing text just to
shorten it up.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
MS. FABACHER: If you look at your brown -- at the tan pages,
you'll -- you'll see the new configuration.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yeah, mine shows 99 to 114.
These here?
MS. FABACHER: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: They're intentionally left blank.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yeah, 107 through 114 are blank.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Oh, I see. Okay. Yeah. Okay, sir.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Thank you. I assume everybody here
has heard the terms "NGVD" and "NA VD," but I'm -- I'm going to
gear this to people that don't know what I'm talking about. There--
there are -- in the United States in the 1920s they did a horizontal
datum and a vertical datum.
The horizontal datum was so you knew spacially where you
were, and the vertical datum was so that you knew what elevation you
were at above where you were. And at -- at the time they did that in
the '20s they assumed the shape of the earth was an ellipsoid, which if
you have a sphere spinning in space it's going to flatten out at the
poles and --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Oblate spheroid.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Oblate spheroid. Close enough. And a
lot of the surveying that was done was -- was based on that
assumption. When they started putting up satellites with the global
positioning system and they started getting very accurate readings of
the shape of the earth, they realized it was what they call now a geoid,
which kind of follows roughly the shape of the spheroid, but, say, at
the mid-Atlantic ridge where you have that massive rock under the
water they tell me that the surface of the water is a hundred feet above
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sea level.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: There's a mound, and what that affects
is what direction up is because in a perfect sphere up is out, but when
you have a rough surface and you can't see it because it's that large
what might be up from the center of the sphere is actually at a
different direction, and this affects things like when you're trying to
launch a missile at a target, like, 10,000 miles away. The direction of
up really matters when it's ballistic because it follows a certain
predetermined path.
So the science got very fancy about what they realized what the
shape of the earth was, and back in the '80s they came up with two
more datums, a horizontal and a vertical datum. And the NA VD, the
__ the vertical datum done in the '20s was NGVD, National Geodetic
Vertical Datum. The verti -- the vertical datum done in the '80s was
NA VD, North American Vertical Datum.
And the North American Vertical Datum is much more accurate
than the other one, so the NGS, the National Geodetic Survey, has
since abandoned all the old NGVD benchmarks. They don't replace
them anymore. They replaced them with NA YD.
When -- when we had benchmarks put in Golden Gate Estates a
couple of years ago for the FEMA study, all those benchmarks were
put into NA VD. We're presently requiring that pads in Golden Gate
Estates be shot to NA YD. We have four file cabinets full of water
management district permits that are all done to NGVD, National
Geodetic, the old datum.
So we have resources that are -- that are in both datums, and we
__ we had a project come in not -- I -- one of the surveyors, I guess,
caught it and told me about it where they had done the design to one
datum and realized that they were connecting to a proj ect done to
another datum, and they had a little problem with the pipes because
the difference between the datums is about 1.3 feet in Collier County.
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The two datums intersect. It's not a continuous -- where it's 1.3
feet everywhere. Somewhere around the Great Lakes, I think around
Lake Erie, zero is still zero, but when you get up to Virginia -- or
down to Virginia, like, zero NA VD is .8 NGVD.
When -- when you come down to Florida here in Collier County
along Lely Barefoot Beach, zero NA VD is about 1.22 NGVD, and
when you get down to the southeastern corner of the county the
difference is about 1.45 feet. So it's not a continuous 1.3 feet. We tell
everybody 1.3 because it's close. It's not accurate.
There's -- there's a web site called Vertcon, V -e-r-t-c-o-n. You
can look up Vertcon on Google, and it will -- it will ask you what the
latitude and longitude of your site is. And there's a -- there's a USGS
web site that'll tell you the latitude and longitude. If you point to it on
the map and you feed in the latitude and the longitude, and it'll -- and
__ and if you tell it what your NA VD or NGVD value is, it will tell
you the other one for that specific location.
And what -- since NGS is no longer supporting the NGVD
vertical datum, the county is -- is -- I think the whole United States is
eventually going to have to go to NA VD, and we're going to go to
NA VD, but we realize we have all these overlapping issues, so for a
while we want to do both.
And instead of having you list both elevations one of the things
we'll let you do is on your cover sheet for that specific site -- you're
going to have to get into Vertcon, and you're going to have to say all
my elevations are to NGVD. If you want the NA VD elevation, you're
going to have to add 1.34 feet to it. And there's -- there's a lot of these
elevation contours differences through the county, but no single
subdivision that I see would be big enough to where they couldn't
come up with one number.
You know, maybe a project like Pelican Marsh that covers so
many square miles might sit through three or four numbers, but any
single subdivision in there will be within one-eighth of an inch of
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being correct.
So the purpose of this change is to switch the county over from
the old NGVD to the new NA VD as seamlessly as possible with as
few mistakes as possible. FEMA is presently going with NA YD.
They have -- they have given us the maps with the NA VD on it and
the NGVD below it, and -- and that is really screwing things up
because the NGVD is done to the .3, which they used throughout the
county, 1.3 feet in the difference. So if -- if under the old code you
were, like, a certain elevation and they -- and they upped you a foot
but then you lowered down 1.3 you're now .3 feet different. It--
anyway, I don't want to go there.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I think we've got the --
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: It's very complicated and --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I think we've got the drift.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I think we understand where
you're going.
Mr. Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Stan, one thing you didn't
mention -- you did in your report -- is that the LIDAR information that
you get is the --
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: NA YD.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: -- NA YD.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: One way -- wouldn't it be better
__ and this is kind of like the metric conversion days, which some of us
did and had to go back, but wouldn't it be better to have them at the
perimeter of the site put both and then do the interior of the site based
on the A VD data? I mean, is there any reason to let them use the old
system?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: I would prefer if they used the NA VD
throughout the site and then listed the formula converting that to
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August 1, 2006
NGVD but--
,
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And maybe --
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: -- they may have a reason for doing it
the other way.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And maybe at the perimeter of
the site put both to avoid that linkage problem that the surveyor
referred to.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Well--
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Anyway, it's just a thought. We
don't --
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yeah, in a project like Pelican Marsh,
they're still bringing in proj ects, and -- and if we make them go to
NA VD I know something's going to get screwed up because
everything else in Pelican Marsh is NGVD, and if -- if they bring in a
project done to NA VD and somebody's not paying attention it -- it's
our biggest concern, so we're going to leave that up to the engineers --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: -- as long as they put both of them on
there.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Mark, how many pages should
we go?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, this is going to -- I would
take it up to the -- well, 114.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: There's some missing pages in
between, but if you find them don't ask questions on them because
they're not there.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay.
So, Stan, on page -- on page 101 at the bottom you're crossing
out a requirement. Is that by any chance just changing a requirement,
or are you getting rid of something that doesn't make sense or -- there's
a requirement that things can't be less than 5 1/2 feet NGVD.
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August 1, 2006
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: But he's --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And I -- I think where this
really kind of shows up is on some of the piled subdivisions they were
set at that 5 1/2 feet. I mean, my concern is -- I don't mind taking it
out if it's not necessary, but if it's a requirement that has nothing to do
with this datum swatch -- or swap.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: If -- if I left it in, I'd have to put the
NA VD and NGVD in there instead of just the NGVD.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But it is a requirement stating
that that's the minimum height of a subdivision. Obviously, that made
a lot more sense back in the fill days but ...
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: But doesn't he say that by crossing
it out? By leaving in such minimum elevations as adopted by the
BCC, FEMA, FRM or South Florida --
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yes.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Basically, they've adopted the
minimum elevations.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But maybe this is where they
adopted it. That was my concern. In other words, they're giving --
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Oh, no. No, this is not where they
adopted it. This is --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: This 5 1/2 --
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yeah, there's other -- other rules that
will force it to be harder than that.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. Then that's me. I'm
done.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Mr. Kolflat.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Okay. Just some more
acroment (sic) updates on it. If you look on page 99 under the
paragraph entitled "reason," in the second line NGS is an acroment
that's not listed in the index. LIDAR is an acroment that's not listed,
and below that FEMA is an acroment that's not listed. And on page
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100 on about the -- 3.05.10 on the first line LSP A is an acroment that's
not in -- in the index.
MS. FABACHER: Will do.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Catherine, I don't think we're
going to get to the acronyms today, but now that you know the drift
maybe you just ought to issue us a new sheet before the next meeting.
MS. FABACHER: I'll plan to do that.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. That'll help. That'll solve
everybody's problem.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Catherine, you should answer
"WD."
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Winn-Dixie?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: No, will do.
MS. F ABACHER: Will do. Will do. Or -- or YS.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Any other questions of
Stan on this? Stan, I have some questions, but I'm afraid to ask them,
so I'm going to pass.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Oh, oh, oh.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Thank you, Stan.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: There's some trumpet blowing
somewhere, Mark.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: We'll just let that go.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Tom, good afternoon.
MR. KUCK: Good afternoon, Commissioners. For the record,
Tom Kuck, Engineering Director. And the one I'm going to be
covering is -- starts on page 219, and, basically, it applies to how long
or how valid the length of time for a site development plan or a site
development plan amendment.
The current land development code, once an SD is -- SDP is
approved, you've got from the time you have for preconstruction --
you have 18 months to complete construction, and then you can get a
six-month extension.
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August 1, 2006
The new one is going to -- what we're proposing is either have
two years to construct from the time the approval letter is granted,
then you can have -- ask for an extension for one year, and then it's
possible -- if there's a delay, you can ask for an amendment to the SDP
which could give you another two years. So it's just trying to lengthen
the building time to complete an SDP.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Any questions?
Mr. Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And this is only for the
infrastructure improvements only; correct?
MR. KUCK: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Tom, you have -- the last line of
B, "Thereafter, once the SDP approval term expires, the SDP or SDP
amendment is no -- is of no force and effect" -- well, nevermind. I just
now figured it out. Okay. I see it.
MR. KUCK: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I had a note there, but 1-- you just
explained it.
MR. KUCK: I had a little trouble because I didn't -- I wasn't the
author, but -- I had a little bit of time -- a hard time interpreting, but I
think that it speaks for itself now.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: As it stands now, don't we have
two years to start and then 18 months to finish? Isn't that the way it
works now with a single 6-month extension on the 18?
MR. KUCK: Right now you have -- once you have your
preconstruction conference, you have 18 months to complete, and you
have a provision for a 6-month extension, so you've got -- from the
preconstruction conference, you've got two years.
Now, we did make a change, and we took away that
preconstruction conference. And from the time the SDP is approved
you have two years to construct and then one year to -- you can ask
for a one-year extension, but in between there you could ask for an
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August 1, 2006
amendment which could -- would give you another two years.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. So -- but what you've got
here now actually shortens the time frame without an extension
because you're -- you're at two years.
MR. KUCK: Well, it depends on when you'd schedule the -- in
the older one, you'd have the preconstruction. If -- if you held off for
one or two years for the preconstruction, you're right.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. That's what I was thinking.
MR. KUCK: Yeah, you're correct.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Was the intent to shorten the time
frame? Because that -- the reason -- in the beginning it seemed like
the intent was the opposite.
MR. KUCK: No. No. What it is is we're -- it's kind of a
combination of both. We don't like to get them too stretched out
before construction starts because the land development code could
have major changes that could affect that project.
As an example -- and this is where the airport plaza is where the
tax assessor's office is -- or tax collector's office.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Uh-huh.
MR. KUCK: That was an SDP. They did some minor work on
it, and nothing happened for about 8 or 10 years. That was considered
vested because we didn't have a time expiration date. The Poinciana
provisional complex there by profession -- they've had a parking lot
out there in front for years and years.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yeah.
MR. KUCK: We honored their SDP because we didn't have a
time limit so ...
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
MR. KUCK: But what we're trying to do is make sure that it
doesn't go too long a time, so if there are amendments, major
amendments for, say, landscaping or something like that --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: That's--
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August 1, 2006
MR. KUCK: -- that they would be subject to
those.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: But the reason that you have here
is, though, inadequate time to complete the construction of the project,
and all I was trying to indicate -- now, I mean, it seems that they're
going to have a little less time now with this change because instead of
waiting two years to call for your precon or your -- your site -- or your
meeting with the -- with the utility department -- you can wait up to
two years to do that. Then you have 18 months after that meeting to
get it done, so that's 3 1/2 years.
Now it's two years from the issuance of the approval letter, and
you can get a one-year extension, so -- and the one-year extension will
give you three years, so you're actually cutting it by six months. Is
that what --
MR. KUCK: Well, you --like I said earlier, you can come in for
an amendment if that's the case--
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Right.
MR. KUCK: -- an amendment, say, and give you another two
years so ...
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: But if you --
MR. KUCK: Actually, you could have up to five years from the
time it was approved.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: But if you request an amendment
wouldn't you have to have a reason for the amendment? I mean, say
you don't want to amend anything on the site or you just come in and,
what, amend it for re -- respecifying or restarting the time clock?
MR. KUCK: More or less, yes.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. So you could do that?
MR. KUCK: Yes.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Well, that would cover it.
Thank you.
Bob, did you have anything?
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August 1, 2006
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That was my question.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Mark, small question.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And people who have paid
impact fees prior to the start of this work, if -- if the project's
abandoned, what happens to those fees then? If they run out, are they
lost or are they banked or are they --
MR. KUCK: I can't answer that. I'm not involved in the impact
fees. I know that if they pay the inspection fees to engineering, you
know, the review and inspection, those are paid up front. The review
fee we would keep. The inspection fee, if the -- a project was
abandoned, we would refund that because we didn't do any
inspections.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Did you have something,
Joe?
MR. SCHMITT: Yeah. Did it -- if you pay impact fees and you
don't carry through with the project, you can ask for a reimbursement
of those fees.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. Thank you.
MR. SCHMITT: And, likewise, a building permit. If you submit
for a building permit and you don't carry through with the building
permit, there's a certain portion you can ask for a refund back.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: That's fair.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Thank you. Any other
questions? No? That's it. That's the only one you had?
MR. KUCK: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Thank you very much, sir.
Appreciate it.
And now transportation. Now, I know you're -- I know there's
some other people here. Transportation was supposed to follow
. .
englneenng.
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MS. FABACHER: Excuse me, Mr. Chair. Maryann has another
engineering amendment.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. I'm sorry. I didn't know. I
recognize you as the PUD person so ...
MS. DEV ANAS: Yes. Good afternoon, Commissioners. And
currently I reside in the section that I supervise. We are in the
.. .
englneenng services --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
MS. DEV ANAS: -- department. The amendment that I have is
shown in your book on page 229.
COURT REPORTER: Excuse me. What's your name?
MS. DEV ANAS: I'm sorry. For the record, Maryann Devanas.
And after the review that our DSAC committee had conducted on July
5th there were changes made, and I have those reflected in a document
here. If you would like to review the pages as I read over them, I can
bring them forward.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, could we start by telling you
what our concerns were with what document we have? And then you
can tell us if those were corrected or not.
MS. DEV ANAS: Certainly.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: That might be easier than having
us trying to analyze something while we're sitting here at this time.
MS. DEVANAS: Very good.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: So with that has everybody read
the changes recommended to the PUD process? Because there are
substantial issues here.
Do you have something, Mr. Kolflat?
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: On page 230 under Item 4, the
first line says, "County will be given at least six months' notice, prior
written -- prior written notice as to any change in ownership," and that
would include ownership by a homeowners' association, and I wonder
if that possibly be -- could be one year instead of six months because
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sometimes it takes a homeowners' association a longer time to
organize to get ready to check out turnover.
MS. DEV ANAS: We -- we can certainly change that if that's
your direction.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: That would -- you said that's no
problem to you?
MS. DEV ANAS: Not -- not -- not to staff, no.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Okay.
MS. DEV ANAS: What we have heard from some of the
developers is that it may be somewhat burdensome for them to predict
that because of the market and sale of -- of units. Sometimes they're
unable to predict it in -- a year in advance.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Well, sometimes the
homeowners' associations have to undergo elections and so forth and
get organized and get a committee assigned to look at the turnover
documents, and this would afford them more time to do that if it
wouldn't adversely affect you.
MS. DEV ANAS: We can -- we can change it to that if you -- if
you --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, there -- there might be more
discussion, but after we get done today you might want to collectively
understand our thoughts, and if it isn't clear -- because I had some
issues on the same sentence.
"The county will be given at least six months prior written notice
as to any change in ownership." That means every time a house is sold
or any in -- that is a transfer of all or part of a development, so for
every single house sale you guys are going to be in the game on that
now?
MS. DEV ANAS: No, that was not our intent, and we did correct
that after our review with DSAC. How it read was -- is, if you will --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Sure.
MS. DEV ANAS: For No.4, "The county will be given at least
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six months' prior written notice to a change in ownership to a
community association including but not limited to transfer of all or
part of the development or homeowners' association, property owners'
association, master association, or similar entity."
We then struck through the next line, which reads, "In addition to
the requirements of the annual monitoring report, the owner shall
submit an interim monitoring report in a county-approved format
along with the notice of change in ownership for staff review. "
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, that's a much--
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Much better.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- better improvement.
MS. DEV ANAS: Yes. I'm sorry that you didn't receive it in
advance.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: No, that's okay. Back to Mr.
Kolflat -- Kolflat's question about the county will be given at least six
months' prior written notice. And I'm trying to slow down. It says at
least six months, so if someone wanted to give you a year they could.
MS. DEV ANAS: That's true. The way it's written that would be
correct.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. How accurate do they have
to be in that prediction? I mean, if you can have greater than six
months, if someone says, "I'm going to close in a year from now" but
they take 18 months, they've, in essence, given you 18 months by
default.
MS. DEV ANAS: That would be to our advantage.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Right. So you have no -- that--
that process is workable then?
MS. DEVANAS: Yes.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: That might meet your concern,
Mr. Kolflat.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Yes.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
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COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And they could give notice of
the commencement of construction.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: That's what I'm thinking.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I mean, there's -- there's a lot of
flexibility in the way that can be done by that word "at least" -- or
those two words, so --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Beyond the permit application.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yeah. So I had a question on No.
5, and I think you and I -- I briefly mentioned it to you in the hallway,
and I think you've cleaned that you. Did you?
MS. DEV ANAS: Yes. After some further discussion with staff
after the DSAC meeting, we believe it would be best if that section
was rewritten to read something similar to -- that a final release of a
PUD commitment would be brought to the Board of County
Commissioners as a consent agenda item for their review. Should it
require additional discussion it would then be pulled and placed on
their agenda.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yes.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yes, thank you.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: That's a good improvement. I
think that works out a lot better.
On page 229 under F, your additional words on my copy still
refer to any ownership change, so I'm assuming you're going to --
MS. DEVANAS: Yes.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: You're going to change that--
MS. DEVANAS: Yes.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- consistent with the other
language?
MS. DEV ANAS: Yes. And we did have that in our current
document.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, I don't have any other
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questions. Anybody else got any questions for you?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: When will we get a copy of the
book?
MS. FABACHER: When I send out the next packet for -- not
before the 8th but a couple of weeks before the 23rd, I would think.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Do you have five copies of what
you've got with you today?
MS. DEVANAS: Yes, I do.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, we take our copy today, and
anything else that is cleaned up we'll just have another bundle. That
would be helpful.
MS. DEV ANAS: I -- I can hand these out now. And the only
item that's not corrected is No.5.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
MS. DEV ANAS: Would you like them now?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yes, please. Thank you. That'll
give us a jump on the language that's coming forward.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Thank you. I saw that language
about any transfer of ownership, and I just imagined how big your
department would be overnight.
MS. DEV ANAS: Thank you for scratching that.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. If there's no other questions
on this issue, are we ready to move on to the next one?
MS. FABACHER: Oh, no. Excuse me, Mr. Chair. We have a
couple of speakers. We -- first Mr. Lewis, of course.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Mr. Lewis, if we've resolved your
issues, you can nod your head.
MR. LEWIS: Yes. Can I get a copy of that, by the way, just to
review the new language?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: You can have my copy because
I'm going to wait and get a copy from staff.
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MR. LEWIS: May I approach?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yeah, just come up and take it.
MR. LEWIS: Thank you.
MS. DEV ANAS: Mr. Lewis, is that what you're looking for?
MR. LEWIS: Yes.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Thank you.
MS. F ABACHER: And then, Mr. Chair, Jennifer Belpedio
would like to speak.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Jennifer, it's good to see you
again.
MS. BELPEDIO: Thank you for having me back. I'm Jennifer
Belpedio with Becker & Poliakoff. We represent Cypress Woods
Golf and Country -- Country Club Master Property Owners'
Association.
We are essentially caught between a rock and a hard place
because of a situation that we did not create. Essentially, on the eve of
transition of community association control from the developer to unit
owner, the developer voluntarily conveyed approximately 11 acres of
what appears to be preserve --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah.
MS. BELPEDIO: -- area to FDOT in lieu of condemnation. We
have unofficially been advised as part of the PUD monitoring process
that we do not meet our minimum preserve area requirements because
of the conveyance.
My understanding is that the proposed amendment's primarily to
address compliance issues such as ours. To that end we are
conceptually in support of the amendment as amended on the floor by
Maryann a couple of moments ago. We only ask that the amendment
text be revised so that it is clear that the developer or the
unit-owner-controlled community association may be released of such
PUD obligations.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: And I think that's the intent, and
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your problem would probably be then resolved if this goes through by
a inclusion of a -- something that signifies you met your commitments
on the consent agenda at the BCC. Is that --
MS. DEVANAS: Yes.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- kind of like the process that
would happen?
MS. DEVANAS: Yes, correct.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Well, actually, that might
work for everybody then. Thank you.
MS. BELPEDIO: Thank you very much.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Appreciate it. Okay. Anything
else?
MS. FABACHER: I think that's it for our engineering services.
MS. DEV ANAS: Thank you, Commissioners.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Thank you, engineering services.
We certainly appreciate your time and smiling faces.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Short and sweet.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yep. We hope that
transportation's going to be just as happy.
Now Nick--
,
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Yes.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- I just can't resist. I met with you
yesterday, and you didn't have the affliction you have today. When
mine started I grew my hair long, and it covered it up. Now, yours
will do the same thing. It'll grow down over the side.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: I said to my wife last night that I have
a meeting this morning, and I said I needed this shaved off. I'm going
to be dodging bullets today, and I don't want to -- I don't want to miss
anything.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: It is real short.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: For the record, Nick Casalanguida,
Transportation Planning.
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Catherine, there was some concerns Mr. Schiffer had regarding a
grayed-out area that was not to be reviewed.
MS. FABACHER: Oh.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: You were concerned you weren't
going to see it. If I could go through these one at a time, maybe --
some of them are very short, maybe a couple of sentences long. You
could review it and consider it in this hearing. If you're uncomfortable
with that, I understand.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: What number are you talking
about? Let's--
MR. CASALANGUIDA: I'll start with -- the first one I have is
on page 127.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. That is a grayed-out area.
Brad, I -- since you didn't read these and I do value your input --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah, I mean, the -- the notice
was that these weren't to be heard. I mean, obviously, if you read it
close, it says Wednesday, and today's not Wednesday. But I thought
-- my impression was that there would be follow up data and that's
why they were pulled off the table so ...
MR. CASALANGUIDA: I think we're going to do some
wording changes, wordsmithing on a few things. One of them was a
DSAC recommendation we included. The actual change is on page
128. It primarily deals with interconnections, something near and dear
to our hearts, to try and put trips off the road and make proj ects work
together. If you want to take a look at it real quick -- if not --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I do. We can. I mean, that's -- I
mean, let's leave it if I -- I can pull one if I want to.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: And if -- if --
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: If Brad has a question that comes
up after the meeting because of -- in a grayed area one --
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Sure.
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COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- you could give Nick a call. And
I've found that their department's pretty responsive to our needs.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: We'd be happy to do that.
COMMISSIONER MURRA Y: You don't want to --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: No, we're going to go forward
with that.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Oh.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: But on -- on -- Nick, I don't know
if you need to make a presentation as much as we probably need to
ask questions. Your stuffs pretty simple and straightforward in re __
that regard.
So with that in mind, Mr. Murray, did you have some questions?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah. On page 128 -- and I'm
on the white sheets -- the -- I don't think there is a brown sheet for this
one. On No.2 I have a note here. It's -- the cost exceeds what it
would normally cost to build a typical road section. Are we talking
only about approved roads? Those are county approved, or are we
talking about any road?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: This was a recommendation from
DSAC. It was not my original submittal.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: So it's one of those gray areas they
asked me to add in. I knew it would cause some questions, and I'm
not sure there's a way to define that. Their concern was if the
interconnection was costly that they wanted some sort of limit what it
-- what it could be, and we ran through a bunch of different
development scenarios with them and felt that, you know, if the
language needed to be added -- we were somewhat comfortable with
it.
We knew it would bring some questions. If it needed to be
pulled or you had concerns about it, we could definitely discuss it
today.
