BCC Minutes 10/11/2007 S (LDC Amendments)
October 11, 2007
TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Naples, Florida, October 11,2007
LDC Amendments
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 district as has been created according to law and having
conducted business herein, met on this date at 9:00 a.m., in
SPECIAL SESSION in Building "F" of the Government Complex,
East Naples, Florida, with the following members present:
CHAIRMAN:
Jim Coletta
Tom Henning (absent until noted)
Frank Halas
Fred W. Coyle (Absent)
Donna Fiala
ALSO PRESENT:
Catherine Fabacher, LDC Coordinator
Joe Schmitt, Administrator of CDES
Susan Istenes, Director of Zoning & Land Develop. Review
JeffKlatzkow, Chief Assistant County Attorney
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COLLIER COUNTY
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
~
LDC AGENDA
October 11, 2007
9:00 a.m.
SPECIAL MEETING
NOTICE: ALL PERSONS WISHING TO SPEAK ON ANY AGENDA ITEM
MUST REGISTER PRIOR TO SPEAKING. SPEAKERS MUST REGISTER
WITH THE COUNTY MANAGER PRIOR TO THE PRESENTATION OF THE
AGENDA ITEM TO BE ADDRESSED.
COLLIER COUNTY ORDINANCE NO. 2003-53, AS AMENDED BY
ORDINANCE 2004-05 AND 2007-24, REQUIRES THAT ALL LOBBYISTS
SHALL, BEFORE ENGAGING IN ANY LOBBYING ACTIVITIES
(INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ADDRESSING THE BOARD OF
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS), REGISTER WITH THE CLERK TO THE
BOARD AT THE BOARD MINUTES AND RECORDS DEPARTMENT.
REQUESTS TO ADDRESS THE BOARD ON SUBJECTS WHICH ARE NOT ON
THIS AGENDA MUST BE SUBMITTED IN WRITING WITH EXPLANATION
TO THE COUNTY MANAGER AT LEAST 13 DAYS PRIOR TO THE DATE OF
THE MEETING AND WILL BE HEARD UNDER "PUBLIC PETITIONS".
ANY PERSON WHO DECIDES TO APPEAL A DECISION OF THIS BOARD
WILL NEED A RECORD OF THE PROCEEDINGS PERTAINING THERETO,
AND THEREFORE MAY NEED TO ENSURE THAT A VERBATIM RECORD
OF THE PROCEEDINGS IS MADE, WHICH RECORD INCLUDES THE
TESTIMONY AND EVIDENCE UPON WHICH THE APPEAL IS TO BE BASED.
ALL REGISTERED PUBLIC SPEAKERS WILL BE LIMITED TO FIVE (5)
MINUTES UNLESS THE TIME IS ADJUSTED BY THE CHAIRMAN.
IF YOU ARE A PERSON WITH A DISABILITY WHO NEEDS ANY
ACCOMMODATION IN ORDER TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS PROCEEDING,
YOU ARE ENTITLED, AT NO COST TO YOU, TO THE PROVISION OF
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October 11, 2007
CERTAIN ASSISTANCE. PLEASE CONTACT THE COLLIER COUNTY
FACILITIES MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT LOCATED AT 3301 EAST
TAMIAMI TRAIL, NAPLES, FLORIDA, 34112, (239) 774-8380; ASSISTED
LISTENING DEVICES FOR THE HEARING IMPAIRED ARE A V AILABLE IN
THE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' OFFICE.
1. INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
2. THE BOARD TO CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING
ORDINANCE NUMBER 04-41, AS AMENDED, THE COLLIER COUNTY
LAND DEVELOPMENT CODE, WHICH INCLUDES THE
COMPREHENSIVE REGULATIONS FOR THE UNINCORPORATED
AREA OF COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA.
3. ADJOURN
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October 11, 2007
October 11, 2007
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Ladies and gentlemen, please take
your seats, and I'd like to welcome you one and all to the Land
Development Code Amendment 2007, Cycle 1.
And with that, would you please stand, and Commissioner Fiala
will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
(The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.)
MS. F ABACHER: Good morning, Commissioners. For the
record, Catherine Fabacher, with Zoning and Land Development
Review. I'm the LDC coordinator.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay.
MS. F ABACHER: Happy to see you here this morning.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Happy to be here.
Item #2
AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE NUMBER 04-41,
AS AMENDED, THE COLLIER COUNTY LAND
DEVELOPMENT CODE, WHICH INCLUDES THE
COMPREHENSIVE REGULATIONS FOR THE
UNINCORPORATED AREA OF COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA _
CONTINUED TO THE OCTOBER 24, 2007 BCC MEETING AT
9:00 A.M.
MS. FABACHER: We're beginning our first meeting of the first
hearing of the LDC 2007 Cycle I amendments. And I would like to
begin on page A of your summary sheet, and I included an extra
summary sheet that completely matches what's in your package,
because I think we agreed, working side by side was better.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yes, it is.
MS. FABACHER: Okay. And the first one's going to be section
4.02.01, specific standards for locations of accessory buildings and
structures. This is the amendment emergency generator placements.
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October 11, 2007
Do I have any questions or do you need an intro?
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Yes. I had a question. I just want to
make sure that that restriction that was on how long the generators
could run just applied during the non-emergency times.
MS. F ABACHER: Correct.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: To be able to test them. And there is
no restriction at a time of emergency, other than those that have to do
with the placement of the generator and the shielding for sound and
everything. But the hours of operation don't apply --
MS. F ABACHER: Correct, correct.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: -- that are in that?
MS. F ABACHER: This is just for the exercising of the systems.
And in fact, during an emergency, you'll have a lot of portable ones
out all over the place in the front yard, and we can't -- don't have the
power, the staff to be regulating that sort of thing.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: And we shouldn't. At that point in
time with an emergency, I would think that we would waive anything
as far as placement of a temporary generator where it is because --
MS. F ABACHER: Right.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Absolutely.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: As long as it isn't inside the house.
MS. F ABACHER: Yes, sir. And we're not regulating
temporary .
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: As long as it isn't in the house, right.
MS. FABACHER: We are regulating those that are permanently
installed by people. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Just for your information,
Commissioner Halas just brought up a good point. In the time of an
emergency when the power's off, if you're a person that's new as far as
generators go, do not under any circumstances, run them in your house
or --
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Garage.
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October 11, 2007
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: -- or any enclosed structure. It has to
be out in the open or else the hurricane will be a minor occurrence
compared to what the carbon monoxide from the generator will do.
Is any other comments or questions on that particular one? You
just need nods from the commissioners to be able to keep moving
through, right?
MS. FABACHER: Okay, great, right. We're not going to vote
on this.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. You have it.
Proceed to the next one.
MS. F ABACHER: Okay. Our next page we're going to skip.
The applicant's not here today. They'll be here on the 16th. That's the
heliports.
In fact, C we're going to skip because we're waiting for another --
more revisions from the County Attorney's Office.
There's Stan. We're on page D of your summary sheet and page
15 of your book, and this is section 6.05.05.01, stormwater
management system requirements. And Stan Chrzanowski is going to
-- and I want to say that this is your direction. We included the
minutes in your packet to see from the last time you worked with Stan
on this problem. Thank you.
Stan?
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Thank you.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yes, sir, good morning. Stan
Chrzanowski with Engineering Review, and this has come a long way
since your direction. I'm going to hand out some sheets to you and
then explain what they are as I give my presentation.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: And Stan, for the benefit of the
listening audience, you're going to give us a little bit of history on this
item, too, I assume.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yes, sir.
All right. For a long time now we've gotten complaints that we
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October 11, 2007
are allowing people to build homes that are much too large for the
neighborhoods that they're in. The complaints range from Pine Ridge,
Naples Park through Naples Manor through Golden Gate.
And the direction was to find some way to control that, so we had
a couple of hearings where we got the local engineering firms in and
the developers and we told them what we were going to do and got
their input. Then we had the usual succession of public hearings and
got public input on it.
And the final document is what you see before you. What we're
trying to do is to limit the impervious area that you're allowed to put
on a single-family house lot, but it's not every single-family house lot.
You have to understand most of the county, if you were to look at
the PUD map of Collier County -- and you're all familiar with it -- you
look at this side of 951, if you superimpose that PUD map on an aerial
photograph, you'll see that what's not PUD is old subdivisions, Naples
Park, Naples Manor, Pine Ridge.
Those areas don't have Water Management District Permits.
Most of the sites on the PUD map have Water Management District
Permits. If you have a Water Management District Permit, then your
amount of impervious has already been allotted. Your discharge rate's
already set. We don't worry about people in projects like the
Vineyard's draining on one another.
But it's the older subdivisions like Pine Ridge and Golden Gate
City that we don't have any standards for and, truly, we don't review
single- family homes in those subdivisions. They get looked at for a
standard structural building permit type issues, but nobody reviews
them for lot coverage, so --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I'm going to interrupt you. We have
commissioners that want to speak.
First -- your light went on first, Commissioner Halas. Did you want to
address this now or after?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: I'll address it afterwards.
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October 11, 2007
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. The PUDs that you speak of,
the new ones are already approved with the proper drainage, but I
wonder if after the PUD -- after the homes are built, the people go in
and pave over their front yard. That isn't what was in the PUD, but
they do that. Then what?
(Commissioner Henning entered the hearing room.)
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Well, then if we see it, if somebody
turns them in and they have violated some portion of the stormwater
ordinance, we would have to enforce against them. But I can't
remember any project like that, usually because projects like that have
their own internal controls. You're dealing with the homeowners
association.
I live in Lakeside. If I were to try to pave my front yard, I think
they'd stop me. If they didn't and I got by with it, nobody -- none of
the neighbors turned me in to the county, not a problem. But I don't
remember anybody ever turning their neighbor in a project like that,
you know, one that has a Water Management District Permit.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Maybe after we can make a little
appointment and you could go for a ride with me.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: I'm sure you know a few. And for some
reason, I guess they call you before they call us. Not a problem.
But anyway, please understand that most of the projects we're
talking about, Pine Ridge, Naples Park, Naples Manor, Golden Gate
City, with the exception of Golden Gate Estates, are fairly well built
out. So what you're looking at really is something that's probably
going to have more effect on redevelopment than on development.
We came up with a formula, and our first attempt was a straight
percentage. From a water management point of view, that's the fairest
way to do it if all you're worried about is water management.
But the percentage we had when you looked at the larger lots like
in Pine Ridge or Golden Gate Estates, and you assign a 40 percent, the
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October 11, 2007
amount of impervious coverage we were allowing was very large.
So one of the engineers at one of our meetings suggested a
graduated percentage, much like the income tax where people with
larger lots are, in effect, penalized by being allowed a smaller
percentage of their lot to be developed. It's the way it's set up.
And when we looked at the handout I gave you -- and I don't
know if Commissioner Henning had a copy put on his --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: No.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Okay. The handout I gave you, we
wanted to see what effect the ordinance we're writing would have had
ifit were in effect when all of these projects were considered.
And if you look at it, we have different projects, upper left-hand
corner on the spreadsheet, Naples Manor being the first one. For your
own purposes, if you wanted to get into the appraiser's website, we've
given you the folio number. You can look up the folio number __
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I'm sorry to interrupt you, Stan. Do
you think we might be able to put something on the visualizer for __
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Oh, yes, sir. I believe I gave them all
out.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: -- our viewing audience to be able to
see?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: I brought spares.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I like where this is going, by the way,
and I'm not all disturbed by the fact that the larger your lot is, you
don't get the same proportion as a smaller lot. It only makes sense. I
mean, who wants somebody on a 20-acre lot out in the Estates to build
something that would be the size of a gymnasium? You know, I don't
think that's the intent. They're single-family home lots, and that's what
they were platted to be and they should remain that.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yes, sir. I know we put it on the -- oh,
there it is.
MR. SCHMITT: What do you want to zero in on?
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^-_._--_._-~~._-,_._"'-_._---.----
October 11,2007
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Very last column.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Is this on-line also, Stan, where
somebody might be able to view it?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: No, sir. I have all-- it's an Excel
spreadsheet. I can forward it to anybody that wants to put it on-line,
like your IT department.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: If anyone would like to see -- well,
I'll tell you what, rather than put it on-line -- because this is a working
document that's going to be changing continuously, I assume, right, or
no?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: No, sir. I think this is about the final
draft. The only thing, when we gave this to people, there's certain
properties in here that are really 95 percent paved, and if you don't
mind those people being brought up for public viewing, I have no
problem with it.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: No. Everything we have is public
record. What I might suggest is, in the interim till we get it on-line
and people wouldn't know where to go to find it, if anyone has an
interest in this particular document, maybe they could contact you and
you could email it to them.
And would you be so kind as to state your telephone number
where you can be reached or someone from your office can be reached
to be able to move this --
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: The email address would be better.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Go ahead, sir.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: It's Stan Chrzanowski. That's S-T-A-N,
C-H-R-Z-A-N-O-W-S-K-I at Collier gov C-O-L-L-I-E-R G-O-V
, , "
dot N - E- T. I don't get enough emails already, so this will be a
welcome addition.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Good. We'll get you on some lists.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I'm sorry. We have a couple people
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October 11,2007
that want to comment.
MS. F ABACHER: Commissioner, I'm sorry. I just -- Catherine
Fabacher, again, for the record. I just wanted to say if you go to the
LDC web page, you have my email address there, and people can
contact me for this information.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Would you give directions to that
then?
MS. FABACHER: Well, it's on the county website. You go to
the bar that says "doing business." Go all the way down, you hit the
zoning page, and when you get to the zoning page, it will say "LDC
amendments." Then any page you go from there will have my
telephone number and my email to contact me about the LDC, and I'll
be happy to provide this information.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Thank you. And would you be so
kind, too, just to state your telephone number because it's sometimes
not easy for some people that --
MS. FABACHER: Sure. It's 403-2322, and obviously 239.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: All right. Some people are computer
challenged. This might be the best way.
MS. FABACHER: Fine. Well, they're both on the website.
They're both on the website, my phone number and my email.so --
oh, that's right. You're saying they can't get there.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: We got two commissioners that have
their lights on. I'm going to check again with Commissioner Halas.
Did you want to ask something at this time?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yes. Stan, at this point in time it
says overage, and then it's minus or plus. What is this, percentage or
fee or whatever?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: No, sir. That's how many square feet.
If the ordinance were in effect now, that's how many square feet that
property would be over or under what we have written in for a
standard.
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October 11,2007
If you look farther down the sheet, and I'll -- if you look down
the sheet, you'll see that right now most of the properties in yellow,
the negative numbers, mean that -- I'm having a hard time because of
something that's in the way. But most of the -- most of the numbers
that are in yellow meaning in Naples Manor, if the ordinance were in
effect today, most of the properties would meet the ordinance, and
then you have a few like the guy that's 1,500 square feet over. He's
probably got a circular driveway and --
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Everything in white then means
that they're out of compliance?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: No, sir, not out of compliance. If the
ordinance were in effect today, they would be out of compliance.
When they come in to increase the size of their property, they're going
to have to submit an engineer's report, but I'm probably getting ahead
of myself.
