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01/16/2024 Draft January 16, 2024 1 MINUTES OF THE COLLIER COUNTY EAST OF 951 AD HOC COMMITTEE MEETING Naples, Florida, January 16, 2024 LET IT BE REMEMBERED, the Collier County East of 951 in and for the County of Collier, having conducted business herein, met on this date at 7:00 PM in REGULAR SESSION at the Heritage Bay Government Services Center, 15450 Collier Blvd., Naples, Florida, with the following members present: Mark Teaters, Sr., Chairman Robert Raines, Vice Chair Michael Ramsey Christina Aguilera Rae Ann Burton (alternate) Aaron Zwiefel (alternate) Kimberley Donna Ellis, excused 1. Pledge of Allegiance: Led by Parker Klopf. 2. Roll Call: Quorum established. 3. Approval of the Minutes: Approved 4. Mark Teaters:  Spreadsheet given to each member  Comcast Corporation presentation – will reschedule  Discuss topics for the rest of the year – example, the sheriff’s office; fire; storm water management; schools; etc. 5. Slide Presentation by Mike Bosi, Collier Community Planning & Zoning Director  Here to talk about the proposal update to the wireless communication facilities LDC amendment.  First reading, 17A, will be Tuesday, January 23, at the BCC Chambers; the second meeting will be February 13.  Unanimous recommendation from the Planning Commission.  Changes are not affecting the Golden Gate Estates January 16, 2024 2  Three sets of maps provided to members for the locations of telecommunication facilities, tower locations, rooftop locations, and some proposed towers evaluated in 2021. An update to this document for 2024 is in the process.  Telephone poles for electricity, telephone, cable, are a necessary service. In 1996, the Federal government decided that the wireless infrastructure network would be deployed by private companies – AT&T, Verizon, Nextel, etc. The 1996 Telecommunication Act came in effect – you can’t deny a tower because of environmental health effects, but compatibility is up to the local jurisdiction so it’s a difficult provision.  If you don’t have connectivity around your house, you place yourself in jeopardy from not being able to reach emergency service providers.  Towers weren’t allowed in the Estates so there are large swaths of area without good coverage. A lease with Crown Castle for ten years has been paying for a spot for a tower but they have never constructed the tower. We are in negotiation for them to move forward with the deployment of that infrastructure to have the strongest possible cell service in that area.  Three years ago, we modified the Land Development Code. If you are on a collector or arterial road (Oilwell, Golden Gate Pkwy.), you are on state zoned property. You are allowed to seek conditional use, have a variance, because of separation requirements, and hold a public hearing from the surrounding property owners for their input.  Conditional use must comply with 50509H.  We are requiring service providers to go through the conditional use, but they also must adequately show that no existing infrastructure/no towers are within their search area.  We want to keep these towers as concentrated as possible and as minimal as possible with the most functionality.  We are going with 100% of the tower height. If there is a collapse or failure, there is a break point within the tower and won’t fall over as one entity; they collapse onto themselves.  Great locations for towers are on publicly owned property – schools and parks.  On Immokalee Road, the area transitioned to residential development, and the tower went down. A communication tower on wheels (COW) was put at Pebblebrook as a temporary fix. The code has been updated to allow for COWs in unique locations for temporary periods of time.  Parker provided the full set of amendments in your packet.  Commissioner McDaniel wants these amendments up and through the process.  Question: Who polices the towers, the coverage, and cell phone companies?  Answer: We maintain the records – how many people requested building permits. Example: A new antenna to go on an existing tower, they must pull a permit. We have no control over the coverage – that is the FCC.  The tower across from the golf course (Cracker Jack’s) on 39th Street already went to the hearing. It has been approved with conditions. That hearing was December 7th or 9th. C2 zoning district – an anomaly that sits within the Estates.  Telecommunication towers can be developed in the Estates building proper district and they are going to be next to somebody’s house. I think everyone wants the coverage, needs the coverage, but they don't want it next to their house.  Competition would bring us better service and tower owners should not be allowed from preventing legitimate competition. January 16, 2024 3  Our growth just keeps going to the East, and we anticipate those towns and villages are going to continue to come in for requests and can continue to help develop that eastern economy that we've been talking about now for two decades. The maturation of Ave with the industrial facilities that are threats is developing. There are folks that live in the Estates that you will be able to say do I want to go East or do I want to go West? Do I want to get my goods and services where I'm going to find employment opportunities and that's going to start changing these patterns of East to West and West to East in a positive way.  We don't want the intrusion of commercial into the interior of the Estates; keep it on the fringes. Efficiencies within our land use planning and that's the goal of our long-range plan. There is a method and there's a long-range vision for how we arrange our population, our land uses.  Our transportation system is fragile because of gated communities with few alternatives to get somewhere especially during peak Season.  The Board of County Commissioners can modify the governing stance of the position of Conservation Collier, if they felt that was in its best interest, if they felt there weren't enough opportunities from the private landowners.What needs to be changed is the governing ordinance for Conservation Collier. A tower is not passive recreation.  A concern with the Conservation Collier program is perpetuity is a long time maintaining those properties. There's a limited set of funds available and when those funds are exhausted, we must turn to the General Fund. We have a $2.2 billion, five-year program. We are $500 million short.  