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COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay. So that would be
something you'd be looking at. On No.3 I have a note here.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, let's --let's -- we had--
while you're on that one, let's finish that one.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Oh, okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: We didn't get a resolution to it,
and it's the same question I brought up yesterday to staff.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Okay. I would be happy to pull that
and strike through that.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, what I suggested to you--
and I think Mr. Murray's going there too -- that the word "normally" --
and -- and we discussed it yesterday. One of your people indicated
that maybe you could tie it to FDOT cost or something. Have you
given that any thought?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: I -- I have, and I -- I discussed it with
Don Scott, our Transportation Director, and -- and the issue that
comes up -- in some cases this is saving money; in other cases it -- it
could cost money. It's -- it's very intangible --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Right.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: -- because another -- it could be two
parking lots side by side, and you're asking them to connect the
pavement and just put a -- provide an opening between them. It could
be a benefit where two owners side by side -- you're asking them to
share a driveway, so now they're saving money by providing one
entrance point.
So that's DSAC's recommendation to be in there. I found it
something that was very hard to define and to tie something. And I
would be happy to pull it if that was the recommendation at this point.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: But, see, their purpose for putting
it in --
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Uh-huh.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- was -- for example, say you had
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two projects side by side. They're required by this interconnect.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Uh-huh.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: But the only way they could do
that is to put some kind ofH-2 bridge structure in, some
heavy-loading structure that would not make economical sense to do
that.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Correct.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Then how would they -- how
would they get out of that?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: That's -- you know, where feasible
was one of the -- one of the thoughts that we had in the original up --
up in the code is to kind of say that this is --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, the word "feasible" in your
mind might be -- Mr. Lewis is going to get up here and say that is not
feasible.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: And then we're going to be back in
a problem with it again.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: There isn't a -- there isn't a way to
define a cost between an interconnection. It's like the cost of doing
business in Collier County to put in a driveway. If they had to put in a
bridge culvert to do so, they'd have to do that as well too.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Could you tie it to a percentage of
the -- the roadwork or the pavement cost of the project? If it doesn't
exceed 25 percent of the site development -- SDP estimated cost or
something of that nature -- could you look at that?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: We could do that.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I think that it would -- it's a
legitimate concern of DSAC's.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Okay. We'll run some scenarios, and
we'll come back and -- and -- with that wordsmithing and see if we
can clean that No.2 up.
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COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Mr. Murray, I'm --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That's no problem. And all --
and, of course, that relates down to No.3 -- I'm sorry, not No.3 -- No.
4, the interconnection provides minimal or no benefit and how to
determine -- and, you know, again it's nebulous, so I think we want __
MR. CASALANGUIDA: I think we want to strike through four.
That was one of my recommendations -_
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay. Now, the --
MR. CASALANGUIDA: -- for discussion so ...
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay. The last one that I had
that I -- "in the opinion." I've noticed in reviewing these documents
there's an awful lot --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Were you there yesterday?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Excuse me?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Were you there yesterday? That's
the --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Wherever there was I was, but I
don't know I was where you were.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: We were hitting these questions
yesterday too.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Were we?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: So, yeah, you're right on the
money.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Oh, I'm sorry.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: That's exactly the issues we need
to be on.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Well, anyway, I'm going to go
back. There's an awful lot of these in here that indicate, you know, the
county manager's designee. And then it says opinion, and I'm -- I'm
not being cute now, but an opinion's, you know, a different opinion.
But if we're going to rely upon the county manager or the designee
who has the skill and the knowledge and the credentials, maybe the
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phrase should be "professional judgment" or something that -- that --
other than an opinion, not that I necessarily agree that in every
instance should it be a matter of administration, but I think efficiencies
intended -- you need something better than opinion.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: And the reason we do that -- you --
you could have two uses that are side by side that would be
incompatible. You could have an assisted-living facility with a
shopping center, and it -- it may not make sense to interconnect those
two projects, and so you want to have that flexibility that's there.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Well, my only argument there --
and it's not one of significance, I guess, but "opinion" is the word I'm
talking about. I'm thinking if you folks are professional at it I think
the word "opinion" might put you in contention with people.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: That's a fair -- that's a fair call. We
can change it to the professional judgment --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: -- of the county manager or designee.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Or if that's satisfactory --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yeah, I think that's a good idea.
And -- and the fact that it's got to be found incompatible -- we do have
standards in this county for compatibility, so it might be something
that professional judgment would work a lot better on.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Okay. On No.3, "The location of
environmentally sensitive lands precludes it," we want to add, "and
cannot be mitigated for" because if we can mitigate a certain spot for it
then we do want to get that interconnection to work out.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, there we go again with cost.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Then we'd have to put that -- that
same caveat on that, I guess, as well too.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Because your mitigation is
one thing, buying a piece of property somewhere to mitigate it, but
just the effort to the corps and other jurisdictional agencies to get the
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mitigation approved could be phenomenal so ...
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Sure.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I -- I'm done. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And I may be not even -- Nick,
when is this going to happen? This is supposed to happen with
existing developments or only if the new development --
MR. CASALANGUIDA: At any time that a future development
comes in or redevelopment of an existing parcel comes in.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And what defines
redevelopment then?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: An SDP amendment.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. All right. The -- if
there's a -- if it's an existing thing -- and then how would you get the
neighbor to go along with it, or you wouldn't? You would just show
the road halfway to the property line?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: You may -- you may provide an
easement and pre -- you know, prepare for that connection at such a
time. We've done that with several projects now. We've said, you
know, "Don't put parking spaces there. Butt the pavement up to the
property line, and when the next person comes in we'll get that
connection between the two projects."
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. If there is a loss of
parking due to this, do -- do they lose the ability to build that space or
MR. CASALANGUIDA: In most cases they've been able to
work around that by -- by shifting a driveway or -- or relocating.
They may lose a parking space or two, but in our estimate you're
going to take a lot of trips off the road if you can connect these parcels
up, and that may be a -- you know, a ben -- a cost-to-benefit issue.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. So they just provide an
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easement. In other words, we have a buffer requirement. It's not like
they're building a strip of paving into that buffer. It stops at the buffer
or something?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: I've discussed it with landscape.
Typically, it's just like putting a driveway between two parking lots.
That's where the buffer wouldn't apply. It's almost like the buffer
applies along the property line, but if they're two different properties
that have a driveway between them the buffer doesn't apply there.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: All right. Thank you.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: You're welcome.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Nick, you had said -- responded to
Brad with something that raised a question. You said that if they were
to lose a parking space that --
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Uh-huh.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- most of them can work with it.
F or those that can't, is there a need to supply -- apply some language
that if under this circumstance they lose some parking spaces
attributed to this issue then they don't have to go back through any
kind of further process within the county to get that acknowledgement
that they can have less parking spaces than the code requires?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: That's a fair comment. We can add a
sentence that would allow for that.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: That the applicant should not be
penalized for providing interconnection.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Something -- I mean, I hate to see
someone go through the process and find out that they're supposed to
have 10 spaces, they got cut down to 8, and now for the 2 that they're
required to have by the LDC they've got to have a variance to get that
accomplished because you want an interconnection.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: That's a fair --
MS. F ABACHER: Mr. Chair, I'm going to research that for you.
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There is an administrative -- small administrative variance on parking
that may cover this, so --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: That's great.
MS. FABACHER: I'll-- I'll let you know on that.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. I just wanted to make sure
there is.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: I'll check with Catherine before we
come back on that one.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Any other questions? Okay.
We're on to the next one.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: I'll make those changes and bring you
back a clean version. Okay. I want to go to page 185.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: What page?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: 185.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: 185,186.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: What was that? One what?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Eighty-five, one eighty five.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: I think this amendment was associated
with me having a little bit of deity involved in this as well too.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Oh, is this the "Nick is God" one?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Yeah, this is the "Nick is
God" one.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. I am surprised that the road
-- I mean, that the room is not occupied today. How did you get that
done?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Well, I've discussed it with them.
They -- they realize that this amendment has been asked for by the
Board of County Commissioners, and they understand why. They
may not like it. And it's for the best interests of our concurrency
system.
And what we're trying to do here, quite simply, is just to make
sure they follow the rules. It's almost like the IRS having a -- if you're
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cheating on your taxes and we catch you, you've got to go back and
follow the rules, and -- and this is the way it is.
It's not Nick is God. It's simply we need to save our roadway
capacity and just make sure that they play by the rules.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Questions?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yes.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Is that you? Go ahead, Bob. I'm
looking each time.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: On 186 I made a notation to
myself under Reference 1 that -- a question about appeal process, and
if there were an appeal process it's not -- it seems to be missing from
this, and I thought to myself, gee, if there were an appeal process here
maybe they could go forward and the BCC might be able to even
affect the developer agreement outcome or something of that nature to
help overcome the problem.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: This just directs them back to the
code. This just basically says that --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: It's all -- it's all --
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Yeah, it just forces them to follow the
rules of concurrency, and if there's a -- if there's a problem there and
they want to dispute it they could follow whatever those procedures
are right now.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: It doesn't preclude any of those
opportunities?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Right, it does not.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay. Thank you. That's all I
needed.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I wouldn't mind some --
remember, this is the first time I'm looking at it. The explanation is
that if you have a project in and the -- your project's combined with
other projects within the last six months, you go over the requirements
on the road that you can hold this profit?
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August 1, 2006
MR. CASALANGUIDA: I'll -- I'll explain it to you. I'll give
you a couple of examples that make more sense. If you get a PUD
that was approved for a thousand units and on Roadway X that's next
to that PUD there's capacity for a thousand trips, three percent of that
being, say, 30 trips, they could come in with a bunch of applications
for less than 30 trips to save capacity from going out to the next
length, or if we were over capacity between 100 and 110 percent they
could come in with multiple de minimis trips and keep loading up the
system.
So what this basically says is if you're from the same master
proj ect, the PUD --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: -- or large plat you -- you will be
looked at cumulatively for your impacts.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. But it only pertains to
the one proj ect?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Correct. The master project that it
comes from, right.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well done. Okay. Nick, you--
you got through this. This was the one that was going to be so
controversial.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Do you want to jump up for me?
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: Yeah.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Okay.
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: Keep them in order.
MS. F ABACHER: Oh, wait. I'm sorry.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Nick, I was looking forward to the
MS. FABACHER: I'm sorry.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Hold it. We have a speaker.
MS. FABACHER: Mr. Lewis would like to speak on this, Mr.
Chair.
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COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Thank you.
MR. LEWIS: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Doug Lewis with Roetzel
& Andress. In your -- in your packet from, I guess, the original
planning commission meeting, Rich Y ovanovich did give you a letter
outlining some of the concerns that the development community had
relative to the text change.
In addition I'm here on behalf our clients to look at this. I -- I
understand the intent, and I'm -- I understand the direction that -- that
they're looking to take. I'm not sure if the text change that's been
submitted is narrowly tailored to address the issue that -- that you're
trying to look at. It could impact development flexibility and give
excessive powers to the county manager.
In terms of the text itself, under 6.02.02(A) it indicates -- in terms
of the applicability, I guess, the question I -- I would have in looking
at that text whether or not this provision is applicable at the SDP and
plat stage or -- or only or other stages -- the -- the term "local
development order," I'm not sure what that means. Does it include
building permits?
We know that concurrency's vested at the time of the SDP or--
or there's a prepayment that -- that allows for vesting of the SDP -- the
plat based on that. I'm -- I'm assuming that that's what we're talking
about in terms of the text, the local development order.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Right. Ifit was -- if you're more
comfortable, we could strike local development order and put in SDP
or plat there.
MR. LEWIS: Okay. Yeah, that would help add some clarity.
Additionally, the county manager's able to approve a project or refuse
approval of a project, and I'm assuming this would be prior to the
issuance of a certificate of adequacy of public facility.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: That's correct.
MR. LEWIS: That would comply -- that would normally comply
with concurrency -- concurrency management system if he feels that
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it's contrary to the purpose and intent and the way the text is worded.
I think the example you illustrated may be a good example, although
the language indicates that if he -- he feels it would be contrary to the
purpose and intent -- I'm not sure what that -- that specifically means,
how it's determined.
I sus -- you know, I suggest that we maybe establish a more
specific criteria to -- to address the specific concerns that the staff may
have as illustrated -- I think Nick -- Nick did a good job of doing that.
The other practical question I have is in terms of flexibility where
you have a PUD with some approved development and let's say you're
in a constrained roadway situation and you're looking for some de
minimis impact. The standard that we're looking -- develop -- the
standard is the six-month development window standard.
If the county manager determines that the -- the submittal -- or
that the -- this new submittal would be something that would be
incongruent with the concurrency management system, then the
applicant could submit or agree to distribute or account for these trips
within the development. And when -- you may have multiple owners.
You may have someone caught up in that expecting a de minimis
impact, doing a specific TIS for their site.
I just want to make sure we've understood the practical
constraints of a developer within a PUD and how we can -- you know,
make a system that allows -- provide a system that would allow them
to -- to proceed with their development. Those are the questions and
comments that I had relative to that text.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. There's a couple I'd like to
follow up on in particular. And I had circled -- I know I brought this
up to you yesterday, and I should have -- I've been reluctant to repeat
myself, but for the purpose and intent of this section -- this gentleman
just mentioned the intent as well, and I -- I mentioned to you yesterday
it would be interesting to have staff at least come up with some criteria
so that you could determine intent so that the ball does not fall on your
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shoulders all the time to argue with someone, whether legally or not,
that the intent is something different than what you claim it to be.
And I can't remember how you explained that yesterday, Nick,
but maybe we need to re -- refresh our memories.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Sure. The intent is defined in what
refers to certificate of public adequacies in the section where it says,
"Maintain level of service for public facilities." So what it's saying is
that the purpose and intent of this -- this code is to make sure that we
follow through with the adequate public facilities prior to approving
any development order, that -- that that's what we're doing.
Then it -- it goes on to define what we're talking about as far as --
Mr. Lewis's comment about local development is good. We can do
SDP/plat and plan. Adequate capacity is available. That's the purpose
and intent when we talk about that.
When it talks about above the level of service and having a COA
or adequate capacity down, below it talks about concurrency. So I -- I
think he's thinking that we're trying to do two different things, and I'm
saying they're the same.
The intent above is that we have adequate public facilities in
place prior to us providing approval for an SDP or plat and plan, and
the way we, transportation, do that is by concurrency. So I -- I -- I
think it's not the intention of this code to say that we will have broad
powers to stop anything. It's with regard to concurrency.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, I know that -- some of the
projects that you've had trouble with, and I know that they purposely
were trying to avoid your rules --
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Uh-huh.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- by coming in with small little
pieces of a project.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: If the intent of this paragraph is to
simply go after that, then I think that's the right thing to do, absolutely,
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but I want to make sure it can't be construed to go beyond that to
something we don't understand or we don't -- haven't heard.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: It is the intention of this paragraph to
strictly refer to concurrency and a certificate of adequate -- certificate
public adequacy requirements for concurrency, so I think when it says
"as defined above" meaning the paragraph above where it says we will
have those facilities in place and there -- and concurrency will be, you
know, met at the time of review.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. And, Mr. Lewis, did you
have something else you wanted to add? There's not many in the
room today, so we can certainly afford to hear from those -- from
those that are so ...
MR. LEWIS: Well, I -- I think I understand what you're trying to
get at. I -- I don't know if the text is narrowly constructed in a way to
do that. I would envision a development under a PUD where you
maybe have divergence of ownership, development comes in, and
maybe in a constrained roadway maybe they're de minimis, and then
they come in and they're surprised because now they're viewed in the
context with the entire development.
And I -- I just -- and the other kind of practical question that --
that I see is -- is we're looking at a six-month -- and I don't know
where the six-month development window -- how that was created,
but we're looking at SDPs or plats that were submitted within the
development within that six-month window to determine -- and then it
-- and then once there is a determination that there's a concurrency
management problem, the county manager makes that determination,
the remedy for the applicant would be to -- to essentially distribute or
account for impacts within the development.
And I -- I think at that point you're already at a point where
cumulatively your SDP is kind of the straw that breaks the camel's
back. I don't know how you practically can do that at that point.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, you know, it's -- first of all,
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the six-month thing came because it was one year, and Nick wanted to
be less God-like and he dropped that to six months.
MR. LEWIS: That's great. We appreciate that.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: So I--
MR. CASALANGUIDA: We wanted to go longer.
MR. LEWIS: In that direction at least.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: As far as the -- as far as the PUD
and all that, Nick, ifprojects are vested, they're acknowledged to be
vested.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: It would not apply.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Right. So if you have a PUD you
ought to make sure it's vested, and that would solve the problem with
the PUDs. I don't know of any other -- other solution.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: No. And -- and that comment
regarding selling the individual parts to a PUD to different people,
that's a problem we face all the time that separate owners now think
that they have -- they're not part of this PUD that was approved by the
board as one -- one unit.
Now, I real -- realize that they have individual rights to those
parcels. They still were presented to the board, the planning
commission, as one unified project. And then to come in separately is
what we're trying to avoid in the sense that they ignore their impacts
from one another.
So if it came to the board and planning commission as a project
when we review it we'd like to review it as a whole project as well,
too, and distribute those impacts evenly. Again, we pushed for a year,
even 18 months, and we dropped back down to 6 months because that
was a time frame -- we thought it was digestible and somewhat
supported by DSAC and -- and, you know, the folks that heard it as
well too.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well-- and even if someone were
to sell off a portion of a PUD, if that PUD was under the vesting
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statute, they'd still be vested.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Be allowed to go, that's correct.
MR. LEWIS: Right. But under the new -- the new concurrency
management system the prepayment would occur at the time of the
SDPs.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: That's correct. Right.
MR. LEWIS: The vesting.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Thank you. Anything else on this
issue? Nick, we're on a roll. Oh, it's Trinity's turn.
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: That means we're going to screech to a
halt probably.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, I tell you what. If you came
in here with your hair shaved like his, we probably would have so ...
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: My son inspired that, so -- for the
record, Trinity Caudill-Scott. Would you prefer a presentation?
Would you like to ask questions? Go item by item?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, the -- first of all, it's --
COMMISSIONER CARON: Page.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yeah, I think it's going to have to
be page by page.
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: I'm sorry. 187.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: One thing, I think, for the benefit
of the panel, this is a new con -- more or less a new concept for us
because it's pathways, and we haven't addressed pathways before. I
think a brief explanation of what pathways are, how they fit in with
sidewalks and bike lanes, and what it all means to the taxpayers might
be a real good help.
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: A pathway is essentially a -- in
layman's terms, essentially a wider sidewalk, in essence. It allows for
nonmotorized transportation recreation. It allows for bicyclists,
walkers, rollerbladers to all inhabit one 10 to 12, sometimes -- and in
some areas it's 14 feet wide depending upon the use.
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A greenway is usually along a green corridor, which in our maps
you'll see that many times we utilize water management district
right-of-ways, easement areas to put these recreational areas in.
The -- the fiscal impact as far as to the taxpayers we -- it is an
increased impact over our -- or increased cost over our usual
cross-section for a roadway; however, statistically it increases
property values.
And Rails to Trails has done several studies on the fact that in --
property values can -- can increase nine percent if you're -- if you're in
close proximity to a trail as well as that your homes sell faster and
things of that nature. So, I mean, there are statistical data to -- to back
that.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: In your description of a greenway,
you really -- in this case it's a pathway?
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: Yes.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. So there's--
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: They kind of go hand in hand, yes.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Well, the -- I haven't seen
greenway referenced before, so -- are there questions?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yes, sir. Go ahead, Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: On page 187 where you show
money in there, I'm a little -- I understand what you're attempting to
do, I think, but is that useful for this? Is it considered a baseline for
the future or something or --
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: This was a request by DSAC to show
what the fiscal impact would be to the development community. Most
of the pathways that are shown -- this is only for pathways. Most of
the pathways that are shown on our map, our -- our overall long-range
plan, are adjacent to arterial roadways, so if that pathway were not
there the developer would normally be obligated to build or pay for a
six - foot sidewalk and a four-foot bike lane.
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What this fiscal impact shows is that increased -- to increase that
to a 12- foot wide pathway with the concrete construction and asphalt
construction costs based on FDOT's cost estimates.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: You don't happen to know
whether we put those other costs associated with what you said was
the alternative any other place in the code, do you? Do we do that? Is
it a normal practice to put money like that in the code?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Not that I know of.
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: It's not in the code. This is just the
fiscal impacts, and this is -- my cost estimates are based on FDOT's
2004 cost estimates, which are the latest that they have provided.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay. I have no objection to
what the intent is. I was just wondering if it seemed logical. Let's see
if I had anything else. Let's see. Yeah, on page 190, please.
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: Uh-huh.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Under B I put a big "wow" next
to that one because it said at the bottom of the sentence, "Then the
minimum paved width of the sidewalk must not be less than 10 feet."
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: And that actually isn't a change. It's
just a change in terminology that DSAC had requested. Previously it
had said pathway, and they preferred to use sidewalk.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Because I can see where -- and
-- and maybe this is not pertinent to you, but I can see where that
might be an issue if we get back to smart growth again and we talk
about pedestrian pathways and a sidewalk resides within a pedestrian
pathway. And I was hoping for consistency was my issue.
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: My personal opinion is is that it limits
their construction materials because a sidewalk can only be concrete.
In a pathway we have now provided an alternative for asphalt.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, why don't -- why don't we
change it back?
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: I don't have a problem with
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that.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I'm glad I brought it up then.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Me too.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: All right. Then -- then you want
to make a note on that one, go back to pathway?
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: Sure.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay. And then I did have one
other thing, I think. Location of authority within the process. Let's
see. Under C, payment in lieu of construction or construction at an
alternate site.
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: Could I go back to that -- to that B --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Sure.
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: -- and provide a little bit more of why
DSAC -- I believe they wanted to change that? Originally it was
pathway, and a pathway, according to FDOT standards, should be 12
feet. So we were going to change the minimum width to 12 feet to
make it consistent throughout the code. That is, I believe, why they
opted to go back to sidewalk and wanted to remain 10 feet.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, why couldn't we simply say
we want a pathway to be 10 feet in this particular case?
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: We could for strictly alternative
sidewalk designs. We can do that.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I think we should.
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: And I think the flexibility in the
material usage is -- becomes an advantage, and you may actually see
more of it happen then so ...
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay.
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: I'm sorry.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: No problem. But under C again
-- and I'm just trying to reacquaint myself. We read these a week or so
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in advance, and you forget what you said sometimes. So let's see. I
have highlighted "or required as part of any corresponding zoning
application, development order" -- my question to myself was location
of authority within the process. And I'm not remembering my question
very well, and I apologize, but --
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: Actually, I would like to take out
zoning application and just --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Maybe that was what--
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: -- bold "development order" because it
is a defined --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah, that I think might be--
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: It -- it is included in our definitions,
which it does -- it includes zoning applications.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yes, that was my question.
Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Anything else?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Everybody agree that that's a
good idea?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yeah, no problem.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah, that was my question.
Let's see. Well, why -- if anybody else has -- I have a couple more,
but I don't want to hog the --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Mr. Kolflat.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: Just for matter of education on
my part, on this page 187 you have there $61.65 per linear foot and
then $10.25 per square foot. Which is the dominating one? Is it the
linear foot that establishes one or the square footage?
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: They're actually the same if you take
the 10.25 and multiply it out because it's an increased width of six
feet.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: I see. Thank you. On page 188
on the table there under bike lanes, there is no width shown. What is
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the width that should be shown in there?
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: The widths vary depending upon the
road cross-section. If it's an urban cross-section with curb and gutter,
it's four feet. If it's a rural cross-section, FDOT standards mandate
five feet.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Now, can a -- can a bike lane,
sidewalk, or pathway -- can they be combined? Can two of them be
combined for one service or three of them be combined for one
service?
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: Yes, they can.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: They can?
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: They can; however, in our -- as far as
uses, yes. People walk in bike lanes. People ride their bikes on a
bicycle. As far as the code goes, there -- the development
.community's still required to build either the sidewalk and the bike
lane if they're on an arterial roadway or a pathway and bike lane if
they're on an arterial roadway.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Then how is the width
established? On what basis?
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: The width of a pathway?
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: No, for combined -- combined
use.
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: The minimum pathway width is -- is
shown later on, and it's to be 12 feet.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Okay. Now, on page 189
there's a similar table shown -- that's shown on 188. Is that a matter of
redundancy there, or is this something different?
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: What it is -- the table on page 188 is
for sidewalks that are -- or bikes lanes or pathways constructed
adjacent to the project site, and No.2 is for internal to a project site.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: But they look to be similar.
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: They are very similar. One of the
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main differences are if a sidewalk, bike lane, pathway adjacent to the
site -- we are re -- requiring that it be constructed prior to the first
certificate of occupancy.
On the internal site, they have a little bit more flexibility due to
construction vehicles, et cetera, to where walks or pathways have to be
in for each individual C.O., but when 75 percent of that plat or site
development plan is complete all of the sidewalks must be completed
as well.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: All right. And on page 190
under -- I think it's 6, Section 6 there -- that must be the granddaddy of
acroments (sic), USDOTFHW A. I assume that's not been put on the
index. That's all the question --
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: United States Department of
Transportation Federal Highway Administration.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Well, all I want to do is see it in
the index because I'll never remember that. Thank you. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: It's more ofa paragraph than an
acronym.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Right.
