Agenda 07/14/2020 Item # 2C (Minutes - June 9, 2020)07/14/2020
COLLIER COUNTY
Board of County Commissioners
Item Number: 2.C
Item Summary: June 9, 2020 BCC Meeting Minutes
Meeting Date: 07/14/2020
Prepared by:
Title: Executive Secretary to County Manager – County Manager's Office
Name: MaryJo Brock
06/25/2020 1:30 PM
Submitted by:
Title: County Manager – County Manager's Office
Name: Leo E. Ochs
06/25/2020 1:30 PM
Approved By:
Review:
County Manager's Office MaryJo Brock County Manager Review Completed 06/29/2020 3:47 PM
Board of County Commissioners MaryJo Brock Meeting Pending 07/14/2020 9:00 AM
2.C
Packet Pg. 23
June 9, 2020
Page 1
TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Naples, Florida, June 9, 2020
LET IT BE REMEMBERED, that the Board of County
Commissioners, in and for the County of Collier, and also acting as
the Board of Zoning Appeals and as the governing board(s) of such
special districts as have been created according to law and having
conducted business herein, met on this date at 9:00 a.m., in
REGULAR SESSION in Building "F" of the Government Complex,
East Naples, Florida, with the following members present:
Chairman: Burt L. Saunders
Andy Solis
William L. McDaniel, Jr.
Donna Fiala
Penny Taylor
ALSO PRESENT:
Leo Ochs, County Manager
Nick Casalanguida, Deputy County Manager
Jeffrey A. Klatzkow, County Attorney
Crystal K. Kinzel, Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller
Troy Miller, Communications & Customer Relations
June 9, 2020
Page 2
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Ladies and gentlemen, if you'll
please take your seats. The meeting of the County Commission will
please come to order.
And, Commissioner McDaniel, would you like to again lead us
in an invocation --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'd be happy to.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: -- and the Pledge.
Item #1
INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: If you'd all rise, please.
Bow your heads with me.
Heavenly Father, we ask thy blessings this morning upon these
proceedings. Father, there are miracles all about us. Help us to realize
and give thanks to you for those miracles that you provide for us
every single day.
Father, as always, we ask that you keep close and protect those
who fight for our freedom every single day. Keep our first responders
and law enforcement officers close as well.
In thy name I holy pray. Amen.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Amen.
MR. OCHS: Amen.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: With me, ladies and
gentlemen.
(The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Good morning. I appreciate many
of you are wearing masks, and I always wear mine whenever I'm
going into a building. As things are opening up, the virus hasn't gone
away, so I really appreciate everybody exercising social distancing
June 9, 2020
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and wearing masks whenever you're out in public whenever you have
that opportunity.
Mr. Manager, let's go through the changes to the agenda.
MR. OCHS: Yes, sir. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and
Commissioners.
These are the proposed agenda changes for the Board of County
Commissioners' meeting of June 9th, 2020.
The first proposed change is to withdraw Item 16A4 from your
consent agenda. This is a contract award for lawn mowing and
various county rights-of-ways and easements. That's being withdrawn
at the staff's request.
The next proposed change is to move Item 16A17 from your
consent agenda to become Item 11F under the County Manager's
report. This is a recommendation to approve the eligibility of the
Disaster Permit Fee Program for victims of the 36th Avenue
Southeast fire, and that item is being moved at Commissioner
McDaniel's request.
And we have a few time-certain items, Mr. Chairman. Item 11A,
which is the item to hear the presentations from the proposed
development projects on the former Golden Gate Golf Course, will
be heard immediately following Item 7, which is your public
comments on general topics.
Item 11B will be heard no sooner than 10:45 a.m. this morning;
that's the -- that's the discussion of candidates for your Hearing
Examiner contract. Items 9A and 9B, which are your public hearing
items, that's the ShadowWood PUD and the Hyde Park Village Rural
Lands Stewardship Receiving Area petitions will be heard no sooner
than 1:00 p.m. And, finally, Item 11E will be heard immediately
following 9B. That's the developer agreement that's the companion
item to the Hyde Park petition, and those are all the changes that I
have, sir.
June 9, 2020
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CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. We do have a couple items
that we're going to take up prior to voting on the agenda and the
consent agenda. We'll see if there are any other changes first.
Mr. Klatzkow, do you have any changes?
MR. KLATZKOW: No, sir, thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Ms. Kinzel, no changes to the
consent agenda?
THE CLERK: No. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. Any changes from the
Commission?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes. Just --
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. We do have the -- a
proclamation on there. And, Commissioner Taylor, would you like to
present that proclamation and read that proclamation?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes.
MR. OCHS: Mr. Chairman, I'm sorry for the interruption. I
think we do have at least one registered speaker that wants to speak
before you set your agenda.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Right. Yeah, we're going to get to
that. That's why we're not voting on the agenda just yet. So we have a
proclamation, then we'll get to comments on the consent agenda, and
then we'll have a vote on that.
So, Commissioner Taylor, if you'd like to present the
proclamation.
Item #4A – Read into the record by Commissioner Taylor (prior to
agenda approval)
PROCLAMATION RECOGNIZING THE EXCEPTIONAL
CONTRIBUTIONS OF TEACHERS AND ADMINISTRATORS
WITHIN COLLIER COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS WHO
June 9, 2020
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CONTINUED THE EDUCATION OF STUDENTS THROUGH
ELEARNS DURING THE COVID-19 (CORONAVIRUS)
PANDEMIC, WHICH CAUSED THE CLOSURES OF SCHOOL
CAMPUSES IN THE SPRING OF 2020. THE PROCLAMATION
WILL BE DELIVERED TO KAMELA PATTON, PH.D.,
SUPERINTENDENT, COLLIER COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS –
ADOPTED; ACCEPTED VIA ZOOM BY SUPERINTENDENT
KAMELA PATTON)
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: I'd be honored. I'd be honored.
For those of you that have children, you will resonate soundly
with this proclamation. For those of you that are grandparents or have
no children, there was a yeoman's task being conducted in this county
with our children since the COVID virus brought everyone safer at
home, and I'd like to read this proclamation to honor those people.
Whereas, on march the 13th, 2020, the Commissioner of the
Florida Department of Education directed all public schools to close
for two weeks;
Whereas, Collier County was one of four counties out of the 67
to lead the way in virtual learning through campus closures; and,
Whereas, Collier County Public Schools e-learn began on March
the 23rd with teacher-led virtual instruction starting on March 30th
and more than 45,000 students engaged in a flexible online learning
format for the last nine weeks of the 2019/2020 school year; and,
Whereas, CCPS distributed more than 15,000 mobile devices,
including laptops, iPads, and Internet hot spots, and school and
district staff provided parents with ongoing support regarding district
laptops, Internet access, course materials, and numerous other
resources; and,
Whereas, principals and other school administrators are also to
be commended for their incredible leadership working firsthand with
June 9, 2020
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teachers and families; and,
Whereas, teachers and students displayed grit, resilience,
creativity, and a willingness to adapt to a new educational model
through the district-wide platform of e-learning on the Canvas
learning management system; and,
Whereas, school and district staff also provided parents with
ongoing communication, being social media, weekly videos, and
newsletter providing timely updates for parents and students; and,
Whereas, the school district continued providing breakfast and
lunch on March the 17th -- and on March -- and May 29th served the
one-millionth meal; and,
Whereas, more than 3,100 CCPS teachers supported students in
being college, career, and life ready by ensuring instruction continued
despite a global pandemic.
Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the Board of County
Commissioners of Collier County, Florida, recognizes the
exceptional contribution of teachers and administrators within Collier
County Public Schools who continued the education of students
through e-learns through the COVID-19 pandemic which caused the
closure of school campuses in the spring of 2020.
Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And we have --
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Superintendent Patton?
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: -- Dr. Patton.
Good morning.
DR. PATTON: So good morning. Good morning. And thank
you, Commissioner Taylor, for that incredible proclamation .
We all, as in all of our 3,200 teachers and all of our
administrators, thank you for recognizing the diligent work for, as
you said, be able to flip that so quickly. We appreciate your
recognition.
June 9, 2020
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Even today as we speak, our administrators are all on virtually.
We usually meet with them in person at this time of the year, and
their topic is "leading in ambiguous times" today. So no more
appropriate topic than that.
And just to let you know, we wanted to also give a huge thank
you and shout out to our parents, parents and grandparents, all of
whom -- we couldn't have done this e-learning without someone at
home working side by side with folks. So a big shout out to our
parents. And much like we're having that chance to download with
our administrators and think ahead, we also have on June 15th a
session for parents at noon that kind of will help them have an
opportunity to think through how did those couple of months work
with them. We already have 756 families signed up for that.
And just want to, again, thank the county commissioners, all of
you for your time and Commissioner Taylor in particular for this
proclamation. We thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you, and congratulations for
an incredibly well done job.
DR. PATTON: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Any comments from the
Commission in addition?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Just to echo what's already
been said.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you.
MR. OCHS: If we can get a motion to approve this morning's
proclamation.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yeah. We're going to do a motion
to approve the consent agenda, and this is on that agenda, I believe .
It's not --
MR. OCHS: It's on the regular agenda today because --
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Then we need a motion to approve
June 9, 2020
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the proclamation.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: I'll make a motion to approve the
proclamation.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Second.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We have a motion and second. All
in favor, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: That passes unanimously.
Thank you.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Well done. Well done.
DR. PATTON: Thank you.
Item #2A
TODAY’S REGULAR, CONSENT AND SUMMARY AGENDA
AS AMENDED (EX PARTE DISCLOSURE PROVIDED BY
COMMISSION MEMBERS FOR CONSENT AGENDA.) –
(COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL VOTED NOT TO APPROVE
THE LIGHTING AMENDMENT PORTION OF THE LDC
AMENDMENTS FOR ITEM #17D); (SPEAKER ON ITEM #16K4
– JAMES BOATMAN) – APPROVED AND/OR ADOPTED
W/CHANGES
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And we're back on the agenda and
the consent agenda. We need to go through the Board to see if there
June 9, 2020
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are any ex parte communications. So we'll start with Commissioner
McDaniel and work our way to the right here. Any ex parte?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And not on the consent or
summary, no.
I do have one notation. And if you'll indulge, I left my notes in
the truck this morning. I have something on the consent agenda. It's
not an absentia or not an abstaining vote. It's just a note -- a
statement, and I left my notes in the truck.
But on 17A this morning on the summary agenda there -- those
are those LDC amendments, I can't continue to support the change in
the lighting LDC. I voted against it the last time. It's in here in the
summary. I just want to register that as a -- on all those LDC
amendments, that's the one that I have an issue with.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: You want it to be registered as a no
vote for you on those?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Just on the lighting
circumstance. All the other ones I'm okay with.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And I -- again, at the break I'll
run down to my truck and get the other one and let you know about it.
It's virtually inconsequential. I just forgot the notes. And with your
permission, I'll do it then.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. But we're going to vote on
the consent agenda, so if you have --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'm okay with that.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Commissioner Taylor?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Nothing on the consent agenda or
on the summary agenda.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Solis?
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Yes. I've received some emails from
several constituents, Mr. Cleveland, Ms. Percio (phonetic), Ms.
June 9, 2020
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Graves and Ms. Straight (phonetic) on 17A. Other than that, nothing.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Nothing on the consent or the
summary agenda.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. And I have nothing as
well. So we're back on the agenda and the consent agenda. I
understand we have one registered speaker on one of the items on
consent.
MR. MILLER: Yes, sir. Item 16K4, you have a registered
speaker. James A. Boatman.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Mr. Boatman. And what are our
procedures for that? I know Mr. Boatman has a limited amount of
time.
MR. MILLER: Three minutes.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Three minutes. Is that the standard?
Okay. Good morning.
MR. BOATMAN: Good morning. Thank you very much.
Just for the record, I'm not an anti-5G activist. I'm an anti-ignorance
activist, and that's really why I have come before the Board both
previously and now.
When I was last here it was evident that the Board didn't know
what it didn't know vis-a-vis 5G. And my singular goal is to have the
Board move from a place of ignorance to awareness and then govern
from that standpoint. That's it.
Now, what we do know from the county attorney's
recommendation and report is that there is litigation out there already,
and the idea is, well, since there are other cities and counties that are
years ahead of us vis-a-vis the public policy analysis and legal
analysis, let's just let them take the lead on it, and I actually think
that's a very practical approach, and I commend the County Attorney
on that aspect. I do not think that there should be any litigation at this
June 9, 2020
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time; however, it sort of begs the question as to, well, what was the
outcome of that analysis?
Now we know what we didn't know, but now we have questions
as to, okay, so what don't we know? We don't know why the local
governments have spent millions of dollars and hired attorneys. I'm
talking about municipalities from 25 different states, including the
City of New York, Los Angeles, and then lots of little entities, why
are they so worked up over 5G? We don't know that.
My prior presentation concluded with the ask that we set up a
committee. Let's figure out is there anything to these 5G concerns?
And, if so, what would be a rational approach? It's not going to be
litigation right now, but there may be some other things.
And with regard to the other things, I took the liberty to reaching
out to Gary Resnick who is an excellent lawyer from an excellent
firm, Gray Robinson. You may have heard of that firm. He represents
the League of Cities. And he wrote me an email. I've given it to you
there. And he indicated that he would be happy to come before the
county and advise, okay, so since our hands are so tied, are they as
tied as our code would suggest, or do we actually have some more
capacity to govern into the issue of where they put their poles, okay,
and what the poles look like, et cetera.
So if we can govern anything right now, let's figure out what we
can govern, because if you look at the ordinance that we have right
now, it doesn't seem to recognize that we have capacity. So I'm just
asking, it's too late for us to lead on this issue, but let's at least go
from a position of ignorance to awareness and begin to govern from
there.
So I appreciate the Commission for allowing me to speak this
morning.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Excuse me.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. Commissioner Fiala.
June 9, 2020
Page 12
COMMISSIONER FIALA: What is your name?
MR. BOATMAN: My name is Jim Boatman.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Pardon me?
MR. BOATMAN: Jim Boatman.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: So for the court reporter. And your
topic was 5G?
MR. BOATMAN: Yes, ma'am.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: When you started talking, none of
these things were evident, so I thought the audience didn't know who
you were and what you were talking about. Just to make it clear.
That's all right.
MR. BOATMAN: No. I apologize. I'm new at this. Thank you
for clarifying.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. We have a
recommendation from our staff not to proceed any further with this
issue, and that's on the consent agenda. The question for us this
morning is do you want to pull that off the consent agenda and have
further discussion, do you want to continue this to another
commission meeting to have further discussion?
Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: My light went on for
something else.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Oh, okay.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: But since you asked the
question. I know I would like to ask the County Attorney if you
would, please -- you've already shared with me privately your
thoughts with regard to this. My understanding, per our conversation
yesterday, is that we are preempted from doing anything
regulatory-wise with regard to this, and I would like to hear that from
you.
MR. KLATZKOW: We have some leeway in the regulations of
June 9, 2020
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where they put their units. Board of County Commissioners passed
an ordinance on this about two years ago where we have some
regulation on the placement and the aesthetics of this . So that part of
it has already been done through your staff.
As far as the other issues raised by Mr. Boatman, you know, I
understand the issues and they're important. And I'm more of a
pragmatist. Gun control's important, immigration's important, and we
could have hearings on that, but you're preempted. You can't do
anything about it. And from my standpoint, I'm not sure why the
Board would want to spend hours in public hearings discussing an
issue that at the end of the day you have no power over. And I
understand it's more of a pragmatist approach, but that's what I am .
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Taylor.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: We spoke about that yesterday,
sir, and you said the same things. And I received several emails
asking that we have public hearings. And then I -- you know, I
decided this morning that I wanted to discuss whether we wanted to
bring it back; not to discuss it today, but to perhaps educate ourselves
a little bit more on this issue from experts, perhaps the attorney at
Gray Robinson that's involved in this litigation.
The city I represent in my district is involved in this, I
understand, the City of Naples, I guess, or at least the League of
Cities. So it's something that I don't take lightly. But I understand the
issue is about where it's placed, about money; it's not about health.
And my concern is, from what I read in my emails today, those folks
that are writing in are concerned about health.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Are those the ones that are
insinuating that I'm a hypocrite if I don't do anything about this?
I took offense to that.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Oh, I don't take offense to it.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: It is an interesting way to want some
June 9, 2020
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help. Let's start with an insult. It's kind of interesting.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It was obviously a form letter,
and the third paragraph --
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- insinuated that if I didn't do
anything I was a hypocrite, and I was -- I quit reading.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Well, we know that you're not a
hypocrite, so let's make a decision as to whether or not we're going
to --
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: I'm willing to listen to my
colleagues because I haven't decided yet.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I don't have any particular issue
with continuing the dialogue, not setting up a hearing, but giving the
commissioners, independently, an opportunity to review the
documentation that we have from Mr. Resnick. I will say he's from
an excellent firm, as was noted, but he's not inexpensive . So I'm not
prepared to spend any money, but I've not had any real opportunity to
take a look at the lawsuit or the presentation from Mr. Resnick. And
so I don't have a problem in just continuing -- removing this from the
consent agenda in the sense of it being a recommendation to not do
anything and then have individual commissioners take a look at the
package, and if there's a desire to put it on an agenda, let's do that.
Commissioner Solis.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Well, it may be six of one, half
dozen of the other but, I mean, we can always bring an item back if
one of us feels that there's enough there to go on and we should have
some hearing. I mean, I'm with the County Attorney. I've looked at
this, and, you know, I don't know that -- I wouldn't be in favor of
spending a lot of staff time researching these things, taxpayer dollars
on something that we just can't really have an impact on and -- or
creating a commission or something that -- or a committee that also
June 9, 2020
Page 15
requires staff time. You know, I'm just --
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: What I was suggesting is that let's
not make that final decision today. Let's just pull this off the consent
agenda, and then if any commissioners want to bring something back
after reviewing the material that we now have -- because I don't know
about you, but I haven't had a chance to look at the stuff that was
presented this morning. And if no one wants to bring it back, that's
fine. That's all I was suggesting.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: A question for the County Attorney,
and I may have asked this last time, but what is the Association of
Counties' position on this?
MR. KLATZKOW: And I've had extensive conversations with
them over the last couple years on this. The primary issue that Florida
Association of Counties have had is the money issue where the
providers are basically being subsidized by the taxpayers for the use
of this -- of the right-of-way.
Now, I understand why, because at the end of the day you either
pay for it through your cell phone bill or you pay for it through your
taxes, and it's probably a wash at the end of the day anyway. But it's
been largely -- it's been -- not largely. It's been entirely a money issue
for FAC and local governments, in Florida anyway.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. I agree. And when you're
talking about pulling it off the consent, is that to make an adjustment
to not take the current recommendation that's on the consent now, to
not take any action but to allow us to have further dialogue?
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yes. Exactly. Just take a look at
what we have, and if any commissioner wants to bring this back --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I think that's a very sage path.
I actually found the email that I spoke of a couple of weeks ago from
one of my constituents who has already entered into a lease on a 5G
June 9, 2020
Page 16
tower and has a lot of information that I think will help us in further
exploring what's, in fact, going on.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Well, I think there may be a
consensus to take this off the consent agenda for today, not to take
any action, not to direct staff to do anything, but simply for each
commissioner to have an opportunity to review the materials, and if
one of us wants to bring it back at our next meeting or our meeting in
July, we have that opportunity. If no one wants to bring it back, that
will be the end of our discussion until a further date.
Is that acceptable to the Board? Does that --
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: -- make some sense?
All right. Then thank you, Mr. Boatman.
MR. BOATMAN: Thank you, sir.
MR. OCHS: So this item is withdrawn, essentially.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Just withdrawn basically, yes.
All right. Anything else on the agenda and consent agenda
before we take a vote to approve that?
Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: The County Manager has a
better memory than I do.
I spoke with him yesterday, and I wanted just to acknowledge an
item that's on the consent agenda, and that is the waiver of the fees
for our concessionaires that are conducting business at our beaches
and stuff, and I just -- I wanted to publicly acknowledge that. It was
Item 16D10. Because I know we've got correspondence from some,
and I just wanted to make that acknowledgment as well. That was the
note that I left in my truck, so...
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. So we have a -- we need a
motion on the consent agenda.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Motion to approve.
June 9, 2020
Page 17
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We have a motion and a second.
That motion includes the exclusion of your vote, or your negative
vote on that one item.
All in favor, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: That passes unanimously.
Before we move on to the regular agenda, I want to talk a little
bit about our featured artist, and if you'll look in the back of the room
there, there's some fantastic photographs to help brighten our
facilities here.
The featured local artist of the month, two of them, Heather and
James "Bubba" Pilkenton. They are a husband-and-wife photography
team in Naples. The sky, water, sand, and wildlife on the Gulf of
Mexico and the unique beauty of the vast Everglades provide endless
inspiration for them to capture surroundings through the camera lens.
The shells, sea glass, and sea life they encounter on their adventures
are the inspiration and raw materials for their locally sourced
hand-made jewelry.
Heather and James have participated in art shows during the
season through the Naples Art Association, Art in the Park, and
Naples Art Crafters. They're excited to share their art with a broader
audience and are always seeking new opportunities to do so.
So I want to thank our Artist of the Month for their presentation
for this.
Mr. Manager?
June 9, 2020
Page 18
MR. OCHS: Yes, sir.
June 9, 2020
Page 19
Item #2B
MAY 12, 2020 BCC MEETING MINUTES – APPROVED AS
PRESENTED
Mr. Chairman, we go to Item 2B, and that's approval of the
Board of County Commissioners' meeting minutes of the May 12,
2020, meeting.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Motion to approve.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Second.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We have a motion and a second to
approve the minutes. Any discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: If not, all in favor, signify by saying
aye.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: That passes unanimously.
MR. OCHS: Mr. Chairman, before we go to Item 7, I understand
you'd like to move our staff presentation on the COVID-19 status
report forward.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yes. I believe we have some people
that are kind of waiting for that that want to be part of that
presentation. So let's -- without any -- if there are no objections from
the Board --
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yeah.
June 9, 2020
Page 20
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: -- let's move on to that.
Item #11D
RECOMMENDATION TO ACCEPT THE COVID-19 STATUS
REPORT AND PROVIDE FURTHER DIRECTION AS
APPROPRIATE – ACCEPTED; UPDATE PROVIDED
MR. OCHS: Yes, sir. That's item 11D on this morning's agenda.
It's a recommendation to accept the COVID-19 status report and
provide further direction as appropriate.
We have Ms. Stephanie Vick, your director of public health,
here to begin the presentation.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And as Ms. Vick approaches the
podium, I just want to advise the Board, Miami-Dade County will be
opening their beaches on Wednesday. I know that was a difficult
issue for us last week.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: And Fort Lauderdale's already open,
right?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Broward's open.
MR. OCHS: Broward, yes.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yes. And Palm Beach is open as
well.
Good morning.
MS. VICK: Good morning. Stephanie Vick, administrator for
the Florida Department of Health in Collier County. It's good to be
here with you this morning.
I also brought with me Elizabeth Nunez from the Medical
Examiner's Office. She's the director of operations. And when I get
into death issues, she's going to speak a little bit about their
processes, because I know that has come up several times whenever
June 9, 2020
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I've made presentations.
So -- let's see.
MR. OCHS: Troy?
MS. VICK: Are we up here?
MR. OCHS: You will be.
MR. MILLER: I don't know that we have a PowerPoint.
MS. VICK: Actually, I have to correct myself. The Medical
Examiner herself is here, Dr. Marta Coburn, and so she'll be speaking
with us instead of Elizabeth.
Okay. Let's just start out with some general statistics here this
morning. In Collier County so far we've done 20,909 tests, and of
those, about 2,000 have been positive, which gives us just under a
10 percent positivity rate as a county. And you're going to see some
differences when we look at the county as a whole versus a portion of
the county, which Immokalee is what I'm going to be talking about
later on today.
So most of those cases, of course, have been acquired in Florida.
Our mortality data -- and this was as of yesterday -- we had 57
Collier residents who had died. We had seven non-Collier residents.
With a total death count of 64.
Now, I'm going to have Dr. Coburn talk a little bit about what
happens in the Medical Examiner's Office, so...
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Good morning.
DR. COBURN: Good morning. I'm Dr. Marta Coburn. I'm your
District Medical Examiner, and I'm here to answer any questions or
concerns that you have regarding how we determine cause of death
and how we either contribute, or the main cause is COVID, because I
understand that there's some concern as to this.
I just want to let you know that the reason the Medical
Examiner's involved is because it is part of our statute. Florida
Statute 406.1 lists all of the situations under which we would assume
June 9, 2020
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jurisdiction, of which a threat to public health is one . And, certainly,
when we have an emerging virus or any other kind of public health
threat, the Medical Examiner would be responsible for investigating
all of those deaths, and much like occurred during the AIDS epidemic
in the beginning of the epidemic in the late '80s.
So the Medical Examiner takes jurisdiction, and we investigate
all of those deaths in order to make sure that we have uniformity and
that all of the information is being looked at in a cons istent manner
before reporting out the final determination.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Solis.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I'm just curious. And I can't say that
I understand, so I'm going to ask maybe a stupid question.
So on the morality data, 57 Collier residents, the non-Collier
residents, are those nonresidents that have died in Collier County or
somewhere --
DR. COBURN: Correct.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: In Collier County?
DR. COBURN: Correct. The Medical Examiner statute in
Florida requires that any person who dies within their jurisdiction
that -- my jurisdiction is all of Collier County, District 20 -- be
investigated by the Medical Examiner Office if it's one of the cases
that come under my jurisdiction, regardless of where the original
incident may have occurred.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay.
DR. COBURN: So this is not unusual. We have cases of people
who are shot in Lee County and die in North Collier, and then we
have to do the autopsy. We have to investigate. We go to court.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay. But they died here. They
weren't nonresidents that were diagnosed here and then went
somewhere else, and maybe died somewhere. Okay.
DR. COBURN: No, if they die somewhere else, that's not my
June 9, 2020
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jurisdiction.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay. I just wanted to make sure I
understood that correctly. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. Good morning.
DR. COBURN: Good morning.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And there's a lot of
information flying around, and that's one of the things that we're
trying to dissect as we're going through this process.
In regard to the cumulative total of fatalities, can you share with
us the cases with regard to positive and not positive COVID cases
that have come forward? I've been led to believe that 100 percent of
the fatalities are being marked as or from COVID; is that correct?
DR. COBURN: Well, I don't know that I understand your
question precisely, but I'll try my best to answer and see if we can get
there.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I may not have asked it very
clearly. If you would like for me to rephrase it, I can.
DR. COBURN: Sure.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: If you would please share with
us, of the 57 or 59 total fatalities, how many are designated as
COVID or COVID-19 related?
DR. COBURN: All of them. Whatever is on my list each day is
because it has already been determined by way of review of medical
records, investigation with the discussions with the family, the
patient's doctor, radiology, et cetera, and then we look at the totality
of the information, as we can do on every case, before rendering an
opinion as to cause and manner of death. And we only list -- on the
final list where we list COVID as either a main cause or a
contributory cause, it is because it has gone through this extensive
review and investigation and we have determined that, yes, COVID is
June 9, 2020
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associated or the primary cause of death.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. So 100 percent --
DR. COBURN: We would never -- for example, if you have a
gunshot wound in a patient who has been found to be COVID
positive, we would never list that on a death certificate.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: As the primary cause.
DR. COBURN: Because that's -- no, not at all, not even as a
secondary cause.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay.
DR. COBURN: Because that is absolutely not related to the
death. And many, many other cases could be examples of those. We
only list COVID deaths when COVID is a factor in the death, either
the main factor or a contributory because, as you know --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Right.
DR. COBURN: -- there are reports, and everyone knows this,
that many, many, many, if not the majority -- in fact, all of ours,
including the two younger people who were under 40, have comorbid
conditions, and those comorbid conditions are very important to list
on the death certificate in addition to COVID.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Solis.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Are there -- in making this
determination that a fatality was COVID related, I mean, are there
guidelines that you're supposed to follow as a Medical Examiner to
make that determination?
DR. COBURN: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: And who sets up those guidelines?
Where do they come from?
DR. COBURN: Well, as you know, this is an emerging virus,
and the criteria changed from the beginning to now. At the beginning
we weren't looking at all of the other comorbid conditions and the
things that we now think -- the medical community now thinks may
June 9, 2020
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have an impact on causing a death.
For example, you know, the medical literature now states that
these -- that COVID can be associated with microthrombi. So these
are little blood clots in the lungs, not a pulmonary embolism
necessarily, and also there's been talk about with causing a
myocardial infraction and stroke and other types of diseases.
So we look at these things very carefully and we've, of course,
over the course of time -- you know, at the beginning we didn't know
that people who had loss of taste and smell, for example. So all of
these things have been included as part of our criteria .
But the most important things that we look for are, you know,
the typical things, the fever, and very important, the cough, the
radiology changes. Those are the things that have been listed by the
medical community as the things to look for.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay. And that's really -- my
question was, where does this criteria that you look for come from?
I'm trying to get a sense, because we're always questioning things.
And so where does that come from, the criteria that you rely upon?
DR. COBURN: It comes from the medical literature. It comes
from the community. It comes from the Health Department. It comes
from the CDC in large part.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay.
DR. COBURN: It's driven by the CDC.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: All right. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Fiala.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. I was just wondering if it's
your office that can tell us how many of these people that have died
were from nursing homes.
DR. COBURN: Yes. I have all that information. I can tell you
that the majority are from nursing homes in our county.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: You say the majority of them are
June 9, 2020
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from nursing homes?
DR. COBURN: Yes. The majority are from nursing homes.
Some do die at home. And I say "at home" meaning that they're
transported to the hospital. They came from home. They didn't come
from the nursing home. And so the death at the hospital is really just
a side issue. They come from home or they came from nursing
homes, in large part, but mostly nursing homes is the majority of our
cases, as is the age; very, very elderly, in many cases even over 100 .
Like I said, we've had a few cases, maybe two, that have been under
40 or around 40. I know we have a 33-year-old, but also with
comorbid conditions.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Taylor.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: You see the problem the public
has, or at least this commissioner has, and the reason at least I want to
ask you these questions, because this is the first time in 12 weeks of
this, I guess it's about 12 weeks, that I've heard that everyone who has
died in Collier County had comorbid conditions.
For me as a laymen that's significant for my thinking of myself,
well, how healthy am I? You know, I'm of the age. I'm at that
vulnerable age. But also for the public. And this is not a criticism of
you, because you just stated this: The CDC sets the standards. But I
think -- if there's an agreement here, I think we need to register our
great concern that as we move further into this documentation, which
is essential -- I'm not minimizing the importance of this
documentation -- that somehow we are able to identify these very
important significant characteristics of the deceased; that they do
have a comorbid --
DR. COBURN: And they are.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: And they are.
DR. COBURN: In every single death certificate that we have --
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: But not for the public to look at,
June 9, 2020
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you know. There's not a column that says no comorbid --
DR. COBURN: Comorbid condition.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yeah, no -- you know, and it's
more for public understanding.
DR. COBURN: Well --
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: And that's not a criticism. You're
going to do what --
DR. COBURN: I mean, I watch television just like everyone
else, and I also listen to the news conferences by the CDC and
Dr. Fauci and the President, and I think that the concept of comorbid
conditions has been shared with the public.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes.
DR. COBURN: And I think that the medical community is
certainly well aware of it. Now, our hands are somewhat tied as to
what we can release with regard to names, because we cannot release
medical -- private medical information from any person even though
our autopsy reports may be public record, but our cause of death and
manner of death is not in the medical records. And as you know,
never lose confidentiality, regardless.
So we can -- and we have gotten this information out to many
media outlets, and we've explained all of this. We cannot give them a
case number or a name associated with this, but in general terms I can
tell you that in many cases we have hypertension; diabetes; the male
gender is also known to be somewhat more at risk; obesity; other
comorbid conditions such as asthma. Surprisingly, we don't see on
our review as much chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as we
thought we might, but it is there .
So many of these other comorbid conditions -- the big ones I've
explained. The diabetes, the hypertension, coronary artery disease,
and asthma, those sorts of things, are almost always in every single
cause -- contributing cause or in the primary cause.
June 9, 2020
Page 28
Often a death certificate might be signed out something like
hypertensive heart disease in the setting of COVID-19, and whether
there's infection or just positive. I mean, we're very -- we're very
careful, and we're very conservative as to how we call things. We
also have been including -- in any case, suicide versus accident, et
cetera, and we try to do the same here.
So where we think that there might have been a COVID-19
infection, we'll call it infection, but where we think it's just positive,
we may even have said asymptomatic comma or in parentheses
COVID positive, because we want to really make sure that we put out
the correct information on each and every case.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah. And that is -- I share
Commissioner Taylor's -- I don't want to -- yeah, it's concern, simply
because, I mean, it's as clear as mud to you, but we only get what you
send us. We don't have an opportunity to review every single death
certificate. We don't have a review or an opportunity to discern
positive and negative cases. And a simple delineate -- for me, a
simple delineation of positive/not positive would segregate -- because
then we could actually -- the laymen, I think, I could look at that and
say, these folks died of COVID contributing to their comorbidities .
These folks died -- or from comorbidity while COVID was amongst
us, and that's the -- that little delineation between positive, having
passed while positive, and having passed while not would
allow -- because right now 100 percent are being marked.
DR. COBURN: I don't think that's -- I don't think that's clear.
What I count as COVID positive has gone through that process,
and we have determined that COVID is a factor in every one of these
50-something cases that we have to date, till right now.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay.
DR. COBURN: Every single one of those. That doesn't mean
June 9, 2020
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that that's all the cases that we've looked at. We've -- we've already
removed the cases where we have determined that they might have
been COVID positive, but they didn't --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Passed --
DR. COBURN: They didn't die of that, exactly.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Something along those lines.
DR. COBURN: Exactly. We don't -- we do not count those as
COVID deaths, correct.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: All right. So -- and just as
clarification for me. My question is, then, this is not 100 percent of
the fatalities that have transpired in the past three months. This is
strictly those that you feel have passed with a contribution from the
virus?
DR. COBURN: One hundred percent of the people who have
passed that have come to my office from all causes of death?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That's what I was --
DR. COBURN: No, no, no. There's many, many more.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I mean, this is an important
thing.
DR. COBURN: Yes.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I mean, there's a lot of
manipulation of datasets --
DR. COBURN: Yes.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- out there, and I wanted --
DR. COBURN: Yeah. No, I understand. I mean, you know,
we're still handling suicides, homicides, drug o verdoses, drownings,
hangings. I mean, that just -- that doesn't cease. Yeah, so --
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I think you've been very clear, so
thank you very much.
Mr. Ochs, do we have some more on the -- I assume Ms. Vick is
going to present?
June 9, 2020
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MR. OCHS: Yes, sir.
DR. COBURN: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you, Dr. Coburn.
MS. VICK: Okay. I thought that was really important to do,
because that comes up frequently when we do presentation.
Okay. So let's look at some of the gating criteria here, what's
been happening over the past two weeks. And we have influenza-like
syndrome. As people come into the emergency department and they
have influenza-like -- like coughing and fever and those sorts of
things, and then -- versus COVID, which is more fever, difficulty
breathing, may have a cough, but with influenza generally they have
upper respiratory, sneezing, runny nose, those sorts of things . In both
cases we're seeing a downward trend overall in the county for people
that are coming into the emergency department. That's a good thing.
Okay. So now we have a number of identified COVID cases in
Collier County and then the percentage of people who test positive
whenever we -- when we do testing, okay. So -- and I want to just
stop and explain that when I give you the total number of cases that
have been found -- have been found in Collier County, and that's
through testing either in the hospital, at our mass testings, in the
clinics, that's total from the first day we started the counting for those
cases. So if we have 2,000-some cases, not those 2,000 found cases
are currently active COVID cases, because, you know, we've been at
this for 12 weeks, so many of those have recovered. And I think
Commissioner McDaniel often asks for the recovered figure.
And the only time I've been even able to come close to
that -- because I know Commissioner Fiala has asked for that,
too -- is the one time that it was published, according to the CDC
guidelines of what counts as recovered. And just out of that one
figure, if I just go based on that, then I would say about a quarter of
the total found cases that are being reported are currently active.
June 9, 2020
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So if you have 2,000, probably about 500 are currently active
right now. Okay.
All right. So anyhow, in this particular accounting of cases, just
the number of cases is going up. But we decided that really wasn't a
good thing to look at because -- why? Because we're increasing
testing. We're doing mass testing. We're doing pop-up spot testings,
especially in the Immokalee area. We did almost 3,000 in the Greater
Naples area at the North Regional Park and at the south library, and
so that increases numbers of cases because you don't get out of doing
a testing without having some positive cases.
It hasn't happened to us. What I can tell you is that when we
have done the cases in the Greater Naples area, the posit ivity rate that
we got out of those two mass testings was running somewhere
between 4 and 6 percent in the Greater Naples area.
Immokalee's an entirely different thing. It's much higher. And it
depends on who is reporting to you. If you have a very small number
of people that are being tested, for instance, Doctors Without Borders
was doing maybe 50 at a time, and so if 25 of the 50 came back,
they're saying that there was a 50 percent positivity rate. We have not
found that in all of our testing that we've done. It comes out closer to
18 percent. But 18 percent is much, much higher than the rest of
Greater Naples, okay. All right. Then we watch the percentage of
persons who test positive. What we want to do, we want to be below
10 percent, and we want to keep going down.
Now, if you look at us overall as a county, we're going up as a
county just a little but not much, and we are under 10 percent. It's,
like, 9.9 percent average.
But, again, if you look at Immokalee, that's really going up. And
some of these huge peaks that you see here is due to testing in
Immokalee, okay; percentage positive for that day.
Okay. Let's look at hospital capacity. Of course, if you -- if
June 9, 2020
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you're looking at this down here at the bottom, we're looking at
ventilators. The ventilators that are in use is the brown -- the brown
numbers all the way at the bottom.
And this includes all the hospital systems within our county.
Then if you look at the green portion above it, these are the regular
ventilators that are still available with the brown part being used,
okay. And then the dark green portion up here ends up being other
types of ventilators that could be used, like for anesthesia. They use
them for anesthesia machines or disposal ventilators. They could be
used if we got into that situation. Thankfully -- you'll see where the
brown part is -- we still have a long way to go before we would ever
get into that situation.
The same thing with the beds. The brown part are beds filled
with COVID patients. The blue part are other patients that are in the
hospital. So we are able to serve everybody that needs to be served in
addition to COVID-positive patients. Then we have the empty beds
that have available staffing right away, and then we have surge beds
in the gray part that we could -- we could use if we can find staffing
right away. We would probably have to call in contract staffing,
people doing overtime, those sorts of things.
So what [sic] does that take us as a county and the gating
criteria? We have a "yes" all the way across the board except the
downward trajectory of positive tests as a percent of total tests within
a 14-day period. We're not counting -- the trajectory of positive tests
overall because we know that's going to increase as testing increases.
We're talking about the percentage of positive. And, remember, I said
we want to be less than 10 percent and moving down. So we're right
at the edge, creeping up a little bit. But, again, influenced by other
things.
I also wanted to point out, before we get into Immokalee so
much, how hospitalizations have looked since we have done some
June 9, 2020
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opening up of the county. So you see the cases that are in the
non-ICU beds, of course, have been creeping up. And all the things
that we've done -- so Phase 1 partial was somewhere around the 4th
of May, correct? And then the barbershops and the salons opened,
and then we went into full Phase 1.
And it all matches up pretty nicely; however, when you're
looking at statistics, you have to know everything else that happened .
So before that, the hospitals were trying to limit people in the
hospital, so they weren't doing elective procedures, right?
So at the same time, we started opening up partially we started
doing the elective procedures. So of course we're going to have more
cases in the hospital. It's not just because we opened up. It's because
we're doing more elective procedures, too. So we can't hang our hat
totally on that.
And for -- ICU is the blue line, our cases in ICU. They continue
to take a small increase, but --
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We have a couple questions.
Commissioner Taylor?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes. So I'm confused. This
chart -- and I'm glad we're stopping -- thank you. I'm glad we stopped
here.
This is COVID-19 cases. These are the cases, and so it's
COVID-19 cases and non-ICU.
MS. VICK: Right.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: All right. So what does that have
to do with the elective -- or the elective surgeries or other? I mean,
that's not represented here. Anything -- nothing but COVID is
represented in this chart; is that correct?
MS. VICK: You are correct. You are correct.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Okay. So they are going up?
MS. VICK: Oh, yes. COVID going up, and you're going to see
June 9, 2020
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the impact. Yes, I --
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: And you're relating that -- and
you've plotted it with the phases, and they're going up according to
phases. But we've also had pretty active social issues going on.
MS. VICK: Correct.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Protests? Opening of the
beaches in terms of when they were here over from Miami, Cinco De
Mayo.
MS. VICK: Right, Cinco De Mayo, especially in the Immokalee
area. There were street parties that were in Hendry County in LaBelle
that a lot of people from the Immokalee area attended . So you caught
me. I'm sorry. I made an error. I did have two charts, but this is the
one that's COVID only and --
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes.
MS. VICK: -- I'm sorry; I was confusing you. This is COVID
only. And the general cases don't have anything to do with this.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay.
MS. VICK: Sorry to confuse.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: But -- but it's also directly related
to the fact that we're testing more that the cases are going up; is that
correct?
MS. VICK: No, not for the hospital admissions.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Oh, pardon me. Hospitals.
MS. VICK: People with -- yeah.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: I beg your pardon. That was my
mistake.
MS. VICK: Yeah. People would end up there whether we tested
them or not if they're going to be sick enough to be in the hospital, in
an ICU.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Okay. Thank you.