If you look at Naples Manor on your sheets -- and I don't want to
keep turning on the visualizer -- but you'll see most of the properties
are -- would meet this standard as written.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: As -- okay, with the particular
building that's presently on there. But if they redevelop and wanted to
put a large huge home on there, then they have to have an engineering
report in regards to making sure that they -- that they're in compliance
with the amount of area that's going to be impervious.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yes, sir. It's a stormwater calculation.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Okay, great.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Can I just ask a question on what
you just said? You said the white ones were out of compliance, the
white ones were too much or the yellow?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: The white.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: The white. Oh, the yellow --
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: If the ordinance were in effect today,
those people would be out of compliance, if the ordinance had been in
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October 11, 2007
effect when they were built. We can't grandfather somebody out of
compliance.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: It's just, the ones in yellow will be
allowed to build more till they get to that certain point, and then the
ones in white can't build any more.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: I think this is the right direction,
because I know that in my particular case, that there's been a number
of stormwater issues where the water coming off of new
redevelopment has ended up flooding homeowners to the side or to the
left so--
,
MR. SCHMITT: The existing units would be deemed legally
nonconforming.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yeah, I understand that. But it's in
the right -- we're going in the right direction to address it.
MR. SCHMITT: Yeah. This is the direction you wanted us to
go in regards to trying to deal with stormwater runoff, and it certainly
will contribute to dealing with 10 pounds of potatoes in the five-pound
potato sack.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Right. Thank you.
MR. SCHMITT: That was a nice way of saying it.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Henning?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I apologize for my tardiness.
How many nonconforming structures would we have once the board
passed this?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: I have no idea, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Could you give a percentage?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Well, I would -- we took representative
areas, so if you look at Naples Manor, my guess would be 90 percent,
95 percent would be conforming. Five, 10 percent would be
nonconforming. In Naples Park, it's probably around 85 to 90 percent.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Conforming?
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October 11, 2007
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Forest Lakes.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Eighty-five percent in Naples
Park?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Would be conforming.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Conforming.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: The smaller-lotted subdivisions. Forest
Lakes, we're probably looking at 60 conforming, 40 percent
nonconforming. Willoughby Acres, probably about the same. When
you start getting into -- oh, Poinciana Village, I would guess less than
50 percent would be conforming, about 50/50.
When you start getting into like -- go to the very last sheet in the
Pine Ridge subdivision, there's usually maybe 30 columns to one of
these, or 30, and so you're probably looking at 50 total, of which five
would be conforming; 95 percent of them in Pine Ridge would be
nonconforming.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: The one -- but that's where we have had
a lot of our complaints, because it's very large lots. And if you look at
the aerial photographs of Pine Ridge, people tend to build tennis
courts, five-car garages, you know, just --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. That leads into my next
question. So this pertains to accessory uses also?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: It's total impervious. If you build a
patio and a circular driveway and a basketball court and a very large
parking lot, swimming pool and a tennis court and your house, you're
probably going to be in violation unless you get an engineer to do a
water management plan, because some of these places are actually
bigger than 7-Elevens, and we make them do a management plan.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: How big is a 7-Eleven?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: My guess would be, on a quarter-acre
lot, a 7-Eleven probably covers maybe 75 percent.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: But it's a quarter-acre versus an
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October 11, 2007
acre?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Versus two acres here.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Two acres here. Well-- so,
7 - Eleven is not a big deal --
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Like I said --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: --like a Super Wal*Mart or
something might be.
The -- what about a swimming pool? Would that--
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: The pool itself, the water that falls in
the pool generally, it just adds to the level of the water, but the patio
around the pool and all that would be in the calculation.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. So you -- so we haven't
removed the issue about draining water on people's -- the neighboring
property? That's still a compliance? You need to either drain to the
front or the rear of the property?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yes, sir. Eventually you have to shed
water. You're not going to hold all water.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yeah. I just want to know
what's being removed and what's staying. And so you're giving an
opportunity to create a stormwater management system on site also?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: So you're giving people
choices?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Great, I love it. Just a question
for the chairman.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Are we on hot topics or --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: You'll see in front of you the -- there's
one sheet that's probably underneath everything you've got there,
Commissioner Henning.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right. So we missed some of
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October 11, 2007
the topics then, right?
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Yeah. We already covered a couple
of them. We moved right along.
So we're on -- right now we're on page D, correct?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yep.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: We skipped Band C, right?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yep.
MS. FABACHER: Yes.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Y eah. We skipped a couple because
they weren't prepared enough to be able to move forward.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. Which ones -- are you
saying ones are not being heard at this hearing?
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: That's correct. There's a couple of
them that --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Which ones is that so I can
strike it? The generator?
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Would you--
MS. FABACHER: Yes, certainly, Commissioner.
Commissioner Henning, we are not doing heliports today. That's
on page B of your summary sheets.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Correct.
MS. F ABACHER: We are not doing -- on page C, we're not
doing the annual temporary use permit, and those were the two we
skipped, and we discussed the emergency -- temporary emergency
generator -- I'm sorry permanent emergency generator installation.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right. These other two items,
are they going to be heard at the second hearing?
MS. F ABACHER: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: But they have to have two
hearings.
MS. F ABACHER: Yes, sir.
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October 11, 2007
COMMISSIONER HENNING: So we're going to have actually
three meetings to cover this cycle?
MS. F ABACHER: Possibly four, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Halas?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yes. Excuse me. I believe --
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Bless you.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: -- that the direction that we're
going here is to make sure that a lot of these areas that you brought
forth are areas that there's going to be redevelopment in, and what
we're trying to do is get ahead of the curve so that as redevelopment
takes place and we go from a 1,500-square-foot home to a 3,000 to
3,500-square-foot home on the same piece of property, that we're
taking care of the stormwater that can be generated by that on site.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yes, sir. Like I said in part of the
presentation, if you look at these subdivisions, they're almost -- with
the exception of Golden Gate Estates, they are fairly well built out.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: But they're going to start
redeveloping.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yes, sir, in Naples Park --
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Buying property.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: In Naples Park, people are already
buying two side-by-side lots, wiping out two houses and putting in
one large one setback to setback, so --
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Thank you. This is great.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Fiala, did you have
something?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Uh-uh.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. With that, let's continue.
MS. F ABACHER: All right. Commissioners, we're on sheet D
still, and we're going to go -- Stan's going to do the next one, and it's
section 6.05.02, bulkheads and seawalls, which requires a new
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October 11, 2007
construction to put in pretreatment infiltration trenches by existing
seawalls. Stan's going to answer any questions.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Good morning, Commissioners, again.
The present ordinance we have shows a design for a seawall with
some -- the standard design for a seawall has a certain amount of tow
in that you have to drive the sheet in, stops the bottom of the sheet
from kicking out, then you have the sheet itself, and at the top you
have a cap that ties all the sheets together, and the cap -- or sometimes
they drill through the wall with what they call a tieback.
The tieback goes back to a deadman. That stops the whole
structure from rolling from the top. So you can either kick out at the
bottom or roll from the top. Those prevent that from happening.
As part of the calculation for a seawall, you generally figure that
the ground behind it is going to become saturated, so you take that
into account with the design, but you also add weep holes through the
seawall so that water trapped behind the wall can eventually leave. It
stops the condition from being saturated all the time.
At present we show some kind of little bag of rock back there.
No, we show a -- we show a patch put over that and backed up with
rock.
That's difficult to do, and sometimes those bags or the patches fill
up with sand. And the solutions we have for that is we intend having
people put a continuous filter fabric bag behind the weep holes in the
seawall so that water seeps down through those and out the weep
holes. It serves the water quality purpose, it serves the purpose of
draining behind the wall for hydrostatic pressure. It's relatively simple.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Good.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I'm sorry. We've got Commissioner
Halas, then you wanted to say something, Commissioner Henning? I
thought I heard a noise down there. I guess not.
Go ahead, Commissioner Halas.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: This is somewhat like a French
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October 11, 2007
drain.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Okay. Great idea.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Thank you.
MS. FABACHER: All right. We ready to move on,
Commissioners?
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Yes, please, move on.
MS. FABACHER: Okay. We're going to go to page E of your
summary sheet and page 21 in your book for the Bayshore mixed-use
district, and then we'll also be discussing changes that more or less are
the same in the Gateway Triangle mixed-use district, and that appears
on page 57. And we have Jean Jordan this morning to answer any
questions you might have. She's with the CRA.
MS. JORDAN: Good morning, Jean Jordan, for the record,
Bayshore Gateway CRA.
The changes are pretty much summarized on page 21. It says
that we're adding language to clarify that additions or renovations to
existing buildings within the C-l through C-5 zoning districts may
follow the existing LDC regulations for height and setbacks or the
BMUD overlay regulations.
We're deleting the residential uses from the land use table, adding
them to the residential subdistrict, reducing the minimum required
residential building square footage and the maximum residential
building height, changing the building line to setback line, and making
minor edits, including deletions for clarification purposes.
Also we're revising the BMUD overlay map to designate lots
located adjacent to neighborhood commercial subdistricts for
accessory parking zones. This was basically put in for consistency
because some of them -- in the last cycle some of them were
designated, some of them were not. So we're just making sure that
they're all consistent.
When you go through your packet, it will appear that are there
Page 17
October 11, 2007
are more changes than there actually are, because we took tables and
moved them somewhere else in order for it to be clearer to read, and
most of that was at the suggestion of Ms. Fabacher.
If you have any questions, I'm here to answer them.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Questions? Yeah, Commissioner
Halas, that's from before?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: No, that was from last time.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: No. You explained that quite well.
Thank you.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Very good.
MS. FABACHER: Goodness. We're going to miss you, Jean.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: What do you mean we're going
to miss her?
MS. FABACHER: Well, the BMUD and the GT-MUD have
been in since their inception. They've been in every cycle to fine tune
this, and we're hoping that this will be it.
MS. JORDAN: We're hoping this is the end.
MS. F ABACHER: This is the last time for awhile.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay.
MS. F ABACHER: So that's what I meant.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I don't think there's any problem.
We'll just recycle you.
MS. JORDAN: Okay. The next one is for the Gateway Triangle
mixed-use district, and it basically mirrors the BMUD. Same -- same
changes.
Oh, that starts on page 57, I apologize. You guys are making this
too easy now.
MS. FABACHER: I'm sorry. No comments?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: No comments. Looks good.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: No comment.
MS. F ABACHER: Thank you, Jean.
MS. JORDAN: Thank you.
Page 18
October 11, 2007
MS. FABACHER: Okay. All right, Commissioners. We're
going to go to page F of the summary sheet and page 91 of your book,
and we're looking at section 4.02.01, dimensional standards for
principal uses in base zoning district.
This amendment came as a result of board direction during one of
your regular meetings to make the setbacks in the Estates more
equitable. I believe you had a case where a -- where an applicant
came in and he did not meet the side setback anymore because it had
been changed.
If I can give you a little history. Back in the recodification before
this one in 91-102, the old code when it was created, the side setbacks
on the Estates used to be 10 percent of the lot width, which is
generally 15 feet for most of those properties.
And at that point when it was recodified, it got -- I don't know
how it -- I mean, I wasn't here, but it was changed to 30 feet then. So
anyone who had built prior to 1991 has little accessory structures or
even their main structures that -- when they changed to 30 in '91, they
became nonconforming essentially.
So you asked us to look at making it more equitable, but I think
you saw in your packet that we got a lot of response from the civic
associations that they thought it would take away from the area, which
you know, they think they have a kind of rural area and those larger
setbacks separate the uses and the things, and it seems like the
residents didn't want to change that.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I'm sorry. Commissioner Halas?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Is that why that -- there was a
unanimous vote by the CCPC to deny this?
MS. F ABACHER: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Because of the feedback that they
had --
MS. F ABACHER: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: -- from the people that lived out in
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October 11, 2007
that area?
Well, I wish there was some of those people here today that
would speak in regards to this, because if this is what their wishes are,
I feel that we should probably follow what their wishes are, but --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Well, once again, I'll be honest with
you. I'm not too sure what to tell you. There might be more to this
than meets the eye.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Okay.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Ifwe move it forward, it's not going
to raise a problem at this point in time, then we'll have time for the
community to be able to interact at the next meeting.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: .Good. All right.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Henning, then
Commissioner Fiala.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yeah. I talked to the planning
commissioner who spearheaded getting ahold of the residents who I
think is, in my opinion, opposed to this, and explained the situation
and, you know, where I came from and why I thought this would
make a good amendment.
And I mean, it -- like I said at a regular meeting, the larger the lot
you have, it seems like you have -- you're punished more. The larger
the lot you have, the more taxes you're going to pay, but you have
bigger setbacks and where, an acre-and-a-quarter lot, there's setbacks
of -- side yard setbacks of seven-and-a half feet, but if you have
two-and-a-half acres, it's 30 feet setback.
And so I explained to him where I come from on that so at least
he had some knowledge of why the amendment is here. I'm not sure if
he still agrees with me, and I'm not sure if some of the civic
association members really understand that issue. It's a matter of
equity and not giving somebody any privilege, special privilege.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: You agree that we should let this go
forward so we can study the issue?
Page 20
October 11, 2007
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yes, yes. And I just needed to
explain that because of the Sunshine Laws. We can't talk --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Of course we can. That's what we're
doing right now.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Absolutely. I agree with you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Wow, this has become an epidemic. I
appreciate that.
With that, Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: He already answered my questions.
Thank you.
MS. ISTENES: Mr. Chairman?
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay.
MS. ISTENES: Mr. Chairman? I'm sorry. Susan Istenes,
Zoning Director. Is there any --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Move closer to the mike there.
MS. ISTENES: Okay. Is there anything you want us to bring
back to you at the next meeting or do for you at the next meeting?
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: To change this?
MS. ISTENES: Not necessarily, but I had noted on here that you
just wanted to move this forward in hopes of getting more community
feedback at the next meeting. Is there anything we can do to facilitate
that?
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Yeah, there's a couple of things I'd
like you to do, is to try to see if we can get somebody to go before the
Estates Civic Association, the city civic association, and there's a new
one that will be forming that's out there that's just announced that they
got, I guess -- I don't know, a number of people lined up. It's called
the Golden Gate Estates Property Owners Association, and it wouldn't
be bad if you run it by all of them to get their input and to try to get
them to come to the meeting, and maybe we could schedule it at a
time certain so that they won't have to lose much of their time.
MS. ISTENES: Okay.
Page 21
October 11,2007
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: This next time when it comes back,
will it come back on an evening meeting?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Evening meeting, yes.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Yeah, that would work out fine. And
maybe what we could do is, we start at five, maybe we could schedule
it for a time certain for six. When you go to the different associations
to meet with them, you can bring that up that it would be coming back
at six o'clock. And we really need to have a representative from the
organizations come in. And if at all possible, maybe they can give us
an idea of how their membership voted on it.
MS. ISTENES: And Catherine can correct me if I'm wrong, but I
believe we did notify the organizations of the proposed change, and
that was the feedback that the planning commission got. So I think I
could certainly try to make contact with the representatives to see if
they'll come to your next meeting, and we'll make it a time certain,
like you said, and then they could give you the verbal feedback from
the discussions they had; is that sufficient or --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: When's the next meeting again?
MS. ISTENES: The 16th of October.
MS. FABACHER: 16th of October. It's in the front of your
books there, I think, the schedule.
MS. ISTENES: So I guess my point is, I wasn't sure if I could--
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Is there going to be enough time --
MS. ISTENES: Time.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: -- to be able to do it.