MS. F ABACHER: We'll need two lines for that one.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Let me try a couple of
questions.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Go ahead.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Trinity, is this the section that
would require the sidewalks and bikeways and pathways?
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. When you say at the top
"unless exempted by the regulations" -- "unless otherwise exempted
by the regulations of the LDC," where would that be? And the reason
I'm bringing that up, I think it's good code work if you could itemize
where that is; otherwise, you have people blindly unable to use search
engines to find where exemptions are, and if there are none --
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MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: I don't believe that there are none.
This was language that was in here prior to me being here, but I
remember that it was added during the last amendment cycle.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. But it will send people
on a -- in this case --
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: I don't have a problem
striking it.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: -- there's no way you can win.
Where's Waldo? I mean, because there -- you'll make people think
there's regulations and -- and then you could actually kill the "where
required" all the time and the -- why -- why do you need six inches of
concrete on a pathway that has no motorized vehicles and --
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: Because many of those fall within
easement areas, Florida Power & Light, water management district,
and they have actually requested that because they run their
maintenance vehicles on them. So while we are not expecting people
to drive up and down them we do know that there will be maintenance
vehicles. We also have to look for a fire truck, ambulance if they
would need to get out there as well.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, you know, fire lanes are
well determined, so I don't think there's fire trucks willy-nilly running
up and down pathways.
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: I can tell you that from my experience
with the Florida Power & Light greenway -- we did originally look at
doing concrete as well as a greenway on the 951 corridor. In both
instances the water management district and FP &L stated that if we
opted to do concrete that they requested the six inches.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And that kind of makes sense
there. You're in a right-of-way for Florida Power & Light. How
about -- but how about neighborhoods where that'll never be the case?
That's a specific --
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: The pathways are only as determined
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on this plan. Now, if someone opts to do pathways internal, they do
have -- they either do the six inches of concrete or the asphalt, and we
do have a -- probably essentially a road cross-section for the asphalt,
but we did put "unless it was otherwise determined by the county
manager" because we do realize that in some cases that's going to be
overkill.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. All right. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: If you -- do you want to go?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: If you just -- maybe you could--
we -- I know we talked about this yesterday, and I understood your
explanation. This pathways issue had come to this panel quite a long
time ago.
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: Two years ago.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Right. We rejected it because of
issues concerning cost. It went to the BCC, and I believe at the time
they did the same thing. And when I talked to you yesterday you said
this has now been accepted by the Board of County Commissioners
standing -- sitting as the MPO.
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: Yes. Now, one of the other reasons it
was not passed the last time was because we had a plan that was done
in 1994, and this is probably the only copy that you will see. I have it.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I have one too.
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: Oh, do you?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yeah. Don gave me the other one.
He kept two.
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: So that was why the pathways kind of
were revived because we do have a new plan now. It's a refreshed
plan, and hopefully it doesn't sit on a shelf like this one did and not be
implemented.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. As we were discussing
issues, didn't you indicate to me that most of the pathway is being
built in existing easements?
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MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: Yes.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: And so this really isn't going to be
an extraction from development in the sense of more land. For most
of it, it's already there.
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: No. We may ask for an additional
easement where there's an existing Florida Power & Light easement or
where there's an existing water management district easement because
many times you have private property owners who are the underlying
property owner, as the case in Florida Power & Light.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Meaning an additional use within
the already-existing easement?
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: Yes. Yes. But we then have to -- we
are held up by restrictions that Florida Power & Light or whoever the
original easement owner is.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Through the year 2030 you have a
listing of, oh, 8 or 10 funding sources totaling $85 million. Two of
those are items that involve the taxpayers of Collier County probably
more than others. One is the gasoline tax, pathways, and the reason
I'm concerned about that is -- and that's $12 million -- any money
taken out of gasoline taxes -- the transportation department's certainly
going to say they always need more money, so when you take it away
from gasoline tax they're going to come back and say they need more
in the form of ad valorem tax.
And then the other one is the projected local funding available in
2030, and this is $50 million. Now, that, I'm assuming, is our ad
valorem taxes of some nature. So if you've got those kinds of funds
how much is this going to actually impact the taxpayers on a yearly
basis? I mean, you've got through 2030, but are we going to see
increa -- arguments to raise ad valorem taxes for these kind of issues?
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: I'm not willing to make that
argument.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: No, but you're going to put the
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BCC in a position where they'll have to, and I'm wondering do we
want to send them --
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: The BCC currently sets aside
$500,000 per year of gas tax revenue. That's my current budget from
the Collier County Board of Commissioners.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: For pathways?
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: It's for sidewalks, pathways, the whole
gamut. Now, I can tell you that the payment in lieu provision from the
code has brought in a significant amount of funding. I've been here a
year today, and I believe it's -- we're close to a million dollars for one
year from the payment in lieu sources as well as grant funding.
And I don't -- I don't believe that they really took into account a
lot of grant funding, but pathways -- you -- it's very difficult to get
grant funding for a road. It's very easy to get grant funding for a
pathway or a sidewalk, especially in our underserved areas such as
Immokalee, Naples Manor area.
So, I mean, there's other funding sources available, but Don can
probably speak to more of this because this is incorporating into his
long-range transportation plan.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: And I'm -- I'm not against this
concept. I just want to make sure that we don't have an issue with the
funding. And I know that sitting at the MPO they approved this, so
I'm a little wondering about the issue of cost.
MR. SCOTT: Don Scott, transportation planning. There was a
long discussion at the MPO board when it was adopted in January as a
long-range plan as was the bicyclelpedestrian plan. And one of the
issues is we do go out and get a lot of grant money, but we can't use
that within an adopted plan to get approved by U -- FDOT and federal
highway.
They want you to attach sure funding to it, and that's why if you
see in the long-range plan there is other roadways that are shown for
other sources of funding. We know we're going to get grant money
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each year, but it's not something that we can count on and put in that
document to get approved.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, Don, when you put your
plan together to approach the BCC for the budget next year, are you
going to be requesting increases in funding for transportation as a
result of the monies being moved in the gasoline tax? Well, actually,
she just said that wasn't being moved, but for the 50 million that's
allocated in that pathways plan that --
MR. SCOTT: Not in the pathways. Can I promise that some
roadway thing around the corner is not? Because I was reading DCA's
comments to our EAR earlier this morning, and it makes me wonder
where we'll end up, but --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: But you -- wait a minute. You got
those back?
MR. SCOTT: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Why haven't we seen -- can we see
those?
MR. SCOTT: We just got them.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: You got them before community
development?
MS. FABACHER: Don't look at me. I don't have anything to do
with that.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
MR. SCOTT: I think that hasn't officially been mailed in, but --
MR. SCHMITT: We just got them last night.
MR. SCOTT: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Then we can have a -- we
can get an e-mailed copy to --
MR. SCOTT: It's an interesting read.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yeah, I'd like to -- I think we all
could get an e-mail with that. Just scan it and e-mail it to us.
MR. SCHMITT: 1'11-- I'll e-mail you a copy.
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COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Thank you, sir. That would be
helpful.
MR. SCOTT: My first comment when I read it was -- I said it
might be easier to go get another job than to respond to all the
questions.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Well, I -- I don't have any
other questions of -- on this issue. You know, if the BCC has already
accepted the cost, I guess there isn't much at this point -- they're going
to have to deal with the budget process as it goes forward.
It is through the EAR amendment that this pathways plan was
being adopted; is that right?
MR. SCOTT: No, the -- the pathways plan was adopted at the
MPO board meeting last January.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: But that isn't a BCC -- is that a
meeting in which the BCC can sit in the form -- in a level that adopts
an EAR amendment?
MR. SCOTT: No, the five -- the five members are a member of
the MPO board but not as --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Right.
MR. SCOTT: -- as the BCC.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: So don't they have to be sitting as
the BCC or PZA or some -- some other entity officially adopt the -- an
EAR amendment that would incorporate this pathways plan?
MR. SCOTT: Well, the growth management plan has always
reflected or referenced the long-range plan and the pathways plan, so I
guess from that thing it's adopted through the growth management
plan.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, I'm glad you said that.
Policy 4.1 of the GMP says the county shall incorporate the Collier
County Comprehensive Pathway Plan by the reference and updated--
and update the plan as needed.
Now, I did check with Marjorie Student a while back, and I asked
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her if you can have a self-amending plan, and you're not supposed to
be able to, so that means that -- update the plan as needed, it would
have to be approved by the, I would assume, BCC.
MR. SCOTT: Well, actually, the way I look at it is it's updated
through the MPO board.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
MR. SCOTT: Because of the processes that we have to go
through, it's not just -- even locally you're talking about public
hearings and -- and other public involvement but, also, FDOT and
FHW A approval. And including the pathways plan doesn't just cover
Collier County. It covers the cities within Collier County too.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I notice Jeffs pretty silent on this
right now, so I -- rather than ask you the question, could you find out
if the BCC needs to be sitting as a special board and get back to us by
-- at one of our future meetings?
MR. KLATZKOW: We will do that.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Thank you, sir. That's the only
questions I've got. Mr. -- go ahead, Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That -- that was -- this is a
loaded one maybe. And it's -- let -- let me just pose it. In -- under E,
page 191, E, in -- payment in lieu, is there a means by which when --
when sidewalks or pathways or whatever, bike lanes or whatever will
finally be constructed that the developers who have given this money
in lieu of -- will they -- are they notified that this transaction has
occurred, or do they just deposit to a fund and --
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: They -- they deposit to a fund. At any
time someone could come back and ask me, "I gave you $3,000.
Where did you spend that money?" because we try to use it in as close
proximity as possible. And I utilize it via im -- I use the impact fee
districts.
So if somebody comes in Impact Fee District 2, I try to use --
utilize those funds within Impact Fee District 2 or very similar to our
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transportation impact fees in adjacent impact fee district.
So at any time someone can come back. I have a -- I hold a
spreadsheet that shows exactly where all of the funds went.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Good. Good. I -- that's good. I
-- I'm glad I asked the question because it makes me feel better to
know that even if you don't notify them that they can find it out.
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: Right.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Thank you.
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: And one of the other important items
that -- that does -- is a new addition here is the -- what I'm calling the
construction in lieu which allows someone to not write me a check but
to go build a sidewalk in the community where it's needed as
identified in the needs plan of the pathway plan.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay. I was going to pass on
that one, but I have to -- I -- I found that kind of curious. I -- I think I
understand the -- the intent, but if we've already determined that we
need a sidewalk in Location A but we're willing to give that up in
favor of Location Z I was having a little bit of a challenge with that.
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: What it is is that if they would
normally build a sidewalk in Location A, which is in front of their
area, but it would never -- it doesn't connect to anything, they can,
instead of building Location A and instead of giving me money, go
build it where it's needed and where it's not a sidewalk to nowhere,
find a missing link of a sidewalk and connect that missing link. We
have several sidewalks where there -- there's 200-foot, you know, split
in there.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I understand, and it's admirable.
And I'm not -- I'm not arguing that. I -- I find it -- I thought it was a
challenge to me in the sense that -- and I appreciate your explanation.
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: And it just provides another option for
the development community.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah. Yeah.
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MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: And they don't -- they don't have to do
it if they don't -- if that's not what they -- their pleasure is but -- and it
may be that Option A isn't on the plan.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: And, actually, I think it an
admirable thought. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Mark.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Trinity, on page 189 in
Footnote 3, there's a date of March 8th. Why was that date chosen by
code?
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: What it was is -- essentially, No.2 was
all underlined because it's copy of No. 1, and that's -- I split out
"adjacent to." But March 8th previously -- if you go back over to No.
2 under A-I, it used to read "has been approved as of the effective date
of this ordinance," and that was when that ordinance was approved, so
I inserted that date that was previously referenced but was never
inserted.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: So in terms of grandfathering
these requirements, because I think one reason you're getting a lot of
money in your in lieu of -- if somebody had built a five- foot-wide
sidewalk -- it happened with a project I'm on -- with a proper site
improvement plan and then three years later they want to revise the
plan and now it's a six-foot-wide sidewalk you're getting a buck--
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: One square foot, right.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: One foot --
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: Instead of making them tear it out and
put it what was code.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right. So is that fair? I mean, is
that what your people should be doing or --
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: Actually, if you went back three years
ago, they should have built a six-foot sidewalk.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, the dates weren't exactly
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that but--
,
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: Six-foot sidewalk's been in there for
quite sometime. I can think back to at least 2001 when I worked for
the county before.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. Unfortunately, it was in
Bayshore, and it was part of their sidewalk improvement.
MS. CAUDILL-SCOTT: Right.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Which they actually built it.
Okay. Nevermind. Done.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Well, in order to watch the
rest of the paint dry this afternoon, we'll take a 15-minute break to get
some coffee. We'll be back here at 2:45. Thank you.
(Recess held.)
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Ifwe can come back and
resume our seats, we'll try to help transportation get through their
troubled times.
Nick, we finished on the last issue. I think the next page you
have -- or someone there has is, what, 221? Am I close?
MS. FABACHER: Excuse me, Mr. Chair.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Two -- two fifteen.
MS. FABACHER: There is an erratum if I could read this to you
-- to you-all on this. If you're on the summary on page 36 -- Mr.
Preston's about to speak, and he's going to be on 215 instead of 230,
and then on -- on the next page Nick's amendment that's on 235 is
really going to be on 221.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Wait a minute.
MS. F ABACHER: That's just a pagination problem in the --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah. Well, let's do it when we
get there.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yeah, let's just -- I'm not going to
remember all that.
MS. FABACHER: Okay.
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COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Right now the one we're working
on is stormwater management, page 215; is that right?
MS. FABACHER: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Let's just take them one at
a time. And before we go into that, cut-off time today -- does six
o'clock work for everybody on the panel? Does that work for the
court reporter?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Fine with me.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Is that fine with everybody? Six is
okay.
Okay. Sir, it's all yours.
MR. PRESTON: Okay. My name is Steve Preston, Collier
County Stormwater Management. This is simply an amendment for
the final site development plan requirement. There are four items
listed at the bottom of the table, and they're just additions to
information that's being requested on the final plan.
And, basically, what it's doing is locating the stormwater system
discharge point from -- from the property or from the plan just to
make it easier for staff to locate that information, put that information
in the GIS system, and it makes it easier for -- for meeting federal
requirements that we're up against, the new federal permitting
requirements and modeling efforts that might come in the future.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Great. One -- one thing that was
brought up by Stan Chrzanowski about the NA VD and the NGVD and
having both for a period of time -- you're only -- you're -- you're using
North American, and I'm just wondering would it be effective and
useful for you, beneficial for you to have the other datum as well in
order to correlate anything engineering is doing in the other areas?
MR. PRESTON: Uh-huh. Well, certainly we don't want to -- we
don't want to duplicate things, but --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY : Well, in this case you might -- I
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don't know that it's a duplicate truly, but it's a correlation.
MR. PRESTON: Uh-huh.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I've -- I'll give you that to think
about, my thought being simply that they're doing -- they're keeping
both, and they'll transition away from it eventually and just use the
NA VD, but they're making sure that because of potential issues that
are extent in those datum that it's possible that you could have an
error, and in order to avoid any errors -- and I don't know if it applies
to you. I'll just give that to you to think about.
MR. PRESTON: Yeah, we could change -- I mean, I could
definitely change that. I think I got this language from the citation in
the land development code as it is now for -- for the survey data.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: They -- they won't go to NA VD,
sir. No, I'm not -- I'm not suggesting you go away from that. I'm only
suggesting the possibility -- and it may be totally wrong -- to as well
include NG -- NVGD (sic) data as--
MR. PRESTON: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: -- as a requirement, but if -- if
it's not applicable, then I withdraw it.
MR. PRESTON: Well, we could certainly do that.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay. Do you think it's
applicable in any way?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I think whatever -- you just need
to be consistent with what engineering's going to use, and I would just
call Stan Chrzanowski. And if he feels it's applicable to this one add it.
Ifnot, don't worry about it.
MR. PRESTON: Yeah, that's fine.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: And that's my -- that's my only
thought on the matter.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Go ahead, Brad.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: On the information you're
adding, No. 10, Roman Numeral 10, is that something that they would
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have done prior to an SDP?
MR. PRESTON: You mean listing the general permit number?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, I mean getting the permit.
MR. PRESTON: Yes. So they would -- they would have that
permit number.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: So prior to any SDP they would
have that permit number?
MR. PRESTON: Yes.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Before you go too far by saying
yes, I can tell you from experience that a lot of times the SD -- the
South Florida permits and ERP permits are applied for concurrently
with SDPs for the county, and the county doesn't approve the SDP
until they get the approval of South Florida. So, I mean, you -- but
this wouldn't preclude someone from providing that at the last review
of the SDP. They just may not have it at the time it's submitted.
Would you reject it for that reason, I mean, right from the get-go?
You'd accept it and just list that as a stipulated issue that you've got to
resolve before the SDP's approved as they currently do, or am I -- am I
wrong on that assumption?
MR. PRESTON: Well, I'm not sure of the timing of -- of how it
goes at this point, to be honest with you. I thought that they had to
have at least an application in for a water management permit before
they went to -- you know, for a final submittal of the plan.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: It may be -- I don't know if the
final number is on the application or the final number is provided at
the time it's approved or not by South Florida so ...
MR. PRESTON : Well, I think -- I think the permit number is
established at the time of application, and then it's -- it's used, you
know, to -- to track comments back and forth, but the number, I think,
stays the same. I certainly don't want to ask for something that's not
available, though, at the time of the submittal for the final SDP.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: You may -- if you had a chance
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between now and the 23rd to check on it, that would be helpful.
And the last thing I have is -- you referenced North American
Datum 83. In paragraph 11 and 12 you reference 88. Isn't it 88?
MR. PRESTON: That may be a typo.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Right. So I just --
MR. PRESTON: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Miss Caron, did you have
an issue?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yeah. I just wanted to ask a
question. So all you're concerned with is a permit number on the
South Florida Water Management District environmental resource
permit number?
MR. PRESTON: Yeah, mainly the permit number because that
number is our -- is our link to, you know, the permit itself and our
ability to pull up other information that we might need on it.
COMMISSIONER CARON: But before any final approvals
would be granted you'd have checked to make sure they actually got
approval.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, the SDP process does that. I
don't know if it's his department that signs off on it.
MR. PRESTON: Right. This is -- this is just something that
would be added to the -- added to the final submittal simply as -- as
kind of a -- a bookkeeping exercise to be able to get this information
located in our GIS system.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yep.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Do all plans have to do that? I
mean, small-scale SDPs don't or--
MR. PRESTON: Well, they all have to have a, you know, site
review for -- for stormwater, and if -- if they don't have a permit
number, you know, that's fine. Then it would be nonapplicable.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: All right. Because below acres
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they don't have a South Florida permit review, and Stan's office does
that --
MR. PRESTON: Right.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- or engineering does that so ...
MR. PRESTON: But they do have -- they do have a county
general permit number.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Right. So that would -- that would
fill in the -- yeah, for anything below 40 acres --
MR. PRESTON: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. It's already established.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: What is a general permit then?
That's, like, a building department permit or a stormwater review
permit or --
MR. PRESTON: That would be a sign permit, a general site
permit.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Just like the corps used to have
nationwide permits. They're just blanket permits. They're small jobs.
That's the same kind of thing.
Anybody else have any other questions on that -- on this
particular page? No. Okay. Is that the only thing you had?
MR. PRESTON: That's all there is.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, you're -- that was harmless
for you.
MR. PRESTON: I was hoping it would stay that way.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yeah.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Okay. Hopefully I have all my pages
correct here.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Our page is -- I think the next
thing you have on our pages is at 221.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: I'll give you a brief idea as to why and
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where we're going with this. Over the last budget review cycle we
talked to Don Scott and Norman Feder, we discussed the possibility of
getting a PTOE, professional traffic -- traffic operations engineer
traffic engineer on staff.
It's impossible to do. Our review time that goes into these TISs,
for some zoning positions they can be -- the applicant can spend
anywhere from 50 to 100 hours on these things. They can be 200
pages long with detailed information. There's no way we could get
someone on staff to review this thing in a timely manner.
And instead of asking for a full-time position, say, through Joe or
N orman, being more flexible to have a consultant on call based on
demand makes much more sense -- sense. So as someone comes in
with a TIS -- and it's a -- it's a detailed TIS -- they pay a review fee
similar to what they do for an EIS, and we do -- we do it based on that.
And now I will say that what you see in front of you today will
be changed in the next six months. With that proportionate share
ordinance, it will be even more broken down, but in case that doesn't
go that way we have something to fall back on that starts the review
process and a -- and a TIS fee that goes with that.
A couple of comments that came up when I discussed this
yesterday with Mark was -- in double I cross out "at least." And I'm
on page 222. In double I, last sentence, instead of "or" it should be
"and." And in the bottom paragraph, third sentence, "the fee upon
submission," not "the cost shall be set forth." And this is where we're
going with this, and I think we have DSAC approval on this item.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Wait a minute. I've lost you.
Oh, okay. I see it. It should be "the fee upon submission."
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Yes, right, not the cost. The fee upon
submission.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Any questions? Brad.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: You know, Nick, shouldn't
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there be, like, a master model of the traffic system computer data in
the -- when people are doing projects they just submit that data in the
format of that model? I mean, why are we getting these individual --
we read them. We have to read them. I mean, they're all different.
They're all -- you know, I mean, I'm sure there's a rational analysis
behind each one of them.
But how come that's not standardized? How come that's not a
computer model? How come you're not just inputting data that's
based on these proj ects as they come along?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: We have counties we've researched
that actually -- you have a list of consultants that you plug into and
pay, and the county does the TIS for you. I mean, that was one of the
options that was discussed as well too. That master model would
require an intense amount of data that I don't see ES as going to -- and,
Joe, correct me if I'm wrong -- to a financial analysis model.
And one of the comments I put back into them is the
ever-changing data to keep that model updated is an unbelievable
amount of information. So to have -- what you're talking about could
be done. Staff would have to increase to do that, and depending on
market conditions you could have a bloated staff to keep that model
going or -- I think this is more flexible to do it this way.
We use a consultant that's actually from Orlando, so he's not
involved with any of the local politics or issues that go on down here,
and it -- and it keeps us pretty lean. But I know where you've gone to.
I've seen that. It does require a lot of information to be updated on a
continual basis.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I'm kind of glad Don's here
because, Don, don't we have something like that?
MR. SCOTT: I don't know ifhe -- I don't know if you're asking
what he's answering or what you're--
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: No.
MR. SCOTT: We -- we have a model that's a long-range
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transportation model that adds trips to the system, but if you're talking
about something that's a small development -- we use it for -- when
we're talking about reviewing large projects like DRIs, you do model
all that out and how the trips affect the system, but a small proj ect you
could model it within the model and you won't see any difference on
the roadways because it's -- you know, it can -- it's a -- it's a -- it
changes every time you run it anyway.
It's roughly the same, but it changes based on time and other
things that you do in the -- in the model. Now, there's certain -- there's
certain criteria that's followed to put together a TIS. We have those
TIS guidelines which we've talked about, and I think we ought to just
set a date and say this is when we're going to bring updated TIS
guidelines because there's been a lot of discussion about that,
particularly lately.
We haven't really touched on it yet, but construction traffic, too,
and how to address that. The -- they're -- they're so different, and there
are different parts. And we have our concurrency model, too, model,
whatever, the database that we add trips into, but all of what they're
submitting to us is what is their impact specifically during certain
hours like a.m., p.m., things like that. And then you use those within
those other -- other models, whatever.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right. But -- but out on the
market doesn't there exist the ability -- I mean, because the computer's
supposed to make our life easy. It's not supposed to require staff to
maintain it. Isn't there something out there that we could essentially
model what we're doing in Collier County in it?
I mean, these people are doing -- the consultants are coming up
with data from somewhere. So why isn't all that data in a computer
model? Why isn't it simple to put into that model the changes their
project makes? And why isn't it easy to give us a printout showing just
what the changes that project makes?
MR. SCOTT: Well-- and this -- this came up in the financial
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analysis, too, when you're doing -- I mean, our model -- specifically
how that the impact, if you're talking about the long-range
transportation model, that's exactly what you're talking about. Say,
okay, put their project in. Well, how does it change it?
Meanwhile, for small things it's -- it's -- it's so small it's not -- it's
not what you want to do. It doesn't change anything.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, is that the reality, or is
that not the reality?
MR. SCOTT: Well, it's -- it's based -- the model's based on --
everything's what's input. So you say -- like, the 2030 we were talking
about earlier. At 2030 you're modeling those conditions. Now, you
can take that at different years and say those are the conditions at that
time, but there isn't -- you know, and you -- you validate it back to
your existing times and your traffic in that thing, but everything
changes as new -- people don't travel the same way every day.
They don't -- trips change on -- on a roadway on a daily basis.
Now, they don't change a whole lot, but they -- they do, so you don't
have a model. Now, do you have operational software that you use
for, say, a signal and analysis or a link analysis, and that's what they
use to produce it, but that even changes.