MS. VICK: Sorry.
June 9, 2020
Page 35
Okay. So then we have the cases for Immokalee. So what I
wanted you to see about this graph is these, again, are number of
COVID cases in Immokalee compared to all Collier County COVID
cases, okay.
So the yellow in the background is all Collier County COVID
cases. The blue that is superimposed on top of that are the Immokalee
residents cases. So there's an increase, as you can see, overall. This is
our -- our black dotted lined here, okay, and this yellow is cases
overall in Collier County. But when you look at the blue, you can
clearly see that the Immokalee cases are driving what we're seeing in
many respects for the overall cases in Collier County.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Solis.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I see that for the -- you know, the
increases noted on 5/11 and then 6/2, 6/6 it seems like the overall
county cases didn't track exactly the way it did with the Immokalee
cases. Do you have any idea why that occurred? I mean, I guess
that's a tough question. But I'm just trying to understand. There is
some reflection, obviously, of the number of cases in Immokalee. But
the two main spikes then you can see that it was driving it. The data
from 6/4 to 6/6, is that -- does that indicate that it's not driving it?
Because it's not necessarily following like the other part of the graph.
MS. VICK: No. About 6/6 we were doing some mass testing
again here in the Greater Naples area. So when you see daily cases,
many times it's the reporting of the daily cases. That's really what's
happening. So we could have done a mass testing --
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Somewhere else.
MS. VICK: -- four or five days ago, and now those results are
being reported on that day here.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: But they weren't --
MS. VICK: So where we had a bunch of cases more than what
you would see normally for the Greater Naples area, that could very
June 9, 2020
Page 36
well have been influenced by the mass testing results.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay. But those would have been
testing results that were from somewhere other than Immokalee,
because Immokalee's the blue line.
MS. VICK: Correct.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay. Thank you.
MS. VICK: Okay.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. Going along with the same
questions. The two main factors of raising these things, then, is
Immokalee Road and the nursing homes, right? So I know we read
in the paper that one nursing home had a large number of people in
that, and they had to clean that out, and -- but if those are the two
main factors, do we have any idea how many other people are
infected that, you know, are the lesser amount, but still, you know,
us -- all of us?
MS. VICK: That's what I said about the mass testing at North
Collier Regional and at the South Regional Library. The positivity
rates we were getting were 4, 5, 6 percent compared to Immokalee
that's three times that. And nursing homes, of course, there have been
several initiatives that have happened with the nursing homes where
first the Health Department just went and did contact investigation,
then we had teams come in from the state level, and we actually have
had three set of teams come in now from the state level and do testing
and evaluation. And then, depending upon the results that are there,
then we all get involved. So it would be the Health Department, the
VHA teams, the AHCA, which is the regulatory for the nursing
homes. And then there are incident management teams within each
region. So our region would be Region 6.
So when there are great concerns, we go and we do a joint
review, and then we come up with improvement steps, either they
June 9, 2020
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have to move all their negative cases out of there and just deal with
the positive cases and infection control issues or more frequent
testing happens, and then more training on infection control. And so
then I have to come up with an improvement plan for them, and then
those nursing homes are responsible for reporting to me regularly on
their progress of doing that.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: But they do have all of these
employees there that are now subjected or in the same vicinity as
everybody that is infected. So they probably have quite a challenge
trying to keep the healthy ones healthy and to then help the
employees recover, because they're not in the same age group. So I
guess they've got a lot of things going for them there.
MS. VICK: They do.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel. That
was -- was that a question?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: No, I just --
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Sorry.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: -- wanted to hear her say yes.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Good morning. Good morning.
And I really appreciate you taking this time, and it's something that
Commissioner Solis talked about. The difficult thing when we're
looking at all the statistical data is there is no absolutes with this . A
lot of information is timing with regard to the throughput that comes
from the laboratories.
When a mass testing event transpired, you see a spike on 5/11,
5/12, somewhere in there, and that comes from the National Guard
event that you assisted in setting up in Immokalee for our residents .
And, again, the throughput coming there in the early part of June.
I think I heard -- and as you folks know, we are doing a partners
call -- and thank you again for continuing on with those calls,
because communication is nine-tenths of the law. Now, what I'm
June 9, 2020
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talking -- what I'm talking about, there's no -- there's no dissuading
the severity of this virus. There's no dissuading the potentiality of
large negative impacts for people that contract the virus . But
communication, education is nine-tenths of the law when we're
managing the spread of this, one.
Two, hospital assets in concert with the amount of positive cases
that we're currently having. And one of the things that I have done is
I've reached out to Lee Health and talked with them with regard -- I
get a report every single day from Lee Health with regard to their
assets: Hospital beds, ICU beds, how many positive cases they, in
fact, have. And I mean -- and because Immokalee -- yes, Immokalee
doesn't have a hospital. We all know that we're direly deficient there
with regard to a physical hospital. Immokalee is equidistant between
Fort Myers and Naples. And so the assets for the hospital beds can be
brought in to assist the residents who do, in fact, require
hospitalization.
If, in fact, 100 percent of those 870 currently on this morning's
dashboard, positive cases, required a hospital bed, approximately
10 percent of that population who -- and that's a cumulative number,
by the way. Remember that. That's a cumulative number since
beginning of March or so when we started testing. Approximately
10 percent of them would require a hospital bed and approximately
10 percent of that population would require an ICU bed and
approximately 10 percent of -- which is 9, and which is -- and
approximately 10 percent of that population might require a
ventilator, even though we've actually heard from experts that say the
ventilation is not necessarily the best practice to care for people.
So there has never been an initiative to stop the virus; never.
There can't be an initiative to stop the virus . There is no vaccine.
There is no therapeutic. There is no cure. We can only hope to
manage the spread of the virus in relationship to our hospital assets to
June 9, 2020
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properly care for our population.
MS. VICK: And our behaviors in the county.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: We're going to get to that in a
second.
MS. VICK: Okay.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So having said all that,
between Lee and Collier there are currently 67 ICU beds available .
There are in excess of 903 regular hospital beds available.
So in the event that that current posting of 870 folks who have
tested positive cumulatively even though -- and I thank you, by the
way, because Stephanie has started sharing with me daily positive
cases so that we could come up with a more sound number of
actually who, in fact, we're treating or needing care for that might test
positive. We have sufficient assets between the two communities to
more than support care for our community.
And that's -- that's how I've been managing this now. When she's
done, I would like an opportunity to speak some more, because now
we have to talk about the barriers that Immokalee currently has that
don't exist as much in the balance of our community. And you've
heard me talk about those, so we'll get to those. And that's the
behavioral thing, so...
MS. VICK: Okay.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay.
MS. VICK: Thank you. We're just going to hire you and put you
in our statistical department.
So on the side here I just wanted to show you Physicians
Regional, you see on the right side, often would be telling us and
reporting that they rarely got people from Immokalee . The NCH
system, North Collier, often got more people going there. But as
you'll see, PRMC is incrementally increasing the number of COVID
cases who come from Immokalee there on the right-hand side. They
June 9, 2020
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went from 24 percent of their COVID to 38 percent to 45 percent.
NCH is hanging around the same bed; however, NCH stays in close
contact with us to let us know the numbers that they're having
admitted on a daily basis and then the illness levels.
So sometimes we'll get people that are really, really, really sick
and get two of them that are admitted to ICU right away . And so
we're keeping a watch on that. Oftentimes people will ask me what
percentage of the people that we are doing contact investigations
have we reached. In the Immokalee cases, right now where it's
93 percent of those cases we have reached. Those we have not
reached is because of failure to give us a good telephone contact.
They give us the wrong address, and sometimes purposefully. So that
does make it difficult. And we have to send people into the field to
try to find them. Okay.
Okay. Two more slides. That's all. We're almost done.
So in Immokalee, you see to the right of this screen are many of
the things that we've been doing or have just started to do in the
Immokalee area with the educational announcements over the
loudspeakers, the rolling truck ads in different languages. We've done
radio/television spots all talking to the constituents about the
importance of social distancing and COVID. And we continue to test
symptomatic individuals at our satellite site in Immokalee.
Healthcare Network continues to test. Braden Clinic and private MDs
in that area. That has been going on all along.
The people who have symptoms -- because that was part of the
CDC guideline, but then we started mass testing. So we did the mass
testing on May 3rd to 5th. We did mass testing on the 31st. We're
now doing mass testing every Sunday at the satellite site in -- for the
Health Department and the CHD in Immokalee.
We have health educators that are now visiting businesses. Not
the big businesses right now. It's the small businesses in Immokalee
June 9, 2020
Page 41
trying to educate on PPE and what to do for their -- for their staff.
There is walkup testing Monday, Wednesday, Friday at the
Health Department again during clinic hours. There is partner testing
with Healthcare Network Southwest Florida. Doctors without
Borders are doing pop-up clinics, and then we have started to do that
in cooperation with them.
Global Management is a worldwide organization that is now in
Immokalee trying to assess and come up with things that they can do
to help manage the outbreak, Partners in Health as well, and we just
met with them yesterday to work on some things together.
We're recruiting and hiring educators from the community to
work face to face with people. But then you see on the left side, and
this -- many of you who took any kind of sociology courses or were
health related in school, most people have heard of Maslow's
hierarchy, and that's what this is on the left-hand side. It does not
matter what we do in some cases with some individuals even if we
find food -- if they're going to miss work, even if we find a place for
them to isolate, even if we provide entertainment materials, all those
things are good and they're a benefit, but for some individuals they
are afraid to lose the money that they get. Oftentimes they depend
upon that to send home to support a family in another country, and if
they don't have the money and if they don't work, they're not going to
be able to send that home to the family, so the family suffers.
And then if they're out of work too long, and they don't have an
understanding employer -- because some people do not have the
benefits the rest of us have. If they're out of work too long, they lose
their job. They're working for a grower, and the grower likes the
work that they do, but now they're not going to be there for 14 days,
the grower will hire someone else to come in and take their job, and
then there they are.
So those individuals that are going to be affected in that way are
June 9, 2020
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very, very difficult to get tested. And if you would mandate testing
through their employers -- and like Department of Agriculture would
say you must test all your employees, for instance, those are the
people that are going to give us false addresses, funky phone
numbers. We'll never find them because they cannot afford to lose
the money.
We can feed people, we can put them in housing, but they can't
afford to lose that, and then that means that they are out in the streets,
and they are supposing everyone else. I just wanted to make that clear
to people.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Fiala.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: How do we get masks for these
people?
MS. VICK: Oh, we have masks coming out of our ears.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh, okay. And can they get them?
MS. VICK: Yes. Actually, the NCH Health System donated -- I
think now we're up to 45,000 masks, procedural masks, like surgical
masks, not the N95 that the healthcare workers wear.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Right. But at least something, right?
MS. VICK: Right, they did, and then the State of Florida has a
million cloth masks that they are making available to us, and we've
already gotten shipments of them to our Emergency Management and
out in Immokalee to pass out.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I just meant is there a strategic
distribution point for a few of them? Okay. That's my answer. Thank
you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, and I -- which ear are
you having masks come out of, just so I can clarify that point?
MS. VICK: Okay.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And what Ms. Vick's talking
June 9, 2020
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about is something that I've been talking about regularly with you-all.
The barriers that our folks in Immokalee have to overcome : We have
language barriers; we have income barriers; we have culture barriers;
they like -- a lot of the folks like to live with multi generations in the
same house; we have employment barriers; we have documentation
barriers. And that's a reality that's going on. And it's not just in
Immokalee.
One of the things that's important for us to have a discussion
about is Immokalee's a microcosm. I think Stephanie and I talked
about this, that, you know, I think there are two people that live
outside the area code of 34142. The rest are in the urbanized area of
that ZIP code.
We have other areas in our community, all across the country,
necessarily, in Collier County at large where there is overcrowded
conditions, there is documentations issues, there is culture issues,
there are income issues, there are language barriers that have to be
overcome, and that's the question that I wanted to ask you today is
how can we help provide you with assets to better service the
community? Because of these having -- because of these barriers,
it's very, very difficult, and manpower for you to be able to
communicate with the residents who do, in fact, take the initiative
and do become -- test positive, that we have services available. And
that's something that I'd like to -- I'd like to share with.
I mean, the County Manager and I talked about it yesterday.
We've recently reserved rooms at Horizon Village. And the
communication with the population who have tested positive seems
to me to be a requisite that we need to enhance; additional
contact -- and I mean physical contact tracing when someone tests
positive, someone from -- of authority from the Health Department
actually going and visiting a resident who tests positive. Because of
these barriers that Stephanie has shared with us today, folks aren't
June 9, 2020
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necessarily as truthful with regard to their circumstances . They can't
afford to lose two weeks worth of work to not support their family .
They can't afford to even have a fear of losing their job and so,
therefore, they don't always tell the truth under the current
methodology of a phone and asking questions about their condition
and what they can and can't do.
So -- and that's one of the things that I'd like to explore with you
as to how we can enhance that communication with those folks,
again, to manage the spread so that we make sure we have the assets
available to care for our community.
One other additional point on the previous slide. I have said -- I
don't know based on today's schedule if I'm going to make that phone
call at 4:00 today, but there -- I have promised, twice a week on those
partners calls, I've talked to CI -- the Coalition of Immokalee
Workers, the Guadalupe Center, the RCMA, the Benson Foundation.
I've promised twice a week no one will be deported for coming and
getting tested and no one will be denied care irrespective of their
capacities to pay. I have promised that. And I think that that's part of
the increase in the Immokalee cases that we're seeing coming to
Naples.
There was a report in the Naples Daily News, Commissioner
Fiala, the other day about a surge of Immokalee residents coming to
NCH. Well, that surge was a total of 57 people in the month of May
for the entire month which was, if you watch -- if you were watching
the data -- and since I'm the newly designated statistician -- was
about 10 percent of the population that we were having testing
positive were requisite of receiving a hospital bed.
So one of my suggestions is is that we help you in some form or
fashion increase the communication with those positive cases so that
we can assure them they're not going to lose their income . We have
assets available to assist. They don't have to self-isolate and/or
June 9, 2020
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quarantine on their own. We've got assets available for that, and that
we can, in fact, assure them that the proper healthcare will be
administered irrespective of their capacity to pay.
MS. VICK: Now -- go ahead. You have a --
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: No, no. I was -- I wasn't going to
say anything.
Commissioner Taylor.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: I have a question after --
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Let's see if we can wrap
this up.
MS. VICK: Okay. I just want to tell you, with the meeting with
the Partners in Health yesterday, I was going over some of the same
issues. They apparently have a stipend fund that they might be able to
use to guarantee income to individuals who have to isolate while
they're out. But we still have to talk and influence employers, and
that doesn't fall so much within the responsibility of Department of
Health, but -- it's not supposed to be trying to regulate, and we're
educating.
So anyway -- but if we could get the employers to agree and
make sure that their staff know that if you have to be out for seven
days or 14 days to isolate because of the disease, that you're not
going to lose your job, and they need to communicate that.
So there are some things in the works. We also are just going to
be working with other counties within the region, the growing region,
that our farm workers go there, farm workers come back here, and so
we need to work at it as a region, too. So I just wanted you to know
that's happening, too.
That's all for me.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Taylor.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes. Don't leave yet.
I was given some information that the World Health
June 9, 2020
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Organization has now determined that folks that are not exhibiting
symptoms of COVID cannot spread it.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: That's not correct.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Well, let's put it this way, that's
what I read.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Well, then you misread this. World
Health Organization has said that it's not likely you're going to get it
from someone who is asymptomatic, but there is still some spread.
MS. VICK: Correct.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Though a small amount.
MS. VICK: And it's even less likely for children that are
asymptomatic, to get it from a child, but you still can get it.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: It's not 100 percent.
MS. VICK: Correct.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: I will be corrected.
MS. VICK: So people shouldn't -- shouldn't think they're safe.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: No, but at the same time it is a
dramatic change from how we started because of learning more about
it.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yeah, and we just have to be
careful not to send a message that is incorrect, and so that's why I was
interrupting to correct that. That's very important for the public to
understand that you can still get this from asymptomatic folks, but the
World Health Organization has, at least at this point in time, opined
that 90 percent, 95 percent of the people that get COVID are not
getting it from asymptomatic people, but that still leaves a lot of
people that are getting it from asymptomatic spreaders.
MS. VICK: Correct.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And I -- this is a specific ask. I
have -- I've been very involved, if you've been listening to what I've
June 9, 2020
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been saying with regard to our community. We have specific points.
We know where our workers go load on the bus. We know where
they congregate. We've been educating and assisting with sanitization
and mask distribution and the like.
My specific question is a physical visit of the positive cases that
do, in fact, come in by a representative of the Health Departmen t. I
have talked to Gloria over at RCMA, and they have offered
volunteers to travel along with your representatives to go speak with
these folks, a trusted face that can communicate with them in their
particular language to assist with letting these folks know how
important it is, because Commissioner Saunders said it best, I mean,
we can't disavow the severity of this virus. This is a real virus that
could have severe negative impacts on folks who contract it. But
additional attention, I think, needs to be warranted to our residents
there because of this myriad of barriers that we know currently exist.
And so I would like to ask for support from my colleagues and
from you to what you need -- because I consider people to be assets.
And so I would like to know from you what would be the requisite
there to help with that, because I think that's a single issue. I've heard
a lot of anecdotal discussions about lack of communication, and I
know we can't get 100 percent. There's no absolute. But the phone
call circumstances that we're currently utilizing is lackluster at best.
MS. VICK: I want you to be careful about some of the anecdotal
information that you do get, because we've heard the same story
about a family of four who were positive and never got any kind of
contact. And on many occasions we've asked that the names be given
to us, the people contact us so we can follow up on -- because we
don't want that to happen to anybody. It's not we don't believe it, but
it's come up at least four times, and there's no resolve to it. We've not
been contacted. We've not --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'll be the first one to say I
June 9, 2020
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don't lean to anecdotal information. This is information that has come
to me from personal friends who have contracted the virus, tested
positive, and the contact with regard to how we're managing those
circumstances needs to be improved, I believe could be improved,
and I believe you need assets in order to do that.
So, please don't -- there's no -- again, this is just -- this is me
trying to share with you we want to help.
MS. VICK: Yes.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Or at least I do.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Taylor.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Going back to my comment
before, which I was corrected, and rightly so, that 95 percent of the
people would -- if they're exposed would not -- would not contract
COVID unless -- from someone that didn't exhibit the symptoms -- I
think I said that correctly. It goes -- again -- and I go back to that first
time you came before us, which has been the direction of the CDC
from the beginning, that testing is what we need, and then it's
preventive after that, so that I understand that that has increased in
this community over these three months, and I would thank you and
the CDC for this, because I think it's, you know, again, what helps us
keep everyone safe.
MS. VICK: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I think what Commissioner
McDaniel is expressing, and I think all of us would express the same,
if there are things that the county can do in addition to what we're
doing, let us know. This is not the right time, perhaps, to have that
dialogue, because perhaps you need to think about it. But if there are
things we can do, we're offering up that assistance . So if you would
work with the manager if there are things that need to be considered
by the Board.
MS. VICK: Okay. Thank you.
June 9, 2020
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MR. OCHS: Mr. Carnell?
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And I assume it's okay with the
court reporter to complete this item before we take a break. Is that --
THE COURT REPORTER: (Thumbs up.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right.
MR. CARNELL: For the record, Steve Carnell, your Public
Services Department Head.
I want to give you a very quick update regarding county
operations of the past two weeks since we last met -- last week since
we met. Start with the beaches. We were all quiet this weekend on
the beaches and the boat ramp. Rain was our friend in terms of -- or
clouds in terms of maintaining/minimizing the traffic at our beach
locations. Our numbers were low, manageable. We had no need to
close any parking lots. We did have one parking lot that filled, which
I'll mention in a moment.
Then I've got some drone shots that just give you a sense of
some representative of the different locations -- some of the different
beach locations. Our busiest one, Vanderbilt. You'll see Saturday at
1:00 p.m. and Sunday at 11:00 a.m.; quite a bit of equipment on the
beach from our concessionaire and people congregating but spread
out.
And then jumping to Clam Pass, I include Clam Pass here
because we did have a reopening of tram service this past weekend
by the Naples Grande, and I'm told that they did -- they have
plexiglass shields installed within the trams. I haven't seen that yet.
But they are operable and Naples Grande is doing their part to try to
keep everyone riding safe.
The Naples Pier. This is Naples Pier on Sunday afternoon, and
when you look at the two pictures together, it looks like the world's
longest pier, but it's actually not. The one view, of course, on the left
is looking north, and the other view is looking south. And you'll see
June 9, 2020
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very little traffic -- foot traffic on the beach itself.
Now, just by way of news, breaking news, Naples City Council
voted this morning to reopen their beaches this weekend without
restrictions and limited hours. The one restriction they're going to
keep in place is limiting parking to resident sticker vehicles only. The
city marina is going to reopen on Thursday -- on Thursday, and the
pier is going to reopen on Thursday, we're told.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: The pier?
MR. CARNELL: The pier.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: The whole length of the pier?
MR. CARNELL: I'm not sure. I was just -- I got an email from
the city staff member saying --
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Because it was always, but only
that one part.
MR. CARNELL: Yeah. Well, I hope so, because there were
people in the picture on the pier. That's a good point. So the pier, it
sounds like, will be fully reopened on Thursday. South Marco Beach
was -- you can see the photos there Saturday and Sunday as well. The
parking lot did fill here -- which is understandable. It's a fairly small
lot, less than 70 spaces -- but we didn't have queuing problems on the
highway -- on the roadway leading into the park, so that really
minimizes the inconvenience and problems when we don't have cars
backing up into the street. So that's the beaches.
And I've mentioned to you-all previously that we have been
reducing our presence on the beaches. We still have park rangers and
tollbooth attendants there, but our recreation staff has been moved
inland for the noble undertaking of opening summer camp, which
happened yesterday. Almost 70 campers registered at 11 locations.
I've mentioned to you previously that our playgrounds have been
closed. That's been the ongoing guidance from the CDC. But I think
I'd mentioned to you, well, last time that Lee County has fully
June 9, 2020
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reopened all of their playgrounds, and we are starting to get resident
inquiries from people asking to have access to playgrounds. So we
are going to be reopening the playgrounds in steps. Initially, the only
ones that are open -- actually, before yesterday the only ones that
were open were the ones that were dedicated for summer camp use .
There are a few more open, which I'll go over in just a moment.
In our community centers, which are often the case in the
summer, we generally limit our activity in the community centers to
summer camp. We're adhering to that a little more rigidly this
summer just for the sake of keeping our campers safe. But summer
camp is up and running.
Our pools and fitness centers are open. The fitness centers
opened two weeks ago today, and our pools opened last Monday.
And our first week of operations with the pools we had 400 visitors
to our three community pool locations. Sun N Fun remains closed.
Our fitness center in about 12-business-day period has had a little
over a thousand visits.
We are continuing to adapt our restrictions to the governor's
guidance as we move into Phase 2, which means we are permitted to
have more total carrying capacity in both locations -- both venues,
pools and fitness centers. And, of course, we continue to adhere to
the social distancing and the adjusted crowd-size requirements.
One more comment on the pools. We will be reopening to Swim
Naples at the Golden Gate Community Park next week. We're
working out some details with them right now.
Playgrounds I mentioned yesterday -- I mentioned earlier.
Yesterday we did reopen a handful of them at Sugden, at Pelican Bay
Community Park, the Oakes Neighborhood Park, and the one at the
Gordon River Greenway. We have almost 30 playgrounds, so this is
just the tip of the iceberg in terms of reopening. And as I mentioned
to you, our community centers where we're doing summer camp, the
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playgrounds there are open to summer campers for now.
We're going to attempt to open more of these, but we -- just to
be forthright with everybody, our capacity to clean the playgrounds is
pretty limited. So we're putting educational signage up, and we're
trying to trust our citizens to be individually responsible in the use of
the playgrounds at this point in time. But we're going to try to open
them week by week and see how that goes, and we may be at a place
where we can have them all reopened by July 1st, but we'll see how
that plays out in the next few weeks.
Sports leagues and tournaments. You may remember in previous
briefings I told you that no play till the fall but, once again, with the
changing guidance from the Governor and changing expectations, our
league partners are approaching us very anxious to get back on the
fields. So what we've done is we've asked our leagues, our league
partners, to essentially give us a COVID protection plan, if you will,
for their participation. What are you going to do to protect your kids
on our fields?
And we are dialoguing with them now and, essentially, creating
those agreements one at a time with each league, and we're -- we'll be
opening our fields back up to league play here shortly, league by
league, as we reach agreement with them. And as you all know, our
fields are open for individual recreational use now. But we'll be
working league play back into it.
We do have tournaments as well. Same thing, we're going to be
talking with our tournament partners. Again, what's your COVID
protection plan, if you will, for your population that you're bringing
onto the site, and how can we help you in sustaining that?
And we have tournaments scheduled, North Collier Regional
Park, this month and next, and that's all subject to getting those plans
in place pretournament.
Regional libraries reopened two weeks ago, and there's a quick
June 9, 2020
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summary of the utilization through this past Saturday where 24,000
books and videos have circulated. We've had over 10,000 individual
visits in that period of time.
And then I thought it was useful maybe to take a moment and
reflect on the closure period for the libraries. The libraries closed
back on March 18th, and they reopened at the very end of May. And
so our data through -- from March through last Friday, Saturday, was
that we have had over 15,000 requests for materials, over 12,000
material reservations, which were reserved remotely and picked up
curbside, delivered by our staff to people in a safe manner. We
processed our -- we've distributed, I should say, almost 3,900
unemployment compensation form requests and had over -- almost
112,000 e-books circulated in our library system.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Fiala.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. When you were talking about
tournaments, you didn't mention the one at -- well, let's see -- the East
Naples Park, Eagle Lakes. The Mexi Soccer Group. I know that's a
huge group, and it keeps a lot of people busy. Is that going to be
playing?
MR. CARNELL: Well, we're going to -- yes, we're talking with
them. When we can get an agreement with them for reinitiating,
restarting play there, they will be able to do that.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay.
MR. CARNELL: And I actually don't know where that
particular discussion is right now, but I can find out for you.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh, that would be great. Thank you very
much.
MR. CARNELL: Good question. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: One quick question. Are you
still practicing the quarantine with the return library materials that
June 9, 2020
Page 54
you were before, holding them for 36 hours or something, I think?
MR. CARNELL: Three days; 72 hours, yes, sir. And that, by the
way -- I'm glad you mentioned that, Commissioner, because that's an
impairment to getting back to 100 percent operations. We need -- we
can operate regional libraries, and we can open a few of the branches,
but it's going to be challenging to open them all as lo ng as we have
that quarantine process required.
Okay. Lastly, museums. Our museums are reopening officially
today on a Tuesday-through-Saturday schedule at all five locations.
We do have plexiglass, sneeze-guards, and other protections in place,
and we're closely monitoring social physical distancing among
groups as they visit the museums. We -- the governor, I think you
know in the last order, has pulled off the capacity limitations on
museums and libraries. And many of our museum facilities are very
small, so there's kind of a natural compliance that comes with just
maintaining social distancing. You can only get so many people in a
space if you're going to keep them six feet apart. So that's made it
actually fairly simple to understand what the requirements are and to
manage them in our museum system.
With that I'll answer any other questions that the Board may
have.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. I don't see anyone looking
for any questions. I do have one question/comment. On the
playgrounds, you indicated that you have limited capacity for
cleaning, and right now you're opening those up for the summer
camps but you plan to open them all up, generally, I think, was it
July 1st?
MR. CARNELL: Yeah, we're working towards that goal.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I'm wondering if that's a good thing
for us to do in light of the fact that we can't clean those . So I'd just
open that up for any comment from the Board.
June 9, 2020
Page 55
MR. CARNELL: Well, I do want to be clear. We're cleaning
them, but we're committing to weekly, so it is a l imited clean, and it's
not daily.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Right. That's what I understood
from your --
MR. CARNELL: Except the ones -- the ones involved with
summer camp are getting cleansed more frequently, but the other
ones are not.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. Commissioner Taylor.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yeah. I think that parents need to
take some responsibility here, and I think washing their hands and
having wipes is critical. So I think as long as there's signs that say,
you know, wash your hands after you've been here. Something along
that line, I think, it's quite fine. In fact, I think there's some differing
opinions of exactly how long the virus would last on hard surfaces.
Initially I thought it was three days, but I think they have backed
down. So every day we learn more things about this virus, and I think
it's critical we try to get children on playgrounds.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah. Well -- and I -- you
know, there is a lot of floating information that's coming along with
regard to this, but I would like to see us do as much as we possibly
can. Again, if it's asset related, let us know what we need to do to
assist you to be able to get our playgrounds/parks open as much as is
possible. I mean, again, there is a personal responsibility requisite to
try to keep our kids from picking their nose after they've been riding
on the slide or something. But the bottom line is, if you need more
assets, we need to know what your needs are so that we can help you
appropriate that.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: What I would ask is -- we've got
another meeting prior to the July 1st opening, and I would like to
June 9, 2020
Page 56
have some guidance as to what we should do with those playground
facilities. If you're cleaning them once a week -- I understand we
need to have personal responsibility and all of that, but these are
assets that the county controls, and throwing those open without
cleaning other than once a week, I'm not sure if that's a really smart
thing for us to do. Maybe it is. But if you could focus on that for our
next meeting, kind of give us a little bit guidance as to what other
communities are doing and what CDC would recommend -- if you
had said, well, we clean these every day or we clean them twice a
day, that would be one thing, but once a week, I think that could be
problematic. So that's just my personal opinion.
Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And on that personal, maybe
we could have a report. Did I hear you say that Lee County has
opened up their playgrounds as well? Maybe we can hear the
regiment that they have with regard to their cleaning and a report
from them. There's a sister community there that's already doing that,
so that might help as well. I like the idea of having that information
afforded to us.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. We also have Sheriff
Rambosk in the audience, and -- we're finished with the staff --
MR. OCHS: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: -- presentation?
MR. OCHS: Yes, we are.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Sheriff Rambosk, as you approach
the podium, I certainly would like to hear about your experiences
over the weekends with the beaches being opened but also we've had
a lot of demonstrations, most of which seem to be very peaceful, and
we'd like to kind of have a quick overview of how that all went, and I
would also congratulate you on the efforts that you've had in terms of
communicating with the public and expressing your concerns about
June 9, 2020
Page 57
the activities and tragedy up in Minneapolis. And I think your
deputies have done an incredible job, but we need to hear from you as
to how things are going and --
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Thank you, Chairman and members of
the board.
Just a quick follow-up on the COVID situation. Pretty much the
information relative to the beaches was already covered. We continue
to work together with your staff and have had no problems at all with
social distancing and/or other issues at any of our parks.
Of course, we did have some trying weather this weekend, so we
will continue to do that, and we'll make sure that we let you know
and your staff know, and the Manager, should there be any problems,
but we have not seen anything there.
As we reopen into Phase 2, we have seen a lot of businesses that
were open, particularly the bars. We have a lot of very good
compliance in how they're operating. I will tell you that from just
general observations, there are a lot of people out and about
throughout the county. The big box stores, very, very busy. Most of
them, if not all, that I've seen, anyway, have procedures in place that
allow only so many people in a particular store at a time, and you can
see people that are waiting outside, so that's good.
We've been working with the Greater Naples Chamber and as a
board member there talking about the board has been providing
information to small businesses as well to help them determine a
good safety plan for them to open and operate . So from that
perspective, all of that is going very, very well.
The past week has been very busy for us throughout the county .
We have had five events; four of them were in-person-type events,
and I'll talk about them in a second. One was a virtual event relative
to demonstrating and protesting. In most cases we have a mix of
people that are attending. Some are local organizations that we have a
June 9, 2020
Page 58
very good connection with, and we're able to develop a good safety
plan for those types of events.
We have had more and more people coming from outside of the
community to participate in those events. Some have become very
agitated. And I want to recognize our deputies and all of our law
enforcement officers for their professional conduct during those
events in particular, and the support of maintaining safety in this
community as well as supporting the Constitution of the United
States of America. So I want to thank them for that.
We have a concern about the large numbers of people that our
staff are interacting with due to COVID. There's a lot of aerosol spray
from yelling and screaming, and while we have protective gear on,
that continues to be a concern for us. We're working together with
Director Vick to get more testing for public safety, and we're going to
have to continue to be very, very cautious with those contacts. We are
looking at, right now, two additional events that are reportedly being
put together for this week. We have a lot that are reported, they never
materialize, but we've got to follow them up anyways.
So that's the status of the county up to this point.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. I don't see anybody's
lights lit up. Thank you very much for everything that you're doing.
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Great job.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Mr. Manager, we're going to take a
break until 11:00 for the court reporter, and when we convene, are we
going to be dealing with the selection of -- pursuant to the ITN, or do
you want to move --
MR. OCHS: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: So that will be our next item.
MR. OCHS: Yes, sir.
June 9, 2020
Page 59
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you. We'll be back at 11:00.
(A brief recess was had from 10:51 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Please take your seats. We'll
reconvene.
We'll move to Item 7.
Item #7
PUBLIC COMMENTS ON GENERAL TOPICS NOT ON THE
CURRENT OR FUTURE AGENDA
MR. OCHS: Yes, sir. That's public comments on general topics
not on the current or future agenda.
MR. MILLER: I have one registered speaker for Item 7, Shirley
Riley. Ms. Riley? Shirley Riley?
(No response.)
MR. MILLER: I know we do have some people in the hall and
on the fifth floor.
THE BAILIFF: She's coming.
MR. MILLER: She is coming. Thank you.
MR. OCHS: She's right here. Come straight up, ma'am, to the
podium. Oh, I'm sorry. She's following the arrows.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I'll have to say you're the only
person who's followed those arrows. We've had them there for about
a month and a half.
MR. OCHS: Middle podium. This one right here, ma'am. Keep
going. All right, thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Good morning.
MS. RILEY: Good morning.
MR. OCHS: You can pull that microphone down. There you go.
MS. RILEY: I guess you all know my name is Shirley Riley.
June 9, 2020
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I've lived on Cope Lane for the past 42 years. And, yes, I was the first
house there.
Why I'm here is I wanted to talk about the water problem, which
you-all are familiar with that, I'm sure.
At the time when they were digging along Santa Barbara and
putting the weirs in, I went down -- which I'm down there almost
every day -- and I asked them, what are you doing, and they said,
well, we're building all of this to help with the water problem.
And I said, well, that's nice.
Well, our problem has gotten worse, not better.
I want to know, my question is, what are they -- why are they
holding the water back along Santa Barbara? The weirs are all the
way up. The water is very high. Along County Barn Road, the weir is
up. The water is not flowing. It's holding it. When we do have a rain,
it is supposed to go to the east and go down the weirs. Well, it
doesn't. It's flowing to the west until everything is so filled up.
The other day when we had that bad rain, I went down there to
look. The water had overflowed Santa Barbara -- not over Santa
Barbara, but over the canals, and it went right up to the edge of Santa
Barbara. So when I drive along there, of course, it's average six
inches deep. And I want to know, what is the purpose of holding that
water back?
MR. OCHS: Mr. Chairman, if I might.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yeah. Mr. Ochs.
MR. OCHS: Staff has been having discussions this entire week
with residents of Cope Lane, and we have our engineers and our
stormwater team out there on a daily basis.
What I might suggest for Ms. Riley, if Mr. Casalanguida could
get your contact information on your way out. He's been coordinating
the staff efforts to provide more information to the neighborhood and
answer the specific questions that you have. It's part of the larger
June 9, 2020
Page 61
Lely Area Stormwater Improvement Project. And I think if we could
try to meet with you individually and respond to your questions, that
might be the appropriate approach right now. If you have continuing
concerns, we will bring those forward.
MS. RILEY: I figured the only thing they were trying to do was
use this territory right in there to hold the water back for breeding
mosquitoes. The mosquitoes last night, you couldn't even go outside
and breathe because -- I mean, they were that thick. I carried my trash
out, and you couldn't even breathe. You have to hold your breath or
you'll be inhaling mosquitoes. And I'm, like, they're telling us to pour
standing water out? It's impossible.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Mr. Casalanguida is the gentleman
who is standing up behind you there. Give him your contact
information. And if you don't get a satisfactory response, then we'll
beat him up and bring you back. Well, actually, he's too big. We
won't beat him up, but --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I was going to say, I'll bring
the 2x4.
MR. OCHS: Thank you, Ms. Riley.
MS. RILEY: Thank you.
MR. OCHS: Just straight back. He'll help you there.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right.
Item #11A
REVIEW STAFF'S RANKING OF THE PROPOSALS
SUBMITTED IN RESPONSE TO INVITATION TO NEGOTIATE
(“ITN”) NO. 20-7698 CONCERNING A HOUSING AND LAND
DEVELOPMENT COMPONENT AT THE FORMER GOLDEN
GATE GOLF COURSE AND DIRECT THE COUNTY
MANAGER’S OFFICE TO BEGIN CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS
June 9, 2020
Page 62
WITH THE SELECTED FIRM – MOTION TO SELECT RURAL
NEIGHBORHOODS, INC. – APPROVED
MR. OCHS: Mr. Chairman, that moves you finally to Item 11A
this morning. This is a recommendation for the Board to review the
staff's ranking of proposals submitted in response to a county
invitation to negotiate for a housing and land development pro ject at
the former Golden Gate Golf Course.
Mr. Geoff Willig from our office will begin the presentation.
MR. WILLIG: Good morning, Commissioners. Again, for the
record, Geoff Willig, operations analyst in the County Manager's
Office as well as I'm the project manager for the process to determine
what we're doing with the golf course and working with our selected
engineer and the folks that you had selected previously for the golf
course operations.
So today we have five proposals that you've had in your packet.
They're here to present to you. We've given them up to 10 minutes to
speak, and at the Board's discretion, we can withhold comments until
after all the presenters or after each presenter has had opportunity to
speak.
It's been a while. We had this come before the selection
committee in February, and due to COVID, had to postpone the
presentations. So I'm excited to move forward and get your guys'
direction this morning.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Is it the pleasure of the
Board to hear all five before questions, or do you want to question
after each one? Generally, it's probably easier to question after each
one, but -- all right. We'll try to keep it as brief as we can, but we'll
ask questions as each presenter is complete.
MR. WILLIG: Okay. Our first presentation this morning is from
McDowell Housing Partners, Collier County Community Land Trust
June 9, 2020
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and National Community Renaissance of California, their proposal.
So with that, I'll turn the microphone over to Christopher Shear.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Good morning.
MR. SHEAR: Good morning. Thank you. Pleased to be here.
Hopefully this is a little more uplifting than the previous agenda item .
We're very excited about this project. We see the mix of uses
that are being proposed. We think it's an excellent fit for the
community and to serve a glaring need in the housing requirements
of the county.
It wasn't too long ago we were standing here presenting to you
on the Bembridge PUD land, which I'm very happy to say is moving
way ahead of schedule. We are planning to -- you know, a large part
of that was really due to the outstanding staff that you guys have. So I
do want to commend your staff on allowing us to get to the point
we're moving lightning speed to be able to get our applications in for
funding and allowing us to move and be where we are today with the
opportunity to break ground on that project at the end of this year,
first quarter of 2021. So we're very excited to move forward with that
development, and we hope to replicate that success at Golden Gate.
You know, I'm here as a representative of the team, but our
primary proposers on the team are two nonprofits. They are the
primary owners/operators of the development. Although we are part
of the development team, we are not the sole owners or developers
for the ESP development; however, our development plan does have
a subsequent phase as well, which I'll get into.
So we have Collier County Community Land Trust, which is a
local 501(c)3. They -- as you guys are probably familiar, they were
established recently with the support of the County Commission. In
addition, the other team member, who is -- who's also working with
us on a development called Villa Verde, which we have secured
federal and state funding on, it's National Community Renaissance.
June 9, 2020
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They're a leading nonprofit top-five owner/operator developer of
workforce and affordable housing across the country. They have a
Florida operations, and they have a Florida nonprofit. Although
they're based in California, they are a Florida nonprofit entity that
will be participating within this development.
To that point, you know, this is not an ad hoc team . We're
continuing to work with these same groups actively in
predevelopment of Villa Verde and Bembridge as well as a couple
other predevelopment developments that we're considering with the
Community Land Trust.
To go through initially -- do we have a slide here?
MR. OCHS: Arrow down.
MR. SHEAR: Arrow down. Thank you.
So just to run through the scoring, which I think was a good
comprehensive review of the proposals. It weighted, you know, the
development plan itself; it weighted the proposer's experience and
capacity; it weighted the community objectives; and it had some
weight for local vendor preference. We did come -- in our
proposer -- proposal came in at the top of the rankings with 448
points. The other, the fifth presenter here -- I know initially there was
a slate of three presenters. It's been expanded to five presenters. The
fifth presenter demonstrated here is about 88 points below the core
Land Trust MHP proposal.
You know, to go into -- I think the focus of what I really want to
talk about is our objectives, you know. We want to see this
development get done, and we want to see it optimized, the public
benefit. There's no shortage of demand. As you know, we're worked
in the community already. We're investing in the community. There
is a huge demand based on our market analysis, based on, you know,
what we deal with on a day-to-day basis.
And we wanted to present a proposal that has a two-phase
June 9, 2020
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development approach. One, working with the Community
Foundation utilizing their funding to the extent that they're willing to
grant the support to develop a workforce housing development that
focuses and preferences essential service personnel. Secondarily, to
not ignore the glaring need, and I think to benefit the public further,
to implement a senior veterans development phase that you have the
land. If you optimize the land, you can certainly provide a
multi-phase development approach that will better serve the residents
of the county and the needs.