MS. ISTENES: Right.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: The Estates Civic Association's
having a meeting, they've already got their agenda set. Is there some
way that we can keep this going forward and maybe catch it at the
next opportunity so there's --
MS. ISTENES: Sure.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: -- enough time for them to react?
Page 22
October 11, 2007
Because, I mean, just to have the leadership come in -- I'm sorry,
you're right. Just to have the leadership come in from these
organizations and not giving them a chance to run it by the
membership isn't doing anyone a favor, you know. They may -- they
may be -- they may have a difficult time trying to formulate what their
membership stance would be. They might be only reflecting their own
opinion, and this would give them enough time to be able to run it by
their membership and try to get some sort of feedback from them. But
they need to have a presentation, too, from staff.
Now, from October, when's the next one?
MS. F ABACHER: Commissioner, there's one on the 24th that's
a day meeting, and then the final one that's scheduled is for October
30th at five o'clock. That might be the appropriate time because
people usually are out of work then. That's why we have them.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: It's a time factor.
Commissioner Henning, you got an idea?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yeah. They are aware of the
Land Development Code amendment, correct?
MS. ISTENES: That's my understanding.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yeah. Mark Strain contacted all
of them.
MS. ISTENES: Yes.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right.
MS. ISTENES: That's my understanding.
MS. F ABACHER: So did we.
MS. ISTENES: So did -- yeah, and we did, too.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: So, I mean, we could -- why not
just tell them when the board is going to hear this item for final
action?
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Well, it's -- you mean the final
action?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Correct.
Page 23
October 11, 2007
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I guess--
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Ifthere's opportunities to go to
the association at the regular meeting, I'd be happy to participate in
that but, you know, we still need to move forward.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Yeah. I'm just looking for the
maximum impact with the public that I can get, and I know it did not
come up at the last civic association meeting in the Estates, this issue.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Really? I'm surprised.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Well, in any case, let's do the best we
can to be able to get someone here to be able to speak their mind, and
then we'll go forward with it from there.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Can I assist you on that, Susan?
MS. ISTENES: Sure, yeah, certainly. I don't know if there'll be
opportunities to actually attend the meetings depending on when
they're being held, but we'll do the best we can to make sure they're all
contacted and aware.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I'm sure you will.
MS. ISTENES: And then we can attend, if possible, depending
on their scheduling.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Our attorney.
MR. KLATZKOW: Ifit pleases the board, if these civic
associations simply aren't available because of the time frame, we
could shift this to the next cycle and give them ample opportunity --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: You know, I'd really be more
comfortable with that. I mean, I think Commissioner Henning and I
both agree this thing has merits, but we want to be able to serve our
constituency the best way we possibly can. And if we can't get the
right feedback, we might make a rash decision one way or the other.
How about that, Commissioner Henning, continue until the next
cycle?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yeah, I don't -- do we have any
public speakers on this?
Page 24
October 11,2007
MS. F ABACHER: No, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. Well, if we can't hit the
target in this cycle, I think that's great direction.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I think so, too. And the reason I
referred to Commissioner Henning rather than the other two
commissioners directly on this is we both represent the Estates, the
other commissioners are -- their opinion is very much welcome.
We're going to go to Commissioner Halas at this time.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yeah. I was just going to kind of
chime in and say that maybe through the efforts of cable television -- I
know a lot of people out in the Estates don't have cable television,
they may have the daily news, and we could publish it in there that we
would like to have their feedback on a particular time and date.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Well, we're looking to go to the next
cycle so it has enough time to vent through the civic process.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Ifwe decide to go that way, that's
good.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Thank you. How about you,
Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Fine with me.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Commissioner, I just want to
make sure that we give clear direction. It was my understanding if we
can't hit the civic association and tell them that this is in this cycle,
then we would continue it over to the next cycle.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Well, there's no way we're going to
be able to reach them this month. There isn't enough time.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I don't know if I agree with that.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Well, my personal experience with
the Golden Gate Estates Civic Association, I know that their agenda is
chuck full. They haven't got enough time to be able to make a
presentation that would be meaningful. I mean, to ask them to
rearrange their --
Page 25
October 11, 2007
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: -- presentation would not be fair to
them.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. So we want to -- do you
need a motion to continue this to the next -- second cycle of the LDC?
MR. KLATZKOW: Just for the record, that would be good.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I make a motion that we move
this item to the second cycle of the board's 2007 LDC amendments.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I'll second that.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And that would be dimensional
standards 4.02?
MS. FABACHER: 01.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Point 01.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. So we have a motion by
Commissioner Henning, a second by Commissioner Coletta, to move
it to the next cycle.
Any discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Seeing none, all those in favor,
indicate by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: The ayes have it, 4-0.
MS. F ABACHER: Thank you, Commissioners.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Thank you.
MS. FABACHER: Okay. Now I'm still on sheet F -- excuse me
-- summary sheet F, and I'm on section 4.06.05(C), which will be on
page 95 in your book, and Bruce McNall is going to talk to us about
Page 26
October 11, 2007
the boundary for native vegetation requirements.
MR. McNALL: Good morning, Commissioners. Bruce McNall,
Landscape Architect.
If you'll follow along with me here on page 95. Everybody on
95? This amendment is to redefine the boundary for native plant -- the
native planting requirement. And we have included a graphic to make
it more understandable for applicants. The -- and we're dividing it up
on using the roadways.
The -- everything south and west of U.S. 41 would be the 100
percent native requirement. Everything between 41 and 75 would be
50 percent native trees and 50 percent native shrub, and everything
north and east of that 1-75 would be the 50 percent native trees and 35
percent native shrub requirement.
MR. SCHMITT: Bruce, would you point out that this is based on
minimum standards though?
MR. McNALL: Correct, yes. This is a minimum code
requirement for code plantings countywide.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Henning, would you
like to go first?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yeah. What was the purpose of
this amendment?
MR. McNALL: Okay. To clarify. The current language is
unclear, and this graphic helps clarify the boundaries for the native
planting requirements. So we're simply using the main roadways to
divide up the different planting classifications, the different plant
percent requirements for code plantings countywide.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: So the closer you get to the
shore, the more plantings?
MR. McNALL: No. The closer you get to the shore -- we're
using u.s. 41 here as the coastal high hazard line, which would
require 100 percent native plantings from that line all the way to the
coast and barrier islands.
Page 27
October 11, 2007
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And then the area in white?
MR. McNALL: That is -- that's the 50 percent trees, 50 percent
shrub requirement. I'm sorry. The 75 percent trees, 50 (sic) percent
native shrub requirement.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: But it has to be all native
vegetation though, right?
MR. SCHMITT: Just minimum.
MR. McNALL: No. We're talking minimum code requirements,
so --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I know it's minimum.
MR. McNALL: So it's all native south and west of U.S. 41.
MS. FABACHER: I think he's asking if you can plant other stuff
on your own, I believe.
MR. McNALL: Oh. Above and -- above code requirements,
yes, sir. Yes.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: No, that isn't what I'm asking.
MS. FABACHER: Oh, I'm sorry.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Please put the map up on the view
finder so the public can see what we're talking about.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: It -- are you allowing in the
minimum to plant nonnative?
MR. McNALL: Only if it's above and beyond the code
requirement. The--
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. Let's just stay with the
minimum. We're talking about minimum code --
MR. McNALL: Okay.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: -- and I want to know about this
minimum code.
MR. McNALL: All right.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: You -- are you saying in the
minimum code you've got to plant vegetation and you can't plant
nonnative vegetation?
Page 28
October 11, 2007
MR. McNALL: You can if it's above the code percent required
for those three different areas.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay.
MR. McNALL: You'll see on page 96 where it's underlined.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yeah, I see that. I see that.
MR. McNALL: Okay.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: But -- all requirements of
landscaping shall be 100 percent native species determined and
accepted by a valid scientific reference. Do you have that scientific
reference?
MR. McNALL: Well, that -- sir, that was what was -- what was
previously included in the code, and all we're doing is trying to
simplify --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Oh, I'm sorry. It's underlined so
I thought it was added.
MR. McNALL: No, sir. It was just restructured. All the
percentages are the same as the current code.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: What's the scientific reference?
Is that somebody who has studied native plant species within
Southwest Florida?
MR. McNALL: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Native -- so you're saying that a
minimum of75 native trees and 50 (sic) percent shrubbery are
required for the site. What about -- recommended Collier County plant
list and native vegetation. Are you requiring them to plant specific
species within these areas?
MR. McNALL: We have, on our website, a recommended native
plant list.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, that's a recommendation.
That's not a -- that's not a demand. That's not an ordinance, correct?
MR. McNALL: Well, it's written in the current code that -- and
we have a 100 percent native -- recommended 100 percent native plant
Page 29
October 11, 2007
list on our website.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right. And is it --
MR. McNALL: But if it's -- I see what you're saying. If it's
considered native, otherwise, it can still be used. These are just
recommended plants that we're proposing.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: So if! plant a coastal vegetation
in the dark area such as -- coffee bean is a native plant.
MS. FABACHER: Really.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yes. That's a coastal plant.
MR. McNALL: Correct.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Can I plant it in the gray area
and be counted as the minimum?
MR. McNALL: Yes.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. I guess I just really don't
understand what we're trying to do here.
MR. McNALL: We're just trying to simplify the geographic
regions in which these native plant required percentages are going to
be distributed.
MS. ISTENES: It wasn't clear in the old code as to where the
geographic boundaries fell --
MR. McNALL: We had some--
MS. ISTENES: -- and so --
MR. McNALL: We had some problems with applicants
understanding the code and so we're just trying to simplify it.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: You had geographical areas to
begin with --
MR. McNALL: Correct.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: -- but it wasn't clarified?
MR. McNALL: Correct, yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: All right. Well, I don't see the
significance of it personally, but --
MR. McNALL: It's just to give the applicant more clear
Page 30
October 11, 2007
direction when they prepare a code plan. It makes it -- it makes it
much easier, less review time when they understand exactly what the
code requires.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And the code requires equality
ofplantings whether it be in Immokalee or in Vanderbilt Beach?
MR. McNALL: Given the -- given the required percentages per
the geographic area, yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. Thank you.
MR. McNALL: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. Just to clarify for my own
purposes, once you've planted and you've met your native plant
requirement and so forth, and Mr. Homeowner comes in and he
decides to plant a ficus hedge and it meets the approval of his
homeowners association or whatever, that's okay, right?
MR. McNALL: Yes, ma'am, yes.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Yeah. My question, if! may, I'm still
trying to determine why we have a dividing line of75 for the
percentage of native versus nonnative. There's got to be a reason for
it. I -- you know, is it they're more stable in the -- than an area that
might have frost; is that it?
MR. McNALL: Correct, sir. You know, the natives grow better
in the coastal areas.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: And that's why they're gradually
increasing it out? It doesn't have anything to do with demographics.
It has to do with climate conditions?
MR. McNALL: Yes, sir. Along with the recommended native
plant list, it's divided up -- the plants are divided up into regions,
inland, mid inland and then -- or coastal, inland, and then mid-range
plants. So it shows what -- you know, where each native plant grows
better, as given direction to the applicant.
Page 31
October 11,2007
MS. ISTENES: The purpose of the rule and the way it's divided
is related to a survivability factor as well as minimum impact on
natural resources such as water, requirements for fertilizer, things like
that.
You start getting in with your nonnative plants that require all
sorts of special treatment and care because they're not indigenous to
the area, and you start taxing natural resources and limiting
survivability .
MR. McNALL: Correct. The native plants are more sustainable
and require less fertilizer and less water.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Now, one last question, then I'm
going to go back to Commissioner Fiala and Commissioner Henning
whose lights are on.
The Immokalee Master Plan, which is in the process of being
drafted -- some day it will be done -- they can override this plan with
their master plan, right?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yeah. If the board passes the
Land Development Code for Immokalee, that's the code for
Immokalee and this wouldn't pertain to it.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: And I'm saying it out loud so anyone
from Immokalee that's listening doesn't think that we're trying to sell
them down the river as far as plantings go that they may wish to weigh
mono
Let's go back to -- let's go to Commissioner Fiala, then
Commissioner Henning.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes, just to -- something I learned
when I served on the board of directors for the Botanical Garden, they
were looking at two spots, one down here where they're located now
and one at the far north end of Collier County. The difference is that
at the far north end, they had to plant a completely different type of
garden than they could down here because here they could grow more
of the native vegetation and up north they had to put together a garden
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October 11, 2007
that was more designed after -- after Orlando's climate.
So that's just an answer to that. It has everything to do with the
latitude, longitude, and weather and nothing to do with local -- you
know, where you live.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: No. Thank you for that,
Commissioner Fiala.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Henning?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Mr. McNall, can you forward
me the link to the different species in the different areas --
MR. McNALL: Yes.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: -- so I understand? I'm starting
to get what you're trying to do here. Thank you.
MS. F ABACHER: All right, Commissioners. Are we completed
with this one? Okay. Well, Bruce is not out ofthe hot seat yet. We
have on --
MR. McNALL: Three more.
MS. F ABACHER: -- sheet G, page 99 in your book, an
amendment that requests that we modify the prohibited invasive exotic
plant list. And essentially, they've -- they're going to reference a
website here, which is also carried as a printed list, but Bruce can
answer any questions for you.
MR. McNALL: Correct. We're -- what we're doing is we're
trying -- is we're including all the plants on the -- all the category one
invasive plants on the Florida Exotics Pest/Plant Council's exotic
invasive plant list as being prohibited plants to be planted in Collier
County .
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Got it.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. I don't think there's any other
comments or questions.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Oh, I'm sorry. Commissioner Fiala,
go ahead, please.
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October 11, 2007
COMMISSIONER FIALA: So it just talked about ficus hedge
before, but number H is Ficus microcarpus. Is that the same thing?
MR. McNALL: That's con -- that species -- that species is
considered exotic.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: This particular --
MR. McNALL: And that's a -- yes, ma'am.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: But the ficus hedge, is that part -- I
don't know what species.
MR. McNALL: Ficus benjamina is okay. Ficus macrocarpus is
an exotic. It's on the Florida Exotic Pest/Plant Council invasive list,
,
yes, ma am.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I just thought ficus was ficus.
MR. SCHMITT: Ficus trees, honestly, don't survive too well in
even a category two hurricane. That's our biggest problem. They'll
just go right over. Very shallow root system, and extremely thirsty
animals out there. I mean, they take a lot of water.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Other questions?
MS. FABACHER: All right, Commissioners. We have one
more for landscaping, and that is going to be on page 101 in your book
and sheet G, and it's section 4.06.05(G), general landscaping
requirements, and it is putting in more specific language on the
provision of root barrier systems and a new graphic to kind of explain
the concept. I'll let Bruce explain.
MR. McNALL: Exactly. You explained it very well. What
we're doing is we're adding a graphic for applicants to include on their
plans to make it, you know, more -- more understandable and to
prohibit the planting -- or to include this root barrier whenever you're
planting a canopy tree too close to a sidewalk or building.
MR. SCHMITT: You recall the incident we had up in Island
Walk --
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yep.
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October 11,2007
MR. SCHMITT: -- where they had to go in and almost replant
the entire -- the entire area.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Fiala, anything?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: No. That was from last time.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Let's move.