Your signal timing changes. Things like that change. So there's
not one model that you can just give to them and say this is what you
need to follow.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I mean, but one thing you said
that makes me kind of lose faith in these studies is that you can't really
have a computer model be accurate because things are constantly
changing. Then how is this human analysis any better?
MR. SCOTT: Well, it -- you're using pieces of those. I mean,
you're not -- you're not saying, hey, I'm not using any software to
analyze like a signal or -- I'm not doing that, but if I'm talking about
the long-range plan, it -- it is -- you know, Norman said it before. He
goes, "I think it's plus or minus one lane in the future because you're
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talking about 2030 conditions." It's all a -- all a guess out into the
future how -- but everything's based on how people travel.
And you are modeling people's travel, so is it -- is it that defined?
Someone might do a different trip home on a -- on different -- it's a --
you know, it's --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: It's random data.
MR. SCOTT: It's random.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I mean, we all live random
lives.
MR. SCOTT: Right, exactly.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Ifwe go home at 5 or we go
home at 6, we're going to change the model.
MR. SCOTT: That's why it's work -- easier to work for utilities.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right, but the point is that --
here -- here's the bottom line of my point. I'm -- the ability to have just
another consultant review what are essentially unique authored
rational analysis for these traffic things -- I mean, there's no
consistency in the traffic analysis we see.
MR. SCOTT: Well, and that's part of what we -- I mean, we
have some consistency. And, trust me, if you look at some of the
paths, we have more consistency now than we ever have had. But,
yes, you have different people doing it. They do it different.
Why we were talking about the guidelines, updating the
guidelines, is to try specifically to say these are the things we want to
see. I mean, our recent conversations with you guys have been, hey,
we want to see more a.m. analysis. We -- I mean, we were always
doing p.m. analysis, not in the a.m. analysis.
I think those are the things you're talking about. We need to
better define what those guidelines are. Now, I've had comments from
some of the -- the traffic and engineers doing analysis where I know a
question's going to come up. They want to see whatever the
worst-case scenario might be in that area, and they say, well, no, this
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is -- this is proper methodology. And they say, "Well, do you want to
get approved or not?"
I think those are the things you want to outline within the
guidelines and say this is the -- the process you want to follow so they
look more of the same to somebody . You can even -- we could even
do an overall example, say this is the -- the format we want, this is
how we want it to look so that when you guys get that you can say I
understand this because this is what we followed all the way along.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And -- and, Don, that's called
standardizing. You standardize the input, then you need less staff to
review it. I mean, if you're complaining that it's difficult to review
these, I certainly understand because each one you pick up is a
creative writing when it should just be standardized formats. And that
would reduce staff, plus it would help us, and plus I think you should
be really working towards that. And, ultimately, that's the way the
computer's going to blend into this process.
MR. SCOTT: And maybe we'll move more towards that as we
get through, but I -- I don't believe our standardization of the TIS
guidelines is going to be an easy process with -- I don't think it will be
an empty room, let's put it that way.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But if you tell me that the
different programs get different results -- which is why it wouldn't be
an easy process; correct?
MR. SCOTT: Well, for instance, somebody might -- I know
highway capacity software. It's somewhat old in some respects if
you're using an intersection. Now it's -- it's better to use Synchro.
Those things are updated on a yearly basis.
And -- and there are better softwares to use for certain things.
That's what your -- your engineer that's up on it all the time says these
factors are out of -- these -- these are the ways you can tweak this
software to get answers that are better than what you should be
getting, things like that.
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COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And -- and that's what I think
we should be doing. Can't you standardize what the software is,
therefore, you can standardize your reports, you could easily get to
your reViewing --
MR. SCOTT: But there's always the inputs.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: You can parse out--
MR. SCOTT: Always the input. You can check and --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: You could check some input.
MR. SCOTT: Well, in--
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But the input is essentially the
project. It's the type of project.
MR. SCOTT: No, it's also all your background too. It's the
percentage of traffic that goes during a certain hour. It's a percentage
that goes in a certain direction, percentage of trucks in the stream. Do
you have right turn on reds, you know, things like that. I mean, there's
-- I don't say it's that complicated, and we've -- you know, we've had
arguments before. And I don't say between us. But how much
internal capture? How much pass-by should there be? Those are
guidelined issues that we're going to try to address as part of this
process.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And you should be establishing
what those answers are so that the people who are creating these
documents aren't, you know, jiggling their assumptions.
MR. SCOTT: Yeah. And somebody will always try to be
different than that, though.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: In the building we had a
problem with that with the energy calculations. In the old days we
were all doing it just like you guys are doing this. Everybody did it
their own method. Some bought software; some did it by hand. But
then the state came up with a program, and that's it. So why can't you
come up with a program and that's it?
MR. SCOTT: Well, if you talk about, say, soft -- for
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level-of-service software on the road, the state has generalized tables,
but, unfortunately, that's what it is, generalized tables. It assumes that
this amount of percentage of traffic goes in this direction on a daily
basis or even on an hourly basis, but it doesn't really fit what your
conditions are on a particular street.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Miss Caron.
COMMISSIONER CARON: I think Mr. Murray had a question.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: If I -- if I --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Oh, I'm sorry.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: If I can. I notice in your -- the
reason and the change -- you said -- I'll speak to the change -- adding
text for required impact fee and establish minimal submittal
requirement. Was this truncated, or are there the minimal submitted,
the --
MR. CASALANGUIDA: This is also located in another section
of the code.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah, I kind of -- I figured.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: It's in our TIS and guidelines and
procedures as well too. One of the things was to bring in the "and
a.m. peak" or -- or "p.m. peak."
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Right.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: We discussed both of those. -- to say
the least, or 1,000 ADT or 100 p.m. peak trips to say is a threshold in
our TIS guidelines and procedures. It also says that we can ask for
more information if there's a health, safety, and welfare issue, if there's
a cumulative impact issue like we discussed earlier today.
For instance, a driveway coming out may produce 99 p.m. peak
trips, but we know that next door there's a building site going on as
well, too, and I may ask the engineer to say not only do you need to
look at your traffic, you need to talk with your neighbor and provide
me cumulative data because I know once these two developments are
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built together I have 200 cars coming out at that driveway, so it's a
minimal, but the TIS guidelines does give you flexibility to ask for
more information.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay. I was more or less
playing off of what Commissioner Schiffer was relating to about
minimal standards. And -- and, of course, you know, I recognize that
the more you try to pin it down the more it can slight -- the definition
of obscenity -- the Supreme Court will never give you a definition
because somebody will then beat it.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: What -- what Commissioner schiffer
went to and -- and discussed, I've seen it and I've read about it in some
of my research.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: There are counties, I think outside of
Florida, that you just say, "This is my development," and -- and they
plug in the information, and they tell you what your impacts are.
There is things -- but that requires a -- a pretty detailed analysis of
what's going on.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: A big bureaucracy.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Right, to do that.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I would think -- I -- I -- I just
wondered if we had enough. I -- from the extent of where he was
talking to you about and -- and your position, I wondered if there was
some kind of a middle ground beyond just the minimum that's here.
Will that give us the standardization that we're asking for? I suspect
we'll still get the variations that will come.
MR. SCOTT: And, again, I come back to the TIS guidelines. I
think that's why as a group -- I know we've talked about this before--
that we need to set a time that we say that's when we're going to deal
with this issue. These are -- I mean, I know what we want to do. I
know from hearing you talk about questions at certain meetings what
we need to include in that, but then there are some discussion in
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between about how -- how much -- what do we want to standardize,
how do we want to do it.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Right, how far.
MR. SCOTT: You know, even setting percentage of internal
capture and things like that, but that's -- that's adopted by the board,
the TIS guidelines, and then that would be something that would be
followed up with.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay. I see it as a step forward.
I -- I recognize it for what it is.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Miss Caron.
COMMISSIONER CARON: On page 224.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: A different amendment?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Oh, I'm sorry. I skipped ahead. I
guess I was just hoping. Oh, sorry.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I thought this was going to be a
two-second one.
MR. SCOTT: That's fine.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Are there any other comments?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, I just want to say, why do
we have that last paragraph in on 222? Why do we have that in there?
I mean, you have a fee that you charge to do your reviews. Why in
the land development code do we put this notice?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: I think it's the same notice that with
DIS -- it says you don't pay your fee we don't start your review. It just
puts them on notice that that's what the code is.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah, I mean, my only concern
is that, you know, you talk about these models like they're science
fiction, but they're really not. I mean, other -- we deal with them in
other areas, and we should be establishing these things, and -- and,
ultimately, the -- the reward for that is -- No.1 it's your reviews; No.
2, maybe our -- the government reviews, our reviews; and maybe it's
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feeding data to, you know, the SCOOT system or something making
life easier.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: I don't disagree with you. I think that
we'll -- we'll work with that with a proportionate share.
MR. SCOTT: I mean, understand we're working on items that --
for instance, permit account stations, you know, where we've dealt
before where you have permit account stations out there where you
get a lot of your factors, things like that. We're working towards a lot
of these things that will help feed all that data.
But, unfortunately, even in the last update of the AUIR there
were -- if you go back five, six years, there were certain roads like
Golden Gate Boulevard out to the east never even included within the
concurrency segments. I almost feel like in some respects we were
starting from scratch, but --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I mean, we -- like you said,
we've talked about it before.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. On to page 223.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Okay. This is one that's going to raise
some eyebrows, I guess, in a sense only for the fact that the intent of
where this started was that -- a way to eliminate units, and -- and when
we went to the board PUD workshop we discussed certain other items,
and it was kind of discussed that this wasn't the way to go. It wasn't
this amendment to do that.
But the board recommended at the PUD audit workshop that you
bring something forward to allow some flexibility in the annual traffic
counts. Brief background of what goes on. After a PUD is adopted,
they begin construction. Annually, they are -- they are to provide
traffic counts to county; how many cars come out of their driveways
for a three-day period, 24-hour 15-minute intervals with a 2-hour TNT
turning lane counts.
It's good information. It tells us if they're consistent with what
they are. It's not great information. It's good. What helps with -- you
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reach a threshold of a development in a PUD where the information is
not useful anymore, the PUD's built out on the ground but not built out
per approved units, which we'll touch base on one of the other
amendments later.
What this does is it allows flexibility for the county to say you
don't have to do the counts this monitoring period. A couple of
changes that are in -- on the underlined section, the last paragraph. In
the middle it says counts permanently or for the annual monitoring
period. Weare going to remove "permanently or." We don't want to
be able to waive these things permanently. We want to be able to
revisit this every year.
One of my discussions with Commissioner Strain was that we
don't want to waive these things automatically. If something changes
within the development, we want the ability to go back and ask for the
counts.
We also want to do -- at the bottom, speaking of Susan Murray,
today she asked me that I put the onus on the PUD owner to provide
me this information in order to ask for this waiver, so I'll put a
sentence that says that the PUD owners must provide the information
necessary to show that it is built out as defined above.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Who's the owner?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Each PUD when it's -- when it's born
or on its adoption date typically has one owner, and then they sell out,
say, different parcels. Those different owners of those different parcels
are the owners of the PUD, owner with an S in parentheses. There
could be one, or there could be many.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: So 6,000 people in a large
development would have -- all be owners, and they're all obligated to
provide this?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Currently they are only through the
HOA, not through the individual people. The HOA's responsible if--
if it gets turned over and there's remaining intensity, it could be the
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developer who's responsible.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: So -- but the suggestion was that
you make each owner individually responsible?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: No, they are right now. The way it's
set up right now is the owners of the PUD, parentheses S -- it could be
one; it could be many. It could be a homeowners association and a
developer. It could be different developers owning different
outparcels.
Now, right now they are required. Sometimes they share the
same driveway; sometimes they don't. So they -- collectively they're
to get together and provide me that count.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Maybe I don't understand what
you had said, then, because owners of a PUD --
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Uh-huh.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: A developer leaves. The PUD's
considered built out. Say the density was 2,000 units.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Correct.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Two thousand people plus their
spouses, so 4,000 people own that PUD.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Through the homeowners' association.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: You didn't say that. You're saying
the word "owner."
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: So if you put the word "owner" in
there you're saying all 4,000 people are obligated to supply you that
information.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: I think currently in the code of
references it's just owners of the PUD throughout 1002-13(f), so if -- if
it's a problem here, it's a problem in the existing code. I can change it
here to be more reflective of that homeowners' association or entity
responsible to for the monitoring part. I can --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: That might be better.
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MR. CASALANGUIDA: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah, I have a -- I have a
thought here that I have to share with you. I went to a Lely master
association -- this is a Lely Resort master association meeting
expecting to have a meeting and was informed by the property
manager, the representative of Stock Development, that 90 percent of
all of the owners of Lely Resort had to be present or by proxy to
represent a quorum before a legal meeting could occur, which I found
to be astounding.
But the implications of that is how -- how then can all of the
owners ever get to the point where they can transact with you if they
can never realize a quorum to have a meeting to make a decision?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: It's -- that's a good point, and I think I
was here when you brought that out a month ago. I believe it was -- it
had something to do with storm shutters or painting or something to
that effect.
Joe mentioned what -- Maryann's language was brought up
earlier today. You asked her to clear up who would be doing that. It
would be the homeowners' master association or other applicable
entity.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: If they can't get together, I can't--
you know, I have --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I -- I understand.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Yeah, I have a limit to that, but I
understand your problem. Any questions regarding the amendment?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer, then Miss Caron.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And it shows here that if a
PUD's built out or goes quiet that, you know, levels out its traffic that
-- that they won't have to do it. But what happens, like, in a
commercial one if they start renovating it and stuff?
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MR. CASALANGUIDA: I think it talks about producing any
additional impacts for two consecutive monitoring periods. If it starts
to become active again and they have intensity left over --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Then it kicks back.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: -- we could ask for a monitoring
period. That's why I think it was key to pull out "permanently"
because, as Don Scott and Commissioner Strain pointed out, there
may be a time we want these reports again, so we don't want to
permanently waive them but waive them on a year-by-year basis.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Miss Caron.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yes. In No.2 why is it just p.m.
peak hours?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: That's typically the higher. It could be
a.m. or p.m. I don't have a problem putting -- putting that in there.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yeah. I think we've gone to peak
hours, not --
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Sure, we could put p.m. or a.m.--
COMMISSIONER CARON: -- a.m. or p.m.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: -- peak trips. That's a good point.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Go ahead, Bob.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That will be my last. On -- on
the -- in the language that's underscored, I noted that it -- it seeks to
find out, you know, from the -- the parties when it's built out. I
remembered something that -- and maybe Joe Schmitt could help me
out on this one, but there's a -- there was an intent to try and find when
-- when PUDs would be built out, and they were asked to voluntarily
provide that information.
For instance Lely might have been 10,000. They may come in at
5,500. Does this language provide for voluntary statements as well as
the other compelled part?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: The -- the last sentence will be added,
the PUD ownerslHOA or master association must provide the
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information to show at what level they are. I know we worked with
Joe's office to determine the status of these developments at various
times through the CD plus or the building certificate of occu --
certificate of occupancy process, and although we're not there yet I
know Joe is working towards that system.
MR. SCHMITT: Yeah. Commissioner Murray, you recall I
think the last cycle we brought forward an amendment. Okay. What
do you want to call it? The -- the phantom unit ordinance.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yep. Yep.
MR. SCHMITT: It just didn't go anywhere. There was legal
problems with it.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Oh.
MR. SCHMITT: We still have not --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I didn't realize that.
MR. SCHMITT: We still have not put our arms around that.
This was -- well, I'll call it kind of a fix just for traffic.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay.
MR. SCHMITT: In fact, some of this we were requiring years
and years of -- of traffic monitoring to PUDs that are built out, which I
think that's what we were trying to eliminate as well.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I thank you for that. I didn't
realize it didn't go anywhere.
MR. SCHMITT: Yeah, but I -- I recall -- Commissioner Strain,
didn't that -- we got -- yeah, that died.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Correct.
MR. SCHMITT: I mean, we -- we thought we had something,
but it was just legally --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: It was a good intent that --
MR. SCHMITT: Yeah. And -- and I -- Jeff -- but I know
Marjorie dealt with it. The state -- the state defines buildout based on
a transportation study date, and there were some -- on a DRI you can
attempt to tie it to the -- the original date that was in the transportation
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study, but we haven't gone there yet. There is some language at the
state level.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Thank you, Joe.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Nick, on B you're asking for--
you're in -- you're changing the 90 to 100 percent built out. That's
when traffic monitoring reports can stop?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Correct.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: And further on in the new
paragraph you define buildout now as when all developable land has
been platted or approved yet the development community and the
developers who retain their ghost density, like Pelican Bay, have 800
now left out of 1,600. They used them to bargain in the future.
They're very valuable. But as long as they're on the books
transportation's got to address them.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Uh-huh.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: And as long as you give them the
ability to not have to address them themselves by constantly paying
yearly fees for a monitoring report and for traffic impact statements
and everything else they've got to submit to clarify that report you're
letting that -- those densities sit there on the books more and more.
Now, I know the BCC and everybody says, no, we can't take that
away from them; they have a right. But I don't see why we should
encourage that to keep it on the books and not atone for it. So if they
don't like the fact they've got to address the PUD monitoring reports or
they don't like to spend money on TIS then tell them to give up the
darn density--
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: There you go.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- and stop costing the county and
the taxpayers the additional money on the traffic.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Way to go, Mark.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Right.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: So I suggest we strike this whole
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thing and forget about it and put it -- and make sure that -- and put it
back like it's supposed to be. That ghost density, they have to atone for
it up until the time that they release it.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: I couldn't agree with you more. My
only problem is at the PUD audit workshop the board directed me to
come up with something that would allow flexibility so that Lake
Trafford PUD that has PUD rights or building rights --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well-- but flexibility. Don't they
have a choice of turning over the ghost density or not?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Well, this -- for instance, that PUD
was approved to do certain things, and they just have not done so yet.
They've -- they've had it for years. And then I've got the same thing
with Wentworth Estates or Islandia as it's known right now. I think
there are only 40 single-family lots.
When asked if that was a significant impact on the roadway
segment, it was not. Ninety percent built out or even a hundred
percent might take them five years, so they petitioned the board and
said it's unreasonable of transportation to ask us for traffic counts on
something that provides minimal impact, and I believe it was
Commissioner Coyle that asked me to provide something in this cycle
that would address that kind of flexibility.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, a slow buildout project is
different than one holding ghost density for a decade or more as many
have. Maybe there's a differential that you can provide some language
that addresses the slow buildout of a project for a monitoring report
versus --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY : Versus--
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- the ghost density lingering
forever because this releases them of all their ghost density where
your real target from what you just said seems to be of a project that
has a slower buildout. But if the slower buildout produces no more
traffic impacts and you can monitor that at a more infrequent basis
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with a monitoring report maybe that's the avenue to go to solve the
problem.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: I could modify this, I believe, so that
the first paragraph maybe pulls out the buildout criteria and maybe
puts in just something where it's minimal impacts or no impacts for a
certain amount of time, but I -- I've got a feeling I'm going to be in a
snafu with the board if I bring it that way for the fact that -- how
would I be treating that large development that has those units
differently than I would be a small development that has those units.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yeah, but the -- from what you
just said, though, the board was looking for a way to help these
projects that have a slower buildout and they don't trigger any -- it's
not like a ghost density issue. You weren't told their --
MR. CASALANGUIDA: I -- I think it was even -- not even a
slow build. It could be -- it could be a -- I'll give you a -- PUD XYZ
approved for 200 units turned over to the homeowners' association.
They have 150 units built and platted on the ground. There's no room
left. They have 50 units remaining. It's a homeowners' association.
I'm, therefore, asking the homeowners' association every year for
traffic counts.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Good. Tell them to turn in the
ghost density if they don't want to do the traffic count. What's wrong
with that?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Commissioner, I'm in a catch-22. I
agree with you. If I -- I just --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Look--
MR. SCHMITT: I -- I would -- I would submit it.
Commissioner, if you want to give us direction on that, we'll bring that
back to the board.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: No, I'm just suggesting I don't
think you have an issue here that is a problem in regards to -- we want
to force people to turn over -- look at Windstar.
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MR. SCOTT: I -- I wanted to charge everybody for units that are
left there for the purposes of saying -- my real purpose is to -- you to
get rid of 300 units you're never going to build unless somebody
comes into town and wants to buy you-all out and build everything
out.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, the -- as you know, once
that -- well, they talked about paying taxes -- and it was back in the
days of the Romans. Pay to the Rom -- pay to Caesar what is Caesar's
and pay to God what is God's or something like that. Well, in this
case what we're talking about in ghost density is a planning issue.
What they're talking about is a political issue.
So from a planning perspective, as a planning commission, I
don't know how we can condone relieving this -- not addressing this as
a planning issue. So my recommendation would be not to implement
this only because it's not a good planning issue.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: If you can't fix it, do not
implement it.
MR. SCOTT: And I don't see why we can't go to the board and
tell them what your recommendation is.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Well, we certainly will.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Tactfully.
MR. SCHMITT: Do you want us to -- do you want us to bring it
back?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, we've got to bring
everything back.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Everything has to come back.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: We -- I guess we were told we had
to have two readings, so I guess everything's got to come back.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Let me -- let me take your
recommendations and see if I can be a little creative and come up with
something that maybe satisfies your concerns and also gives me the
flexibility to deal with what the board has asked me to do.
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COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Thank you. Is that okay, Brad?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah, I support that a lot.
And, Nick, the way really to do that is -- remember how you said
that if they had two consecutive reporting cycles where there was no
change? Just scratch that one off and say unless they remove the
potential for any increase, and the only way to remove the potential is
to dump the phantom units.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: I think that's a good point because if I
do eliminate that and I go back to the impacts in terms of trips --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Maybe that's a safe way out of this.
So let me look at that, and I -- I can take that comment and work with
it and maybe come back and provide something that works for --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Mr. Schmitt.
MR. SCHMITT: Nick, I want to make sure places like Naples
Bath & Tennis, some of those that for whatever reason we just never
realized that -- well, I think we did. We always realized there was
some -- some density there, but they've -- they've hung on that for,
what, 25, 30 years.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: And we accounted for it on the
traff -- on the -- in the roads.
MR. SCHMITT: Yes.
MR. SCOTT: They're in the model.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: It's an aberration when it doesn't
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Well, I think we've kind of
vented ourselves here.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: I have the -- I have direction. I -- I'll
come back with something a little more creative and see if we can
address both concerns.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. We're on to page 225 then.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: I think this is Phil.
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COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yes.
MR. TINDALL: Good afternoon. For the record, Phil Tindall,
Transportation Planning Department.
This item addresses two timing criteria that pertain to adequate
public facilities for transportation as that ties into the development
review process. The two timing criteria are not really that closely
related, but since they both have to do with COAs I'm just -- I just put
them in the same amendment request.
The first item, Section 10.02.07, provides for -- that after -- for a
site development plan, SDP A, or plat and plans that once all the
reviews are done and we're essentially ready to give the final approval,
we being the county in general, the zoning department will issue a
project preapprovalletter telling the developer's representative they
need to come in and pay their impact fees. We'll then issue them a
COA, and then they can get their final development approval.
They have 90 days from that -- the point of that notification letter
to go ahead and pay their -- 50 percent of the road impact fees, pick up
their COA, et cetera. The problem with that is earlier on in the
process the -- the development order is given a -- a -- what's the
terminology here? -- a capacity reservation, and that's -- that's after
the transportation staff reviews the TIS, determines that they -- they
passed the concurrency test.
The development review process continues to go on. It could go
on for many months thereafter, but at least that applicant gets their
place in line in terms of concurrency so that someone can't come in
and -- maybe will get their approval sooner but would take their place.
That's how they get their pecking order in terms of the first comelfirst
served basis.
And that capacity reservation is good for a year, and that's so that
they can hold their place during the remaining of the development
review process. If it should only take, say, three to six months to -- for
their -- say, their site development plan to be approved, we see no
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point in not giving the full benefit of that -- that temporary one-year
capacity reservation.
If they need more time, say, to come up with the money to pay
for half their impact fees or whatever, we don't want them to just be
stuck with 90 days if they're actually entitled to more time than that
based upon the capacity reservation. So what we're really doing is just
90 days or the end of the capacity reservation, whichever date would
be later, and that gives them the full benefit of that, and that's what
we're trying to accomplish.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Any questions of the panel? Well,
Phil, page 227.
MR. TINDALL: Right. And that's the other timing criteria. As I
said, it's sort of related but not directly. This has to do with the
processing of a TIS.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: You don't even know my question
yet.
MR. TINDALL: Okay. I was just going to give you an
overview, but I'll -- go ahead.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: No. No. No. Let me ask my
question.
MR. TINDALL: Sure.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Because that'll-- that's going to
save you a lot of breath.
MR. TINDALL: No problem.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Did you get Norm off the hook
when you said he was going to endeavor to do things?