In total, our proposal had 348 ESP units as well as that 122 but,
you know, that is flexible. So between 120 to 150 affordable senior
veterans units. So that is 470 units as proposed is the maximum or the
highest number of units that are being proposed by the other
proposers in their initial submission, in any case.
Second goal is something that I feel strongly about is, you know,
consideration for land, consideration for the county. We're not
looking for a handout. These developments, if structured correctly,
can support land-lease payments, and so we've structured about
three-and-a-half million dollars between the two phases, and we'll get
into how that's split up later. But on three-and-a-half million dollars
coming back to the county in capitalized land-lease payments. So
when we close, the county receives consideration for the conveyance
of the land under the land lease.
In addition, our property taxes are intended to be paid on the
senior veterans affordable development, on the workforce ESP
development. Depending on the development's ability to support
taxes, I think we would look at negotiating a payment in lieu of taxes
to ensure that there's some return to the county. And that is fungible.
So land-lease payment versus taxes, it all comes down to the sources
available for development, so that's something we would look at in
coordination with the county to determine which is preferred.
June 9, 2020
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And, frankly, we -- you know, we see the developer fees on the
ESP development, particularly if the Community Foundation is
participating, as something that every developer should forego
because, ultimately, the ESP -- the Community Foundation's money
should not just be used to go into the developer's pocket at the end of
the day. That development is able to generate significant cash flow
which will return enough to the developer and owner to sustain that
development.
So we're willing to forego that, and that's really to the benefit of
the development where we can -- that's one of the reasons we're able
to support more units. It's one of the reasons -- you'll get a better-
quality product out of it, because you'll have more sources instead of
paying the development to put into a quality product of the building.
And one of the biggest objectives is ability to execute. As you
know, we're working within the county. We have -- you know, we
have a development agreement and a land lease that's already been
negotiated in relation to Bembridge, and we could expedite the
process by utilizing those documents, the template. Our counsel's
been through this with the county's counsel, and I think it's a great
starting point to allow us to move quicker than any other proposer
would be able to.
We do have an experienced local team. As I mentioned, the
Community Land Trust, who is providing supportive services -- or
services within the community. And we do have the capacity in
place.
McDowell Housing Partners, we are establishing -- we have
established a local office. We have an individual who is going to be
working directly in Naples, will be placed here, and then as well as a
new vice president of development who is coming off of a project
you may know as Magnolia Square on Goodlette -Frank and Pine
Ridge. And he just -- he was the lead developer on that project as
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well. So a lot of experience there in addition to the experience that
we've been able to gain just recently.
We have a team that's in place with engineers and professionals,
our professional design team. Intimately familiar with the Collier
County entitlement process, which is a big issue here . That's going to
take time. We understand that process, the zoning requirements, the
land-use change requirement. And what we're offering is we can take
over -- we know -- we saw that in the package there was a million
dollars that's been earmarked for Davidson Engineer's contract.
In consideration for the development and the development
rights, we would be willing to take that contract over from the county
to alleviate the burden of your general revenue funds. So that's just
something to consider that we wanted to throw out there for
consideration.
We have committed financing. You know, this is a big
development. This is a completely different ballgame than a, you
know, 100-unit tax credit development or a development serving
migrant farm workers or development solely focusing on supportive
service housing.
This development's going to require 60 to $70 million
construction in permanent loan. That -- requirements of those lenders,
especially in the COVID world today, are very stringent. It's
extremely hard for some of the biggest market rate developers to get
construction financing these days.
We do have a commitment that's been placed in your package
from an FHA lender, so this is a HUD guaranteed loan product. It's a
$63 million commitment. The total development costs on ESP -- it's
for the ESP phase -- is about 78 million. So that gap funding is
coming internally. We're also an Opportunity Zone Fund, so we do
have a commitment with an Opportunity Zone Fund investor as well
as internal capital to the extent that the Community Foundat ion will
June 9, 2020
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not grant us their support.
Last thing I want to say, our objective in delivering these units is
to really commit to a timeline, and we're confident that once the
zoning approval is in place, the PUD is approved, the land use is
changed, we're ready to immediately close thereafter, and our
construction period's about 14 months.
So that's really the process that we have to get through, and then
shovel in the ground, units about 14 months thereafter. It's a -- you
know, it's a larger project, so I think that's an aggressive timeline, but
14 to 16 months is where you should be seeing delivery of units.
Last objectives, you know, we want to be collaborative here.
You know, that's an important part to this. We've demonstrated the
vision, the capability, and the flexibility to work with both the county
and the Community Foundation.
The neighborhood sensitivity and compatibility items, we have
just commenced discussions with the Golden Gate Civic Association.
We've taken a lot of time and care to ensure that we've designed the
product to have as little impact on the single-family neighborhood
adjacent to the product, and we're committed to implementing their
feedback as we go through the process of planning and designing
and, frankly, through the construction process as well.
We've also incorporated supportive services and amenities
outside of standard supportive services and resident programs. We
are set on including the health and wellness facility, basically
screening rooms as well as for practitioners to conduct examinations
and screenings, which is more important today, especially in the
senior veterans population.
Another idea that we have in concept is to implement a financial
opportunity center especially on the ESP development where you
have -- where you have residents who do have incomes that are
probably on the verge of being able to move into homeownership, so
June 9, 2020
Page 69
we implement a program that allows for counseling and education to
assist in moving from a rental to a homeownership opportunity and
further establishing, you know, roots in the community.
Lastly, our objective was really on safety and sustainable. This
building will be green certified. We are considering an active solar
system to power electric in the common areas, which really results in
cost savings again going back into the project and not into our
pocket.
You know, the construction of our development is considered to
be concrete. I think that is very important in the zoning that we're in.
Backup generator system. Again, entering into hurricane season.
We never know what's going to happen. And 100 percent security
camera coverage of the entire development site, interior corridors,
and outside common areas, as well as key fobs as a standard amenity
that we implement on our developments to ensure access is
controlled.
So we -- we're very excited about the Community Foundation's
funding. We -- it's very commendable. I think it's a -- really respect
the initiative that they're raising dollars to invest in workforce
housing, particularly to service ESP. The thing that we're looking at
here and we're struggling a little bit with -- and we're seeking your
clarity on this, and we hope that we can continue the discussion with
the Community Foundation, but we structure our development to
meet 100 percent of the outlined specifications and goals that were
set forth within the solicitation.
We've presented that in correspondence a few times now to the
Community Foundation, and we haven't been able to get kind of
through the black box as to what it is that we may be lacking that
otherwise doesn't qualify to represent their support for our
development and our team. We're structured 100 percent nonprofit
ownership on the ESP development, which is where their funding
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would be used. Our rents are capped at 80 percent AMI, although the
incomes are not capped. So renters are never going to pay above
80 percent of the area median income regardless of how much their
income -- they actually earn.
We have the ESP preference 100 percent. You know, that's our
number-one preference on filling these units, and we've exceeded the
senior and veterans goals that were outlined.
So we're really looking for clarity how we're not meeting this
requirement, and if you're going to allow the Community Foundation
to only support developers and proposals that they subjectively select,
then they're effectively influencing this procurement process at a
level that I don't think was the intent for the Commission.
So I'm just, you know, looking for your help on that. Hopefully
there's somebody that can speak to that effect at some point during
this process.
In any case, if we don't have the Community Foundation
support, this development is viable. We have internal capital. It's
about 10 to $13 million in equity that we would need to raise. Again,
it is an Opportunity Zone Fund that has interest in the development,
and we are -- you know, internally we have the capital to be able to
put this deal together, and it works just as well. Of course, we would
welcome the Community Foundation's support and funding.
Frankly, if they move the funding elsewhere, it may be a
win-win for the county in the sense that another ESP development
gets funded and, if supported, ultimately resulting in more units. So
that is something to consider.
And just a quick comparison of proposals. Although the scoring
did a great job of ranking the proposals, a couple of things I wanted
to point out. You know our proposal does provide the highest number
of units in total.
One of the things that jumped out to me in r eview of the
June 9, 2020
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proposals was everyone averaged about $200,000 per unit in total
development costs, but for one proposal with Ability Housing that
just seems to be out of line with market costs today.
I don't know if they're including all of the amenities. I'm not sure
where that came from. Just something I wanted to point out that that
kind of raised a flag that you may want to look at the numbers a little
closer to ensure that you're not going to end up with a shortfall.
MR. OCHS: Mr. Chairman, forgive the interruption. I think the
10 minutes have run for this particular proposal. Just wrap it up.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yeah. If you could take 10 or 15
seconds to wrap up. I was wondering about the 10-minute limitation
myself.
MR. SHEAR: Sorry, sorry. There's a little more here
than -- always takes longer to get through these.
So just kind of going through, we have proven success in this
county. We have a team that is local, that is dedicated, that has a lot
of experience doing this.
This is a major development. It's going to need support and help,
whether that's in the financial capacity, whether that's in the
development experience and expertise. Our personnel requirements
are heavy on this development, and I think that needs to be strongly
considered in your selection of the developer despite whether or not
they have support of the Community Foundation with their funding.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We do have -- I'm sorry. Are you --
MR. SHEAR: I'll wrap it up there.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay.
MR. SHEAR: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Taylor.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Well, I think -- yeah, I think I
need to hear from the Community Foundation at the right time. I
think that's -- that -- I am totally confused. I think I need to direct a
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question to our County Attorney.
If a for-profit developer comes in with non-for-profit partners,
does that make him non-for-profit?
MR. KLATZKOW: Well, it doesn't make the entity
not-for-profit.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Okay. So at some point I think
we need to hear some clarification, because I'm totally confused
and -- right now about everything. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Let's move on to the next
presentation, and if you could set a timer.
MR. OCHS: Yes.
MR. MILLER: Yeah. I'm sorry, sir. The beeper had been turned
off. I did not realize that. It's fixed now, sir.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: That's okay.
MR. WILLIG: All right. Commissioners, your next speaker is
Steven Kirk with Rural Neighborhoods.
MR. KIRK: Good morning -- good afternoon, just about,
Commissioners. My name is Steven Kirk, and I represent Rural
Neighborhoods.
Let me see if I can get this working correctly.
Just -- although "rural" is the first part of our name, I want to
just remind everyone that we're not just rural anymore. We are
engaged in developments from Miami-Dade to Gainesville. Those are
two of our most recent senior projects that are in progress in
Miami-Dade County, a $32 million project, and senior housing in
Gainesville that is in -- it's a $22 million project.
We are active in nine counties, and we have a local knowledge
and a local team. We have been involved in Collier County since
2002, and we have as part of our team here today, Dottie Cook who
has been with the Empowered Alliance of South Florida for a number
of years, who has been with Rural Neighborhoods for the past four
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years. David Corban is our architecture on this project. David has an
intimate knowledge of the Golden Gate community just having
worked on Grace Place there, which is a very successful project. And
Wayne Arnold and Grady Minor are our civil engineers.
And we're proud to be associated -- yesterday, if you saw the
front page of the Naples news story about the shelter in Immokalee,
that was land that we provided to the shelter, provided the legal
entitlements to it. Pleased to say David Corbin was the architect of
that project, and Wayne Arnold was the civil engineer. So we're using
a very successful team in this community.
We're thrilled about the Foundation model. As a 501(c)3
charitable organization, we see you being the beneficiary of a
brand-new source of local equity. This is funding that does not exist
in Miami-Dade. This is funding that does not exist in Lee County .
This is a unique opportunity to include the private charitable sector in
the development of a piece of public land.
We think it's replicable. We think that if this is successful, the
Foundation and its partners can do this again. And in this instance,
the nonprofits will take cash flow from this project, reinvest it back
into accounts with the foundations and endow rather than to pocket
the cash flow that's generated over the next, potentially, 50 years of
the economic life of this project.
And we think that 120 percent for essential employee housing is
feasible. I've had conversations with commissioners in the past in
which we want to find the elevation of AMI to a point where we
begin to include essential employees. The healthcare workers are
putting their lives on the line for us today to the firefighters and
others.
And, historically, affordable housing hasn't solved that problem.
It goes to 60 percent or to 80 percent, and all of those employees are
generally making more than that money.
June 9, 2020
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So to reduce the commuting from Lee County to here for
teachers and others, this is a model that really works. And why is it
unique? Because they're basically -- not just for the ESP project, as
Mr. McDowell said, but for both projects. The senior veteran and the
ESP there would be 100 percent nonprofit ownership from a group
like Rural Neighborhoods or Ability Housing, and that would be no
benefit to a for-profit developer in that sense. So we could invest this
money back into the foundations and use it for future projects.
We are a charitable 501(c)3, but that doesn't mean we're naive,
nor does it mean we have no capital. Rural Neighborhoods has $143
million worth of total assets, net assets of $60 million, cash of $6.2
million, and $100 million worth of projects in the pipeline. We are a
sophisticated rental community developer.
We were here and active in Hurricane Irma. We were a
corecipient of the Collier County Foundation's Harvey Kapnick
Award for rehabilitating 70 homes from the black community in
Naples to the rural community in Immokalee and we've been here
since 2002.
What have we done since 2002? We've developed seven rental
communities, 317 units CO'ed, six of those using Florida Housing
Finance Corporation, a source that almost every developer in this
competition believes is necessary.
So we're not just funded for a project. We have actually built
and continue to operate these projects since 2004. In 2018 to 2020,
Rural Neighborhoods has been one of the most successful groups
getting money from Florida Housing Finance. We have $100 million
of projects in our pipeline.
We're competent. We're not naive. We know this is a big
project. Our prices are in line with those of McDowell and others.
And McDowell has a great success with Bembridge. That's
absolutely true. They have been able to receive $8 million in CDBG
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money for that project. We, too, were active in that same funding.
We've raised over $11 million to build equivalent projects in Monroe
County during that period.
So we have some tools in our toolkit. One of the things I believe
we've handed out is a commitment from Dominium corporation.
Dominium is a for-profit developer, the largest -- one of the largest
developers of affordable housing in America. They have 35,000
units. They, as a for-profit developer, have pledged pro bono
assistance to Rural Neighborhoods throughout the three years that we
expect this development to take. They have pledged 4,800-plus hours
of time for this project pro bono; no fee taken by the for-profit
developer to provide their existence -- assistance to us during the
project.
Rural Neighborhoods has pledged its aid to Ability if it is
selected. Ability's pledged its aid to us if we're selected, but we've
also reached out to Community Housing Partners, one of the largest
southeastern United States nonprofit developers, and should we ask,
they basically said that they would come in and help assist in this
project. So we have a lot tools in our toolkits.
One of the things that has not been said is that our state housing
finance agency in this medium county round, which includes Collier
County, would have 100 percent nonprofit set aside, one that
McDowell Richmond Group, Gorman & Company would not be able
to qualify for.
We are good stewards. We've never had a foreclosure, never had
a default, never had a loan forbearance. And so we believe that by
your selection of us, for 99 years this project will remain to be
affordable in this community.
These are some of the designs that we have used in our current
projects, but we are one of the few proposers who said to the Golden
Gate community, we will have a charette to decide what this should
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look like. We will not impose our design on you. And with David
Corban as our architect, having gone through a process with Grace
Place and involved himself with the community, we believe that we
can follow through with that.
One of the things we're concerned about is what does this look
like. We, too, have pledged resilient concrete construction, impact
doors and windows, ceramic baths, hard surface countertops. You
will not be able to distinguish this project from a market-rate product
in your community. It might be a little bit smaller. We're going to use
beneficial financing to make that difference. But it's going to look
like a market-rate project. And all of us today are going to provide
amenities.
It was mentioned health and wellness. For 18 years we have
been providing health screenings in our communities in Immokalee.
Every quarter we do health screenings for our residents. We would
continue that process with the seniors, veterans, and essential
employees in the county.
Just wanted to share with you that we have done income and
expense statements. This competition is fairly tight. You have 12
points separating one, two, and three, literally two points per
reviewer. Those were based on economic projections that we all
produced in our proposal.
The proposal that McDowell just shared is one in which,
frankly, is not in their content. There is no alternative equity in their
proposal. They don't even have an income and expense statement in
their proposal, just the sources and uses. So we don't believe that you
should be scored and have an alternate proposal in this hearing.
Looking at the handful of proposals, if you come into this
competition pledging $10 million from a foundation for a 100 percent
nonprofit deal and there is a for-profit developer, and the for-profit
developer is going to own the senior veteran project, then,
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realistically, you came into this project with a $10 million gap, and
now you're trying to fill it in the midst of the meeting.
We believe that the costs for four out of the five of these show
an understanding of concrete cost -- concrete block construction in
this community, and we feel that we have the ability to both fulfill
your goals, the Foundation goals, and then hopefully replicate this
and do it again.
So thank you very much for your time.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Seeing no questions at
this time, we'll go on to the next presentation.
MR. WILLIG: I'm trying to find the presentation right now.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: While we're doing that, I would just
say, if anybody hasn't seen the work that Mr. Corban's done on the
Shelter for Abused Women and Children's Shelly Stayer Shelter, it's
amazing. What an amazing accomplishment that was.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Something for our community.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Linda Oberhaus, way to go.
MR. WILLIG: All right. Commissioners, next proposal
presenter is John McClutchy from JHM/RHD, Naples, LLC.
MR. McCLUTCHY: Good morning. My name is John
McClutchy. I'm the founder of JHM group of companies. I've been
developing housing for 50 years, and for 40 of those years I've been
developing with Richard Richmond with Richmond Group. We have
been partners together all these years and co ntinue to partner together
in many other opportunities throughout the country.
Between the two of us, we've built in every state in the state -- in
the United States. And we've chosen Habitat for Humanity as our
not-for-profit partner in this venture because we believe they have a
solid background here in Collier County. They've been here since
1978. They've developed 2,000 units of housing in the county.
And we've reviewed what they've done and like what they've
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done. We believe that they have general knowledge, local knowledge
of the community that's going to be very helpful to our group and
bringing things together. They also provide an opportunity for people
who are going to rent units in this development to find housing
opportunities for homeownership beyond rental phase.
Richmond and JHM, we have -- between the two of us, we've
done 150 units of housing throughout the United States in excess of
$20 billion worth of housing. Richmond is the fifth large syndicator
of housing in the United States and the seventh largest apartment
owner in the United States. Of the 150 units, Richmond's done about
100,000. We've done about 50,000 units.
We believe that with our background and our knowledge, the
fact that we control our own construction entity here in Florida, that
we have better control of costs, better control of the end product that
the county -- we believe the county is looking for. All of our
properties include -- I don't know how to move this.
MR. OCHS: Arrow down.
MR. McCLUTCHY: We have 400 employees betwen the two
companies -- three companies, excuse me, and we have vertical
integration in terms of we handle everything from land -use approvals
through property management and asset management. So that means
we handle all of the design work, all of the construction, all the
property management, and all of the asset management.
It's all done with our employees, and we continue to maintain
control over it.
As I said, Habitat for Humanity, I think you all know, we've
worked with them in other states. This is our first time with Collier
County Habitat for Humanity, but they certainly have a great
reputation. We've spent a lot of time talking with them, and we
believe we have the same ideas in terms of what housing should be
for people.
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As I said, this is an opportunity for us to work together with
them, not just on this property, but to look for other opportunities
within Collier County to work with them in providing combination
rental and homeownership opportunities for people of Collier
County.
This flowchart shows that Richmond and JHM control
everything that's going to happen throughout the development
process. We own the management company, we own the general
contractor, and we are fully involved with the design firm, and
they've been working with us for quite a while in other opportunities
here in Florida, including here in Collier County.
In terms of responsibilities, JHM Richmond will structure the
financing plans, manage the due diligence process, oversee the
development team, and the project management.
Habitat for Humanity will be directly involved in community
engagement, local outreach, and design input. And to speak to what
one of the other presenters brought up, in every one of our properties,
we reach out to local stakeholders. It's important for us to understand
what the community is looking for, what's going to work best for the
community, and for our developments to fit in the community. In
order to do that, we need to have direct dialogue with community
stakeholders, and that's everyone from potential residents to the local
business groups to community groups that are interested in what's
happening in the Collier County area.
We have a process where it's an open, transparent conversation
with all of those groups to make sure that they're giving us their
input, and to the extent we can respond to that input, we're able to do
so.
Site plan is preliminarily laid out. And, again, this is something
that we have looked at. We believe this works. But before we would
finalize this, we would want input from the County Commissioners,
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we would want input from other stakeholders, local residents and
community groups. I actually went to a symposium that
Commissioner Taylor had given at the golf club, I think, last -- past
winter, and it was quite obvious that there is a lot of interest in what's
going to happen with that property. And it would be up to us to
engage those people and make sure that they get -- they're heard and
their input is listened to, and to the extent it can be addressed, it
addressed in this development.
We're looking at a 406-unit development. The designs you see
here are typical of what we do in all of our developments. Every one
of our units is sized to be comfortable living for the bedroom size that
it's being designed for.
We have -- in terms of amenities, we're very careful in what we
provide. We have -- many of our properties have medical facilities,
so we would work together with the local medical community,
including the hospitals, to talk about clinics and other opportunities
that they could provide for the residents of this property.
These are three developments that we have right now, which
I -- just give you an idea of the types of designs that we do. Our
properties are made to be -- reflect upper-end market-rate apartments.
In terms of interior finishes, as you can see, we don't -- we don't
skimp on them. These units are made for people to live in, and they
need to be comfortable in them. They're made big enough so that they
can furnish them properly, and we have stone countertops and
hardwood floors and tile floors. This is a typical two-bedroom and
one-bedroom unit. As you can see, the bedroom mix is on the
right-hand side in terms of the number of each type of ones, twos,
and threes, for a total of 406 units.
Site amenities. These are typical in all of our developments:
Exercise facilities, playgrounds, pools, community space.
Community rooms are there, club rooms, whatever you want to term
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it, and they're there for the purpose of having the residents be able to
use them for their own events. Whether it happens to be a birthday
party or a wedding anniversary or a wedding shower, they're there .
There's no cost to them to use it. We -- just as long as they don't
damage it, we absorb the cost for them to use it.
The other thing that we do in all of our complexes is we have a
computer room. Because we know that not everyone has access to
Internet and computer equipment at home, we provide this for our
residents. And they can use it for children to do their homework. We
provide all the equipment and all the paper and the printers and all
the rest of it, and it's open for just the use of our residents.
It's worked out very well. And, in fact, in many instances we
bring in local college students to tutor the children that are on site in
terms of their own schoolwork and homework.
This gives a look at our target rents, which we feel are
reasonable for this area. We've not talked about the Foundation
money because we're not interested in the Foundation money, to be
very truthful. We believe this could be done through our own
financing.
As I said, Richmond is the fifth largest syndicator of rental
apartments in the United States. And between Richmond and us, we
have the internal capital to be able to bring this together and make it
work. And not that we're not going to go out and use conventional
construction and permanent financing. We will. But we have balance
sheets that allow us to be able to have the flexibility to structure those
deals as they best fit the individual deals that we're doing.
We're comfortable we can stick to this timeline. We actually
increased this timeline as we started looking at this whole pandemic
issue. The reason being, that we've seen the slowdown in our own
construction projects, so we've added extra time into this one to make
sure we have the full time to be able to complete it.
June 9, 2020
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In conclusion, I believe we have a team that can provide Collier
County with the housing that it needs. And it was good to be here
early today and listen to the people who spoke in the beginning.
They -- the proclamation was read about the school system, which
focused on the teachers and the people working within the school
system and the medical facilities workers that were the focus of the
doctor's conversation on the COVID problem that we're facing right
now.
These are people that need housing. They don't have all the
money in the world. Too often they're commuting from too far away
to get here. By putting the housing here in Collier County, it allows
them to have more time at home with their families and children. It
allows them to be able to take the earnings they make and spend it
within the community, which is economic development for the
community, and it makes the community a much better-rounded
community, in our opinion.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you very much.
MR. McCLUTCHY: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Again, not seeing anyone's light on,
we'll move on to the next presenter.
MR. WILLIG: Commissioners, your next presentation is for
Gorman & Company, LLC. I invite Joel Reed up to the mic.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I'm sorry. That was Joel Reed?
MR. WILLIG: Yes, that's correct.
MR. REED: Good morning, Commissioners.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Good morning.
MR. REED: You guys have your plates full, so thank you for
having us here today. We're excited to be here today. I'm with
Gorman & Company. We are a -- let me see if I can get this to
advance.
We're a 36-year-old company founded in the '80s by Gary
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Gorman, and we're really community developers more than anything
else. We have focus markets that we're in. We're here in five focus
markets throughout the United States. We are a national developer. I
think what we bring is we bring that creativity in what we learn on
projects nationally to a local environment.
I'm the market president for the Southeast. We have market
presidents for those other markets. We have a lot of synergy amongst
the markets, a lot of sharing amongst our markets, what we're doing,
what's working, what's not working.
We're vertically integrated as well. So we have design,
construction, architecture, project management, and development all
in-house. It allows us to move very efficiently, very effectively, and
quicker than if that's spread out amongst a lot of different entities.
What we don't do, though, is we don't come into a market and
act as if we're the expert in the market, and so we always partner with
local partnerships, consultants, engineers, architects. Contractors we
try and hire local as well.
So our integrated team for this is myself. I'm the Southeast
market president for Florida and Georgia; John Lerdahl is our
development director based out of Orlando; then you have Patrick
who's our director of architecture; Laura, who's our head of
operations, such as our property management and asset management;
and then Ron Swiggum, who is our director of construction.
Some of our core purpose and values: Like I said, our purpose is
we're community developers. We're not coming in just to develop
once in a community. We're asked back in the communities that we
work in, and we continue to be in those communities.
We want to build strong neighborhoods, not just one project
here or there. We're there to build a community. My background's as
a planner. A lot of us in the firm have planning in our background as
well.
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A lot of our values -- some of our main values is we protect our
reputation at all costs, because that's all we have when it comes down
to it is our reputation. And so, like I said, we are asked back to the
communities, and we do whatever it takes to make our partners
happy, and we try and exceed your expectations with our projects.
We're a Midwest company based in -- and I do think the
Midwest brings something. I guess, I was born initially in the
Midwest, and I loved that about Gorman when I came on is there is
something with that Midwest value or something. We're based out of
Madison, Wisconsin; actually, Oregon, Wisconsin, which is a tiny
town outside of Madison, and there is something just with the values
and commitments that comes with that.
We're ranked No. 7 with Affordable Housing Finance's largest
affordable developers in the country. We were ranked seven last year;
very proud of that. We've always been ranked as one of the top
developers for the class 30-plus years that we've been around.
You've seen a couple scores, and I guess it's like statistics or
numbers. You can slice it and cut it any which way. And I was
thinking today coming here. I was like, I don't know if they'll pay
attention. We were ranked No. 4 on the list there. And I was a little
disappointed we were ranked four, because we typically rank pretty
high, at the top of most of them . And so I asked procurement if they
could send me over the scores and the breakdowns and I could
analyze the scores to see what areas we lost points in and where we
didn't do as well as some of our competitors.
So I created a sheet, and on the bottom there it has business plan
approach. We got ranked on support, on our support for community
objectives, our financial capability, qualifications. The one thing you
don't see on here is local preference, which gave 10 points, or 50
overall to that top sore. If you take out local preference, we all of a
sudden become the number-one firm.
June 9, 2020
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And I think a lot of those other areas are equally, if not more,
important. Local preference is, obviously, very important, and that's
why we put together the team that we had. Like I said, we don't want
to come into a community and act as if we know everything . I mean,
we'll talk a little bit about the redevelopment plan and that
neighborhood that's there. The planning and, you know, working with
the community is very important.
So we have a team. I think we've put together probably the most
local team of anyone. I'd like to put up against anyone. We've got
Bob Mulhere, we've got Rich Yovanovich, we've got Norm
Trebilcock, and we have Stofft Cooney Architects who are all
Naples. All probably you guys have seen them a lot before here in the
Commission, and some of these relationships we've had. We've had a
relationship, I have, with Stofft Cooney for, I don't know, probably
eight years now with going back on doing design.
And we have a local -- we have a nonprofit partner as well in
Volunteers of America in order to provide the services to residents at
the facility.
So in our market in Florida, we've done six projects in Florida,
and we have an office in Orlando. The Golden Gate property is very
exciting to us. We think it's a great project. I think we bring
something unique in that what we're looking to do and what we
understood that you wanted was housing for essential service
personnel and workforce housing. You didn't want -- I mean, we can
provide all kinds of housing. We provide very low-income housing in
some communities that have that need, we provide senior housing,
we provide veteran housing, homeless. It just depends on what the
community wants.
What I heard you saying is we want workforce housing. We
want it for our essential service personnel, and so that's what we
proposed was 336 units of housing for essential service personnel.
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And I also heard you saying we want veteran housing as well. I
guess, just going back to the essential service personnel, we looked at
the rents in Collier County. We did our market research, we looked at
the incomes, and we have to structure this deal to work financially.
And we looked at 80 percent and 100 percent rents to charge those in
the property for workforce for the essential service personnel, and I'll
go into why we chose those numbers.
In all of our properties we offer all of the amenities as a lot of
the other developers. We've talked about the indoor spaces, the
outdoor spaces. We have pools in some projects. We always have
community rec rooms, club rooms, high-quality construction.
The other part of this project is a 72-unit senior veteran piece of
it. And this one we'd actually applied a state of Florida in our model
we show to go after low-income housing tax credits, which we've
used in a number of projects and been successful at. And that uses the
9 percent tax credits.
The services for the seniors and veterans would be given by
Volunteers of America. And in those projects we typically have
community gardens. We'll have rooms where they can come in and
do services such as medical services and stuff for individuals there.
So the workforce component, this slide, you know, it was based
a lot on our financial models. We've heard people saying they're
going to charge 120 percent rent. Some people say 80 percent.
Community Foundation money. I'd be thoroughly confused if I were
you-all as far as how this all works.
But we looked at the essential services such as a nurse, a
teacher, a patrol officer, an HR specialist and said, what's their entry
wage and what's their median wage in Collier County.
And entry wage, just, you know, you can see them up there, 47-,
44-, 47-, and then you can see the percent of AMI. The reason why I
put that there, of the 80 percent AMI, 76 percent, 86 percent, because
June 9, 2020
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what we're proposing is a rent-restricted development to keep these
rents attainable for the essential service personnel. We're not trying to
income restrict. If you have someone that comes in here and income
restricts at 60 percent, this nurse, this teacher, this patrol officer isn't
going to qualify for this housing. So we thought it was very important
to do it based on rent restriction. And I may show you a couple
models where we've done that across the country in other
developments.
Again, this is just more income data. You can see as far as unit
prices for one-, two-, and three-bedroom, if you look under the
100 percent and 80 percent column, it gives you kind of a quick look.
I'll show you a two-bedroom. Our two-bedrooms we'd propose at
1,400 to $1,800 a month. The market's closer to the 120 percent. If
you kind of look at what's out there in the market, it's closer to, you
know, those 120 percent rents. And then 60 percent rents you
typically need quite a bit of subsidy if you're going to go down to the
60 percent level.
Volunteers of America is our nonprofit partner that will be
providing services. They're in Florida. They're offering 78 programs
and services throughout Florida right now. They serve 5,500 people a
day through their programs.
The type of programs we'll have for the seniors and veterans is
we have behavior, health, and case management. We do training,
education, employment services, wellness services.
A little bit about our team. Stofft Cooney Architects are here in
Naples. Hopefully some of you guys are familiar with them. They do
a lot of high-end housing as well, and I think that's the thing is you
wouldn't be able to distinguish, from our project, market rate versus a
workforce product.
We looked at some plans. We had it more spread out
garden-style apartments, which were three-story walkup buildings, a
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bunch of buildings, maybe a more suburban pattern, and we took
kind of that northeast corner of the golf course and southwest corner
to get the 406 units on the site. This is a typical kind of elevation of
what a lot of this product looks like in an elevation. Floor plans,
they're spacious floor plans. We have a mix of one-, two-, and
three-bedrooms for the residents.
We were asked to look at what Davidson did for a layout for the
site plan. It's a little more dense. We can definitely build within this
site plan. If this is what the community wants, if this is what the
Commission wants as far as using just this one area, we can fit the
408 units in there. Over by 5A by the pond, I think these two-story
buildings would be great for the senior.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We're going to need you to wrap up
here fairly quickly, if you would, please.
MR. REED: Okay. So just -- here's a model. This is out in
Lyon's Ridge, Vail, Colorado, where we have done income-restricted
housing units. The land was made available to us from Vail out there
in Vail. And it had preference for workers there working 30 hours a
week, and those were the rents that we restricted to.
This is another one, Winter Green in Keystone, Colorado, we
did, which is another workforce model that's built, operational,
leasing up right now.
And just to be clear, workforce, when we say workforce, it's 80
to 120. Affordable's 60 percent and below. So that's kind of industry
standard when we're talking about workforce versus affordable.
This is a veteran housing that we did out in Arizona.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Mr. Reed, we need you to go ahead
and wrap up, if you would.
MR. REED: Okay. And we're vertically integrated with
construction. You were going to hear from our director of
construction, but you want me to wrap up, and it doesn't look like the
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video's working anyway.
So I'm going to move on. We have property management and
asset management as well. So thanks for your time. It was -- I had a
feeling I wasn't going to get it in in 10 minutes, but appreciate you
hearing us here today.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you very much. And sorry to
kind of rush you here, but we're trying to keep these to 10 minutes as
close as we can.
MR. OCHS: You ready for the next one, final?
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yes. And let me suggest to the
Board that we finish this item and then break for lunch . Would that
be acceptable?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes, thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And then the court reporter, if she'll
give me the thumbs up that she's okay.
THE COURT REPORTER: (Thumbs up.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Finish and vote?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: No.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Let's see if we can finish and vote
and then break, yeah.
MR. MILLER: Mr. Chairman, I do have quite a few registered
speakers on this item.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Well, we may not be able
to finish up, but let's get the presentations done and then --
MR. WILLIG: Commissioners, your next and final presentation
is from Ability Housing, Incorporated, Greg Matovina. I probably
said that wrong.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: How many speakers do you have?
MR. MILLER: I have three public speakers here, and then I
have another four or five online. I say four or five because some were
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with the organizations that have already presented.
MR. MATOVINA: Commissioners, thank you for having us
here today. My name is Greg Matovina. I'm the chairman of the
board for Ability Housing, and I have with me today Shannon
Nazworth who is the president and actually runs the operations. I'm
kind of the figurehead. And this was so important that we had to
bring the figurehead in, I guess, because we feel that way about it.
Let me, first of all, tell you that we applaud you-all for taking
this initiative, and it seems like the presentations so far have largely
been about projects, and we don't build projects. We build
communities with people in them, and we serve those people, and
that's what Ability Housing does, and I think that's probably what's
more important to you-all than the project, not that the project or the
development is not important.
Clearly, the state of Florida has a shortage of housing for
essential services personnel. It has a shortage of housing for seniors
and veterans and lower income folks.
And so, again, it's very important to us that this project proceed
regardless of who is selected because it fills a big need in the
community.
The ITN didn't really specify a site, and it kind of gave some
really general parameters. And so you've seen some very varied
presentations. What I would tell you is that we are prepared,
regardless of which site the county chooses to move the housing to,
whether it's the southeast or the northwest -- and the site we chose
was generally in the northwest are -- we're prepared to be flexible in
that arrangement. And the important thing is that we have experience
and the developer have experience in providing appropriate buffers
and scale with regard to the neighbors for it to fit into the
neighborhood. So that's the important thing. And then the second
most important thing is that the floor plans and the amenities fit in
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with your intention for the overall property, not just that particular
property.
So I've heard a lot about clubhouses and swimming pools, and
we certainly plan on having modern amenities that the -- that the
county would like to see, but at the same time I think amenities are
shifting more to outdoor type activities with trails and things of that
nature, and so that would be something we would want to explore
with the county staff.
The final important thing about the community, aside from the
developer being flexible and working with county staff and the
Commission, is that it be maintained in a high-quality fashion, and
we have done that throughout our history at Ability Housing.
Our business proposal is very straightforward. The county
donates the land. We ask for no direct funding from the county for
construction. We'd ask the county to help us with the zoning,
obviously, and expedited permitting, and then some of the finer
details in a development agreement we would discuss, perhaps some
impact fee waivers, perhaps use of some tax increment financing for
this entire property and, of course, we would also look at reinvesting
future cash flow from the project back into the community into
perhaps another community for serving these or other populations.
The populations to be served, we talked about including
essential service personnel, the veterans, and the seniors.
This is a rendering that we prepared of the proposed
development northwest of the condos there. As you can see, it's quite
attractive, and would be the type of building we would expect to
provide for the people, most importantly serving the people.
The proposal location, as I said, is northwest of the condos on
the site as shown here on this particular slide. Our amenities, again,
would be like you see in a market rent apartment complex, but at the
same time we would look more to the change in the way that people
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are viewing amenities these days and wanting to be more outdoors
and not cooped up in spaces where they might catch something. You
know what I mean.
These are the amenities as we discussed. And then here is our
suggested unit mix. The important thing that I would like to point out
about this unit mix is that it is possible to achieve a mix like this
without seeking tax-credit financing. A 9 percent tax credit is
awarded by the state on a competitive basis. There's no guarantee
you're going to get it. Even a 4 percent credit takes a significant
amount of time. This unit mix, our proposal suggests that we could
do it without tax-credit financing.
In terms of our experience, we are well regarded in the industry
across the state of Florida. We started in the northeast. We've been in
the multifamily arena now for 15-plus years, and our success is
demonstrated by the fact that in 2015 the City of Orlando asked us to
come to Orlando and actually raised $500,000 to pay for our first two
years of operations to woo us to Orlando.
We own six communities, and we serve over 600-plus families.
We have worked in partnership with several communities. Our
most recent is with Orlando. In late last year we completed the
Villages at Mercy, which was a 166-home apartment community, and
that was on land that the county owned -- or city owned, excuse me,
and that we bought from the city, and then we worked with them to
get that open, and we put 166 families in need in homes in late 2019.
We also worked with the City of Jacksonville, you can see here,
on a boarded-up community in the downtown area there. So you see
the before and after pictures. That was 52 apartments and homes that
we produced.
In terms of our financial capability, our balance sheet shows
$20 million of equity today. The two developments we just recently
completed at the end of 2019, Villages at Mercy, and the Villages at
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Hyde Park, were at a total cost of over $50 million, and during
2019/2020, our pipeline includes over $90 million in communities.
We have an excellent relationship with the Florida Housing
Finance Corporation, and we also have relationships with other
funders and guarantors as will be needed for development of this size.
We do maintain a smaller staff, we have a much smaller staff,
and we tend to work with local community members as opposed to
having a big overhead that has to be paid for. In this particular case,
we would plan to hire a local project manager and work with local
architects and engineers and hopefully a local contractor, although
that being such a large part of the costs, you have to be very careful
about restricting yourself to local contractors.
I mentioned and introduced Shannon earlier in the conversation.
She has 20 years of experience in the essential and affordable
housing arena. She has an excellent relationship with funders,
including the Florida Housing Finance Corporation. She serves on the
Affordable Housing Task Force for the state of Florida and is the
chair of the Coalition on Homelessness.
I, myself, have 35-plus years of experience in development in
Florida, and in 2018 I served as the president of the Florida
Homebuilders Association. And you might ask yourself, how does a
small outfit out of northeast Florida hire local project managers?
Well, generally, I rely on the people that I met and got to know when
I was the president of the Florida Homebuilders Association and
sitting in those chairs to hire those local people.
I've been on the board now for 14 years. This is my seventh year
as the chair. I'm not quite sure why they keep me on, but they do, and
I'm not going anywhere.
Let me conclude pretty much with the way I started. The
important thing for your selection here today is that you move
forward with this development and meet the needs that you have, the
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big needs that you have in this community. And so what I want to tell
you about Ability Housing is we don't necessarily view this as a
competition. This isn't about developer fees or our financial
arrangements. This is about serving the community.
So whoever you select or whatever you're going to do in the
future to meet the needs of these populations, we stand ready, willing,
and able to do what we can to help you-all to achieve those
objectives.
And thank you for this time today.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you. We do have, I think you
said, three speakers in the audience.
MR. MILLER: That is correct, sir.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Let's go ahead and -- if it's okay
with the Board, let's go ahead and hear the speakers, and then we'll
take a break.
MR. MILLER: Your first speaker is Eileen Connolly-Keesler.
She'll be followed by Dan Larender.
MR. LAVENDER: Lavender.
MS. CONNOLLY-KEESLER: Hi. Eileen Connolly-Keesler,
president of the Community Foundation of Collier County.
I want to thank you for letting us be here today. And I just kind
of want to take you back to 18 months ago or two years ago . After we
finished our study here in Collier County on the needs, the top thing
that rose was housing and housing for essential employees.
So after that, we kind of sat back, between the Schulze
Foundation and the Community Foundation, and tried to figure out
where do we go on this housing issue.
So we call -- you know, of course, a big network in the state
with Community Foundations, I made some calls. They said to us,
talk to Ability Housing, because they were over in Orlando at that
moment. So we brought Ability Housing in, and we began
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discussions about what do we need and how do we pull off a project
like this.
They were the ones that said to us, for what we want to do, we're
talking about 30 acres, 400 units, essential employees. They ran our
pro formas for us. We came to the county and said, can we have a
discussion about the land being donated for this project?
So I just kind of want to reiterate this -- and at that point the
Schulze Foundation -- and Mary Beth is -- was going to be on Zoom
at some point here -- said they would consider a $5,000 gift.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Five million.
MS. CONNOLLY-KEESLER: Five million -- if Community
Foundation and others wanted to help raise additional so we could get
to the 10 million. So we have done that, bringing in a third partner
with Moorings Park, and that's why this project has shifted a little bit
to include seniors and veterans at that point.