MS. F ABACHER: Okay. Thank you. That's the last one.
MR. McNALL: There's one more clarification.
MS. F ABACHER: In the back, sure.
MR. McNALL: Where we just added the buffer --
MS. FABACHER: Okay.
MR. McNALL: -- exhibit.
MS. FABACHER: Yeah, let's do that.
MR. McNALL: That's on page 163. It's just a visual graphic like
the root barrier graphic which helps applicants understand what a
code-required hedge -- okay.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Boy, that's great.
MR. McNALL: Trying to make it more clear.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Questions, comments?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Commissioner Henning, go
ahead.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: You got double -- I'm trying to
figure out C, buffer C. Those are staggered trees?
MR. McNALL: Correct. Those -- all the trees are code-required
trees. That's a 10-foot height, inch and -- three-quarter inch caliber
mlmmum.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. Wasn't it -- I remember
when the -- back in the '90s when a lot of this application was adopted
for the landscaping and the enhancement. There was a requirement
for a double row of hedges. That's -- I don't see that in this graphic.
MR. McNALL: In the type C buffer?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, I'm not sure which one
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October 11, 2007
calls --
MR. McNALL: What a type C is it's type B, which is 15-foot,
but the type C is 20 feet wide. It has a double row of trees staggered.
So it has twice the trees and the same amount of five-foot high,
10-gallon shrubs as the B. It's the heaviest -- it's the heaviest buffer
that we have.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: What about the hedge? Isn't
there a requirement for a double row hedge?
MR. McNALL: The only requirement for the double row hedge
is for the type D buffer, and that's just a three-foot hedge. The type D
is for right-of-way planting.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I see. I see. Thank you.
MR. McNALL: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Any other questions or comments?
MS. FABACHER: All right. We're -- thank you, Bruce. Thank
you for reminding me.
Okay. We are going to move on now. We're going to have some
engineering. We have John Houldsworth here for some adjustments
of time zones. I'm going to be on sheet H of your summary sheets, and
we'll start on page 107 in your book, and it's going to be section
10.02.04, establish a time specific within which final subdivision plats
must be recorded after approved by the Board of County
Commissioners. Oh, Stan's going to do it. Okay, sorry.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yes, sir (sic). Good morning,
Commissioners. Stan Chrzanowski, Engineering Review.
We have two small changes to this. Weare putting in this
statement, in B, 18 months from the date of approval of the final plat
by the Board of County Commissioners, and farther down the page
we're substituting a section that says, once approved by the board, the
applicant shall submit the final plat for recording within 18 months.
To transfer property they have to record the plat.
We don't -- we would prefer, actually, that they built the
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October 11,2007
infrastructure first before they recorded the plat as opposed to posting
a bond. They bond the uncompleted improvements, and if they build
the infrastructure first, the bond is smaller, or they can post the bond at
the start of construction for the entire project and file the plat and start
selling lots before the infrastructure is even built. So this -- this gives
them 18 months after the approval in which to record the plat. We've
had some that just hang out there forever.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Comments? Commissioner
Henning?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, the board never sees the
plat when they approve it. That's done administratively, right?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: As far as I know, the plat gets approved
by the board.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: But it's never included in our
packet.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: The plat itself, the geometry?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: The geometry is reviewed by staff and
we submit something to you saying that the plat is -- has been
reviewed and it's going to be recorded. You may not actually see the
plat itself.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: We don't.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Okay.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Should we? I mean, if we're
going to approve it, shouldn't we see it?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: We could show it to you; not a
problem.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: You're approving plats based
upon a zoning ordinance, right?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Based upon the Land Development
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October 11, 2007
Code.
MS. ISTENES: Which includes the subdivision regulations.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Uh, okay.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: But if it's -- if there's any
deviations within the particular PUD zoning ordinance, that would be
recorded on the plat?
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: It should be caught during the review
and it should be recorded on the plat, yes.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. Thanks.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: You're welcome.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Go ahead.
MS. F ABACHER: All right, Commissioners. The next one that
Stan is -- it simply cross-references the provision that Stan just put in.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right.
MS. F ABACHER: It's on page 109 and it references -- well, it
says 270 days. It's the same thing.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Okay.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay.
MS. FABACHER: Okay. Let's see. Actually, I think -- I think I
went out of order or they're out of order in the book. On page 114 is
where you see the, add the requirement 270 days. That's the
reference, the time limitations pursuant to section 1O.0203(B)(4)(a) on
page --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: You're losing me.
MS. FABACHER: I'm sorry. If you're on page 114.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Now, where's the reference in
the --
MS. F ABACHER: That's on page -- it says page 111.
Apparently the two files got switched.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Oh, I see.
MS. F ABACHER: So I didn't want to put it on the record
incorrectly.
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October 11, 2007
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Page 114.
MS. F ABACHER: Yes, I'm sorry. And so this one on page 114
just references the thing we just changed. Then if you go to -- if you
go back, these two got switched. If you go back to page 111 and page
112, that's going to be your next one. Create a time limit for
resubmittals of plats and plans consistent with SDP requirements, and
that is on page 112, so --
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yes, sir. At the present time --
MS. F ABACHER: Just noticed that.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: At the present time, if you're doing a
Site Development Plan and you submit an application and we send
you back our comments, you have 270 days to respond to us or the
project goes dead, but we didn't include plans and plats in that
requirement, so now we are.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Comments?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Sure. Go ahead, Commissioner
Henning.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: That's a great thing.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Susan, I have a question for
you. If a subdivision plat is approved by the board and years later
they want to, let's say, tear down a parking lot and put in a park, does
that require a subdivision plat amendment first before it's
administratively approved?
MS. ISTENES: It could. It could, depending on what they're
changing.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yeah. If the board is approving
plats and then recording them, how can it change if we don't do the
plat amendment first?
MS. ISTENES: If it requires a replat, then they have to come
back through the same process and it would have to be approved by
you.
Page 39
October 11, 2007
COMMISSIONER HENNING: What requires a replat?
MS. F ABACHER: Changing lot lines.
MS. ISTENES: Thanks. I know that. That's the obvious answer.
I'm just trying to think of all other circumstances that might require it.
The obvious answer is obviously a change in the boundary of the tract.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: You've answered my question.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Or the internal lot lines or the
easements.
MS. ISTENES: I'm trying to think of anything else that might
necessitate a change in easement.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And I heard a lot line
adjustment.
MR. SCHMITT: No, those lot line adjustments --
MS. ISTENES: No.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: If you're doing one lot, but if you're
going to change --
MS. F ABACHER: Setbacks.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: It depends on how major it is.
MS. ISTENES: If you were actually taking a tract and
subdividing it into more than two, you would have to come in for
replat.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: How is that determined? I mean,
if you're changing anything in the plat, how is that determined that
that can be done administratively?
MS. ISTENES: The LDC outlines the requirements for platting
and replatting requirements, so let me just try to provide an example.
If somebody had a large tract and they decided they wanted to
subdivide it and it had already been approved a previous plat as a
single tract of a certain size and dimension and boundary, and if they
triggered the requirements, they were then dividing that certain tract
up into more than two lots or smaller tracts, then that would trigger the
requirement to come in and amend their plat, and that is not
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October 11, 2007
administratively approved. That's administratively reviewed and then
brought to you for final approval as a replat.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: So if you -- if you create
another lot, that can't be accepted as an administrative approval?
MS. ISTENES: In some cases it can, and I'll use an --like an
Estates example for -- let's say you have a five-acre tract in the Estates
and the Land Development Code -- and somebody wanted to split that
in half. They can do that administratively.
Where they can't do that administratively -- and I'll try to provide
another example -- is we get developments that come and build in
phases, so they may have a plat that shows a tract divided into, let's
say, 15 lots, and then the remainder in just large unsubdivided tracts,
and then later they come in and want to subdivide those into another
15 lots so they can pull building permits and build, and they'll come in
and do a replat of that tract. Again, not administratively approved.
That comes back through you.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right.
MS. ISTENES: So it's very minimal what you can do
administratively as far as dividing property through the subdivision
regulations in the LDC.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right. And it can't affect
property rights --
MS. ISTENES: Well, the--
COMMISSIONER HENNING: -- that change?
MS. ISTENES: -- subdivision has to be in -- the property
boundaries as a result of a subdivision have to be compliant with the
LDC and a PUD ordinance, for example. I think that's where you're
gomg.
I may use this opportunity to say, where we run into trouble and
where there's a disconnect is people will go to the Property Appraiser's
Office, for example, and they'll get a new folio number and they will
sell off a portion of their property without coming either through the
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October 11, 2007
administrative process to do that where we can review it to make sure
what they're creating is consistent with the code --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right.
MS. ISTENES: -- or through the subdivision process.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And that's where we have the
1.7 -- 1.17 -acre lots in Golden Gate Estates.
MS. ISTENES: Possibly as a result of that process, yes. People
can -- there's no requirement for them -- well, let me put it this way.
They're not being told that there's a requirement, when they go to the
property appraiser to get a new folio number, that they have to comply
with zoning requirements.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Any other questions? No.
MS. F ABACHER: All right, Commissioners. I'm on sheet J of
your summary sheets. We're going to page 115 in the book. Section
10.02.05, submittal requirements for improvement plans. This was, I
think, introduced by Tom Kuck, but Stan is going to stand in for him.
MR. CHRZANOWSKI: Yes, sir -- ma'am. Sorry. Again, I think
this is something that the board probably initiated in one of their
conversations and Tom took to heart, was sometimes we have
developers that are supposed to build portions of the drainage system
off their project that serve the nearby neighborhoods, and they go in
and they clear and they fill and they don't build a portion. They do
everything at the same time.
The purpose of this is to try to get them to do all the off-site
improvements up front so that if their construction does cause any
adverse impacts in the neighborhood, that there is someplace for the
water to drain to.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Thank you, Stan.
Next one?
MS. FABACHER: Okay. I think that's it for Stan.
All right. The next one we're going to do is on section -- sheet J
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October 11, 2007
in you summary sheet, and it's going to be on page 119, section
10.03.05, and it's to provide signage requirements for GMP
site-specific amendments and small scale, and David Weeks is here to
discuss it with you on page 119.
MR. WEEKS: Good morning, Commissioners. David Weeks of
the Comprehensive Planning Department.
Presently Growth Management Plan amendments have different
requirements, public notice requirements, than rezones, conditional
uses, other types of petitions you deal with more regularly.
You might recall that a few years ago, I think about five years ago, the
county made a decision to change the public notice requirement that
we put into the newspaper. State law requires a quarter-page ad. We
made the decision to put in a full-page ad in the Naples Daily News.
A little more recently, in 2005, we amended the Land
Development Code to require these site-specific GMP amendments to
hold a neighborhood information meeting. And now, taking it one
step further to being closer to what the requirements are for those
zoning petitions, this LDC amendment will require the posting of
signs on the property to meet the same requirements as for those
zoning petitions, that is the same size sign, the same number of signs
based upon the dimensions of the property, et cetera.
The amendment looks, perhaps, substantial when you see the
amount of underlying -- underlined text. That's because we made a lot
of, I guess you'd say, recodifications, shifted some things around, but
the meat of the amendment is simply to require posting of signs for
site-specific comprehensive plan amendments.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Comments?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Okay.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Next?
MS. F ABACHER: The next would be -- let's see. Linda's not
here. Maybe David will help us. It's on section -- it's on page 125.
It's section 10.03.05, and this adds the requirement for a second
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October 11, 2007
neighborhood informational meeting when a land use petition is
continued for over a year from the initial NIM date. As you know
something --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Absolutely.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yep.
MS. F ABACHER: -- will be for maybe years and people forget,
and so --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Yeah. The only thing I might want to
question is a year, you know. It almost seems like a year's a long
time, but if the person comes back in 11 months, that's still a long
time. Maybe -- let's see if Commissioner Henning wants to weigh in
on this.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, talking on the same issue
but different topic. There's -- this is more than a change of time. It
also is striking variances and parking exemptions and mixed-use
projects.
MS. F ABACHER: Actually, I'm going to let David address that
because David was kind of instrumental in rewriting, in rearranging it.
As you know, I want to preface it by saying that for many years
now people have just added things and stuck them in and added things
and stuck them in, and it's kind of chaotic so that we can't really -- it's
not very clear. And so David had tried to arrange it. He didn't take
anything out. He moved it to another area so that they could be not all
bunched together.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, what I see as striking in F
on page 125, the first paragraph, you're taking out variance and
parking exemptions and then adding mixed-use projects.
MR. WEEKS: Commissioners, there are some needed revisions
to this for accuracy. I'm -- when I reviewed this just a few days ago,
to make sure that they'd did incorporated all of the changes -- we
always do that. Staff needs to review these before they come to you to
make sure we've accurately reflected the CCPC recommendation and
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October 11, 2007
so forth and see if there's anything we might have missed, you know,
make sure these are in proper form.
I did notice a few things. And starting with the very first page on
125 up on the staff report section where it identifies what the change
is, that's not correct what is stated there. I think it's misleading.
It was a goof. I think it goes back to the very first draft of this and
what we were trying to do, and I believe it reflects, perhaps, a merger
of two different separate and -- distinctly separate amendment.
Rather than go on, let me make a suggestion that we pass this on
till your next hearing because, Catherine, unless I'm mistaken, the
version they have in their packet is -- does not reflect those revisions.
MS. F ABACHER: Right.
MR. WEEKS: Because, Commissioner Henning, you're hitting
one of the points of one of the minor changes I had made, and that
was, we need to not strike through variances and parking exemptions
in the title of section F, because within the body of this text it is still
there. We're not removing it.
Furthermore, this is adding a requirement for neighborhood
information meeting for the MUP petitions. It's not identified on the
report section.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right. Well, can I ask you how
the strikethrough got in -- on there in the variance and parking
exemptions?
MR. WEEKS: Well, to start with, it was because this section
appeared not to have anything to do with that because it's talking
about neighborhood information meetings, but yet if you go over to
page 127, I believe it is -- I believe it's 127. At any rate there's a place
within here that does make reference to the variances in parking
exemptions.
MS. ISTENES: 128 under 3, David.
MR. WEEKS: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Three.
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October 11, 2007
MR. WEEKS: My opinion is -- and remember, I'm a
Comprehensive Planner, not a Zoner. And when I'm reading this, this
section is dealing with neighborhood information meetings. This
paragraph 3 about parking exemptions and variances doesn't belong
under paragraph F that starts on page 125.
But this is not something that just came about. This has been in
the code for some time. I think it's an amendment for another day to
move that out of this section.
But back to the first question, Commissioner Henning, variances
and parking exemptions, that term should not be stricken from the
heading of this section because it is still within the body.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, should we have
neighborhood meetings for variances and parking exemptions?
Obviously somebody thinks not; otherwise, there wouldn't be a
strikethrough.
MS. ISTENES: I think it was just an error, Commissioner.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay.
MS. ISTENES: It -- we were trying to rearrange it and it just -- it
didn't get followed through, so --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay.
MR. WEEKS: I would concur. I think it was just a -- we just
goofed. It's not a major issue, but we need to fix it, and we should do
so --
MS. F ABACHER: Yes.
MR. WEEKS: -- before this comes back to you in proper order.
MS. FABACHER: We will fix it and bring it back to you;
apologies.