MR. TINDALL: Yes. Well, we're going to -- we're going to
redo those words, and -- and we won't say the words "endeavor to." In
fact, we -- we're -- we're actually going to kind of streamline that --
that whole section a little bit better.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. So the other --
MR. TINDALL: We'll just say -- we'll basically comply with the
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established timelines set forth by the community development
environmental services administrator, something to that effect.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: About the sixth line up from the
bottom of that paragraph, you have the division administrator to be
major deficiencies -- you're going to work on that a bit too as far as
what those are because those aren't spelled out.
MR. TINDALL: Right.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I just want to make sure that that
was still in your -- your --
MR. TINDALL: Absolutely.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
MR. TINDALL: Absolutely. We're going to clean this whole
thing up.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: You're going to come back to us
with more --
MR. TINDALL: Uh-huh. And anywhere where it says
transportation administrator or community development
environmental services administrator we're going to add the words "or
designee" just to make sure that's clear.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Anybody else?
MR. TINDALL: So we'll be definitely cleaning this up as a
whole.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Anybody else have any questions?
Doesn't look like it.
MR. TINDALL: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: That was short.
MR. TINDALL: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Thank you, sir.
Nick, this is your last one.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Oh, thank God.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: 237, I bet.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Yes. Okay. This just comes from the
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requests -- both from, I believe, discussions we've had from the
planning commission and the board. I know I've had discussion in the
hallway with Mr. Lewis, and we've discussed this with the
development community, with some of the attorneys and tried to
incorporate what -- what the board wanted as well too.
What we're trying to do is basically say to the development
community, tell us when you're going to be built out, and we're going
to hold you to it. And then those phantom units that we just talked
about in the prior amendment they will disappear automatically after a
certain amount of time.
So in -- and definition of insanity is to, you know, bang your
head against the wall and expect, you know, the same -- from the same
-- doing the same process over -- over and over again and expecting a
different result. What we're saying now is we'll treat the problem up
front, and the ones that are remaining we'll have -- we know we have
to deal with, but going forward we will limit the zoning approval to a
certain time period with the TIS.
A couple of changes with this. I've been told that instead of a
local development order we're going to change that to appropriate plat
or plan or SDP, so we cleaned that up. Talking to Susan, she wanted
me to remove the reference to the sunsetting provision and just say
approved density will expire after a certain amount of time -- of time,
so we separate two processes.
And in paragraph A halfway down it says, "In the event that
action" -- "/inaction" will be added because, I guess, one of the points
that was brought up by the development side was it could be the fact
that it's in review limbo and -- and they've done nothing but just wait
for the permits.
To protect them and in discussing with them, what we've done is
say, your time will be tolled. If you have a problem with some sort of
regulatory agency, you have two years past what your TIS says to
clean things up because we understand permitting takes time. And
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we'll tie it to plats, and it's not affected by approvals of plats or SDPs,
so once you get your plat approved or your SDP approved this -- the
density doesn't disappear because you get a COA with that, and that
vests you for your capacity.
So this amendment has been asked for by the board, maybe not in
this language, but the intent is to say when you submit a TIS with your
PUD and you tell us you will buildout 2010 you will buildout 2010.
And you have some flexibility, but after that any remaining units will
disappear.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Good. Good.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Wow. Nick, you're free.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Woo. Did you want to--
MS. FABACHER: Oh, yeah.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Mr. Lewis, did you have any
comments?
MS. FABACHER: Mr. Lewis.
MR. LEWIS: Actually, I -- I do have just a few comments. I -- I
appreciate Nick's efforts to address some of the concerns that we -- we
-- we have. It's difficult --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: You'll have to identify yourself for
the young lady just in case she hasn't heard you before.
MR. LEWIS: Sure. Doug Lewis with the law firm of Roetzel &
Andress.
I appreciate Nick's efforts to -- to attempt to balance the -- the
rights, the zoning rights of the property owners with the ability of the
county to forecast -- you know, forecast its capital improvements.
In -- in reviewing this it is important that we -- you consider and
think about the rights of the parties in the future to redevelop, which
they are -- they are -- they will lose from this, and the impact to the
property values.
That being -- that being said I think that the proposed changes are
helpful. The SDP or platting time period is the time period in which
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we would vest for a concurrency. To prepay half for impact fees, that
-- that seems to be a good -- a better window or at least a more clear
window in terms of how we -- how we measure the -- the time period.
Also, the other -- the other kind of question is -- is -- and we've
seen this in other developments where you may be caught up in a -- in,
for example, a development of ours took 2 1/2 years to get our South
Florida Water Management permit or -- or 3 years to get an Army
Corps permit for development.
And the language is helpful. I think that the -- the -- the addition
of -- of action or inaction by a regulatory agency is good. It would be
great to see this -- a little bit more detailed language put forward in
other parts of the Sunset provision.
We all -- we also may want to consider who -- who would make
that determination. Is it a determination made by somebody at staff
level or planning commission or the Board of County Commissioners?
But with the -- with the difficulties in terms of some of the
regulatory permitting time -- timelines and, also, the -- some of the
market conditions I think the preference would be that -- you know, I
think the idea here is, you know, we -- in terms of the -- the intent, you
know, two years is -- is certainly better than one year, but as a
practical matter many of the developments will be caught up in -- in --
in a deed to make this -- this tolling or determination, and we would
request that -- that a consideration be given to -- to allow some
additional time, maybe three years.
Additionally, under 3-B there's a provision that -- that allows
nonresidential portions of a PUD to essentially have that -- that
two-year period to come back with an SDP amendment to redevelop
the site, and I'm -- and I'm not sure why that -- that really -- I guess the
first question is, you know, why aren't we applying this -- this -- this
concept to residential developments.
Many developers when we -- when we look at the -- the platting
or site development plan for an entire development, many will do an
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overall plat and then do replats, and because of that I'm not sure why
we're limiting it to -- to nonresidential portions of a PUD . You may
have a residential developer who will do a phrase development, do an
overall plat of the development, and you may get it -- a buildout year
trigger.
It would be nice to have the flexibility. I think the concept in 3-A
is -- it addresses what you're looking to do, but I think 3-B may be a
little bit -- a little bit excessive in terms of removing the flexibility. I
seem to read 3-B as a carve-out of the -- the last portion there, the last
statement where it reads, "For nonresidential portions of a PUD,
Subsection A above allows two additional years to amend the site
development plan. "
So it appears that 3- B only applies to the residential context, so
that's another item to think about. I appreciate the changes that Nick's
made.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Thank you.
And, Nick, was it intended to only apply to commercial? And if
so, why?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Because -- one of the reasons--
first I want to comment on one that Mr. Lewis brought up while it's
fresh in my mind. They tell us the buildout year. So when they apply
for zoning they set that year; we don't -- we do not. If they tell us
they're going to buildout in 2010 and it -- if they think they need 2012,
by so means tell us 2012.
So they -- they have the flexibility built into when they apply for
zoning to tell us what their buildout year is. So I -- that's -- that's
flexibility that's heavily advantaged to the development community's
side. We're not setting the buildout year.
The reason it was done in B was to reference -- B was kind of to
say if it's a residential plat once you've platted all your lands we know
what the buildout year -- if you're done you're done. Let's not give
you the extra two years. You're okay.
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With an SDP you may come in in phases, so in your buildout
year you go back to that A. You have two more years to clean up
those phases. So to -- to ask for more time or to say it's different -- it's
not. You're still telling us when that buildout year is.
So it was set up to -- to -- to have A be the -- the section that
allowed for us to do this and B deal more with plats but reference A
again if you needed more time. So it was carefully crafted to give you
that time. And, again, they set buildout year, so for them -- for them
to ask us for different times is kind of confusing to me.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: In setting the buildout year, when
you take in their applications for subsequent phases of their project,
are you limited to the approvals you can give them based on the
buildout year, or -- I'm just wondering is there -- is there any incentive
for them to shorten their buildout year versus lengthening it?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Well, there is now. See, and that's the
other part of this that's -- that's -- I like about the language in the -- in
this is that it makes them. I shouldn't -- I -- no offense. I should be
careful with my -- my words.
It trues up your buildout year because if you intend to build this
thing out in 10 years but you -- now you come in and say it's 5 years
because you're trying to avoid some consistency problem. Way out
we know they have a roadway problem eight years out and it's the end
of your project. You're going to actually tell us when you buildout
now . You're not going to fudge it down because -- you know, you can
say it's a three-year buildout in this project, but I know in the fifth year
I may have a problem or the sixth year I may have a problem.
This -- the other part of this is it forces them to kind of give us a
more clear buildout year with their project. So, again, it's their
flexibility. It's -- you know, you live by the sword or die by the sword
in the sense of what you tell us.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Does that help you, Mr.
Lewis, or at least provide you some -- probably nothing helps, but
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does that give you some -- where he's going?
MR. LEWIS: I understand that -- you know, that the applicant
would set the buildout year. I -- I just am -- am -- I understand that --
that -- that -- that from what I'm hearing, you know, we're talking
about develop -- developers, applicants who are coming in good faith
and getting caught up in -- in additional permitting constraints that --
that are unanticipated.
And we -- we've allowed for that, and you've acknowledged --
Nick has acknowledged in -- in -- in the text that there's this additional
two- -- two-year window for -- for nonresidential developments. I -- I
guess my -- my -- my -- my position is if we're -- if we're
acknowledging that there are many developments that will fit in this --
this -- this -- be put in this position, one, I still don't see why for a
residential development where -- why we don't afford them the same
opportunity .
MR. CASALANGUIDA: They do.
MR. LEWIS: Uh-huh.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: They have the two-year -- the
residential owners do have the same two years. The -- in Section A
for buildout years it's within two years.
MR. LEWIS: But in the context of 3-B it indicates that once
you've attained buildout, as I -- as I -- as I mentioned, many
developers may do an overall residential plat for a development,
which in my read of3-B that would be a PUD in which you had really
all the -- all the lands within that development had been platted, and
then they come back later and do replats. So I think there would be a
real practical need for -- for -- for -- for addressing that in the context
of nonresidential development.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: I -- I don't -- I -- I appreciate your
concerns. I just don't see it as -- when you're coming in platting that
redevelopment opportunity that you speak of is more important in a --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, you guys could carry this
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dialogue on --
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Yes.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- between now and the next time
you come back and save us the -- the time. I understand your point.
Actually, I don't understand your point as well as I do his, but I think
you ought to have that -- have you ever spoke with Nick--
MR. LEWIS: With Nick, yes.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- on the formation of this
language?
MR. LEWIS: Not on this particular issue, but --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Because it would be
something if you guys could come to a conclusion and then -- or bring
before us what you would prefer as language and then what you would
prefer, and then we could just make a determination at the next
meeting.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: That's fair.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: That would be more productive
than trying to debate it back and forth here.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: I think we can work something out
and come back together on this. I don't see any problem.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: One -- one item that may solve
part of your problem is if you add the words "in the event of a
moratorium or other action or inaction," as we talked about doing -- if
you have an inaction -- if you have a permit process that takes longer
due to the inaction of the government to respond, that gives you the
time you would need to get to the higher time frame that you're
looking for.
MR. LEWIS: Yeah. We certainly would -- would like to have a
longer window and not have to come back and -- or get a tolling
determination. We've been through that, and it sometimes is not an
easy process. It's certainly expensive, and -- and if we can
acknowledge the -- the difficulties that many of the -- especially
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giving the environment, the economic conditions, and the -- and
permitting requirements in the area.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Maybe the county attorney can
answer for me. Is the tolling determination something that's -- that's
got to be formally provided, or isn't that a -- just an
acknowledgement?
MR. KLATZKOW: No, it's a decision by the Board of County
Commissioners. They take the evidence, and they decide whether or
not there's been due diligence, and at that point in time they make a
determination.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: So in -- for each case where this
might be applicable, they have to hear it and decide upon it?
MR. KLATZKOW: That's the way it's been structured, yeah.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Wow. That'll keep them busy.
Yes, Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That -- that's what I was getting
ready to poke. That -- that does get expensive.
MR. LEWIS: And certainly from a -- you know, from a
development perspective you're giving the -- you're giving the impact
to the development. You know, we're talking about an additional year
or three years before we -- and at the end -- at the end of the day it
allows -- from a forecasting perspective it allows you to achieve the
end objective, which is eliminating this density from the calculations
you're forecasting for your -- your report, your annual report.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Miss Caron.
COMMISSIONER CARON: In the past year, how many tolling
hearings has the BCC had to deal with?
MR. KLATZKOW: One.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Last week; right?
MR. KLATZKOW: Yes.
COMMISSIONER CARON: One time.
MR. KLATZKOW: I expect, however, there may be quite a few
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more coming down the pike.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yes, with the economy switching
like it has, that has probably caused quite a few people a problem.
And maybe the resolution of a tolling provision may be something that
ought to be added so that maybe we could avoid the process and
shorten that to a more practical application.
MR. KLATZKOW: The BCC directed that they be the ones who
hear it.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. So they really like all this.
Okay.
MR. KLATZKOW: They -- they -- they want to ensure that
there's been due diligence.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. I mean, there are some
circumstances where that's a given, and it maybe would have been
simplified. That's a suggestion I was trying to interject into the
conversation, but -- okay.
Thank you, Mr. Lewis. Appreciate it. And you didn't get off as
easy as you thought, so --
MR. CASALANGUIDA: No. No. I appreciate all your time.
You've put a bunch of time into this, and we'll work forwards with
your recommendations on all these, and we'll be back.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, I certainly appreciate your
time and all of the transportation's department's time. It's amazing to
see that they can stay here and wait for this patiently day after day.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: So appreciate it. Thank you.
And, Catherine, I guess we're at a point where we can go into
whoever's left.
MS. F ABACHER: Yes.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: And I -- Michael Sawyer's here,
and I'm assuming he has landscaping issues then.
MS. FABACHER: And -- and, also, Bruce McNall is new, so
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you'll get to meet him.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. I've certainly heard his
name around, all in -- all in good.
MR. SAWYER: Good afternoon, Commissioners. Mike
Sawyer, Senior Planning with Zoning and Land Development Review.
I would like to introduce Bruce McNall. He's our new
Landscape Architect with the county.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Welcome aboard. This is the nice
-- this is the peaceful board. We never have a problem.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Or any questions.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yeah.
MR. SAWYER: Commissioners, I'm not sure where you want to
start, if you just want to start with the first amendment. The first one
would be on 135.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I know you've seen the way we
like to move forward, so --
MR. SAWYER: Yeah, right.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- why don't we just keep up with
the same methodology unless someone has a need to go into further
detail.
MR. SAWYER: Okay. This particular amendment is similar to
the one that we did last cycle where we were addressing buffers
adjacent to lakes. This time what we're doing is reducing a combined
A and B buffer that would normally be required by code to be an A
and a B where you've got an activity center adjacent to a residential
structure down to a simple B.
This is something that staff has been doing for the last few years,
several years. It's been pretty much the staffs practice. We're just
codifying it in the code.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Miss Caron.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yeah, why would you be lessening
standards in an activity center that is adjacent to a residential area?
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MR. SAWYER: Yeah, these --
COMMISSIONER CARON: You want to lessen the standards
for landscape buffering?
MR. SAWYER: I understand the question. What we've got --
normally what we've got are pool facilities, possibly tennis courts and
that sort of thing, and a combined A and B buffer would be a 25- foot
wide buffer with trees on one side that would be 25 feet on center with
the B buffer along with a 5-foot hedge, and on the other side, the A
buffer, would be a row of trees 30 feet on center.
Now, normally in most developments the trees on the residential
side are taken care of by the requirements on that particular site itself,
and what we are normally finding is that you're actually getting
additional trees that are difficult, actually, to fit on some of the sites
because they're starting to get so condensed. That's the reason that
we're -- that we're reducing the size.
COMMISSIONER CARON: I think you're going to find that the
residential neighborhoods are not going to be happy when they find
out that you're lowering standards in an activity center, okay?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, where did you see that
language about the --
COMMISSIONER CARON: He just -- that's what he just said.
MR. SAWYER: Yeah, the activity --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Where -- where is that cent--
where is the activity center referenced? Because I didn't see that.
MR. SAWYER: We're talking about community facilities.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: But that isn't an activity center.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Oh, that's a different thing.
MR. SAWYER: Yeah, it's community facilities that we're really
talking about; the swimming pools and that sort of thing, the tennis
courts.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Thank you.
MR. SAWYER: They're not -- they're not the activity centers
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around --
COMMISSIONER CARON: It's two different things.
MR. SAWYER: Exactly.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Any other questions on this
paragraph?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I think it's good.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: One question I have is when a
community facility is located within a residential PUD and adjacent to
a residential unit -- now, the code's pretty clear on the words
"adjacent" and "abutting." Abutting means contiguous, side by side.
Adjacent, I think, can be separated by something like a street, and if
some of these code provisions go through, even a railroad.
So do you mean adjacent, or do you mean abutting? If it's on the
other side of a street, you don't want to -- you don't want to take away
the buffers. You want to do it when it's abutting, wouldn't you?
MR. SAWYER: Correct, it would be abutting.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: So then that lang -- that word
needs to be changed to abutting instead of adjacent. I think that would
have a -- quite a different impact on where you're trying to go with
this.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Are you finished?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yes, I am, Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I have -- I -- one popped into my
head when you were talking. Fence as we now use it is also not chain
link or anything. It's the concrete woven fence; is that correct?
MR. SAWYER: Correct.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay. And that's going to --
somewhere along the line I thought we might -- I had a conversation
with a commissioner, and the commissioner didn't realize that in the
current state fence is something other than chain link or what have
you. And I wondered if it should be -- I don't know. Is that something
that should be defined?
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MR. SAWYER: It -- it is defined within the -- the B buffer in
that it needs to be have an opacity in natural --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah, that's how we get to--
MR. SAWYER: With a chain link, you don't have opacity.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. No other questions on this
one. Mike, let's move on to the next.
MR. SAWYER: The next amendment is on 138, and this
particular one is trying to address building foundation plantings. The
current standard is basically split between two separate sections, one
for smaller buildings and then the second section is addressing larger
and taller buildings.
It has been somewhat difficult for some applicants to interpret the
larger and taller building sections. It's also difficult to have it apply
equally depending on the building use and the configuration of the
building, and what we've attempted to do with this amendment is to
bring all buildings into one foundation planting requirement split into
three different sections.
The first would be for smaller buildings under 10,000 square feet.
The second category would be larger buildings that are not tall, and
then all buildings that would be, basically, over 50 feet. It's a little bit
simplified.
There are also additional alternative methods of meeting the
foundation requirement. We've got the ability to use some turf as well
as doing some courtyards, plazas, more people spaces, and, also, doing
some fine planting -- planters, tear -- trellises, that sort of thing, to
help meet some of these requirements.
We also have included an illustration that helps explain the
formula and how you reach the overall quantity of building foundation
plantings that we're trying to achieve in those different categories. I
also have a handout that I'd like to hand -- give you that gives you an
idea on what we feel is -- the current requirements give us and, also,s
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what the amendment is going to be -- be doing.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
MR. SAWYER: This is something that the DSAC subcommittee
actually requested. We didn't have it available to them, and we've
since pulled this together.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: When I read this, I stopped
reading it because it had Brad written all over it, so I'll just let him
start because I know he's going to have questions.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Mr. Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I mean, first of all, my concern
with this foundation is that when it came through the first time I don't
think really people knew what it really was doing. It was presented
this year at the health department, and one thing it said then is there
was -- and we discussed it -- that there's no fiscal impact. At least you
acknowledge that there is fiscal impact to developers. You're saying it
could reduce it, which meant it existed in the prior one.
So I think -- I'd like us to look at this not so much based on
comparing the two but looking at this like this is a really fresh time to
look at it. Let's start on -- 140 is -- when you say the combined total
of all building facades, you mean the length of the building facade;
correct?
MR. SAWYER: Correct.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: So could you put the word
building facade length just to avoid -- you have a sketch that kind of
clarifies that.
MR. SAWYER: That was clarified on the illustration, correct.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But -- but so somebody's not
confused and taking the area of it.
MR. SAWYER: Sure.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And that occurs in the next
three. You use the actual building height as a parameter for this thing
when I think we should actually use the zone building height. What
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you're doing is you're -- somebody could build a one-story building
with a tower, and you're throwing them into a different category.
MR. SAWYER: With the actual building height, that would be
correct.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right. So I think we should
stay with zone building height.
MR. SAWYER: That actually came out of the review committee
that we had with the landscape architects from the county, and the
feeling there was right now the criteria starts at 35 feet, to 50 feet, and
then above 50 feet, and it's split between those three. You know, in
other words, below 35 feet, 35 feet to 50 feet, and then above 50 feet.
I think from the committee's standpoint that was an attempt to equalize
those, but we could certainly change that.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, I mean, we only have one
-- you know, C-4 can go with the actual building height -- or the zoned
building height above 50 feet. I mean, here's -- the problem is you're
penalizing the design of the tower.
MR. SAWYER: Correct.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And, you know, I could have a
small one-story building. I throw a tower on it, and the next thing you
know you're penalizing me for it.
MR. SAWYER: You're into another category.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: So, I mean, I think the intent of
it is to provide planting around the mass of a building, so why don't
we just stay with zone then because that's what controls the mass, not
the actual height. I mean, anybody support that or not?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Uh-huh.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. Number 6, if we're up
against the buffer, the intent of that statement means that we have to
add this buff -- this foundation planting into the buffer.
MR. SAWYER: Correct.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: When this was originally
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presented, it was -- the intent was to provide greenery around
buildings, and that greenery should increase as the scale of the
building does. The -- prior to this that was allowed to overlap those,
so what are we achieving by adding those buffers together?
MR. SAWYER: In -- in actuality, that hasn't been the case. You
were not allowed to put in your foundation plantings in those
landscape buffer areas.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: When it was presented, this was
to require planting at the foundation.
MR. SAWYER: Correct.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: It wasn't, like, a landscape
requirement that was additive to existing requirements. Essentially,
the difference being that if you had paved or a property line that you
had to have this much planting between those. I mean, if we make
these requirements, we just start adding them where they can't overlap,
then we end up with too much landscape, if there's such a thing.
But -- in other words, but what do you achieve by adding this to
the buffer? I have a tall building. I have 20 feet plus a buffer. I'd
have 30 feet of planting.
MR. SAWYER: Currently that's -- the way the code reads is that
the foundation plantings are in addition to --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well--
MR. SAWYER: -- any of the other landscape requirements, and
-- and one thing that we are doing is -- currently the standard for larger
and taller buildings is that the foundation plantings are required to be
continuous around the building. With this we're not saying that the
plantings need to be continuous.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, there's improvements
here.
MR. SAWYER: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But where do you see that that
it's in addition to because that's been a --
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COMMISSIONER STRAIN: No.6.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, no, that's new.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Oh, okay.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: The old is --
MR. SAWYER: I believe that's actually in the buffer
requirements.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: That it mentions foundation
plantings?
MR. SAWYER: Right.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. I mean, I don't think that
MR. SAWYER: And I -- I'll have to get back to you on that.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I don't think that's in the code.
So six I'd like us to kind of look at.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, I think your issue with six is
Mike's going to have to verify whether six is from the old code -- from
the code, and if it is then --
MR. SAWYER: Right.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- that'll be what--
MR. SAWYER: If it's not we'll take it out.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: The other thing is in some of
the outdoor areas -- let's go to 10. Were -- I'd like to see kind of more
outdoor seating areas to be allowed as part of this. This became an
issue in some, and it's going to become more of an issue with the
Smart Growth stuff coming down is that a lot of this landscape is --
will be more urbanized, so I -- I think that the person should have the
option to put outdoor seating instead of landscaping.
I mean, it's a decorative -- I think it has the same softening effect
as landscape, so I'd like to see the percentage -- could you raise that a
little bit? You limit it to 20 percent in 10- B.
MR. SAWYER: Again, that came out of the committee. We're
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certainly open to suggestions on that. What we're trying to do is, as
you said, con -- you know, encourage more of those people-oriented
spaces --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right.
MR. SAWYER: -- not losing the landscape but using them in
different ways.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right. And, I mean, the
importance of the landscape is not to just look out the window at it.
It's to sit in it. So I don't think you should penalize people for that.
And then in C it might be a good space because we really don't give
credit for raised planters or planter boxes, or do you think that you
would assume that's landscaping?
MR. SAWYER: Raised planters would certainly fit into that
category .
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Without mention?
MR. SAWYER: We can put it in if you want it.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. But -- but it's also saying
that -- that it's only limited to 15 percent of -- and the point is, for
example, we could make a -- could somebody make a terrace and
count that as part of the landscape, the perimeter landscaping around a
building?
MR. SAWYER: Commissioner, I probably have to take a look at
that. I'm not sure exactly what you're --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Let me see. Let's say --
MR. SAWYER: -- meaning with the term.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: -- there's a parking garage
below grade and the top of the parking garage is a -- is walkways,
planters, landscape. I mean, we've all seen beautiful landscaped areas
like that. Would that count as the perimeter landscaping?
MR. SAWYER: Again, I'd have to take a look at a specific case
like that, but my initial reaction would be that, yes, that would --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: All right. Because it could
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achieve --
MR. SAWYER: -- that would apply. I think we'd want to apply
that type of thing.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay.