So, for us, we want to work with a nonprofit developer. We have
charitable dollars, and those need to go a nonprofit developer, not to a
for-profit.
So if you choose to go with one of the three for-profits, that's
fine, and as Ability has said, we want to see this project done because
it's important to this community. We've had a pandemic. We've had
protests. We've had fires. We need to get our people in this
community. So you choose to do that, that's fine. Our 10 million will
go with one of the two nonprofits.
Ability Housing, again, we've worked with the longest. I do
know Steve worked with him after the -- with Rural Neighborhoods,
worked with him after the hurricane. He is a nonprofit.
And, you know, my goal would be that Ability and Rural would
somehow partner on this somewhere down the line . And had we
known at the time Rural was going to apply, we probably would have
suggested that.
June 9, 2020
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So we're happy to be at the table with the 10 million, but it will
have to be to a nonprofit developer. That's just the stance, because we
are talking charitable dollars.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: So just to be clear, you're good with
Rural Neighborhoods, Inc., or Ability Housing, Inc., either one of
those two --
MS. CONNOLLY-KEESLER: Correct.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: -- the 10 million will stay in the pot
for that?
MS. CONNOLLY-KEESLER: That is a correct statement. And,
again, Ability was there from the beginning and worked with us
through this. That's just a tighter relationship we've had with them,
so...
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Taylor.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes. Your definition of essential
service personnel is 80 percent AMI; is that correct?
MS. CONNOLLY-KEESLER: Yeah. I think they've run
different pro formas on it, yes. So we want to see kind of the 45- to
$90,000 range on salaries so that -- that's an area that was not being
addressed very well here in the county.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Well, when I look at a sheet,
which is the comparison of proposals, Rural Lands is 25 percent
[sic]/80 percent AMI, whereas ability Housing is 80 percent AMI. It
looks like the whole thing goes to that.
MS. CONNOLLY-KEESLER: Right.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: And Rural Lands doesn't go
down, they go up, which negates, in my mind, some seniors and some
veterans.
MS. CONNOLLY-KEESLER: Yeah. We know that when we
get into the seniors and veterans, we're going to be the lower end.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: The lower.
June 9, 2020
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MS. CONNOLLY-KEESLER: Yep.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Commissioner Fiala.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Sure. Just a simple question. I
wonder if we would prefer another one that we felt would be more in
keeping with that neighborhood and with the people in that area,
then -- but if it's not one of those two that you mentioned, they don't
get the money.
MS. CONNOLLY-KEESLER: Our 10 million will not go to a
for-profit developer, that is correct, because these are charitable
dollars. These need to go to a 501(c)3. But we want to make sure that
we're giving it to a developer. Some of our donors were very clear on
this; they do not want for-profit people making money off this
project. This needs to be in the nonprofit world for us. That doesn't
mean you don't go with them. I'm just telling you where we stand as a
community foundation, and we have the right to decide, with the
other funders, whom we want to give our money to. So we stand firm
on the two nonprofit developers.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And just so the Board knows, there
is an invitation to negotiate. So issues of the mix of units and that sort
of thing, I think, will all be subject to negotiations.
MS. CONNOLLY-KEESLER: Exactly.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: So we're not being -- whoever we
pick, their proposal isn't ironclad in terms of the mix of units. That
will be negotiated out.
MS. CONNOLLY-KEESLER: Or even how many units.
They're all over the board. I've seen anywhere -- originally the county
was saying 250 units on that 30 acres, and now it's up to 400. So, I
mean, you just don't know until you get your developer in place and
then can actually lay this thing out.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Next speaker.
June 9, 2020
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MR. MILLER: Mr. Chairman, at your discretion, Ms. Keesler
mentioned Mary Beth Geier. I have her on the line remotely if you
want to hear from her now. I don't know if there was a connection.
MS. CONNOLLY-KEESLER: There is a connection, because
the Schulze Foundation is five million of this funding.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Huge.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Let's go ahead and do that. State her
name again.
MR. MILLER: Mary Beth Geier. Ms. Geier, are you there?
MS. GEIER: I am. Thank you very much.
MR. MILLER: Your three minutes has begun.
MS. GEIER: Okay, great.
As everyone mentioned, my name's Mary Beth Geier, and I'm
the Florida director from the Richard M. Schultz Family Foundation.
I'm sorry that I can't be there in person but am grateful for the
opportunity to present remotely.
Our foundation, as some of you may know, has been heavily
invested in the Southwest Florida community and Collier County in
particular since 2010. In just the past three years, we've provided
grant funding in excess of $25 million, a significant portion of that
being in Collier County.
As part of our community involvement and in collaboration with
other community partners, we funded the study that Eileen mentioned
earlier, the Community Needs and Assets Study that was published in
2017, which demonstrated the need for affordable housing for
essential employees so that they have the ability to live in the
community they serve.
So with that in mind and in response to the community
assessment, we're hoping to develop solutions along with the
Community Foundation and along with our county government.
Specifically, the Community Foundation and the Schulze Foundation
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are talking about this $5 million challenge grant for an essential
workforce housing project.
Like Eileen mentioned, our caveats for entering into the
challenge grant is that county participate in really important work by
providing the land for the housing development, and that our
philanthropic dollars are tied to using a fully nonprofit developer . We
think that this is an opportunity to create a public/private
philanthropic partnership to serve our communities.
All that being said, I hope you'll consider what we learned from
the study as well as our interest in this project, the Community
Foundation's interest in the project, and Moorings Park Foundation's
interest in the project.
We also hope that this public/private philanthropic idea can be a
model for things moving forward as something you're l ooking to
engage in with all of us. That being said, we know that you're looking
to do the best for the community like we are and, most importantly,
we appreciate the opportunity to be heard and potentially be invested
in this project along with you.
So thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you, Ms. Geier.
MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Dan Lavender. He'll be
followed by Chris Shear.
MR. LAVENDER: Good afternoon. I'm Dan Lavender, the CEO
of Moorings Park.
First I just have to thank Eileen for her leadership on this project
in the community. It's been quite exemplary. Not only this
partnership she's put together between Moorings Park, the
Community Foundation, and the Schulze Foundation. But even
before that, I was in several meetings at the Community Foundation
bringing together employers trying to think creatively about a
solution to a problem we have.
June 9, 2020
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I want to thank you, the Board here. I've been here now 15
years. Workforce housing. What I hear is we're always going to be
talking about that. There are no solutions. But I want to thank you for
your leadership to bring us to this point.
Where's Moorings Park stand on all this? We've committed
two and a half million dollars of the $10 million . It's a combination of
our Moorings Park Institute, which is chaired by Tom Taylor, and our
Moorings Park Foundation, which is chaired by Alan Horton, who is
in the audience here. We really believe that this is just such an
essential thing to our community.
Here are the keys of the essentials for our two and a half million
dollars to partner with Community Foundation and be a part of it.
Number one, it has to be essential personnel; that includes, in
our mind, nurses, teachers, first responders, nurse assistants, those
critical people that we need in our community when we have crises.
Second, because of Moorings Parks 501(c)3 mission serving
seniors, we require that seniors be a part of this project, not only the
kind that can afford to live at Moorings Park or Bentley Village, or
Siena Lakes or Arlington, or name your place, but maybe those that
are falling through the cracks and have given to this community.
Third, we want it to be sustainable. I heard in several of the
presentations -- one of the primary reasons we want it to be nonprofit
is we don't want to put this out there, it be a model, and 10 years later
it turns into something else and gets sold. We want it to be a
sustainable, one of the presentations said, 99-year solution for this
problem here in the county.
Fourth, that's why we want it to be a nonprofit, the sustainability
factor.
And then fifth, Moorings Park wants it to be something proud
of. We have high standards for living at Moorings Park. We want this
development for workforce housing to be better than what my wife
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and I could have afforded 35 years ago when we started out . We want
it to be something where people who work here, the nurses, the
policemen feel like an integral part of this community and something
that not only they're proud of to live in but all the neighbors around
them are proud as well.
So you have a real opportunity here to create a beta, a model,
not only for our community but hopefully for the rest of the country.
We stand ready with our partnership and our two and a half million
dollars to support something that accomplishes these goals.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you very much.
MR. MILLER: Mr. Chairman, as hard as it is to believe, I was in
error, and that was your last speaker.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: First time, though.
MR. MILLER: Today.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Let me make a quick statement, and
then maybe we can see if the Board wants to try to wrap this up.
I am absolutely convinced that we need to go with either Rural
Neighborhoods, Inc., or Ability. To do otherwise would just be, quite
frankly, nuts. We would be eliminating this incredible partnership.
The Rural Lands -- or Rural Neighborhoods, rather, that group, I
think I supported them on the Bembridge project. I'm ready to make a
motion to award this to Rural Neighborhoods, Inc. Obviously, I don't
know where the rest of the Board is. But that's my thinking. It's either
got to be Rural or Ability. My view is let's go with the Rural
Neighborhoods, Inc.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Second that.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Mr. McDaniel?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'm going to second that for
conversation.
First off, I agree with you, and I want to say that I've put a lot of
weight in the commissioner of the district with regard to his opinion
June 9, 2020
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and how we should, in fact, move forward. I do that on a regular
basis. I also want to say there are no bad choices with regard to this.
Every single -- I mean, from this -- for these numbers to be as close
as they, in fact, were, we could really, reall y pick any one other than
an exclusion of a $10 million contribution from not -for-profits.
There -- and the last thing I'm going to say with regard to this is
this is not the end. There are going to be more projects. We all know
and have identified the ongoing need of housing in our community. I
had a very nice conversation with Vincent Keyes yesterday with
regard to housing being a large barrier for a portion of our
population.
I want to also say that this is an investment of our community,
and one of the things that I've promised to ensure is that these
projects are going to be perpetually deed restricted. This isn't going to
roll out 15 -- some kind of 15-, 30-year fictitious hold period. This is
perpetually deed restricted to provide for a need for our community,
and our investment of taxpayer money in that regard is imperative for
me, so...
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Then we do have a
motion and a second.
Commissioner Taylor.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes. One thing that I -- when we
talk about -- when we saw, just in these presentations by one of our
very qualified candidates for this position, I think it was really Core
that brought it forward, it was clear that first responders, basically,
their starting salaries wouldn't even qualify them for an 80 percent
AMI, or it's very difficult.
So I'm concerned with Rural Neighborhoods' breakdown of
25 percent/80 percent AMI, 50 percent/100 percent,
25 percent/120 percent AMI when you think about the breakdowns of
who we're trying to serve here.
June 9, 2020
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We've Moorings Park talking about seniors. We're not talking
about the seniors that live in Moorings Park. We're talking about the
seniors that -- the other seniors that I think we all know about. We're
talking about veterans. And so I'm not so sure the breakdown of the
incomes and rents that they're addressing really fit the bill, where
Ability, it does.
So I know that we say that we can negotiate it, but if it's the will
of this commission to go forward with Rural Neighborhoods, I think
we have to insist it's 80 percent AMI, or suggest that perhaps they, as
our -- Ms. Connolly Keesler suggested, that they join forces with
Ability, because let's remember who we're trying to serve.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Solis.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I was trying to find
somewhere -- and maybe the Manager can help me get my arms
around. What's just the ballpark cost of the whole project? Do we
even know? I remember seeing that, but I can't put my finger on it .
MR. LAVENDER: Can I answer that?
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Sure. Anybody.
MR. LAVENDER: It's in 70 to $90 million.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Seventy to 90-, okay. That's what I
thought.
MR. MILLER: Mr. Chairman, I do want to jump in. I do have
one more remote speaker. I was concluded with your -- I didn't know
we were to vote. I thought we were going to go to break.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Well, let's go ahead and hear the
speaker then and wrap this up.
MR. MILLER: All right. I do believe we have on the line Todd
Lyon. Mr. Lyon, are you there, sir?
MR. LYON: Yes. Can everyone hear me?
MR. MILLER: Yes. Go ahead, please, sir.
MR. LYON: Great, thank you.
June 9, 2020
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My name is Todd Lyon. I'm the director of talent management at
NCH Healthcare System. This is a topic that I care very deeply about.
I've had conversations with both Eileen and Mary Beth, met with
several of you and was able to talk about this initiative and am very
appreciative that this is being brought forward here in the
community. Hopefully this is the first of many conversations.
Wanted to let everyone know that NCH Healthcare System, I'm
happy to represent, and to say we hear this regularly from our
employees. And these are the folks that we want to be our neighbors.
We want them to be here in the community spending their dollars
within Naples. Great, wonderful people; nurses, certified nursing
assistants, family people who tell us that they commute sometimes up
to 90 minutes each way. So after a 12-hour shift, they're driving 90
minutes home, spending the night, getting up, you know, two,
two-and-a-half hours before they're to report here to work, which just
isn't safe for our staff.
So I appreciate you-all putting some focus on this. I work very
closely with our recruitment team here. It's hard enough to bring
people here. We have a huge nursing shortage in the nation right
now, and a large, large percentage of our nursing population in the
nation is getting towards retirement age. So it's hard enough to get
folks here to work for us; and if they have choice between working
here in Collier County and somewhere else where they can find
affordable housing, they definitely tend to go in that direction.
I also work with our HR business managers who work on the
retention of employees, and we'd love nothing more than to keep
folks here in Collier County.
So just wanted to throw in my two cents. Thank you all for your
time today on this topic. This is very exciting for us, and appreciate
all your time. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you. And thank you to all the
June 9, 2020
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NCH folks for all you're doing to help us stay safe and healthy.
MR. LYON: Absolutely. Our pleasure.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We have a -- I don't generally like
to jump in and make a motion, and my intention was not at that time
to make the motion, but since there was a second, I went ahead and
made that motion.
And, Commissioner McDaniel, you're lit up again.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Commissioner Solis, are you
complete? Are you done?
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Yes.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Oh, okay. Yes, I am lit up.
And the comment that I want to make -- and it kind of goes along
with what Commissioner Solis was asking. It's difficult to ascertain
the TPC, the total project costs, because -- and I think, if I'm not
mistaken, we're picking -- or we're going to select a firm to construct
this -- the size, shape, color, rents, so ons and so forth are still yet to
be determined.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: That's my understanding.
MR. OCHS: Yes.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That is my understanding.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Invitation to negotiate.
MR. OCHS: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And on that note, I've looked
at this site plan with regard to this piece of property, and there's a
lot -- there's a lot in a very small package. And so it would be my
wish that we are as concerned with regard to covering the needs of
our community, as Commissioner Taylor has suggested, and having
an aesthetically pleasing community and not be so concerned
with -- although I am very much, oftentimes, profit driven -- and not
be as concerned with regard to that as we are with making sure that
we're servicing the needs of our community and having that
June 9, 2020
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flexibility.
And as a sidenote -- I know we're talking about the housing side,
but one of the things that I think we can actually have a discussion
about is not having a 12-hole golf course but maybe considering a
nine and allowing for --
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Don't talk about golf courses right
now, please.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, we're going to -- I think
you said at one time when the door's open, we can go wherever we
want to, so...
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: No, no, no, no.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: But be that as it may, we're
not -- we're not -- we're not picking the size, shape, and color at this
particular stage. I want to make sure that we do, in fact, service the
needs of our community.
MR. WILLIG: Yeah. Commissioner, you are correct. This firm,
whoever you choose, would work with Davidson Engineering,
myself, and the community to figure out the final fit plan and how it
would look.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I want to thank all of the presenters,
all five of them. The three that were -- that we weren't ultimately
focusing on. There's going to be a lot of workforce housing and
lower-income housing in this community. This is just one project of
many. So I want to make sure that no one's offended by the fact that
we're focusing on the not-for-profits, because this is a very unique
opportunity for us.
I want to thank the Community Foundation, the Schulze
Foundation, the Moorings, everyone associated with helping us put
this project together. I think this will be an incredible model for the
state, for the country, and I'm very excited about what this is going to
mean for the Golden Gate City community. I think it will be a great
June 9, 2020
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benefit.
So, Commissioner Fiala.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yeah. Just a fast one. It is going to
be essential to us to start encouraging more affordable housing to be
built in Immokalee, because these problems are going to persist until
we get housing so that they're not stacked up on top of one another.
Just a thought.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Good point.
If there are no other comments, all in favor of -- now the motion
is to award the invitation to negotiate with Rural Neighborhoods. If
there's no further discussion, I'll call for the vote. All in favor, signify
by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All opposed?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: I oppose based on the breakdown
of the income rents that was presented in their proposal.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: The motion is approved 4-1.
Let's take a break. What about coming back at 1:30; will that be
sufficient? All right. We'll be back at 1:30.
Mr. Manager, I think we'll do the interviews of the Hearing
Examiners first, and then we'll move into the land development.
MR. OCHS: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We are in recess.
(A lunch recess was had from 12:37 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., and
Commissioner McDaniel is absent from the boardroom.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Ladies and gentlemen, if you'll
please take your seats. The meeting of the County Commission will
reconvene.
June 9, 2020
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We're going to be doing the examination or interviews of the
Hearing Examiners. I'd like to make sure we have all five of you here
for that. So if you can hear me in the back, come up to the front here.
Commissioners –
MR. OCHS: I'll be right back.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We have one commissioner who is
stuck in traffic who would like to participate in the interviews of the
Hearing Examiner.
So, Mr. Ochs, why don't we pick up one or two little items that
are not controversial, try to get through those, and then we'll pick up
when Commissioner McDaniel is able to get here.
MR. OCHS: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Like, 11E doesn't sound like it's a
particularly controversial item.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: The only problem with that
one, Commissioners, is that's the companion item to Item 9B, which
is one of your advertised public hearings, and we should hear 9B
before we deal with the developer agreement to make sure --
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: What about 11C?
MR. OCHS: 11C would be an item that we can -- we can talk
about, Mr. Chairman.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Why don't we take that
one.
MR. OCHS: If you'd like to take that one.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yeah, let's go ahead and take it up.
It's his district, but we're going to --
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Yeah. That's the Big Corkscrew
Park, right?
MR. OCHS: Unfortunately, 11C and 11F are both in
Commissioner McDaniel's district.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: That's okay. We'll take care of
June 9, 2020
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11C.E
Item #11C
RECOMMENDATION TO ESTABLISH OPERATING,
EQUIPMENT, AND CAPITAL BUDGETS FOR PHASE 1 START-
UP OF BIG CORKSCREW ISLAND REGIONAL PARK (BCIRP),
APPROVE START-UP POSITIONS, AUTHORIZE INCLUSION
OF ANNUAL BCIRP OPERATING, EQUIPMENT AND CAPITAL
BUDGETS IN THE FY21 BUDGET, AND AUTHORIZE
NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENTS – APPROVED
MR. OCHS: 11C, Commissioners, is a recommendation to
establish budgets for operations, equipment, and capital purchases for
Phase 1 of the startup of the Big Corkscrew Island Regional Park,
approve four positions in the current fiscal year to begin standing up
that operation for the fall, and to also include budget allocation s for
Fiscal Year 2021.
Barry Williams, your director for Parks and Recreation, will
make the presentation.
Barry.
MR. WILLIAMS: Mr. Chair, Barry Williams, Parks and
Recreation. Good afternoon, and I'm excited to bring this item before
you today.
As you're aware, Big Corkscrew Island Regional Park is well
underway and we're -- I've got a picture here for you here. Just -- this
is a recent aerial photo of the progress of the park. And as you look at
this, I'm sure you say to yourself, well, where's the p ark?
And what I would tell you is a lot of the underground has been
completed with the park. Aster Construction is the contractor
working with us, and Facilities Management is overseeing the
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project, so they're making great progress with the park.
We'll begin to see vertical construction in the next few months.
The pools are actually being dug. The lap pool, or competitive pool,
if you will, they're beginning to dig. We have a family pool, we have
walls and flooring, and they're beginning the dewatering process for
that to finish the pool and complete it.
There's also a lot of work. As I mentioned, the site civil work's
being completed, stormwater structures, water mains, conduits for
electrical. So all those things are underway.
And so you're asking yourself, why would we need funding for
this park at this juncture? So as you can see with the progress of the
park, our anticipated first stage of the park will be ready for delivery
in November. And just to remind you of that, I have a photograph.
And just, if you look above the line, the four multipurpose fields, the
two softball fields are elements that will be -- come on line starting
this November.
So you can see kind of what we have in mind for that initial
November opening. We'll have parking area –
MR. OCHS: Show them where it is. You see it?
MR. WILLIAMS: Yeah. So you can see the four multipurpose
fields here will be online, we have our picnic pavilions in and around
the facility, and two softball fields and our concession building.
So what we're looking to do is to seek appropriations to fund the
initial portion of the park. And what we envision is hiring four staff
members. We would look for two recreation staff members to work
and begin programming the fields. We know that we have a lot of
pent-up demand in that area. A lot of youth sports organizations have
expressed interest in playing at this facility. You have lacrosse,
soccer, football even where you have people that are looking for
beginning to use this field.
The idea of the north -- of this park in particular is the distance
June 9, 2020
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people have to travel to North Collier Regional Park or other parks
within our system. So having this in constituents' backyard like that is
certainly going to be a benefit to our community.
But this first section in November, we do have some operating
expenses associated with it. We have some front-end costs associated
with fleet, and we've provided you some detail related to that in your
backup. And, certainly, if you have any questions about those items --
We also have a rental of approximately $7,500 that we'll use to
have connexes for our maintenance equipment that we need to
purchase to maintain that section. So beginning November, we'll
begin maintaining it and making it available for the public's us e.
So those initial costs, what we're looking for is consideration for
this coming -- or this current fiscal year. Part of our plan would be,
you know, as the park continues to be built and stays on schedule, is
to begin to hire those staff. You know, part of what their job will be,
to acquire the things that we need to actually operate the park itself .
There are some items in there that have a relatively long lead time .
But ideally what we'd want to do is begin hiring people in August,
September for their start and readiness for the park to begin serving
the public in November.
So let me just talk to you a little bit about the other portion of
the park. As I mentioned, above the line, we have this area that will
become available in November. Below the line, this entire area we
anticipate coming online in July of next -- July 2021. So we also were
seeking an appropriation for the park itself, and I'll go through some
of those numbers with you in just a second.
But just to remind you about that other component of the park,
probably your biggest feature there is your community center. We
will be providing after-school programs, summer recreation,
community events, classes of various types. We also have a great
lawn feature associated with the community center. And so this won't
June 9, 2020
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be available till July. We won't seek to hire those staff until later in
'21, probably in the late spring of '21 to bring those staff on. But we
wanted to go ahead and seek the appropriation for the entire park as
well.
The other components of this park that are worth noting,
probably the biggest is our aquatics facility. We're basically
replicating our aquatics facility at Eagle Lakes. We have four features
associated with that aquatic facility: A competitive pool, slides,
family pool, and a tot pool. So -- and, again, as I mentioned, those are
currently under construction.
We also have pickleball. You can't build a park without
pickleball in this day and age. So we also have pickleball courts
that -- we have gotten some demand for that sport as well.
The last thing I'll mention about the second portion of the park is
we do have a regional maintenance facility associated with the park,
and so the maintenance facility would serve not only the park itself,
but also it would be a point of contact for our Immokalee park system
and our road crew which services our neighborhood parks throughout
the county.
So the other portion of this maintenance facility would also
serve our aquatics facilities. There is a need for us to store materials
of various types for aquatics. So we've built that maintenance facility
with those elements in mind. So all that would become available in
July. At that point the rentals that I mentioned earlier about Phase 1
we would discontinue, but that's your park in a nutshell.
Just to talk to you a little bit about the numbers and the costs
associated with the park itself. You can see a couple of items. The
first column, if you will, the FY '20, is the initial startup cost that
we've identified. And you have, again, approximately $48,000 for the
four staff members that I mentioned. That number could be less.
Again, this is for FY '20. If we start the staff, say, in September or
June 9, 2020
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October, that number will go down. We wanted to plan for that
number with a start of July just to kind of keep on schedule.
Your operating expenses, that I mentioned to you earlier. And
we have a number of items in your backup that, again, if you have
questions, I'd be happy to talk to you about, but that dollar amount, as
you see, is $55,700.
The capital outlay, those are expenses associated with vehicles
for staff that would manage the park. We have an F-350 and two
F-150s that would be made available for the park itself .
So your total General Fund allocation for FY '20 that we're
seeking is $244,100. And, again, four FTEs is what we intend in
terms of this opening for November.
The remainder of the park we would add an additional 27 staff
to those four. This is a typical complement for a regional park of this
size. And, remember, you have a variety of features within the park.
You have recreation staff, additional maintenance staff, the
community center staff, aquatic staff. So all those different staff
would be available to operate the park itself.
We do have some additional capital outlay that we would seek
in '21, and so you have a total General Fund budget of $3,386,300 .
And so that's a large number. What I would tell you, though, we do
anticipate revenue from this park. When we begin making these
fields available, your Board-approved fee policy allows for fees
associated with the park. We're anticipating a very modest $30,000 in
revenue.
Typically, for a park this size, with the activities that we're
describing, when we're fully operational, you should see revenues of
500- to $750,000. That's generally the range of what we're looking at.
What's important in telling you about that is that overall cost
associated with the General Fund of 3.3 million would be reduced
with those user fees that were applied to the overall cost of the park.
June 9, 2020
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So that number -- that's the highest you'll see it. It will certainly
continue to trend downward.
Just to give you another consideration in terms of the park itself,
as I mentioned, the fees associated with the items I just described are
General Fund items that would be paid for from the General Fund.
There are some, in the industry FF&E, furniture, fixtures, and
equipment, those things that are needed to outfit the park itself . There
are a variety of things that you would purchase for the park, including
things like furniture, field maintenance equipment, as you can see .
We do have two artificial turf fields at this location, so we have
specialty equipment that we would use to maintain the artificial turf.
And you can see some of the other items that we also describe.
Some of these purchases, these one-time purchases that we
would make, are eligible to be paid for through impact fees. So you
can see what we've identified for our FY '20 start of 722,000, and
then your overall startup for the entire park of impact fees associated
with FF&E of $2,445,860.
(Commissioner McDaniel is now present in the boardroom.)
MR. WILLIAMS: So I wanted to tell you a little bit about Phase
2. And if I could -- let me see if I can reverse direction here with you .
I wanted to go back, if I could, to the aerial itself. And you can see
the area right here. Again, the boundaries of Phase 1 come here,
down this road, and here. Phase 2 includes this section here as well as
what appears to be kind of a marshy-looking lake. And just keep that
in mind as I show you the diagram of Phase 2. Our intent is to
reclaim, and part of the design is to reclaim a portion of this shallow
lake and build athletic fields. And a four-complex field -- building
four softball fields in that area. So that's coming.
And you see some of the canal as well. There's some canal work
that we had to do as part of this project. So I just wanted to give you
kind of that overlay.
June 9, 2020
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Now, to go back to Phase 2. Almost there. So you can see we're
currently in design for Phase 2 of the park, that section that I showed
you earlier, that marshy area, that little stovepipe section. And a
couple features that I wanted to point to you, if I can, this area, this
was in part of the community discussion that we had was the need to
be very good neighbors with our park design. And so what you can
see with this particular section of the park here, this is going to be a
passive area of the park. What we have envisioned and had gotten
demand for is disc golf. And so we have planned in this area an
18-hole disc golf course as a feature of the park.
There is not a disc golf course in Collier County at this moment.
There are multiple disc golf courses throughout Southwest Florida,
and a large demand for that. So we're developing that disc golf course
with the mind of trying to be friendly to the neighbors. You know,
disc golf is a very passive sport. It's not going to create a lot of noise,
and we see that as a good use of the space.
We also have a road that's part of the Phase 2, and you can see
the road itself. This will be your connector record, ultimately, to Oil
Well Road for your second connection to the park . So you'll have the
entrance to the park at 39th, but you'll also have an entrance from Oil
Well Road as well for folks that are in the neighborhood.
The other component, again, that marshy area, we're going to
reclaim that and build this fourplex here. These are softball size
fields, collegiate size softball fields. Another section of the park
is -- the unique feature is a fitness and gymnasium. We're looking at a
one- or two-court gymnasium associated with the park as well as a
fitness center.
So we'll also have a kayak launch for people to use the lake
recreationally. It's being permitted to allow for that. And so this is
your Phase 2 design. As you can see, we're looking to complete the
design this fall of 2020 and seek to put it out to bid . We're looking at
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construction to start. Ideally, we would try to start it spring of '21;
however, part of the consideration we're looking at is getting through
the rainy season and actually looking for a start of fall of '21 .
One of the things that I'll mention about the phasing of the parks
as well, in this particular park, what we're trying to do is cash flow
the park with your impact fees. You know, one of the considerations
is the surtax that would -- that did provide $40 million for the
creation of this park. That's helping us look at this. So taking the time
to kind of develop this park over that period of time helps you pay for
it as you go. So that's a unique feature of the park itself.
We're estimating current costs of that Phase 2 of 30 to
$35 million. That's still a very wide range, we understand, but that's
what we're getting as far as estimates at this point.
So with that, I'd stop and see what questions you have on the
information provided.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Taylor.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes. Nimbleness seems to be
the -- of what we need to be in any kind of construction for the public
these days when you consider 10 years ago pickleball was a whisper
in a backyard and what it's become today. So is there flexibility if
pickleball suddenly loses favor to move the courts to something else?
MR. WILLIAMS: Oh, it's a great question. And throughout my
time as a parks director, we've seen the redevelopment of amenities
that have lost favor into those that are re-purposed, if you will, for
things that are more current in recreation. So your hard courts are
probably your easiest place where you could do something different.
You know, you are limited if you have a pickleball court
because pickleball is a tennis. Are there any other things you could
do? Could you make it a basketball court? So there are a lot of
options that you have in terms of what the need is, yes, ma'am.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Okay. And then my second
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question is with the aquatic facility and the elements you planned in
that. Have you done any kind of surveying, at least by the people who
manage the Eagle Lakes aquatic facility, of what elements are used
the most and what are not used very much?
MR. WILLIAMS: No. It's a great question. What we find in
these the pools, the aquatic facilities in particular, we have two
clientele, really, that we see, and we try to appeal to both of those.
The one is the master swimmer or competitive swimmer. This would
be also a location, I'll mention to you, for Palmetto Ridge High
School. They had a lot of input into the design of the aquatic facility.
They anticipate this being their home, you know, for their high
school swim team and dive team. So, you know, you have that
component of competitive swimming. We also are very successful;
we have colleges that come down from the north and use our
facilities, so we see that also, kind of, from a sports tourism element,
a win as well.
The other side of that -- and, again, this pool has the component,
it's just kids having fun. You know, again, you know, splash -- water
splashing on you. River Park is a good example of the feature that
they have, so we've included those type of features in our family pool
where, you know, children of various types, you know, with their
family, you know, can enjoy cooling off and having that kind of fun .
So you've got both of those.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Okay. But there's not, like, a
family pool separate from the splash pool?
MR. WILLIAMS: Well, it's -- the design of it -- in Eagle Lakes,
if you recall, you do have components of the pool that can be where
families hang out, moms in particular. You have a body of water
associated with that splash element and so -- where you can kind of
keep an eye on the kids. So you've got both in that family pool in
what we've designed here.
June 9, 2020
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COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Okay. I wasn't aware, because
that's the way it is in River Park, so I just want to -- but it's all one in
River Park, which is a nightmare.
But the idea that -- I understand the family pool where moms go
is the least used element in Eagle Lakes.
MR. WILLIAMS: No. It's a good point. And it is an important
pool, I will tell you. You know, typically that pool is used for babies,
small children in diapers. The one reason that you segregated it, you
know -- if you've had kids, you know this story. If you get in water,
sometimes things happen you wish they wouldn't. So, you know,
segregating that population helps you from not having to close the
entire pool when those things can happen, so...
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yeah. But it's more that -- more
that it's -- it's important to have that element. I'm always thinking of
laps. I'm thinking of income –
MR. WILLIAMS: Yes, ma'am.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: I'm thinking of creating pools
that not only colleges use, but maybe even professional teams that are
trying to train kids. The more lanes you have, the more money you
may get. So just FYI.
MR. WILLIAMS: Yes.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. On the community center,
how large is that?
MR. WILLIAMS: It's approximately 18,000 square feet.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And will it also serve as a
hurricane shelter? Did I recall that in the original plans?
MR. WILLIAMS: It's not hardened to, like, Cat 4 or 5. It does
have the capability -- and what we've found in our role in parks is
serving as kind of the -- the schools have done a good job of taking
over the sheltering. What happens after a hurricane is they want to
June 9, 2020
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get the people out of the schools so that they can restart, and the role
that we see this particular facility is serving as kind of the step down
from the school board's shelter. North Collier Regional Park, we had
that example. So we see it in more of that thing.
We are looking, though, I'll mention, for Phase 2 in the fitness
gym, we are exploring some Community Development Block Grants
to harden that facility so it could serve as a shelter. So we do see a
possibility there in that regard.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Fiala.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. Thank you. Could you tell me
what the total is to build this park, how much money it will cost to
build this park, all total with all the phases.
MR. WILLIAMS: Yes, ma'am. I can give you a rough estimate.
The contract that we have right now associated with the phases that
I've described is $45 million. We're anticipating an additional 30 to
35 million for the Phase 2.
Now, I'll tell you as well, that doesn't include soft costs, the
engineering as well. So there's an additional amount there. But you're
roughly looking at 75 to $80 million for this park.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: It's going to be a beautiful place,
and it's needed.
Will they be bringing -- like they do at Eagle Lakes, they bring
in the high schools. There's different levels, you know, with some of
the high schools that are smaller. They bring them to Eagle Lakes.
Will they be able to use this for a lot of the other high schools?
MR. WILLIAMS: Yes, ma'am. Palmetto Ridge, again, is
ecstatic about this. They don't have a place to swim. You know, they
have to travel a great distance now, so they're very excited about that .
We do see this as a venue for high schools and worked clo sely with
the school board, you know, in our design to make sure that it did
meet their needs.
June 9, 2020
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COMMISSIONER FIALA: That's been a great thing that you've
added to it, you know, because the schools aren't equipped with
pools, so that's great. I think that's all my -- oh, how much impact
fees -- how much will the impact fees affect the total amount? Will
it reduce it a lot or --
MR. WILLIAMS: Well, your construction for the park itself is
paid through -- by impact fees. You do have this additional
$40 million of surtax applied to it, so those combination of funds are
what's building the park.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We do have some public comment.
MR. MILLER: Yeah. I do have one registered speaker, Phil
Brougham.
MR. BROUGHAM: May I break the rules and come straight?
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: As long as you don't cough and
sneeze.
MR. BROUGHAM: My name is Phil Brougham, and I am the
vice chairman of the Collier County Parks and Recreation Board, and
I guess I'm here as a cheerleader but also as a bit of a historian.
We had some pretty dour news and discussions this morning
about this plague that's settled over Collier County. But I think the
story that you've heard over the last few minutes -- and those of you
that have been in the county for quite a while have heard the Big
Corkscrew Island Regional Park and how it came to be and all of the
starts and fit starts and restarts.
But I want to tell you that we're ahead of the game here because
of the professionalism of your staff, both your project management
staff and your Parks and Recreations staff. We're ahead of the
schedule, and they're ahead of the schedule in asking you to fund this
early.
We've come a long ways to start this park, and I trust that you're
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going to approve the request that parks is making of you this morning
[sic].
This park probably got close to 60 percent design before the
reins were pulled back, and it was pulled back both by input from the
community through very active solicitation by Parks and Recreation
aided by a lot of citizens and the Parks board. We got a lot of good
input, and it all is going to benefit this park.
And it's served as a model for the next park that was in design,
which was Eagle Lakes Aquatic Center. And we went for the same
kind of feedback. And I think as we go through the construction of
these parks using those experiences as models is benefiting this
county, and it's all good news.
I trust that you're going to approve this. We're going to have
bigger projects coming.
I do want to mention that I sat in on the accreditation evaluation
for Parks and Recreation several weeks ago by virtual means and
that, from all intents and purposes, we're going to have our Parks
Department reaccredited by that nationally recognized board again.
So thank you for your time. It's a good project. It's been a great
project, and it's going to be a great park, Mr. McDaniel.
Thank you.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: And I might add, you've been a
great board member. Great.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you. Mr. McDaniel?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah, Phil. Phil, if you don't
mind, I do have a quick question.
I'm going to make a motion for approval. But you've been
around a minute; so have I. When you said this park was set back,
how long ago was that when it was --
MR. BROUGHAM: Well, you're going to pin my memory now,
but –
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COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Round numbers.
MR. BROUGHAM: Five years, six years, seven years.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And -- thank you.
And that's exactly what I'm -- what I wanted to share.
Commissioner Fiala, you have been here for a long time. We've
talked about this park in our community for, Jiminy Christmas,
forever since Commissioner Coletta was up here.
MR. BROUGHAM: Yes.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And we've also watched the
costs go like this (indicating). With these delays came costs
associated. And it's important that our community know and
understand that these sound like -- they are enormous numbers. This
isn't -- this isn't a
surprise. This is a plan. We've been budgeting for this for many,
many years with impact fees and sales tax dollars and the like, so...
With that, I'd like to make a motion to accept staff's
recommendation.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Second.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. We have a motion, and I
believe Commissioner Taylor was first on the second.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Did you have something you
wanted to --
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: A little too slow on that one.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I didn't realize.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We have a motion and a second.
Any further discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All in favor, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Aye.
June 9, 2020
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COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: That passes unanimously. Thank
you. Let's move on to the Hearing Examiner.
Item #11B
RECOMMENDATION TO REVIEW CANDIDATES FOR THE
POSITION OF HEARING EXAMINER AND DIRECT THE
COUNTY MANAGER OR HIS DESIGNEE TO BRING BACK A
FORMAL AGREEMENT WITH THE SELECTED
INDIVIDUAL/FIRM – MOTION TO SELECT ANDREW
DICKMAN, ESQ. – APPROVED
MR. OCHS: Yes, sir. This is Item 11B, and it's a
recommendation to review the two candidates for the position of your
Hearing Examiner contract. Mr. French will begin the presentation.
MR. FRENCH: Good afternoon, Commissioners. For the record,
Jamie French with the Growth Management Department.
Commissioners, back in December of 2019, you had instructed the
County Manager and staff to bring back the Hearing Examiner
portion of the administrative code to make it more so like a
magistrate function. Since that time we'd also advertised the position
for -- and that was adopted, by the way, on February 25th of 2020.
But since that time, we'd advertised the position. And just to put on
the record we actually had four candidates that applied. Two of those
candidates, though, have very limited or no land-use experience, and
although this does not require an attorney to fill the seat, three of the
candidates were attorneys, one was a recent graduate from Ave Maria
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Law School, and one had a business background but had never
worked in land use.
So we're bringing forward today two candidates. Both have a
great deal of experience with Collier County, both happen to be
attorneys, but they know our codes, they know the function of the
magistrate. One is Mr. Andrew Dickman of the Dickman Law Firm,
and then, of course, Mr. Clay Brooker with Cheffy Passidomo. So
they're both here.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: No. Go ahead. I was going to ask
you a question.
MR. FRENCH: They're both here should you want to ask them
questions. Staff had no recommendation because we feel like they
both are -- they both bring forward very unique skill sets, and they're
more than qualified to be considered for this position.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Are they going to make a brief
presentation, or is it just going to be questions from the Commission?
MR. FRENCH: I can leave that to --
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Why don't we have each one of
them just make a three- or four-minute -- just a brief introduction.
MR. FRENCH: Sure. Mr. Dickman.
MR. MILLER: Mr. Chair, would you like me to set a clock on
this, sir?
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: No.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: On him you better.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: When that gets to 2:05, we'll let you
know.
MR. DICKMAN: I better put my glasses on. Thank you,
Commissioners. I'm Andrew Dickman, Dickman Law Firm, founder
of the law firm and co-owner of it.
Been here in Naples, Collier County, since 2005 . The firm was
started in Miami originally. After I went to law school -- before I
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went to law school, I was a planner for 10 years when I opened my
firm. Moved here. Raised my family here. Our law office is in North
Naples.
Primarily my work focuses on land use and zoning. A lot of my
time is dedicated to City of St. Pete Beach, so I didn't want you to be
confused that I was moving down from St. Pete or Pinellas County,
but a lot of my time as city attorney for St. Pete Beach is dedicated to
that.
This position was especially interesting to me because, one, it's
in my home county and, two, the schedule really fits nicely with what
I'm doing with St. Pete Beach. That's really what I want to put most
of my time towards.
Our firm does a lot of other types of work. We're a family firm.
My wife is also an attorney there. My son is an attorney there. So
there's lots of support staffs, paralegals.
So with that, I'm familiar with Collier County obviously. I was
on your EAC at one point. Conservancy for a short time.
So with that, I don't want to bore you --
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Let's see --
MR. DICKMAN: Got my material, so...
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Let's see if there are any questions.
Commissioner Solis.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Yeah, I just -- in terms of your work
for the City of St. Pete -- it's St. Pete Beach?
MR. DICKMAN: St. Pete Beach, yeah.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: How many -- what's the schedule
that you have with them?
MR. DICKMAN: Yeah. So they have advisory boards,
obviously, and the city commission. The city commission meetings
are on Tuesday, okay, and it's every -- it's like the second and fourth
Tuesday of the month, and there are boards. I personally have
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delegated all the boards primarily to our associate. And so I'm usually
up there, I would say, if I had three weeks out of the month, and it
would be Monday through Wednesday morning. And, of course, I'm
always available. You have all the technology, remote access,
phones, so forth and so on.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: And in terms of -- I saw that your
retainer agreement talks about associates. I mean, how do you
envision and what do you envision associates doing in terms of the
work for Collier County if you were awarded the position?