Small cell technology – we have a permitting process for that within the right of way, and it is obligated. We must make those structures available to any telecommunications. They are limited to half a mile/three quarters of a mile in terms of effectiveness. You’re not getting your bang for your buck.  It's odd that you'll have an FP&L transmission line that has to have a tower. If you're on the coast you don't see towers. All high rises have telecommunication facilities on the top of the building.  We don't know what the need is.  No, we don't. We don't provide the service. We provide the opportunity. The amendments are to create opportunities for new towers. It's the wireless providers or the tower companies that have the obligation to submit applications. It is a private commercial venture that's dictating how coverage is implemented within your system.  Question: How many towers since 2021 have you added to keep up with growth; what is your projected need in the area?  Answer: I couldn't even quantify that because I don't know the systems. I know where the towers are at. The wireless carriers do not tell us their coverage. We don't know what the need is.We don't provide the service. We provide the opportunity. That's what the amendments are for – to create opportunities for new towers.  Mike Ramsey: The fire station at Desoto and 24th is not funded to be built. The one that is funded to be built is the EMS fire station at Desoto at Golden Gate.  First generation was about 5-6 miles, and you are in your fifth generation. Each one has reduced more because the data and the bandwidth capacity that we demand with our phone and graphic interface continue to grow. That’s why we need more towers to be able to provide and fix those dead zones, especially in the Estates. You have a limited January 16, 2024 4 population, so they're not going to spend their money unless they feel that the yield is great enough in terms of the customers that can be served by an individual tower. So, you have some things that are working against the Estates.  I think the customer feedback is a lot of what is utilized to help refine their coverage areas and their maps and their system implementation where they get the most complaints. That is where they will first address those inefficiencies and deficiencies.  The federal government decided that this infrastructure deployment was going to be provided by private companies instead of government regulating utilities. It's capitalism. You get the benefits of it and sometimes you get the downside of it.  How far have they gone out? I don’t know that offhand. Concentration is on the dense areas. I will check that and coordinate with Parker. (Earmark.) 6. Follow-up Notes on Comcast: Mark Teaters: The gentleman's name is Justin Damiano with Comcast. They're doing co-location with FP&L under the ground. He has grants that have been approved by the federal government for Collier County for what they call un-served areas, which would be like Immokalee. They go to underserved areas and they go to other areas. Now he's got two grants that have been approved. There is a third grant that they're waiting on. They bury everything underground. 7. Future Meetings and Topics: Mark Teaters: We have about eight meetings left. I have reached out to Sheriff Rambosk and will talk with him again on Thursday. I've had a conversation with Chief Sapp (fire chief). They are both on board. I had a conversation with Dr. Leslie Ricciardelli, Superintendent of Schools, and will meet with her next week. Motion for Approval: Do you want to put the sheriff and the fire chief in one meeting, and each will have an hour to speak? Or should we split the two into separate meetings and allow two hours to speak? Unanimous Approved of Motion Made for Two Meetings and Two Hours to Speak. Mark Teaters: We will have a meeting with both storm water management and transportation. We could also invite Commissioner Saunders. (Earmark.) Mike Ramsey: Discussion about District 5 in the rural estates and debate any proposed PDR programs; developers; the TDR program concentrating development in one area of the rural estates – this would be different from the RFMO; proposed Conservation Collier to create and sell TDR. Mark Teaters: I will pull that all together; how to do that and how that applies to infrastructure. We’ll add landfill to the list; the County owns 300 acres that’s immediately to the east of the landfill, the old Triple H Ranch; the finite lifespan of the landfill. There is a proposal for a commercial node on the corner of Everglades and Oilwell. Someone applied for and they are calling it a neighborhood center within the Golden Gate master plan and it is not. It is not consistent with the master plan. January 16, 2024 5 If nothing else, I think it’s important for us to make a stand at some point in time and to make sure that the Commissioners understand that we support the master plan as it's written. Mike Bosi: There was a GMP request for five acres – a fast food restaurant, auto gas station. There is a request for a continuation. There is over three and a half million square feet of commercial within a five-mile radius of that location. It's a mile away from Skysail; a mile and a half away from Blossom Ranch and Orange St. I would suggest that when it comes back in, I could bring the application and describe the contents of what they have proposed and then you could have any formal recommendation that could be offered to the Planning Commission and to the Building Commission. There could be issues related to infrastructure impacts; the master plan; drive-through; and auto related issues. Mark Teaters: Absolutely. With what's going on in the urban estates on the other side of 951, we want to make sure we don't have the same kind of issues over here. Action Items – Line Up the Next Three Meetings 8. Adjournment Unanimous Approved of Motion to Adjourn. Meeting adjourned at 8:30 p.m. Collier County East of 951 Ad Hoc Advisory Committee _______________________________________ Mark Teaters, Sr., Chairman These minutes were approved by the Chairman of the East of 951 Committee on _______________________________, (check one) as submitted _______ or as amended ______.