MR. SAWYER: Part of the reason to have that C section is to
help address parking structures because that's been something that's
been submitted to us for review purposes, specifically for parking
structures.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I mean, what if we on A, B, and
C we didn't -- I mean, what's -- what's the reason to limit the area of
it? To get a mix of things or -- in other words, why -- why are we
saying 30 percent of this, 20 percent of that, 15 percent of this as
opposed to you can use these things?
MR. SAWYER: I -- I think the idea there was so that we -- we
do have a certain amount of green space. So, in other words, the
foundation plantings are mostly made up of plantings. The committee
felt that turf is still green. It still has -- you know, it's still landscaping.
And the other reason for a 30 percent there is that oftentimes,
especially with taller buildings, there's a need to have some turf in
those beds to address runoff situations where you've got, you know,
rain coming down or just centralized runoff coming off of the
building. You're needing to have turf in there to actually root down
and take some of the velocity out of that water.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But, I mean, you're limiting
somebody -- I mean, what do you expect to be in the landscape area?
I mean, all planting beds? In other words, you're -- let's say I add up
all your options here. I get 55 percent using these things. Okay.
What's the other 45 percent in your mind to be made up of?
MR. SAWYER: Well, one of the -- one of the item -- things that
we've got here is that you can use up to one of those three options.
You can't use all three.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: That's even worse. Then what
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are you -- what -- what's the other stuff that's supposed to be there?
MR. SAWYER: The other stuff is what we're currently getting,
which is composed of trees, shrubs, and ground covers.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. So grasses -- so if I use
the 30 percent grass then I can't have my outdoor eating?
MR. SAWYER: Correct. That's how it's currently written.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And what -- that's currently in
the code?
MR. SAWYER: No. No. No, that's what we've currently got in
this amendment.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah. So I don't like that. I
mean, that doesn't make sense. I mean, we should be mixing these
things up, put all kinds of landscape things. Why -- so what you're
really saying is that in the Smart Growth area if anybody wants grass
they get killed on the -- they can't have a planter. They've got to -- if
they go with A -- a little bit of A, they wipe out Band C.
MR. SAWYER: Actually, I think with the Smart Growth those
proj ects are going to be coming under a separate category, a separate
set of rules that --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: We have some, but--
MR. SAWYER: -- yeah, that are going to be separate from these
requirements.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Just out of curiosity, Mike, your
department has beat this up with Brad so many meetings, and we've
heard it so many times. And -- and it needs to be addressed, no doubt.
MR. SAWYER: Uh-huh.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Did anybody bother to contact him
prior to today's meeting and probably run these by him ahead of time
so that --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: We met once.
MR. SAWYER: Yes, we did meet.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. And nothing got resolved
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in that meeting?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah, some things did.
MR. SAWYER: We did make some changes, yeah.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. I was just --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I mean, I thought we were
going to have the planter box in. I mean, I, you know, have the
minutes before. The percentages and some of the stuff is a little
lower. I mean, there's been some wiggle since then.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I just wanted to make sure you --
at least some of the stuff got resolved --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- at your prior meeting.
MR. SAWYER: As a possible suggestion for 10, would it be
better if we had a total percentage that we couldn't exceed with those
three items? Would that possibly address your --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That's another one.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, I mean, the concern I
have is that these are very expensive items to build, maintain, and
everything.
MR. SAWYER: Uh-huh.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And -- and to be politically
correct, I mean, is that what we really want is to be putting those kind
of water-thirsty creatures all around a building or -- and, also, I really
think that we should encourage people to use it, so I think the disaster
of 10 is -- and I didn't read it till you mentioned it, but you're right -- is
that if you do put grass you can't do the others.
MR. SAWYER: Correct.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: So if I put some grass I lose the
arbors, or I can't count them as landscape, and I don't think that's fair.
So I don't see any reason why you limit to menuing one of those
items. I could see where you restrict the use of the item to a limit. Or
I actually don't see that, but that's better than what we've got here. Do
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you -- I mean, why -- why do you want only one of those three things
on a project?
MR. SAWYER: It's -- it's -- the idea is that -- to provide a little
bit more flexibility than we currently have and to try to move more
towards allowing alternatives that currently we don't have. It's -- it's
like a first step.
Like I said, I think we certainly could put in that any of those
three elements could be used as long as we're not going past a certain
set of percentage. I don't think we want to have the entire building
foundation planting taken up with other than planting elements.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But that's not what you're
saying here, so, I mean --
MR. SAWYER: Correct.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I think that would be better. I
mean, I think proj ects may use the following -- if you cross out "one
of," and then these 20 percent, 50 percent become limits to what we
can use. Remember, they only add up to 55 percent, so if you decided
to abuse them all you've got 45 percent of the thing over.
Because, see, here's what's not fair. Let's say I hire Roberto or
Burley Marks (phonetic) to do my foundation planting and he goes
ahead and he puts in turf grass for a nice little part of the design, then
the seating area I can't count. That's foundation buffer. The trellises I
can't count. That's not fair. Nor is, I think, that the intent of this,
which is to provide these kinds of things around the bottom of a
building. Silence.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Brad, do you have any concern
that if someone's given these three choices -- most people seem to take
the cheapest way out -- wouldn't they take A all the time?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Guaranteed.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, then wouldn't we want to
use A as the least percentage and increase the percentage of the ones
that are more desirable?
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COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, I mean, I can think of
situations where turf grass can look good too. I mean, here's what I
think the problem with 10 is. The intent is he's saying is that you can
choose one of these items and that will count, which means the other
items won't count, and I'm sure the converse is true.
So I definitely think we should get rid of the words "one of" so
that they can use the following. And then, I guess, it's free -- if it's not
listed in A, B, or C you can do whatever you want as long as it's
considered landscaping.
MR. SAWYER: Well, we do have criteria as far as what needs
to go into that foundation planting area. That would be No.3,
"Building foundation plants shall be covered with shrubs, ground
covers, raised planter boxes, ornamental trope plantings except as
provided in Item 10 below."
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah, I mean, I -- I definitely
got from 10 -- are you okay with that if we did that with 10, got rid of
the words "one of"?
MR. SAWYER: I think there's -- I -- yeah, I think there's a
number of ways that we could do that, either doing it -- either
continuing to use the existing percentages that we've got, or doing
some slight adjustments, or having an overall percentage, that those
three items can total up to that percentage. I'm not sure which you --
you prefer. I understand where -- where you're trying to get to.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I think I would be happy just to
kill the words "one of" --
MR. SAWYER: Okay.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: -- which means they can use
these three things, if they so chose, and then you have a limit on it as
to how much of that you can do, and then the rest of it meets the other
requirements because one thing that -- this is a really expensive thing.
When this thing came out last time, this was deal breakers on a
couple of instances of my projects and other people's projects where
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you couldn't get a building to make the value of the site work because
of this -- all this massive landscape around the footing of it. And,
also, it didn't give us anything. It didn't give us a place for people to
go. I mean, so I think we really want to take advantage of this as a
feature.
MR. SAWYER: I agree. And -- and that's part of -- of -- of the
handout that I gave you is -- what we tried to do with these
percentages and with the amendment is to -- approximately what we're
currently getting, and that's why we've got plus or minus signs in there
is that we're not sure because it's not always fair. Sometimes you've
got certain buildings that have different uses. They accommodate that
building foundation planting. They've got more ingress or egress
points. And, as you can see, the amendment, if anything, goes on the
lower end of the current requirements.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Correct. But I've -- I mean,
these -- I don't know if these are square buildings you chose or
something, but, I mean, I just took some random shots, and I can get
more square footage so -- required.
In other words, the large building, if you make it a
200-foot-by-600-foot building instead of -- I don't know what size you
used. And it's -- again, the length of the perimeter is the important
number.
MR. SAWYER: Right.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And we studied that thoroughly
with preserves the other day.
MR. SAWYER: Uh-huh.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: So, you know, if you do
noncircular buildings you're going to get a larger square foot
requirement, which makes sense. So, I mean, this chart can't be -- it
doesn't show exactly what happens. And, I mean, I don't know if you
chose square buildings or maybe round buildings, which would give
you the -- the smallest number. The only--
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MR. SAWYER: Generally, they were more rectangular, which
is more of the type of buildings that we get, at least most of the
buildings coming into the county.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: The only other question is the
percentages. How did you come up with those?
MR. SAWYER: As far as the items in -- in 10?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah.
MR. SAWYER: Those were -- those actually came out of --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: No, I'm sorry. Not 10.
MR. SAWYER: Oh.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: The table, the --
MR. SAWYER: Oh, out of the table, again, what we were trying
to do was to look at the current requirements and get this formula to
work with those so that we were in some cases, at least with the
smaller buildings, closer to current code and with the medium and
taller buildings something that was at the lower end of what we're
currently finding that we get most of the time.
Again, part of the problem with the current requirement for the
larger and taller buildings is that it isn't easily met or even -- or it -- it's
not easy to get that to apply the same with all types of buildings. You
have some buildings that have more ingress and egress points.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Does any --
MR. SAWYER: You do have some buildings that are coming in
with actually having parking areas underneath buildings also.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Does any other members of the
panel have questions on this?
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: I just have one.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: The reason I'm getting this, Brad--
I think you could debate this for hours today, and I don't mind if you
do because it's constructive, but I'm wondering if you could do it
effectively with Michael and get back to us in a final reading of this
thing.
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COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But what I'd like -- I mean, you
know, like, for example, what latitude does Mike have to make
changes? Because, I mean, Mike can listen to me and not answer, and
what good is that?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, I mean, to be honest with
you, whatever recommendations you come up with I'm not going to
object to at this point as long as they -- I mean, I don't -- ifhe's not --
ifhe objects to something, he can bring it back before the board, but --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, then let's do this maybe,
Mike. You know, you have a committee that you referred to. Then--
MR. SAWYER: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: -- why don't you have the
committee get together. I'll gladly join, if you don't bring tar and
feathers, and we'll -- we can do this.
MR. SAWYER: We promise we won't do that.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Could you do that before the 23rd?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: That would be the smartest
way.
MR. SAWYER: Pardon?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Could you do that before the 23rd
which is our final hearing?
MR. SAWYER: I believe we should be able to do that without a
problem.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I think that would be more
productive, to be honest with you. Any other comments this panel has
we can give you right now, and then you and Brad can work out some
more of the details.
Mr. Kolflat, did you have a concern?
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: Well, it kind of centered on that.
I wondered what the composition of the committee was that you
referred to as establishing these percentages.
MR. SAWYER: I -- actually, I could show you the list of -- of
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the landscape architect -- architects that we had.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Mike, I have the list from when
we met so ...
MR. SAWYER: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: I just wanted to get a good idea
of their background and what -- how many there were.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I only had one question, Mike, and
it's No.5, building foundation plantings are exempt from native
species requirements. With the amount of problems we have with
water, heat, and everything else and freeze and frost sometimes during
the winter, why would we want to exempt them from native species
requirements?
MR. SAWYER: Commissioner, that's actually part of the current
code. We do not require native species requirements for the building
foundation plantings. The idea there is that they're more decorative in
nature. To be honest, a good share of the landscape architects still do
a minimum of 50 to 100 percent natives even for the building
foundation plantings.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Just from my perspective--
and Brad can discuss this with the committee when he deals with you
guys -- I don't see a reason to exempt native species -- I mean, to
exempt them from that requirement. I don't know why we wouldn't
encourage more native species, not less. It seems to be prudent to do
so with our temperatures and our water issues down here.
Any other questions on this one? We're going to take a
15-minute break for the young lady who's trying to write as fast as I
talk, and we'll be back here at 4:25. Thank you.
(Recess held.)
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. The paint will be dry in an
hour and a half, so let's resume. Oh, Bruce's indoctrin--
indoctrination in the -- into the county. Okay, sir. It's all yours and --
MR. McNALL: Good afternoon, Commissioners. For the
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record, Bruce McNall, the new County Landscape Architect. And I
appreciate the warm welcome a moment ago.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: You're welcome, sir. Good luck to
you.
MR. McNALL: This is a very brief, very small amendment
change here. It has to do with raw water wells, and this -- this
amendment originated from a scrivener's error. The original intent
was to provide trios -- that's three Sabal palms -- 30 feet on center, not
30 inches around--
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: Mark, could we get the page
number on this?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Page 143.
MR. McNALL: Oh, I'm sorry. Page 143, the -- the very next
one after Mike's. Okay. So, again, raw water well enclosures. These
enclosures are -- are fairly small, 40 feet, 30 feet square, protecting the
equipment, the well equipment.
The intent is to screen anything that protrudes above the
enclosure with Sabal palm heads. A Sabal palm's about, you know, 10
feet around, a mature Sabal palm. So, basically, what we're -- we're
doing is we're spreading the palms out 10 feet on center instead of
grouping them three every 30 feet. We thought that that would be a
better -- a better -- provide a better screen for a raw water well
enclosure. It's as simple as that. Are there any questions?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, your -- your -- your
language where you change each palm shall be planted 10 feet on
center around the perimeter of the fence or wall -- then the next
sentence, is it saying -- are the 10-gallon shrubs -- okay. So you've
got trees --
MR. McNALL: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- every 10 feet on center.
Ten-gallon shrubs placed four feet on center; is that right?
MR. McNALL: Yes, sir. Yes.
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COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. That's what I wanted to
understand. Thank you.
MR. McNALL: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Any other questions? Boy.
MR. McNALL: That was easy.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Easy indoctrination.
MR. McNALL: I'm coming back.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Thank you. You waited all day
for that, boy.
MS. FABACHER: We were hoping you'd pick on him, Mr.
Chair, break him in.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: A guy comes over from the dark
side and joins the county. We're supposed to pick on him? No.
MR. SAWYER: Again, Commissioners, for the record, Mike
Sawyer with Zoning and Land Development Review.
The next amendment is on 147. This one actually has been
withdrawn at this time. What we're going to do is come back forward
in the next cycle with a more comprehensive series of amendments for
redevelopment sites.
Susan Murray is basically, you know, pulling this forward. That
will also include parking, architectural, and -- as well as landscaping
as far as trying to help address some of these redevelopment sites. If
you do have any questions, we can certainly talk about it right now.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Miss Caron and then Mr. Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yeah, I just would like -- if you're
going to be reviewing this, I have an issue with No.4 in that multiple
deviations can be approved without a public hearing. I have an issue
with that, so you might want to just give that some thought as you go
forward.
MR. SAWYER: Do you feel there should be a limit on that or --
COMMISSIONER CARON: Or none at all.
MR. SAWYER: Or none at all.
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COMMISSIONER CARON: I have -- yeah, I have a problem
with deviations without a public hearing, yeah, so ...
MR. SAWYER: There actually is deviations that you can do
with -- currently with architecture, so that's -- there -- there is some
language that we currently have so ...
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yeah. And that I actually
understand.
MR. SAWYER: Okay.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Which is why I said go back and--
and I just think that this needs further discussion.
MR. SAWYER: We'll make that clear. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah. And my -- my question
is, do -- we go through architects and -- landscape architects and stuff,
but do realtors ever show an interest in this kind of an amendment?
Because essentially this is an existing -- what to do with existing
property. It's strange that they never show up at these hearings or
anything, I mean, because, essentially, what you're saying is that when
somebody buys a property with the intention to do whatever
improvement triggers that that they really have a lot of action to do.
MR. SAWYER: I -- I would agree. I'm -- I'm curious myself.
We do not, you know, hear much from -- from the realtors.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: That's all.
MR. SAWYER: Maybe they should be part of the process.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I just want to make one
comment. In 2- B I found -- my note says "confusing," and you made
a note of that yourself. To me that was confusing. But up, in I guess
it's, 1-B under applicability, the second sentence, B, developments that
are abandoned or have discontinuance of use as designated in this
action -- that's as -- that's to applicabiby -- applic -- blah, blah, blah __
applicability .
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If discontinued -- my note, if discontinued or abandoned, would
staff be involved? What -- what what's the -- what's -- what's going to
happen there?
MR. SAWYER: We do have criteria in -- in the code currently
for a discontinuance of use. Currently with landscaping it's 30 days.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay. Okay. All right. So
under red -- so you're going to go back and look at this anyway, so __
MR. SAWYER: More comprehensively, yeah.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: -- we'll see you then. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Anything else? That's a lot of
discussion for something you withdrew.
MR. SAWYER: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Don't do that again.
MR. SAWYER: I'd rather hear it now than later.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yeah. Well, I'm assuming you're
going to make such changes that it's going to read -- read differently
anyway so ...
MR. SAWYER: Yes, it will.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: You're on page 149 now?
MR. SAWYER: Yes, l49. This is a clarification. It's actually a
relocation of a current re -- criteria for requirements for natural and
man-made bodies of water.
Currently where it's located due to the recodification of the LDC
it is confusing for a lot of landscape architects and engineers as far as
how this is actually applicable.
Previously with the old version of the LDC it was a separate
standalone section, actually, within architecture. It was then brought
over to landscaping when architecture was rewritten, and then with the
remodification it was inserted into, actually, the buffer section.
It was not caught. What we're trying to do here is, again, make it
a standalone requirement that's a little bit clearer for everybody.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: He's right. It's the lost words
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from -- the architects are saying, the wandering words, but this is a
better home.
MR. SAWYER: That was everybody's feeling, yes.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Is this language verbatim to what
exists in the code?
MR. SAWYER: Yes.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Anybody else have any
comments? We're just moving it around then?
MR. SAWYER: Exactly.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. I've seen a lot of fountains
-- I mean, a lot of lakes dug that don't have fountains, so that means
they're doing the walkways or the partially sladed -- shaded plazas or
courtyards; is that --
MR. SAWYER: A lot of times with the -- with the larger __
larger lakes that seems to be the -- the trend, although I have been
seeing some aeration units because they tend to be more efficient as
far as stirring up the lakes instead of the fountain units. I'm not sure if
that's necessarily a correlation or not.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, you know, you keep -- why
would you have a body of water and a roadway and picnic tables on
the opposite side of the road?
MR. SAWYER: I would --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Because--
MR. SAWYER: I would imagine to get the picnic tables off to
an area that's more park-like.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, but, see, you're letting--
like, C (iii), partially slade -- shaded plaza and courtyard and the last
sentence, "and or picnic tables adjacent to the water body" -- well, if
you use the word "adjacent," it doesn't have to be alongside of the
water body. It could be across the street, then we go back into that use
of abutting and adjacent.
MR. SAWYER: I see your point, Commissioner. Perhaps that
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should also --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Since you're making changes
maybe you want to -- is that something you should consider if you
want it -- if the intent is to be along the water body __
MR. SAWYER: Uh-huh.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- wouldn't you want it to be
abutting then?
MR. SAWYER: I would -- I would agree. We can change that
because then you -- we should change it now since we're looking at it.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. And then the text ofC
says, "Adjacent to a public right-of-way." I'm wondering how that
applies because it really would be -- a right-of-way is what you -- it
would be abutting the right-of-way again, too, you see. Maybe you
might want to look at changing it in -- that word. So those are __
MR. SAWYER: We can make those changes.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Maybe they're helpful.
MR. SAWYER: Okay. There--
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
MR. SAWYER: Definitely. Then we're onto something.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: What's the -- what's the next
number you'd like to --
MR. SAWYER: Those are the extent of landscape amendments.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: So you're off the hook today too?
MR. SAWYER: Permanently.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: And I appreciate both your time
and Mike's time and --
MR. SAWYER: Thank you, Commissioner.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Bruce, I appreciate it, and I __
MS. FABACHER: We have new staff.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yeah.
MS. F ABACHER: Diana Compagnone is here, and she is our
sign expert.
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COMMISSIONER STRAIN: We met, and she sat there for a
couple of hours waiting for a question from me, and I said, "You know
what? We overkill signs in this county. That's the last thing I want to
talk about is signs." And so she was able to leave at that point, so she
knows my position on this today. But let's move into whatever pages
you'd like to address. Thank you.
MS. COMPAGNONE: Okay. Well, we can -- Diana
Compagnone, for the record. Page 167.
MS. FABACHER: Excuse me. What about 11, page 11,
mansard?
MS. COMPAGNONE: Oh, okay. Page 11, what we're doing is
we're just taking the provisional out of the mansard definition and
putting it in with the wall signs where it actually belongs.
COMMISSIONER SCHIPPER: One second.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: We'll wait for Brad to catch up.
He likes these kind of things.
COMMISSIONER SCHIPPER: My -- my only -- what's a __
what is a mansard? That's my only problem. Because I've seen some
projects lately where people are drawing any old roofs and saying
that's a mansard, so what is a -- you're the sign desi __
MS. P ABACHER: Excuse me, but she's a sign person, not an
architect.
COMMISSIONER SCHIPPER: But she's saying the mansard
SIgn, so --
MS. COMP AGNONE: A mansard -- it goes on the mansard __
the slanted roof, so it's actually mounted on an L.
COMMISSIONER SCHIPPER: So it has to be mounted on the
thing. I think it's improperly defined, but __
MS. COMP AGNONE: Oh, okay.
COMMISSIONER SCHIPFER: It's not your fault, but __
MS. COMPAGNONE: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Miss Caron.
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COMMISSIONER CARON: Yes. Could you give me an
example of B(i)?
MS. COMPAGNONE: D?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Uh-huh.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Oh, that's good.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: You've got to flip it around. It's
upside-down.
COMMISSIONER SCHIPPER: It's where the sign's mounted
upside-down.
MS. COMPAGNONE: I haven't used this thing. Let me bring it
down. Okay. We're looking at Image -- we're looking at Image
Orthodontics. And do you see how it's all moved to the right there to
meet the 10 percent clear area? That's because the unit goes all the
way to the building. And when the landlord split the unit you would
think that it split straight down the column, but it doesn't. It actually
splits more where that concrete light post is.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Okay.
MS. COMPAGNONE: So to make the signs not look out of
proportion I -- I'm asking for the leeway -- not that they can go on
somebody else's unit, just to -- to make it in proportion. And this is a
sample of it here.
COMMISSIONER SCHIPFER: So you would center it over the
archway?
MS. COMPAGNONE: Correct.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER SCHIPPER: Okay. Good. Yes, of course.
MS. COMP AGNONE: But as the current code it doesn't allow
me to do that. It says 10 percent clear area.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Good.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: You were--
COMMISSIONER CARON: Thank you. That's great.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- prepared for that question,
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weren't you? Any other questions then?
COMMISSIONER CARON: I didn't even call her ahead of time.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: No, that's -- on page 11 anything
else? Okay.
MS. COMPAGNONE: Okay. Page 167 then.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Are there any questions on page __
pages 167 -- and I think it goes to page 1 73; right?
MS. COMPAGNONE: Uh-huh.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I don't.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I asked all mine yesterday.
MS. COMPAGNONE: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Anything from any other of the
panel members?
COMMISSIONER KOLPLA T: Was there a meeting yesterday?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: No. No, there wasn't, Mr. Kolflat.
I decided to save all of you a lot of time, and I went and caught up
with stuff on some issues that I would more -- that were more issues I
was concerned about, not that everybody else was.
COMMISSIONER KOLPLAT: I was concerned because I
talked to you Sunday about the date of the meeting.
COMMISSIONER SCHIPFER: Mark did some path-finding
reports.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I wanted to -- a lot of times I get
into issues that really aren't necessary to bother all of you with, so I
just resolved them separately.
Anything on 16 -- the -- the chunk of -- of amendments
beginning on 167 and carrying through to 173? Hearing none we'll--
MS. COMPAGNONE: Good.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
MS. COMPAGNONE: 174 through 175.
COMMISSIONER SCHIPPER: Just a comment. I did check
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August 1, 2006
this. This meets all the fire codes so --
MS. COMPAGNONE: I did too.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Okay. That was my question.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
MS. COMPAGNONE: I spoke with Ed Reilly.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Anything else on page 174 and
175? Okay. We're fine. Then page 176 to 178, any concerns or
questions? We still have more --
MS. COMPAGNONE: I brought pictures.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Oh, wait. Let's not -- we don't
need to get into them if there's no -- it reads pretty straightforward so
MS. COMP AGNONE: For the three-story one?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yeah. And then 179, I would
assume, Diana, was -- that was the next one you were going to.
MS. COMP AGNONE: You are correct. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I have a question on 179 and 180.
MS. COMPAGNONE: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: It's nothing -- it may not even
apply to this section. I just wanted to ask you. After the Hurricane
Wilma came through --
MS. COMPAGNONE: Uh-huh.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- we had all these contractors
come into town, and I found all these little signs that popped up at
intersections, "No unlicensed contractors allowed to work here" or
something to that effect.
MS. COMPAGNONE: Uh-huh.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I'm assuming they were put there
by the county. How did --
MS. COMP AGNONE: I believe those were done by the state,
Commissioner.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Oh, okay. So they have a right to
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August 1, 2006
come in and stick those signs -- because they sat there forever, for
months and months and months until they actually deteriorated and
blew over or something. So did they have permission to put those
signs up, or do they fall under our sign ordinance or -_
MS. COMP AGNONE: They do fall under the sign ordinance
under gov -- by government rule or entity.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. So they have -- okay. I
was just curious how that happened. Thank you.