MR. DICKMAN: Well, there's a couple of things. Obviously,
there would be a staff report that would be provided to me with
applications and other things that I would need to have in order to
prepare for the hearing. There might be some research that I need
done. That would be a benefit to the county, obviously, because it
would be at lower rate. So the blended rate would be lower. But it
wouldn't be -- it would be my work, obviously. I would end up
preparing for the hearing and then rendering and the order.
To me, having worked at St. Pete Beach and some other places,
it's always very good to develop templates for orders, and when you
have a support staff at your office, they can always tee up the order
for me and maybe look for things that were similar in the past that I
can redo. Again, that's a cost saving to you-all. But I have staff in my
office that are also very good with land use and zoning issues.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Taylor.
Oh, I'm sorry.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: No, that's all I have.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Taylor.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Just to reiterate what I read, I just
wanted to confirm and put it on the record, you're estimating -- your
fee is 225 an hour; is that correct?
MR. DICKMAN: I believe that's what I put on there.
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COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: And then $1,000 a month.
MR. DICKMAN: Yes, ma'am. What we -- what I had talked
about with Jeremy and others was that there would be -- there's
always going to be your basic phone calls and emails, things that are
very quick, and it would be -- that is what that would cover, the
thousand dollars. And then, you know, the hourly rate would be
having to meet with staff, prepare in-depth work for hearings and
conducting the hearing and preparing the orders.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: And then you're talking that
would be maybe blended sometimes; is that the part that's blended?
MR. DICKMAN: Absolutely. That's the case with any of my
clients. I don't do all the work.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yeah.
MR. DICKMAN: It would be impossible, you know. So when
someone focuses on that top hourly rate, that's why I put in the rest of
my staff so that they could see that scheduling, doing other things, it's
all blended.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: And then you're estimating that it
would -- the fee would come out to about 145- or '48,000, I think I
read.
MR. DICKMAN: Yeah -- um, it's hard to estimate, but I know
with --
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: And you gave us a ballpark.
MR. DICKMAN: Yeah. I know based on the work that I do with
the city for the last six years, and my rate is similar to this, it averages
out to be around 165-. I mean, that's been my analysis when I do
quarterly reports.
The only other thing I would tell you is that I have been
involved in litigation against local governments, both sides, so I
know what to look for at public hearings whenever you're dealing
with essential requirements of law, due process, and competent
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substantial evidence. So I'm very familiar with public hearings, been
at hundreds of them. And then I always look at when you've been
involved with lawsuits, you always know what you've got to do on
the front end.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: And then in terms of conflicts,
talk to me about how many times you'd have to conflict yoursel f out
of a situation.
MR. DICKMAN: Right -- the only one I have is right now. I
don't have any -- I have -- you know, I put in my cover letter I
represent a land trust, Randall Boulevard. Other than that, I
wouldn't -- I wouldn't take on any other matters if -- unless you-all
approved it.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I'm sorry. I didn't hear that last
comment about the only one you have, and I --
MR. DICKMAN: Yes. I represent a rezoning application in
Commissioner McDaniel's district on the Randall Boulevard curve .
It's a rezoning of the 26-acre type area. I put it in my cover letter.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes.
MR. DICKMAN: I wanted to disclose that.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes, you did. I didn't know that
that's what you said. I'm sorry. The microphone's a little bit far away,
I guess.
MR. DICKMAN: Yeah, I didn't want to touch too many things
here. Sorry about that. I'll try to talk a little bit louder.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: That's all right. They're going to
clean it up anyway.
MR. DICKMAN: I apologize. The good thing about our firm is
that I have the decision. I do the decision making. So whether I want
to represent somebody or not represent, very easy to do conflict
checks. It's not complicated.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: So you're committing to us is if
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we hired you, that you would not take any more local business.
MR. DICKMAN: Yes, unless for some reason you-all feel -- and
I brought it to your attention and you specifically waived it.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Okay.
MR. DICKMAN: That's one of the things I am asking you to do
is waive this particular item that I have been representing them for a
couple years now.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And that conflict issue was the only
issue I had. Do you have anything else, Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yeah, just a fast question, and that
is, so you won't actually be doing a lot of this yourself . It will be
other people in the office, too, right?
MR. DICKMAN: That's normal for any law firm, but I will
be -- I will be the one at the hearing, preparing the orders, meeting
with staff, preparing for that, but I think what we're getting at is that
you always use, in a firm, a team effort of different legal
professionals, and at the end of the day it comes out to be a blended
rate.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: So this fee that -- and it's just a
guestimate, I understand that. The 165-, does that include all of the
other people involved, too?
MR. DICKMAN: Yes, that's why I list them out. So my -- it
would be impossible for me to do -- and it wouldn't even be ethical
for me to do all the work that's involved with what it takes to
represent a local government. It just wouldn't be. So I would be the
main biller, but then there would be other folks working on the
matters and helping me, assisting me. So it always ends up being a
blended rate.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. I have no other questions.
Seeing that, let's go to the next presenter.
June 9, 2020
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MR. BROOKER: Good afternoon, Commissioners. My name is
Clay Brooker. I'm an attorney with the law firm of Cheffy Passidomo
here in town. I've appeared before this board several times in the past
years and as well as the Planning Commission and the Hearing
Examiner.
I appreciate the opportunity to be able to throw my name in the
hat for consideration. A little about myself, I'm not quite used to
talking about myself like this in a public setting, but I'm a native
Floridian. I grew up in Southwest Florida, Homestead/Key Largo
area, went to college at Princeton University, graduated with a
Bachelor of Arts in Politics in 1991 and then went to University of
Florida College of Law in 1994, graduated from there, then practiced
on the East Coast in Palm Beach County for about six or seven years
and assisted with the defense of cities in Palm Beach County, such as
the Town of Palm Beach, and that was how I started my private law
practice.
In 2000, I moved to Naples and began a private law practice
here primarily consisting of land use, zoning work, and commercial
litigation that spun off of that practice.
In 2010, I was certified by the Florida Bar as a specialist or
expert in city, county, and local government law. I continue to hold
that certification today.
I have served on the county's Development Services Advisory
Committee for 17 years. We have, as you probably know -- I think
some of the LDC amendments were on today's agenda. That's one of
our primary duties as a DSAC member is to vet those amendments
and give DSAC's impression of those amendments for you for your
consideration.
I believe that gives me a unique exposure, experience,
knowledge of the Land Development Code. I've been working
closely with it now for 20 years. I have a little bit of institutional
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historical knowledge of how we got to where we are today with
respect to the code.
My proposal, as you see -- so I believe I would be able to serve
the county well as a Hearing Examiner professionally with that
background and experience and -- efficiently. My proposal involves
just me. I would remain with my firm, Cheffy Passidomo, but it
would just be -- be just me doing the work at a rate of 250 an hour
and $1,000 per week admin duties associated with the position.
Those numbers were arrived generally through discussions with
the county staff. And based upon my understanding, for example, in
terms of total annual cost of my proposal, there were 54 land-use
matters handled by the Hearing Examiner in 2019, and if you
multiply that by an estimate of six hours of work per application at a
250 hourly rate, add in the $1,000 per week retainer, you come to a
number about 135-. That doesn't include whatever secretarial staff
that the county may provide. Now, keep in mind I have my own
assistants at the law firm that I will rely upon for ministerial duties
with respect to the office. But I believe I can provide an
advanced -- if it's fair to say, advanced knowledge to the position and
be able to apply it well and efficiently.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. Commissioner Fiala.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. Thank you. I like the idea of
the specialized attention. You know, we get you personally. I know
we can't call you because it would cost too much money to call, but
it's great to have one person who is related to us all the time rather
than -- in my opinion, rather than shifting around to other people.
So -- but your firm cannot represent a client, then, that is going
before the HEX, right?
MR. BROOKER: Oh, absolutely not, and forgive me. I
neglected to speak. So I would be required to resign from DSAC,
which I'm willing to do if I'm selected, number one . I would be
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precluded from representing any private clients myself in front of any
county board.
My partners and the other associates in the firm would be
precluded from appearing before me as Hearing Examiner, but my
proposal asked for waiver, if there is one, technically, for them to
appear -- my partners and associates to appear before the Planning
Commission and the BCC.
In addition, the proposal includes a waiver of litigation. I'd tried
to look back at our records. We've become adverse to Collier County,
the firm-wide, once every five to seven, eight years. The last case that
I was involved in was five-and-a-half years ago.
I would be screened. I could not participate at all in that
litigation, but the conflict waiver proposal would allow my partners
and associates to become -- to become a part of that record of that
case even if Collier County is an adverse party.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Solis.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Yeah. So I just want to make sure I
understand the retainer arrangement. I mean, the retainer, the
thousand dollars a week is to cover all --
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: It's a thousand dollars a month.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: No, it's a week.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Is it a week?
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: For him it's a week, but --
(Simultaneous crosstalk.)
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: And I want to just discuss that,
because that is a flat fee for whatever administrative time that you
think you may need of staff of your own. I mean, that would
include -- I'm assuming research whatever you had your staff doing,
there's nothing going to be else other than your time is going to be
billed at an hourly rate?
MR. BROOKER: Correct.
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COMMISSIONER SOLIS: So that's capped.
MR. BROOKER: Correct. That is capped. And then
land-use-application specific or project-specific matters would be
billed and itemized at my hourly rate --
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay.
MR. BROOKER: -- on an individual basis.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: And you would be the only one at
your firm, then, providing services as the Hearing Examiner, then?
MR. BROOKER: Correct.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: How long have you been on the
DSAC?
MR. BROOKER: Seventeen years.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I guess you'd know.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Yeah. I mean, these are -- I know I
had a lot to do with bringing this forward. I think these are both really
qualified applicants. I mean, we're -- we're lucky to have people with
this expertise applying.
You know, having said that, I think I -- like Commissioner Fiala,
I'm a little concerned with having our Hearing Examiner also
be -- with all due respect, with being also the -- you know, a city
attorney for another city that's not here. Just time-wise, I'm a little
concerned about that.
And I do also like the fact that while -- it's not $1,000 a month.
It's $1,000 a week. That's the maximum exposure that the county
would have in terms of administrative costs for the Hearing Examiner
other than whatever cost, you know, of internal staff, although I'm
not sure there would be a whole lot of need for that.
So while I appreciate both applicants applying, I mean, I
would -- my vote would be for Mr. Brooker. I think he's served the
county well. He's been a good long-time public servant, in a way, of
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Collier County through his service on the DSAC. And I didn't realize
it was that long. And that experience in terms of the Land
Development Code, I think, is going to help us keep the costs down
as well.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I'm going to disagree with you.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: But first we have Commissioner
Taylor.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Doesn't it -- doesn't it concern
you about the conflicting out? I mean, this is Cheffy Passidomo.
This is the Cheffy Passidomo firm. I mean, they're involved in most
aspects of any kind of land use --
COMMISSIONER FIALA: We don't see them very often at this
end.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: One at a time, please.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: But, I mean, I'm asking you in
terms of the -- this is not my world.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: If I can --
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes, I'm directing -- yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: May I respond?
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yeah. And I wanted to jump into
that conflict issue as well, because you'll recall that Mr. Brooker
indicated that if there is a conflict, then obvi ously he can't be the
hearing examiner, they're going to come to us -- directly to us and to
the Planning Commission. It would have been different if
Mr. Brooker had said his firm will not handle land-use cases in
Collier County, but that's not their position. They're going to handle
land-use cases. They're probably going to get more of them if he's our
Hearing Examiner even though he can't hear them.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yep.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: They would get more of them
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because –
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: He'd be in a position of influence
even though he wouldn't be hearing the cases. And developers tend
to -- tend to try to pick people that are going to have some influence.
So the possibility of Cheffy Passidomo representing land -use
cases in Collier County and coming directly to the planning board
and to us because our Hearing Examiner is a partner in their firm is
just not tenable.
Also, the issue of serving as a city attorney in, I believe it was
St. Pete, if I'm not mistaken, that takes a certain amount of time. I
serve as a city attorney for the Village of Estero. I can tell you that
that's very, very manageable. And so I wouldn't use that as -- or I
wouldn't let that rise as a level of concern in terms of the amount of
time an individual has to devote to being the Hearing Examiner.
So I'm going to -- my view is, I'd like to see us go with the
Dickman firm because, I think in the long run, we're going to have
less conflict issues. But I guarantee you we're going to have conflict
issues if we go with the Passidomo's firm based on what Mr. Brooker
has indicated.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Well, if I can respond. I think
conflicts arise. I think -- many times. I think that, number one, if he's
not going to be involved in anything that would come before him or
before the county, I mean, that would be -- he wouldn't have any
involvement in those case. He's put that into his agreement.
I think that, you know, his role as the Hearing Examiner is very
limited to what he hears. And, you know, as we saw with our past
Hearing Examiner, that was also the chairman of our Planning
Commission, you know, there weren't issues in terms of direct
conflicts of matters between the two bodies that arose that I'm not
[sic] aware of.
June 9, 2020
Page 136
So I just don't think that having a limited role as the Hearing
Examiner, that that somehow would impact, you know, what he did
for the county in terms of a conflict because there's another matter
that doesn't come before him directly.
I just -- I just don't see that. I mean, those kinds of things are
waived often, and I don't see that it would be an issue.
Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. And you know how we
all like to stay in our lane. You and I are out of our lane with regard
to this and having an opinion here. You gentlemen deal with the
hourly processes and conflicts of interest on a regular basis, far more
regular than I ever will.
I do want to make one point of clarification that Mr. Dickman
said in his presentation, and that was he was the final decision maker.
And I want to correct that. If you've ever met his wife before, you'd
know he's not the final decision maker.
MR. DICKMAN: Well, I'm done.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: It's over.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So -- and I want to also say
thank you to you both. How blessed are we to be able to have to
make a choice here with regard to the experience level of who, in
fact, can serve as our Hearing Examiner.
I think either one -- I, obviously, have a relationship with
Mr. Dickman on multiple levels. I'm comfortable with how he acts
and how he does what he does. I'm not uncomfortable with his
proposition that he's put forth.
I'm not uncomfortable with Mr. Brooker either. I -- if we have to
pick one, I'm going -- I would lean towards Mr. Dickman. I wouldn't
be opposed to picking two, if we can. I don't know -- it's been -- you
know, our County Attorney and I spoke about it yesterday, and we're
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not sure that there's enough work to engage two people to serve as
our Hearing Examiner. That seems to be what Jeff and I spoke about
yesterday.
But I wouldn't be opposed to -- there'd have to be, obviously, an
adjustment in fees on how that goes on the retainage side, but I
wouldn't be opposed to giving that a try as we move through to get to
wherever it is that we're going to go.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Fiala, did you have
anything else? Your light was on.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes, I did, but I'll skip it now. I just
was going to say that the Cheffy Passidomo -- I don't know that
they've been before us in years and years and years but twice . But if
they have, I haven't seen it.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: They have been fairly recently in
front of us, I believe.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: And they will be. They will be
next meeting.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: On the property up in front of
Oakes Boulevard.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yep.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I don't think it's a good idea to pick
two hearing examiners.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: If we determine at some point that
we need two, then that's something that we can consider, but I'm not
even sure that we need one at this point. I mean, we want to have
somebody on board and we want to start having those hearings. But if
we need a second backup -- but I would entertain a motion at this
point. I know three of us have said we prefer the Dickman Law Firm,
so...
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: I'll make a motion.
June 9, 2020
Page 138
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We have a motion from
Commissioner Taylor to select the Dickman Law Firm; is that
correct?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes, that's correct.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I'll second that motion. Any further
discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I'll call for the vote. All in favor,
signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: (No verbal response.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All opposed?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Well --
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Might as well make it unanimous.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Well, I voted with it just to be
unanimous, because whoever it is needs to be --
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I'll do that as well, but I would
prefer to have somebody that was just working for us that we could
refer to, but I'll go along with the majority.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I do, too.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yeah. And Mr. Brooker wouldn't
just be working just for us. He still would be doing his --
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yeah, I know, but we would be his
only client as far as the HEX goes. He's not going to be sending in a
lot of other people from his law firm . Just him.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Oh, I see.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Right. He'll be having associates and
things. I agree with Commissioner Fiala.
June 9, 2020
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COMMISSIONER FIALA: I agree.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. We had a motion and
second. That was passed, I believe, 4-1 [sic].
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: And then before we leave this
and unrelated to what we just did but related to the work of the
Hearing Examiner, it's my understanding that on numerous
occasions, as he was leaving, Mr. Strain suggested that there are
issues that the Hearing Examiner needs to hear that staff could take
and preside over. And very much in line with what you just said,
Mr. Chair, do we really need a Hearing Examiner? So I'd like to see
if there is a willingness of staff to --
MR. KLATZKOW: I'll tell you right now Mr. Strain is in error
on that. We carved out the Hearing Examiner to hear matters that
staff couldn't handle.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Okay.
MR. KLATZKOW: It's just --
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Okay, very good.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Let's --
MR. OCHS: Mr. Chairman, I'm sorry. Could we clarify that
vote. I wasn't sure if Commissioner Fiala voted yes or no on that.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I voted yes.
MR. OCHS: So it's 5-0.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: It's unanimous. She'll grow to love
you.
MR. OCHS: You approved the recommendation. We'll bring
back a final contract to the Board at a future meeting.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Oh, and then there's one more
thing in the final contract, and the Clerk reminded me of this
yesterday. The payment has to be 45 days, not 14 days, and I'm sure
our clerk could speak to it, but she did point that out within the
contract.
June 9, 2020
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MR. OCHS: That reflects the Florida Prompt Payment Act.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Prompt Payment Act, yeah.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: And, oh, by the way, one of the
things you mentioned when -- you said thank you for -- thank you
for -- wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute -- electing me, or
how did you say? Selecting me as the undersigned attorney, but we
hadn't done that yet, in your cover letter, and you said about a clear
understanding and good communication, and I thought, oh, my
goodness, he's saying thank you for selecting me, and we hadn't yet,
so I just wanted to –
Item #9A
ORDINANCE 2020-17: RECOMMENDATION TO APPROVE AN
ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE NUMBER 82-49, AS
AMENDED, THE SHADOWWOOD PLANNED UNIT
DEVELOPMENT (PUD), TO REDESIGNATE 4± ACRES OF
LAND FROM TRACT C, PRIVATE AIR PARK DISTRICT, TO
TRACT E, RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT; BY ADDING THE
DEVELOPMENT STANDARDS FOR TRACT E; BY AMENDING
THE MASTER PLAN TO ADD 3 ACCESS POINTS TO PROVIDE
INGRESS AND EGRESS TO TRACT E INCLUDING ACCESS TO
POLLY AVENUE, ATKINS ROAD AND WHITAKER ROAD; BY
REMOVING A REQUIREMENT THAT ALL ACCESS ROADS
TO THE PUD ARE PRIVATE ROADS; AND BY REVISING
DEVELOPER COMMITMENTS. THE SUBJECT PROPERTY
CONSISTING OF 77.99± ACRES IS PART OF THE 168.1 ACRE
PUD LOCATED AT WING SOUTH AIR PARK, EAST OF
SANTA BARBARA BOULEVARD BETWEEN DAVIS
BOULEVARD AND RATTLESNAKE-HAMMOCK ROAD, IN
SECTION 16, TOWNSHIP 50 SOUTH, RANGE 26 EAST,
June 9, 2020
Page 141
COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA. [PL20190000259] – ADOPTED
W/CHANGES (NO ACCESS ON ADKINS ROAD AND ADD A
DECLARATION ON SALES CONTRACT REGARDING BEING
NEAR AIRPORT)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We're going to move on to Item 9A.
This is -- this is ShadowWood.
MR. OCHS: 9A, yes, sir. Commissioners, this item requires ex
parte disclosure be provided and that all participants be required to be
sworn in. This is an ordinance amending the ShadowWood Planned
Unit Development to redesignate four plus-or-minus acres of land
from Tract C, which is private airpark district, to Tract E, residential
development; amending the master plan to add three access points to
provide ingress and egress to Tract E; and removing a requirement
that all access roads to the PUD are private roads. And the subject
property consists of 77.99 plus-or-minus acres. It's part of the
168-acre PUD located at Wing South Airpark east of Santa Barbara
Boulevard between Davis Boulevard and Rattlesnake Hammock
Road.
So, Mr. Chairman, ex parte disclosure would be appropriate.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel, ex parte?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I've had meetings, emails, and
phone calls.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Taylor?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes. Meetings with the
developer's attorney, Mr. Yovanovich, and the developer's
representative, Mr. Barton; conversations with various staff
members; conversations with FAA representatives; meetings and
conferences and calls with residents of Wing South represented by
Anne Daley and her group; meetings and conversations with Sue and
Keith Orschell; and I monitored the Planning Commission meeting;
June 9, 2020
Page 142
and read the staff report.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Solis.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I've had meetings and emails, and
telephone calls with Ms. Daley, Keith and Susan Orschell,
Mr. Yovanovich, Anne Daley, and several from Wing Park South,
and the Orschells and Mr. Buckley.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Fiala.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. I've had -- I've met with Rich
Yovanovich and Bill Barnett; I've had phone calls; I've spoken with
Ms. Daley; many times has the East Naples Civic Association talked
about it at their board meetings; I've gotten emails; I've gotten calls,
and from community members.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. And I've had similar
meetings, correspondence, telephone calls, emails with the applicant
and representatives of the applicant.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Mr. Chair, may I amend my
declaration by one thing? I did visit the site.
(The speakers were duly sworn and indicated in the affirmative.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I know that we have a lot of
speakers and we have, I think, probably some speakers that are
remote. And one of the issues that was raised numerous times in my
communications was the utilization of Adkins Road. So my
understanding is that you may be eliminating that, and that may help
with some of the comment. I just want to throw that out there. If that
statement is correct, that may be helpful going forward.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Okay. Let me -- for the record, Rich
Yovanovich on behalf of the property owner. I'll briefly introduce the
team, and then I'll get right to -- I'll get right to the question.
I have two owners representatives with me, Rob Buckle and
John Caskey; and then I have Bill Barton, who most of you have with
met with him; Chris Hagan is the engineer on the project; and Norm
June 9, 2020
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Trebilcock is our transportation consultant.
To cut to the chase, when we initially went to the Planning
Commission, there was a concern that we would need both Adkins
and Whitaker to serve the traffic needs of this Tract E, which is on
your screen.
We have since learned that with appropriate traffic calming on
either Whitaker or Adkins, that road, together with -- and I'm a little
rusty. It's been a while since I've been in front of you-all. I don't
know if I can get the cursor to go up there. There it is. Right here.
There would be an access point right here on Polly, and an access
point on Whitaker, both of which front the property. With those two
access points, the need to use Adkins as an access to serve Tract E is
no longer necessary.
So we would go down from three access points that were
approved by the Planning Commission and your staff to the two
access points for Polly and Whitaker. And I have a better slide that
probably will -- that probably makes it a little bit clearer for what we
would be doing. And this is the one access point I was talking about
right here. That would be Polly and this would be Whitaker, and then
this access point would no longer be necessary.
So that seemed to be -- and I met with the same people you-all
met with in private conversations -- seemed to be a concern for
representatives of Wing South as well as people that lived on Adkins.
And when we initially met, we were under the impression we did
need both. We don't need both at this point. So if it's the pleasure of
the Board and the community to limit us to the Whitaker access and
the Polly access, we could live with that requirement.
I have a much more detailed presentation if you want me to
make a more detailed presentation, or if you want to hear from th e
public and maybe respond. But it's a very minor request. Add
single-family as an allowed use on Tract E. We're not asking for any
June 9, 2020
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increased density in doing that. The access points we were talking
about, and as you can see on the visualizer, there's a sm all little piece,
approximately four acres, that's part of Tract C that would become
part of Tract E but would not increase the ultimate density. Those are
the requests.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. We have several lights up
here. But just to clarify, the Adkins access is being eliminated?
MR. YOVANOVICH: If that's the pleasure of supermajority of
the Board of County Commissioners, we would be -- we would be
willing to do that.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I can see at least three or four of us
are --
MR. YOVANOVICH: I need four out of five.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. So if you would make that
statement for the record, that will be helpful moving forward.
MR. YOVANOVICH: And it is. If that is what the Board would
like us to do, we will remove that access point.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. That will help us with the
public comment, I believe.
Commissioner Fiala.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. And I didn't hear, it still leaves
the taxiway intact so it isn't used as a road, right?
MR. YOVANOVICH: Right. What this does, as everybody
knows, the only access point right now for Tract E is to work its
way -- is for Tract E to go south through these roads right here, which
are not part of the project. These are private roads that are also
taxiways for the homes that have airplanes, and all the way down to
Rattlesnake Hammock. With these two other access points,
eliminating Adkins, we would not need to use those private roads or
Skyway Drive to go down to Rattlesnake Hammock.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: You know what, you did a lot of
June 9, 2020
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good work in this time. So I think it looks good.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Solis.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: And my question may be one more
for staff. I mean, we've -- as we've been going through these
applications for the last couple years, one of the things we've talked
about is emergency management access, storms. We've got any
number of developments in my district that have one access. I mean,
arguably, we're talking about two access points, but, you know, really
they're so close together, I'd like to hear from staff in terms of -- I
mean, is this really the two kinds of access that we want in terms of
emergency operations and things, or is the two accesses being
within -- and basically going to the same road -- you know, I don't
want to be here after a hurricane and going, well, I wonder why we
did that.
And I've -- you know, you and I have had that conversation
before. You know, if something happens on Whitaker and Polly right
there, then they're kind of stuck, and they can't get out. Actually,
that's been my concern from the beginning as to why Adkins may be
needed. So maybe that's a better question for staff. I mean, I
understand why the applicant wouldn't want to have to do that.
There's more expense and things related to the Adkins and there's
some opposition.
MR. YOVANOVICH: And I'm sure -- if I may, and then I'll get
out of the way for staff. But when this PUD was originally approved,
the LASIP canal didn't exist, which is a major canal . And in doing an
Adkins access or even an access through Skyway would require some
pretty expensive box culverts and potential modifications to the
LASIP canal, and I think that's something that we want to make sure
we don't do. So I think that with this -- either access point got
blocked, Commissioner, there would be a second access point for
people to get in and out of the project.
June 9, 2020
Page 146
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Well, that's my question. I mean,
they're in such -- I mean, it depends on where you put it on Whitaker.
It's going to be at the -- there's kind of a corner there. I mean -- and I
understand the cost. I'm just -- my question is, there's a cost to not
having good access after a hurricane.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: But none of the roads are roped off,
right? You know, they're not gated off or anything.
MS. SCOTT: For the record, Trinity Scott, Transportation
Planning Manager.
The amount of traffic that would be coming out of this tract is
not a large amount. And once you get over into Whitaker, there is a
pretty good network. I was actually over there myself, going and
looking. You can get to Polly. You can also get north to where the
new Seychelles development is as well to get access to Santa
Barbara. So there's multiple routes in that area. I'm sorry, did I
mispronounce it?
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay. As long as -- as long as our
staff is comfortable that we're not creating the situation that we've
repeatedly said we don't want to create.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Taylor.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yeah. If you can see, you
can -- there are other ways out. And, actually, do I dare say you can
actually use -- you can get out through Adkins, as you can see in
front of you. But there's things that we spoke with -- if you can see, if
you're going out Whitaker and, say, there was a jam there, you could
go -- help me -- south on Polly, and then west on Adkins and then do
it that way. It's a -- it's a nice grid work.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: You mean Polly, don't you?
Adkins doesn't go out.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: No, but it stops here, but you
can --
June 9, 2020
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MS. SCOTT: You can go north and south --
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: North and south.
MS. SCOTT: -- just before you would go all the way through
Adkins. But you can go north and south on Polly as well as Sunset to
be able to get to Whitaker, and then north of this there's another
access point out to Santa Barbara extension, and then you could come
down to Polly and get through.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: And so one of the things we
spoke about, I think it was yesterday or last week, with Mr. Barton
is -- and as Mr. Barton is a city dweller for many years in the City of
Naples, understands that you would be willing to put a -- and help me
with -- some kind of declaration in the areas that you have for sale
that there is an airport beside there and that they need to understand
this airport exists and that it --
MR. YOVANOVICH: Correct. We would -- we would have no
objection if you want to include that in the PUD. We would do that as
a normal course anyway, putting people on notice that they are
buying a home near an airport. A smart developer would do that. So
if you want to put that in the PUD, we're happy to do that, but we
would do that -- we would do that in a sales contract anyway.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: In the sales contract. And then
the other issue would be is that you're assuring here that even with
this new development going in there is enough room for that taxiway
to exist as it does today?
MR. YOVANOVICH: You mean the --
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: With runway.
MR. YOVANOVICH: -- flight path?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes, so that there's no
encroachment into the area that would be considered making that
taxiway unsafe.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Correct, correct, yes.
June 9, 2020
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COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: There is enough room?
MR. YOVANOVICH: There's plenty of room for us to design
our residential development to respect and honor the existing airport
improvements.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: If you would go back to the
aerial photo that you had up there. I think, Leo, you had that, if you
don't mind.
MR. OCHS: Sure.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: My conversation that I had
with the developer was in regard to that emergency access as well,
and there is going to be no access over to the airport or to what we
know as Wing Park South, and there is no opportunity for even an
emergency gate over there clear on the east side next to that taxiway
to -- in the even that, as was suggested, access was -- we weren't able
to get out on Whitaker or Polly?
MR. YOVANOVICH: If I can, are you -- when we say
"taxiways," I want to make sure I'm speaking the right language.
Commissioner, are you talking about are taxiway right here?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Okay. I don't know what it would take to
permit an accessway onto a taxiway.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It certainly would only be on
an emergency basis.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Correct. As we discussed, my
assumption is if the Fire Department wants to get in, they're going to
find a way in by using --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Right.
MR. YOVANOVICH: They're going to find their way in if they
have to to clear, if there's something that blocks it. We had not
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intended to specifically permit an emergency access to a taxiway . We
didn't think that was probably in our best interest or those operating
airplanes best interest. But we had not intended to do that.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: And we talked about that. Because
if there's an emergency, whether it be fire or hurricane or whatever,
those pilots are going to want to get their planes out of there. They're
going to need that taxiway. So they said they wouldn't be using it.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. We have -- anything else,
Mr. Yovanovich?
MR. YOVANOVICH: No, Mr. Chairman. I think I'm complete.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. And do we need any more
from our staff, or are you ready to go to public comment?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Let's go to the public comment. We
have several speakers. Let me advise the public speakers two things
that are important. Adkins Road will not be an access point. So if
your concerns are that Adkins Road would be a third access point
opening up to Santa Barbara, that's not part of it. That's going to
be -- that's eliminated. If your concern is that there be notice to the
purchasers that there's an airport there, that's going to be part of the
PUD and it's also going to be in their literature. So if those two issues
are of a concern, then we're in agreement with you.
MR. MILLER: Mr. Chairman, all of our speakers for this item
are here. There are no remote speakers for this item . I have six
speakers. Your first speaker is Jay Bowerman. He will be followed
by Jenneine Lambert.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Good afternoon.
MR. BOWERMAN: Hi. Afternoon. Jay Bowerman here.
I live on Whitaker Road. I built a house there two years ago,
kind of our dream house. And when I was doing all of the planning
for this project, I saw this large tract of land back there and started
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asking around the neighbors, you know, hey, is this going to be a big
development one day? And they all said, no, that's going to get
access from the south. Obviously that didn't happen.
So my first question is, how could something like this happen?
How could you have an approved PUD where there is an access
coming off of Rattlesnake and then other PUDs after the fact that
kind of changed it? I know it's a bad situation now, and nobody
wants you to go to Wing South. But that's my question: How did this
happen? County staff or anybody.
MR. KLATZKOW: We do this almost every week. It's a rezone.
I bought my house. It was surrounded by a certain type of
community, and it just changed around me one after the other . It's
just -- it's a normal process of local government everywhere.
MR. BOWERMAN: I see. So why wouldn't there have been an
access when -- these other PUDs down at Wing South, why wouldn't
there have been maybe the easements allowed -- you know, allocated
for that?
MR. KLATZKOW: What I'm saying is there's changes of
circumstances over time. One of the changes in circumstances over
time here was the LASIP project. And what happens is you get
change in circumstances, markets change, conditions change, and the
developer comes in, asks for a rezoning. It's a public process. The
Planning Commission hears it, the community hears it, and
eventually the Board hears it, and the decision is made whether or not
we're going to rezone the property.
MR. BOWERMAN: Okay. So Whitaker right now is feeding
that entire area. A lot of you know that. Some of the neighbors -- we
did some, you know, traffic counts, and we counted almost 200 cars a
day. Whitaker is very busy. And as soon as I finish the house -- I've
got five kids, some of them small -- I realized, okay, my kids are
never going to go to Whitaker. I mean, it is a speedway. It feeds
June 9, 2020
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everything.
So I actually came here to beg for the Adkins access, because
they've got that new development right there, and if Adkins
connected to Santa Barbara, now there's two streets feeding that
entire neighborhood. Now, there's probably more neighbors on
Adkins that wouldn't like that, but we've got to get some help.
Whitaker is the only street that feeds everything, and so this is going
to make it a lot worse.
There's another family that lives across the street from me. They
also have three small children. So, again, I'm just appealing for some
kind of help on this. There's a lot of traffic on Whitaker, and the
northern entrance that is Polly, they're just all coming through
Whitaker. That does us no good. So I appreciate it's up on Polly, too,
but unless you take that road back over, it doesn't really help.
So I'm just asking for some help. Whitaker has got a lot of
traffic. Don't walk on it, especially at around dusk, because you will
get hit. So I just wanted to put that out there.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: We could certainly ask our
Transportation Department to take a look at it once this starts going
and do what they can -- put some traffic calming things in there, stop
signs and so forth.
MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Jenneine Lambert. She'll be
followed by Anne Daley.
MS. LAMBERT: Hi. I work as a professor of nursing at Florida
Southwestern, so it's real nice that I live on ShadowWood Circle .
And I've been threatened by the recent development in two ways:
Physically and financially.
My flood code went from mildly concerned to moderate
concerned, and that raised my insurance $2,000 a year . And,
physically, the water retention lake, which is the second one from
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Rattlesnake, has encroached 18 feet towards my lanai. So if we had a
hurricane right now, my living room would be flooded.
So I wanted to make sure that these developers that are ready to
make a nice profit from this are taking into consideration -- and I
know the Collier County Commissioners want to make responsible
decisions -- that even though I'm just a little guy, this is very
threatening to me.
And I'd like to know what work has been gone to survey the lake
to see if it needs dredging, to see if it needs to be bigger. Can
someone come out and build up my landscape? Can someone
supply me with sandbags? But this is an impact, physical impact to
the further development of roadways and development. It's -- all that
area, even if you look at Santa Barbara, just from t he development of
seashells -- or Seychelles, whatever, it's a swamp. That retention
pond covers, like, three acres of water from Davis and Santa Barbara,
if you've done out there recently.
So the water table is a real concern in this area, and I'd like to
see something done to better protect our homes. It's only a few homes
but, nonetheless, the impact is profound.
Thank you.
MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Anne Daley. She'll be
followed by Suzanne Orschell.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Solis.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Yeah, I'm sorry. The last speaker,
whereabouts is your home? I'm just trying to make sure I understand
where it is.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: You'll need to come back up to the
microphone.
MS. LAMBERT: I'm right on the southwest edge of the second
retention pond, 6272. It's a villa.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: What street is that?
June 9, 2020
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MS. LAMBERT: ShadowWood Circle. It's the very last condo
on the west -- west road of ShadowWood Circle.
MR. OCHS: Ma'am, over here. Am I close with this pen?
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Ma'am, if you'll stay -- ma'am?
Excuse me. You can use the microphone. He's pointing to it. If you'd
use the microphone. Ma'am, if you'd please use the microphone.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Why don't we let her put the pen on
her house.
MS. LAMBERT: There you go. Go up just a half an inch. Right
there's my villa.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay.
MS. LAMBERT: Between my loop and the next loop is a lake, a
pond. I was told it was a natural pond. I thought it was a retention
lake. But it is encroaching on my lanai. It's a trench. But it's way too
close for comfort. It used to be 30 feet away. I measured it this
morning; it's 18 feet. The water line is 18 feet from my lanai.
MR. OCHS: Commissioners, I have Ms. Patterson in the back of
the room. She'll get her contact information and follow up.
MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Anne Daley. She'll be
followed by Suzanne Orschell.
MS. DALEY: Good afternoon. Anne Daley from Wing South.
All I want to do is thank everyone concerned for the focus and
consideration and thoughtfulness.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you.
MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Suzanne Orschell. Now,
she has been ceded additional time from Robin Buckley.
(Raised hand.)
MR. MILLER: Okay. And by Keith Orschell. So she will have a
total of nine minutes. And I think she had some electronic items that
she submitted, so you're probably going to need to go to the other
podium, ma'am.
June 9, 2020
Page 154
MS. ORSCHELL: That's okay, because Adkins was point of
concern. And, again, I'm just coming up to thank you all for –
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Put the microphone up.
MS. ORSCHELL: Thank you all for -- thank you for everything.
I'm crying. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you.
MR. MILLER: And that was all of our public speakers then.
MR. YOVANOVICH: I've been told by your staff I have to read
a sentence into the record, and -- am I right? The following sentence
has to be added to our PUD.
It says, any physical improvements that directly impact the
components of the Lely Area Stormwater Improvement Program,
LASIP, will comply with the LASIP permit. It will not adversely
impact flow/conveyance. So we will add that to the PUD based upon
your staff's request.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: I'd like to make a motion to
approve the ShadowWood PUD as it's been presented with two
entrances and deleting the Adkins entrance and also to -- to have any
sales brochures notice that they are moving next to an airport and to
also ensure that the taxiway stays as open and as free as it is today for
the existing airport.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. Now, that's my district, and
so I was going to say something. But just as long as your motion says
that we eliminate Adkins, right, that we use Whitaker, and that
we -- the gentleman that is now going to be talking to people about
speed control, we're going to make sure that he's in that, and also that
we avoid the taxiway.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. Very good. I second the
motion.
June 9, 2020
Page 155
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. So I think the -- just for
clarification, then, this project will not have an impact on the taxiway
is what you're saying.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: That's correct.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel, you're lit
up.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Just as a brief point. I just
wanted to make sure that staff addressed the impacts of the additional
traffic on Whitaker. I know whenever we're increasing traffic, when
we've put bridges in Golden Gate Estates and interconnect what used
to be called sac roads, that there were improvements, sidewalks, and
so ons and so forth that were looked at, so...
MR. KLATZKOW: But we're not putting that into the PUD.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Sir?
MR. KLATZKOW: We're not putting that into the PUD.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Your code already requires us to do that,
Commissioner McDaniel.
MR. KLATZKOW: Well, no. If you're directing staff at buildout
that they go to Whitaker Road and then do a study, that's fine, but I
think that's the appropriate mechanism, not put into their PUD that
we're going to do a study.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I didn't say a study. I wanted
to make sure -- I wanted to make sure that the additional traffic on
that road was addressed with the approval of this project. I didn't say
do a study.
MR. KLATZKOW: Well, I don't know how to put that in a
PUD, because at the end of the -- if traffic on Whitaker becomes
untenable, then they're in violation.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And then it's too late.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Do we need to hear about the traffic
study?
June 9, 2020
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MR. YOVANOVICH: May I? Is it appropriate?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yeah.
MR. YOVANOVICH: You already have in your code a traffic
calming analysis that we will have to undertake for improvements to
Whitaker to address our traffic impacts, and we've historically
not -- we've not put in PUDs code requirements that already exist,
and we further already included a commitment to contribute funds
towards that study and improvements for Whitaker. So I think we're
taking care of it, Commissioner McDaniel, in a -- I just wanted to let
you know that that has been -- that has been addressed in the PUD
text as it exists today.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. We had a motion. I'm not
sure if we had a second or not.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I was the second.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. We have a motion and a
second. Any further discussion on the motion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Then I'll call for the question. All in
favor, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: That passes unanimously.
MR. OCHS: I'm looking back at your court reporter if she needs
a break right now. I think she's nodding that a short break would be in
order before we take this one.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Why don't we come back
June 9, 2020
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at 10 minutes after 3:00. That will be 12 minutes, Commissioner
McDaniel. A little extra time.
(A brief recess was had from 2:58 p.m. to 3:11 p.m.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: The meeting of the County
Commission will please come back to order.
I believe we're on Item 9B; is that correct?