Okay. The next one is section 10.03.05, and it's on page 129 in
your book. This is --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Section 10?
MS. F ABACHER: 03.05, page 129, and this is to require that --
the mixed-use project approval, which currently goes only to the
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October 11, 2007
Board of County Commissioners. This is to request that it go through
the Planning Commission before it comes to the Board of County
Commissioners.
Let me say one thing. A couple issues involved here. When we
originally conceived this mixed-use project, it -- they had asked us, the
staff of the CRA, had asked us to find a way to make an abbreviated
approval process instead of a thorough -- a complete rezone in the
Bayshore Gateway Triangle Redevelopment Area.
So what we had come up with was that -- because the rules are all
__ it's not like a PUD where you write your own rules. The rules are
all stated in the overlays exactly where the building is, and so we
thought that was a lot of guidance, that we didn't really need the
Planning Commission or you to review a site plan.
What we really needed you to do was to look at the uses and the
intensity of the uses if we're going to mix residential and commercial
and say, well, this is an outdoor bar. This won't fit here. That's it. Or
you can't have this large shopping center next to this small
neighborhood. It was that.
And then the second issue was, there are 388 bonus density units
that were obtained by rezoning the Botanical Gardens, and part of the
CRA is to redistribute those as a bonus density for redeveloping and
using mixed use.
Now, just basically as a person familiar with government, you
cannot administratively redistribute these. You need an elected body
who's accountable to redistribute government resources to the people
essentially. So are you very much needed to award those bonus
density units.
The review that we were -- you were asked to look at was just a
conceptual plan. Nothing specific about setbacks, nothing like that.
They're just going to show you a box and say, this is going to be a
bowling alley and this is going to be townhouses and this is where
they are. This is the piece of land. This is what's behind it, and you
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October 11, 2007
were going to say, well, it looks okay to us. How many units do you
want? Okay, you can have those units. That was going to be it.
Unfortunately, we had -- we had growing pains in the very
beginning of the process, and there were some things that weren't very
clear. And I believe with one applicant they kept coming back and
trying to override staffs interpretation and the way these things work,
so it was a problem for you, but it was just with that one. And I -- I
don't know how the CRA feels.
But if you add this meeting, that's going go double the time that it
takes to get approval on these projects. And as I said, you know, the
Bayshore and the Gateway Triangle overlays are very specific. You
have to be so far from the street. The sidewalk has to be so -- you
know what I'm saying?
They're very specific on how it has to be, so it's not a lot of
leeway for someone to opine on, you know.
But that's -- you had said this -- after you had a lot of problems
with that one, you all had said, well, this probably needs to go to the
Planning Commission. And it will -- you know, that will kind of
double staffs time.
And then if the Planning Commission wants to look at the -- we
had set up a process with administrative deviations, but then if the
Planning Commission wants to get into that and sometimes they want
to get into issues of driveways and all, then that will just bring it up to
full regular zoning again.
And if it is an administrative deviation process, then if the
Planning Commission weighs in, it's really not administrative but --
just to tell you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. And have you spoken to the
Bayshore Gateway Triangle CRA people themselves, and has the
advisory board gone through this as well?
MS. FABACHER: Well, they left.
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October 11, 2007
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Did they know it was on here?
MS. F ABACHER: Yes, they did. I've spoken to them about it
many times. They--
MR. SCHMITT: Commissioner, at the last petition that came
before you for the MUP, the board directed and gave very clear
guidance that they wanted the MUP to go through the Planning
Commission before it came to you.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes.
MR. SCHMITT: So they're well aware of this amendment.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: We like everything to do through
the Planning Commission. We feel good about that.
MR. SCHMITT: I think what Catherine was pointing out is the
MUP was originally designed to be --
MS. F ABACHER: An incentive.
MR. SCHMITT: -- a bit more streamlined. We ran into an issue
on this fairly significant one with Bayshore. You directed it to go to
the Planning Commission. We have no problem with that. We just
want to make sure that that's your direction because originally when
the MUP was set up, it was not meant to be that laborious of a process.
But I think based on what the Planning Commission does and
certainly the detail they've put into it, it's, frankly, not a bad idea.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yep.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I think it's a great idea. I just
wanted to know if the people that are involved with that process
concur, and if they don't, if there's any adjustments. We still like it to
go to the Planning Commission, don't get me wrong, but maybe there's
__ maybe there's something they have to add to it. I would hope that
by the next time we can hear from them.
MS. FABACHER: Okay. Yes.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay.
MS. F ABACHER: Yes, ma'am. I'll have David Jackson here for
the next --
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October 11, 2007
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay, great. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I think every single commissioner is
very supportive of it going to the Planning Commission, anything to
do with land use items. There's never an argument on that. Never has
been; never will be.
Next?
MS. FABACHER: All right. The next one is on sheet L of your
summary sheet, it's very minor. Replace an incorrect -- it's on page
137 in your book. It's to replace an incorrect reference missed during
recodification. Where am I? On page 137.
If you look on the book on page 138, almost all the way down to
the page, it referenced minimum yard requirements, it will referenced
you to chapter 2.07.00. Well, those requirements are -- after
recodification were put 4.02.01, so we're just--
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay.
MS. F ABACHER: -- fixing that.
The next one is on page 139 and that comes from compo
planning, and it's section 2.03.07, overlay districts, D, the ST, special
treatment overlay, and I believe David Weeks is going to address that
Issue.
MR. WEEKS: Commissioners, this is the section of the Land
Development Code pertaining to the original TDR program, that is the
one that has been in existence since the 1970s. You're probably much
more familiar with the rural fringe TDR program adoption in 2002.
This TDR program here includes a -- an ability to transfer credits
for hotel and motel units from the RT zoning -- or let's say to the RT
zoning district. And every -- every text within this section of the code
that deals with the transfer speaks to the transfer of residential units.
Nothing is said about hotel/motel units yet it suddenly appears here in
the table on page -- or on the list on page 140.
My reading of this and my understanding of the TDR program is
that it is not the intent to allow for hotel/motel units, which we view as
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October 11, 2007
a commercial use, be transfer; therefore, this amendment is to delete
any reference to the hotel/motel.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Question, if I may. What part of
Collier County does this apply to? I'm not -- I remember this was one
of the first TDRs that ever came up. My friend Nino Spagno put it
together. But could you tell me at what part of the -- someplace
around Marco Island, is it?
MR. WEEKS: Well, it's now applicable to -- originally it was
applicable throughout the county. It is now only applicable to the
urban areas, urban designated areas of the county, unincorporated
county .
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. So that would be one mile east
of951 ?
MR. WEEKS: Roughly, yes, sir. And then seaward, Port of the
Islands, Immokalee, Goodland, et cetera, but --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: And forgive me for asking the
question directly. This supposedly innocent little change, what
exactly will it do?
MR. WEEKS: Well, it will preclude someone's ability to transfer
hotel/motel credits. I can tell you that I've been here 22 years. This
TDR program has only been used once in that time period. That was
around 1991, and that was to transfer residential units.
To my knowledge, at least that long, and I'm not aware of it prior
to that, that hotel/motel units ever have been transfer. So the
possibility, yes, we're taking away a possibility but actual use, I don't
think it's going to affect anyone.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Well, we'll find out at the next -- the
next meeting, ifthere's a number of people here in the audience.
Speaking here of the audience, do you have any speaker slips for
anybody? I see some people out in the audience.
MS. FABACHER: No. I haven't received any.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: If anyone wishes to participate, there
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October 11, 2007
are speaker slips out in the hallway. If you'd be so kind as to get them
and fill them out, and indicate on the agenda what it was you wanted
to speak about.
And as a matter of fact, I don't see any problem if there's
something we already went on, if you still want to talk about it
because this --
MR. MERCADO: I just want to ask a question.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Well, I tell you what. Fill out the
speaker slip real quick and bring it back, and I'll make sure you get a
chance to speak, sir.
MR. MERCADO: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Please
continue. Wait, hold it. We're at a break time. Let's take a lO-minute
break, then we'll be right back.
(A brief recess was had.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I'll take a minute now and ask the
speaker to come forward.
Sir, you have three minutes. If you would, please, when you
come up forward, state your name for the record. I hope that it's
pertaining to what we're dealing with here today. But in any case,
we're glad you're here.
MR. MERCADO: No problem, appreciate it. My name is
David. Good morning, by the way.
My question is real basic. I'm here for my parents.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. You're David. Your last
name, David?
MR. MERCADO: Mercado.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay, yes.
MR. MERCADO: I'm here for my parents. They've been living
here for about three years already. We live in 3125 Everglades
Boulevard North, right close to Oil Well.
And their house is the only house built from 31 st all the way to
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October 11, 2007
Oil Well. And we got some other landowners that have come to us
and asked us, why can't they -- not built (sic). Their house is there.
They were not given permits to build there. And that's my question,
why not? I mean, what's the reason behind it?
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I don't know, sir. I'll tell you what
though, it's not the business that we're dealing with here at hand today,
but what I'm going to do is I'm going to ask you to get with Joe
Schmitt. He's the gentleman that can get you to the right staff people
and the answer. And then if you'd like to -- if you don't like the
answer that you get, I would like to invite you to come back at a
regular commission meeting, which is on the second and the fourth
Tuesday of every month.
MR. MERCADO: Okay.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: And at that point in time we'll give
you the paperwork, and you can either come at the beginning of the
meeting under public petition for a 10-minute span to be able to
discuss your particular situation, or you can come at the end of the
meeting where you'll have three minutes that you'd be able to bring it
forward. If you want to make it a public petition, you have to file two
weeks before.
MR. MERCADO: Okay. The reason behind it is, because I've
heard from some people that actually work in the government and the
county that it has been rezoned to commercial and --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: No, no. It has not been rezoned to
commercial. That much I can tell you. But for the rest of it, I need
you to refer to community services.
And do me a favor, after you get the answers that you're looking
for, I want you to come back to me and tell me what you found out
and what questions remain, and then we'll see about getting you
scheduled to come before the Board of Commissioners, okay?
MR. MERCADO: Appreciate it.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Thank you very much for
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October 11, 2007
being here. Yeah, we've got about another, oh, 20 minutes or so.
Joe can take you out in the back of the room there and go over that
with you now, but before you do walk away, Commissioner Fiala--
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh, I was just going to suggest that
he talk to you, too, because a lot of times it's a misunderstanding.
People will interpret things one way, but actually -- when you actually
come out, maybe there was a stumbling block there and they didn't
realize it isn't they that was being refused, but maybe some kind of a
situation or something. And a lot of times you're able to just ferret all
that stuff right out. So I'm glad you suggested him -- he getting ahold
of you, too.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Just one little minor point that you
mentioned about where you live and everything. That's the possible
area of an interchange in the future down there at Everglades and 75,
and there's going to be forces there that are going to want that area to
be able to go commercial. As far as I'm concerned, that's not going to
happen. You can tell them to leave you alone.
MR. MERCADO: They already approved to expand the roads,
so I mean, they've taken 70 feet in the front of the house and 30 feet
towards our house to make the road four way. They're making -- the
road is already being changed to a four-way road, four lanes, so --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I'm a little lost. But let Joe start with
that end, and we'll get the other questions of transportation and we'll
get back to you on them. And then at that point in time, if a problem
exists, I'll show you how to access the system. That's my job to do
that.
MR. MERCADO: No problem. Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Thank you.
MR. MERCADO: Take care.
MS. F ABACHER: Thank you, Commissioner.
We're going to continue on page 141. That is on sheet M of your
summary sheets, section 2.03.07. Again, special treatment overlay,
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October 11, 2007
ST, and this is an amendment to change the requirement for -- to
change -- to ask for a title opinion. It just said a title search. And if
you're on page 142, the language formerly said title search, but now
they're requesting a title opinion be provided before they can sever the
TDRs to be sure that they can do that.
And then the second addition is they've -- adding an affidavit,
and I believe Joe Thompson had told me that this was an approved --
this is something that had gone before the board, before you all, and
you had approved it, and that's the kind of document that you would
like for that exchange.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Fiala, do you have
something to add? I'm sorry. Your light was probably on from
before.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: It was, although I can ask, what's the
difference between opinion and a search?
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Ask the question. Move the
mike a little closer.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: What's the difference between an
opinion and a search?
MS. ISTENES: I'll defer to Jeff Klatzkow. It's more of a legal
question.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay.
MR. KLATZKOW: Title -- title opinion is more often signed by
an attorney stating that I have reviewed the title and I hereby opine
that it is such and such and such. A title search typically would come
out and it would simply say, this is what we found, boom, boom,
boom, boom, boom.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Henning?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yeah. What -- when somebody
does -- wants to purchase a piece of property, do they do a title search
-- have a title company do a title search?
MR. KLATZKOW: Well, if I'm buying a house, I'm getting a
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October 11, 2007
title search and I'm getting title insurance. If you're just looking at
vacant property out there, you don't want to go through that expense;
you might be happy just with the title search, then you can go through
it and see if there's anything there that would bother you.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And that's -- in the title search
that's reported ifthere's any encumbrance on the property, right?
MR. KLATZKOW: Any recorded encumbrance, yes.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: So in a title -- or a title opinion,
there's -- what's the difference?
MR. KLATZKOW: Well, there's -- a title opinion would have
often an attorney saying, I've gone -- I've done a title search and I've
reviewed everything and it's my opinion that, for example, there are
no conservation easements on this or what have you. It's just one step
more than a title search.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, a title search that a title
company does, it just looks for mortgages or liens against a property?
MR. KLATZKOW: Right, but they're not giving you an opinion.
MS. ISTENES: It's probably more -- and, Jeff, correct me if I'm
wrong. I'm just going to throw this out here. It's probably more
advantageous to have an opinion if you -- if you go back later and
discover that something through your title search was not uncovered
that should have been, and you had a legal -- somebody legally
reviewing it giving the opinion.
I suppose you could probably go back and seek retribution or
what have you, damages or what have you against that individual. I
don't know. I'm just, based on my personal experience, suggesting
that.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: So in a title opinion, you're
going to be -- the staff is going to, then from this LDC amendment,
require what's in the title opinion, correct?
MR. KLATZKOW: If the title opinion is such that we wouldn't
believe that a TDR is possible, then you wouldn't get it. I mean, that's
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October 11, 2007
really what you're looking for.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Can we talk about other things,
Mr. Chairman, about TDRs?
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: If it's related to where we are on this,
of course.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, it's due to discovery about
TDRs, and the board had a discussion at the last meeting about
previous petitions to the Board of Commissioners, so it has everything
to do with it.
And Mr. Klatzkow, in that discussion, based upon what was said
in the public record, would you have changed your mind on your
opinion in supporting staff?
MR. KLATZKOW: I think -- my general opinion is this, that if
you have a -- if you're going to sever development rights from a
parcel, that parcel has to be developable.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right. Based upon the email
you sent me, you said, I sat down with staff, carefully reviewed the
TDR program, and was advised that only legal developable lots were
entitled to credits. And, of course, we've seen that different and
attested to it.
MR. KLATZKOW: Well, we had a petitioner come in and show
different lots up on the viewer, and some of these lots appear to be
non-developable due to route systems. To be fair to staff, I'd like to sit
down with staff and go through each and every one of them because
you get hit with something on the fly and it's difficult to respond.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Try it at our seat.