Okay. Miss Caron and Mr. Kolflat.
COMMISSIONER CARON: On page 80 are you going to fill in
I, or do we not need that?
MS. COMPAGNONE: I don't think we need that one.
COMMISSIONER CARON: I thought there was language to
come.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Or it was a catchall.
Mr. Kolflat.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: There won't be any standards
developed for each of these categories like schools, hospitals, or law
enforcement, will there?
MS. COMPAGNONE: As of this time, no.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: So each of these would be
handled as a special instance when it's reviewed?
MS. COMPAGNONE: Correct.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Anything else on pages 179 or
180? Okay. Then I guess we're on to 181. Any questions on -- and
that's just a one-pager. Any questions on 181?
Mr. Kolflat.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: What is -- what is the grade of
what? Down there -- it's under C-5 on the bottom. It says measured
from grade. What grade? Grade of the road? Grade of the land?
MS. COMPAGNONE: Where the sign is sitting. Excuse me.
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Where the sign is sitting.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Okay.
MS. COMPAGNONE: It's actually a menu board. And we
measure everything normally from centerline grade of the road. On
most drive-thrus it's way in the back. To try to get it from centerline __
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Doesn't make sense.
MS. COMPAGNONE: It's difficult.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Well, could that be helped a
little by saying from grade of the sign or the location of the sign?
MS. COMPAGNONE: If you'd like.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, if we -- the grade, then,
could be artificially built up, so the sign could then be on top of a
mound?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yes.
MS. COMPAGNONE: It could be if we -- we word it that way.
It normally isn't. If anything, it might be on, you know, like, a
concrete -- a small concrete plat -- slab.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, I'm more concerned about
someone doing something unintentional to get more attention. How
do you like that for a contradiction in terms? But I can see a __
someone coming out and building a mound up and then putting a big
sign on top of a mound to get it measured from the point at the top of
the mound. Is there a way to prevent that?
MS. COMP AGNONE: We might want to put from parking lot
grade.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah, from the grade of the
vehicle that will be reading it. So you could just say the roadway at
the vehicle.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: You might want to look at that
language, though, and try to come back with a suggestion. I'm just
more concerned that if you leave an arbitrary grade and someone can
artificially establish that grade that may give you some undesirable
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effect, and Mr. --
MS. COMPAGNONE: The only -- the only thing with this, if I
might, is because it's for a menu board they want it down low, I mean,
where cars and people in the --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Oh, okay.
MS. COMP AGNONE: -- in the trucks are going to see it, so I
can't really see where they would put it on a mound, but that doesn't
preclude them from doing it.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Oh, I -- I can see -- they build a
mound. They build a menu board, the part of the menu board down
low, the base of it, and then six feet from the top is the peak of this big
py Ion or something painted fluorescent red or -_
COMMISSIONER CARON: We have to keep Mr. Schiffer in
check --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right.
COMMISSIONER CARON: -- with these rules, okay?
MS. COMPAGNONE: We'll look -- we'll look at the language.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I'm here to come up with abuse.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I'm good. I was thinking of a
tripod and -- with the implications, but, no, it doesn't apply.
MS. COMPAGNONE: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Diana, I think we're onto page
182.
MS. COMPAGNONE: Yes.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: And that carries us to -- through to
page 183. Anybody have any questions on 182 or 183? No. Wow. I
wasn't the only one that didn't have any questions of you yesterday,
huh?
MS. COMPAGNONE: Good. I like it that way.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: This is a fine tuning.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Thank you very much. We
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August 1, 2006
appreciate your time --
MS. COMPAGNONE: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- for coming down to entertain us
here today.
MS. COMPAGNONE: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And, Diana, by the way, this is
a good code. There is a loophole in the code which I've never seen
anybody use in town, but somebody could have theoretically built a
high-rise and had different tenants on different levels, and they could
have had an outside sign, but you plugged that loophole with one of
these last things. Uh-oh. You saw somebody doing it?
MS. COMPAGNONE: I didn't see anyone doing it, but I asked
somebody to mark up these drawings for me because I did see the
loophole.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Exactly. That's exactly right.
And ifbehind every one of those signs was that tenant -- obviously,
it's not the best McDonald's location in town, but that's exactly what
could have happened.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: What's wrong with that?
MS. COMP AGNONE: So this is what it could possibly look
like.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right. Okay. But that was
sleeping in there. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: She's good.
COMMISSIONER CARON: And you could see that first
example -- you can see those examples in L.A., places like that.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Actually, we --
MS. FABACHER: In Naples.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: We shouldn't have -- we should
have pointed that out because somebody could run out and do that
before --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY : You're the one that pointed it
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out.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah. We should have waited a
couple of months.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Thank you, Diana.
MS. COMPAGNONE: Sure. Thank you. Catherine--
MS. FABACHER: I have--
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- do we have stuffwe can proceed
with without --
MS. FABACHER: We have stuff that I can do.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Because the audience is getting
overwhelmingly noisy.
MS. FABACHER: I was going to ask for crowd control.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yeah.
MS. FABACHER: I have a few that I can talk about. I -- the
ones that are -- I apologize. They didn't have all the authors here. I
just never dreamed we'd go this fast, but I have some I can talk to just
as plain zoning staff, if that's okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I'd like to clean up everything we
can --
MS. FABACHER: All right.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- because we've got an hour and
10 minutes, and I'd rather not waste it. Then on the 8th -- well,
actually, we have a meeting coming up this Thursday, and it looks like
it's going to be a partial-day meeting because we have two boat docks,
a sign, I think, and then the Brooks. The Brooks will take more time.
MS. FABACHER: Uh-huh.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: But I bet we could finish that in
the morning. Is there a reason we may not wrap this -- couldn't wrap
this up on the afternoon of this coming Thursday?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Except for Copeland.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, Copeland we're going to
continue for the --
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August 1, 2006
MS. FABACHER: Well-- but if you needed to carry it over and
continue it I think that would be a good idea.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, that's what I'm -- I'm trying
to just --
MS. FABACHER: Yeah. I'm just --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- kill today's, you know.
MS. FABACHER: -- just wondering like we dis -- as we
discussed the problem with getting the turnover and the language __
we can --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: But there isn't --
MS. FABACHER: We've already said that would be 23rd, but--
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yeah.
MS. FABACHER: You're right. But we could have -- do the
color, Brad. I didn't know what your preference was, if we were going
to have -- who we were going to have present the color.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Who better than Nick, so -- well
-- but what you're saying, Mark, is if we push a little bit today we can
clean it up on Thursday.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Right, and be done with it and not
need the 8th and 9th.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Of course. Let's do that.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. As long as there's no
problem with staff, I mean, I don't mind doing it. I think that's what __
COMMISSIONER CARON: Can you get it out?
MS. FABACHER: Yes, I can. Yeah, we can -- we can finish it
up.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: You can schedule --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: There's no changes to get out
because the changes we've been over come back to us on the second
reading.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Right, not until the 23rd.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: We're still going through the first
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reading and finishing up the book. That's what we need to do on the--
I'd like to see that done this coming Thursday.
MS. F ABACHER: Oh, I -- I think we can finish it this Thursday.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Oh, that would be great.
MS. FABACHER: Yeah, sure.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: That would be really good. Well,
let's go through whatever we can clean up today --
MS. FABACHER: I mean, next Tuesday.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- and go -- and get done with it.
MS. F ABACHER: Okay. Oh, oh, you mean instead of doing all
day next Tuesday do the second half on Thursday.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I don't think we need a full day on
the 8th.
MS. FABACHER: Okay. Because we advertised the 8th, but
that's okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Oh, well, I didn't know that was an
issue. Is that an issue, Jeff?
MR. KLA TZKOW: I don't think so. This is just a continuation
of the --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Right.
MS. F ABACHER: -- initial hearing.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: We could confuse some of these
people, but other than that --
MS. FABACHER: Well, no. The reason that we do that--
because we continued so many times and then it was just our practice
eventually to just say, "Hey, we're still doing it. " You know, I don't __
I mean, we will officially advertise the 23rd, and that's our official
really second hearing, and that's all we're really compelled to have.
But after we continue about three or four times we like to give them
another ad just to err on the side of notifications.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Have you been making notes on
which ones and pages we're done with here today?
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MS. F ABACHER: Yes.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. At about 4 -- at about 5:30,
why don't we get an assessment from you of what's left, and then we'll
-- we'll determine if we can -- if it's something we should attempt
Thursday afternoon.
MS. FABACHER: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: We can make that decision before
we leave today.
MS. FABACHER: Uh-huh. All right.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: So let's go on with another 40
minutes or whatever we can get in.
MS. FABACHER: All right. Okay. Great. I'm going to go to
page 2, and it's a -- I'm sorry -- page 4. And you remember the old
omissions from recodification. It's a one-word omission from the
recodification, and that is to add the word "boathouses" to dock -- the
definition of dock facilities.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: The only thing I might suggest is it
may change if we come up with separate language for canopies.
Weren't we looking at separating canopies as a -- as a separate thing?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yep.
MS. FABACHER: Yeah, you're -- you're right. So I guess we
can't do that then. All right.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, it's not a, "We can't do it."
MS. FABACHER: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I think we can do it. We have no
comments on it. When it comes back on the 23rd --
MS. FABACHER: Rewrite it.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- include the rewrite of the
canopies as a description in here, if that's what comes out of the staff
presentation.
MS. FABACHER: Okay. Sure.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Is that -- other than that I don't
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think we need to rediscuss this one before the 23rd then.
MS. FABACHER: No.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Just a quick thing. Isn't bold in
our -- isn't it a bolt -- boathouse a definition?
MS. F ABACHER: It is but not in the definition itself.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay.
MS. FABACHER: I mean, dock facility's a definition. It would
be bolded in the rest of the text.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But how about the word
"boathouse" here?
MS. F ABACHER: That's what I'm saying. This is -- because it's
in a definition, it doesn't get bolded.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But do we have a definition for
it?
MS. F ABACHER: This is the existing definition. The existing
text is everything that isn't underlined.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: This is the definition, Brad.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: This is just modifying that --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Definitions of dock facility.
MS. FABACHER: Right.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Right.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But is there a definition for
boathouse?
MS. FABACHER: No. Let me see. Well, let me look.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Because if there is, it should be
bold.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yeah, a definition within a
definition.
MS. FABACHER: Let me see real quick.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: What a boring life we live.
This is -- this is the hot time in the city we found this.
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MS. FABACHER: Well, correct, there is. A boathouse, a
building, or a structure used for the storage of boats, watercraft, or
equipment that is accessory to boats or watercraft.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: So it -- it should be bolded here
because it is a definition?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yeah, I think you're right.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: It's a simple yes or no.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, bold--
MS. FABACHER: I'll have to give you some research on that
because it -- there's some extenuating factor when they talk about a
dock facility somewhere else.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
MS. FABACHER: It wouldn't include a boat facility, and I think
that's why it was cleared up.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. I think our comments are to
look at that.
MS. FABACHER: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: And look at the inclusion of
canopies if we get a rewrite back from canopies that ends up
separately addressing canopies.
MS. FABACHER: Okay. Let's see. The next one -- the next
one I have -- the next one I have is going to be 64-A through C, page
64-A through C, and this is based on a GM -- an amendment of the
Golden Gate area master plan that was done back in 2004, and they
neglected to add it to the LDC.
It was a GMP amendment to add another -- another block to this
overlay, and Michelle -- I told Michelle I could take care of it because
it's this way now in the Golden Gate area master plan. That's what it
is. So we have to be consistent, and so that's all this one is.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I'm not going to ask a question.
Don't worry.
MS. FABACHER: Okay.
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August 1, 2006
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Anybody else have any questions?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Just my page number. It's --
hold on a second. I don't have a 64. Let me see. Oh, yes, I do.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: It's a brown page.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah. So what we're doing is
we're adding that one --
(Sneeze. )
MS. FABACHER: God bless you.
We're moving another block over. If you look at page 64-A,
which doesn't say anything -- it says existing -- that -- that was the one
that was previous.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right.
MS. F ABACHER: And then if you look at 64-C that is where
the area -- the overlay is described, the Santa Barbara commercial -- or
subdistrict in the Golden Gate area master plan. So they did that in
2004, and it just never got to the code.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. I mean, that just seems
like such a bad idea because you're intruding into the residential
neighborhoods that you never did before. I mean ...
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Brad, I wasn't necessarily in favor
of it, but it was the majority reading of the committee.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But this --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: And it was passed already. This is
just a graphic to support what was already -- the language already
changed.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But the -- the graphic here, was
that the graphic we used when we passed it? In other words, the one
that's on 64 -- I mean, for example, if we were shown the existing and
now we're putting in this new one, that's a total -- big totally different
creature.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I remember the discussion, and we
discussed the full depth of that block as it's shown in the one that
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_e" _"~;'___'~_.__".~,"'
August 1, 2006
you're seeing on 64-C so ...
MS. FABACHER: But, however, the growth management plan
-- the Golden Gate area master plan of the growth management plan
was amended.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yes. It's done.
MS. F ABACHER: So, therefore, we're required to be consistent.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yeah. It's already amended. It's
just a matter of including the graphic on it.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I just hope -- I just hope we
weren't tricked by looking at the wrong map. I mean, why would they
prepare this --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well--
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: -- wrong map if it was--
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I was chairman of that committee,
and I was here at the time this came through, and I know that I
discussed it thoroughly. I wasn't tricked.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Pardon me.
MS. F ABACHER: Okay. And I'm prepared to go -- unless you
want me to do Action Jackson's section -- I could do that if you'd like
me to go through the Bayshore/Gateway Triangle.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, why don't we go through all
the small stuff first and come back to that.
MS. FABACHER: Okay. Okay. Great. All right. I'm -- I'm
going to look then at page 155, dock facilities, provide criteria for __
for evaluating boat dock extension applications omitted during
recodification.
If you're on -- if you're on page 155, you'll see that -- if you turn
the page, 156, there are primary criteria and secondary criteria. What
got omitted was in order -- was what was on page 155, which said that
you had to meet four of the five primary criteria and at least four of
the six secondary criteria. That language was omitted, so it looked
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August 1, 2006
like you had to do it all.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Are there any questions on pages
155?
MS. FABACHER: Now, I have -- Mr. Chairman, the DSAC
subcommittee recommended that -- of course, that we change from
four of five in the primary to be three of five.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: This is the way the code did read
in the past; right?
MS. FABACHER: Exactly. I'm just --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: We can leave it the way it is.
MS. FABACHER: -- compelled to give you their comments.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I mean, I don't know we
shouldn't take liberty now, but G is not a criteria, so that'll be an easy
one for me.
MS. FABACHER: You're right. Perhaps--
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: G is a --
MS. FABACHER: -- we could make that -- I'll look and see if
we can renumber that.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah, I think that -- actually, I
think G should go right after 2 or maybe up front, and then,
essentially, we should be getting five of six, not five of seven or --
unless you want --
MS. FABACHER: I understand.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: -- G to be an --
MS. FABACHER: I understand what you -- what you're saying.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay.
MS. FABACHER: Okay. I'll relocate that.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And then the only other thing is
D, Donna. And I would love to see a primary criteria, but we've
wasted enough time on that.
MS. F ABACHER: Well, if that's your direction --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, can we -- can we --
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August 1, 2006
MS. F ABACHER: -- recommendation.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Can we review that? I mean,
we're here for a scrivener error, but --
MS. FABACHER: Why not?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, now wait a minute. When
you advertised you did you advertise it like a scrivener error as -- like
in the glitch, or did you actually notify the public that we're going to
make a change in the criteria?
MS. FABACHER: All I did was -- all I advertise -- I don't say
what type of change. All I said is I'm going to amend Section 5.03.06.
That's all we advertise in the title block --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well--
MS. FABACHER: -- unless we add a new section. Then we say
we're adding.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: You want to -- Brad, you're
suggesting taking the secondary criteria and moving it to primary?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: To me -- I mean, why don't -- if
that needs to be done, why don't we vent that through staff for a
proposed cycle in the future and not do something that the public may
not have added -- adequate time to realize we were doing.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Nor other boards, so you're
right.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: Mark.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Earlier today we talked about
site inspection for these docks and concluded that there will be no site
inspection, I believe. Now, if we're going to consider this viewing as
an important part of the analysis, shouldn't we retain that site
inspection? Because, otherwise, they wouldn't be able to make an
analysis.
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August 1, 2006
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I think we are --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I think that's sea grass.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yeah, those are pertaining to sea
grass only.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Is that all it pertained to?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: It was sea grass, yeah.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: It was a sea grass issue.
MS. FABACHER: Correct. Correct. Exac -- if I may, Catherine
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: So we still would have a site
inspection to validate this.
MS. FABACHER: No, I think all the review would be done
from the plans. And my understanding from Steve Lindburger, who
does the grass beds, is that he has such good maps and charts and
LIDAR that he really doesn't -- he knows where the grass beds are,
and if it's an area where he knows there's no grass bed then he may
travel for miles and waste half a day.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Right.
MS. FABACHER: That -- that was what was behind that
change.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Right.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: But I'm -- I'm thinking about the
impact on the view. In order to ascertain the impact on the view,
wouldn't we have to have someone out there inspecting the site?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: We don't -- we have an ordinance
on that. We haven't agreed -- required -- I don't re -- that's not been
required in the past, has it?
MS. F ABACHER: A site visit is environment, not to ascertain
the view.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Right.
MS. F ABACHER: I think you get that from the presentation of
the request for the boathouse or the dock facility because when you
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August 1, 2006
hear that --
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Well, under 2 -- under 2-D it
says, "Whether the proposed facility would have a major impact on
the waterfront view of neighboring waterfront property owners."
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: But, see, staff doesn't make that
determination. That's made at a public hearing by us.
MS. FABACHER: The planning commission uses that to
determine, and usually the applicant brings a picture or the staff will
bring pictures for you to work from, or you -- you may visit it
yourself.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: I understand that.
MS. F ABACHER: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: But I thought the staff should
visit it too.
MS. FABACHER: Well, this is the environment staff only, and
they're really looking at the sea grass beds. It purely applies to -- they
may visit it, but --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: The zoning does it.
MS. F ABACHER: Yes, but this applies only to the
environmental people for the purposes of the -- the sea grass bed.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: There any other questions on 155
through 157? Okay. We're moving to what?
MS. FABACHER: I'm going to try and do 197, after-the-fact
encroachments.
MR. COMMISSIONER MURRAY: 197?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: 197.
MS. FABACHER: Okay. I think you -- I think you saw the--
the front sheet. The reason for the change is it was language omitted
during recodification process, and it -- it -- it resulted in some
confusion as to whether this -- these provisions were applied both to
principal and accessory structures, and there was an interpretation that
they -- they did not apply to accessory, so to clear that up staff's come
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August 1, 2006
back with new language just to be sure that -- to know that these
after-the-fact encroachments which can be granted which are -- you'll
see they're pretty minimal, six inches. It's just to help people out after
their house is built, someone else buys it, you what know I'm saying?
And there was some question as to whether it applied -- or the
interpretation of whether it applied primarily to principal or if that was
to include accessories, so now staffs cleared it up.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Miss Caron.
COMMISSIONER CARON: You know, it's not just six inches.
MS. F ABACHER: I -- I was just reading the one __
COMMISSIONER CARON: It can be up to 25 percent of the
required yard. That's a quarter of the required setbacks.
MS. FABACHER: You're right. I--
COMMISSIONER CARON: That's far too great for--
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Mark, could we move this to the
next meeting? I didn't properly look at it.
MS. FABACHER: Okay. Good. Because I really need Joyce--
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Let's go to 197, Catherine.
MS. F ABACHER: I need Joyce to --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: 197 to the next meeting.
MS. FABACHER: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: What else?
MS. F ABACHER: That's all I really am kind of comfortable to
talk about.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, that -- let's go back to
Bayshore and work through for the next half hour or so.
MS. F ABACHER: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I don't know -- what page was that
one on again? Oh, let's see.
MS. FABACHER: That's up towards the front in 2.03.07.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Bayshore.
MS. FABACHER: Okay. It's the first--
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August 1, 2006
COMMISSIONER MURRA V: There we go; 54, 55.
MS. F ABACHER: The first one is going to be on page 53.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: 53, okay.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: 53?
MS. FABACHER: 53.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59-A and B,
C, D, 60.
MS. FABACHER: Wait. Excuse me.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I'm reading how many are __
MS. FABACHER: Oh.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: All these are part of that first one;
right?
MS. FABACHER: (Nodded head.)
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: 63 -- it goes all the way to page
64, if I'm not mistaken, and there's a lot of sub pages addressed to it,
so -- well, why don't we start right from page 53. Well, actually, the
first changes are on page 54. Does anybody have any questions?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: The -- the question I had is why
March 3, 2006, is the date chosen.
MS. FABACHER: Because that's when they enacted the
provisions, the Bayshore -- or the current version of the Bayshore
overlay.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay.
MS. F ABACHER: And, also, this has to do with -- you really
kind of have a vested right if you will -- we had it -- after -- it's
approved after a certain time, but, actually, once you get your
application in and it's deemed sufficient you have a vested right in the
regulations that you entered under.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay.
MS. F ABACHER: So staff was just correcting that so we didn't
change the laws on you midstream.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Page 56 -- and maybe this
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August 1, 2006
is where, Catherine, you could -- you -- are you familiar as to why this
originated and how it got here?
MS. F ABACHER: I think the very basis of it -- it was, you
know, on some of the -- you know, as you know, this Bayshore and
the GTMD overlays, it's kind of this new mixed use. And -- and
Commissioner Murray will tell you how hard it is to birth a new baby
like the Smart Growth amendments, but it's just not a one-size-fits-all.
And we didn't have -- we didn't want -- since these two areas are
in a CRA we didn't want to have to have people go for variances
because we're supposed to be giving them incentives to rebuild and __
and redevelop that area quickly.
So instead of making them -- if they couldn't meet all these
requirements -- and, as I said, it's kind of hard because we just started
it. We'll be amending it a lot, but it's kind of a one-size- fits-all. It--
you know, it doesn't really exactly fit a whole complete new
development or doesn't exactly completely fit infill pieces, so what it
does is give the ability to -- to award some administrative deviations
during the SDP process, minor ones.
I think if you look at them -- and I -- you know, I really think that
Mike Fernandez and -- and Patrick White really kind of want to be
here and talk to you about this one so ...
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Because your word
"minor" -- I read these, and there are some pretty strong __
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Major minors.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- changes here that--
MS. FABACHER: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- I think maybe go beyond what
is considered minor.
MS. FABACHER: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: So if you want to -- and both
individuals you just mentioned are not members of the county staff?
MS. FABACHER: No. Well-- no, they're not. No.
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August 1, 2006
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
MS. FABACHER: No.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. So this wasn't -- was this
initiated when Patrick was part of county staff, or is this a private
initiation by either he or Fernandez?
MS. FABACHER: He was brought to staff's attention during
that whole transition process when Patrick was leaving.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
MS. F ABACHER: So, yeah -- no, I -- when I -- yeah, I can -- I
can do the rest of the changes. It's just on that one.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I'd rather -- I have some pretty -- a
lot of questions.
MS. FABACHER: Yeah. No, I'd rather they--
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I'd rather they were here because I
don't want to start --
MS. F ABACHER: -- because they're kind of a moving force
behind it and--
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Right. So I'd like to understand
their reasoning, and that would be better.
MS. F ABACHER: Excellent for them to come on the 8th or
Thursday.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, let's -- I guess that's the last
one you feel comfortable discussing.
MS. FABACHER: No, I can go to the Gateway Triangle. That's
just a small part of the --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Ifwe're going to quit, I have
maybe a couple of thoughts that maybe will help her, more changes.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I was going to --like I said, I -- I
mean, I -- Bob, you're more than welcome to put them on record now,
and let me know that --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Well, let me just ask then, if I
may. On page 57 where we use the word on the top of the page
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August 1, 2006
"opinion," professional judgment is that applicable again, do you
think?
MS. FABACHER: Absolute -- absolutely.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay. All right. And then I
have a question to you to qualify, "Granting the proposed deviation is
not inconsistent with any goal, objective, or policy of the GMP." My
note to myself is by definition a deviation is an inconsistency, so is
that -- is that circular?
MS. FABACHER: Well, actually, these are deviations to the
land development code regulations, which in many cases are more
specific and stringent than the general directions of the GMP.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay. And so it's not circular,
and it does have --
MS. FABACHER: Right.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: It can be qualified effectively.
MS. FABACHER: Right.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: All right. Then the last thing
was under Roman 10, "Conditions may be imposed upon the
development through the deviation process." The deviation process in
this case is administrative in nature?
MS. FABACHER: Yes. Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay. All right. Thank you.