Item #9B
RESOLUTION 2020-102: RECOMMENDATION TO APPROVE
WITH CONDITIONS A RESOLUTION DESIGNATING 642.52
ACRES WITHIN THE RURAL LANDS STEWARDSHIP AREA
ZONING OVERLAY DISTRICT AS A STEWARDSHIP
RECEIVING AREA, TO BE KNOWN AS THE HYDE PARK
VILLAGE STEWARDSHIP RECEIVING AREA, WHICH WILL
ALLOW DEVELOPMENT OF A MAXIMUM OF 1,800
RESIDENTIAL DWELLING UNITS, OF WHICH A MINIMUM
OF 300 AND A MAXIMUM OF 1000 WILL BE MULTI-FAMILY
DWELLING UNITS; A MINIMUM OF 45,000 SQUARE FEET OF
COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE VILLAGE CENTER
CONTEXT ZONE; A MINIMUM OF 18,000 SQUARE FEET OF
CIVIC, GOVERNMENTAL AND INSTITUTIONAL USES IN
THE VILLAGE CENTER CONTEXT ZONE; ASSISTED LIVING
FACILITIES SUBJECT TO A FLOOR AREA RATIO IN PLACE
OF THE SQUARE FOOTAGE CAP IN THE VILLAGE CENTER
CONTEXT ZONE; A MAXIMUM OF 10,000 SQUARE FEET FOR
ANY RECREATION BUILDINGS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
GENERAL CONTEXT ZONE AND A MAXIMUM OF 5,000
SQUARE FEET FOR ANY RECREATION BUILDINGS IN THE
NEIGHBORHOOD EDGE CONTEXT ZONE; A MAXIMUM OF
30,000 SQUARE FEET OF WELLNESS AND COMMERCIAL
June 9, 2020
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DEVELOPMENT IN THE VILLAGE AMENITY AND
WELLNESS CENTER CONTEXT ZONE; ALL SUBJECT TO A
MAXIMUM PM PEAK HOUR TRIP CAP; AND APPROVING
THE STEWARDSHIP RECEIVING AREA CREDIT
AGREEMENT FOR HYDE PARK VILLAGE STEWARDSHIP
RECEIVING AREA AND ESTABLISHING THAT 3548.24
STEWARDSHIP CREDITS ARE BEING UTILIZED BY THE
DESIGNATION OF THE HYDE PARK VILLAGE
STEWARDSHIP RECEIVING AREA. THE SUBJECT PROPERTY
IS LOCATED NORTH OF OIL WELL ROAD AND WEST OF
THE FUTURE BIG CYPRESS PARKWAY IN SECTION 16,
TOWNSHIP 48 SOUTH, RANGE 28 EAST, COLLIER COUNTY,
FLORIDA. [PL20180000622] – ADOPTED W/STAFF’S
RECOMMENDATION #1
MR. OCHS: That's correct, Mr. Chairman. This item also
requires ex parte disclosure be provided by commission members,
and all participants must be sworn in.
This item is a recommendation to approve with conditions a
resolution designating 642.52 acres within the Rural Lands
Stewardship Area zoning overlay district as a Stewardship Receiving
Area to be known as the Hyde Park Village Stewardship Receiving
Area. The subject property is located north of Oil Well Road and
west of the future Big Cypress Parkway. And there was a companion
item to be heard immediately following this item if it's approved.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Then we'll start with
Commissioner McDaniel on ex parte communications. And,
Mr. McDaniel, we're on the Hyde Park.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, yes, yes. I knew where
we were when I left. Thank you. And, yes, I do: Meetings,
correspondence, emails, and phone calls.
June 9, 2020
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CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Taylor.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: I would say, without naming
names, staff meetings, conversations with the developer and the
developer's agent, telephone calls, conversations with the public.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Solis.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I've had meetings with
Mr. Yovanovich, I've had emails and telephone calls, and something
from the League of Women Voters.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And, Commissioner Fiala.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes, I had a meeting also with Rich
Yovanovich, Mike Greenberg, Bob Mulhere, I've had meetings and
emails.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. And I've had similar
correspondence and meetings as well.
And the court reporter, I think, is going to swear the witnesses
in. If you're going to testify, if you'd please stand and raise your right
hand.
(The speakers were duly sworn and indicated in the affirmative.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Hopefully we won't need
everybody to speak.
MR. YOVANOVICH: I hope you're correct.
Good afternoon. For the record, Rich Yovanovich on behalf of
the petitioner. I'm going to introduce a lot of people, hopefully very
few of which will actually speak during the presentation but will be
here to answer any questions that I may not be able to answer . From
Neal Communities we have Pat Neal, who's the president.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Let me ask Mr. Neal a quick
question. When were you in the state Senate?
MR. NEAL: 1978 to '86. Way before, Mr. Chairman.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Not too many years before, but I
just wanted to recognize you for being here.
June 9, 2020
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MR. NEAL: Let's just say I won every environmental award
made to the members of legislature.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Did you?
MR. NEAL: I did.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Great to know. Great to hear. And
welcome.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Well, that was my first person to
introduce, Mr. Neal.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I won't interrupt you again.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: You can interrupt.
MR. YOVANOVICH: That's okay. I'm better at
counterpunching than the actual presentation.
So Tim Oak, who's the Southwest Florida regional president;
Dan Ciesielski, who's the Land Development manager for the south
region; and Jason Frost, who's the vice president of land
development. They're all in the back. Hopefully, you will not have to
hear from them.
Michael Greenberg, who used to be with Neal Communities, is
now consulting with -- as part of the consultant team; Bob Mulhere;
Barry Jones in the back is our civil engineer; myself; Jim Banks, our
transportation consultant; Lucy Gallo is our economic fiscal
neutrality consultant; and Tyler King with Dex Bender is our
environmental consultant.
I'm going to do a brief overview of the project, and then I'm
going to turn it over to Mr. Neal who talk about Neal Communities
and then Mr. Mulhere will take you through the details of the project,
and then we'll be available to answer any questions you may have.
For whatever reason, it's not moving.
MR. MILLER: Let me see if I can help you, Rich.
MR. YOVANOVICH: I appreciate that.
MR. MILLER: You should be good.
June 9, 2020
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MR. YOVANOVICH: Thank you. I know the buttons.
Hyde Park SRA -- it went too far. There we go. On the visualizer is
the roughly 643 acres which is the section of land that will be the
Hyde Park Village SRA that's in front of you. You can see that's at
the intersection of Oil Well Road and the future Big Cypress
Parkway. The Rivergrass Village was approved just to the east of this
project and also to the south of this project.
The overall project itself, as I said, was almost 643 acres. We're
asking for a total of 1,800 dwelling units, which is 2.8 units per acre.
The maximum multifamily within the project will be a thousand
units, but the minimum multifamily of the project will be 300 units,
and the maximum single-family will be 1,500 units.
Within the village center, to assure that it's a mixed-use village
center, we will have a minimum of 180 multifamily dwelling units.
We will also have 45,000 square feet of neighborhood commercial
with a minimum of eight retail and office uses to assure that we are
providing for the services that the residents of the village need as well
as the residents -- nearby residents of Golden Gate Estates. And we
will also have a minimum of 18,000 square feet of civic uses.
And this SRA does include a trip cap based upon our trip study
of 1,685 two-way unadjusted average weekday p.m. peak-hour trips.
Bob will take you through the details of how we satisfy all of the
Growth Management Plan and Land Development Code
requirements, but before Bob gets into that, I'm going to turn it over
to Mr. Neal to tell you a little bit about his company.
MR. NEAL: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
In the next two minutes I'll like to tell you two or three relevant
things about Neal Communities, mostly about what we've done in
Florida, what we think we can do in Collier County.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: And what is your name, sir?
MR. NEAL: My name is Pat Neal, and I live in Bradenton,
June 9, 2020
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Florida. I have been sworn.
We're 50 years in the business 23 days ago. I'm still young and
working with my family. I've worked with my wife for 42 years,
Commissioner Fiona [sic].
We have four things that we might say that might be important.
We've built 15,000 homes in one town, Bradenton and Manatee,
Florida, which is about 10 or 11 percent of the total dwelling units
built there. So we have a rule that says, I will never have to go hide
behind the cornflakes, which that means is when I see my customer at
Publix, I want to be able to look straight into the customer's eye, have
a happy experience, and make sure they're having a happy
experience.
It happened, and I'm just going to tell you this, in 1991, I had a
home product that I was selling for $89,000 on the water in Manatee
County, Florida, and we'd done an air conditioning service on a pretty
inexpensive air conditioning system. And we thought that it might
not be a good experience for the customer. I saw the guy at
Albertson's. I chose to go behind the cornflakes. I said, this isn't the
way I want to live my life. I went up behind him in the counter. He
was very happy with the air conditioning repair and happy with the
house, and I've never had to do that again.
We're different than the public builders in that respect. We're not
a public builder, but we are the largest private builder in Southwest
Florida and either the second or third largest in our state.
We have a 94 percent customer satisfaction rate, and our
satisfaction rate in Collier is higher than anywhere else in our
company. It's 94.8, thanks to Tim Oak, who is somewhere back there .
He calls every customer. Again, we're different than the public
builders.
I somehow snuck in that I'd won every environmental award
made to members of the legislature, which is Sierra Audubon, Florida
June 9, 2020
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Wildlife Federation, and League of Conservation Voters. I was chair
of our senate's Natural Resources Committee in 1982 and '83 and
wrote with my own hands in Committee Room A, I think. That has a
new name Senator Saunders. But I wrote it with John DeGrove and
John Mills, and it's our state's wetland law written by me, and our
state's concurrency law, which was -- had unintended, I'd just like to
say.
Finally, we've had very good experience in 16 properties so far
in Collier County. Michael wrote that six have been closed, but
they've been closed successfully by having happy customers who had
Michael Greenberg as our president for eight years. He's now
retiring, and Tim Oaks is taking his place.
This community -- oh, and I was Builder of the Year in the
United Stated in 2015.
This community will sell homes, in accordance with the report
given to you, from about $168,000 and -- as rental homes and about
$260,000 homes for sale. In your consideration of affordable housing
considerations, I'd like you to focus on this one set of facts. We have
more power in selling homes to people of low and moderate incomes
today than we've had in any time since the beginning of World War
II. If you buy a $260,000 home from Pat Neal and pay 10 percent
down, your mortgage is about $224,000. Multiply that times three,
it's been $7,200 a year, divided by six -- that's about $600 annual [sic]
payment. Add the taxes of 200 and the insurance of 125. That's about
$925 a year [sic] payment for a new home if you buy a $260,000
home.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Per month.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Per month.
MR. NEAL: Did I say -- 925 per month, times 12, roughly
11,000 per year.
It's still a marvelous bargain and cheaper than rent . And if you
June 9, 2020
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allow good builders who routinely build single -family homes in the
250s, they will be able to build affordable housing for you.
Currently in Sarasota County we build under Sarasota County's
affordable housing program in the low twos. We have a whole new
series of homes market-rate affordable housing, and we will build
this in this relatively inexpensive community.
As I said, we have 22 current communities in this company and
six in Neal Signature Homes, and we are financially able and will
buy this land for cash and have no financing other than district
financing.
I'll close by saying, of course, part of being an elected official,
we have quite a lot of community participation Manatee to Collier.
We contribute almost a million dollars a year to local charities.
Forty-nine charities our emphasis is environmental -- environment
education, quality of life, and human dignity. Our focus has been on
human dignity in the last 30 days.
All I'd like to say is that we are contributing members of the
community where we build. We intend to be contributing
members -- a member of the community in Collier County. We're
easy to reach. My cell is (941)586-8757. Everybody has it. You can
have it. We'll do a good job for you.
I hope you approve this project.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: May I say, Mr. Neal, you have quite
a few communities in the district I live in, and they're all exemplary. I
look at them with -- and I've never met you, but I thought, what a
great community this is. So every one of them when they come out of
the ground, I figure, well, that will be good. So you have a good
reputation.
MR. MULHERE: Good afternoon. For the record, Bob Mulhere
with Hole Montes here on behalf of Neal Communities this
afternoon.
June 9, 2020
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I'll go through relatively briefly the particulars and details of the
proposed project.
The Natural Resource Index is the process by which the lands
are evaluated for natural resource qualities and environmental
qualities. And the staff has reviewed the Natural Resource Index that
we submitted. Tyler King prepared it. He's here if you have any
specific questions, but I'll just go over a summary.
I think Rich went over most of this right here. But it is important
to note that this section of land is adjacent to the Faka Union Canal to
the west. It's -- I've got Golden Gate Estates zoned to the north, Oil
Well Road to the south, and the future -- it says county road, but Big
Cypress Parkway to the east.
The majority of the property was cleared at one point, and it was
farmed and subsequently the property was mined. So the site consists
of disturbed uplands, borrow pits, ditches, and berms. There are no
lands within this section of land that score above a 1.2, and in your
Natural Resource Index process, above 1.2 has a higher ecological
value.
This is an aerial of the site. You can see how disturbed it is. Oil
Well Road runs along the bottom. Future Big Cypress will run along
the east side.
So our NRI assessment is consistent with the Land Development
Code 4.08.07.A.1. Staff's reviewed it, concurs that it's consistent.
So the other part of the Rural Lands process, or the subsequent
part of the partner to the Natural Resource Index and to the
stewardship sending lands process, is the designation of an SRA, and
that's why we're here before you.
The SSA requirements, you have to pay an application, submit
an application, do the Natural Resource Index Assessment, develop a
document and master plan, and analyze the public facilities impacts,
you have to assess the economic impacts for fiscal neutrality, and you
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must demonstrate that you have adequate stewardship credits to
entitle this receiving area, and a stewardship credit agreement is part
of that process, and we comply and have provided all of those.
Villages are -- I've highlighted in yellow the salient points. Villages
are primarily residential communities with a diversity of housing
types and a mix of uses appropriate to the scale and character of the
particular village.
Villages can't be less than 100 acres nor more than 1,000 acres.
This is 642 and change; almost 643 acres.
Villages comprise of residential neighborhoods and shall include
a mixed-use village center to serve as the focal point for the
community's support services and facilities. That's where the support
services and facilities and commercial uses to support the village in
the surrounding area will be located.
Villages have to be designed to encourage pedestrian and
bicycle circulation, have an interconnected sidewalk system and/or
pathway system serving all of the residential neighborhoods. This has
been designed. And I'll show you an exhibit in just a minute to
demonstrate that.
Villages have to have parks and public green spaces, and they
have to include neighborhood scale retail and office uses as well as
civic uses.
This is Attachment A from the Future Land Use Element. It's
probably a little hard to read. I think the next slide gives you -- is
easier to look at. But I just want to -- I included this slide because I
wanted you to see that there are typical characteristics for each of the
forms of SRA in the RLSA program: Towns, villages, hamlets, and
compact rural development. So you have a very specific list of items
that you must comply with, including square footages and f loor area
ratios and so on and so forth.
And so we've taken that chart, and it's readopted in a different
June 9, 2020
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form in your LDC. And this is a little bit easier to read, but you can
see that we comply with all of those elements that I just went over.
So for group housing, we have a floor area ratio; for civic and
institutional uses, there was a floor area ratio plus a mathematical
formula that tells you the minimum amount of civic square footage
that you must provide; there is a minimum of 1 percent of parks and
greens; 35 percent open space; and an interconnected transportation
system. We comply with all of those factors.
This exhibit shows you the location of the village center. Let's
see if I can get this to work here. Nope. Doesn't work.
The village center is right here. That's a mixed-use village
center. As Rich mentioned, we are committed to a minimum of 180
multifamily units in that village center . It could be more. That's the
minimum we're committed to.
And then you have your neighborhood general in the brown
here. That allows for multifamily. And since we have a minimum
requirement of 300 units, whatever isn't put into the neighborhood
center in multifamily will likely to occur in this area here . You're
moving from the most intense to less intense but still somewhat
intense to the least intense on the edges of this development, which is
appropriate because you have Estates to the north and Estates to the
west, whereas on the east and the south you're separated by arterial
roadways.
You have to have a minimum of two context zones. A context
zone is the village center, the neighborhood general, but you may
have more than two. You can also have neighborhood edge, and we
do have three context zones in this village.
I think Rich went over most of this. I don't want to repeat. I just
want to mention that we have a minimum 45,000 square feet of
neighborhood commercial with a minimum of eight retail and/or
office uses and a minimum of 18,000 square feet of civic uses. That's
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based on the formulas that are contained in your Growth
Management Plan and Land Development Code.
We have reserved 100 foot of right-of-way for future expansion
of Oil Well Road. We have a requirement to provide a transit stop
and -- or make payment in lieu. We have a slide. I'll go over the
details of that momentarily. We have to pay our fair share for the
traffic signal at DeSoto and Oil Well. And we have a trigger or a cap
on the number of units that we can build. We can't go beyond 1,530
dwelling units until we build at least 22,500 of that neighborhood
commercial that's required.
I think this is kind of an important slide. If you'll look at the
master plan on the right and the master plan overlaid on an aerial on
the left, I think it gives you a good perspective as to the uniqueness o f
this section of land, which is highly disturbed. There are deeper lakes
on the property that we really can't fill. And so as we look at the
design, we avoid the deeper lakes, and we improve those lakes where
they're more shallow. Again, this is highly degraded. This section of
land, if you were to draw a straight line down along, basically, where
Big Cypress Parkway is proposed to go, none of the Rural Lands
Stewardship here is west of that except for this one section of land.
So it kind of sticks out.
This is the master plan, which is in your packet. I do want to
point out a few things, and I think maybe this subsequent slide. This
is actually probably a better slide. So you can see -- I use -- I don't
know why I can't get that to work, but -- I'll use the mouse to point
out a few things.
There is an interconnection here into the village center from Big
Cypress Parkway. So you previously approved Rivergrass. A portion
of Rivergrass is right here to the east. Folks from Rivergrass can
access the commercial end of our project without going through the
intersection. We also have access directly off of -- just where DeSoto
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dead ends at Oil Well will be the access. We also have access over
here to the west a little bit.
The Faka Union Canal runs right here along the western
perimeter. There are trails. This -- this trailway here brings you off of
the road and carries you in a more pleasant experience up to this
amenity center, which will be a large amenity center to the residents.
There is another access point to Big Cypress right here. A future
access point will be for residents only. Public access right here. All of
those roads are designed with sidewalks, and the more collector type
road will have bike lanes on both sides of the street.
There was discussion previously with respect to walkability, and
you may recall that. Walkability was an issue as it relates to SRAs, in
this particular case the village of Hyde Park. As you can see, the
village center, again, is right down here. We've drawn these
concentric circles and shaded them differently so you could be able to
see that these units -- first of all, again, some of the residential -- at
least 180 will be within the village center. The rest of these right here
are within a quarter mile of the village center. And then you have our
amenity center right here, so an awful lot of this development is
within a quarter mile of the amenity center with a reasonable walking
distance.
And we have these linear parks that connect these other areas to
the amenity center, and there's access from everywhere within the
development to bike or walk to the village center.
This exhibit shows you the sightline. Let me just go back up
again real quick. So the canal runs right along the western edge here,
and on the other side of the canal is Estates zoning. They're sparsely
developed, but there are some homes on the west side.
And there was a question about the distance between a home in
the Estates on our west side, on the other side of the canal, and the
closest home within Hyde Park, and this exhibit shows you that. This
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is a match line, so if you take this match line right here and you carry
this exhibit to right here, it's a continuum. It's just a little difficult to
fit it all on one slide.
So if you're right over here and you are in your Estates home
and you're looking across the canal to the east, you have 50-foot
separation before you get to the canal, another 100-foot in the canal,
and then another 65 feet which we are providing as a buffer with a
landscape buffer, there's a 60-foot-wide open space, and then another
20-foot setback to our structures. So the total separation is 235 feet,
which is very substantial and larger than most similar cases that you
would see.
We also, at the request of staff, included some of these
neighborhood commercial uses. We're not required to do it, but we
are allowed to do these uses within the village and amenity wellness
center context zones if we so desire, and those are the kind of uses
that folks might use such as a -- maybe not a manned, but a banking
facility, a credit union, health services, financial advisors,
professional offices, maybe law services, things that people would
potentially use within the community at buildout that would reduce
the trips on the external network.
As Rich mentioned, Lucy Gallo of DPFG prepared our
economic assessment. It was reviewed by staff and by a third-party
consultant, I believe Jacobs, and the finding of those -- of staff and
Jacobs is that we are --
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Could I ask a question in regards to
that?
MR. MULHERE: Yes.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And I apologize for jumping in.
MR. MULHERE: Sure.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We don't usually do that. But how
come the economic information is -- the term that was used by the
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Planning Commission is that it was locked.
MR. MULHERE: Oh, yeah.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And I don't understand what that
even means.
MR. MULHERE: Yeah. So there's a spreadsheet that is the
backup or support for all of the calculations, assumptions, and
analysis. And the Chairman of the Planning Commission wanted to
be able to have access to that to include whatever scenarios he
deemed appropriate for him to look at to determine whether we were,
you know, financially or excuse me --
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Self-sufficient.
MR. MULHERE: Yeah. So we declined to do that. We did
offer, however, to sit down with him, have the spreadsheet open, and
go over any assumptions that he wanted to make or any scenarios that
he wanted to make, and he declined that offer. So we stand by our
economic assessment.
MR. YOVANOVICH: I just want to add, Commissioner, that all
of the assumptions were provided to your staff and the Planning
Commission so they could see what assumptions we made in
determining that we were fiscally neutral.
I think some of your Planning Commission members wanted to
change some of those assumptions and make their own fiscal
neutrality analysis. And we said, we'll sit with you, change whatever
you want to change, but we want to know what you're doing in
manipulating our model, and some people didn't like that approach.
MR. MULHERE: So that's what locked means; they couldn't
manipulate it.
There's really, I think, two issues. And I'm going to deal with the
first one, and I think Rich is going to come up and deal with the
second one. The first one is that there are a few deviations that we
asked for staff had no objection, no problem supporting . There's one
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that was of concern to staff and that they didn't support. And we
worked with staff, really, over the period of a year to come up with
something that they could support.
And we had asked for a deviation for what we call lifestyle
signs, and you see them all around the county. And staff said, well,
we don't even have a definition of a lifestyle sign . So we worked with
staff, and we looked back at the code, and the code, in the same
section that we asked for the deviation for it, is a little bit more
specific. It calls these things real estate signs. And your code allows
for a pole sign. It doesn't regulate content. You know, that's First
Amendment. It doesn't regulate content, but it does regulate size and
setbacks and those types of things.
The code says that you can have -- and number. You can have
one pole sign, maximum of 15 feet with a maximum sign area of 64
square feet per street frontage for each parcel or lot in excess of
10 acres. We have one large lot that's 642.52 acres. We wanted four
signs, and we were agreeing to separate them by at least 600 feet.
And so that was our -- we changed our deviation to request a
maximum of four signs meeting all of the other requirements in the
code and adding the condition that they be separated by 600 feet. And
we did that because we don't really want to have to go through the
exercise of artificially creating these four 10-acre parcels that we can
do 642 acres, but it doesn't really make any sense. And there's plenty
of these signs around, and there's been no objection to these signs.
So that's why we asked for the deviation. Staff can speak to the
issue, of course, from their own perspective. You know, I don't want
to speak on behalf of staff. But we are asking for that deviation.
We do have a minor correction that isn't in your documents, and
that relates to the transit stop. If you look at the language that is
underlined -- well, we'd like to strike through the unnecessary
language that's struck through at the top. But if you look at the
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underlying language at the bottom, we would like to have the
alternative of providing a payment in lieu if the county wishes to
build a transit stop somewhere else while we're under construction or
has a better need for that money. If they don't want the payment in
lieu, when the timing is right for us to construct it, we would do so.
So it's just an option, and it's really up to the county. So that's that
language.
I'd like to bring Rich back up, because this is his area of
expertise.
MR. YOVANOVICH: We are -- basically, your staff is
recommending approval subject to some conditions in their staff
recommendation and, as the County Manager pointed out, there's a
companion developer contribution agreement that they're saying
needs to be adopted as part of the SRA. Obviously, we agree to that
condition.
Where we are having disagreement with staff is with regard to
either doing a housing needs analysis for the project or providing
affordable housing units and, it appears, to not only providing
affordable housing units, but we may also be required to provide an
affordable housing site. And as you've heard me say in the past, your
SRA provisions in the Land Development Code do not require
affordable housing as part of the village concept, unlike the village
concept that is in the Rural Fringe Mixed Use District. In the Rural
Fringe Mixed Use District, if you go above the one unit per acre that
you can ultimately get to, you have to provide affordable housing to
get above that, quote, base density, if you will.
I'll take you through several slides that has similar language in
the Rural Lands Stewardship Program where it says, if you want to
go above the base density, which is four units per acre in the Rural
Lands Stewardship Area, you're required to do that through the
affordable housing density bonus program. There's no requirement
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that there be affordable housing within a village as the provisions
currently stand in your code and your land -- your code and your
comprehensive plan.
I know there's discussion about making changes to those
documents, but those changes have not yet occurred, and I think it
would -- it's improper to require us to provide affordable housing to
get an affirmative vote.
Now, if you'll remember at the workshop that was held, I think
in January -- it almost feels like that was a lifetime ago -- when we
were talking about the SRA or the Rural Lands Stewardship Program,
there was a comment from your staff that the reason the affordable
housing wasn't included in the Rural Lands Stewardship Program is
because you were -- at the time there were DRIs, and you were going
to rely on the DRI statute to address an affordable housing analysis
and/or the provision of affordable housing. You were going to do a
housing analysis as part of the DRI review process.
Not all villages meet the requirements of a DRI. Villages can
range in size from 100 acres to a thousand acres. If the Commission
will remember, back when we had DRIs in Collier County, the
threshold for the DRI was 2,000 units. This project is 1,800 units. It
would not qualify for the DRI review.
So if you go with your analysis was you were going to deal with
affordable housing as part of a DRI review, you acknowledge that not
all villages are DRIs; therefore, not all villages would be required to
provide affordable housing. We're less than a DRI. If you were going
to apply the DRI statutes to us, it doesn't apply to us because the y're
less than 1,800 -- or less than 2,000 units.
So, one, under your originally adopted rules, if you -- it was
only DRIs that had to provide affordable housing. This village is not
a DRI. That's not what your code says, but that's what staff was
saying is why that was not addressed. But when you look at your
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actual code, what your code basically says -- and you've seen these
slides in the past. I know I went over this with your Planning
Commission -- is that under Policy 4.87, as I've mentioned -- and I
don't want to repeat myself too much, but I've highlighted for you in
bold the maximum base residential as set forth -- residential density
as set forth in Attachment C, which Bob took you through, may only
be exceeded through the density blending process and set forth in
density and intensity blending provisions of the Immokalee Area
Master Plan or the affordable workforce housing density bonus as
referenced in the density rating system of the Future Land Use
Element.
So you've got to go above four units per acre to trigger the
policy requirement to provide affordable housing. That's in your
Growth Management Plan.
Similar if not identical language is in your Land Development Code.
And I'm not going to read it to you again. But, again, to go above the
base density, you are required to provide affordable housing.
Now, your staff will probably take you through to your Housing
Element, and even your Housing Element does not require affordable
housing. It talks about encouraging affordable housing and, actually,
that's a county requirement to provide affordable housing when you
look at your Housing Element. It's not for the individual developer.
These are provisions that talked about partnerships between the
county and other not-for-profit organizations and even for-profit
organizations to provide affordable housing, and you did that earlier
today. You came with a program where you selected, for this case, a
not-for-profit to provide affordable workforce housing and senior
housing at the Golden Gate Golf Course property. That's what the
Housing Element's talking about is things for the county to work
cooperatively with developers, not require a developer to do it when
the developer is not inclined to do that.
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I've said this to the Planning Commission many times, and I'll
say this to you again: Cormac Giblin has a hard job. He is doing what
he has been directed to do and what he thinks is best to try to find a
way to get affordable housing built in Collier County . This morning I
think was a success story. I know he's talking about other things that
may work their way into the Growth Management Plan as changes
for the Rural Lands Stewardship Program, but right now there is not
that requirement. So we do disagree with the requirement to provide a
Housing Needs Analysis and to provide income-restricted affordable
housing within the project.
Now, Mr. Neal pointed out to you that the quality of home that
Neal Communities builds and the price points that Neal Communities
builds, frankly, will target and bring your -- provide essential service
personnel housing at the price points that were shown to you earlier
in the day. So you are going to have a community that will serve that
need and will be market driven and market based .
So I'm going to jump from that topic, and I'm going to jump real
briefly into the developer contribution agreement -- or developer
agreement that's the companion item and kind of highlight a few of
the provisions in that agreement, and with that we'll basically wrap
up and answer any questions you may have.
But as part of the -- we've worked a long time with your utilities
staff and your transportation staff to come up with an appropriate
developer agreement that addresses both utilities and transportation
commitments. As far as utilities go, we have agreed to provide an
easement along the northern and western boundary for water, sewer,
and irrigation facilities for the county to extend their water, sewer,
and irrigation services to the Rural Lands Stewardship Area as their
master plan has been updated and approved to provide those services.
We've also agreed to prepay water and sewer impact fees for
250 ERCs to help with the funding of those improvements.
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As far as transportation commitments go, Bob mentioned we are
providing 100-foot of right-of-way along Oil Well Road. I believe
that's your last missing piece for road right-of-way to have all the
right-of-way you need. We're also agreeing to incorporate what were
previously pond sites that you were going to have to go out and
acquire as part of those improvements, but we're going to bring that
into our water management system, and in doing that we are, in
effect, saving the county a million dollars in constructing ponds and
other pipes and improvements to serve those ponds.
In addition, as part of this, the way we've designed our site and
permitted the site, it may be possible for you to go back in and amend
your permit for the construction of Oil Well Road to basically lower
the elevations of that road to possibly save the county another 3- to
$4 million of costs, but you'll save a million dollars for sure, but a
potential of up to $5 million through this agreement.
And last, but not least, Bob mentioned the Faka Union Canal.
The Faka Union Canal is there, but it doesn't really have an access to
get to it and maintain it, and we've agreed to provide an access, a
20-foot-wide access easement to allow for the maintenance of the
Faka Union canal. We'll be doing some clearing of vegetation in the
canal as well as some clearing of the vegetation in the Oil Well Road
right-of-way as part of this agreement.
And that's just a brief summary of the developer contribution
agreement that your staff says should be approved concurrently with
the SRA, and we agree with that.
In conclusion, the evidence shows that we meet the definition of
a village, we comply with all the suitability requirements for the
criteria. Everything is less than a 1.2, we meet all of the Growth
Management Plan and Land Development Code design criteria, we've
demonstrated that we're fiscally neutral, and we've accommodated
public infrastructure through our developer commitments as well as
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the developer contribution agreement.
And with that, we're at the end of our presentation and are
available to answer any questions you might have regarding the
project.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Before we get to the staff
presentation, if there is one, are there any questions from the
Commission?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: If not, is staff making a
presentation?
MR. OCHS: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Okay. How many
registered speakers do we have on this?
MR. MILLER: I have one in the room and five remote.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay.
MR. FINN: Yes. Hello. For the record, I'm Tim Finn, principal
planner. Sorry about that.
Staff recommends approval of Petition SRA 20180000622,
Hyde Park Village SRA, to the Board subject to the following
conditions of approval which is outlined in your packet: 1, 2, 3 and 4.
For No. 5, Deviation 6.6.4, lifestyle signs, we do not support this
deviation, and we wish to request your guidance on looking at this
through a land development amendment for sometime in the fall.
And, Ray, if you would like to add something.
MR. BELLOWS: Yes. Thank you, Tim.
For the record, Ray Bellows, Zoning Manager.
The issue with lifestyle signs, I think, as outlined in your
executive summary, it's not a listed sign type, so it's prohibited by
code. So they could not ask for a deviation. Staff, in an attempt to
find some alternatives for the applicant, suggested, an d I was in
support of, looking at this as a real estate sign.
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Subsequent discussions with our team and staff, it became clear
that we were clouding the issue between the lifestyle sign, which is
prohibited, and a real estate sign, so we would request that the Board
direct us to do an LDC amendment so we can further analyze and
clarify this type of real estate sign.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Fiala.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes, thank you.
You know, with signs, I understand that they would like to
advertise their thing, but people won't see the signs until they go out
that way because it's pretty far out. So they've already come out there
to see it. I don't know that you really have to advertise it that much.
And I remember when we started taking these signs down out of
the county. We really worked at it, because everybody wanted signs.
They wanted them high. They wanted them in neon. They wanted
them in flashing. And we took a lot of heat to get it to look as nice as
it does now.
And, you know, it reminds me, they want so many signs right
there for -- you know, it's like the Burma-Shave signs that we had of
yesteryear. And I believe they're a good enough company, and they
do their own advertising. I think one sign would be appropriate.
MR. BELLOWS: Yeah. And I think that's where staff is coming
from now in looking at how the signs can be confused between what
is prohibited and not. So we are suggesting or recommending that the
Board direct us to do an LDC amendment so we can provide that
clarification.
MR. FRENCH: Commissioner, thank you. And I know we
spoke about this on our one-on-one. Again, Jamie French, for the
record.
One of staff's requests -- and we've had numerous conversations
to try to find a more palatable solution that would work for both the
community and the developer just before we got here today. But,
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again, in speaking with the Deputy County Manager and the County
Attorney's Office, we do believe that the best approach here might be
to go back and visit this through an LDC amendment. We'd bring it
back to you in October, November area for your conversation. And
we feel like that would probably work still for this developer
primarily because it's not far out from when they may start bringing
in Site Development Plans and allowing us to start looking at some of
their plats and plans.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: You feel what is going to work for
this --
MR. FRENCH: We would bring back a Land Development
Code amendment for consideration. We'd bring it through the
Planning Commission and again to the Board of County
Commissioners for conversation.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I mean, I like this project. I just
don't think they need that many signs. Are you saying the same
thing?
MR. FRENCH: Yes, ma'am. And we believe we can address this
and give further considerations to how we go forward with these type
of real estate signs that might promote some amenities within the
community by readjusting or readdressing some of this older
language that exists within our Land Development Code.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And I think -- if the developer
will go along with that, I think that's a good way to manage this. We
have an issue in the community. These lifestyle signs are everywhere.
I mean, this isn't the only project. They are currently existent in other
areas and other communities around Collier County.
And so, as Bob said, they could fandangle out 10-acre parcels to
allow for the individual signs to be up along the way, but I think we
can manage this better by a more holistic approach and actually
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managing it through our Land Development Code so there's more
uniformity.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Any other comments
before we go to the public speakers? Is the staff presentation
completed?
MR. BELLOWS: Yes. And if you have questions of staff, we
are here, of course.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: The new information that
came today, or that I didn't catch when I was reviewing this, is the
payment in lieu in regard to the transit . I don't remember us talking
about that. We did not talk about that, so there.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And that was completely at the
option of the county. It was not a --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Right. I understand that, but it
was -- it was something -- my recollection of the cost of those transit
facilities is seven times the amount of the proposed payment in lieu.
MR. YOVANOVICH: No. I'm sorry, Commissioner. For the
record, that amount came from your staff. So that's about what a
transit stop costs.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Believe me, I didn't reduce a
$280,000 payment down to 4- -- 40-.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I wasn't suggesting that. I
just -- again, it was new, and I wanted to ask our staff with regard to
that. Just -- I had a recollection of a transit stop in another project
over in Immokalee, and it was -- it was 100,000.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Well, I think there's a difference. You're
talking about -- we're talking about a bus stop, which is what we were
being required to do. There were some -- there are some multistage
bus stops that become your transit. That's what I think you're thinking
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about is your transfers stations, Commissioner. I think it's the transfer
station.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: If staff's okay with it and
you're using a number that was given to you -- and they're all back
there shaking their head. Here comes Trinity to fix it.
MS. SCOTT: Just for the record, Trinity Scott, Transportation
Planning Manager.
Yes, that amount came from our Collier Area Transit, our public
transit neighborhood enhancement for a bus stop pad with a shelter;
typical bus stop that we have.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. If there are no other
questions, let's go to the public comment.
MR. MILLER: Your first public speaker is Patricia Forkan, and
she will be followed by Alison Wescott.
MS. FORKAN: Well, good afternoon. My head is spinning
because a few things that were said here today were not something
that we were necessarily aware of. I'm Patricia Forkan. I'm
representing the League of Women Voters.
You've seen us a lot of times regarding Rural Lands Stewardship
Areas. And we are concerned -- not so much this particular
development. And I want to say to Mr. Neal, thank you for what
things you have done for environment and conservation. That's very
appreciated. And we recognize that you are not totally in Rivergrass.
We wish we had more of you in those that are totally in Rivergrass.
But in any event, thankfully the panthers aren't involved today,
but we are concerned about fiscal neutrality, affordability and
diversity in housing, and compliance with the Collier Community
Character Plan.
Now, I just heard a discussion that all of this went on with Mark
Strain and the others that, yes, they were willing to talk to them and
then they weren't willing to talk to them. And so I have no idea what
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to make of that. But we do know that this is a single -- a single
way -- in models, you have to have many models. We're looking at
many models regarding hurricanes, all of those strands. So to have
just one model which is locked which nobody can look at, except
maybe they can look at, that's the thing I'm not really sure what to say
about that.
We really think that that's a problem and that we don't agree
with a lot of the assumptions that we understand are part of model. So
I'm going to leave that to others who maybe can read minds, but I
can't.
Housing diversity. This particular development is coming close
to it, because they are providing 300 lower-cost units, but they still
have 1,200 units over $300,000, as we understand it, and that is
higher than the average assessed value in Collier County. So we don't
see how, in Hyde Park, the essential service workers will be able to
find a place just to live. So that's one of our concerns.
Where am I? Okay. Community character. This is still
sprawling and -- but, anyway, we are happy that they've tried to put
most of the people in the center of the town; however, the town
seems to be a strip mall. It's not really in the center. It's on the road.
So we're concerned that there's not enough park and village
places. There's -- the parks, as we know, in some of the other places
were considered golf courses.
But in any event, we would like to recommend that you
consider, under the RLSA, broadening and making larger
requirements for parks and green space.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you very much, Ms. Forkan.
MS. FORKAN: Thank you.
MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Alison Wescott, and she
will be followed by Judith Hushon.
Ms. Wescott, are you on the line?
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MS. WESCOTT: Yes, I am. Can you hear me?
MR. MILLER: Yes, ma'am. Please begin.
MS. WESCOTT: Terrific. Good afternoon, my name is Alison
Wescott, and I'm Zooming in this afternoon to ask you not to approve
the Hyde Park development as it is inconsistent with the vision that
many citizens hold for the future of the county as set out in the
Collier County Community Character Plan.
Twenty years ago, as the RLSA overlay was in preparation, a
group of concerned citizens warned the ubiquitous PUD model of
development would lead to pedestrian unfriendly, disconnected, and
homogenous large-scale developments. This led the county to create
the Community Character Plan. And as you know, or as you may
know, the plan emerged from a year-long participatory process led by
county staff, Dover-Kohl, and 400 citizens.
It is a framework that shows how the people of our county
would like to see the county grow based on a shared vision for our
future. It cautions sprawl-type communities coupled with current
policies on density, affordable housing, and urban form will lead to
the collapse of Collier County's prestige and desirability.
So what can we learn from the Community Character Plan to
avoid this? First, protecting our community's character should be at
the forefront of planning decisions. Hyde Park is another gated
village similar in many ways to Rivergrass. It's autocentric and
sprawling with a proposed village center in the form of a commercial
strip mall along Oil Well Road not far from the strip mall planned by
Rivergrass Village. This was pointed out by Patty Forkan.
Second, housing density should encourage the discernment of a
legible neighborhood center and edge. It's unlikely that this will be
achieved with a low suburban density and the design as proposed.
Again, this is similar to what we saw at Rivergrass.
And, third, affordable housing should be addressed in bricks and
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mortar. This idea was brought up at the Rivergrass hearings, but it
didn't seem to matter.
And, fourth, streets and public spaces should be of such quality
that they are viewed as genuine amenities in the neighborhoods they
serve. And when I think of other Hyde Parks I visited, for example, in
London, in New York's Hudson Valley, and in Boston, I see lush
green parklands and a strong sense of place.
Our requirement for park space here is just one percent. We can
do better, and we should do better. As you consider the proposed
amendments for the RLSA overlay in the weeks ahead, I hope you'll
improve these standards. Rivergrass and Hyde Park would set the
stage for piecemeal suburban sprawl along Oil Well Road. This is
what the RLSA and the Community Character Plan set out to avoid.
So I ask you to listen to our citizens and to act to protect our
community character today. Thank you very much for your time.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you, Ms. Wescott.
MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Judith Hushon, and she will
be followed by Elena Mola.
Ms. Hushon, are you on the line?
MS. HUSHON: Good afternoon. My name is Judy Hushon, and
I'm a Collier County citizen.
I've been charged with the responsibility for stewarding the
county's natural fiscal resources. You have -- that is what you're
charged with. You determine expenditures and set tax rates. Your
decision today will have a significant effect on future taxes.
Hyde Park, like Rivergrass, has made use of the Tindale Oliver
model to determine fiscal neutrality. Our statutes require
developments to show fiscal neutrality at buildout.
The Tindale Oliver model that was used by DPFG on Rivergrass
now is being used again. This is the first time we've had a locked
model submitted to the county. The consultant has locked the model
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so your Planning Commission and Jacobs Engineering, whom you
hired to evaluate it, were essentially unable to do so.
Jacob was not willing to guarantee or issue an expert opinion on
the veracity of the model. This model is most often used to evaluate
new construction in an area with existing infrastructure. The RLSA is
a rural area, so this is not the appropriate model.
Fiscal neutrality models consist of interlocking assumptions and
predictions. It is hard to determine these interactions without testing
the model. This testing typically consists of running a high, low, and
average case for each variable and working through the results.
The model has included a number of flawed assumptions, as
noted by the Planning Commission. One was a nearby fire storage
area or fire maintenance area that they counted as a fire station.
The median household density assumed by the model is lower
than that in surrounding Golden Gate and Ave Maria, which leads to
an underestimation of infrastructure requirements. It's assumed that
the ad valorem tax on the North Naples Fire District would be
implemented. It didn't pass.
Again, this is an underestimation. It relied on an economy which
would continue to generate TDC taxes and other tax income. This
will be interrupted by COVID.
Without being able to open the model, we must assume that all
of the assumptions may benefit the developer and not the county and
taxpayer. This means that we are left to make up the difference with
these bad assumptions that we cannot even inspect. This is a major
reason there is a lawsuit over Rivergrass. The county is not doing its
job to protect us, the taxpayers.