MR. KLATZKOW: Yeah, I understand.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Henning, would you
give a little more detail for the people that are listening out there. You
and --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, what happened was at our
last meeting a gentleman wanted a TDR for his 10-foot strip,
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October 11, 2007
three-plus acres lot. And the email I received from Mr. Klatzkow said
it was his opinion or he was told that development credits or TDR
credits are not for undevelopable lots. And it was presented to us and
verified by staff that actually that was wrong. They did issue credits
for lots that are not buildable because they had road easements -- is the
one that I particularly remember.
MR. KLATZKOW: Yeah. And that's -- again, you'd have to go
-- I think what it identified, something like 150 potential lots out there
that were nonconforming. I think you want to go through those to see
how many possibly developable, possibly not developable, but the real
issue was -- and again, it's difficult for you too. You get hit on the
visualizer saying -- somebody's saying, well, look at this lot here.
They gave severance credits for that and you can't develop it. And I
don't know if you could develop it or not. I just don't know.
MR. SCHMITT: I can add, they are deemed -- at that time they
were legally nonconforming lots. And Jeff is correct, those lots that
were shown, there is, frankly, no way to know if they could be built
on or not. But by the code and by the rural fringe mixed-use district
overlay, if they're a legally nonconforming lot and are of the size and
they can come in and present a plan to build a home with the proper
setbacks, they could build on those lots. It's any lot of record after '74
that is legally nonconforming, you can build on, and that is pretty
much --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Mr. Schmitt?
MR. SCHMITT: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: What was the commission's
instructions at the meeting when this issue came up?
MR. SCHMITT: The instructions are, we're to come back to you
to present to you a snapshot of how many lots are out there that are
illegal lots and come back to you with options on how to deal with
those. If you want to amend -- if it requires an amendment to the
GMP and LDC, to define to you how long in the process it would
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October 11,2007
take. So that's our instructions.
We're doing research now to determine how many lots are out
there that fall in that category that are illegal lots, how many of these
legally nonconforming lots are out there, to find some options for you,
and define the pros and cons of those options, and you give us
direction on how to proceed.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: County Attorney, is there anything
that, the discussion today, that we should add to those instructions?
MR. KLATZKOW: Well, I think there's an issue; have we ever
given somebody a TDR credit on a lot that could not be developed? I
just don't know the answer to that.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right. And that was your
understanding based upon your support of that executive summary.
MR. KLATZKOW: Yeah. My understanding was that we're
only issuing TDRs for developable lots.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: And that will--
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I mean, that totally changes
things, Commissioner. We're talking non -- illegal nonconforming
lots versus developable lots. So I mean, that -- it gives a whole new
parameter on it.
Mr. Ochs, do you have something to add?
MR. OCHS: No, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Are you sure?
MR. OCHS: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: So it's just -- my concern is that
everybody gets the correct information.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I couldn't agree more with you, and
you'll have this item coming back to you, and I'm sure that we'll
include every parameter that was just mentioned here today in that so
that we can fully explore it and have the -- by then I'm sure the County
Attorney's Office will have some clearer understandings of it or --
MR. KLATZKOW: No. I have a pretty good understanding
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October 11,2007
why we're doing the program. The question is, I don't have a list of
the lots that we gave TDR credits for, whether or not they're
developable. I assume staff has that list and staff can tell me whether
or not that lot could have been developed.
MR. SCHMITT: But when the plan was passed, the premise was
that any legally nonconforming lot that could be developed on, and it's
presumed that any legally nonconforming lot could be developed, and
that area was -- is eligible for a TDR. That was the sense of making it
fair.
Whether they come in and demonstrate that, we can put a house,
that was not in the criteria. So it's presumed that a legally
nonconforming lot is developable. And if you want us now to go back
and look and see how many of those legally nonconforming lots could
actually be developed, we'll do that as well.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Well, let's just poll the commission
real quick. Would you like to include that in the instructions we gave
the other day?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I think the county attorney
needs to be involved in this. When we're told that a legally
nonconforming lot can be built on, you know, I mean, that's -- you're
saying it's nonconforming but you could build on it.
MR. SCHMITT: It's nonconforming, Commissioner, in that it's
not -- it's less than five acres. It's one unit per --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I understand, but in any case, this is
going to -- it's not something that we're going to change within the --
what's in front of us today. There's no wording in here that we're
going to be changing that's going to reflect it, and we also have this
coming back to us. So if we need to make some changes at that time,
we can.
I think that we need to just move on with this right now, come
back to this issue when it comes back to us, and deal with it. I know
that we gave instructions to staff to bring this issue back to us, and I'd
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October 11, 2007
like to hear it in its full extent at that time. I don't think we're going to
be able to solve the issue here today.
Is there anything else to discuss pertaining to the LDC change
that you have in front of you right now?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Let's move on to the next
item.
MS. F ABACHER: All right. Commissioners, I'm on sheet M of
the summary sheets, and we're going to go to page 145 in the book.
It's the same area. We're talking about TD (sic) credits again. And if
you look on page 146, staff is asking that a letter of credit be
substituted for a performance surety bond.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Any comments?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Seeing none, we'll go ahead and
move on.
MS. F ABACHER: Page 147, the next page in your book. This
is not the Goodland Zoning Overlay change that we've heard so much
about. This is a simple correction. The provisions for -- I think it's
some sheds, storage sheds. It's on the bottom of page 149 -- were
identified as being located on Bayshore Drive when actually the street
is called Bayshore Way in Goodland. It confused the staff, because
they said, well, this should be in the BMUD, so --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Any comments?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Seeing none, move on.
MS. FABACHER: Okay. If you'd turn your page to 151, this is
a request, 2.03.07, overlay zoning district, K. Activity center nine
does have specific design standards. They are located in section
4.02.23. This is not referenced; therefore, people couldn't find them,
so we wanted to make sure. So that's what we're doing is letting them
know that there are specific design standards on another section of the
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October 11, 2007
code.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Okay.
MS. F ABACHER: Okay. Our next one is going to be another
really simple one. It's on page 153. Turn to page 154. It's an incorrect
reference. I'm looking at AI, North Belle Meade overlay exemption,
except as specifically provided herein, and BML receiving lands are
only subject to the provisions of sections 2.03.08, and it should be C
instead ofD.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Move on, please.
MS. FABACHER: All right. Next one I'm going to have David
help me with. We've -- next one is going to be on page 155, and what
it is corrections to the density standard table, eliminate errors and
corrections to footnotes. And I want to say that with the help of -- it
was DSAC; wasn't it, David?
MR. WEEKS: Yes.
MS. FABACHER: We started with a small change on this page,
and they said, it's really hard to read. Can't we redo it? So we've
completely kind of rearranged things, and I think it's easier to read
now just to be consistent. But David might -- if you have any
questions.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Once again, it's the underlying check
marks that have been changed and the underlying -- well, the only
thing that has been -- what's been changed on 155?
MR. WEEKS: Nothing. That's the staff report portion. The
actual text changes begin on page 156, Commissioner.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. So 156 is some of the check
marks, and then 157, it's the underlying part under, two, starting off
with density.
MR. WEEKS: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Number 3, maximum.
MR. WEEKS: One of the things, if you look in the right-hand
column of the table, you'll see a lot of changes there. Weare not
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October 11, 2007
changing the density. We are just changing how we refer to it.
For example, beginning under the ago A zoning district, the old
one said -- had 1/5, one-fifth, one per five acres. We've changed that
to be .2 units per acre, and then parenthetically, one unit per five acres.
It simply makes it read consistently with the heading of the
column, which is labeled as the maximum density, parenthetically,
units per gross acres, so that we consistently identify the number of
units per acre.
But when you get to those fractional units, as in the ago zoning
district and the Estates, which both allow less than one unit per acre,
that's something that people aren't used to dealing with. We don't
usually deal with .2 and .44, et cetera, units per acre. So we
parenthetically explain what that means. One unit per five acres, one
unit per 2.25 acres, cetera.
A lot of strikethrough and underline, but it's just for consistency
and, we believe, clarification.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Before you go on,
Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. Is there anyplace that refers to
these codes to -- what is MHO, so that if -- excuse me -- Mr.
Homeowner is looking in there he can understand?
MR. WEEKS: Yes, there is. In an earlier section of the Land
Development Code, the acronyms are identified with the zoning
districts and overlays.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Any other questions?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Please continue.
MR. WEEKS: Commissioners, part of this is just making some
corrections. I'll draw your attention, as an example, on page 156
you'll see a check mark in the column for multifamily development by
the RMF-6 and RMF-12 zoning districts.
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October 11,2007
Well, those districts have allowed multifamily uses since they
were created. I suspect this was an omission going back to the
recodification in 2004. Again, it's just a minor correction.
And then the footnotes have been significantly expanded. We've
added a lot of footnotes to the table, again, for clarification. There
were, in many cases, I would say needed footnotes from the past, and
now we've added them. I think it makes it much more clear to the
reader what the densities are, what the circumstances are, as to how to
use this table.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay.
MS. F ABACHER: All right. I think that's -- we've got another
one in new a minute, David, but I wanted to do the environmental.
We're on summary sheet P and we're page 159 in your book.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Could I --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Yes, of course, Commissioner Fiala.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. Just go back for a second.
As I was looking at the 26 units per acre for hotels and motels -- and
we've had some problems, especially in the Vanderbilt area, where
they were saying they were building a hotel, but they were really
building a condo but using the density that they would get for a hotel.
Is there any definition that can -- that can -- I know we have
definitions and you have to have the front desk and you have to have
so many things. But is there anything to keep them a little more
honest or -- like, you know, to really, really know that -- you know, it
has to be so much rental bays and everything? Is there anything to
more clearly define that, or have we just left it at that and --
COMMISSIONER HALAS: There's been an RT overlay zoning
there in Vanderbilt Beach, and I believe that's covered in there now, in
the R T zoning.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh, but what about the rest of the
county?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: That's the -- about the only area
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October 11, 2007
that's got RT zoning that I know of, unless they have it down in
Marco.
MS. ISTENES: There's -- I think where you're going,
Commissioner -- and I'll attempt to answer it. There are no
regulations that I'm aware of in the Land Development Code that
govern time as far as, when does something become a hotel versus a
permanent facility or condominium, and I guess that's pretty much all
I can add.
There's a -- it's not very clear, and we do have individuals that
come in that have ownership of hotel rooms, for example, and they
have the -- they have a front desk and the rooms are available to rent
for people on a weekly or daily basis, however, it's a little bit of a
hybrid in that there's ownership of the rooms.
So -- I'm probably not answering your question very well, but
probably not because the code isn't -- doesn't draw really strong
distinctions between those, so you end up getting mix-ups between the
two. And not mix-ups in a bad way, but they're just commingling of
uses, I would describe it as.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yeah. It's kind of hard to tell one or
the other, and you can't just vote on something because you have a
feeling.
MS. ISTENES: The code is weak.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: And I saw that happening around
Goodland. Not in Goodland, but yet in Goodland, but it was in the
Marco Island portion of Goodland where they did the same thing
again with a 10-story building right at the other side of the bridge, and
I -- and so I was just wondering, is there anything that we have that's
more definitive, but --
MS. ISTENES: The code is very weak in that area, and if the
board wishes to look at that further, it probably would necessitate an
LDC amendment, and --
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I'm all about definitions lately, so--
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October 11, 2007
MS. ISTENES: I understand.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I don't know. You guys feel the
same way?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yep.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay, good, thank you.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yes, yep.
MS. F ABACHER: All right.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Let's move on.
MS. FABACHER: Let's move on. We're on page 159, and it's
going to be section 3.03.02, page P of your summary sheet. And what
it's doing -- what this amendment is asking is to remove the reference
to the outdated CZM plan that was replaced in 1993 when the BCC
incorporated those elements into the LDC, so --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay.
MS. FABACHER: Okay. And the next one, if you turn the
page, on 161, it's another reference change from --let's see. What
page is it on? Yeah, it's on the back page, 162, and it said 5.06.03, and
actually they want to say 5.06.00. Okay?
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Yep.
MS. F ABACHER: The next one is -- we did. That's the table of
buffer yards.
On page 167, and this is section 4.06.05, general landscaping on
page Q of your summary sheet. And staff had made up a really nice--
well, if you turn to page 170, you'll see there's some graphics there,
and it says, alternative A, alternative B, and these are perimeter berm
graphics and alternatives.
It's alternative treatments for how to do your berm. You can --
and in the chart -- this was the last cycle or the cycle before -- I'm
back on page 168. If you look on the box that tells you what to do, if
your slope is steeper than one-to-one, it says, retaining vertical wall,
CBCD below, also see alternative. And it just said alternative B
below, but someone called to our attention that alternative A would
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October 11, 2007
also work for a vertical retaining wall, so it's just kind of a scrivener's
error, okay.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: What's the asterisk? It's on 168 going
down the --
MS. F ABACHER: I think somebody just had that as a bullet.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Bullet point, in the little box there.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay.
MS. F ABACHER: Yeah. I think they just used it as a bullet.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I just wanted to make sure it wasn't a
reference mark for something that was supposed to be below.
MS. F ABACHER: No, you're right. I'll have them change that
to a solid bullet. Thank you.
Okay. And then on page 171, we're going into the architectural
and site design standards, and it's, again, a minor reference change.
I'm on page 172. I'm looking at section III. It says, upon repainting
existing buildings, the color to be applied must comply with section
5.05.08(C) (13), not D, materials and colors.
Sometimes, you know, we fool with these sections and we forget
that we move it up and down and numbers change, and we try to -- I
try to make everybody remember to run that reference to make sure.
This is what happens when you don't.
Okay. The next page is 173, and this is really to cross-reference
the littoral planting shelf area signs and preserve signs to the signs
section of the code. So if you see on page 174, they're just adding
those signs so that the sign code has every sign, and these are signs
that just go in the preserves and on the manmade lakes.
Our next page is 175. And this, again, is -- it's the very same
thing. If you turn to page 176, they're citing section 1.04.04, which is
that section on a take where you can modify your property boundaries
and your signs and -- if you're in a take. So that's what it's
referencing. B instead of C.
You know, if you -- if we do a take, you don't have to if you're
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not redeveloping. If you're not meeting your setbacks, you don't have
to move your building. But if you go to redevelop, say, and that has to
do with landscaping, it also has to do with signage. You know, we
take right-of-way for a road to make it less hard, but if you want to go
and redevelop, then you do have to, but we're not making it hard on
you because you're not the right distance because we took your land.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Thank you. Let's move on.
MS. F ABACHER: All right. Page 177, and this --
unfortunately, it's, once again, another little reference change. If you
look on page 178, instead of 1.04.04(C), it should be 1.04.04(B), the
reference.
Okay. On page 179 we have the same -- the same thing.
On page 180 it says, it formerly said section 5.06.04(A) of the Land
Development Code, and now it's just going to say 5.06.04 of the Land
Development Code.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay.
MS. FABACHER: These are so minor, I'm almost embarrassed.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Well, part of--
COMMISSIONER FIALA: A good change.
MS. FABACHER: Yeah. And then we're on page 181, and there
was a whole section that we found that -- if you go to 182, it still -- it
keeps referencing article 6, which is the chapter where the definitions
used to be in the old code, and they're now in section 1.08.02, and I
guess this was missed during recodification. So we're just correcting
that.