That would answer my questions on those. Okay. On 58,
"Applications for administrative deviations may be denied by the
department staff," if we're looking for the director's professional
judgment, does that equate to the department staff?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: You know, Mr. Murray, we're
going to rehear this when the peop --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Oh, I'm sorry. I thought it was --
I thought it --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: No, Catherine was telling us that
she didn't write this, that the two people that wrote it would like to be
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August 1, 2006
here --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- when we discussed it.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I didn't hear.
MS. FABACHER: Well-- no. No. The staff had a part in it, but
I think that's a good comment.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. But I'm just wondering if
you -- if we wait and just hold off and do it all at one time.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I can. I was just hoping I could
add some information so she'd have less to deal with. Okay. I'll -- I'll
quit. Not a problem. It's getting late.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: And the Gateway one was similar
language, Catherine, so what do --
MS. F ABACHER: Well, we'd have to -- yeah, we'll have to, but
I could go over starting on page 59.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well--
MS. FABACHER: We can still do the rest.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: The only -- the issue is that--
MS. FABACHER: 58, 59.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- our EMS representative is here,
so we can get --
MS. FABACHER: Oh, well then we can do that one.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- try to understand why fire
departments need special treatment in this county when the public
doesn't get the same, so -- but I don't have any opinion on this matter,
though.
MS. F ABACHER: All right. Well, we'll continue this later, and
maybe Chief Page will --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Is that a fireman's red shirt?
MS. F ABACHER: -- be able to answer the questions.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Sir, you're up --
CHIEF PAGE: Okay.
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August 1, 2006
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- since you volunteered to show
up.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: What page are we on?
CHIEF PAGE: It pays to watch TV.
MS. FABACHER: We're on page 49.
CHIEF PAGE: Thank you. Commissioners, the -- for the
record, Jeff Page with Emergency Medical Services. The issue is that
the conditional-use permitting usually takes us 9 to 12 months. In the
AUIR it was never really designed to take in that additional 12-month
delay.
As you may remember, the AUIR for next year has me putting up
four stations next year. With the construction costs, I guess an
additional 10 percent per year and a 12-month delay, that could be
anywhere from a million to a million five.
Additionally, the cost to hire the civil engineering firm, that can
cost fifty to a hundred thousand. Also, there is an insurance
component here for the ISO ratings for the fire districts that would
also be a prudent use of taxes.
Sorry. I ran up here.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: That's okay.
COMMISSIONER CARON: That's okay.
CHIEF PAGE: But really we feel that there's a need for this, and
I'm here to answer any questions you might have.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, sir, I can tell you that I don't
see where these agencies are above the law. In fact, if anything,
they're disruptive to neighborhoods, and they should -- the
neighborhoods should be well aware they're coming into play because
in Golden Gate we just had that example next to Summit Place. And
it wasn't your department. It was the fire department that tried to go in
there, and had they go (sic) in with what they were proposing it would
have been more detrimental to those people than it is now and in a
refined manner.
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August 1, 2006
I have -- no way can I see this as an acceptable solution to the
department, and if -- if your department didn't plan for properly then
it's not the public's fault. I honestly think that this is -- this would be a
travesty to have this -- your facilities and all these facilities pop up
throughout neighborhoods unannounced to the public. I just don't see
it so ...
CHIEF PAGE: We did consider the advisory council's
recommendation about the training facilities, the outside training
facilities, and we added that language that we would require them to
come in for permitting, which I believe the tower was the issue with
some points.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: And that was one of them. But you
guys start in the morning and test your sirens and start your engines,
and I -- I've been part of it. I was a commissioner with Golden Gate
for numbers of years. I know the routine. And that's fine if they go
into a facility and that the public around them understands what's
happening and the neighborhoods -- realizes it, but just to go out and
buy a five-acre tract in Golden Gate Estates and say, "Okay . We're
going to put a fire station here," that is just not the right way to go. I
just don't see it.
And I understand your position, and I empathize with what you're
trying to do, but this is lumped together with too many other things
that won't work in my opinion, so I'm -- the board, obviously, should
ring in perhaps and make their comments as they need.
Mr. Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah, I mean, I'm -- I agree that
the public really should have a say in where you put the sites, but after
that I think that anything that the county can do to fast-track the thing
I think is important.
So you were saying -- how long did it take to get conditional
uses?
CHIEF PAGE: From experience, the conditional use -- 9 to 12
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August 1, 2006
months is what we're averaging right now, and it -- at construction
costs -- I mean, you make budget.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Everybody's living in that
world.
CHIEF PAGE: I understand.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: That's the sad thing is it's
difficult -- you know, I mean, I definitely think the neighborhoods
need these, and I definitely think we need high ratings, and the
beneficiary is the whole neighborhood, the insurance of the
neighborhood.
But I think that the specific site -- those neighbors need to be
comfortable with what's going in, so if you could figure out or -- I
mean, this doesn't figure it out. This just allows them to be taken out
of the equation, which I can't support, but if there was a way to -- I
mean -- and could we not somehow get the -- I mean, can we come up
with some system that would get these things through faster?
CHIEF PAGE: Oh, that would be preferential treatment to the
county, and I don't -- I don't see that happening.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, not as preferential as this
would be. I mean, this is giving you --
COMMISSIONER CARON: This is even worse.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: In other words, something in
between. I mean -- I mean, we fast-track applications. If a large
company wanted to come to town and build a software business, they
would be, you know, guided through the process rather quickly, I
hope, so I think you should even get a better treatment than that.
CHIEF PAGE: Well, it's -- again, you know, we see it as a cost
saving to the taxpayer. I mean, obviously, if -- if we have to factor in
these additional costs, that's that much more ad valorem we have to
draw on.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But -- but what if you put it in a
bad place, though? I mean, what if you put it in a place that really
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disturbs a lot of people and it -- let's say it really doesn't fit? The
neighbors never had a chance.
CHIEF PAGE: Well, I can give you an example. For instance,
we've had a couple of instances where people complained about the
sirens in the morning. You know what. We don't have to do that
there. The -- the impact of sirens running down a road -- North Road's
a good example, the trailer park there. What we actually installed was
a -- a signaling device that would change the signal at that intersection
be -- I had a lady whose dog actually had seizures every time the siren
went by.
So, I mean, we try to accommodate and work with the public. I
mean, that's my department. I can't speak for them all but ...
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, what if we did -- I mean,
when you get your land, do you buy large acreage, or do you get small
lots or -- what if there was a large parcel of land that you could buy,
put yourself in the middle of by right, and then sell off the rest of the
land, which means the buyers around you are aware of who's there?
CHIEF PAGE: Well -- that that's similar to what we did with the
Bembridge area. I mean, initially we bought several acres and
actually only needed two.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right.
CHIEF PAGE: And I think that's going to affordable housing, or
the intent is that.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: So they can't complain because
they know what's there. I mean, if the -- you have to -- if there was a
setup like that, I would definitely think that should be permitted.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Miss Caron, did you have
anything?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yeah. I have some concerns about
some of the places you are trying to put these operations in NRBAs
and habitat stewardship areas, and flow-away stewardship areas. I
think those are pretty intense uses for some of -- of these areas.
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Again, that's --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah, just one piece of
qualification. It's in two locations that I can see here immediately.
But on page 51 number -- letter F( e), when you spoke of dedicated I
just want to be absolutely sure that would include towers, wouldn't it?
CHIEF PAGE: No, that -- that's the actual wording that was put
in there for the towers.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
MS. FABACHER: Excuse me.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Chief, I -- you know, you came
before us in AUIR. You were one of the few departments that did a
really good job. I like what you did, and I like what you're trying to
do. I understand your dilemma, but I can't see that -- these three
elements especially have major compatibility issues for neighborhoods
than the other essential services that are more passive, and I just don't
think they rank with the others in a passive nature, and because of that
I think our compatibility issues in this county would not -- this would
not do well for the neighborhoods.
And personally I don't think it should go forward. I would
recommend denial. And I know that's not our final hearing today, but
that's where I would stand on the issue at the second hearing.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I would join you on that.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Let me ask a question.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Is -- when you define law
enforcement, fire emergency, is that obvious that that means
governmental? In other words, theoretically does that mean
Wackenhut could take advantage of this or --
CHIEF PAGE: Well, no. Typically, what we do is -- for
Corkscrew Island area we have a station there that the SO is building
an addition to, the sheriffs office.
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August 1, 2006
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right.
CHIEF PAGE: So we -- typically, we try to consolidate those
three agencies if we can.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: What I mean is is -- I mean, is
there a word we could use to make sure that these facilities are for
government agencies, not --
CHIEF PAGE: Sure.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: So I think I would add that
because somebody could come in and say, "Well, I'm a -- I have an
emergency medical clinic, and I can be anywhere." So maybe add a
word there.
I think -- I don't know about the rest of it. I think the -- that
situation with large land that you would cut off or something, that puts
the burden of you becoming a land developer, but I think it's -- out of
fairness you can't just show up anywhere without the neighborhoods
having a say.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: You know, Chief, if you were to
come back with some form of abbreviated process as you -- and this is
an abbreviated proc -- you're trying to change a process that's in place
now. If you could figure out another way to change it that allows for
public hearings so that neighborhoods could participate --
CHIEF PAGE: Right.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- that's the key. And it doesn't
need -- maybe there's another way to do it besides a conditional use.
Maybe there's -- maybe -- maybe meet with Joe Schmitt and his staff
and a solution could be found. The whole key is notifying the
neighborhood and having a public input, and if that can be resolved I
think what you're trying to do is fine. I'd love to see you get your
stations built but not without the public participating.
So anybody else have any final comments of --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Just I think you're right, Mark,
and if -- I would certainly volunteer to work with you on trying to
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come up with those words that we could make palatable where the
neighborhoods are involved, so -- and I -- you know, I meet with Rick
and the gang this Friday, so if you want I'll come check in with you,
and we can try to write something out.
CHIEF PAGE: I would appreciate that.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I guess -- is there any other issues
for you here today, sir?
CHIEF PAGE: No, sir.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Well, thank you.
CHIEF PAGE: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I appreciate you coming up--
upstairs. I'm sorry the outcome wasn't what you'd hoped, but thank
you --
CHIEF PAGE: That's okay. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- very much. Catherine.
MS. FABACHER: I think that's -- that's all we have. If you
want to start looking at what we have left --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yep. Why don't we run through it
real quick, and then after we get done we can determine if we have a
way of accomplishing it in a few hours or six hours on a Thursday
afternoon if that's what it ends up.
MS. FABACHER: Okay. On page 1 of the summary sheet, of
course, we have the abbreviation list that we'll go through. I've made
note of everything that Commissioner Kolflat said today, and that --
Kolflat -- and that will go in and, also, the list that you-all provided
me at the last meeting. I spoke with Susan Murray Istenes, and she
said put that in, too, so we have that.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: On page 2 you're -- I mean, the
first page -- there's two things on the first page. We've already
accomplished the second one; is that correct?
MS. FABACHER: Correct. Correct.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
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COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: Are we just indicating what we
have yet to do, or are we --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yes.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: -- doing it now?
MS. FABACHER: No.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: No. No. We're indicating so we
can determine if we can handle it Thursday afternoon this week
instead of next Tuesday.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Right. Because I have more on
the acroment (sic) list.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Oh, no. No. We're not -- we're
not getting to that right now.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Okay.
MS. FABACHER: Okay. Then on page 2 of the summary
sheets -- we've done both of those items. Then --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, did -- wait a minute. Yes,
we did. Okay. Sorry.
MS. FABACHER: All right. Okay. And then we had -- on page
3 of the summary sheet we have the lot with text, but we're still
waiting on some graphics for some -- two illustrations that DSAC had
asked for.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
MS. FABACHER: So we have to do that still. And I think -- I
don't know if you've heard enough about passive recreation, but --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I think we did. Well, we already
heard it, so we're not going to hear it again --
MS. FABACHER: All right. Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- till the 23rd or later.
MS. F ABACHER: All right. And we did -- on page 4 we did
the -- the signs, and then we've heard once on the -- well, the -- we did
the -- number -- page 13, we did that one. That's just a correction.
And then the next page are the two Smart Growth amendments, and I
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think Commissioner Murray had indicated that he wants to kind of get
together with the other committee members and see what they want to
do with those two.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: We're going to -- they're going to
come back and respond to us on some -- the 23rd or later.
MS. FABACHER: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: The second time.
MS. FABACHER: All right. And then I'm on page 6. And, of
course, we just talked with disappointed Chief Page. And then would
you like me to have David Jackson come for the Bayshore and --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, if you can't handle it,
somebody needs to be here who can.
MS. FABACHER: All right.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: If it's Patrick--
MS. F ABACHER: Well, I can handle that. It's just the -- it's just
the administrative deviation language, but I could -- I can han --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, that's the issue.
MS. F ABACHER: Well, I know, but there are just some other
minor tweakings, though, that I could handle.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, why don't we do it all at--
one day.
MS. FABACHER: That's fine.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: So if you need support, whoever
you need to have here you need have with you.
MS. FABACHER: Okay. All right. So we still have that -- now
on page 53, Bayshore, and then we still have the Gateway, but there
are really not a lot of changes except for that administrative deviation
process.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Right.
MS. FABACHER: And then 9.04.08 that's the deviation process
again on page 8 of the summary sheets. We did the bottom item
looking at the extension of that overlay area. We're going to do on
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August 17th on page 9 and pa -- of the summary sheet, page 75, that's
the Copeland zoning overlay, and we're going to be meeting on
August 17th down in Copeland to do that.
On page 10, the affordable housing inclusionary zoning
amendment, that's been pulled for this cycle for a special cycle. On
page 11 we did the -- the vegetative removal permit, and we also did
the second set, the -- the citation correction. Well, actually, we had a
question about that which can be pretty easily cleared up, I think.
Okay. Then we -- on page 12 they have withdrawn the shape
factor ratio amendment to come back with something after the GMP --
after the EAR-based amendments to the GMP have been implemented
for the LDC. Then on page 8 -- no, 13, that's at the -- the stormwater,
so we're going to have to hear about that again on the -- probably the
third sec -- I could have come back with that on the 8th.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: We finished the stormwater for
this first round. We're still going --
MS. FABACHER: We did?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: We did that. We already sat on it.
MS. FABACHER: Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay.
And then the next two pages -- next two items on page 14, we finished
those. On page 15 we finished that. On page 16 we finished that.
Page 1 7 we finished that. Page 18 we still need to come back with
that on the 23rd. I think you talked to -- to Nick about that where he's
going to do some corridors in the setback amendment.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: No, Nick -- Nick asked about
bringing it back on the 23rd.
MS. FABACHER: Right. That--
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: And you told him what Margie, I
thought, instructed me is that we have to hear these things twice. The
23rd is the second nearing. If he intends to utilize this, he needs to do
it maybe Thursday then.
MS. FABACHER: Okay.
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COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I mean, it -- we're supposed to
have two hearings; that's what I understood Margie to tell us. Ifwe
have to have two hearings and the second one starts on the 23rd, then
how can we have it unless we have a special meeting just for Nick,
which I don't think we need.
MS. FABACHER: Well, I mean, they may not have all their
graphics together, but they can begin to discuss the issue at our next
meeting and then finalize it on the 23rd. We could do that.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: If they've got enough done, but, I
mean, I think we ought to have the benefit of the complete package to
critique it ahead of time, and right now Thursday's only two days
away, so this one may end up having to carry us over to the 8th or to
the -- yeah, the 8th. It would have to be the 8th.
MS. FABACHER: Right. I was going to -- we may not be ready
to bring most of this stuff back as soon as Thursday.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
MS. FABACHER: On page -- help me out here -- 19.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Right.
MS. FABACHER: That's one where I would like to have Mr.
Don Pick --
MR. KLATZKOW: Worth.
MS. F ABACHER: -- Pickworth come. That was the one that we
needed to add a free-stranding clock tower in the activity center, No.
9, as part of a settlement on a lawsuit --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
MS. FABACHER: -- for Seagate. Next page, 20, that's the
amendment on page 123. That's the one where I would like Dwight
Nadeau. He is -- they requested this. RW A requested this
amendment, so I'd like Dwight Nadeau to present that on the 8th then
-- or he could do it Thursday.
Let's see. Access management, did we -- did we -- Nick's going
to bring changes on that.
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COMMISSIONER STRAIN: What page are you on?
MS. FABACHER: I'm on page 20 of the summary sheet, and I'm
on -- it's one -- it's the amendment on page 127, the one that requires
the interconnection, and you had asked him to do some more --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yeah, but he comes back on the
23rd with that.
MS. FABACHER: Oh, all right.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Anything we discussed we're done
with.
MS. FABACHER: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: The corrections we asked staff to
do, they bring it back on the 23rd.
MS. FABACHER: All right.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: We take one final shot at it, and
we're done.
MS. FABACHER: Okay. I'm on page 21, and one has been
withdrawn, and Mike spoke about that today, on page 135, the buffer
requirement. I'm on page 22 of the amendment sheet, and Mike spoke
about the land --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Wait. Wait. Stop.
MS. FABACHER: I'm sorry.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: The lots -- I'm still on 21. What
did you say about the one on 135? Was that done?
MS. FABACHER: Yeah, we -- Mark talked -- Mike talked about
that today.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay. I just want to be sure.
Thank you.
MS. FABACHER: Okay. On the next page, again, Mike talked
about the one on page 138, and Bruce talked about the page -- the one
on page 143. On page 23, the first one on page 147 that's been
withdrawn, and then today Mike talked about the next one on page
149 where they relocated the water body requirements, landscaping
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requirements. And then the boat canopies we talked about today.
And then the criteria for the dock facilities on page 155, that's one
where we may want to have Joyce come back, but we did begin to
discuss it today.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Well, she'll be back after the 23rd.
MS. FABACHER: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: We discussed it today.
MS. FABACHER: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: All right.
MS. FABACHER: Okay. And then we did Barbara -- I'm on
page 25 of the summary sheets. And on page 159, protection of sea
grass beds where that made the site visit optional, Barbara talked
about that. We have not done exterior building color --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Right.
MS. FABACHER: -- on the bottom of that page.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Are we going to try to do that
tomorrow, Mark?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I don't know. Are we going to get
-- I don't know how many we're going to -- let's just -- let's get through
the list, and then we'll have to discuss how far we can go.
MS. FABACHER: We haven't talked about fences and walls, so
we'll have to talk about that.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Are you -- I notice that that one's
got your name on it. Why didn't we go into that just now?
MS. FABACHER: When we went before the DSAC, they had
said -- Bob Mulhere had said he thought we had it in the wrong place.
Then I met with Susan, and then we got unsure as to what the right
place would be, and so we wanted to get back with Bob Mulhere on
that -- and he's been on vacation.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
MS. FABACHER: -- as to what he had meant on that.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Thank you.
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MS. FABACHER: Okay. Same page, on 167 Diana discussed
those signs. Next page, which is 27 of the amendment summary
sheets, Diana did both of those. The same thing on the next page, on
page 28, we finished with all of those. The same on 29, we finished
with that.
Let's see. We talked about this with Nick today on page 30, on
that management and monitoring. He needs to come back with some
changes -- text changes on the 23rd, and I think we spoke -- spoke
with Trinity Caudill-Scott on the one on page 187, which is page 31 of
the amendment sheets. I think she's going to come back with some
more text on the 23rd for you there.
Barbara spoke about the EAC membership on page 20 -- on 32,
and it's on page 192 in the book. Barbara spoke about that today, so
she needs to kind of -- I think you asked her to go back to the drawing
board and try and find another -- a better method than increasing the
board to 11 people.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yes.
MS. F ABACHER: I can't re -- recall whether we spoke with
Sharon Dantini if she was going to come back on the --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: No.
MS. FABACHER: -- stop work order. We didn't do that?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: No, we did not.
MS. FABACHER: Okay. We still need to do that one. Okay.
Now, turning to page 34, that's one where we need Joyce for the first
one on page 197. Well, no, that wasn't the one. That's the one I
explained to you where the accessory and the principal structures just
to clarify.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: We wanted to hear it again.
MS. FABACHER: We did. Okay.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yes. That's Thursday.
MS. FABACHER: Okay. All right. And I think Barbara
discussed page 201, submittal -- the EIS amendment. And then on the
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next page, 35 of the summary sheets, that's withdrawn. Page 36 of the
summary sheets, that's withdrawn.
On page 209 with Susan Murray Istenes on there, that's the one
that Mike was talking about where Susan was going to rework the
larger picture, and his amendment -- his landscape administrative
deviation was going to be part of this larger -- and I think Susan had
been tasked by the board to look at some ways to try and help older,
older structures that just sit there for lack of a small -- a foot here, that
kind of thing.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Did you say that was withdrawn?
MS. FABACHER: That's withdrawn this cycle.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
MS. FABACHER: Okay. Then we're on the one under that. I
think you spoke with Mr. Preston on the stormwater management
today. I'm on page 37 of the summary sheets. Page 219, Tom Kuck
talked to us about the -- that one, 10.02.03, where you could eliminate
the ability to delay start of construction. Remember that's the one
where --
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yeah.
MS. FABACHER: Okay. Amend Nick's -- I think -- did Nick
have changes to the -- we heard it the first time, the TIS review fee.
Okay. I'm on page thirty--
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Eight.
MS. F ABACHER: Thank you. God, this is just not one of my
fortes. Okay. Traffic counts be provided, that's the hundred percent
buildout. That one's going to have to have a lot of work and come
back on the 23rd. You spoke -- on -- the next page is 39, and on page
225 we spoke with Phil Tindall, and that seemed to be fine.
We spoke with Maryann Devanas on the -- the amendment below
that on page 229, and then on the last page of the summary sheet we
still have to hear from Ray Bellows on the new PUD matrix that's
going to replace the PUD document, and then we're still going to hear
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from Nick again on the final one.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Based on the rate at which
we've been going -- it's been faster than the previous meetings, but I
don't think we're going to get through this Thursday afternoon, so in --
as far as the board goes, do you want to at least get through the items
that we have as written currently in our packet to some extent
Thursday with those people that can attend just to --
MS. F ABACHER: If that's your direction, yes, that's fine.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I mean, on -- what do you think,
panel members? We're already here anyway. Do you want to -- do
you want to try to kill some time and get some more of this through on
Thursday afternoon?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yep.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay.
MS. FABACHER: Okay. I'll make the list of that.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: As many as you can schedule --
MS. FABACHER: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: -- in the afternoon on Thursday
why don't we do that.
MS. F ABACHER: Is that at a time certain? At one, say, or --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, whenever.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I don't know if -- it'll be a time
certain after -- probably after one. When we get to the end of today's
meeting, we can make that a continuation.
I notice Mr. Jackson's here. We might -- we have a half an hour.
We can probably knock out the Gateway and the Bayshore if that's
okay with the --
MR. KLATZKOW: You may -- you may want to have Patrick
here.
MS. FABACHER: Well, we could do everything but the--
everything but the administrative deviation.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Yeah, but that's the bulk of it.
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That's the bulk of it. I'd rather wait for Patrick. I mean --
MS. FABACHER: Well, he's--
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I'm sure that everybody's going to
want to participate in the deviation discussion.
MS. FABACHER: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: And if those other two gentlemen
were the ones that wrote most of it, out of fairness, we ought to do all
-- do it all at one time and have them all here so ...
MR. KLATZKOW: Do you want to make a time certain or a
date certain for that particular one?
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: I -- you know what. I don't know
why we couldn't do it first thing Thursday afternoon to get it over
with. Do you want to start at one?
MS. FABACHER: We'll need to check their schedules.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Right.
MS. FABACHER: It's not -- it might not be enough notice, but,
yeah, I'll -- I'll check with them.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: If they can do it Thursday, why
don't we try for Thursday.
MS. FABACHER: Okay.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Ifnot, we'll go back to the 8th.
MS. FABACHER: Okay. Fine.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. I'd -- I'd rather hear that
whole thing together, and that way everybody's got fair input and
we're not -- you know, because I'm sure that they're probably in
agreement with Mr. Jackson, and we have plenty of questions. I'd
rather have all of them here to answer those questions and so forth.
MS. FABACHER: Yes. Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Does anybody else have
any other issue today then?
MS. FABACHER: No, I think -- oh, excuse me.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Quick question, Catherine.
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August 1, 2006
MS. FABACHER: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: We -- will we be getting
updates on anything?
MS. FABACHER: Well, I was going to give you a whole update
package for the 23rd about two weeks before that, but -- but before
then I -- I don't think I can get --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay.
MS. FABACHER: -- some of this stuff out of staff by then.
Did you want to say anything about -- they've got to announce a
continuation to Thursday.
MR. KLATZKOW: Well, I think we have. We're continuing
this Thursday at one o'clock or as soon thereafter we can get to it.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: That's right. This meeting will be
continued till Thursday at one or thereafter, and we'll--
MR. KLATZKOW: Pending schedules we will commence with
the Bayshore issue.
COMMISSIONER STRAIN: Okay. Thank you. We're over
with for today then.
(The proceedings adjourned at 5:35 p.m.)
*****
There being no further business for the good of the County, the
meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 5:35 p.m.
COLLIER COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION
MARK STRAIN, Chairman
TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF GREGORY COURT
REPORTING SERVICE, INC. BY CHERIE' NOTTINGHAM
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