Neither the CCPC nor the county staff have recommended this
project for adoption. Ned Fryer of the CCPC stated, I think there
were sufficient miscalculations or flawed assumptions in the financial
analysis that the applicant offered that I am not able to determine just
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how far short of fiscal neutrality we are really going to land.
It's up to you to request that the fiscal neutrality be re-examined
using an open model and then that this be verified by the CCPC and
Jacobs Engineering before returning to you.
MR. MILLER: All right. Commissioners, your next speaker is
Elena Mola, and she will be followed by Lynn Martin.
Mola, are you on the line?
MS. MOLA: I am. Can you hear me?
MR. MILLER: Yes, ma'am. Go ahead, please.
MS. MOLA: Good afternoon. Thank you for your service and
stewardship to Collier County and its taxpayers.
My main concern is to ensure that you do not approve a
multimillion dollar private development which would result in, one, a
cost to or a subsidy from the county and its existing taxpayers or,
two, would result in a violation of the terms and conditions required
by RLSA rules and the state order.
We as a county and its taxpayers cannot afford costs which staff
and the developer have already stated would be required to be borne
by the county and its taxpayers to provide infrastructure to those
developments in the short, medium, and long-term basis. The
principal astounding Collier County debt as of today is $576 million.
Our debt service for Fiscal 2020 is $61 million.
How many more sales taxes must we, the taxpayers, have to
agree to pay to close deficit gaps in the county budget to primarily
fund growth that benefits developers?
In addition to this amount, growth-related debt for public
utilities is $430.7 million, which includes a deficit of $80.8 million in
deficits, in large part resulting from expansion of requisite
infrastructure to fund development of water and wastewater in the
RLSA.
The majority of us are seniors living on fixed incomes. You
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cannot expect to continue to squeeze blood out of turnips. The
Planning Commission found that the development violates or does
not meet numerous conditions required in the RLSA rules of state
order.
In addition, the Planning Commission found that it could not
adequately, thoroughly, and independently verify or test the
assumptions, formulas, and sensitivities contained in the developer's
proprietary locked economic impact model to determine whether, in
fact, its residential development would not negatively impact the
financial condition of the county and its taxpayers.
Again, as before, the consultant that created the developer's
proprietary and locked impact model assumes no responsibility for
inaccuracies, does not warrant or represent that any of the protected
values of economic results will be achieved. Additionally, neither the
Jacobs peer review or county staff can assure the Commission or
county taxpayers the development will, in fact, achieve a fiscal
benefit or fiscally neutral.
What they do say is the county and its taxpayers will have to
make significant initial investments to fund the infrastructure
necessary to accommodate the services to be provided to these
developers and their developments. This translates into the county
and its taxpayers taking all of the financial risk associated with the
provision of infrastructure and long-term servicing of Hyde Park,
funding all costs on the year over year basis until buildout, through
debts, increased taxes and fees, or decreased service levels.
I find it ironic that in the land Of Sunshine with its full
transparency Sunshine Laws, we are making significant development
decisions relying upon a developer's locked, proprietary, and
independently unverifiable testable model.
Commissioner Saunders proclaimed that development in the
RLSA was too important not to get it right, as a Commission's
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decision with respect to RLSA would significantly impact and
forever change the face –
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We need you to --
MS. MOLA: -- of Collier County.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We need you to go ahead and wrap
up, Ms. Mola.
MS. MOLA: Okay. Unfortunately, even in light of significant
public opposition of the county's Planning Commission's unanimous
opposition to the first village proposed in the RLSA, this dais is
continuing to consider the approval of the developments until
everyone can analyze the economic model and agree on transparent
standard and accurate formulas of assumptions. I do believe that, as a
matter of principle, we should stop and agree on what we think is
fair, just, and reasonable.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Thank you.
MS. MOLA: Thank you.
MR. MILLER: Your next public speaker is Lynn Martin, and
she will be followed by April Olson.
Ms. Martin, if you're ready, you can begin.
MS. MARTIN: Ms. Martin, if you're ready, you can begin. Ms.
Martin? Are you on the line, Ms. Martin?
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Let's go to Ms. Olson, and then
we'll come back.
MR. MILLER: Sure. April Olson. Ms. Olson, are you on the
line? April Olson?
(No response.)
MS. OLSON: Good afternoon, Commissioners. Can you hear
me?
MR. MILLER: Yes, Ms. Olson. Go ahead.
MS. OLSON: Wonderful. April Olson here on behalf of the
Conservancy of Southwest Florida.
June 9, 2020
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Although not a model for smart growth, we recognize and
appreciate that Hyde Park does a better job than Rivergrass at
achieving some of the design provisions required by the RLSA, such
as better walkability to the village center and greater safety for
pedestrians.
We also appreciate that the site avoids Primary Panther Habitat.
However, if you are considering approving this project, we ask that
you first require the applicant to address two very important concerns
raised at the Planning Commission hearings, including, number one,
issues with the economic assessment and, number two, the lack of
housing diversity and affordability.
Members of the Planning Commission stated that the project's
economic assessment failed to demonstrate fiscal neutrality because
there were, quote, sufficient miscalculations or flawed assumptions in
the financial analysis, end quote, and because there was a lack of
transparency.
Commissioner Fryer stated of Hyde Park, quote, if fiscal
neutrality is going to be achieved at all, i t's going to be pretty far
down the road, and in the meantime this is going to be a burden upon
all the taxpayers in the county, end quote.
In addition, as you heard earlier, the Planning Commission
received a locked document making it impossible to test different
assumptions and to validate the report's assertions. This was in
contrast to Ave Maria's economic assessment, which was unlocked.
It is imperative that a completely thorough economic analysis is
the standard for each and every project because bui ldout for each
SRA could take 30, 40, or 50 years or more.
Another concern regarding Hyde Park is that the project fails to
commit to housing diversity and affordability per staff's
recommendations. Coronavirus has reminded us just how vital
essential service personnel workers are for ensuring that our
June 9, 2020
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communities thrive. There are over 45,000 acres of proposed RLSA
development. Each and every community must have nurses, fire and
EMS workers, teachers and utility workers.
So before you approve this project, now is the time to ensure
that there's enough housing to accommodate diverse incomes and
ages, just as the plan requires.
So, in summary, we ask that you require the following of the
applicant: Number 1 -- well, this is just a general statement. From
here on out, only allow unlocked versions of each SRA's economic
assessment; and, No. 2, for the applicant, we ask that Hyde Park's
economic assessment is reevaluated by staff to consider the
miscalculations and flawed assumptions as mentioned by the
Planning Commission; and, No. 3, we ask that you require the
developer to abide by staff's recommendations pertaining to housing
diversity and affordability.
And I thank you so much for my time.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you.
MR. MILLER: Mr. Chairman, I do believe we have Lynn Martin is
all squared away now.
Ms. Martin, are you there? Do you hear us?
MS. MARTIN: Yes. Good afternoon Commissioners. Can you
hear me?
MR. MILLER: Yes, ma'am. Go ahead.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: You have three minutes.
MS. MARTIN: My name is Lynn Martin, and I'm a full-time
resident of Collier County.
Today I am asking you to withhold approval of the proposed
Hyde Park Village. The goal of the RLSA program is to have
innovative compact villages and towns that are self-sufficient, not
urban sprawl. To achieve this goal, the RLSA requires a diversity of
single- and multifamily housing types and styles. Hyde Park Village
June 9, 2020
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does not achieve this goal.
The developers of Hyde Park propose to build 83 percent
single-family and 17 percent multifamily homes. Today they've
suggested the possibility of up to 66 percent multifamily, but there is
no commitment.
The county overall is 50 percent single-family and 50 percent
multifamily. Why can't the developer commit to something closer to
the county standard?
The Land Development Code requires diversity with regards to
age and income. The average assessed value for single-family homes
in Hyde Park is 329,000, which is 26 percent higher than the median
assessed value for the county. Is this affordable for diverse ages and
incomes?
The applicant's economic analysis proposes prices that are close
to low, moderate, and gap affordability, but there is no guarantee that
housing with these prices will be built.
Villages in the RLSA are intended to be self-sufficient. At
current price levels, there are no units set aside for the lower-income
employees in the commercial retail businesses. These employees will
not be able to afford to live there and will be required to drive long
distances to get to work.
Staff has recommended that the developer commit 15 percent of
the units in their three lowest proposed price categories to be set aside
and sold to certified low, moderate, and gap households for initial
occupancy and future monitoring. Similar to other county
developments to accommodate very-low-income households like the
proposed employees, perhaps, in the village center, the staff has
recommended a land donation to the county land trust.
I encourage you to look closely at the lack of housing diversity
and affordability and the excellent staff proposal. The applicant
should be able to do better.
June 9, 2020
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Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you.
MR. MILLER: Mr. Chairman, that was your final registered
speaker on this item.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. We'll close the public
hearing.
Are there any questions or comments from the County
Commission? Commissioner Taylor.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes, of Mr. Yovanovich.
MR. YOVANOVICH: I was going to make some comments, but
I'll let you go first.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Okay, good. Some questions
about your deviations, if I may.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Sure. All the ones that staff agreed to?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Okay. I'm going to have to -- Bob, can
you pull that out? I don't have that slide readily available.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: That's quite all right. Just as an
explanation. My understanding of village design and the new
urbanism is that it's very important to keep buildings close to streets
so that sidewalks -- there's a sense of intimacy, there's a sense of
walkability. When you allow parking even in front of a grocery store
instead of requiring the parking to be behind the grocery store, you
negate that. Also, the size of the lots that are -- the multifamily are
on, you've asked for the lots to be larger than four acres is my
understanding.
MR. YOVANOVICH: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: I'm also having a problem with
that, because then it becomes more -- the scale changes. So I'm
just -- I needed to ask you about that.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Sure. A couple of things when it comes
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to that. First of all, our village center is where we're supposed to have
the focal point for providing the retail and office uses, and it's
supposed to be required to be mixed use. We are putting 180
multifamily units within that mixed-use village center.
The development standards of a maximum of four acres does not
work for a typical multifamily project to be constructed and work.
You show me one that works on a four-acre piece that isn't really,
really tall and really, really dense in intensity, which we can't do in a
village center; we're limited in our height. When you -- the
most -- the projects that are coming through for multifamily projects
are in the 10- to 20-acre range.
Look how we redeveloped Courthouse Shadows. That was
roughly a 20-acre parcel. That's what we needed to achieve the
density and have that type of project, which provides the diversity
that's required in a village. We have diversity through providing
multifamily in the village center, 180 units, plus another 120 units
near by.
We can't build a multifamily project on four acres. That's why
we've asked for the deviation. That's why the deviation was granted
in Rivergrass and, frankly, that is what Ave Maria is doing for its
multifamily as well. And you will see a deviation request for Ave
Maria, because they can't provide multifamily on a four-acre piece.
So you have a problem with the code, and that's why the code
recognizes the ability to ask for deviations, and that's what we're
doing, to achieve that diversity of housing that people seem to
criticize us because we're actually providing a diversity of housing in
multifamily and single family.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Solis.
MR. YOVANOVICH: And -- yeah, we can only have our
multifamily within the quarter mile. So it's only -- it's only within a
quarter mile of the village center. It's not out on the edge where I
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think people were accusing us of not actually having a -- you know,
the more intense to the less intense. I mean, I don't know what project
they were looking at, but you will see we have neighborhood edge as
our context zone adjacent to Golden Gate Estates lots where you
want to have the less intensity.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Taylor, were you
finished?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes, just a -- I'm not quite. I
think that it was in terms of the size of the lot. My understanding of
the four-acre lots with multifamily was to insist that the multifamily
be broken up into smaller areas so that you could have four acres
here, four acres there, four acres there; still have 180 units but spread
it through.
MR. YOVANOVICH: The reality is at some point you've got to
recognize in order for a project to be successful, you have to
give -- you have to give -- you have to give the developer the
opportunity to build a project that they will actually potentially break
even or make a little money on. To require them to break up these
little multifamily pods, if you will, yet still be within the village
center doesn't really work. And that's why the deviation was
requested, and that's why the deviation was supported by your staff.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Solis.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I just wanted to get to the bottom of
this economics analysis thing.
In order -- and I've heard different explanations of what it means
that it was locked and what the Planning Commission was able to see
and not see.
So what is -- were the values and the assumptions that go into
this model provided to whoever wanted to see them to evaluate them
to evaluate -- because this is all based upon values and assumptions
that go into this model.
June 9, 2020
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So were the values and the assumptions that the model's based
upon -- and this is all -- I just want to verify this with staff as well.
Were these provided to everybody so that everybody could evaluate
them?
MR. YOVANOVICH: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Because I'm not -- again, I'm not an
expert --
MR. YOVANOVICH: The answer --
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: -- but let me just say, it seems to me
that that's the -- that's the evaluation that has to occur is, were the
values you used the appropriate values, and were the
assumptions -- you know, they're assumptions, but were they the
right assumptions?
MR. YOVANOVICH: Let me -- the answer to your question is
all of that was disclosed to everybody –
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay.
MR. YOVANOVICH: -- including your staff, your third-party
reviewer, and your Planning Commission.
I just want to read from [sic] you from your independent
reviewer's conclusions. Based upon DPFG's -- that's our
person -- analysis and this peer review of that analysis, Jacobs
concurs that Hyde Park qualifies as fiscally neutral as defined with
respect to the county capital and operating impacts subject to the
approval of the companion development agreement. The DFG [sic]
analysis, which in Jacob's opinion is professionally prepared and
thorough in its treatment of revenue and expenses, is accurate in its
determination that the Hyde Park development would meet the
county's requirements for fiscal neutrality. That's your independent
reviewer. What we didn't let your Planning Commission do is play
with the assumptions.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay. Well, I just wanted to make
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sure. And maybe this is a question for -- I just want to make sure that
the staff has reviewed this as well.
MR. OCHS: Commissioner, what I put on the visualizer, and
Thaddeus will speak to, is Page 19 of your report in the two
paragraphs here that speak to the Jacob's review.
Mr. Cohen, why don't you go ahead.
MR. COHEN: And I'm going to do two things. One is I'm going
to defer to our expert, which is Amy Patterson, and I say that with all
due respect to her.
She is an expert in the impact fees. She's an expert in being able
to work with our consultants, and our staff is expert in being able to
review this information.
And as the Manager has pointed out, that while the model is
locked, all cell information is visual, includin g formulas and the data
sources are also presented for validation. And as was repeated earlier
was, it's not an open-source model in which someone who has
worked -- these are my words now -- a lifetime to develop a model to
be able to be used, it's not an open source in which you just put it out
there for anyone to use because, basically, you put yourself out of
business.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Proprietary.
MR. COHEN: Correct. But what you do is -- the information
that they received came from the county, and the question that then is
being used is there's a question about that data. Well, that data is
available, that data has the ability to be reviewed, and that's what we
did with a third party.
But with that, I want Amy to kind of give you a broader aspect
of that validation process so that you can all feel comfortable that not
only did staff review it, but then we thought it was important to go to
a third party, which was Jacobs, to have them review it, and the
difference, there wasn't any.
June 9, 2020
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So we have the original model that's done, staff review of that
data, and then a third party take a look at it as well.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And, Ms. Patterson, as you're
coming to the microphone, the one question I had, and I think it's part
of your presentation right now, is there's been a lot of discussion
about the cost of this project to the taxpayers. Now, we have the
highest impact fees, I think probably -- certainly in the state.
Probably some of the highest in this whole region, in the southeastern
U.S. And I'm not sure what cost is being borne by the taxpayers, and
I'd like you to kind of give us your feelings on that as well, because a
lot of speakers have said that this project will be a burden on the
taxpayers, and I'm not sure exactly how that would play out.
MS. PATTERSON: Understood. Amy Patterson, for the record,
director of Capital Project Planning, impact fees, and program
management.
So perhaps just quickly we'll zoom out to this model and the
staff review and peer review of the model. The model is dependent
on county-adopted data in the form of levels of service, in the forms
of impact fee methodology, as well as using those to project revenue .
So when we looked to validate the model even though, again,
the model was locked, meaning we couldn't change the data, we were
able to validate all of the formulas, cells, information, and sources .
We were able to tie them back to where they came from to their
adopted studies or other documents, AUIRs, CIEs, et cetera, and then
we were able to basically run our own parallel calculation because
that's -- as doing the fiscal review, that's what we felt was
appropriate. Did we need to? No. But we did take that additional
step to run a parallel calculation.
We also did look at population numbers, those issues that came
up with persons per household. We ran these numbers backwards and
forwards. We also took additional steps to look at level of service,
June 9, 2020
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take a deeper dive on that and how it's affected by population, and we
looked at the time of application for this development and how things
have changed since then.
So we're in a -- for the impact fee world, we're in a more
favorable position at the time of this review because some of the
impact fees had been updated.
This review, again, is now reliant at the time of application on
some impact fees that are older. So we know that those impact fees
will be updated. Chances are that they'll maybe stay the same or
maybe they're going to go up a little bit because we're in very, at the
time, favorable conditions, and even still today.
The other thing is that the model is required to go to horizon
year to show their fiscal neutrality. We went through and validated
the time frames in those projections. And the model is very
conservative in that it doesn't have any inflationary factors, any
escalators, or anything that, quite honestly, history would bear out;
that even in periods of downturn we have, then, the resurgence and
times -- that basically erased those downturns and put us back to
upturn.
So to have even every other year or every few years some sort of
index or inflationary factor factored into this time period would have
been potentially appropriate and, quite honestly, again, validated by
history. They don't. They flatline the projections for the impact fee
revenue and other contributing sources as well as the property tax
calculations and things. So this is a very, very conservative projection
that they're running.
Where we had differences, we were able to talk that out with the
preparer of the model to figure out kind of what they were thinking
versus us. Level of service is tricky. It's complicated. So we want to
make sure that everybody that was looking at things the right -- the
same way, and if we weren't, why? And not so much in this, but in
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the prior Rivergrass, those differences were documented.
Also, this reviewer took a step -- or the preparer of the model
met with all of your facility managers, the people that know the best
what they need, both capital and operating. So do you need a fire
station? What's going on? Do you need an EMS station? Same
thing with public schools. So these major facilities there were talks,
extensive talks with the facility managers about the types of things
that they saw, not just because of Hyde Park or Rivergrass, but
because of growth, generally, and were areas of need and their pain
points were. So all of those things went on.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Just -- the question about the impact
on the taxpayers.
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sure.
So to the extent that -- the Board sets your millage. The Board
sets your impact fee rates and your level of service. Those things
were all considered in this model. And so there's a level of taxpayer
support that goes on in some facilities and to a lesser extent in others,
and this is where we talk about that growth pays for growth.
So some of these, like EMS, it receives a certain amount of
General Fund funding that currently is funding their operation. The
assumption here is that Hyde Park will make things -- for neutrality,
will make things no better and no worse, meaning that they're not
going to unduly burden the taxpayers. Taxpayers are maintaining a
certain level of investment, and they'll continue to maintain that level
of investment, but Hyde Park is not making that worse. They're not
burdening the taxpayers.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Solis.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Just a follow-up question. So you
just said -- you talked about all of these conversations and meetings
that you had to go through the assumptions, the values that were
used, the county generated data that goes into all of that. So was all
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that presented to our Planning Commission?
MS. PATTERSON: It was all detailed in the staff report. We
were never called up to give testimony, neither I and my staff nor the
peer reviewer.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay. I just find that interesting that
our Planning Commission didn't want to hear that. That's all I have to
say about that.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Fiala.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. I was really wanting to talk
about prices for homes. So if you want to continue on this part of it,
then he can always call me when you're all done.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. Commissioner McDaniel?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Are you the official approver
of fiscal neutrality?
MS. PATTERSON: I have assisted since the departure of
Mr. Bosi as the staff reviewer for the fiscal -- the economic
assessments.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And are you satisfied that this
project meets the fiscal -- fiscal neutrality requisites of our code?
MS. PATTERSON: Yes.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Taylor.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Probably not connected to this,
but after we vote on this, I'd like to make a suggestion on how we
proceed going in the future.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Let's go ahead and get this one
done. Then we'll take something else up.
No other lights are lit.
Mr. Yovanovich, we'll give you the last say.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Well, I had --
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Oh, I'm sorry. Commissioner Fiala,
then.
June 9, 2020
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COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. Good. I just wanted to
talk -- but I didn't want to interrupt this conversation. But I wanted to
talk just a little bit about the affordability of these different products.
It's great that they started out at 168- for low income, but then they
jumped $120,000 to the next level, and that's a big, big, big jump. I
would think that -- if they could make it a little bit more reasonable.
What you're trying to do is -- and I think you're trying to attract the
real reason for essential service, that is the teachers, that is th e nurses.
You're overpricing them right out of the market, at 282- is the next
level, and then 344-. I mean, I can't afford 288- plus -- or 344-.
Maybe there's something that you can attract the people that you're
looking for.
MR. NEAL: Commissioner, that might a little bit of a
misnomer. We'll have a series of products that will begin at the entry
level. That would be -- and we would normally talk about housing
chassis. That would be a 30-foot chassis home would sell at that price
level, but we might offer five or seven models in that, and that might
accommodate 20 percent of the total population.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: So how much are you talking about
then?
MR. NEAL: Well -- so there might be a home at 268- and one at
272- and one at 276- and one at 380-.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: So where does --
MR. KLATZKOW: But correct me. This is market-rate housing.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: -- a Publix employee live?
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Hang on a second, Mr. Klatzkow.
MR. KLATZKOW: This is market-rate housing, correct?
MR. NEAL: Yes. I'm trying to explain that there would be a
whole series that would be in this price level before we jumped
above.
MR. KLATZKOW: Maybe yes, maybe no. This is going to be
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market-rate housing. If the market's soft, the prices will be lower. If
the market's hot, the prices will be higher.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. Commissioner Fiala --
COMMISSIONER FIALA: They're talking about low,
moderate, and gap housing.
MR. KLATZKOW: No.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: There it is in writing right here.
MR. OCHS: Commissioners, if I might, Commissioner Fiala is
correct that in the staff recommendation you have three of the five
elements of the staff recommendation that are recommendations
related to affordable housing. So, you know, when the Board finally
gets down to a motion, we're going to need some direction on
whether you want those pursued or not.
MR. YOVANOVICH: If I can, Commissioner, we have
expressly stated we will not accept an SRA document that requires us
to income restrict the housing as your staff has recommended. I just
want to make sure we're clear on the record of that.
Our price points, as Mr. Neal at the very beginning stated, he
gave you, I believe, the example of a $260,000 home with a
10 percent down payment, which I can't do that math in my head
anymore, is 234-, I think, close. At a 3 percent mortgage he told you
it was somewhere around $7,500 a year in interest, then you pay
principal and taxes on that. You're about -- you're about $1,000, a
little over $1,000 a month payment for a house at $260,000.
That price point is, frankly -- that monthly payment is less than
the market-rate rental projects that are being approved and built
today. So the pricing of the houses that Neal Communities is building
will, in fact, be attractive to nurses and teachers and firefighters and
sheriff's deputies.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Probably the Publix employees can't
live here, and probably the people in drugstores can't live here, and it
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would be nice if they could, too, but at least you'd –
MR. YOVANOVICH: Right.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: -- but at $373,000 or $344,000, do
you know, they can't -- they can't live even at 282-.
MR. YOVANOVICH: But they can -- and, again, Mr. Neal, I
think, was trying to explain that the range is the 260- -- there's a
range. The base model might be 260-, you do some adds to it, and it
can get you to that 280- before you drop -- you go to the next level or
next model type. So I think that there is going to be entry-level
pricing under whatever the market suggests.
But you can look at Neal Communities' product that's being built
in our community today, and you know there are a lot of teachers that
are living there and essential service personnel people that are living
there today.
So I hope -- I hope the Commission will agree to allow this
project to go through as proposed with the types of housing that we're
going to build, the diversity, that will, in fact, serve different income
levels and we believe will attract essential service personnel.
(Simultaneous crosstalk.)
COMMISSIONER FIALA: First of all, I think it's admirable
that they want to get out there. It's admirable that they want to
accommodate some of the employees that work there so -- I mean,
that's pretty far out for people to drive, so they'd like them to live
there. I think they would have a better employee if they didn't have to
pay so much gasoline to get anyplace, okay.
I just feel that the three next levels after the 168- are
astronomical. If you say that they're going to be -- they're going to be
more reasonable -- I mean, people like me can't even afford the last
two, and I am struggling with the other one . Okay.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. We have two other
commissioners' lights up. Commissioner McDaniel.
June 9, 2020
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COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah. And I wanted to -- since
Commissioner Fiala brought it up, I just wanted a little further
explanation. There was a lot of comments from our staff with regard
to affordable housing contributions, land contributions, so on and so
forth. And I wanted to know if those are specifically requisite within
the RLSA for projects to have and -- I'm asking.
MR. YOVANOVICH: I know. I know. I'm out of practice. So
I'm working on my -- getting back into the hearing mode. I didn't
mean to jump the gun.
Commissioner, your Rural Lands Stewardship Program does not
require villages to provide affordable housing. It just requires a
diversity of housing and to attract different income levels. It does not
say you have to attract people who make less than 60 percent of the
median income, people who make less than 80 percent of the median
income, and -- or 100 percent of the median income or 120 percent of
the median income. I think your staff will tell you it doesn't say that,
and I will tell you that there are discussions that are going to change
the program, but that's prospectively, not retroactively.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'm well aware of the necessity
of the love required for the RLSA. I guess maybe, if I may ask a
question of Mr. Cormac, since he's standing right behind you.
There was a -- there was a lot of discussion in here from your
department with regard to the requisite of the different types of
housing types and such.
MR. GIBLIN: Good afternoon. For the record, Cormac Giblin,
your Housing Grant Development Operations Manager.
I put on the visualizer the two parts of our Comp Plan and our Land
Development Code that I'm required to use when reviewing an SRA
application.
The first one comes from the Future Land Use Element, and
Mr. Yovanovich alluded to some of this earlier but not the entirety of
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it.
Policy 4.7.2 says that villages are primarily residential with a
diversity of housing types. Now, this proposal suggests that they'll
have a minimum of 300 multifamily units and a maximum of 1,500
single-family units.
It's up to the Board to decide whether that constitutes a diversity.
The Land Development Code further, then, says that a village shall
offer a range of housing types and price levels to accommodate
diverse ages and incomes. There is nothing in the SRA document
right now that delineates or guarantees any different price levels or
ages or incomes.
If you can go to the next.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Before you go on to the
next -- before you go on to the next, I'm wondering -- and, again, I'm
not -- I'm not -- we all know, Cormac, that there are discussions that
we need to have with regard to a housing study and implementations
and adjustments in the RLSA going forward. This is a market-rate
project, and I haven't ever read anything in my analysis of the RLSA
as it exists or the Land Development Code that requires the developer
to guarantee a particular type of housing, price points.
MR. GIBLIN: And that's, I guess, where I also differ with
Mr. Yovanovich's interpretation earlier when his assertation was that
the affordability review only comes into play if a developer asks to
use an affordable housing density bonus. And I think, of course, yes,
if you were going to ask to use a greater density by using that, then,
yes, of course the affordability review would come in and you would
need --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: But you --
MR. GIBLIN: But these sections --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: You award a lot of density in
order to get to that, because that brings your price points down.
June 9, 2020
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MR. GIBLIN: But these sections occur before that comes up.
So it's staff's position that every SRA application must apply by
these two provisions, and then, of course, if you go in and you're
asking for an affordable housing density bonus, then you would fall
under those provisions as well.
Mr. Manager, could you put the next slide up.
This is the staff recommendation in a nutshell. What we've said
is that we've seen their economic analysis that was submitted with the
SRA application, and we know -- we see the price ranges there. They
have product ranging from $168,000 up to 373-, and that's great. That
is -- I mean, for Collier County, that is very -- relatively affordable.
What the staff recommendation is, none of that has been
translated into the SRA as requirements. So as the County Attorney
said a moment ago, this is a market-rate development that right now
is proposing to hit the lower end of the market. Market conditions
could change. They could change -- change their minds tomorrow.
So the staff recommendation is to ensure that a minimum
number of those units actually wind up being built; that they commit
to a small percentage of what they're already saying they will do as
part of the approval process, and that's where the staff
recommendation is.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I understand. That clarifies
that for me. Thank you. Now I understand it. Thank you. Because it
wasn't lining up with me before. Because on the previous slide -- Mr.
Ochs, if you'll remove that -- those are the requisites that we are to
ensure that, in fact, transpire. I didn't see where the second part was
coming from, from a physical requirement.
MR. YOVANOVICH: The difference that I want to point
out -- can you put the other slide back up?
MR. OCHS: I suppose.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Pick a slide.
June 9, 2020
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MR. YOVANOVICH: If you don't mind.
What -- we don't have a problem, and we've already said we will
build a minimum of 300 multifamily units. If you want us to put a
price point by those numbers to say they'll be -- they'll have an ad
valorem tax value -- because that's what that number is is the ad
valorem tax value for the apartment of 168-. If Cormac's asking us to
do that -- I don't know why you would do that, because we may
actually build them for a little bit more or a little bit less. Remember,
this is part of a fiscal neutrality analysis, not locking in and
guaranteeing a certain number and type of units that will be built.
This is being cherrypicked from a fiscal neutrality analysis.
So if you want us to guarantee we will build X number of
multifamily, which we've already done, and you want us to do Y
number of single-family Product A, Z number of single-family
Product B, we'll pick numbers within these ranges, but we're not
going to go to that exact number. This was a fiscal neutrality analysis.
What he's also trying to make us do is income restrict, at the
affordable housing price points, a certain number of those units .
What your code says is you have to have a diversity of income
levels. It doesn't say that that diversity has to include affordable
housing income levels. And I facetiously said at the Planning
Commission, if you want me to guarantee we'll sell a certain number
of people making -- to a certain number of people making at least
$100,000 a year and another certain number that people make a t least
125,000 a year and another certain number who make at least
150,000 a year, we'll meet the income diversity threshold by that. He
wants us to come down to the low, moderate, and gap in addition to
those, and your code doesn't require that.
So that's where we defer -- we disagree, and it's okay that we
disagree, but we're not going to income restrict down into those
affordability thresholds.
June 9, 2020
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CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Taylor.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: My question was answered
before.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Can I just make a couple quick points?
I don't know if it's appropriate yet.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yeah. Let's go ahead and wrap up,
if you would.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Thank you.
A lot of your speakers that were talking on the phone I don't
think accurately reflected the vote of the Planning Commission. It
was a 3-3 tie on the date of the vote, but they forget that
Commissioner Schmitt noted, because he had heard the entirety of
the presentations but couldn't come back to the continued hearing,
that he was in favor of this project. So if he'd have been there for the
vote, it would have been a 4-3 in favor. That's in your staff report,
and I think that's important that -- that's in the record, because the
speakers said that the Commission -- Planning Commission voted
against it. What ended up happening, it was a tie, as you know, and a
tie is a loss, but it's not a recommendation of denial; it's not a
recommendation of approval. So I just want the record to be clear
there.
And I think what was pointed out -- and, really, it was the
economic analysis that they were attacking. Nobody who spoke about
the economic analysis explained that they actually had any
credentials to talk about the economic analysis, and you had your
group, Jacobs' group, as well as Amy come up and talk about the
economic analysis. And with that, we would request that you would
approve the project.
You want to put that piece up?
MR. MULHERE: Speaking with Heidi Ashton-Cicko, there's a
June 9, 2020
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minor change in the transit to ensure that we -- either way we still
provide you with the easement in the future should the county want to
do that. So it will be a minor change. I just wanted you to know I
worked out that minor change.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay, fine.
All right. Let's get back to the Commission discussion, and I'm
going to start off just because nobody's lit up here . I voted against
Rivergrass. I was very concerned about the fact that there were
thousands of acres of land, and instead of dealing with the town, we
wound up dealing with three villages, and I thought that was pretty
sneaky, quite frankly. And there have been conversations concerning
that, and I think that there's some improvements to those villages.
This village is different, different for a lot of re asons. There's
only 600-and-some-odd acres available, so a village is the only thing
that can be developed there in terms of whether it's a village or a
town.
The -- the issue of fiscal neutrality, I'm satisfied that there's been
plenty of opportunity to evaluate what was presented. I'm also aware
of the requirements for the difference in income levels and that sort
of thing, but lacking -- or there not being any requirement for
low-income housing, moderate-income housing, or gap housing on
this project. And if we want to do that, then we need to adopt
ordinances that require it, but that's not what's required here.
And so, even though I voted against Rivergrass, I said at that
meeting that I would not vote for any villages that would be coming
forward, I was really referring to the three that were presented by that
developer. This one I see as being different. So I'm just -- I'll just
throw that out and see if there's further discussion.
Commissioner Fiala.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. I'd like to make a motion to
approve.
June 9, 2020
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CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. The motion to approve
would contain -- I'll support a motion to approve if it contains the
recommendations of the county staff along with the requirement that
Mr. Mulhere just outlined.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Does that include the affordable housing
requirements, Commissioner, because if it does --
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I didn't think that that was a staff --
MR. YOVANOVICH: It is.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: It is of staff.
MR. YOVANOVICH: It is of staff.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. Without that, then. I'm sorry,
then. There were five recommendations from staff.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Three of them had to do with affordable
housing.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I wanted to include all of that. I
guess I should have gone down there and ticked it off one by one by
one. But I think -- I think it's a good program. I think the developer is
a great developer. I think you've done a lot of hard work. I think
you've answered all of our questions about neutrality, fiscal
neutrality. You've -- I've understood what you're trying to do with
the -- to get some of the people living there. At least you've given 300
units that people can move into, and that's good. And I think the
whole project is really good. So that's why I made the motion.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I misunderstood what the staff
recommendations were. There is a fifth one there dealing with the
lifestyle signs.
MR. OCHS: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: What did you say?
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: There's a fifth one there dealing
with the lifestyle signs. Staff had recommended coming back with an
LDC amendment to deal with that.
June 9, 2020
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COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh, the signs. Oh, I still like the one
sign. If that -- if that can't be accommodated, then we should talk
about that.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Well, staff has proposed coming
back with an LDC amendment to deal with the issue of the signs.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Just so we're clear, we're okay about
deleting the deviation for the signs. I just need to be really clear that
the original motion did not include the affordability.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: That was my mistake.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Okay. I just want to make sure. So
we're -- would it be better to just go through quickly the staff
recommendations –
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes.
MR. YOVANOVICH: -- so there's not a mistake and Mr. Neal
takes it out appropriately on me in case I mess up. So if we can go, on
the staff recommendations --
MR. OCHS: I have them.
MR. YOVANOVICH: You have them? Okay.
I think No. 1 is clear; we've agreed to that. Number 2, we did not
agree to the housing needs analysis. Number 3, we did not agree to
the 15 percent numbers that staff's recommending there. And No. 4 is
also affordable housing; we did not agree to provide those sites. And
we are agreeing to delete No. 5. So, I guess, staff recommendation
No. 1 is the only one that still survives?
MR. OCHS: One and 5.
MR. YOVANOVICH: Well, 5 goes away. We've deleted the
request for the deviation. We'll just deal with the LDC.
MR. OCHS: Okay.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And the other technical change
that --
MR. YOVANOVICH: Right about -- that Mr. Mulhere
June 9, 2020
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mentioned about the whatchamacallit.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Fiala, is that your
motion, then, as they've outlined?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes, thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Is there a second?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'm just asking about the
motion, if I may.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Ask about the motion made.
I would -- are you okay with the developer accepting just one of
the five proposed staff recommendations in your motion? I'm trying
to be clear before I second it. I have concerns, candidly, about putting
restrictions that aren't required within the GMP or LDC with regard
to the housing.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: The motion only has
Recommendation No. 1, which is the contribution agreement.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That's it?
MR. YOVANOVICH: Yes.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Second.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Tell me what your regards are, or
what your concerns were.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, I understood that you
were wanting the housing recommendations from staff to be included
in your motion.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh, they are. Isn't it -- the
multifamily, which are apartment levels, right? Right?
MR. YOVANOVICH: We've agreed to the 300 multifamily
units, yes.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. The motion is --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: The motion is for Staff
June 9, 2020
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Recommendation No. 1.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Number one.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Only.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yeah, okay. Yeah, okay. I think
we're all talking on the same thing. Okay.
MR. OCHS: Mr. Chairman?
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We have a motion and a second.
MR. OCHS: Mr. Chairman, again, just for the record, the
reference to No. 1 is Item 11E on your agenda. That is the companion
item. Are we voting on those together, Mr. Klatzkow, or --
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Let's keep it simple for right now.
We've got a motion on this petition.
MR. OCHS: So the motion, really, on this petition is approval of
the petition for the Hyde Park Village SRA.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Correct.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yeah, but not for the deviation, just
for the one sign.
MR. OCHS: No, none of the deviations.
MR. YOVANOVICH: No, no, no.
MR. OCHS: Excuse me. None of the other recommendations
here.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Keep this simple. We have a
motion to approve the petition with one staff stipulation, which is No.
1, dealing with the Developer Contribution Agreement and nothing
else.
MR. OCHS: Correct.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We have a motion and a second.
Any further discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Everybody understand what the
June 9, 2020
Page 215
motion is?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. All in favor, signify by
saying aye.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All opposed?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: I oppose.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: I cannot support Deviation 1,
Deviation 2, Deviation 15, but I believe -- or 5, but I believe 15 has
been taken care of. I think it's been withdrawn.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Also, I do agree with our housing
experts that Policy 4.7.2 and 4.08.07 apply to this development. I am
not -- this is a much better development than Rivergrass could ever
be, but I'm afraid it's dreadfully lacking in planning for the future of
this county.
Item #11E
RECOMMENDATION TO APPROVE THE DEVELOPER
AGREEMENT WITH NEAL COMMUNITIES OF SOUTHWEST
FLORIDA, LLC, (DEVELOPER) THAT WILL PROVIDE AN
EASEMENT TO THE COLLIER COUNTY WATER SEWER
DISTRICT (CCWSD) FOR POTABLE WATER, WASTEWATER
AND IRRIGATION QUALITY WATER INFRASTRUCTURE, AN
EASEMENT TO SUPPORT FLOOD CONTROL AND
PREVENTION IN THE FAKA UNION CANAL, RIGHT-OF-WAY
June 9, 2020
Page 216
AND STORMWATER MANAGEMENT FOR THE FUTURE
WIDENING OF OIL WELL ROAD – APPROVED
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. We're going to move on to
11E.
MR. OCHS: Yes, sir. This is the companion item. It's a
recommendation to approve the developer agreement with Neal
Communities of Southwest Florida.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Are there any questions from our
commission? Commissioner Fiala, your light was up. Is that --
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I'm so sorry. That's from before.
Excuse me.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. Do we need any explanation
on this?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: No.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Is there a motion?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'll make a motion to approve.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Second.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We have a motion and a second.
Any discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: If not, I'll call for the question. All
in favor, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: (No verbal response.)
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: That passes unanimously.
June 9, 2020
Page 217
Oh, I'm sorry. Did you vote for that?
MR. YOVANOVICH: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: I needed to. I was interrupting
the motion. But I'm assuming, because I don't support development, it
would be frivolous to vote for the DA, right, or does it matter?
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: It doesn't matter. It passes. So
whatever you want the record to reflect.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: It doesn't matter? Okay.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: So it passes unanimously.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: It was a good DA.
Item #11F
RECOMMENDATION TO APPROVE THE ELIGIBILITY OF
THE DISASTER PERMIT FEE RELIEF PROGRAM TO VICTIMS
OF THE 36TH AVENUE SE FIRE, ALLOWING AFFECTED
HOMEOWNERS TO RECEIVE TARGETED REDUCTIONS
RELATED TO PERMIT APPLICATION AND PLAN REVIEW
FEES – APPROVED
MR. OCHS: Commissioners, we move to Item 11F. This item
was brought forward from the consent agenda by Commissioner
McDaniel. It's a recommendation to approve the eligibility of the
Disaster Permit Fee Relief Program to victims of the 36th Avenue
Southeast fire allowing affected homeowners to receive targeted
reductions related to permit application and plan review fees. Sir?
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel, you're
recognized.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, thank you. Thank you.
And this was more of an informational thing than anything. I
wanted just to make sure that our -- that our folks that suffered
June 9, 2020
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terribly during those wildfires were being tended appropriately and
that -- I mean, I think we're staying consistent with the previous
disaster relief that we have afforded to our residents in the past. If
you could just give a brief explanation as to what this entails and
whether it includes impact fees.
MR. FRENCH: Thank you, Commissioner. For the record,
Jamie French with Growth Management.
Again, Commissioner, this was an item that I believe you
brought forward back in 2017 in response to other disasters that
we've incurred through the county. And what this does, this allows
for those permitted structures of single-family homes and mobile
homes that were impacted -- and this automatically does take place
during a state of emergency. Whenever you and the State of Florida
claim a state of emergency, this does kick in automatically within our
fee schedule.
There was no -- there was no state of emergency with this fire.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Right.
MR. FRENCH: So that's why this item needed to come forward.
But it follows suit with what the Board has already adopted back in
2017, and it would cover already those permitted structures, meaning
those single-family residences. The outbuildings, things like that,
would not be covered. It's primarily helping people get back in their
homes. It offers them a 50 percent reduction from that Enterprise
Fund. There's no impact to the General Fund because that Enterprise
Fund is Fund 113 through the Building Department.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And I saw dear Amy stepping
up behind to answer the question with regard to impact fees. Because
I was there and visited -- just so you know, I went down -- I went to a
barbecue Friday afternoon with some of the folks that lost their
homes over there. There was questions with regard to the impact fees,
and I just wanted to make sure that our staff reach out to those
June 9, 2020
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people, individually, if you can, and make sure that they're being
afforded assistance.