Okay. And then on page 183, this is for environmental. And if
you look on page 184, the Florida Game and Freshwater Fish
Commission apparently changed its name many years ago to the
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service, so we're just correcting agency names.
Almost done. On page 185. This is from code enforcement.
And what happens is, is if someone loses their -- for some reason a
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October 11, 2007
preserve is destroyed, you know, a fire or they're building something
and they accidently take out part of the preserve, then what the county
does is they have to come in through code and get a mitigation plan to
replant and so forth, and then code continues to monitor that for -- at
present, code continues to monitor those for five years to make sure
that the plants get established and the county gets back the preserve
area that they once had.
Well, code is asking, because they have so many of them open
after five years, they're asking to make -- change that to be two years
monitoring, and then if it looks like more monitoring is needed, they'll
bump it to five. But right now they have a lot of open cases sitting
around that people have to go around and look at that it's really not
necessary .
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay.
MS. FABACHER: I think their argument was, is most of the
material gets established in two years enough to know, I mean, that it's
going to be established.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Commissioner Henning has a
question.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: No. It was answered. Thank
you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Please continue.
MS. F ABACHER: All right. Now we're on page 187, and Stan
asked me to do this. It's corrections to these flow charts that explain
the type of process that we use. So if you're looking on page 189 --
and this came from the County Attorney's Office that we be consistent
and change it because it's not a method we do anymore, so these were
updated.
So I guess that final plat is not a type two application, so that has
been removed. If you look on page 190, that's how it's to read. This is
just updating these flow charts in the book.
And then if you look on page 192, this is a type three application,
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October 11, 2007
and we really don't do a -- you see on the left-hand side of the flow
chart on page 192 where preliminary plats is scratched out and the
hearing by the Planning Commission, you know, we have kind of
gone away from the preliminary plat process. I mean, you can do it
informally, but we don't have a formal process, so we're taking that
out, and on the next page you'll see that we've taken that out and we've
just put the hearing by the Planning Commission. We've kept that.
MS. ISTENES: Catherine, it looks like on the bottom the
preliminary plats wasn't taken out of just the title. I see that it's taken
out of the process.
MS. F ABACHER: Yes.
MS. ISTENES: Do you see this?
MS. FABACHER: Yes.
MS. ISTENES: Is that--
MS. F ABACHER: That's correct. It's the County Attorney's
Office.
MS. ISTENES: Oh, it's correct that it's in there?
MS. F ABACHER: Yeah.
MS. ISTENES: Okay.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Henning?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Planning Commission made
some recommendations. Is that changes included into our book?
MS. F ABACHER: I think this -- yes, this follows what's in the
book, yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Planning Commission made
some recommendations on page V as in Victor.
MS. F ABACHER: Uh-huh. To put them back in?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Planning Commission has been
removed in all petitions. Please correct illustration number 3.
MS. F ABACHER: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And then you stated that. And
then bring back September 6th with graphic illustration how each type
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of lot is measured, i.e., cul-de-sac corner and all through lots.
MS. ISTENES: I think you're jumping to the next item on 195.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right.
MS. F ABACHER: Yes, sir. But as far as the Planning
Commission direction on what we're looking at on page 193, if you
look at the flow chart on 193, the very left-hand side of where it starts
to branch out, you'll see hearing by Planning Commission, and then
variance, conditional use.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: That was strucken.
MS. F ABACHER: No. That was -- well, when we struck it out
over here, I think it was wrong to begin with.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I see.
MS. F ABACHER: But when they took the Planning
Commission out of the preliminary plat, they accidently removed it
from the whole thing, and quite upset the Planning Commission to see
that they had been dropped out of the process.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: So you're saying at page 193 is
the correct chart?
MS. F ABACHER: Yes.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Got it.
MS. F ABACHER: Yes, sir. Okay.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay.
MS. F ABACHER: The next one that we're going to go to is on
page 195, and this is returning the definition of a lot width
measurement. This one's been around a long time. We're not talking
-- we're talking about the -- not how we determine the setback. We're
talking about how to measure the lot width simply, and this would be
by the cord method.
I think we had a conversation before, the difference between
measuring from the cord and measuring from the front lot line -- the
front of the lot line.
So this does not have anything to do with setbacks. The Planning
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Commission has asked us to do a separate workshop to look at how
we determine setbacks. That is not in this cycle. That's to be in the
future.
But what this does is just show you how, when you don't have
just a rectangular lot, it's not always easy to figure out where your
setback is if your lot's not rectangular. So this is basically for
cul-de-sacs.
And if you look at the figure on page 197, it shows you where
they established the cord, and then they took the setback distance, and
then they're to measure horizontally or left to right from that point to
get their width, okay. And that's from the old code. We're putting it
back in.
We do still have an outstanding issue when we set the setbacks as
to whether we're going to use the cord or a radius instead of -- you
know what I'm talking about? The property line. That discussion is
still to be had.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Halas?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yeah. That's one of the things, I
think, we really need to address, especially when you have a lot on a
cul-de-sac and you have a radius involved. That can lead to some
problems, some questions.
MS. F ABACHER: Yes, it can. It can lead to your front yard
being in the street.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I do have a question myself, too.
Looking at the figure 10 on page 197, it says the back -- the setback
distance and it shows E to F as the line going across. Wouldn't that be
determined by -- I mean, it would be a minimum setback, but I mean,
if they wanted to build a house back farther in the lot, would that
setback line still -- I mean not -- the distance still apply or would a
new distance be picked up to where they're actually going to build the
house?
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October 11, 2007
MS. FABACHER: Well, that -- the setback distance does not
indicate that this is a setback, no. Once we determine if we're going to
use the cord method or just the property line to determine the setback,
then the setback may move back. If we use the cord method, this is
where it would stay. If we use the property line method in another arc,
then it would be moved back slightly. I think I'm answering your
question.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: And the Planning Commission is --
still wants to discuss this further?
MS. FABACHER: Yes.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. And then we'll be able to get
some direction from them.
MS. FABACHER: Absolutely.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Because they're our authority when it
comes to land development items.
MS. F ABACHER: Yes, sir.
MS. ISTENES: Commissioner, I think we're -- it's really easy to
mix these up, but it's kind of two different issues here. We've got
setback issues and we've got lot width issues, and I think that's what
Catherine was trying to explain.
And right now we're just replacing the old lot width measurement
definition that was left out of the previous code, but the Planning
Commission has asked us to come back and revisit the way we
measure setbacks, and that may change, obviously, through an LDC
amendment, depending on your wishes, but we're going to workshop
that with them first and then come back with you through an LDC
amendment.
I think you may have asked also -- you were asking about
setbacks. They're minimum, so if somebody wanted to set back
further, they could certainly do that. I'm not sure -- I thought that's
what I heard you asking as well, so I just wanted to answer that if that
was -- if I was reading you correctly.
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October 11, 2007
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I appreciate your input. I really do.
Any other questions?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Seeing none, please move on.
MS. FABACHER: Okay. The next one on page 199 is returning
an old definition that was lost through recodification. It's on page 200
and it's a definition of a two-family dwelling. And we need to return
this because under our code you have to have three townhouses or
more. You can't have two townhouses, so that kind of, except for a
duplex, you couldn't really build two condos side by side, so we fixed
that by returning the two-family dwelling. Exact -- verbatim from the
old code.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay.
MS. FABACHER: Okay. And the next one's on page 201, and
it's another definition returning that got lost in recodification, a minor
subdivision. Same language it always was.
And if you turn to page 203 -- actually, Mr. Strain, the planning
chair, asked that we return the definitions of lot corner -- interior lot,
corner lot, and I think it's through lot. Yes.
MS. ISTENES: Catherine, what were the recommendations of
the board? I just -- I see our chart's missing that information.
MS. FABACHER: Oh, I'm sorry.
MS. ISTENES: I'm pretty sure they were for--
MS. F ABACHER: Oh, no, they all voted to unanimously --
MS. ISTENES: Approve it. I mean, it's just adding back what
was. It's not really a change.
MS. FABACHER: Yeah. Yes, I'm sorry. I left that out. It was
all unanimous to recommend. In fact, but on this other one, on the
comer lots and the interior lots, they said at some point they'd like to
see some illustrations to better explain.
MS. ISTENES: And last?
MS. F ABACHER: Is there one left?
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October 11, 2007
MS. ISTENES: Yes, the tables.
MS. F ABACHER: Oh, pink book, pink book, sorry. How can I
forget?
MS. ISTENES: Can I -- you're doing a great job, by the way,
and happy birthday, Catherine. To embarrass you.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: What a way to spend your birthday.
MS. FABACHER: Forty-one again.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Congratulations.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I've been there a few times.
MS. FABACHER: Have you? It's a lovely place to stay.
MS. ISTENES: I'm going to quickly just go through this,
because one point I want to make is this -- we are taking our tables --
our list of uses that are in tabular form, and we are returning them to a
list form. And we've put them in a tabular form as a result of the
recodification of the code at the advice of our consultant who said it
would make it earlier and would compress the code -- the volume of
the code.
They were right in one circumstance; it compressed the volume
of the code. It did not make it easier for our users of the code,
especially folks that come to our front counter that want to know what
uses they can use in the zoning district. We have to copy multiple
pages for them, and it is very, very confusing and time consuming,
both from a staff perspective and a public perspective.
We kind of polled our users of the code, including our public
users, and they were supportive of returning the text back to tabular --
not a tabular format. A list format. And so that's what we're doing
here.
Do you have anything else to add to that?
MS. FABACHER: Well, I would like to say, too, that you can't find it
on municode -- if you do use the computer, like a lot of the consultants
do -- and municode says that the tables are too large to put on their
site so--
,
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October 11, 2007
MS. ISTENES: So we don't even have it available on-line.
MS. F ABACHER: It can't even be accessed, so it's very
difficult. I also wanted to say that staffhas kind of been using this
side by side with the tables for the last few months, and they keep
coming and saying, my God, your tables are totally right.
I looked in the -- here and I thought it was wrong, and I looked to
your pink book, and everything was the way it was supposed to be.
So it's been a long time working on it. I want to thank John Kelly,
because he did an amazing job, but that Mark Strain commended us on
the job, so --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: And rightly so.
MS. F ABACHER: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Very good job.
Commissioner Henning?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Are we also removing the table?
MS. F ABACHER: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: The information in green,
comparable uses may be determined provided per subsection 10 --
MS. F ABACHER: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: -- .02.02(F) where
administrative discretion is permitted or pursuant to 10.08. That is
throughout the book. I remember that we removed that from the Land
Development Code. We didn't want to have any discretionary items
within the -- and especially the commercial subdistricts.
MS. F ABACHER: Commissioner--
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And now we're putting it back
in?
MS. F ABACHER: Well, what we're doing is, I believe -- and I
don't know about discretionary. But I think that if you have a
permitted -- if you have a use and it is not listed and you think it's a
comparable use, the method of doing that now is to really go to the
zoning director and ask if this is a comparable use, and the zoning
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October 11, 2007
director says, yes, no.
If the zoning director says no, then you go to the BZA and you
appeal that opinion. That's the formal process.
MS. ISTENES: The formal-- there's two formal processes. One
is through a conditional use and one is through an official
interpretation.
MS. FABACHER: I was going to do that next.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right.
MS. F ABACHER: So then the other one is --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: It's actually -- doesn't say
official interpretation under F; request for interpretation. That's what
it says under 1O.02.02(F), request for an official interpretation.
MS. ISTENES: That's what that means.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Or request for an interpretation.
The interpretation may be required, an effective person, resident,
development, land owner, blah-blah-blah. The official interpretation
is another process.
MS. ISTENES: Do you want us to put the word official there to
clarify?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: No. I don't want it to be in there
at all. I don't want this to be in there. The board codified any of those
other uses that may be comparable or compatible. This -- what it says
is, comparable uses may be determined provided by the subsection in
10 where the administrative discretion is permitted.
MS. ISTENES: I'm at a disadvantage because I didn't--
unfortunately I didn't bring that other book, so --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: What other book?
MS. ISTENES: You have two books and I've only got the one.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Oh, you want to use mine?
MS. ISTENES: My fault. Can I look at it?
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Meanwhile, while we're waiting for
Susan to go over the wording, was this vetted in front of the Planning
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Commission? Did they have a discussion on it.
MS. F ABACHER: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: And they agreed to leave it this way?
MS. F ABACHER: Yeah; yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Commissioner Coletta, I talked
to Mark Strain about this recodification, and I -- and Mark is pretty
good. And he said that he didn't -- he wouldn't have time to do all the
research to see if the recodifications are correct. But I specifically
remember -- and it was because of an accessory use of a parking lot in
Golden Gate, the board amended the Land Development Code to
remove those comparable uses as determined by the zoning director.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: May I make a suggestion? Maybe we
should send this back to the Planning Commission for further
definition. Because, you know, they did spend some time on it, they
did get into discussion, and I really value their input on this. And I
appreciate the fact you had a sidebar conversation with him, but --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: What's going to happen, we're
going to have more Stevie Tomato's, more other uses, and what we
ought to do is give the zoning director the ability to turn down uses
that are not compatible to the adjacent property, just like we do when
we do a zoning ordinance; they make that determination.
MR. KLA TZKOW: You will see that this cycle, sir. We're just
wrapping it up. We'll have it before the Planning Commission at their
next meeting.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: But that would be -- that would
be conflicting.
MS. F ABACHER: Excuse me.
MS. ISTENES: The previous language that existed way back
when purely allowed for administrative discretion without going
through any formal process and that was -- that was removed. This is
-- is different because it requires -- and actually this is found in the
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October 11, 2007
conditional use process under number 23.
But I'm not going to belabor it at this point only because it's been
a little while since I've looked at this. If you don't mind, could I take a
further look at it back at the office and kind of contemplate it a little
bit more, and we could have further discussion on it? I understand
your concern.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Can you tell me -- can you tell
me or email the commissioners where that codification took place?
And --
MS. ISTENES: Where the text was removed?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right. When, where and --
MS. ISTENES: When? That will take me a little while to
research --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: -- the zoning ordinance.
MS. ISTENES: -- but certainly, yes.
MS. F ABACHER: Excuse me.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Maybe you can ask the person
who put that language in there.
MS. FABACHER: Well, here she is. Here she is.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay.
MS. FABACHER: I just -- I'm trying to recall how that got in
there, but there's no problem taking it out. It could have been
language that we carried forward from when we copied the stuff
originally from the old code.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And see, that's my concern is,
over the years the board has changed things in there. So my concern
is, are we putting them all back in there?
MS. F ABACHER: No. Yes, sir. Can I just say that we can
strike administrative discretion. All we want to do is point you to the
request for the interpretation process, which isn't really administrative
discretion. It's a process where you have a use, you don't see it listed,
but you think it's a compatible use or of the same nature, then under
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12.02.02(F) you can request an interpretation, and then after you're
requesting interpretation from the zoning director, then you don't
maybe agree, you don't like what she says or he says, then you go to
the BZA, and they make the final call on it.
MS. ISTENES: Well, I'm sorry to belabor this but it is -- that is
quasi administrative meaning if nobody appeals my decision, then it
doesn't go any farther and it's final. So if the board's concern is that
I'm making decisions unilaterally that they don't want me to make,
then it would be proper to remove that ability.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And I thought we did. So that
brings up my second concern. How did we verify when things were
removed over the zoning ordinances either by mistake or on purpose?