MS. PATTERSON: Amy Patterson, for the record.
The impact fees are a little bit different, but it is good news as
far as this goes for how we'll handle the impact fees .
Impact fees run with the land. So these structures that were
previously there permitted will be able to come in when they permit
through the county and they will not be required to pay additional
impact fees unless they wanted to greatly increase the size of the
home. And when I say that, the first tier is 0 to 4,000 square feet. So
the chances of that happening are probably pretty slim .
We've gotten a list of all of the affected structures and, again,
we're focusing primarily on the homes because accessory structures
do not pay impact fees. We have one that we're doing further research
on to kind of figure out what the permitting situation is with that .
We've got a lot of avenues that we can pursue to assist. If there's a
situation with what appears to be maybe a conversion of one type of
structure to another, we've got a number of avenues to pursue.
So the short answer is, yes, the impact fees, we will be able to
provide assistance, not by way of this particular program but by the
nature of impact fees themselves.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Just a quick -- you made a
statement and then followed it up with what I think was more
specificity. But you said that the relief was there unless there was a
substantive increase in the size.
MS. PATTERSON: All that means is that if you had a home,
let's say, that was damaged or is going to need to be replaced that was
1,200 square feet and you said, well, I'm going to take this
opportunity, I've always wanted to put an addition on, and you're
going to put a large addition on or maybe you double the size. In this
case you have to more than double the size of the home . So our
June 9, 2020
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impact fees for single-family are in two breaks: 0 to 4,000 and 4,000
and greater. So if you started with a little home and you wanted to
make it a really big home, the only thing you're responsible for is the
incremental difference between the two. You don't have to pay your
impact fees all over again, just the difference between them.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I understood that, and I wanted
to say that out loud so that there was more -- and I appreciate you
being very clear with that.
MS. PATTERSON: Any questions that people have, my office
is fully prepared to answer those questions and walk them through
the process, and we will be looking at all of these permits as they
come in to be sure that we are dealing with their impact fees.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: And could you tell us your phone
number to your office?
MS. PATTERSON: Absolutely. My name is Amy Patterson,
and my phone number is (239)252-5721. They can contact me
directly.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. And, Commissioner
McDaniel, if you'd like to make a motion, then.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, I'd certainly like to make
a motion for approval on that.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Second.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We have a motion and second. Any
discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All in favor, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
June 9, 2020
Page 221
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: That passes unanimously.
Item #15
STAFF AND COMMISSION GENERAL COMMUNICATIONS
MR. OCHS: Commissioners, that moves us to Item 15, staff and
commission general communications.
Nothing from me today, sir.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. The Clerk's -- anything
from the Clerk's Office?
MR. JOHNSSEN: No, sir.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Commissioner McDaniel,
do you have anything to add?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No, sir. I'm very good. Thank
you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Commissioner Taylor.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes. You know, we've heard
from dialogue and, frankly, as long as I've been here, I've always
heard about the cost of growth and does growth pay for growth. And
so I've kind of done a little bit of work on it. And as your economic
chair, I'd like to see if we could possibly ask staff -- and I'd like to
work with them -- to see what other counties are doing and how
they're addressing the significant cost of growth. Do I have
agreement? I can start. And then, of course, to work with staff and
to present.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Any objections?
(No response.)
June 9, 2020
Page 222
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I see none. Sure.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Great. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Anything else?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: That's it. Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Solis, do you have
anything?
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Nothing other than to -- I would like
to sit down with staff and -- you know, we've been around and
around on this fiscal neutrality issue now, and I'm just -- I need to
understand how it is that what we heard today doesn't come up at the
Planning Commission. I mean, our staff is a professional staff who
we pay so, you know, to analyze these things and give us their
recommendations. That's their job.
So I'd just like to, if I can, you know, maybe Amy and Leo and
Nick or whoever, I'd like to sit down and understand that, because if
there's -- if there's one thing that I think, you know, staff needs to
have the -- at least the opportunity to present is something extremely
technical like that. I mean, it's essential, in my opinion, for them to be
able to present that kind of analysis, because that's what we pay them
to do. So I'd just like to raise that as an issue.
MR. OCHS: Be happy to.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Anything else?
Commissioner Fiala, do you have anything?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Good meeting. You did a great job.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. I have nothing to add as
well. Our next meeting is on -- two weeks from today?
MR. OCHS: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And the only thing --
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Next Tuesday?
MR. OCHS: 23rd.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: No, two weeks. The only thing that
June 9, 2020
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I would -- I know we're going to get into our budget hearings. Today
we hired some people for the park out in District 5, and we talked
about some other expenditures. And I just wanted to make sure when
we get into our budget hearings that we are fully informed as to
where our revenues are and where they're heading, because
we -- there are a lot of local governments around the country that are
reducing their staff by very, very significant numbers. And we're not
going to be immune from that. So I just wanted to put that on your
list of concerns to be addressed.
MR. OCHS: Yes, sir. It's been on the list.
CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. If there's nothing else
from the Commission, we are adjourned.
*****
**** Commissioner Fiala moved, no verbal response for the second,
that the following items under the Consent and Summary Agendas be
approved and/or adopted ****
Item #16A1
RESOLUTION 2020-88: AMENDING ORDINANCE 2004-66, AS
AMENDED, THAT CREATED AN ADMINISTRATIVE CODE
FOR LAND DEVELOPMENT, BY AMENDING CHAPTER TWO,
LEGISLATIVE PROCEDURES, MORE SPECIFICALLY TO
AMEND SECTION A, COMPREHENSIVE PLAN AMENDMENT,
TO PROVIDE CONSISTENCY WITH CURRENT AND
PROPOSED CHANGES TO PUBLIC NOTICE PROCEDURES,
AND AN ADDITION TO CHAPTER FOUR, ADMINISTRATIVE
PROCEDURES, MORE SPECIFICALLY TO ADD SECTION I.6.,
NOMINAL ALTERATION PLAN, TO PROVIDE A PROCESS
June 9, 2020
Page 224
FOR A NOMINAL CHANGE TO A SITE DEVELOPMENT PLAN
OR TO AN EXISTING SITE IN WHICH THERE IS NO SITE
DEVELOPMENT PLAN; AND PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE
DATE
Item #16A2
FINAL ACCEPTANCE AND ACCEPTING CONVEYANCE OF
POTABLE WATER AND SEWER UTILITY FACILITIES FOR
AZURE AT HACIENDA LAKES – PHASE 1 REPLAT,
PL20190000172 AND AUTHORIZE THE COUNTY MANAGER,
OR HIS DESIGNEE, TO RELEASE THE FINAL OBLIGATION
BOND IN THE AMOUNT OF $4,000 TO THE PROJECT
ENGINEER OR THE DEVELOPER’S DESIGNATED AGENT –
A FINAL INSPECTION TO DISCOVER DEFECTS WAS
CONDUCTED BY DEVELOPMENT REVIEW STAFF APRIL 24,
2020, IN COORDINATION WITH PUBLIC UTILITIES AND THE
FACILITIES WERE FOUND TO BE SATISFACTORY AND
ACCEPTABLE
Item #16A3
FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF POTABLE WATER AND SEWER
FACILITIES FOR DOCKSIDE RESIDENCES, PL20180003066,
ACCEPT THE CONVEYANCE OF A PORTION OF THE
POTABLE WATER AND SEWER FACILITIES, AND TO
AUTHORIZE THE COUNTY MANAGER, OR HIS DESIGNEE,
TO RELEASE THE UTILITIES PERFORMANCE SECURITY
(UPS) AND FINAL OBLIGATION BOND IN THE TOTAL
AMOUNT OF $26,763 TO THE PROJECT ENGINEER OR THE
DEVELOPER’S DESIGNATED AGENT – A FINAL INSPECTION
June 9, 2020
Page 225
TO DISCOVER DEFECTS WAS CONDUCTED BY STAFF ON
MAY 5, 2020, IN COORDINATION WITH PUBLIC UTILITIES,
AND THE FACILITIES WERE FOUND TO BE SATISFACTORY
AND ACCEPTABLE
Item #16A4
FINAL ACCEPTANCE AND ACCEPTING CONVEYANCE OF
POTABLE WATER AND SEWER UTILITY FACILITIES FOR
ISLES OF COLLIER PRESERVE PHASE 11A, PL20180003678
AND TO AUTHORIZE THE COUNTY MANAGER, OR HIS
DESIGNEE, TO RELEASE THE FINAL OBLIGATION BOND IN
THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF $4,000 TO THE PROJECT
ENGINEER OR THE DEVELOPER’S DESIGNATED AGENT –
A FINAL INSPECTION TO DISCOVER DEFECTS WAS
CONDUCTED BY DEVELOPMENT REVIEW STAFF MAY 6,
2020, IN COORDINATION WITH PUBLIC UTILITIES, AND THE
FACILITIES WERE FOUND TO BE SATISFACTORY AND
ACCEPTABLE
Item #16A5
RESOLUTION 2020-89: FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF PUBLIC
ROADWAY AND DRAINAGE IMPROVEMENTS FOR A
PORTION OF THAT ROADWAY KNOWN AS LOGAN
BOULEVARD NORTH, ADJACENT TO THE RIVERSTONE
COMMUNITY, APPROXIMATELY 1.15 MILES OF TWO-LANE
ROADWAY AND BEING THE WEST 80’ OF SECTION 16,
TOWNSHIP 48 SOUTH, RANGE 26 EAST
Item #16A6
June 9, 2020
Page 226
A COLLIER COUNTY LANDSCAPE MAINTENANCE
AGREEMENT (“AGREEMENT”) BETWEEN COLLIER
COUNTY AND RIVERSTONE AT NAPLES HOMEOWNERS
ASSOCIATION, INC., FOR LANDSCAPE AND IRRIGATION
IMPROVEMENTS WITHIN THE LOGAN BOULEVARD NORTH
PUBLIC RIGHT-OF-WAY – THE RIVERSTONE AT NAPLES
HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION, INC. AGREES TO MAINTAIN
THE LANDSCAPING AND IRRIGATION IMPROVEMENTS
Item #16A7
A COLLIER COUNTY LANDSCAPE MAINTENANCE
AGREEMENT (“AGREEMENT”) BETWEEN COLLIER
COUNTY AND HAMILTON PLACE TOWNHOMES
HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION, INC., FOR LANDSCAPE AND
IRRIGATION IMPROVEMENTS WITHIN THE LIVINGSTON
ROAD PUBLIC RIGHT-OF-WAY – THE HAMILTON PLACE
TOWNHOMES HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION, INC. AGREES
TO MAINTAIN LANDSCAPING AND IRRIGATION
IMPROVEMENTS ALONG LIVINGSTON ROAD
Item #16A8
A COLLIER COUNTY LANDSCAPE MAINTENANCE
AGREEMENT (“AGREEMENT”) BETWEEN COLLIER
COUNTY AND ABACO POINTE HOMEOWNERS
ASSOCIATION, INC., FOR LANDSCAPE AND IRRIGATION
IMPROVEMENTS WITHIN THE COLLIER BOULEVARD
PUBLIC RIGHT-OF-WAY – THE ABACO POINTE
HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION, INC. AGREES TO MAINTAIN
June 9, 2020
Page 227
LANDSCAPING AND IRRIGATION IMPROVEMENTS WITHIN
THE PUBLIC RIGHT-OF-WAY
Item #16A9
RECOGNIZING AND APPROPRIATING REVENUE TO THE
TRAFFIC OPERATIONS COST CENTER, IN THE AMOUNT OF
$70,000 FOR FISCAL YEAR 2020 AND AUTHORIZING ALL
NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENTS – DUE TO NUMEROUS
VEHICLE CRASHES, AND COSTS FOR NECESSARY REPAIRS
AND REPLACEMENTS
Item #16A10
RECOGNIZING AND APPROPRIATING REVENUE WITHIN
UNINCORPORATED LANDSCAPE FUND (112) IN THE
AMOUNT OF $120,629.33, AND WITHIN GAS TAX FUND (313)
IN THE AMOUNT OF $181,469.67 FOR FISCAL YEAR 2020
AND AUTHORIZING ALL NECESSARY BUDGET
AMENDMENTS
Item #16A11
APPROPRIATING COLLIER METROPOLITAN PLANNING
ORGANIZATION’S (“COLLIER MPO”) ANNUAL OPERATING
BUDGET FOR FY 20/21 AND AUTHORIZING NECESSARY
BUDGET AMENDMENTS IN THE AMOUNT OF $817,073,
EFFECTIVE JULY 1, 2020
Item #16A12
June 9, 2020
Page 228
SELECTION COMMITTEE’S RANKING AND AUTHORIZING
STAFF TO ENTER INTO CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS WITH
ATKINS NORTH AMERICA INC., CONCERNING REQUEST
FOR PROFESSIONAL SERVICES (“RPS”) #20-7677 “UPPER
GORDON RIVER WEIR REPLACEMENT DESIGN SERVICES”
Item #16A13
AWARDING A $523,550 WORK ORDER TO QUALITY
ENTERPRISES USA, INC., UNDER REQUEST FOR
QUOTATION (“RFQ”) #14-6213-137 FOR UNDERGROUND
UTILITY CONTRACTING SERVICES FOR LELY AREA
BRANCH 11 CHANNEL RESTORATION (PROJECT NO. 51101)
AND ANY NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENTS – TO
RESTORE A SECTION OF A CONTRIBUTORY CHANNEL
WITHIN THE LELY AREA’S STORMWATER MANAGEMENT
SYSTEM BY RESHAPING THE BANK AND BOTTOM AND
PLACING RIP-RAP TO PREVENT FUTURE EROSION
Item #16A14 – Withdrawn (Per Agenda Change Sheet)
RECOMMENDATION TO AWARD INVITATION TO BID
(“ITB”) NO. 20-7727 “R-O-W & EASEMENT MOWING” TO
CARIBBEAN LAWN & GARDEN OF SW NAPLES FL., INC., AS
THE PRIMARY VENDOR, AND SUPERIOR LANDSCAPING &
LAWN SERVICE, INC., AS THE SECONDARY VENDOR, AND
AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE ATTACHED
AGREEMENTS
Item #16A15
June 9, 2020
Page 229
RESOLUTION 2020-90: APPROVING A RELOCATION
AGREEMENT, CONVEYANCE OF A TEMPORARY WORK
AREA EASEMENT AND A PERPETUAL FLOWAGE,
OCCASIONAL FLOWAGE AND CULVERT EASEMENT TO
THE SOUTH FLORIDA WATER MANAGEMENT DISTRICT,
REQUIRED FOR CONSTRUCTION OF A CULVERT UNDER
CR92 FOR THE PICAYUNE STRAND RESTORATION
PROJECT, AS PART OF THE COMPREHENSIVE EVERGLADES
RESTORATION PLAN. ESTIMATED FISCAL IMPACT:
MINIMAL MAINTENANCE COSTS ONLY
Item #16A16
ACCEPTING A MULTI-WAY STOP WARRANT STUDY AND
APPROVE THE REMOVAL OF A TWO-WAY STOP CONTROL
AT THE INTERSECTION OF MANATEE ROAD AND ROOST
ROAD, FOR A COST OF APPROXIMATELY $400 – AS
DETAILED IN THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Item #16A17 – Moved to Item #11F (Per Agenda Change Sheet)
Item #16B1
THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, ACTING AS
THE COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY BOARD,
APPROVE THE STIPULATION OF SETTLEMENT WITH
FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
REGARDING ACCESS TO CRA OWNED PROPERTY IN THE
BAYSHORE GATEWAY TRIANGLE COMMUNITY
REDEVELOPMENT AREA AND AUTHORIZE THE VICE-
June 9, 2020
Page 230
CHAIR TO SIGN THE DOCUMENT – AS DETAILED IN THE
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Item #16C1
FIRST AMENDMENT TO THE LEASE AGREEMENT WITH
COLLIER MOSQUITO CONTROL DISTRICT TO EXTEND THE
LEASE TERM FOR SPACE ON A COUNTY-OWNED
COMMUNICATIONS TOWER – FOR SPACE ON THE
COUNTY’S COMMUNICATIONS TOWER LOCATED ON
COUNTY BARN ROAD
Item #16C2
AWARDING INVITATION TO BID (“ITB”) #20-7703, “PAINT
AND RELATED ITEMS,” TO THE SHERWIN-WILLIAMS
COMPANY, AS THE PRIMARY VENDOR, AND FLORIDA
PAINTS & COATINGS, LLC, AS SECONDARY VENDOR, FOR
FURNISHING PAINT AND PAINT RELATED ITEMS, AND
AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE AGREEMENTS –
TO MAINTAIN AND RESTORE FACILITIES BELONGING TO
COLLIER COUNTY
Item #16C3
CHANGE ORDER NO. 14 FOR AGREEMENT #16-6638 WITH
MITCHELL & STARK CONSTRUCTION CO., INC., TO
BALANCE CONTRACT QUANTITIES IN THE VANDERBILT
DRIVE CUL-DE-SACS PUBLIC UTILITY RENEWAL PROJECT
(PROJECT NO. 70122 AND NO. 60122), AUTHORIZE THE
NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENT AND AUTHORIZE THE
June 9, 2020
Page 231
CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE CHANGE ORDER – AN
ADDITIONAL $160,000 IS REQUIRED TO FULLY COVER THE
COSTS OF THE ADDITIONAL STORMWATER QUANTITIES
Item #16C4
AN AGREEMENT FOR REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL NO. 20-7690
“LOAN AND/OR GRANT ACQUISITION AND COMPLIANCE
SERVICES,” TO ANGIE BREWER & ASSOCIATES, L.C.
Item #16C5
SELECTION COMMITTEE’S RANKING AND AUTHORIZE
ENTERING INTO NEGOTIATIONS WITH MANHATTAN
CONSTRUCTION COMPANY FOR A CONTRACT RELATED
TO REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL NO. 20-7700-ST,
“CONSTRUCTION MANAGER AT RISK (“CMAR”) FOR THE
COLLIER COUNTY GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS BUSINESS
PARK” – STAFF WILL BRING A NEGOTIATED CONTRACT
BACK TO THE BOARD FOR APPROVAL AT A SUBSEQUENT
MEETING
Item #16D1
BUDGET AMENDMENT TO RECOGNIZE INTEREST EARNED
FOR THE PERIOD OCTOBER 2019 THROUGH DECEMBER
2019 ON ADVANCED LIBRARY FUNDING RECEIVED FROM
THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF STATE TO SUPPORT
LIBRARY SERVICES AND EQUIPMENT FOR THE USE OF
COLLIER COUNTY RESIDENTS – RECOGNIZING $3,470 IN
INTEREST
June 9, 2020
Page 232
Item #16D2
THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THREE (3) MORTGAGE
SATISFACTIONS FOR THE STATE HOUSING INITIATIVES
PARTNERSHIP LOAN PROGRAM IN THE AMOUNT OF
$30,500 AND APPROVE THE ASSOCIATED BUDGET
AMENDMENT – THESE REPAYMENTS ARE CONSIDERED
PROGRAM INCOME AND HAVE BEEN DEPOSITED IN SHIP
GRANT FUND (791) PROJECT #33613
Item #16D3
ELECTRONIC SUBMITTAL OF A FUNDING ASSISTANCE
PROPOSAL TO THE FLORIDA FISH AND WILDLIFE
CONSERVATION COMMISSION’S INVASIVE PLANT
MANAGEMENT SECTION FOR CONTRACTOR SERVICES
WORTH $150,000 DURING FY 2021 TO TREAT INVASIVE
EXOTIC VEGETATION WITHIN CONSERVATION COLLIER’S
DR. ROBERT H. GORE III, RED MAPLE SWAMP, AND
MCILVANE MARSH PRESERVES – NO LOCAL FUNDS ARE
REQUIRED TO MATCH THIS GRANT IF AWARDED
Item #16D4
PARKING LICENSE AGREEMENT WITH THE DISTRICT
SCHOOL BOARD OF COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA, FOR
SHARED PARKING AT VINEYARDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
– A 10-YEAR TERM TO CONTINUE THE SHARED USE OF A
PARKING LOT ADJACENT TO PLAYING FIELDS AT
VINEYARDS COMMUNITY PARK
June 9, 2020
Page 233
Item #16D5
“AFTER-THE-FACT” BUREAU OF JUSTICE ASSISTANCE
COMPREHENSIVE OPIOID STIMULANT AND SUBSTANCE
ABUSE SITE-BASED PROGRAM GRANT APPLICATION IN
THE AMOUNT OF $900,000 – TO ENGAGE INMATES EXITING
THE JAIL SYSTEM IN A MEDICATION-ASSISTED
TREATMENT (MAT) TO REDUCE RE-INCARCERATION
Item #16D6
A BUDGET AMENDMENT FOR PARKS AND RECREATION
DIVISION IN THE AMOUNT OF $300,000 WITHIN PARKS
CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT FUND (306) TO COVER
NECESSARY COVID-19 INCREASED CLEANING AND
SANITIZING OF BEACH PARK AND COMMUNITY CENTER
LOCATIONS – USED TO PURCHASE ADDITIONAL SUPPLIES
FOR PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT (PPE) FOR
STAFF, CLEANING AND SANITIZING IN ORDER TO
PROVIDE DISINFECTION PRACTICES OF COMMUNITY
CENTERS, PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT, RESTROOMS,
BENCHES, WATER-FOUNTAINS, BEACH ACCESS
ASSOCIATED SHOWERS, AND AMENITIES THROUGHOUT
THE COLLIER COUNTY PARKS AND REC DIVISION
Item #16D7
“AFTER-THE-FACT” SUBMITTAL OF AN FY20 BUREAU OF
JUSTICE ASSISTANCE COVID-19 EMERGENCY
SUPPLEMENTAL FUNDING PROGRAM GRANT
June 9, 2020
Page 234
APPLICATION IN THE AMOUNT OF $223,627 FOR THE
PURCHASE OF PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT FOR
COLLIER COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPUTIES
Item #16D8
THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN ELEVEN (11) SATISFACTIONS OF
MORTGAGE FOR OWNER-OCCUPIED AFFORDABLE
HOUSING UNITS THAT HAVE SATISFIED TTERMS OF
ASSISTANCE FOR THE COLLIER COUNTY HOME
INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM – AS DETAILED IN
THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Item #16D9
SECOND AMENDMENT TO AGREEMENT NO. 19-002-WV
WITH BENEVATE, INC., FOR GRANT MANAGEMENT
SOFTWARE; (2) APPROVE THE ANNUAL EXPENDITURE OF
FUNDS IN THE AMOUNT OF $56,100 UNDER THE
AGREEMENT; (3) APPROVE THE CONTINUED
PROCUREMENT OF THIS SOFTWARE FROM BENEVATE AS
A SOLE SOURCE PROVIDER OF NEIGHBORLY SOFTWARE’S
ECONOMIC AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT HOSTED
SOFTWARE; AND, (4) AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN
THE AMENDMENT
Item #16D10
WAIVING CONTRACTUAL PAYMENT OBLIGATIONS FOR
PARKS AND RECREATION CONCESSIONAIRES FROM
MARCH 1 – MAY 31, 2020 DUE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
June 9, 2020
Page 235
– AS DETAILED IN THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Item #16D11
SUBMITTAL OF COLLIER AREA TRANSIT'S TITLE VI
PROGRAM TO THE FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION
(FTA) ENSURING EQUAL ACCESS TO ANY PERSON
WITHOUT REGARD TO RACE, COLOR, OR NATIONAL
ORIGIN – WITH APPROVAL OF THE PLAN UPDATE, THE
TRANSIT TITLE VI PLAN WILL BE SUBMITTED TO FTA AND
WILL BE VALID THROUGH 2023
Item #16D12
ELECTRONIC SUBMITTAL OF A PARTNERS FOR FISH AND
WILDLIFE PROGRAM LANDOWNER GRANT PROPOSAL FOR
$10,000 TO THE U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE FOR
HABITAT RESTORATION AT MCILVANE MARSH PRESERVE
– IF AWARDED, STAFF WILL BRING BACK A LANDOWNER
AGREEMENT BETWEEN COLLIER COUNTY AND THE U.S.
FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE (USFWS) THAT WILL ALLOW
FIVE (5) YEARS FOR THE FUNDS TO BE EXPENDED
Item #16D13
ELECTRONIC SUBMITTAL OF AN FY2019/20 GRANT
APPLICATION FOR FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION
FLEXIBLE FUNDING IN THE AMOUNT OF $51,600 FOR THE
PURCHASE AND INSTALLATION OF ADDITIONAL BUS
SHELTERS THROUGH THE FEDERAL TRANSIT
ADMINISTRATION TRANSIT AWARD MANAGEMENT
June 9, 2020
Page 236
SYSTEM – TO PURCHASE AND INSTALL UP TO THREE (3)
BUS SHELTERS THROUGHOUT THE COUNTY, INCLUDING
AMENITIES SUCH AS BIKE RACKS, BENCHES, AND TRASH
RECEPTACLES
Item #16D14
“AFTER-THE-FACT” APPROVAL OF AN ELECTRONIC
SUBMITTAL OF A GRANT APPLICATION FOR A THREE-
YEAR BUREAU OF JUSTICE ASSISTANCE DRUG COURT
DISCRETIONARY GRANT IN THE AMOUNT OF $666,666 –
LOCAL MATCH IN THE AMOUNT OF $16,666 WILL BE
PROVIDED VIA A BUDGET TRANSFER FROM GENERAL
FUND (001) INTO THE COMMUNITY AND HUMAN SERVICES
GRANT MATCH FUND (708) AND THE REMAINING MATCH
OF $100,000 WILL BE PROVIDED BY SUB-RECIPIENTS
Item #16D15
FIRST AMENDMENT TO AGREEMENT NO. 18-7382 -
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT FOR COLLIER
AREA TRANSIT FIXED ROUTE, DEMAND RESPONSE AND
TRANSIT OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT SERVICES WITH MV
CONTRACT TRANSPORTATION, INC., PROVIDING FOR
REIMBURSEMENT OF OPERATING EXPENSES INCURRED IN
RESPONSE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC UTILIZING THE
5307 AND 5311 CARES ACT FUNDING ALLOCATED TO THE
COUNTY BY THE FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION
(FTA) AND FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
(FDOT) , AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE
AMENDMENT – SUCH EXPENSES INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT
June 9, 2020
Page 237
LIMITED TO: (1) ENHANCED CLEANING, (2) INCREASED
EXPENDITURES FOR CLEANING SUPPLIES, (3) ADDITIONAL
VEHICLES PLACED INTO SERVICE TO ALLOW FOR CDC
RECOMMENDED SOCIAL DISTANCING, AND (4)
ADDITIONAL STAFF TO COVER PERSONNEL
QUARANTINED TO ENSURE CONTINUITY OF OPERATIONS
Item #16D16
THE PURCHASE OF TWO TROLLEYS FOR THE COLLIER
AREA TRANSIT ("CAT") SYSTEM USING THE STATE OF
GEORGIA’S COMPETITIVELY SOLICITED PUBLIC MASS
TRANSIT & TRANSPORTATION-RELATED VEHICLES
CONTRACT NO. 99999-001-SPD0000138-0003
Item #16D17
RESOLUTION 2020-91: FY20 FEDERAL TRANSIT
ADMINISTRATION SECTION 5311 CARES ACT GRANT
AWARD IN THE AMOUNT OF $1,378,420 TO PROVIDE
CONTINUED SERVICE OF THE COLLIER AREA TRANSIT
SYSTEM; APPROVE A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE
CHAIR TO SIGN THE AGREEMENT AND ALL NECESSARY
BUDGET AMENDMENTS AND CERTIFICATIONS
Item #16E1
SECOND AMENDMENT TO LEASE WITH NAPLES HMA, LLC,
D/B/A PHYSICIANS REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER -
COLLIER, TO EXTEND THE LEASE TERM FOR SPACED
June 9, 2020
Page 238
UTILIZED BY EMS – AT THE COLLIER BOULEVARD
LOCATION
Item #16E2
AMENDING AND EXTENDING AGREEMENT NO. 16-6621
WITH CORNERSTONE ONDEMAND, INC., TO PROVIDE
SOFTWARE PRODUCTS FOR THE COUNTY’S ONLINE AND
ON-DEMAND WORKFORCE LEARNING, DEVELOPMENT
AND PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT PROCESSES – AS
DETAILED IN THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Item #16E3
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS PREPARED BY PROCUREMENT
SERVICES DIVISION FOR CHANGE ORDERS AND OTHER
CONTRACTUAL MODIFICATIONS REQUIRING BOARD
APPROVAL – AS DETAILED IN THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Item #16E4
RESOLUTION 2020-92: REPEALING RESOLUTION 2020-65,
WHICH ENACTED AN OUTDOOR BURNING BAN IN THE
UNINCORPORATED AREAS OF COLLIER COUNTY IN
ACCORDANCE WITH ORDINANCE NO. 2009-23, THE
REGULATION OF OUTDOOR BURNING AND INCENDIARY
DEVICES DURING DROUGHT CONDITIONS ORDINANCE
Item #16E5
RATIFYING, IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE STATE OF LOCAL
June 9, 2020
Page 239
EMERGENCY DECLARED BY THE BCC, THE EXECUTION OF
A LEASE WITH HORIZON VILLAGE COMMUNITY IN
IMMOKALEE TO RESERVE DORMITORIES FOR USE AS
NON-CONGREGATE SHELTERS FOR COVID-19 POSITIVE-
IDENTIFIED PATIENTS AND TO AUTHORIZE ANY
NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENTS – THE LEASE
RESERVES SEVEN DORMITORIES, AT A COST OF $96 PER
NIGHT FOR 75 NIGHTS FOR A TOTAL COST OF $50,400
Item #16F1
AGREEMENT #20-037-NS BETWEEN COLLIER COUNTY AND
SEARCHWIDE GLOBAL, INC., FOR RECRUITING SERVICES
FOR DEPUTY DIRECTOR - TOURISM, AND MAKE A FINDING
THAT THE EXPENDITURE OF FUNDS RELATED TO THE
AGREEMENT PROMOTES TOURISM – THE COST FOR
RECRUITING CANDIDATES FOR THIS POSITION HAS BEEN
NEGOTIATED AT A FLAT FEE OF $28,000; FUNDING IS
AVAILABLE IN FUND 184, TDC PROMOTION
Item #16F2
RESOLUTION 2020-93: APPROVING AMENDMENTS
(APPROPRIATING GRANTS, DONATIONS, CONTRIBUTIONS
OR INSURANCE PROCEEDS) TO THE FISCAL YEAR 2019-20
ADOPTED BUDGET
Item #16J1
RESOLUTION 2020-94: CHANGING THE BOUNDARIES OF
CERTAIN VOTING PRECINCTS
June 9, 2020
Page 240
Item #16J2
TO RECORD IN THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY
COMMISSIONERS, THE CHECK NUMBER (OR OTHER
PAYMENT METHOD), AMOUNT, PAYEE, AND PURPOSE FOR
WHICH THE REFERENCED DISBURSEMENTS WERE DRAWN
FOR THE PERIODS BETWEEN MAY 14, 2020 AND MAY 27,
2020 PURSUANT TO FLORIDA STATUTE 136.06
Item #16J3
DETERMINE VALID PUBLIC PURPOSE FOR INVOICES
PAYABLE AND PURCHASING CARD TRANSACTIONS AS OF
JUNE 3, 2020
Item #16K1
RESOLUTION 2020-95: APPOINTING MARCO ISLAND
REPRESENTATIVES ROBERT ROTH AND ERIK BRECHNITZ
TO THE COASTAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Item #16K2
RESOLUTION 2020-96: APPOINTING DEVON BROWNE, TO
FILL THE REMAINDER OF A VACANT TERM THAT EXPIRES
MARCH 22, 2021, TO THE PUBLIC TRANSIT ADVISORY
COMMITTEE
Item #16K3
June 9, 2020
Page 241
AUTHORIZING APPLICATION FOR TAX DEEDS FOR
EIGHTEEN (18) COUNTY-HELD TAX CERTIFICATES AND
FORWARDING A WRITTEN NOTICE TO PROCEED WITH TAX
DEED APPLICATIONS TO THE TAX COLLECTOR – AS
DETAILED IN THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Item #16K4 – Withdrawn (During agenda changes)
RECOMMENDATION TO TAKE NO ACTION WITH RESPECT
TO THE PUBLIC PETITION INITIATED BY JAMES BOATMAN,
ESQ., RELATED TO THE ROLL-OUT OF 5G IN COLLIER
COUNTY
Item #17A
ORDINANCE 2020-14: AMENDING ORDINANCE NUMBER
2004-41, AS AMENDED, THE COLLIER COUNTY LAND
DEVELOPMENT CODE, WHICH ESTABLISHED THE
COMPREHENSIVE ZONING REGULATIONS FOR THE
UNINCORPORATED AREA OF COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA,
BY AMENDING THE APPROPRIATE ZONING ATLAS MAP OR
MAPS BY CHANGING THE ZONING CLASSIFICATION OF
THE HEREIN DESCRIBED REAL PROPERTY FROM A
COMMERCIAL INTERMEDIATE DISTRICT (C-3) ZONING
DISTRICT TO A COMMERCIAL PLANNED UNIT
DEVELOPMENT (CPUD) ZONING DISTRICT FOR THE
PROJECT TO BE KNOWN AS VANDERBILT BEACH
COMMERCIAL TOURIST COMMERCIAL PLANNED UNIT
DEVELOPMENT, TO ALLOW UP TO 17 HOTEL AND MOTEL
UNITS AND 7,000 SQUARE FEET OF COMMERCIAL
DEVELOPMENT ON PROPERTY LOCATED ON THE
June 9, 2020
Page 242
NORTHEAST PORTION OF THE INTERSECTION OF GULF
SHORE DRIVE AND SOUTH BAY DRIVE, APPROXIMATELY
400 FEET NORTH OF VANDERBILT BEACH ROAD, IN
SECTION 32, TOWNSHIP 48 SOUTH, RANGE 25 EAST,
CONSISTING OF .62± ACRES; AND BY PROVIDING AN
EFFECTIVE DATE. (PL20180002792)
Item #17B
ORDINANCE 2020-15: PETITION PL20180002792/CPSS-2019-03,
A GROWTH MANAGEMENT PLAN SMALL SCALE
AMENDMENT SPECIFIC TO THE URBAN COMMERCIAL
DISTRICT OF THE FUTURE LAND USE ELEMENT, TO
CREATE A NEW SUBDISTRICT, VANDERBILT BEACH
COMMERCIAL TOURIST SUBDISTRICT (ADOPTION
HEARING)
Item #17C
RESOLUTION 2020-97: FINDING A LOGISTICS FACILITY IS A
COMPARABLE AND COMPATIBLE USE WITHIN THE
COMMERCIAL DESIGNATED AREA OF THE I-75/COLLIER
BOULEVARD COMMERCIAL CENTER PUD, AS
AUTHORIZED IN SECTION 3.3.A.21 OF ORDINANCE 00-89.
THE SUBJECT PROPERTY IS WITHIN THE ACTIVITY
CENTER #9 OVERLAY ZONING DISTRICT AND LOCATED AT
THE SOUTHWEST CORNER OF DAVIS BOULEVARD AND
COLLIER BOULEVARD IN SECTION 3, TOWNSHIP 50 SOUTH,
RANGE 26 EAST, COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA
(PL20200000543)
June 9, 2020
Page 243
Item #17D
ORDINANCE 2020-16: AMENDING ORDINANCE 04-41, AS
AMENDED, THE COLLIER COUNTY LAND DEVELOPMENT
CODE, WHICH INCLUDES THE COMPREHENSIVE LAND
REGULATIONS FOR THE UNINCORPORATED AREA OF
COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA, TO AMEND THE TIMING OF
REQUIRED INSPECTIONS FOR COMMUNICATIONS
TOWERS, TO ADD A NOMINAL ALTERATION PLAN TO
SIMPLIFY THE REVIEW OF CERTAIN CHANGES TO SITE
DEVELOPMENT PLANS, TO LIMIT ARCHITECTURAL
LIGHTING ON BUILDINGS AND LIGHTING ON CAR WASH
EQUIPMENT, TO CLARIFY PUBLIC NOTICE PROVISIONS
FOR CERTAIN LAND USE PETITIONS, AND TO CORRECT
CITATIONS AND UPDATE TEXT, BY PROVIDING FOR:
SECTION ONE, RECITALS; SECTION TWO, FINDINGS OF
FACT; SECTION THREE, ADOPTION OF AMENDMENTS TO
THE LAND DEVELOPMENT CODE, MORE SPECIFICALLY
AMENDING THE FOLLOWING: CHAPTER ONE – GENERAL
PROVISIONS; CHAPTER TWO – ZONING DISTRICTS AND
USES; CHAPTER FOUR – SITE DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT
STANDARDS; CHAPTER FIVE – SUPPLEMENTAL
STANDARDS; CHAPTER NINE – VARIATIONS FROM CODE
REQUIREMENTS; CHAPTER TEN – APPLICATION, REVIEW,
AND DECISION-MAKING PROCEDURES; APPENDIX A
STANDARD PERFORMANCE SECURITY DOCUMENTS FOR
REQUIRED IMPROVEMENTS; AND APPENDIX C FINAL
SUBDIVISION PLAT, REQUIRED CERTIFICATIONS AND
SUGGESTED TEXT AND FORMATS FOR OTHER REQUIRED
INFORMATION; SECTION FOUR, CONFLICT AND
SEVERABILITY; SECTION FIVE, INCLUSION IN THE
June 9, 2020
Page 244
COLLIER COUNTY LAND DEVELOPMENT CODE; AND
SECTION SIX, EFFECTIVE DATE
Item #17E
RESOLUTION 2020-98: PETITION VAC-PL20200000324, TO
DISCLAIM, RENOUNCE AND VACATE THE COUNTY AND
THE PUBLIC INTEREST IN A PORTION OF THE
MAINTENANCE ROAD EASEMENT, AS RECORDED IN
OFFICIAL RECORD BOOK 4551, PAGES 1016 THROUGH 1020
OF THE PUBLIC RECORDS OF COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA,
LOCATED APPROXIMATELY 1.4 MILES SOUTHWEST OF
THE INTERSECTION OF US-41 (TAMIAMI TRAIL EAST) AND
THOMASSON DRIVE, IN SECTION 25, TOWNSHIP 50 SOUTH,
RANGE 25 EAST, COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA.
(PL20200000324)
Item #17F
RESOLUTION 2020-99: PETITION VAC-PL20200000046, TO
DISCLAIM, RENOUNCE AND VACATE THE COUNTY AND
THE PUBLIC INTEREST IN A PORTION OF THE DRAINAGE
EASEMENT, INGRESS-EGRESS EASEMENT, AND ANY
INTEREST THE COUNTY MAY HAVE IN THE 45-FOOT
SPECIAL PRESERVE EASEMENT LOCATED IN THE REAR OF
LOT 5, BLOCK “H” OF QUAIL WEST UNIT ONE, REPLAT
BLOCKS G AND H, AS RECORDED IN PLAT BOOK 22, PAGE
36 OF THE PUBLIC RECORDS OF COLLIER COUNTY,
FLORIDA, IN SECTION 8, TOWNSHIP 48 SOUTH, RANGE 26
EAST, COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA
June 9, 2020
Page 245
Item #17G
RESOLUTION 2020-100: PETITION VAC-PL20200000468, TO
DISCLAIM, RENOUNCE AND VACATE THE COUNTY AND
THE PUBLIC INTEREST IN A PORTION OF THE SANITARY
FORCE MAIN UTILITY EASEMENT AS RECORDED IN
OFFICIAL RECORD BOOK 2706, PAGE 2637 OF THE PUBLIC
RECORDS OF COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA, LOCATED ON
THE SOUTH SIDE OF GOLDEN GATE PARKWAY,
APPROXIMATELY 0.4 MILES WEST OF LIVINGSTON ROAD,
IN SECTION 25, TOWNSHIP 49 SOUTH, RANGE 25 EAST,
COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA
Item #17H
RESOLUTION 2020-101: PETITION VAC-PL20180002229, TO
DISCLAIM, RENOUNCE AND VACATE THE COUNTY AND
THE PUBLIC INTEREST IN THE 15-FOOT UTILITY
EASEMENT AS DESCRIBED IN THE ORDER OF TAKING,
CASE NO. 89-0957-CA-01-HDH, RECORDED IN OFFICIAL
RECORD BOOK 1472, PAGE 1618 OF THE PUBLIC RECORDS
OF COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA, LOCATED ON THE EAST
SIDE OF LOT 35, BLOCK A, ROCK CREEK PARK, RECORDED
IN PLAT BOOK 1, PAGE 79, OF THE PUBLIC RECORDS OF
COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA. THE SUBJECT PROPERTY IS
LOCATED ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF TERRACE AVENUE,
APPROXIMATELY 200-FEET WEST OF AIRPORT PULLING
ROAD, IN SECTION 2, TOWNSHIP 50 SOUTH, RANGE 25
EAST, COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA. (PL20180002229)
*****
June 9, 2020
Page 246
There being no further business for the good of the County, the
meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 5:12 p.m.
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX
OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF
SPECIAL DISTRICTS UNDER ITS CONTROL
_______________________________________
BURT L. SAUNDERS, CHAIRMAN
ATTEST:
CRYSTAL K. KINZEL, CLERK
____________________________
These minutes approved by the Board on ____________, as
presented ______________ or as corrected _____________.
TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF FORT MYERS
COURT REPORTING BY TERRI LEWIS, FPR, COURT
REPORTER AND NOTARY PUBLIC.