How did we -- how did we see when -- on this recodification that
that was actually removed because of board direction?
MS. FABACHER: Well, part ofthe process and why you have
all the colors is we went back and looked at all of these different
ordinances.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay.
MS. F ABACHER: And if we pulled from that ordinance or we
changed something from that ordinance, then that's what the color
code means. So, you know, perhaps that was changed formerly in the
LDC, in the old one, but perhaps we picked up a bit of phrasing that
didn't get changed because, you know, like with those references we
were looking at, you make a change, but sometimes it doesn't get all
the way made through there. So I mean, we can -- I think at this point
we can do whatever you want to do. You want to strike that or --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I want to feel good that what --
the other stuff that we're going to pass is really a recodification and
not a reintroduction.
MS. ISTENES: Yeah.
MS. F ABACHER: Understood.
MS. ISTENES: I can't give you any guarantees because I'll tell
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October 11, 2007
you, it's a very, very complicated process --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: It is.
MS. ISTENES: -- to take everything in a list and put it in a table
and then turn around and take everything in a table and put it back in a
list and incorporate all of the changes that may have been made
between then and now which, quite frankly, I don't think were that
many, because most of the changes we did that you're talking about
were done when we still had the list format.
We put John Kelly on it, and I'll tell you, he is very thorough and
he -- this was his primary task for this amendment cycle. So I'm
feeling pretty good that I -- he did a thorough job, but I cannot
promise you that -- because we're human, we do make mistakes.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Absolutely, and I appreciate
that.
MS. ISTENES: As we use it, as we use the code -- and that's
why you're seeing things still coming back from the recodification
because as staff uses the code, they realize, perhaps, this was a
mistake or this doesn't sound right, or, gee, in the old code we had this
and now we don't and the recodification was not supposed to change
the old code but it's missing. Uh-oh, problem, you know. Now let's go
back, confirm, and then we come back with you -- back to you
through this process and say hey, you know, something got messed up
here.
So I can't commit to you that it's 100 percent because we're
human and we make mistakes, but I can commit to you that we will
continue to monitor, monitor, monitor and make sure that what's in
there is accurate.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, I'd feel more comfortable
if somebody can assure me that it's 100 percent correct, and that
person's not here.
MS. F ABACHER: Well, I'll assure you that it's 99 percent
correct, given one point for human error.
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October 11, 2007
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right, and that one percent
could get us into trouble.
MS. FABACHER: Well, Commissioner, we have distributed
this to all of our staff, and they've been using this right alongside this
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Like this.
MS. FABACHER: -- for several months now, and I don't know
what else to do. We've given it to you all, we've given it to the
Planning Commission, we've given it to the consultants and asked
them all to review it, the DSAC's reviewed it, and they all thought it
was way better and they looked for particular uses, and thank
goodness we showed it to you.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, when -- I know somebody
on the Planning Commission looks for details, said to me, I don't have
time to look at those details. It would take a lot of time to verify. I
don't feel comfortable with it.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Let's go to Commissioner Fiala, and
then Commissioner Halas, and then if have you some other comments,
we'll come back to you, Commissioner Henning.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yeah. First of all, when -- I've
always been interested to read when they ask for an official
interpretation, and I have found -- I agree with your interpretation
every time, and it's like you see through everything and go right to the
core of it, and very seldom do you ever say yes to anything, by the
way, but that's good because you -- you know, you're going there
officially, but my point is, we were talking about Stevie Tomato's.
You're only as good as the information you get, and at Stevie
Tomato's, says they're a one-story with no music and a quiet eating
outside. You can only go by what's told to you. And I don't know how
we get those kind of people to be honest with us because our staff can
only do so much, but they can't, you know, read the crystal ball. I
don't know what to do about that.
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October 11, 2007
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Commissioner Halas?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: I feel that since -- what you've
interjected into this is that a lot of people on the outside have been
using this and they haven't found any glitches of yet. I feel very -- I
think my level of comfort has increased in the fact that everybody,
whether it's in staff or whether it's outside, consultants -- and they feel
that we've cleared up some areas.
And it's not as ubiquitous as it has been, so I think that -- I feel
comfortable with it, and I want to thank you very much for what's
been -- what's taken place. And I think that if there is a glitch, I'm
sure that staff will bring it to us immediately. I would hope anyway.
MS. F ABACHER: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Okay.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Now, my suggestion would be
is, that when we have this come back, that we look at the possibility --
at that point in time I'll have a chance to query several members on the
Planning Commission, all individually so there'll be no violations of
sunshine. Make sure the county attorney knows that -- and also we'll
be able to have a chance to digest this and see what direction it's
going, the ramifications, and then we can carry it to the next step at
the next meeting.
Possibly what Commissioner Henning is suggesting is a good
idea. You know, I just have reservations with the fact that the
Planning Commission -- they do a much more thorough job than we
ever do with this, and I have great confidence in them, and I can't
believe that they haven't vetted this totally and gone through enough
details to come up with a direction.
But regardless of that, if one commissioner has reservations, we
definitely need to be able to explore those reservations when it comes
back again to the fullest.
And with that, we're going to go back to Commissioner Henning,
then Commissioner Fiala.
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October 11, 2007
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, let's go back to this
language that refers to the process of interpretation. Submission of
request for interpretation, request for interpretation must be submitted
to the county manager or his designee or chief building officials. That
is not Susan Murray.
MS. FABACHER: I'm sorry, Commissioner. What page are you
on with this?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I am looking at the Land
Development Code 10.02.02(F) --
MS. FABACHER: Okay.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: -- which is referring to each
request for interpretation must be accomplished by appropriate fee set
by the board. So what I'm saying is, there's -- several people can make
this determination if a use, comparable uses, that -- in any of the
zoning categories.
MS. FABACHER: Well, excuse me. Commissioner, I think if
you're -- the way -- it's, perhaps, poorly written. But the building
official is for the building code interpretations. The county manager
or designee, which would be the zoning director, or whatever, is
responsible for interpretations of the LDC.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. So it says, county
manager or his designee or chief building officials. So we know who
the county manager is. We don't know who he would designate that to
or change it. But who's the chief building officials?
MR. SCHMITT: Commissioner, the chief building official is a
licensed official under the State of Florida. It is normally my building
director or someone in the building department holding that license
and designated to serve as the building official for Collier County.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And he would -- he would make
a determination of comparable uses --
MR. SCHMITT: No, sir, that's the zoning director. The only
thing the building official is legally authorized to do is make decisions
Page 84
October 11,2007
or interpretations or make -- define anything that's in the Florida
Building Code.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, you ought to take a look
at what we're about to adopt because it does say, according to this
procedure, the person that issues permits is going to make zoning
interpretations. And, again, we removed this language a long time
ago.
MS. ISTENES: We'll look at it.
MR. SCHMITT: W e'lllook at it, then bring it back.
MS. ISTENES: I have no objection to removing it. I make
hundreds of decisions every day. If you want to remove my ability to
make one more, I have no issue with that.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Please look at --
MS. ISTENES: Sure will.
MR. SCHMITT: W e'lllook at it.
MS. ISTENES: Absolutely. Yeah, no problem.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Because it is taking away your
ability.
MR. SCHMITT: W e'lllook at that one sentence. I don't want to
throwaway the text because the text is so much better, but that
specific area we'll look at and we'll come back with changes and note
those changes in the next meeting.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Y es. You just said it is taking away
her ability. Are you saying that how it's written, it takes away the
zoning director's ability to make a decision and you want it put back
in; is that what you're saying?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I'll tell you what,
Commissioner, let me find when the board took away those other
compatible or comparable uses out of those and -- because what we're
doing is we're putting them back, but also allowing other people to
Page 85
October 11,2007
make those interpretations whether a bar or a megahome or -- you
know what I mean?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes, I understand what you're
saying. And so my second point was, I think the definition, again, is
so important. And Susan has something there to put on the overhead.
MS. ISTENES: Let me -- I will real quick. I just want to warn
you, you have a lot of PUDs that were adopted with that language
still, Commissioners. So it's not just the Land Development Code.
There are a lot ofPUDs. We have over 350 PUDs.
MR. SCHMITT: 374.
MS. ISTENES: We have a lot of old ones, and they're -- you
know, 374. Still a lot of administrative discretion.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Absolutely. I understand that;
we can't do anything about those.
MS. ISTENES: Right.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: And I think sometimes what our
concern happens to be with an administrative decision-making process
like, for instance, this, as you can see, what they were supposed to do
is maintain the village residential character which is generally low
profile with relatively small, I think it is, building footprint, as in the --
as in the current appearance of Goodland and Copeland, is what it
says.
And then the interpretation, apparently nobody interpreted what
small was or low profile or small building footprint in and so this was
now built, and it's still being built, as you can see.
So then that becomes the definition -- without it being fully
stated in our Land Development Code, that becomes the definition for
what a low-profile, small building footprint is. So I think sometimes
we need to go back and make specific definitions like in this case,
which I think we -- by the way, I'd like to go back and do because that
certainly isn't -- in my opinion anyway. There's -- that little thing over
there, that's a person standing there.
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October 11, 2007
Anyway, also, I think, insubstantial change. That's another one
that we might want to address as far as a definition goes. Sometimes
if you -- if you don't have that guidance as far as what we think, then
you can only go by whatever, you know -- so if that helps you any.
Maybe the definition might help.
MS. ISTENES: The -- I very much appreciate the point because,
I'll be up front with you, I was very disappoint that the Goodland
overlay, or the Goodland Civic Association, or whatever the two
groups are that are down there, couldn't get together this cycle to come
up with that because we are still in the same position that we were in
with this house, and that is, I don't have any definition of -- or any
cutoff -- any cutoff about what constitutes a small versus large village
character versus non-village character.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Right.
MS. ISTENES: And it's very, very difficult. It puts us in a very
difficult decision to make a determination when we don't have that
criteria.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: They pulled it. For some reason
they thought that it wasn't going to get heard anyway so they pulled it.
But I think that -- I would like to initiate that definition, if I may.
MS. ISTENES: Okay, sure.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you. And also insubstantial
change; does that help any, too?
MS. ISTENES: We do have a definition for insubstantial
change, and it's a complete explanation of what constitutes an
insubstantial versus substantial. We could certainly bring it back to
you to look at if you want to change anything, if you think anything
isn't clear.
Sometimes people get a little bit misled by the word
insubstantial, somebody thinks means nothing, you know, no impact,
and same with sunsetting, we find, is something that people have --
they assume sunsetting means something goes away, like the sun
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October 11,2007
when it sets, it just kind of goes away for the night. That's not the
case.
And so I'm just kind of expressing to you some of the difficulties
we've had with some of the terminology. Even if it is defined, people
make assumptions about the word just because of the word.
MR. SCHMITT: But substantial and insubstantial, it's still an
administrative review process of the Site Development Plan.
MS. ISTENES: Correct.
MR. SCHMITT: If it's insubstantial, it just means it doesn't go
through as many reviewers.
MS. ISTENES: Reviewers, and it has a set of criteria that make
it insubstantial. So if it doesn't meet that criteria, it is substantial and it
goes through a different review process, but it's still all administrative
and --
MR. SCHMITT: And it's still all applicable to the Land
Development Code.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Halas?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yes. Insubstantial, the difference
between two and 23, okay?
MS. ISTENES: No. I understand, Commissioner, and that was
kind of my point was, there's criteria already in the code.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: And insubstantial would be two to
three, not two to 23.
MS. ISTENES: If you think that's not clear, we'll bring it back,
yeah.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: What's that? Takes a majority
to move something forward. I'm not sure what we're talking about,
two and 23.
MS. ISTENES: I think he's referring to LaPlaya docks.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Oh, that should have definitely
came back to us.
MS. ISTENES: Well-- and we've written them a letter that says
Page 88
October 11, 2007
you need to amend your conditional use because that's what should
have happened. The site plan -- the site plan approval is still an
administrative process.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Site plan was a substantial
change, not an insubstantial change.
MS. ISTENES: Well, I differ with you, Commissioner, but I
respect your opinion.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. Well, did we change the
parking lot? The parking up there, was that changed?
MS. ISTENES: No.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: The parking was not changed?
MS. ISTENES: Not to my knowledge.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay.
MS. FABACHER: Commissioners, that's it for today.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Okay.
MS. FABACHER: We'd be happy to meet back with you again
to continue this first hearing of LDC cycle one of 2007 on Tuesday
night, October 16th at 5:05.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh, goody. We get to come back
again to talk.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Nice to have some job security.
MS. ISTENES: Mr. Chairman, may I clarify one thing, because I
was uncomfortable with a discussion we had earlier about
subdivisions, and my discomfort comes from the fact that -- first of all,
our code is very complicated when it comes to subdivisions. There are
many different ways to subdivide or divide or move lines on property,
and it depends on the magnitude of, for example, what you're trying to
do. There are different subdivisions, for example, for agriculture
versus non-agriculture.
We have different processes. We have preliminary subdivision
processes that we talked about today that are -- that are not required
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October 11, 2007
but are there to use if you want, and we have a final -- and we have
subdivision processes that come to you for approval through a board
item and we have subdivision processes that come to staff for
administrative review.
And so I don't really -- I felt like I gave a few limited examples,
and I will tell you that there is a breadth of ways to move lines on
property, and it really depends on the situation.
One I didn't bring up and I think, perhaps, Commissioner
Henning was alluding to it was a lot line adjustment, and that is an
administrative process that essentially moves a line a lot. And I think
it's important that you recognize that that is a pretty popular way for
people to adjust the boundary line of their property for various
reasons. One is to split their property in half, for example, in the
Estates, and I think I used that as an example.
Another would be -- another example I'll use was -- and you may
remember -- because you talked about it in part was when Jim Mudd
had an issue with an encroachment on his property, and it kind of goes
back a little bit. But if you remember, there was -- I think the builder
caused an encroachment of his property of a screen enclosure, and I
may have my facts wrong on that. But regardless, I know there was
encroachment, and that was rectified through a lot line adjustment,
which is an administrative process. We'll get --
MR. SCHMITT: Two agreeable --
MS. ISTENES: Two agreeable--
MR. SCHMITT: -- lot owners.
MS. ISTENES: --lot owners. We get that a lot with people that
live side by side. Again, you'll get two agreeable lot owners that want
to reconfigure their property for whatever reason. Maybe somebody
wants to build a shed or a barn, or what have you, and they want to put
it in a specific location and they can't meet the setback and they get
two parties together to agree to move the line between their properties
to do whatever.
Page 90
.---.--.,.-......--..-------..-----.-
October 11, 2007
So that's very, very common, the lot -- the lot line adjustment
process, so I didn't want to leave that out because I didn't feel like I
really did that justice.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I never heard any objections to that
process being an administrative process, and that's something between
agreeable neighbors, and I appreciate that input.
MS.ISTENES: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. With that, we're adjourned.
*****
There being no further business for the good of the County, the
meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 11 :54 a.m.
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX
OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF
SPECIAL DISTRICTS UNDER ITS CONTROL
!~~
JIM COLETTA, Chairman
ATTEST:
DWIGHTEO~lROCK, CLERK
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These minutes app~ the Board on II tl ~ /61- , as
presented or as corrected
Page 91